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ArcheAge the 'fantasy' spiritual successor to SWG?
I've been talking to some people and this has come up a good few times. The notion that ArcheAge is like a fantasy spiritual successor to SWG with many of the features players of SWG really loved in that game.
If this is true, I could see a lot of old SWG players finding a new home in ArcheAge when it releases in NA.
Thoughts?
Why do I write, create, fantasize, dream and daydream about other worlds? Because I hate what humanity does with this one.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
Comments
definitely not
ArcheAge has some cool sandbox elements but not really like SWG at all.
Hmm... from: http://archeagesource.com/topic/1128-archeage-houses-and-castles-guide/
ArcheAge has a complex and revolutionary housing system, where you are placing houses on the open world accessible to everyone, unlike in other MMOs where they are being instanced.
Crafting doesn't seem very complex indeed, but I do like how important of a role it seems to play.
As for non-combat classes, I did hear several people say now that you could actually level to max without combat, as a crafter. Mind you, I haven't played it yet so I can't verify it myself.
EDIT: Kinda take back what I said about crafting not being too complex... perhaps it's not super complex but it's definitely fairly involved and different than the norm:
Digna wrote in another thread:
The sheer complexity of crafting. Get a garden (farm) to raise geese, need to feed the geese so raise beans. Some get sick have make medicine. Whoops cant make that until you have a farmer's workbench. Once you have that you need to grow 3 other types of materials.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
crafting itself isnt complex. Item gathering can be and there is some interdependence between the crafts but there is no skill element to crafting like swg, nor is there resource stats. Its gather your recipe, click, no fail combine with rng proc chance.
They also artificially limit the amount of crafting/gathering you can do each day with LP. LP can be bought from other players or (most likely) cash shop, but if you are a die hard crafter you wont be able to log in and craft/gather all day without paying for the ability to craft/gather. Part time crafters should have no issue.
Only in the minds of the people trying to market this thing. Or create some hype....
F2P with cash shop, activity limited by "points", items that don't decay, no diversity of item stats, the list is very long.
Doesn't sound much like SWG to me.
Most of the housing is instanced?! I hope you're a troll because everyone knows there's no instancing in this game. I don't even think they have instanced dungeons or anything like that.
So here's the thing... I've been a vocal advocate for the kind of gameplay we saw in SWG for the past several years, having played it for years, starting at launch. Since I left there, I've been looking for something similar like many others have.
I'm only a short way into ArcheAge, but for now, I think it's the closest thing we have to a fantasy MMO spiritual successor to SWG. I think The Repopulation will be much closer, based on their feature set, but ArcheAge may have a larger audience. There's so much to do in this game, that at the moment, I'm overwhelmed. Just to get acquianted with it, I've been doing the newbie quest progression, but I'm already at the point where I'm going to get off that train at level 10, and start playing the open world game. The quests are there if you want them, but they certainly don't have to be the focus of the game for you. This is indeed, a hybrid game.
As others have mentioned, the world does feel much more alive than other current MMOs, with players doing all kinds of things. I got side tracked today, just watching the criminal trial chat, which was interesting. I joined a guild, who is currently making canon balls so they can get on the water and PvP tonight. People are helping each other, talking in chat, farming, raising animals, and doing a number of other things in the game. I'm quite excited to learn more and get involved more in all that is happening in the game.
As others have mentioned, this isn't really an alpha. So far, I've seen a bunch of Korean cut-scenes, no big deal, and had a few NPCs speak Korean, but other than that the game is running fantastic, and feels very polished as it should for a game that is already released elsewhere. I can understand people are hesitant to spend the money on Alpha access, but I don't regret it a bit. Hold on for beta or release if you need to, but I think this is going to be a fairly decent win for Trion when it comes out.
It's going to attract the kinds of people who want to be involved in a game community like SWG did, and like LOTRO did before it went F2P. I had the striking thought today that it's too bad LOTRO wasn't made like this game. I would have been a smash hit in the West with this more open world hybrid design for sure. Sometimes I forget I'm playing AA because it reminds me of LOTRO aesthetically.
Anyway, I'm loving it so far, and I feel like there is so much for me to learn and see that I don't get that "been there done that" feeling I've had in every other MMO to release over the last few years. Yes, it has similarities to those games, but it also has so much more to offer.
Something else I wanted to say about this game: IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS.
This game has sitting in chairs, laying in beds, something seemingly impossible for other AAA developers to put in their games.
In addition, there are tons of other such little details that jump out at you all the time. I got off my horse a moment ago, and jumped into a lake for a quest. Did my horse just stay still or despawn? Nope, it followed me into the water and swam with me.
There are tons of emotes, and when you dance, you can move around and it changes your dance moves. In most games, moving while dancing immediately ends the animation.
You can light candles, torches, lamps and there's all kinds of interactivity where you normally would see *nothing* in most MMOs these days.
This game is full of those little details that make a huge difference for enjoying the game world, becoming immersed, and just having a great time.
I'm just getting started, but I'm sure others have seen even more than I have.
It's as close as anyone's going to get today though, and I think more people will enjoy AA than will enjoy the real spiritual successor to SWG, The Repopulation. Simply because this is a more mainstream MMO with systems people will recognize, and ones they haven't seen before. Someone said this game will be a great introduction to sandbox gameplay for people who haven't done that before, and I agree. Taken as a whole game though, it seems like a lot of fun with room for casuals and hardcores.
On the same note, they do have a lot of annoying exclamation points above everything. That gets old really quick. A way to turn them off would be nice, eventually you get the idea of what is intractable.
On the non-combat class thing... One of the head honchos from Trion was on Reddit a week or two ago making some posts about AA, and mentioned that they are keen on the idea of leveling with crafting and non-combat classes. Trion does have some say in the Western version of this game, and they are making changes where appropriate. They very much want to accentuate the sandbox play of this game, and have even said their version will likely be more sandbox that the Asian version because of that.
The Asian version of this game is different, and that big 1.0 patch that changed the game over there was one of the reasons it stopped doing well. Trion is avoiding much of those problems, because it sounds like they can choose some of the features they want, rather than follow the Asian patches. This is all based on Trion's comments, not my assumptions.
I agree 100%, and that's great feedback to provide them if you have time. I will be. I have a feeling it's a placeholder though. It's obviously a bit over the top as an indicator.
^ This.
I'd like to add: Yesterday, I bought my first farmland plot up near Bear Mountain and planted my first seedlings (strawberry) so I can begin the first "pack" quest - think of it as a very long journey you must make by foot (mostly) to carry your wares from one region of the game to another to sell.
While farming (watering the plants, etc) I decided to try out my campfire. So I placed it down and it started giving me a buff. Within a minute of /sit at the fire, a set of new action bar keys pop up that resemble musical keys. Notes A,B,C,D,E,F that when pressed allow you to pull out your musical instrument and play a tune! If you are a musician you can play an actual song! This whole time I have my horse standing near me and he's doing his thing while I do mine.
The other day, I picked up a pebble in the middle of the road and was able to toss it anywhere I wanted! You can even climb trees!
Indeed, so far it IS the little things that harken me back to SWG, and the level of immersion is awesome.
pve dungeons are instanced, but regardless even if they weren't this game is still nothing like SWG in scope.
The people that are trying to make the world worse never take a day off , why should I. Light up the darkness Bob Marley
I'm glad you are enjoying it... but having your mount out while it sits there staring at air, and being able to throw a pebble you picked up off the ground doesn't even come close to what made SWG a great sandbox experience. The deep crafting, rolling minerals and resources, having a disadvantage to wearing certain gears, class system, non linear progression, player cities with events and, later the addition of storytellers in NGE, those are what made SWG the sandbox people yearn for (SHC FOR LIFE).
Not belittling the fun you are having, I am glad you are honestly I still enjoy the game after having 2 50's one on KR and one on RU, just that I don't think some of the things you listed really are that impressive except the music system. Things like the court system and pirating get boring fast. The music system is cool as a musician I do appreciate that for sure, but overall I am finding that my time in this game isn't really as much as a sandbox as I had hoped an the end game content just isn't there yet on RU (I like more of the sandbox style if you can't tell, why I quit KR).
The people that are trying to make the world worse never take a day off , why should I. Light up the darkness Bob Marley
I was thinking of getting this beta. What you just wrote, made me def get the beta when it comes to that. The 49.99 one, 149.99 to rich for my blood lol. I dont understand how new mmorpgs cant figure out how to do what your talking about there. I mean UO a old old old game and that could handle doing that. I really like those features, I am glad other people do to, and they are in this game. I hope its not like SWTOR, where i have to buy the sit in the chair emote. If it is like that when I am subbed to the game, I change my mind lol.
I got a bit of the feels from these posts
I might have to invest after all... but I feel like you have to be a part of a nice big guild to get the full benefit of the game.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
It is almost nothing like SWG. Both games have open world housing. thats about the only similarity.
ArcheAge is closer to WoW than SWG. 3 trees to assign skill points in, abilities increase in power every couple of levels, gather/click/combine crafting, themepark leveling (quest !s even).
Not saying AA is remotely a WoW clone and as another poster said it has a lot of little things. Its just nothing like SWG and is no more a spiritual successor to SWG than SWTOR is.
And thats fine, because AA is a unique game. Just dont try to compare it to SWG because the games are so completely different.
All former SWG players and fans of sandbox games do have to at least try it and put 10 hours.
In some aspects Archeage is more deep than swg in other is more simplified but in the end it has a huge among of features and minigames from the get go, that work!
And in general Archeage seems more complex than SWG that is a plus for me requiring you to learn the game in order to be better than the others.
As SWG, AA is also a sandbox-themepark hybrid, sandbox on mid and late game and themepark on early start.
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Aka Darksparrow Rancorheart(tempest/farstar), Fxmkorp
Yes. If you are an old-school MMO player, who started at least 8-10 years ago, who remembers that feeling of awe and wonderment you had when you set your character's foot into the digital realm for the first time, regardless of which MMO it was, and you have missed that feeling for years - trying every new MMO that comes along, hoping that it will fill that void...come home to ArcheAge. That feeling will be rekindled.
I'm having a grand-ol' time. I don't find myself caught up in the labels such as "sandparks", "wow clone", etc. I just know that I'm having fun, and if you miss having fun, and are tired of the disapointment of the current MMO offerings, I highly recommend it.
No one said this was SWG. I played SWG from launch for three years straight, with 2-3 accounts active, and played off and on in the NGE for 4+ more years.
The point is, this game is much closer than anything else available right now, and even without comparing it to SWG, it's a hell of a lot deeper and more interesting than any themepark on the market, in my opinion.
Furthermore, if you are *waiting* for an SWG-like gaming experience, nothing is coming anytime soon. The closest thing we have coming down the pipe is The Repopulation, and it has already been delayed once. I happily invested money in their game (over $100) in 2012, and I still haven't made it into a closed beta yet.
Smed tried to make H1Z1 sound like some kind of new home for SWG vets, but it's not. It's a DayZ clone with a better engine and more polish, at least for the time being.
Point is, if you are looking for an MMO that has much more to offer than standard themepark features, AA is that game. It may just surprise you, even if you are a die-hard SWG lover like I am.
When something else finally comes along that gives me more of an SWG feeling, I'll probably go play that. However, all we have right now is a bunch if games in development with no solid release dates. AA is a functioning game that is more or less at polished release quality, from what I've seen.
Back in December, 2007 I was writing my gaming blog here on MMORPG.COM and wanted to share one entry here (please feel free to read the rest of the entries if ya like...they are all quite old!)
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/MMOPlaya/122007/843_Still-Waiting-for-that-PRENGECU-SWG-Replacement
I agree that AA does not equal SWG. But AA really is the closest thing any of us old-timer MMO players are going to get that really rekindles that 'first MMO feeling' (cue Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Loving Feeling"). I feel that XLGames did a fantastic job combining what the older generation of players remember, while keeping the game current and most importantly....FUN!
For me, AA just falls far from that mark, EVE is more inline with how i felt playing SWG. I have never felt anything else like it since so i just keep going back. EVE reminds me even of UO somedays but it reminds me very fondly of the years in SWG. I hope AA lasts longterm for you fellas because there is nothing cooler than those feelings in gaming. Cheers
+1 rep
Well said.