It has been no secret that ArcheAge Unchained has had a rocky 2-month period since its launch back on October 15th. But as I noted in my prior post, I wanted to begin focusing less on the developers and publishers incompetence, and more on my progression. This is a (rather long) followup to my original 1-month progress where I was at the beginning of the end game progression. Regarding the login queues, those are mostly all gone now on Wynn (and most all other servers in both regions). And unlike 5 weeks ago (in that 1-month progress posting) where I mentioned it wasn’t primarily due to players quitting, I’ve been seeing signs now that it is in fact, more people leaving over the past few weeks due to all of the problems.
One of the key ones has been expiring properties over the last three weeks and the increase in properties being listed for sale (more about this in the later part of this post). I previously had tried to go around and look at improved farms (16×16’s) that had nothing planted on them but it’s a time consuming process (you need to position yourself properly to get the interaction UI to display where you can check the property info and tax status). And it’s no better checking actual houses. And if you do find one that has missed tax payments, you’ll have to be around on demolition day and contend with others vying for these spots. Given the amount of time needed dedicated to doing all of this, I figured it was better prioritizing my time completing some of the dailies (to get infusions or scrolls), mining/logging, processing materials, and selling small amounts to generate some income where I could just purchase a place in the future. Part of ArcheAge’s design is based on the idea of opportunity cost (you have to prioritize your goals and objectives).
The other more recent sign of players dropping out has been the amount of wild trees that haven’t been logged or fruited trees that haven’t been harvested. Just the other day, I chopped down over 20 cedars that grow in between Marianople, Halcyona, and Two Crowns as well as harvested a lot of the apricot and beechnut trees in the same areas. Some may argue that this is because more players now having their own farms resulting in increasingly less reliance on these wild trees (true to some extent) but this still doesn’t account for those who haven’t been fortunate yet to lock down some plot (even though there are more expiring properties).
Myself, I still try to log as much wild trees (not much opportunity cost involved when they are there for the taking) and gathering as much wild plants because many are either rare or arcane quality which means they yield more product when processed (like blueberries where 10 of them process to 45 chopped produce via 10 labor and a blue salt knife). I also mine any nodes I come across since even the raw stones are useful (needed for stone bricks and to turn those stone bricks into construction brick bundles that are useful for upgrading). This also slowly but surely, benefits these proficiencies which translates into increasing efficiencies for these commonly used life skills. In a game like this, I prefer being as self-sufficient as possible for things that I can collect myself. So I am constantly processing these, iron ores, and logs so that I don’t have to worry about these for my own future needs.
Again, this is a core aspect of the game; you cannot possibly do everything because of the labor mechanic. I do believe it needs to be tuned for this buy to play business model though since it is currently regenerating at a rate designed for cash shop labor replenishment (and not diminishing return rechargers). Will that happen? Probably not considering how both Gamigo and XLGAMES are drowning with addressing the existing bugs in core systems and this new ArchePass. Basically for myself, I’ve chosen a more balanced path where I’m not sinking a lot of gold and labor into my gear (chasing gear score/item levels has never been my thing in these sort of games); I periodically infuse as needed to move the experience bar. I’m good so long as I can comfortably farm mobs on Auroria. I also wanted to keep to my original objective of being more of a casual potato and progressing on my own terms as opposed to following the meta or being a slave to the dailies grind (which would allow for faster gear and gold progression, but also lessen the actual progression experience for myself as well as lead to general burnout – more on that follows).
Digressing, grinding the Auroria dailies (to get Hiram Infusions/Awakening Scrolls) was a bit “painful” at the start (I was just around 3.1K gear score). While I could’ve joined the daily raid zerg runs, playing that way is not my idea of fun, nor is it a way of gauging progression since you aren’t really playing your character in the context of the combat, nor feeling the actual progression. So I’m doing it my way as I tend to do even in these MMO’s; I did these dailies solo. I started with the Diamond Shores one with the level 55 mobs and also ran the first floor of Ayanad Library dailies (before it was disabled back on November 27th) for XP. Once I got my weapon to Heroic Radiant, I added the Reedwind dailies (which entails killing 100 mobs). That was honestly a challenge since I really needed to infuse all of my armor pieces; I originally needed to do them in two separate settings (I only did these during peace time since I would surely be ganked outside of those times). And those were the regular level 55 mobs that originally gave me trouble.
So I didn’t continue the Auroria quest chain (where the next stop was Whalesong since the mobs there were Ancestral 1-3) until my character could better handle the normal Reedwind mobs. Raid zerging through this would’ve helped to progress faster through this part of the questing but as I mentioned, playing that way doesn’t allow me to really feel the actual progress (plus I would be rushing to get to nowhere fast). After a few days where I finally had enough infusions to get all of my armor to Heroic Radiant, I could finally complete the Reedwind daily in one peace time cycle. That made me feel comfortable enough to continue the quest into Whalesong where the regular Ancestral 1-3 mobs ended up being fairly trivial. This took me to the Aegis Island part of the quest (Ancestral 4-6 mobs) which is where I really began to progress since the regular level 4 mobs gave decent XP and dropped a good amount of Ancestral Crates and coin purses. I went from something like 400 gold to 1000 gold due to this in a short amount of time. The quest part of Aegis Island is really short so you get sent to Western Hiram Mountains (WHM) fairly quickly (and my character was nowhere ready to easily solo Ancestral 7 mobs).
I ended up spending a few days grinding the Reedwind daily to get enough infusions to get my gear to Unique. This got me to around 3.4K gear score where I could manage to clear the WHM mobs needed to complete the quest chain. This also unlocked the Owlina mount which is needed to get through a section of the pass that takes you into the East Hiram Mountains (EHM) which has Ancestral 10-24 mobs; something my character is not ready for. So as of current, the WHM dailies are where I am at in the grind (where I am at least stockpiling a lot of infusions; and will need a lot of them). I managed to get enough to get my weapon to Celestial and the current synthesis event has allowed me to get 4 pieces of armor to Celestial as well where I am now close to a 4.1K gear score (as of this entry). Most gem slots on these pieces are empty since I periodically sell honor (buying the 7K honor lunagems and selling them to make additional gold).
I’m also leveling at a decent clip and am currently at Ancestral level 17. This would be considered n00b progression for someone who began playing at launch (even though if the first week and half, it was sitting in queue more often than playing) but I don’t care since I’m casually playing this my way (and not burning out doing the dailies routine like some folks are and/or mainly chasing gear score). I haven’t even built my farm cart yet since I really have no need for one (trade runs are low on the things I want to do). I do plan to eventually make it so that I can complete the Blue Salt quest chain (the next part of the quest gives a free improved 16×16 farm).
The biggest limiter right now is being labor constrained even after using at least two or three labor rechargers a day. Most of my gold generation has been from selling fabric from the cotton that I’ve been growing and processing (fabric was a conscious decision since it is one of the deliverable materials for the Blue Salt Bonds quest). So I’m constantly burning through labor gathering and processing (plus I have a daily routine of running around certain spots to log wild trees and mine).
The gold that I’ve been making in small amounts has been critical for one of the main reasons of why I decided to give Unchained a chance; that was to be able to at least own a piece of property where I could place a house (and having that in this buy to play version is desirable because you don’t have to deal with the subscription aspect as is the case with the free to play “legacy” version). The problem on Wynn early on is that it was one of initial servers that was far too populated before they instituted the server lock and restrictions. And there is also way too much land that is occupied by empty 8×8’s and a lot of 16×16 placements that block out sections of usable land (again, this is a tactic to reserve space for expansion; I have no major issues with this since it is what makes getting and hanging on to a plot, attractive).
Two weeks ago, my friendly neighbors properties expired; it’s just that I didn’t realize it was heading towards demolition from unpaid taxes since as I mentioned up top, I stopped checking (and that included the ones around me let alone my neighbor since he seemed to be a regular player; his main was Ancestral 17 when my character was still level 48). All I know is that I hadn’t seen him or his alt for around a week and a half prior to the demo and chalked it up to differing play schedules. Two weeks ago though, his cottage and 16×16 farm were gone (there were just the placeholders for cottages).
It made me feel sad because he was really nice and even offered to rearrange some of his properties so that I could fit my own 16×16 (that never came to pass since I hadn’t seen him around since that time). Part of me wished that I had at least checked the properties around me since I could have at least tried for those two spots (to save at least one of them just in case he was one of those folks that ran into technical issues logging in as there are some who are encountering problems getting the game updated). The other part of me felt I had also missed an opportunity since my tiny farms are right there. So I went on another search spree through various areas including Ahnimar again, and unsurprisingly couldn’t find any open 16×16 placements.
I was planning to logoff for the day but returned back to my farm first to gather my cotton and saw that cottages had been built on those two plots; the one nearest my farm was actually being sold for 600 gold (150 of that cost is for building management permit that needs to be purchased in order to craft a building management title which is used to certify a piece of property for sale where there are these key signs at each corner; the safest way to buy/sell plus the property is also listed at the zone’s community center).
I had no idea what the current rate was so I ended up going to each zones community center to check for listings. As it turns out, the person who had snagged my neighbors expired properties was also selling in other areas (I eventually figured out there’s at least one organized group that is spending time searching for expiring properties in each housing zone, and snapping them up in order to make gold – which is another way to play this game).
It also turned out that this was one of the cheaper 16×16 cottages being listed at the time. He had one in Marianople going for 799 gold and there were other players selling the same for 900 (the most expensive were the two in Lilyut Hills for 1250). There was a 16×16 farm that was listed for 800 (and sold the next day) closer to the crafting area just northwest of where my 8×8’s are. The lowest (certified) priced cottage I found that evening was just up the hill from the White Arden community center for 550 which meant the current average going rate for certified 16×16 cottages was around 650 gold (this was two weeks ago; the supply and less demand has resulted in this price dropping substantially over the last week).
All of this put into better context what I needed to do given that my neighbors former cottage property was right next to my 8×8 farms; that I should really grab it while I could. So I quickly headed back to Two Crowns (hoping that no one had bought it) and fortunately, acquired the house. The other cottage ended up selling the next day and the owner turned it into an improved scarecrow farm. So this (the following screenshot) now completes one of my original modest near term goals of having my own personal 16×16 cottage (my 8×8’s are just to the right). It’s just not how I expected it to happen (I figured it would’ve taken at least another 1-2 months of searching as the attrition rate increases and that it would be some location away from my 8×8’s). 600 gold may seem like a lot in the short term but I can make this up over time even at the casual pace that I am playing.
Because the cottage was facing in the wrong direction for my preference (I want the door facing the bay and my 8×8’s), my next immediate near term goal was to rotate it. For that, you need 10 unbound tax certificates which are only craftable once you reach famed in construction (that is 230K proficiency). As it turned out, there were other players hitting that and selling tax certificates on the auction house. I balked at the initial pricing though (1.5 weeks ago, they were being listed for 15 gold each on Wynn). While the price has since come down to a more realistic 2 gold per, I had already changed my mind to upgrade it to a raised cottage (which provides space for two seed beds underneath and replaces the hearths cooking UI with access to Memory Embers which allows teleporting back to your home without consuming a Hereafter Stone)
The following was a preview I did 1.5 weeks ago raised (I’ll lose the above stone rose model since that one is not available as a raised model).
I had most of the materials from all of the mining and logging I’ve been doing since launch and at the time, I just needed to process raw stones into another thousand stone bricks (for the construction brick material). The most expensive part are the building management permits (I need to buy 6 of them so 900 golds worth) to create the 6 building management titles (alternatively, I could get the titles directly via 20 Diligence coins but at the time, the ArchePass was still disabled and I didn’t have enough coins).
While I had enough gold remaining, I didn’t want to burn through 900 of it at this time (as in real life, I want to maintain a minimum gold balance so that I have some ammo to use for “emergency” purchases – which also turned out to be the right decision; more on that below). With the re-enabling of the ArchePass, getting 6 of these titles ended up being trivial (just the first week, I ended up getting to tier 24 on the vocational pass and completed this weeks missions at tier 38; so just 6 more tiers to complete this seasons vocational pass – I’ll probably enable the equipment pass after that since the season ends on January 22nd) and saved me actual gold. So I performed the remodel and upgrade earlier last week. Initial near term goals completed!
I will say that finally having secured an actual residential property like this was a huge dopamine boost (for me) as I wanted to at least carve out a small personal place on the server. Obtaining land in ArcheAge is a completely different experience compared to housing in other games because it’s not instanced, nor are there different channels or shards to increase the amount of housing for the same area. I still believe there needs to be some constraints on the placement (since it just turns into an efficiency issue with far too much wasted space) as well as limits to the amount of properties one can eventually just squat on (I’ve already figured out the character names of those who are demo resellers since most aren’t high level characters and are all in the same guild).
This location in Two Crowns still has a lot of empty 8×8 and 16×16’s for example (and the prices now being asked by these demo property resellers is bordering on ridiculous since a demoed property just two spots away, is listed at 890 gold and likely will not sell at that price given the increasing amount of demo’s as well as early land grabbers, now letting go of excess properties at half that amount). Basically, it is soon going to switch to a buyers market on Wynn West and will come down to personal preference as far as desirable location (dependent on if someone is more about location from a trade perspective or like in my case, setting and scenery).
Digressing, I spent the last few day sprucing up my property where it now looks like the following. I’m putting posts and fencing for both decorative purposes as well as to delineate what are my properties. The smelter to the left is also mine and my neighbors alts last property (an 8×8 scarecrow to the right bottom corner) is set to expire later this week; I’m going to try and claim it so that I place either a sawmill or loom there). Again, I didn’t really expect things to turn out this way where I ended up having a place right next to my farms with a nice view to boot). My initial 8×8 is the one at the far left closest to the smelter (that small plot is a valuable “anchor” since it signifies my characters very humble roots when it was the only place I found open in this area after missing the initial land grab).
Over the course of the last few days, a lot of property has ended up being listed. Dewstone Plains currently has a huge glut where someone who had originally listed two adjacent 16×16 cottages, for 450 and 525 gold, ended up relisting them for 300 and 420 gold respectively a few hours later.
I was considering grabbing them (both are on the sandy hilly portion of the housing area just north of the Dewstone Community Center) to maybe turn one into a 16×16 farm (temperate climate) but this same player (looks like someone who grabbed a lot of decent locations during the initial land grab since they also had spots in Lilyut Hills for 550 gold) also had a 16×16 just outside of the eastern road heading between Marianople and Two Crowns (a place I pass by everyday) for 555 gold (this is why I like to maintain a minimum balance of gold). This location (for that amount) was way too good to pass up so I sent gold to my alt and bought it.
I plan to also upgrade this one into a raised cottage once I collect enough materials. Having just one residence was good enough as an initial starter. Having two 16×16 residences in this short period of time goes beyond what I expected so acquiring a third wasn’t even on my radar at this point; that is until I found someone selling a cottage in White Arden (temperate climate like Dewstone, Marianople and Two Crowns) for 400 gold (below). While it’s not the most desirable location (part of the property is on a slight slope so if anything, I’d probably just buy 10 tax certificates and rotate it so the entrance faces the right), if I eventually cannot get a 16×16 closer to my main spot in Two Crowns to turn into an improved farm, I’ll probably just use this for that purpose to grow additional cedars (or I might considering eventually turning it into a raised cottage as well for the seed beds depending on whether or not more players with upgraded farm house really begin focusing on cotton and fabric and begin over supplying the Blue Salt demand for them). Alternatively, I could try flipping it to make a small profit which I could use towards a 24×24 (basically, I have options now with multiple residences).
And as if three wasn’t even on my radar, I also ended up snapping up a 4th cottage in Lilyut Hills for 299 gold on Christmas Day in the housing area near the transition into Gweonid Forest (there was another property selling right next to it for 99 silver more). I like the location of this one so it’s also a longer term project to upgrade it to a raised cottage. So like I mentioned, there seem to be more players each week dumping excess properties they had grabbed early on and are getting rid of the ones they don’t need. Basically, the demo finders and resellers (at least on Wynn west) are going to find their profit margins shrinking much more rapidly.
There’s also another reason why I decided to sink some gold into these lower priced properties in multiple zones; the community center “building a reputation” daily quest for Gilda Stars and Blue Salt Bonds; you need to have a residence which is at least a 16×16 cottage) in that zone in order to perform this quest and is another means to earn bonds for the faction bond quests where you can earn honor. Most of my original focus with the land I had was to be able to supply stuff for the Blue Salt quests (which really began to hit its stride once the ArchePass was re-enabled with the Blue Salt missions) so one or more of fabric, lumber, iron ingots, and leather. And as mentioned earlier, I decided on growing cotton on my 8×8’s within the first week of Unchained going live and turning that into fabric. So I’ve been selling a lot of fabric and began utilizing my two seed beds (50 cotton seeds planted in bulk per which easily yield 400-500 cotton per planter also gathered in bulk in less than 2 hours). The slowest/most labor consuming part is processing this into fabric. I’m looking at these with longer term goals in mind.
Obviously getting a 24×24 (thatched farm house) is the next step since what would really help with income generation is an upgraded farm house (mainly the bulk processing capability). There are several of these listed in various zones but something I cannot afford at this time. Given where I am currently at in terms of properties, getting to this next step doesn’t seem that far out of the question. There is going to be even more player attrition (leading to more placeholders expiring) as well as players letting go of land as they themselves move up. Some of these prices may end up coming down (and hopefully by that time, I will have enough surplus gold to just buy one of them). But I cannot complain about where I am currently at in terms of my own objectives with land (it’s far more than I expected to ever have within the first three months of the game).
While I have major issues with how ArcheAge Unchained is being handled, I am playing this for the long haul (so my initial $80 buy-in is going to end up going a long way in terms of sheer entertainment value). It’s over taken my play time in TERA (something I don’t see changing given how both developer and NA publisher are handling things; if they pull back on the blatant cash grabs and sincerely address the deficiencies in the end game grind, I may reconsider). I’m only at the start of my list of goals in Unchained though so that play time has to come from somewhere (and it is coming at the expense of any engagement in the Exodor content in TERA or off-episode play of Guild Wars 2).
While I do have this increased activity in ArcheAge Unchained, I’m just not planning to expend any additional money on it because the team had more than enough chances to prove they could manage this properly, and have failed to do so (the incompetent management behind it should not be rewarded as far as I am concerned). That’s why I’ve been documenting the unprofessionalism involved with the ex-Trion team handling things at Gamigo; I would’ve gladly spent a lot of money for credits to purchase cosmetics and other novelties but they’ve proven they don’t care about the quality of the product they are putting out (especially when it’s a buy to play one). Some folks may say that the game will eventually die if existing players don’t continue to at least occasionally support it with such purchases. That’s not my problem (the ball is in the publishers and developers court to manage the quality of what they are putting out; let’s just say they’ve taken a short term revenue boost versus longer term recurring revenues from a satisfied customer base). So if it ever comes down to that, then so be it.
