Official Website: ArcheAge | Screenshots

Outpostgamez had the opportunity to sit down with some of the developers of ArcheAge and ask some questions. We ask some of the most burning questions on our minds!

The size of ArcheAge’s world is about the size of original WoW’s before its expansion came out.

To obtain quality than quantity, many of our developers are working night and day. Unlike Wow, ArcheAge will probably have fewer quests because all contents are not quest driven.

Our game was designed with large regions in mind.  For example, our game allows players to obtain a horse at a low level.  We also have been designing public transportation systems such as public wagons between major towns, airships between continents and fee-charging teleport, which works by saving the location from the previous visits.

 

Players can obtain land, provide it to other players for housing and collect taxes in return. The land will be a part of a certain zone that will have unique resource, enabling the ruler of that land to control those resources.  Additional features like hiring NPCs as vendors will help to create a city-like atmosphere.

Guilds or groups can take someone else’s estate through castle siege.  If such take-over happens, the residents, who have lived there before the war, may be able to stay there as is or need to pay higher tax rates depending on the new lord’s decisions.

When a server is opened for the first time, the Nuian (led by the Nuians, a human race in the western continent) alliance, and Hariharan (led by the Hariharans, a human race in the eastern continent) alliance are in hostile states.  In the enemy’s continent, players cannot be protected.  However, we will design it so that certain races of Nuian alliance can be separated out and become friendly or neutral with Hariharan Alliance, depending on players’ behavior.  PvP between players from the same alliance will be allowed in a certain zones or situation. Even so, it will be treated as a crime and can be put on trial.

 

Those balance issues concern us as well.  We will test and balance classes constantly.  However, we don’t think that all the combinations should be equivalent.  There will be a class that is far more difficult than others.

I haven’t played SWG, so can’t compare.  In ArcheAge, players will be able to place a new piece of furniture, move the old one, or hang a painting, which players can also upload textures to create.

Second to Aion?  I thought ours was a new record.- Grin ;) -  The important and distinctive aspect of ArcheAge is that the gameplay is not just consuming developer-created contents, but being designed furthermore, with the intention for user’s emergent play to be appear.

We are pursuing a sandbox type of game, but also working on combining valuable lessons we’ve learned from previously released MMORPGs such as providing user-friendly guide for beginners, safe zones and contents for those players who wish it and not forcing party-play and etc.  We also think that player driven contents in end-game is what expands the lifecycle as was proven in  previously released MMORPGs have been proven.  (Look at Lineage!)

Basically, we hope player-crafted items become a key aspect of in-game economy or combat.  But, if the game items are solely led by crafted items, it could become somewhat of a restriction to the growth of solo-playing characters.  So, items for level-up are also obtainable through quests or from monsters.  Crafted items will be allowed continuous enhancements and improvements, whereas such obtainable items wouldn’t.
Of course, super nice items will be exclusively obtainable from the monsters with high level of difficulty.

 

We have been implementing similar contents/activities to the other MMORPGs including main quests, which follow a main story, instance dungeons, which require party-play and others.

We are working very hard to meet the expectations.  Since MMORPG has a long lifecycle, we would like to develop and implement all the features eventually which we have mentioned.  If we do not have it all ready on our initial release, we want to continue on for generations until we implement it all.

We are working hard to release at the end of the year; however, as always, the release date could be postponed for further polishing. - Grin ;)

Information about XLGames/ArcheAges

The company XLGames officially announced their new MMORPG ArcheAge, which uses CryEngine 2. The development of the game began in 2006. In August 2007, XLGames purchased CryEngine 2. The first closed beta was scheduled for June, 2010 in South Korea. A source has indicated that CryEngine 3 will be used to develop some elements of ArcheAge and for now ArcheAge’s CryENGINE 3 code is limited to graphics, animation, and physics. Networking and other miscellaneous subroutines remain unchanged.

The developers promise a community like that of Ultima Online, PvE comparable to World of Warcraft and PvP taken from Lineage 2. The game itself is developed as a “sandbox” – where the player is completely free to chose what to do and how to live. Expanding on this, characters won't be subject to strict limitations on growth, such as is the case in other MMOs. The GRB (Game Rating Board), a South Korean organization that sets game age ratings, gave ArcheAge a 15+ rating. The budget of the game is said to be $25 million dollars; $15 million of an investment from GigaMedia and another $10 million from the company’s budget. The game's designers want players to have a big impact on the world; each server will be unique due to players developing their world’s history and exploring the map in different directions. There are 8 races in the game, 5 of which are said to be unique to ArcheAge.