This is a continuation of my previous posting regarding my progress and general observations of the player population (on the server I am on) in ArcheAge Unchained where previously in month two, I had noticed signs (expiring 16×16’s) of a dip in the player base which contributed to my ability to finally secure actual residential status in several zones after purchasing 16×16 cottages in Two Crowns, Marianople, White Arden, and Lilyut Hills.
Since then, I’ve been concentrating mostly on this part of the game (property acquisition and management) as opposed to actually progressing the gear on my character. I haven’t done any combat related PvE since that time. As a result, I’ve only made 6 ancestral levels (23 as of this entry) while my gear score has remained static at just a tad under 4.2K. A lot of changes has happened with my properties since then. I sold the White Arden and Marianople cottages (making a small profit in the process) in early January while I continued improving my original Two Crowns property; I was able to grab the expiring 8×8 farm and turned it into a private loom (far right).
I had previously been farming a lot of cotton for fabric to sell but as expected (due to reenabling of the ArchePass), the selling prices quickly dropped as more players began doing the same. So I only grow for myself now (for community center turn ins) and switched to other things to make gold.
I began creating more decor for the property by crafting mahogany stucco partitions (which consumes a lot of wood and stone bricks) to wall in the lower seed bed area, crafted a Sunbite bed, a novelty Airain Rock Beer Tub bath, an Airain Rock Family Table, a Elite Merchant’s cushion (which summons an NPC that provides warehouse, auctioneer, and general merchant access), and turned the middle 8×8 farm into a private masonry. The seasonal decor are all credit shop purchases (using some of my credits from the Chainbreaker pack).
The most expensive (but functional) item decor was the Owl mailbox below due to the need for fine lumber (which requires small seed oil; and that is dependent on Onyx Archeum Essence; a reward one gets from doing the cross continent cargo family quest). The prices of that keeps rising (initially, it was under 2 gold each but is now double that). The Harani Stone Lantern wasn’t that bad since I had some Starlight Archeum dust (and was able to get some inexpensive Starshard ingots off the auction house) to craft the Seabreeze Essence to make the actual lantern (it doesn’t require much lumber, iron ingots, or stone bricks). The red torii gate on the left was purchased from Mirage Island for 10 gold.
The other properties in the back of my cottage (towards the beach area) has since been developed by a family of players with three cherry tree houses and a 28×28 upgraded chalet leaving only the two properties on the right of my cottage as the only possible means of adding to this location. One of the owners has a 16×16 cottage and 16×16 farm that have been prepaid for several weeks (no farm activity since mid-November though). The other owner had their 16×16 cottage listed for several weeks for 1000 gold before it finally sold in late January (the new owner turned it into a 16×16 farm) as well as a non-tradable 16×16 farm (not the craftable improved version which can be certified listed for sale). Like the other property owner, they seem to have actually stopped playing and only login to pay the taxes.
I was initially going to mail the owner an offer to have them demo the farm (the farms are what is what is next to my property) and place a cottage design that I would supply, and I would then build (after which, they could certify a negotiated price over to me). But I would also need to secure the two adjacent farms and need to demo my raised cottage in order to place a 24×24. Given the prices being asked for in Two Crowns, I debated if it would be worth the effort to go through all of that and concluded that it was better to leave well enough alone and be happy with what I’ve managed to build in this location (I like how this property ended up turning out). So I made the decision to look elsewhere for my main expansion and upgrades.
The improved scarecrow farm that was next to the Lilyut Hills cottage that I had purchased on Christmas Day was listed one evening for 600 gold (a literal steal since the improved farm is crafted from the 8×8 that you receive as a quest; so the person loses that design which is critical for upgrading farms) and I quickly purchased it. From there, I worked on upgrading the location by remodeling into a raised cottage, adding partitions to the bottom, and added fencing around the perimeter. I initially added a private sawmill but later demoed it (to save on taxes) because next door (to the right in these screenshots) is a tradesman manor that has been opened as a public crafting station (the upper deck of these upgraded manors has a complex processing shelf that has options for mass processing ores, logs, stones, textiles, and leather). Once you use that shelf, it is difficult to go back to the normal ones.
I fortunately had enough materials acquired to immediately perform a remodel and upgraded it to a miner’s farmhouse and added the fencing around it as well as a couple of folding partitions on the bottom floor (I actually liked how it turned out).
At this point, I thought I was set for the near term future… BUT I then came across an opportunity over the MLK holiday weekend that I could not pass up; two diagonally connected 24×24 properties that had expired in Solzreed right near the stream in Lacton. This housing area is close to the beach where bungalows can be built offshore and the hill separating Solzreed from Dewstone Plains. Identical single story manors were built on each property. I decided it was worth it to grab both of them (RIP gold) while I could since it fits my goals for having larger connected properties. Getting two 24×24’s in close proximity was something I didn’t really expect to have at the 3 month point.
I began to work on this location immediately; the most “stress” inducing part was demolishing one of these manors to place a thatched farmhouse in its place since I’ve heard more than enough stories of people having their land sniped during the demo process. These manors have a modest 15K hit points versus 1.5K for cottages and 500 for your basic 8×8 scarecrow. So it takes a couple of whacks once the demolition process is underway and larger structures like this are more easily visible (not just the red HP bar but also the flames as the HP nears zero). Anyone else can place during this time and be ready to click the build button. So I took various precautions ahead of time by dismissing mobilization orders for a day, adding a lot of the known expiring reclaimers/resellers onto my friends list (so I could see when they were online; I have most everyone of Eon guild identified), disabled all invite abilities (since I know about the raid invite tactic used to interrupt others), and picked a time period where there were fewer online. I went so far as to reboot and load the game client twice (given how unstable it is where even on several occasions, it would lock up shortly after launching it).
I then scouted the area for several minutes and ran around the general vicinity to see if there was anyone around. Once I was satisfied, I headed down the point of no return (I did a full kit demo of the manor on the right). It takes around 20 seconds before the untouchable buff is removed and the hit point bar turns red where you are able to attack the structure. From there it can take around 10 seconds to attack it down to 0 and it takes another 20 seconds when you can actually place (and then rotate into position) to actually build.
Fortunately, I ran into no issues and no one during this period. Around 15 minutes later though as I was ready to add the last lumber pack, I saw one of the players that has been recently listing properties (possibly an alt for one that is more known) scouting expiring properties (circled in red) but no doubt having just arrived and watching the construction of one of the expiring properties that they probably had tried to compete for but failed to win the click war.
I casually observed them run around after but they sped through this area including checking some of the raised cottages in less than a minute (I have no idea how they can quickly check name plates since I always have to get myself positioned just right to get it to show up). Overall, it is a bit of an adrenalin rush when redoing your own property and you have to contend with reclaimers and potential snipers (not saying this person would do that but this is ArcheAge where generally speaking, you need to be careful since all of this is part of the games design).
After completing this initial setup, I decided to sell the connected 16×16’s in Lilyut Hills (I don’t believe in hogging every bit of property I managed to get). While it was “costly” as far as the amount of building management titles needed, I decided to full kit demo the raised cottage (which turned out to be a wise decision – more on that in part 2) and demoed the improved farm to retain the design (and placed cottages on each; I ended up making a 500 gold profit once they sold).
So now that I have managed to fulfill some objectives which I really didn’t expect to happen (including this connected manor and farmhouse), I now had some newer goals in the game with developing this location. I decided to make this Solzreed location my main base of operations while I maintain my Two Crowns property as not just as an outpost, but also a reminder about the humble beginnings where the only thing I had for several weeks was my 8×8 scarecrow (the one in the back in the image on this posting).
I decided to upgrade the farmhouse first (another miner). The other manor would be upgraded to a tradesman manor after since I needed to collect more materials (some will be generated by the two miners farmhouses).
