https://archeageuc.playkakaogames.com/news/2616
Basic summary: all existing servers gets merged into a single server for each region on November 30th. Land rush takes place on December 2 (EU: 12:00 UTC/13:00 CET, NA: 21:00 UTC/13:00 PDT). All character names will be reset (will need to select new name at the character selection screen).
As I wrote before (regarding the termination of ArcheAge Asia), this is pretty much the final leg of ArcheAge NA/EU because I highly doubt Kakao Games Europe will be able to sustain the game past 2024. Again, there’s a reason why Unchained was packed at the beginning (before it began to bleed players when Gamigo began putting more questionable items into the ArchePass); to get away from 5 years of exploits and RMT. Unchained over the past 4 years, has also seen its own share of exploits and RMT (plus a few events that allowed gear progression to go much quicker than intended). Still, legacy has a lot more years behind it when it comes to gearing, gold, and items that just could not be obtained on Unchained.
Anyone who has remained on Unchained, has an active subscription (you cannot even login without a sub); that goes away with this merge (and most Unchained players have an abundance of credit shop housing designs that can be placed without Patron). Translation: any Unchained player who returns, can resume playing for free once again (while placing designs that are considered credit shop ones). These (credit) designs also do not require Patron to pay/pre-pay taxes on them (basically, just Gilda designs require Patron for placing and paying taxes). So yes, perma land squatting will be what clogs up land going forward since that is the current case now on the main legacy EVO (from what I saw on Ospheros for NA).
I finally began burning labor on my gear since Kakao Games ran an event recently that gave us Exalted Hiram (the weapons were Eternal grade while the armor slots Mythic), as well as a lot of the lunagems, serendipity stones (to select the properties you want on them), luna charms, tempering, etc. I’m still not done since it costs a lot of labor to socket all of those gems and to then upgrade them (with the luna charms). But it’s the first time I’m over 10K gear score on my main (sitting at 12.5K; by the time I am done, I’ll be at around 14K which is still way below most (who are closer to 21K). All things considering, this is fine considering my emphasis in this game (which is primarily property related).
Myself, I decided that I will go through with this land rush since it’s going to be the only time to get larger plots of land (but I do plan to downsize since labor will be an issue without Patron since there is no offline generation unless you have Patron active). Since credits will also be merged, I won’t also be in need of purchasing any since I still have the credits on legacy ArcheAge from the ones I had for Devilian (when Trion gave us a choice of where to move them when they closed that down). I figure I might as well enjoy what remaining time this game has (and no, ArcheAge 2 will not have close to this sort of longevity since that is neither XLGAMES or Kakao Games objective).
