A Short Note on ArcheageAs we all know, many of us in WaR clan recently began playing an MMO by the name of Archeage. Having just been ported over from Korea by game developers XL Games and Western Publisher Trion Worlds the game took an approach that hasn't really been seen since Ultima Online in 1997. They attempted to make a Fantasy MMORPG that on paper looked great. It had the Cry Engine 3 for beautifully rendered graphics, sandbox features mixed with instanced dungeons, grand siege battles, open world PvP, open sea combat and exploration, an in-depth crafting system, open ended character development allowing for over 120 different specs, housing, and customization. However, this unfortunately was not how it turned out by any means. They failed in several aspects such as the extremely lackluster combat that had choppy sluggish repetitive animations and extreme single target lock with stick in place static combat with the ability to hit someone from 3 body lengths apart (Melee). To skill sets that granted one or two people the ability to CC-Lock someone in place for 30 seconds, anything over 7 seconds of combat in this genre can begin to feel like an eternity, with little to no counter play dependent on whether you were running both Defense AND Witchery for the Anti-CC spells in their trees and extreme lack of a sense of hitting. Ignoring the graphical errors such as the DoF being poorly done and making everything look muddied or the water that was very reminiscent of Saran Wrap you have many issues with the supposed "Sandbox" Features of the game. While yes the houses were beautiful, it was ruined by the fact that no one, at least on the Western Servers I can not speak for the Eastern ones, were not used for their original purpose of socialization between friends and instead towns were used like FarmVille: a homestead of the same resources in bulk, such as goats filling every single bit of available space. So you go from being aesthetically pleasing to a resource farm.That is assuming of course you could find a spot in Archeages land system that did not function well in any regard. With this goes an economy system that I can see flatlining very soon as soon everyone will have enough of every resource that it will make the system irrelevant. Finally you have a major issue of sound. I left this for last as this is a MAJOR point as a game developer you have to get right. If not the gameplay can cease to feel right. All of the weapons sound tinny and hollow and there is no weight to the sounds at all. Couple this up with the noises your character makes when fighting, the incessant and almost invasive moaning a female makes for example, a generic sound library, the bear rawr for example is identical to EverQuest if you never played that for example, and "Intense Battle Music" that was legitimately in an episode of Moonshiners you end up with a very tedious and frustrating game experience.
I Mention these few issues, yes there are more and I could go more in depth on a section if asked, not as an Archeage is bad but more as an opportunity to realize that you shouldn't lock yourself onto it as there are other Korean MMO's such as the one about to be spoken of with the same list of features and more possibly more potential than Archeage
Alright with that out of the way it is time to get down to the Nitty Gritty purpose of this thread. In Korea there is a game currently in development by the name of Black Desert. Black Desert is a Sandbox MMORPG that is based on an entirely new engine designed by developers Daum Games and Pearl Abyss. You may ask why I am keeping an eye on a game that is in development in Korea but that is because of the game developers decision. Because of the massive amount of support they have received from the Western Audience they have decided to personally expand overseas and release it for the West in 2015. As of currently there are three races: Humans, Elves, and Giants. All three of these races can be customized using the engines extremely robust and absolutely stunning character creation system which allows editing of everything down to individual muscle groups. It is without a doubt a wet dream for those who like to spend lots of time creating their avatar to really be unique. On the class side of your character there will be 9 confirmed classes however on release it will be the Warrior, Giant, Sorcerer and Ranger with the Tamer and Blader a few months later. The other two being Wizard Valkyrie coming at a later time. Please note these are the confirmed there is the possibility for more. The game features an action combat system. The mounts also feature in this as combat mounts of which we have seen horses, donkeys, camels, elephants and tamed dogs as mounts. All classes are capable of riding their mount and fighting at the same time this plays a major part in the strategy of PvP, an open world PvP system, and Castle Siege. The game will feature open world dungeons with no load times in between the world and the dungeon.
December 1st 2014 Pre-Release Trailer:This shows footage of both the character customization for the races and what the combat is like for several of the classes.
On the side of the game that isn't combat oriented there are many innovations that are not commonly seen in multiplayer games let alone a MMORPG. To start with there are several different professions that all have an impact on the PvP. For example all of the siege equipment needs a multitude of professions to make the parts needed. The game's movement system is unusual in regards to that it has a parkour system. Rather than most games that let you statically jump over walls or run into them your character can climb anything that is low enough and catch beams to hoist you up. Now the strange thing is that an important part of Black Desert is that you build relationships with NPCs. Depending on your relationship, an NPC is likely to reward you with benefits. NPCs have their own interests, such as another NPC, a certain mob, or a piece of lore, allowing you to build your reputation and open interactions with them. The housing system in this game is happily, unlike other recent games, instanced. There will be a number of houses, the initial number is 2000 potentially more added later, in the open world that are strictly for things such as Guild Halls. That way the guilds have somewhere in the open world to meet. Black Desert has a flowing Day/Night cycle that creates an ever-changing dynamic to the world. NPCs will go home during the night, and monsters come out – it’s a very different experience from the two times with night even causing different effects on the monsters. While I could ramble about the side activities for a long while I will simply leave that to the recently released video to give you a good look into that.
December 4th 2014 Black Desert OBT Life Form Content Introduction:As always with new games that are in development people can easily get overhyped about the content or have trouble, especially in the case of a foreign game such as this one, following it. As such I will do my best to keep this thread fairly updated with the most recent and breaking news about Black Desert if there is an interest in the game. If there are any questions about individual sections or content regarding Black Desert feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer it with the information available. I will leave this with a question. What are everyone's thoughts on this game?
