One of the major changes that came with the latest (7.5.2) update for ArcheAge and ArcheAge Unchained, is the overhaul of the labor system. Previously, most all labor regeneration went directly into the account labor pool (only labor rechargers were specific to the server it was being used on).
For the most part, this change was mostly relevant for the purposes of a completely new “fresh start” server where the pooling of account based labor could yield an advantage on a fresh start server. For free to play ArcheAge (legacy), publishers dealt with this by requiring new accounts for access to a fresh start server. For the Unchained version, the first fresh start servers on NA/EU did not require a new account (and revealed the advantages that existing players had if they had large amounts of Garden Elixirs, other regen buffs (like certain fireworks or chocolate candy), or labor regeneration from sleeping (including use of pajama sets) since all of these regenerated labor for the entire account (and thus available on a fresh start server).
The Korean version of ArcheAge (including the Premium version which Unchained is based off of) saw a reworked labor system to move all of these regeneration systems to be server based. At face value, it sounds like a good change that makes sense (it does). But like everything else, it is the implementation that is lacking.
Account labor is what is now also referred to as offline labor; in other words, that labor can only be regenerated while you are offline. The server labor is also referred to as online labor which is self-explanatory in that it only regenerates while you are online and/or via all of the previous regenerator methods including elixirs, labor rechargers, certain candies and fireworks, sleep (plus pajama buffs). Each of these pools caps at 5000 labor each for a total pool of 10,000 labor. Sounds good on paper but here is the reality.
Labor is first utilized from your account (offline) labor and needs to be completely depleted before you begin tapping into server (online) labor. Labor is still regenerated at a rate of 10 labor every 5 minutes (120 labor per hour or 2880 labor every 24 hours). In other words, it requires being offline for nearly 42 hours in order to fill up account (offline) labor back to 5000 once fully depleted (which again, is the only way to begin utilizing the server labor pool). In practical terms, most players will be logging in to play everyday constantly tapping into account labor that will normally be under 2K labor that you’ll be burning through daily (and then burning through server labor and using rechargers).
The prior labor system capped out at 8,000 total labor using these rechargers which is less than the reworked systems 10,000 total labor. But keep in mind the above fact that you’ll be constantly having to deplete the offline generated labor and normally logging in daily where it will be normal to see only 1200-1800 labor that has regenerated. So in reality, your normal usable pool of labor will be under 8,000. Basically, the system is poorly implemented because they kept the offline labor regeneration rate the same. That rate needs to be increased unless their objective is to keep players from logging in to play in order to get offline labor to fill up completely again.
This revised system is also worse when you have multiple characters on an account (because they are now all burning through that same offline account labor). It all may seem the same as before until you actually play, and notice the subtle differences as you utilize labor over the course of several days of play. If you aren’t playing on a fresh start server, most of this change doesn’t feel like an improvement because you’ll constantly see your total labor pool way below the 10K combined cap. Yes, it seems to be no different than before except for how account labor now only regenerates while offline (previously, your account labor would also regenerate while online) but actual gameplay over several days makes it feel worse.
Basically, server (online) labor is like the prior account labor (except it does not regenerate while offline) but capped off at 5000 labor (and no longer benefits from the 3000 additional server labor that you got with labor rechargers) with your account (offline) labor acting as this bonus that you get with whatever regenerates while you are offline. The longer you are offline, the more of it will be filled (up to 5000). The message that sends to the player is off; it encourages not playing in order to regen your account labor back to full. And the more characters you have on that account, the quicker you’ll be going through that account labor. This change would not feel as bad as it does if the offline regeneration rate was higher (I believe this won’t happen because I think but am not 100% sure, that we already have double the rate compared to Korea).
