As of the December 2nd land rush, the 36 hours leading up to it was consumed by this merging of the two game services for the ArcheAge franchise in NA/EU by Kakao Games Europe. The merger maintenance itself on November 30th lasted 31 hours (3 additional hours added on to the original 28 hours of scheduled down time in order to resolve a launcher issue that some were experiencing). The first part of this service merger was waiting for the merged server to open in order to claim your name again (since they didn’t use the rules method used previously which allocated a duplicate name to the character that had the earliest creation and/or more play time). While this wasn’t an extremely high priority thing for me (unlike others who desperately wanted to get back their launch names), I decided anyway that it was better to try and reclaim them (I got them all back but had to rename two which had the same names on both versions).
To Kakao Games Europe credit, they did a pretty good job with this merger (since I expected there to be a whole lot of problems given how complex merging data of this magnitude can be). The communication (and timeliness) by communiity management was more than adequate, and it looks like the operations/technical personnel did a lot of testing/validation in the months leading up to the actual merger. While I am sure there were a few edge cases, the fact that there wasn’t the usual sort of major meltdown happening on their Discord, speaks volumes as to how much better they were prepared to deal with this, compared to when they initially took it over.
Upon logging in, our characters weren’t teleported to their original starting point (spawning instead where you last were). That gave me a preview of what land rush day could potentially be like since I already saw at least two characters staging themselves (and they were legacy players since I remembered the names when I scouted the area several months ago). In past land rushes, I’d usually begin this process maybe 8-12 hours before land placement opened. This time, I decided to do that right after I got the full-kit designs out of the clutter of mail; this would entail 29 hours AFKing in-game ahead of land rush.
I also logged in (for the first time since 2017) to two old Trion-era alt accounts (that had low level ArcheAge characters on them) and parked each character to form a perimeter of where I planned to place (since for the most part, players who are waiting to put up housing in zones that aren’t the most sought after, tend to be more respectful of those who are already camping an area). In highly desirable/profitable locations, you will have players standing next to each other, all vying for the same coveted spots (which is why I don’t bother with certain zones because it’s just crazier). There was a point 10 hours in, where all 4 clients (all running on different systems) disconnected. And that concerned me because I didn’t want a disconnect to happen overnight (when I was sleeping) where the section of land I wanted to try to place on, would be open to someone else occupying that spot. So I decided to try and stay awake for most of the next 19 hours (taking short naps) to keep an eye on my clients; the last evening I had solid sleep was November 29th (so from the 30th until this land rush, I had only sporadic sleep). When I was involved in tech, pulling 36 hours of no sleep like this wasn’t a problem (not so easier now).
The reason I took this particular land rush with a more serious approach, is that I (like many others), feel this is going to be the final one because the game is realistically running out of steam, is not aging gracefully, and has most of its developers transitioned to ArcheAge 2. As I’ve noted many times throughout this blog, the main part of ArcheAge that I enjoy is its housing system (which is why I took part in this land rush). So I wanted to at least ride out what time I believe it realistically has left, with a few plots of land. Thankfully, no further disconnects happened (though I did reboot my computer twice over the course of those last 19 hours just to clear memory, while also reloading the clients a few times after that). While initially it was really sporadic with players waiting at spots around me, heading into the t-minus 3 hour mark, you could see more players running around searching for a place to stand.
I had already long ago, decided to downsize (once I made the decision to continue playing post-merge). The only reason I ended up having such a huge area (at least 4-digit in-game dimensions) heading into the closure, was that I would over a period of time, drop a design in any adjacent open area (that had been unclaimed for weeks) so that it would not look so barren. After a certain point though, it’s not really desirable to keep artificially maintaining that. But as far as main properties went, I had 5 48×48’s, 3 28×28’s, 12 24×24’s, and 6 16×16 farms; all of them were tightly connected too. Additionally, all my characters across two Unchained accounts, had a house (my main had the most).
With this land rush, open spaces quickly filled up (so only the primary character on my two previously Unchained accounts had zone residency initially). I was able to drop all the main buildings I had prioritized on my main (though it was chaotic since in the moment, you are just quickly holding a design down to see wherever it will fit; my tradesman manor was the last one after I had switched back from my alt a couple of minutes later, which was surprising that no one else managed to snatch up that big open 36×48 spot that was just adjacent to my properties I had placed first). Switching to my alt character (I just managed to get the beanstalk and a miners down; not all 4 that I wanted though). The 16×16 and 8×8 Lunar/Solar/Stellar farms on the rest of my characters, filled in some gaps along side and inside the property. The ending result is that I downsized from a 4-digit x 4-digit area, to a saner 3-digit one. Location wise, it’s on the northeastern most part of where my property was (since the western part near the river/public farm was already being camped on as mentioned up top).
NOTE: I will post a video of the land opening from above since it easier to understand what this process is like by watching it.
Most of the property owners around me seem to be from legacy (as some of the Unchained ones I was familiar with, swung by too late when most spots had players waiting to place; I learned later that many of them had to head off to Ahnimar or Rokala). I felt bad since some of them have always had property in this zone since when they played legacy and after they moved to Unchained. I probably would’ve had to do the same if I hadn’t stayed camped overnight. However, there is always that next two weeks, when some of these properties might end up being demolished (if attempts to sell them don’t occur since I also don’t see a huge number of marketplace designs taking up this particular housing area).
Several hours after land rush (once I took a needed nap), I began the process of reorganizing some of the property (demoing a couple of 24×24 buildings so that I could get some of the other alt characters on my main account a house since I use them mainly for vocation jar dailies). Unchained allowed us to get a lot of bound building/farm designs via manastorm crystals that on the legacy side, could only be acquired from the marketplace via credits. When the game moved to Kakao Games and they decided to use the global build instead, the game also allowed these credit shop designs, to be placed on land/taxes paid for without the need of Patron. These houses and farms are also character bound so you cannot sell/trade them like gilda designs.
For my alt account that I created with Unchained, I am fine with just that one character having a marketplace home since that account will end up Patron-less once its Unchained transitioned subscription expires in a couple of months (the beanstalk is exempt from requiring Patron to remain placed/to pay taxes on since even though it is not in the marketplace itself, it’s been sold only on special occasions; like right now for this merger/winter period, a full-kit beanstalk is part of special 120-day Patron promotional package that is being sold for $69).
On my main account, I have a decent amount of post-merged credits (since I had those credits transferred from Devilian after its closure, just sitting unused on the legacy ArcheAge side) which I can extend my Patron with. I’m trying not to sink further money into this game for obvious reasons. While Kakao Games Europe did handle this fairly well, I’m also aware of the prior miscues, and what I know will be less engagement now that this merger has been completed (this is just the reality of how the suits run things). It’s not like I’m trying to cheap my way through the game; it’s more about perceived and reasonable value (knowing XLGAMES are doing minimal effort content updates that is made to sound bigger than it is in their developer notes) and using what I have available.
I will say post-merge/land rush, it feels nice to see packed housing zones again, hero hall being full, lots of players milling about, and really active chat (even though a lot of it is as expected, toxic mouth breathers doing what they’ve always done). But I know that isn’t going to last (based on previous merger/land rushes, I give it 2-3 months before the usual attrition/de-population begins taking place). Additionally, some who only played Unchained, will likely get “sticker shock” over time since everything which could be acquired with manastorms (earned by simply completing Archepasses), cost credits (including the premium passes itself which on Unchained, were purchased with loyalty). So I expect there to be a decent percentage of Unchained players quitting once their transitioned subscription to Patron expires. Another factor that will cause attrition is there is no longer (at least for the time being), another server to run off to free farm (this is more or less specific to players who take part in PvP/a lot of end game content) so it’s going to lead to more rage quitting by some of those who get bullied out by those players/guilds denying them content. As a casual potato who primarily engages with tending to properties, that stuff simply doesn’t affect me.
The biggest issue I do see going forward with regard to land, is just the sheer amount of housing designs (that don’t require Patron) coming in from Unchained. It’s easy to just sit on land because of this setup with the global build (Unchained, you needed an active subscription in order to login to the game; with Kakao Games Europe switching the business model to subscription, this made property demolitions academic when a player decided not to renew and once any pre-paid taxes expired). Now, we’re back on the legacy model where you can freely login while continuing to hold onto property so long as the design is one of those which doesn’t require Patron. Just 24 hours after land rush, it’s really difficult finding open spots larger than 16×16 (even 16×16’s are becoming increasingly more difficult to find as I ran around on an alt, and just looked at Ahnimar and Rokala; both huge “overflow” housing zones created in 2016 with the 3.0 “Revelation” update). So it’s going to take a few months for this to shake out (though there will be the initial market of buyers and sellers, and there will again be some players who are constantly looking for expiring properties to compete for). The way I am looking at it, is to appreciate this high activity while it exists (because as I mentioned up top/and in previous ArcheAge related postings, I don’t believe this game will be running past 2025).
