Finally hit level 30 over the weekend where I completed the initial Vulpin Shorelines quest chains (this is for the Vulpin Alliance) that unlocked the instanced private estates (housing). This and higher level locations also offer public housing land areas (ala ArcheAge) known as Premium Estates where you can (try) to claim a plot (granted that you also have sufficient funds for the initial costs plus the ongoing tax upkeep) for having an open world plot for your house, workshop, and whatever sort of farm(s) you want to setup. These open world estates are channel based (you have to switch the right channel to access it) which means that someone elses estate can occupy that same plot on another channel.
Higher level zones also afford higher tier gathering nodes as well as locations near and inside the RvR conflict zone (this would be like having a plot of contested land in ArcheAge) where higher risks also means higher rewards. Nodes set down on ones estate can also be set to public where other players can gather from them (which also benefits the owner in terms of their own yield). As an added note, the alliance you select when creating your first character, becomes your alliance account wide (thus completely unlike ArcheAge where you can create characters in either Nuia or Haranya factions or later choose to become a pirate).
Your production facilities, workshops, workbenches, storage, and residence are in-depth systems onto themselves (which I naturally haven’t played enough to begin exploring yet). Your residence is like any housing system where you can customize it as you wish. This residence can also be leveled (that level determines tier levels and the amounts of gathering nodes which can be placed on the land). Every character gets their own instanced housing for free (the setting is on one of those floating islands). The following is the private instanced estate (residence on the left and production facility on the right).
The available open fields in this private instance can be used to raise crops, your own “monsters” aka combat pets, etc. These fields can also be “leveled” . And this is where the caveats begin. If you eventually transition to an open world estate, anything on that field in your instanced estate is effectively demo’d including its levels. Your production facilities and their levels do transfer over though.
Instanced estates however lack the Premium Estate buffs (things like extra experience/drop rates, reduction in experience loss upon death, bonus Earth Essence when gathering, reduced resource usage of Vitality while gathering) for activities you perform in that particular zone. Earth Essence is an essential material used for upgrading everything on your estate. Gathering consumes Vitality (in ArcheAge, this would be Labor while in TERA, Production Points). Just like in those games where you can acquire in-game or via the cash shop; Labor potions (ArcheAge) or Crafters Cure (TERA), A:IR-TH/SEA has Vitality potions in their cash shop.
I haven’t played enough past this point to see if these potions can be earned in-game rewards or from an NPC using in-game gold. Just knowing there are stamina based systems like this gives me pause when it comes to Kakao Games being the publisher for Korea, NA/EU since it is a monetization avenue (similarly, there are daily entry limits to non-story/questing dungeons in this version) which they’ve gone full bore with in Black Desert Online.
The ability to claim an open world estate has not been locked behind an actual paywall in this region like how it is in ArcheAge (where you need to maintain a premium subscription in order to own land which you then build your housing on). It remains to be seen how Kakao Games will handle Premium Estates in Korea, NA/EU. The following video by Ser Medieval has a comprehensive and quick overview.
Just seeing the basics, I now understand why Bluehole pulled back on a lot of these systems in TERA (like getting rid of the guild Sky Castles) and concentrated those efforts into A:IR which back then, was still known as Project W (and not fully fleshed out). While I still do not see anything in this game that will make it the next big thing, it is done well enough to have some staying power for those who end up enjoying the niche aspect (Steampunk theme, ground and air based combat, actual ship based combat, and the larger scale RvR aspect).
For the time being, the game also lacks TERA’s sheer silliness when it comes to the wacky race archetypes and cosmetics. The furry Ein race is about it (and is also the only genderlocked one in the game). For myself, that element of non-seriousness is something I actually enjoy. I suppose time will tell if Krafton eventually has some crossovers from PUBG and TERA.
UPDATE: someone datamined some of the cosmetic assets in the GPK’s and there are indeed cosmetic crossovers from both game (majority are from TERA though).
Additionally, the game goes back into 24/7 service today,
