Hey [%target] Whatcha Playin'?

[beatbandito]

While I doubt anyone is as dumb as me and got into the alpha, is anyone planning on grabbing ArcheAge once it goes live?

The basic mechanics are pretty standard; tab targetting, mana-based active abilities with cooldowns. Pretty much everything about the game is all about customization and 'playing how you want' if you really like catchy phrases.

The class system is similar to Rift (an earlier MMO that Trion produced AND developed. It was really good and original in a lot of ways, but that's a whole nother post) in that while you choose a starting role, it's not permanent and is only one of three trees that will combine to form your class. You can start as a [fighter] then next take the obvious [shield user] and round it out with [healing]. Congratulations, you're a Paladin. Then you join up with some friends and they want to start running dungeons, one's a dedicated healer so your healing skills wasted. Run to the nearest rez point and swap out [healing] for [buffs] and now you're a full-tanking Abolisher!

But wait! Your friends are actually totally shitty and you hate grouping with them. All the pugs seem to want healers though so you drop the [fighter] and put [healing] back in. Now you're the [shield], [healing], [buff] Templar and play completely differently from when you started.

Not to make it seem so easy though. You have a character level that awards stats, AP and determines all the non-skill-specific level requirements. Each role also has its own level which determines the skills you can use. So if you've been a full templar from level 15-55 you have [healing], [buff] and [shield] at 55 with everything unlocked. You got [fighter] to 15 before swapping and everything you never touched is still sitting at level 10. XP scales on each role, so if you decide to put [stealth] in place of [buff] and be a DEATH WARDEN (ps i love the class names) when you kill your first endgame enemy you'll get [stealth] up probably about five levels at once.

But wait, there's more! Passives from each role are determined by the number of points spent in the tree but the actives are not. So if you're endgame you can respec and only choose the level 40,45,50 and 55 actives without taking anything before it which (in theory) means a lot more skill balancing and not just burning points in worthless shit to get to the few good abilities. The passives still require you put a certain amount of points into the current active role to unlock them though, but you could take the minimum four actives and only take passives from there if you decided that was a good idea.


Companions (for lack of a better global name) come in shapes and sizes for all different uses. There are regular pets with the standard tanking/DPS/support types that are globally unlocked around level 25 and not a specific role ability. They take the same slot as any active mount, which like the pet has independant leveling. So if you ignore your level ten mount then try to break it out in endgame that beast will be slaughtered before you can finish saddling up. (some) Mounts actually have use in battle too. They have attacks of their own or allow you to do mounted attacks depending on the mount. My starter had a base speed of +80% with a dash that boosted me to +110% for ten seconds every thirty seconds. I could also do melee standard attacks from mounted position and some other bullshit I never cared about. I traded that sucker in for a kangaroobbit (kangaroo rabbit) with base +95% and a command jump because ability to travel is all I want from a mount.

The 'flying mount' which doesn't level or take up the companion slot is a glider. I haven't gotten far enough to really see the variety here, but based off other players and videos they seem to have the same playstyle roles as mounts. Some have basic attacks, some give you instant boosts to lift, others hover longer, some are speeders. Basically what you would expect me to mention if I made this paragraph as long as the last two.

The last major thing is factions. They don't try to go too far into 'evil vs 'good' 'industrial' vs 'nature' or any of that bullshit. It's western build vs eastern build or I want to fuck elves vs I want to fuck catgirls, depending on what guides your decision making. It doesn't matter what you rather stick your dick in though because there's also the pirate faction. At a certain point (not there yet... I thiiiiink?) you can fuck off from your faction and go rogue. It's a bit hard to explain because unlike most other games you can in-fight in your faction, but it's frowned on. Not just because no one wants to hang out with you if you're killing people you're supposed to be supporting but there's actual ingame legal systems to prosecute traitors. If an asian starts PKing other asians he goes to trial instead of regular spawn on death and can go to jail which is basically a debuff. If an asian kills white people or vice-versa though then no one holds you accountable. If a pirate starts going HaM though they can be tried by either faction's system (maybe, I think, don't quote me) and pirates have no legal system of their own, so in-faction fighting is routine.

Also apparently you can completely level your character without any combat if you get really hard into crafting or trading but I have had a terrible time with both of those so haven't experimented yet.

[Smiler]

I'm in the alpha that starts next week and hell yeah I wanna play it.

[beatbandito]

Re: Trion Support is the most painful part of ArcheAge

<beatbandito> I wanted to add an authenticator to my account after getting hacked. I couldn't though because I couldn't remember my "favorite fantasy character" from 2009 and exact date I started playing Rift. It took weeks to get any response which was "whoops we had a lot of requests for help during beta (which lasted four days) now that that's over reply if you need alpha help" then another week for a real response from that. They tell me no problem just answer two of these questions and confirm my security questions and they'll do it. I answer the questions that I actually know the answers to and explain the situation again. The next email is just 'without all these answered we can't do anything'. I send back a pissy email about how I was already hacked and have spent money using stored credit data on the account and played on the account without these answers but needed them in order to get the authenticator to protect myself. The next response was telling me my new secret question answers had been accepted.

[Spram]

I'm gonna be out of work soon so to save money I have been replaying old games: Pikmin, Pikmin 2, Disgaea 2, Mario Galaxy and Mario Galaxy 2. Soon I'll start playing Twilight Princess. Anyone need an artist for a game you're making? I have a portfolio but I'm too shy to show it.

[Brantly B.]

We've all seem what you can do and you know we dig it, but showing your portfolio would help too. Do you do any stuff that isn't sprites? Models or vectors or just character art?

[fanboymaster]

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is pretty brutal, but it's hitting the right beats for what I'm in the mood for now even as I have to unlearn all of the conveniences that SMTIV gave me last year.

[Lottel]

I made a terrible mistake this last weekend and downloaded the Pokemon TCG Online. Each game has only been taking a few minutes and I just. keep. winning. I've lost I think 5 times in the 60 games.

And you can't just stop playing while on a winning streak, you know?

[Thad]

Tried out SaGa 2 over my lunch today. Pretty solid so far; looks like they've spent more time bringing its mechanics into the twenty-first century than some of the other remakes I've played recently. (Among other changes: random encounters appear on the field before the battle starts and you have a chance to avoid them, like DQ9 or SMT4.) You also start the game with a Teacher who doesn't do such a great job at teaching stuff but functions as training wheels (seems to be invulnerable, moves first, has overpowered attacks and a Cure spell); I never played FFL2 but I assume that's a new thing?

Not bad out the gate. My robot's about to run out of attacks and what meat's going to turn you into what monster is as totally opaque as in any other SaGa game I've ever played (though there's a chart on a submenu, so maybe it becomes clearer as you go?), but it seems like a decent start.

[Blossom]

Tried out SaGa 2 over my lunch today. Pretty solid so far; looks like they've spent more time bringing its mechanics into the twenty-first century than some of the other remakes I've played recently. (Among other changes: random encounters appear on the field before the battle starts and you have a chance to avoid them, like DQ9 or SMT4.) You also start the game with a Teacher who doesn't do such a great job at teaching stuff but functions as training wheels (seems to be invulnerable, moves first, has overpowered attacks and a Cure spell); I never played FFL2 but I assume that's a new thing?

Not bad out the gate. My robot's about to run out of attacks and what meat's going to turn you into what monster is as totally opaque as in any other SaGa game I've ever played (though there's a chart on a submenu, so maybe it becomes clearer as you go?), but it seems like a decent start.

Nah, in original FFL2 you still had Mr. S to guide/carry you through the first cave.

[Thad]

Ah, okay. It's a good idea, too.

[Mongrel]

Playing ICO. A little less than halfway through (met the Queen just now). It's living up to the hype even after all this time.

[François]

Man, it's one of those games I wish I could experience for the first time again, but can still blow through in an afternoon every year or so and be amazed every time (it is rather short if you know all the puzzles by heart, naturally). And two of the songs on the soundtrack have had a permanent place on my mp3 player for a decade.

[Niku]

I polished off my playthrough of the main story of Dangan Ronpa 2 last night and good god, it is anime as fuck in the absolute best of ways. The epilogue-ending felt a little flat, much like the first game, but the climax leading up to it was pretty fucking great. If you have a Vita, like Phoenix Wright games, and have been looking for something at least as batshit plot-wise as Metal Gear Solid, Dangan Ronpa is probably for you.

And you are probably me.

[Kayma]

I just started playing Damganronpa actually. Phoenix Wright and 999/VLR were my jam, so I think I'll get into into it. That said, this shit is bonkers.

[Mongrel]

Got around to finishing ICO today.

Making you control Ico again in the final part of the post-credit cutscene is friggin' brilliant.

I want to try Shadows of the Colossus at some point, but I think I'm going to switch gears for a bit and finally try one of them PERSONA games everyone's yammered about for years. Already have a copy of P3 FES on hand, so might as well. Anything I should know?

I've heard that the female protagonist is a lot funnier/fun, where the male protagonist is more the "STOIC ANIME TEEN HERO" aka a cold, dead fish. Is that accurate?

[François]

Good call on waiting a bit for Shadow of the Colossus. It's great but I strongly suspect the atmosphere benefits from some amount of distance; it hits some very similar design notes and you want to approach it with a fresh perspective. And do check out the extra PAL ending if you haven't. It's no great difference, but it's, well, you'll see.

[Mongrel]

Haha, oh man, that's awesome.

Yeah, a guy I know was all like "It's like you said you liked your steak, so you're thinking about getting another steak, but first you have to eat these pork rinds" but hey, if there are only two steaks in the world, then maybe I want to pace myself.

[Niku]

Well you should know you can only play as the female protagonist in Persona 3 if you're playing the PSP version. That being said, my friend's advice for Persona 3 is just do not even remotely worry about trying to get all the social links, and just focus on the paths that interest you, because it's basically impossible to do everything perfectly without following a guide meticulously. So have fun in your Japanese demon school life.

It's also worth noting that Persona 3's combat system gives you a game over if your main character dies at any point, so as you progress, be careful not to give him vulnerabilities to common magic in the area you're traversing through. Things can go to seed SUPER fucking quickly in Persona 3 if you stop paying attention to what you're doing in combat, shuttering a good chunk of time spent dungeon crawling.

[Mongrel]

Playin' PS2, so I can choose if I want, I guess.

[beatbandito]

You only have the choice of guy, but it doesn't matter because the main characters are always the worst in persona games (with one exception). Important thing to know if boss fights are giving you trouble: you always have unlimited stamina the night before a full moon.