Craft, Claim, and Conquer even better with the changes coming in 4.0!

The Folio has a new look and the categories are arranged in such a way that new players will have an easier time progressing through their crafting. The updated organization highlights the main systems in the game. Property, Pets & Transport, Harvesting, Commerce and more.

The Character Equipment section is an overhaul of how players approach finding and setting personal goals for gear improvement. Need a new sword? Click on ‘Right Hand’ and find your future weapon, whether it’s ‘Crafted’, ‘Obsidian’, or from ‘Mistsong’. You’ll even be able to see the item’s upgrade paths much more clearly without having to navigate away from the item’s page. This simplification brings a clarity that all players, old and new, will appreciate.

If you’re looking for friends or just strong allies to join you on a difficult mission, you will now have the ability to post to the new Raid Recruitment Board. All applicants can be reviewed before being accepted. Set the time (UTC) you’re venturing out, number of players needed, and choose your activity – Raid (Kraken, Red Dragon, Leviathan, Thunderwing Titan, or just world bosses), Faction War (Mistmerrow, Golden Plains Battle), or other world events. If you’re accepting a call to action you’ll even be able to reply with the role you wish to serve in the adventure!

Once you’ve got a raid together, you might realize you need even more warm bodies to tank, dps, and heal. With the new Co-Raid system two raids of up to 50 adventurers each can join forces. Each raid keeps their own leader, but one is the Commander and the overall leader is the Admiral. If you’re the raid leader, a simple right-click menu option to form a Co-Raid is all you need to team up and take down your targets.

How do you want to be known? Maybe as an Abyssal Archaeologist. But if you’re not into the stats that come with the title, you can now use the Title Collection system to pair your favorite title with your most desired stats! There are quite a lot of titles to collect, and you can even get some direction on where to find them. Collecting more titles will earn you progress towards unlocking new icons that will appear next to your name. Don’t worry, if you’ve already earned a bunch of titles all of your progress will be kept when this system goes live.

When upgrading any Obsidian gear to t5 or t6 players will use a Spellshift Orb to turn the item into a component for the next tier recipe. The component will keep the previous item’s grade, but will become an unequippable crafting material. After crafting the next tier, it will become a cloaked item. Uncloaking that item will now allow the player to choose which of the two paths they want the item to come out as (Uncloaking and choosing a path occurs at T4, T5, and T6). This new flexible system allows players to change their focus and/or gain access to more potential buyers, as they are not limited to finding those who are specifically on one path. We suggest finding the buyer before uncloaking!

– The ArcheAge Team

Craft, Claim, and Conquer even better with the changes coming in 4.0!

The Folio has a new look and the categories are arranged in such a way that new players will have an easier time progressing through their crafting. The updated organization highlights the main systems in the game. Property, Pets & Transport, Harvesting, Commerce and more.

The Character Equipment section is an overhaul of how players approach finding and setting personal goals for gear improvement. Need a new sword? Click on ‘Right Hand’ and find your future weapon, whether it’s ‘Crafted’, ‘Obsidian’, or from ‘Mistsong’. You’ll even be able to see the item’s upgrade paths much more clearly without having to navigate away from the item’s page. This simplification brings a clarity that all players, old and new, will appreciate.

If you’re looking for friends or just strong allies to join you on a difficult mission, you will now have the ability to post to the new Raid Recruitment Board. All applicants can be reviewed before being accepted. Set the time (UTC) you’re venturing out, number of players needed, and choose your activity – Raid (Kraken, Red Dragon, Leviathan, Thunderwing Titan, or just world bosses), Faction War (Mistmerrow, Golden Plains Battle), or other world events. If you’re accepting a call to action you’ll even be able to reply with the role you wish to serve in the adventure!

Once you’ve got a raid together, you might realize you need even more warm bodies to tank, dps, and heal. With the new Co-Raid system two raids of up to 50 adventurers each can join forces. Each raid keeps their own leader, but one is the Commander and the overall leader is the Admiral. If you’re the raid leader, a simple right-click menu option to form a Co-Raid is all you need to team up and take down your targets.

How do you want to be known? Maybe as an Abyssal Archaeologist. But if you’re not into the stats that come with the title, you can now use the Title Collection system to pair your favorite title with your most desired stats! There are quite a lot of titles to collect, and you can even get some direction on where to find them. Collecting more titles will earn you progress towards unlocking new icons that will appear next to your name. Don’t worry, if you’ve already earned a bunch of titles all of your progress will be kept when this system goes live.

When upgrading any Obsidian gear to t5 or t6 players will use a Spellshift Orb to turn the item into a component for the next tier recipe. The component will keep the previous item’s grade, but will become an unequippable crafting material. After crafting the next tier, it will become a cloaked item. Uncloaking that item will now allow the player to choose which of the two paths they want the item to come out as (Uncloaking and choosing a path occurs at T4, T5, and T6). This new flexible system allows players to change their focus and/or gain access to more potential buyers, as they are not limited to finding those who are specifically on one path. We suggest finding the buyer before uncloaking!

– The ArcheAge Team

It’s getting closer to snow, so what better time to dip your toes in a hot tub to clear your mind for a second round of labor regeneration!

From November 16th – 27th, purchasing specific packs of credits will get you additional bonuses! Each of these rewards can be claimed only once per account, so make sure to choose wisely when applying it to your characters.

• Bonus can only be claimed once per account! Purchasing multiple $100 packs on the same account will not grant multiple bonuses.
  
• This special pool allows you to clear away the bed’s “Clear Mind” debuff, giving you the ability to regain labor from sleeping for a second time each day!
  
• Use the plant decorations to play up the patio atmosphere of your new pool.

• Bonus can only be claimed once per account! Purchasing multiple $50 packs on the same account will not grant multiple bonuses.
  
• Use the tokens to save up for a well-deserved mount, or perhaps use them to grab some costume synthesis stones, pets, consumables, and more!

Don’t wait, make sure to grab these special extras before they’re gone! Learn more about credit packs here!

It’s getting closer to snow, so what better time to dip your toes in a hot tub to clear your mind for a second round of labor regeneration!

From November 16th – 27th, purchasing specific packs of credits will get you additional bonuses! Each of these rewards can be claimed only once per account, so make sure to choose wisely when applying it to your characters.

• Bonus can only be claimed once per account! Purchasing multiple $100 packs on the same account will not grant multiple bonuses.
  
• This special pool allows you to clear away the bed’s “Clear Mind” debuff, giving you the ability to regain labor from sleeping for a second time each day!
  
• Use the plant decorations to play up the patio atmosphere of your new pool.

• Bonus can only be claimed once per account! Purchasing multiple $50 packs on the same account will not grant multiple bonuses.
  
• Use the tokens to save up for a well-deserved mount, or perhaps use them to grab some costume synthesis stones, pets, consumables, and more!

Don’t wait, make sure to grab these special extras before they’re gone! Learn more about credit packs here!

Can you stand amongst the legendary chefs of Erenor, or will you be chopped under the pressure?

[UTC+8] EU: November 14 (7:00 AM) ~ December 1 (7:00 AM)
[PST] NA: November 14 (11:00 PM) ~ December 01 (11:00 PM)

Test yourself in the Feastival, running in Hasla from November 15 until December 2. To get there, either visit a festival gate in your capital city or Diamond Shores, or visit Hasla yourself! The region has been set into Festival Mode for the duration of the event, so no attacking one another (except for Guild Dominions, of course!)

• Visit Eldest Princess Esana to get a letter to give to Master Chef Haines. Delivering the letter will offer 1 Feastival Coin and your choice of special Gembloom Seed. Plant the seed to acquire a flower petal that can be used to get special Flowerbed Housing Décor. It also rarely produces an addition Chromatic Petal, which can be turned into bonus Feastival Coins.
  
• Deliver 100 Iron Ingots to Blacksmith Hankson to gain 5 Feastival Coins.
  
• Help Cooking Researcher Konney produce Creative Recipe Notes using 10
• Paper, 3 Memory Ink, and 10 Labor to gain a Feastival Coin and a small amount of printing proficiency.
  
• Sharpen a knife for Kitchen Assistant Conway using Hankson’s anvil to gain a Feastival Coin.

• Assist Cattle Wrangler Mai by feeding hungry cats with a sardine to gain another Feastival Coin. Mai and the Cats will visit the festival regularly at 2 PM, 8 PM, and 11 PM UTC for Europe and 11 AM, 5 PM, 8 PM PST for North America.
  
• Legendary Chef Leonan will also be challenging adventurers to cook special Royal dishes daily at the same time as Mai’s requests (2 PM, 8 PM, and 11 PM UTC for Europe and 11 AM, 5 PM, 8 PM PST for North America.) Completing his challenge will net you 3 Feastival Coins and a little extra cooking proficiency.
  
• After completing Legendary Chef Leonan’s Royal dish, visit the Red Salt Merchant to give your dish a little extra kick. Spicing up your food will grant you an additional Feastival Coin and a dish that will increase your Evasion, Attack Speed and decrease Cast Time for an hour after consumption.

Complete these achievements for extra rewards:

• The Least of the Feastival: Complete “Culinary Appetites”, “Cutting It Close” and “A Recipe for Greatness” 5 times each. — 5 Coins
  
• The Best of the Feastival: Complete “Culinary Appetites”, “Cutting It Close” and “A Recipe for Greatness” 10 times each. — 5 Coins
  
• Hungry for Love: Complete “Culinary Appetites” 5 times. — 1 Coin
  
• Dinner and a Show: Complete “Culinary Appetites” 10 times. — 1 Coin
  
• Sharper than Cheddar: Complete “Cutting it Close” 5 times. — 1 Coin
  
• Blade and Soul Food: Complete “Cutting it Close” 10 times. — 1 Coin
  
• Hot off the Press: Complete “A Recipe for Greatness” 5 times. — 1 Coin
  
• The Completionist’s Cookbook: Complete “A Recipe for Greatness” 10 times. — 1 Coin
  
• Hungry Hungry Kitties: Complete “Udder Cat-astrophe” 25 times. — 3 Coins
  
• The Meowing Masses: Complete “Udder Cat-astrophe” 35 times. — 5 Coins
  
• Utensil Tender: Complete “The Feastival Smith” 5 times. — 1 Coin
  
• The Porridge Potentate: Complete “A Royal Dish” 10 times. — 2 Coins
  
• Hasla Head Chef: Complete “A Royal Dish” 15 times. — 5 Coins

This festival offers some great Flowerbed Decor which can be purchased with flower petals (see above) and 30 Coins or 50 Coins for the Chromatic or Golden version. You can also get the Balsam Garden Instrument Decor or a special Ishvaran Contest Decoration for 50 Coins for your home! For those seeking a little boost, the Vibrant Greenman Buff (increases Magic Defense +200 for 1h) and the Evergreen Yata Buff (increases Physical Defense +200 for 1h) are available to exchange for 10 Coins each.

Also be on the lookout for special cooking themed weapon skins for all of your weapons, including:

• The Butter Beheader — Sword
  
• The Croissant Cleaver — Greatsword
  
• The Marmalade Mangler — Katana
  
• The Hummus Humiliator — Nodachi
  
• The Jamspreader Jackknife — Dagger
  
• The Short Salad Fork — Shortspear
  
• The Long Dinner Fork — Longspear
  
• The Short Whisk Whaler — Scepter
  
• The Mighty Whisk Walloper — Staff
  
• The Cornclobberer — Club
  
• The Great Cornclobberer — Greatclub
  
• The Pizza Cutter — Axe
  
• The Great Stromboli Slicer — Greataxe
  
• The Iron Skillet — Shield
  
• The Scallion Sniper — Bow

All skins are 80 Coins each.

Will you stand at the top of the pancake stack, or will you be left out in last night’s grease?

– The ArcheAge Team

Can you stand amongst the legendary chefs of Erenor, or will you be chopped under the pressure?

[UTC+8] EU: November 14 (7:00 AM) ~ December 1 (7:00 AM)
[PST] NA: November 14 (11:00 PM) ~ December 01 (11:00 PM)

Test yourself in the Feastival, running in Hasla from November 15 until December 2. To get there, either visit a festival gate in your capital city or Diamond Shores, or visit Hasla yourself! The region has been set into Festival Mode for the duration of the event, so no attacking one another (except for Guild Dominions, of course!)

• Visit Eldest Princess Esana to get a letter to give to Master Chef Haines. Delivering the letter will offer 1 Feastival Coin and your choice of special Gembloom Seed. Plant the seed to acquire a flower petal that can be used to get special Flowerbed Housing Décor. It also rarely produces an addition Chromatic Petal, which can be turned into bonus Feastival Coins.
  
• Deliver 100 Iron Ingots to Blacksmith Hankson to gain 5 Feastival Coins.
  
• Help Cooking Researcher Konney produce Creative Recipe Notes using 10
• Paper, 3 Memory Ink, and 10 Labor to gain a Feastival Coin and a small amount of printing proficiency.
  
• Sharpen a knife for Kitchen Assistant Conway using Hankson’s anvil to gain a Feastival Coin.

• Assist Cattle Wrangler Mai by feeding hungry cats with a sardine to gain another Feastival Coin. Mai and the Cats will visit the festival regularly at 2 PM, 8 PM, and 11 PM UTC for Europe and 11 AM, 5 PM, 8 PM PST for North America.
  
• Legendary Chef Leonan will also be challenging adventurers to cook special Royal dishes daily at the same time as Mai’s requests (2 PM, 8 PM, and 11 PM UTC for Europe and 11 AM, 5 PM, 8 PM PST for North America.) Completing his challenge will net you 3 Feastival Coins and a little extra cooking proficiency.
  
• After completing Legendary Chef Leonan’s Royal dish, visit the Red Salt Merchant to give your dish a little extra kick. Spicing up your food will grant you an additional Feastival Coin and a dish that will increase your Evasion, Attack Speed and decrease Cast Time for an hour after consumption.

Complete these achievements for extra rewards:

• The Least of the Feastival: Complete “Culinary Appetites”, “Cutting It Close” and “A Recipe for Greatness” 5 times each. — 5 Coins
  
• The Best of the Feastival: Complete “Culinary Appetites”, “Cutting It Close” and “A Recipe for Greatness” 10 times each. — 5 Coins
  
• Hungry for Love: Complete “Culinary Appetites” 5 times. — 1 Coin
  
• Dinner and a Show: Complete “Culinary Appetites” 10 times. — 1 Coin
  
• Sharper than Cheddar: Complete “Cutting it Close” 5 times. — 1 Coin
  
• Blade and Soul Food: Complete “Cutting it Close” 10 times. — 1 Coin
  
• Hot off the Press: Complete “A Recipe for Greatness” 5 times. — 1 Coin
  
• The Completionist’s Cookbook: Complete “A Recipe for Greatness” 10 times. — 1 Coin
  
• Hungry Hungry Kitties: Complete “Udder Cat-astrophe” 25 times. — 3 Coins
  
• The Meowing Masses: Complete “Udder Cat-astrophe” 35 times. — 5 Coins
  
• Utensil Tender: Complete “The Feastival Smith” 5 times. — 1 Coin
  
• The Porridge Potentate: Complete “A Royal Dish” 10 times. — 2 Coins
  
• Hasla Head Chef: Complete “A Royal Dish” 15 times. — 5 Coins

This festival offers some great Flowerbed Decor which can be purchased with flower petals (see above) and 30 Coins or 50 Coins for the Chromatic or Golden version. You can also get the Balsam Garden Instrument Decor or a special Ishvaran Contest Decoration for 50 Coins for your home! For those seeking a little boost, the Vibrant Greenman Buff (increases Magic Defense +200 for 1h) and the Evergreen Yata Buff (increases Physical Defense +200 for 1h) are available to exchange for 10 Coins each.

Also be on the lookout for special cooking themed weapon skins for all of your weapons, including:

• The Butter Beheader — Sword
  
• The Croissant Cleaver — Greatsword
  
• The Marmalade Mangler — Katana
  
• The Hummus Humiliator — Nodachi
  
• The Jamspreader Jackknife — Dagger
  
• The Short Salad Fork — Shortspear
  
• The Long Dinner Fork — Longspear
  
• The Short Whisk Whaler — Scepter
  
• The Mighty Whisk Walloper — Staff
  
• The Cornclobberer — Club
  
• The Great Cornclobberer — Greatclub
  
• The Pizza Cutter — Axe
  
• The Great Stromboli Slicer — Greataxe
  
• The Iron Skillet — Shield
  
• The Scallion Sniper — Bow

All skins are 80 Coins each.

Will you stand at the top of the pancake stack, or will you be left out in last night’s grease?

– The ArcheAge Team

There may be rough water ahead off the shores of Auroria, but this tempest is here to shake things up in the best way possible.

Update 4.0 or, as we call it, Maelstrom, is swirling into ArcheAge on December 13 (The release date was the 6th, but it was pushed back). But this is more than just another major update for us. We’re going beyond just updating the game, and looking at what we can improve in everything we do.

During our trip to Korea in September, the whole ArcheAge staff at both Trion and XLGAMES began discussing community feedback. Since those meetings, we began the process of putting those changes into practice.

Direct communication from XLGAMES

While the Trion ArcheAge team can answer many of your questions, we know there are times when you want to hear the reason behind a recent change, or you want to know deeper details that only a specific developer could provide.

In the coming months, you’re going to be seeing more direct communication from the core ArcheAge team. This process is going to begin with Korean developer diaries and announcements on the Korean development of the game, but it also includes North American and European involvement in upcoming tests. Speaking of tests…

Evening the odds of conflict

Coming in a major update after Maelstrom is our Battle Balance patch. This major re-balancing of skills and combat is taking a hard focus on both class balance and specific skill balance within the world of ArcheAge.

These changes are being tested extensively by the Korean community at this very moment in specially organized “Focus Test Groups,” that XLGAMES is arranging. We’re excited to announce North America and Europe will be participating in these tests for the first time too. It’s important to all of us that we begin including community feedback into game changes before they’re released to your servers.

Get your testing reflexes prepared: we’ll provide more information on how our focus tests will be conducted and how we’ll choose our testing candidates from the community as we move forward.

Let’s talk Marketplace

One of the largest topics during our September meeting focused on our Marketplace. If there’s one thing we have heard you very loud and clear on, it’s that we need to reconsider how items are sold in the North American and European regions.

We’re discussing many ways to improve (no stone is being left unturned here), but we want to highlight some of the changes that have already come to the game.

The first is ensuring that there is more parity between the way items are sold in the North American and European regions versus the Korean region. A clear example of this is the recent release of the Mad Steambike, which was introduced into the game as a design sold for Vocation Badges instead and not added to the Marketplace. This item was released to our version the exact same way it was released to the Korean servers, and we want to keep that philosophy going forward.

There may still be times where some differences need to occur (especially when they benefit players), but we want that to be the exception, not the standard.

The second is continuing to revise the items available in our supply crates, and how we communicate those items to you. Beginning during the summer, we began exposing the rarity category of items in each of our supply crates on our website, so you knew exactly what was in them and how likely it was to get what you wanted. And, beginning in November, we’re taking in feedback and removing T3 Honor Gems from our crates as well.

The third is addressing specific items. In Maelstrom, Bound Regrade Charms up to Red and Bound Synthium Stones up to Radiant will be directly purchasable for in-game currency. This marks the first time some of these items are directly purchasable for a currency earned via gameplay.

Some thoughts on Fresh Start

Finally, we know some of you are extremely excited about the idea of a new ArcheAge Fresh Start server. Many of you have posted your thoughts to our official forums, the community-run Reddit, spoke up in our Discord, or even talked to us at PAX West or Gamescom in person.

It’s easy to understand why there is excitement about Fresh Start servers – they provide an unforgettable gameplay experience you can’t get from any other game.

That experience is special and we will make sure that it always remains that way. But we need to make changes to how we handle these releases.

We know the team said we wanted to do them this year, but we want to do them right. Doing it right means not forcing them out before the end of December. We want these servers to come with additional improvements to our business model, our queue system, and your launch day gameplay experience. We’ve begun taking these steps, and we look forward to new Fresh Start servers next year.

For those of you who experienced our Evolution this September, you know that there were many changes introduced to make your whole experience much easier, less stressful, and as smooth as possible. During all steps of the process, we did everything we could to ensure transparency and frequent communication. The effort you saw there is absolutely the effort we are putting towards any major launches that will come to ArcheAge in the future.

We also can’t forget about what has already been planned for our shores. Maelstrom has some highly-anticipated changes that we can’t wait to get into your hands.

Lunagem improvements

If there’s one question we have gotten continuously over the last few months, it’s been “when’s the new lunagem system coming?” Well, it’s finally here, and it brings with it the results of your biggest piece of feedback: “Stop breaking my %*^#$@! gems.”

With the new lunagems introduced in Update 4.0, you’ll be able to slot them into your weapon with the confidence that you aren’t about to witness a precious stone explosion. Gems will also be re-classified into colored categories. Simply choose the color you need (such as red gems for offense) and then uncloak the gem to choose the stats you desire. It’s that easy.

A newly minted folio design

The crafting folio is going for a long-needed overhaul. We’re moving away from the grid of professions to a more streamlined category system that focuses on the purpose of the crafted item more than the profession that makes it.

Looking for that perfect necklace? Just open the character equipment portion of the folio, click on the neck slot, and look at all the necklaces you can make. Assembling a new car? Visit the vehicles section to see what part goes where.

Mix and match your titles and stats

Love being a Mistsong Maverick, but wish you could get that bonus to your proficiencies instead? The game’s new Title Collection system is here to make sure you can get all the notoriety AND all of the statistical benefits. Just choose your title, choose your stats, and save. That’s it!

As you unlock new titles and their corresponding boosts, you’ll also earn experience towards leveling up your title rank. New ranks unlock new cosmetic icons that will be displayed next to your name. Different titles offer different amount of experience – see if you can collect them all!

Upcoming NA & EU Unique Changes

We’re also focusing on making sure that our updates are better tailored for our region. Many of these are pieces of feedback we’ve received from the community after you reviewed the patch notes for Update 4.0’s release in Korea.

The biggest change here is our decision to keep the Ancestral Level system unchanged. Other versions of the game may move to a format where players acquire skill books to unlock Ancestral Skills. We will not be introducing this new mechanic into our version, instead keeping Ancestral Skills tied to your Ancestral Levels. It would be unfair for newer players to have an extra requirement that veteran players weren’t subjected to, and that drove our decision to keep the system as-is.

Some other examples include:

• No change to labor costs when making larders while still reducing larder size
  
• No increased consumption of basic materials. 3 logs will still craft 1 lumber.
  
• Allowing old lunagems to continue to be slotted into items post-Maelstrom (though these gems work under the rules of the old lunagem system)
  
• Keeping our boss schedule the way it is without changes
  
• Reducing the effectiveness of Draughts of Forgiveness (consequences for your actions are coming, lawbreakers!)
  
• Keeping the Thunderwing Titan’s cooldown at 48 hours instead of extending to 72
  
• …and more that will be revealed as we talk about Maelstrom this month.

What happens after the Maelstrom subsides? Well, that’s just the beginning of the onslaught.

A new year brings new changes to Erenor. New enemies to face, new realms to explore, and maybe some new allies to aid in the fight. Our world is one of beauty and peace, but also of perilous danger if you stray too far from the borders of safety.

The team is retaining their focus that ArcheAge is a world with something for everyone, and our updates next year will continue to reflect that. The release of Battle Balance is just the start – expect more improvements to PvP, PvE, and social systems over the coming year.

The ArcheAge team has many massive ideas for how to move the game forward and how to keep all of our players on their toes. Every group, from green-lifers to die-hard player nations, is being considered when these new updates are being made. Expect more ways to shape the world, more challenges to overcome, and more items to create.

But not only that, expect the return of Fresh Start, with some major improvements. There is nothing like the ride of putting your guild together and rallying your forces around specific objectives, seeing your ownership of the world take shape. From when the first brick is laid into a house foundation until the first flag is raised over a castle, there is an adrenaline rush as you and your friends work together to conquer those around you. That ride is absolutely coming back, better than ever.

Tell your friends: The storm is coming. It’s about time.

Sincerely,
The ArcheAge Team

There may be rough water ahead off the shores of Auroria, but this tempest is here to shake things up in the best way possible.

Update 4.0 or, as we call it, Maelstrom, is swirling into ArcheAge on December 13 (The release date was the 6th, but it was pushed back). But this is more than just another major update for us. We’re going beyond just updating the game, and looking at what we can improve in everything we do.

During our trip to Korea in September, the whole ArcheAge staff at both Trion and XLGAMES began discussing community feedback. Since those meetings, we began the process of putting those changes into practice.

Direct communication from XLGAMES

While the Trion ArcheAge team can answer many of your questions, we know there are times when you want to hear the reason behind a recent change, or you want to know deeper details that only a specific developer could provide.

In the coming months, you’re going to be seeing more direct communication from the core ArcheAge team. This process is going to begin with Korean developer diaries and announcements on the Korean development of the game, but it also includes North American and European involvement in upcoming tests. Speaking of tests…

Evening the odds of conflict

Coming in a major update after Maelstrom is our Battle Balance patch. This major re-balancing of skills and combat is taking a hard focus on both class balance and specific skill balance within the world of ArcheAge.

These changes are being tested extensively by the Korean community at this very moment in specially organized “Focus Test Groups,” that XLGAMES is arranging. We’re excited to announce North America and Europe will be participating in these tests for the first time too. It’s important to all of us that we begin including community feedback into game changes before they’re released to your servers.

Get your testing reflexes prepared: we’ll provide more information on how our focus tests will be conducted and how we’ll choose our testing candidates from the community as we move forward.

Let’s talk Marketplace

One of the largest topics during our September meeting focused on our Marketplace. If there’s one thing we have heard you very loud and clear on, it’s that we need to reconsider how items are sold in the North American and European regions.

We’re discussing many ways to improve (no stone is being left unturned here), but we want to highlight some of the changes that have already come to the game.

The first is ensuring that there is more parity between the way items are sold in the North American and European regions versus the Korean region. A clear example of this is the recent release of the Mad Steambike, which was introduced into the game as a design sold for Vocation Badges instead and not added to the Marketplace. This item was released to our version the exact same way it was released to the Korean servers, and we want to keep that philosophy going forward.

There may still be times where some differences need to occur (especially when they benefit players), but we want that to be the exception, not the standard.

The second is continuing to revise the items available in our supply crates, and how we communicate those items to you. Beginning during the summer, we began exposing the rarity category of items in each of our supply crates on our website, so you knew exactly what was in them and how likely it was to get what you wanted. And, beginning in November, we’re taking in feedback and removing T3 Honor Gems from our crates as well.

The third is addressing specific items. In Maelstrom, Bound Regrade Charms up to Red and Bound Synthium Stones up to Radiant will be directly purchasable for in-game currency. This marks the first time some of these items are directly purchasable for a currency earned via gameplay.

Some thoughts on Fresh Start

Finally, we know some of you are extremely excited about the idea of a new ArcheAge Fresh Start server. Many of you have posted your thoughts to our official forums, the community-run Reddit, spoke up in our Discord, or even talked to us at PAX West or Gamescom in person.

It’s easy to understand why there is excitement about Fresh Start servers – they provide an unforgettable gameplay experience you can’t get from any other game.

That experience is special and we will make sure that it always remains that way. But we need to make changes to how we handle these releases.

We know the team said we wanted to do them this year, but we want to do them right. Doing it right means not forcing them out before the end of December. We want these servers to come with additional improvements to our business model, our queue system, and your launch day gameplay experience. We’ve begun taking these steps, and we look forward to new Fresh Start servers next year.

For those of you who experienced our Evolution this September, you know that there were many changes introduced to make your whole experience much easier, less stressful, and as smooth as possible. During all steps of the process, we did everything we could to ensure transparency and frequent communication. The effort you saw there is absolutely the effort we are putting towards any major launches that will come to ArcheAge in the future.

We also can’t forget about what has already been planned for our shores. Maelstrom has some highly-anticipated changes that we can’t wait to get into your hands.

Lunagem improvements

If there’s one question we have gotten continuously over the last few months, it’s been “when’s the new lunagem system coming?” Well, it’s finally here, and it brings with it the results of your biggest piece of feedback: “Stop breaking my %*^#$@! gems.”

With the new lunagems introduced in Update 4.0, you’ll be able to slot them into your weapon with the confidence that you aren’t about to witness a precious stone explosion. Gems will also be re-classified into colored categories. Simply choose the color you need (such as red gems for offense) and then uncloak the gem to choose the stats you desire. It’s that easy.

A newly minted folio design

The crafting folio is going for a long-needed overhaul. We’re moving away from the grid of professions to a more streamlined category system that focuses on the purpose of the crafted item more than the profession that makes it.

Looking for that perfect necklace? Just open the character equipment portion of the folio, click on the neck slot, and look at all the necklaces you can make. Assembling a new car? Visit the vehicles section to see what part goes where.

Mix and match your titles and stats

Love being a Mistsong Maverick, but wish you could get that bonus to your proficiencies instead? The game’s new Title Collection system is here to make sure you can get all the notoriety AND all of the statistical benefits. Just choose your title, choose your stats, and save. That’s it!

As you unlock new titles and their corresponding boosts, you’ll also earn experience towards leveling up your title rank. New ranks unlock new cosmetic icons that will be displayed next to your name. Different titles offer different amount of experience – see if you can collect them all!

Upcoming NA & EU Unique Changes

We’re also focusing on making sure that our updates are better tailored for our region. Many of these are pieces of feedback we’ve received from the community after you reviewed the patch notes for Update 4.0’s release in Korea.

The biggest change here is our decision to keep the Ancestral Level system unchanged. Other versions of the game may move to a format where players acquire skill books to unlock Ancestral Skills. We will not be introducing this new mechanic into our version, instead keeping Ancestral Skills tied to your Ancestral Levels. It would be unfair for newer players to have an extra requirement that veteran players weren’t subjected to, and that drove our decision to keep the system as-is.

Some other examples include:

• No change to labor costs when making larders while still reducing larder size
  
• No increased consumption of basic materials. 3 logs will still craft 1 lumber.
  
• Allowing old lunagems to continue to be slotted into items post-Maelstrom (though these gems work under the rules of the old lunagem system)
  
• Keeping our boss schedule the way it is without changes
  
• Reducing the effectiveness of Draughts of Forgiveness (consequences for your actions are coming, lawbreakers!)
  
• Keeping the Thunderwing Titan’s cooldown at 48 hours instead of extending to 72
  
• …and more that will be revealed as we talk about Maelstrom this month.

What happens after the Maelstrom subsides? Well, that’s just the beginning of the onslaught.

A new year brings new changes to Erenor. New enemies to face, new realms to explore, and maybe some new allies to aid in the fight. Our world is one of beauty and peace, but also of perilous danger if you stray too far from the borders of safety.

The team is retaining their focus that ArcheAge is a world with something for everyone, and our updates next year will continue to reflect that. The release of Battle Balance is just the start – expect more improvements to PvP, PvE, and social systems over the coming year.

The ArcheAge team has many massive ideas for how to move the game forward and how to keep all of our players on their toes. Every group, from green-lifers to die-hard player nations, is being considered when these new updates are being made. Expect more ways to shape the world, more challenges to overcome, and more items to create.

But not only that, expect the return of Fresh Start, with some major improvements. There is nothing like the ride of putting your guild together and rallying your forces around specific objectives, seeing your ownership of the world take shape. From when the first brick is laid into a house foundation until the first flag is raised over a castle, there is an adrenaline rush as you and your friends work together to conquer those around you. That ride is absolutely coming back, better than ever.

Tell your friends: The storm is coming. It’s about time.

Sincerely,
The ArcheAge Team

Join Associate Producer Seraphina "Celestrata" Brennan and Production Coordinator Brian "Tinen" Kenny on the Trion Worlds Twitch channel for our next ArcheAge livestream!

This week, Tinen and Celestrata are tackling all of the haunts and hoots of Hallowtide! Learn what to expect from this year's event, plus get a good look at the new costumes, powerstone pet, and furniture items!

ArcheAge Hallowtide Livestream
Twitch Channel: http://www.twitch.tv/trionworlds
Start Time: Friday, October 20 at 1:30 PM PDT (GMT-8)
Duration: 45-50 minutes

Make sure to stick around to the end of the livestream, because we'll be hosting our usual giveaway and you could win!

Join Associate Producer Seraphina "Celestrata" Brennan and Production Coordinator Brian "Tinen" Kenny on the Trion Worlds Twitch channel for our next ArcheAge livestream!

This week, Tinen and Celestrata are tackling all of the haunts and hoots of Hallowtide! Learn what to expect from this year's event, plus get a good look at the new costumes, powerstone pet, and furniture items!

ArcheAge Hallowtide Livestream
Twitch Channel: http://www.twitch.tv/trionworlds
Start Time: Friday, October 20 at 1:30 PM PDT (GMT-8)
Duration: 45-50 minutes

Make sure to stick around to the end of the livestream, because we'll be hosting our usual giveaway and you could win!