[dengar]

A few of us have been around the block. We know what sounds too good to be true and what's perfectly legit. By comparing the "to do" list with other games and previous videos, we may be able to guess at some of the things ArcheAge will launch with, and what may come later down the line. For the most part, the general rule is to assume "theme-park" assets, such as dungeons and quests, will take priority over sandbox features that add anything more than simple conquest functions, as those tend to be the minimal requirements for either type of game. While XL may have more of a backing than other recently released MMOs, I highly doubt they are able to put in enough time to fully flesh out almost 2 separate games within the same guild by launch. ArcheAge itself is fairly unprecedented in its goal, and hoping for even the bare basics of the two game styles may seem like wishful thinking to some.

Player Housing

Looks like its already in from a few videos, so no problems here. House building video

Player Ships
Also seen in a few videos, so once again, no issues here. My link

Customizable Architecture

This one's most likely not going to happen, at least by release. Player housing is a rare feature in new MMOs these days, and customizing it with anything more than "hooks" to place objects on is even rarer. Even Star Wars Galaxies' housing lacks this. Horizons/Istaria had fairly customizable housing, allowing at least for general appearance (do you want a fence? Perhaps pillars leading up to the front door?) as opposed to picking out where doors and windows go, but that game is almost primarily a game for crafting and economics. This feature isn't impossible to pull off, but most likely will play second to combat mechanics.

User generated textures/pictures

Like the previous example, this feature probably won't make it to launch, if at all, but for different reasons. While the concept isn't new, it can be rather complicated, since the server will have another thing to load (this is why many games made to support tons of players tend to be low on customization options- more options means more loading and more lag). In addition, devs have to watch out for things like "penis textures" to weed out potentially offensive art. All this takes a lot of time away from perfecting game play basics, but can add a lot to the quality of life of the game, so I have little doubt this will eventually be implemented.

Contagious Diseases
This is yet another feature that may not make it to release. However, diseases have been in games before, and in both a known sandbox (Istaria) and theme-park (World of Warcraft, both accidentally and intentionally). This may not make it at release simply because it doesn't add a ton to a theme park game or a sandbox, but could possibly appear in story arches (assuming patches do something to move story forward, though it could just be a hype point for an early patch).

NPC Villagers For Player Towns
This one will most likely make it to launch, but probably in a simple form. For example, when creating some housing types, a guard or vendor may be included with the blueprints, as opposed to having some option to make one appear for any housing type. NC Soft had mercenary NPCs at launch, but that game was highly instanced. Having NPCs you can hire for crafting probably won't occur at launch, partially because of additional server pressure, but also to slow down building projects so devs can assess how much room players are taking up in the world. Think of the last few MMOs you saw launch. Player housing itself is rarely a launch feature, especially if there's already features that allow players to take over land for guild housing. Xsyon recently released with both, but it's combat was severely lacking. Since AA already has focused on combat, it would seem that controlling the amount of land players can take control over will probably be important for balance purposes (creating new areas for players to inhabit is more demanding of a dev team than simply balancing resources to allow players to build faster/slower).

RP Specific Content
We've heard we'll have the ability to form "families," but this sounds more like a last name being part of player names, similar to Darkfall's "RP content." RP content is rarely at the top of a game's list, but player housing and gardens will cover a large part of this, and the "labor" people can build up may help encourage a reason for social interaction to occur for some types of RPers. RP clothes may appear down the line (such as chef hats), but for release, I can't imagine it.

Expeditionary Forces
This one's a wild card, after looking over some of the dev chats. On the one hand, it sounds like an important flexibility structure XL wants to include. However, I can see this getting cut for simplicity's sake and combing EF duties into existing guild structures. If it doesn't appear by open beta, it most likely won't be in.

Jail system
This sounds rather unlikely. Debuffs/guard aggro sounds more feasible. While there is some information on this, a few problems can arise, such as players being put in jail and needing to log out. Players have wanted a feature like this forever. If it does make it to launch, I'd guess it'd come well after release. Server types help police certain scenarios where this would be needed, so I can see it being shelved to work on, say, additional content for theme park elements or testing siege mechanics for balance.

World Building
Player created bridges/roads sound plausible, in that devs can implement them to save themselves some time. For example, the first raid dungeon could be located on a plateau that players cannot reach until they build a fortified ramp to it as a gating mechanism, perhaps forcing players to choose between building towns/houses/ships or unlocking content for the server. No matter what players choose, unless a server has a gross amount of players or the game has very little content, world building could help slow down player pacing all around and function as content for sandbox players. The tactic was utilized in Horizons, giving devs a little more time to work on new player races and encourage players to use resources they had been saving for player housing. If not present at launch, I can see it being released shortly thereafter.

Remember, these are guesses based on other games/companies and do not reflect "beta leaks" or anything like that.

[ArcheAdmin]

Looks good! Thanks for the submission! If we get the chance to award a prize for May, your article is in the running.

EDIT: I meant May. My brain is fried.

[Eligor]

Indeed, good stuff... Though, they did say that Expeditionary forces would be included for atleast the player isle. Can't find the interview on the iPhone but they had said that EF will be different to Player factions and there will be limitations to who can join. EFs will fight for land in the PvP island.

[Entaro]

ArcheAdmin, on 09 May 2011 - 12:18 AM, said:

Looks good! Thanks for the submission! If we get the chance to award a prize for March, your article is in the running.

March? O.o I thought we were in May...

[Eligor]

He lost track of time with all the stuff going on, if you ask me... on the other hand, we didn't pick an article for March so who knows~!

[dengar]

Eligor, on 09 May 2011 - 12:38 AM, said:

Indeed, good stuff... Though, they did say that Expeditionary forces would be included for atleast the player isle. Can't find the interview on the iPhone but they had said that EF will be different to Player factions and there will be limitations to who can join. EFs will fight for land in the PvP island.

I understand that they want it in, but the thing is, the role of the EF is generally also covered by guilds. It would be a lot easier for them to simply make it so that guilds can conquer territory on Origin Island (I think that was the name) but based on faction (i.e. Faction A in guild The Earthbound defeats Faction B in the Earthbound to win Territory X). Darkfall had something like this, in that any race was free to join a guild, but race alliances (i.e. orcs and elves are at war) still applied, so an orc attending raids against an all orc clan that hadn't declared war would lose faction with his race if he jumped into combat at the wrong time. It's not quite the same as a siege, but for simplicity's sake, they may stick with a similar model. I'm really hoping we start seeing "are" instead of "will" in terms of comments about EFs, but it's one of those "more than we'd expect" features that may get sidelined for the launch's bare basics.

[Eligor]

There won't be any bare basics though, XLGAMES have said repeatedly that they want a 3rd generation game, that means that the game is ready at launch and will only be expanded afterwards, they won't release with 50% of the content and add the rest later.

[ArcheAdmin]

Eligor, on 09 May 2011 - 06:45 AM, said:

He lost track of time with all the stuff going on, if you ask me... on the other hand, we didn't pick an article for March so who knows~!

Yeah, that's what I meant. I was up late and inebriated last night.

[dengar]

Eligor, on 09 May 2011 - 10:05 AM, said:

There won't be any bare basics though, XLGAMES have said repeatedly that they want a 3rd generation game, that means that the game is ready at launch and will only be expanded afterwards, they won't release with 50% of the content and add the rest later.

I understand what you're saying, but all companies say this. XL has the tools to launch with more (they already have some unique features such as climbing trees/walls, their crafting system, growing trees...), even given the fact that they're launching what some folks may consider 2 games in 1, but it would be naive to think that everything they've mentioned thus far is going to make it to launch, especially since they have an open beta without an NDA. If we don't see it at this point, and the game launches in a year (I know they're aiming for sooner, but MMOs tend to get repeatedly delayed), I doubt it'll be in for launch, and that's not a bad thing.

Keep in mind that for a sandbox MMO, updates tend to either add some story element for players to interact with (such as in Asheron's Call 1 and even 2's monthly updates) or new tools to play with (in recent years, Darkfall and treasure maps, fishing nets for boats, fun-hulks, player planted flags...). By delaying sandbox content, the company can launch with a solid game that gives players an idea of how the basics are, and slowly introduce additional features. Also keep in mind that they have the theme-park crowd they need to worry about. Consider this compared to, say, World of Warcraft, in which monthly updates mainly introduce new quests/dungeons/raids (you can argue story, but that can be ignored much more than in the AC games, in which you may DL a patch where there's a new roaming bad guy coming to your town, or even find that your usual town's been destroyed). Releasing the sandbox elements (such as contagious diseases) with theme-park elements (a raid against the person who introduced the diseases) makes patches much more interesting, but also gives devs time to refine them.

[Eligor]

They aren't trying to make Archeage follow any specific "path" they want full freedom and Jake Song has worked on MMOs a long time to know what he's doing, even his starter projects were huge success (look Lineage 1).

Also something that still stands till XLGAMES decides to state otherwise, people should not consider Beta Testing the same as other MMOs, they are only calling it that because they want player feedback before proceeding, hence why they have been slow on letting people access the game during betas, first was one race, then it was two with bigger maps and so forth. We are likely to see a lot more testing done on Archeage pre-release to make sure everything works correctly.

Another thing to point out is that they are trying to make a game that doesn't fit in any "molds" made so far, they are aiming make it as sandboxie as possible on release and keep improving it afterwards with the experience they gained using the game's engine (first time most of the time has worked with Cryengine 3). They haven't released anything regarding updates and what form they will take, whether we can see a storyline evolving with each update or not. The lore itself is rather open on this as we have been introduced to two background stories. One is about the creation of the world, which seems to be the main theme and the other is a love story between an elf and a human, some of it was shown in one of the youtube videos aswell as novels released by XLGAMES in Korea.

I'm willing to bet that they will try to work on a way for players to evolve their own stories as the game progresses, instead of having a fixed storyline which all players follow, will fit their idea of a sandbox game easier and what they said about not wanting to restrain players.

[dengar]

At this point, it may be best to agree to disagree. I do like what I've seen from AA so far, and their info's fairly open, but I base my opinions on previous experience with other games/MMOs. Every game tries to drive hype, but few of it sticks (few fanboys can seriously say that Rift "isn't Azeroth" but an upgrade). I don't feel like XL has promised the moon, but the reason I wrote this article is to remind folks not to go over board on their excitement yet. There will be flaws, and I feel it's better to go in expecting less rather than more. If we only base our expectations on minimal functions and what devs choose to show from actual game footage, any additions become very exciting, as opposed to expecting the moon and only getting a farm.

[Cavarath]

I agree with Dengar.
Its better they start out basic and expand later than trying to put everything into the release version. The later will only release in bigger problems because the features arent tested properly.

[Synner]

"User generated textures/pictures"

personally im hoping that this one doesnt make it into the game. not that i wont love running around with bewbs for a head... but i can only imagine what others will have for heads... *shiver*

[ArcheAdmin]

I'm pretty sure you have have your own logo on your ship's mast, which means there's going to be a lot of weaboos with the Straw Hat Pirates logo on their ships, and there's going to be the SA Goons with the Goonfleet logo on theirs, and then there's going to be the corporate-sponsored ships with Coca-Cola's logo... (Just kidding.)

[Kinoji]

Synner, on 10 May 2011 - 09:29 AM, said:

"User generated textures/pictures"

personally im hoping that this one doesnt make it into the game. not that i wont love running around with bewbs for a head... but i can only imagine what others will have for heads... *shiver*

Lmao yea i feel yea on this one but it'll be good if the devs regulate it(like stated before). Sorta how the logos were in Aion. You were able to put your own logos but had to be confirmed by the devs n whatnot b4 allowed...or atleast they should've done that if they didn't(cant remember) lmao.

*sigh* Nothing like rocking your own logo...*flashes strider symbol!* BAM!

[KieraKittie]

Well now wasn't this a nice read, thanks for the article.

[Maskerad]

Prison system is supposedly in for CB3, so I'm fairly certain that one will make it for launch

[dengar]

Maskerad, on 24 May 2011 - 08:52 AM, said:

Prison system is supposedly in for CB3, so I'm fairly certain that one will make it for launch

It's in game, but I'm seeing a lot of complaints about it. I don't agree with most of them (similar to the mini-map ones), but it may be reworked... heavily. I've heard that there was no trials in CB3, so while it'll probably make it in, it may not be in the form originally announced (but I suppose that's common for features in beta ;P ).

[Branwulf]

I remain sceptical of every feature that sounds new and cool in games these days, if you don't you get burnt every time. : /

Though from what i've seen it looks like an impressive number of features are in the game, whether or not they'll work as well in Open Beta or Release is something else entirely, hopefully by the time in comes to Europe it won't be a concern.

My main fears are the distinct Asianness that MMOs from that region have, however Archeage doesn't seem to fit the mold of that demographic, that and the whole half Themepark half Sandbox thing they are going for, one will bubble to the top and if it's themepark i'm out.

[Borawan Denali]

Very interesting read, you bring up some good points here Dengar. I do think that they will try to implement alot of the features they speak of but trying does not mean doing. Either way, I still appreciate them "trying" too.