Greetings Adventurers... Players.... Friends!
Welcome to the final blog post before the much-anticipated release ! This is going to be me just dumping a ton of information on your poor selves, so hang on tight.
First and foremost....
AAClassic will be opening its gates on Friday, the 4th of August 2023 at 3:00 PM EST / 21:00 CEST
On behalf of the Darus, I would like to thank everyone who's joined the Discord, registered on the website or just been following the project. It's gotten massive, really bigger than we all expected. We'll be doing our best to match all of your high expectations, and we truly hope our server will be what people think of when they remember the game ArcheAge, years from now.
On a personal note... I'm just amazed at the insanely positive reaction this project has generated. Everyone is thirsty for a good experience and so far it seems my ideas have resonated with the community. Thanks everyone for being so supportive, I'm sure many reading this know how important their contributions were, from intensive testing to endless debating in the pursuit of the best systems ever. I feel blessed having had all of your support so far and I can only wish it'll continue.
Now for the rest of the news!
The Open Beta has ended
Our Open Beta ended earlier today. Five thousand of you showed up! That was insane huh...
Performance on our initial beta server was not great during the first weekend, but our new servers proved themselves to do a lot better during Saturday's abyssal! Over 600 players were gathered to stress the server, with dozens of boats all sailing around without as much as a hitch ! To thank everyone who showed up, we've saved the account list. You'll see a new title in your inbox a few days after release. Thank you to all our [Abyssal Sailor]s !
Game-related information
- Bait fishing has been adjusted
Some of you will have noticed that bait fishing does not work with an Auroran Lock, because Mackerel and Sardines, ingredients for fish buckets, are not available. To adjust for this, these fishes have been added into Lilyut Hills, Tigerspine Mountains, Karkasse Ridgelands and Silent Forest ! This change is temporary and the fishes will migrate back to Auroria when the continent opens
- Racial skill changes
To help ensure a better balance between factions, and give Warborns and Dwarves passives now that they do not have transformations, the following changes will occur:
1. Warborns, with their strong bodies, will gain the 5 minute swim speed buff racial skill Elves have
2. Dwarves, with their small stature, will gain the 5 minute fall damage reduction buff that Firrans have
3. Nuians will see their construction speed racial replaced with Harani's cannon damage
- Changes to the game's economy
Along the removal of P2W, we also remove a huge source of materials in the game: RNG Boxes. These will likely cause shortages of Archeum, Lunarite and Regrade Points. To help compensate, we'll be introducing some measures soon, one of which we can announce today: Archeum Tree yield will be boosted by 25%, and will be adjusted up if needed after a few weeks of observation. This market is archeum heavy, especially with items going... poof. We'll need it! More changes are being considered, but breaking the economy is not our goal so we're being cautious.
- Name reservation being available
For the many of you who have preordered, name reservations are available! You'll be able to lock your desired character name, and unlock it when time comes to make your character. Be warned, creating a character will invalidate existing reservations so don't waste it locking a name you won't use! Reservations will stay enabled for an entire month.
Marketplace related information
- The end of preorders
Preorder bundles will be removed from the shop at Midnight, EST on the 4th ! We're letting people who missed out have that one last day, and then no more! All items inside the bundles (costumes, glider) are EXCLUSIVE to these bundles and will never show themselves again.
- Small preview of the Daru Trinket shop
A question that has been coming up a lot recently is about a preview of the Daru Trinket shop. Here are the basics: Daru Trinkets are obtained every month, with each subscription month granting one. For the price of 1 daru trinket, you'll have access to image items, like the Solid Future's Promise among many more. For 2, you'll have access to costumes from the era, like the Evergreen suite. Finally, our highest price point will be 3, which will grant costumes that were not in the game in 3.0. I heard something about a "white knight" in there? Not sure what that means! For those worried, there will be at least 6 items at every price point
- THE MARKETPLACE ?!
In the coming days, we will be posting a full overview of the finalized version of the marketplace. Keep an eye out! We swear it'll be out before the game. As for the general description of it, we believe it holds absolutely no P2W items AT ALL. This is part of our core philosophy and we're sticking to it!!
Release related information
- Housing unlock
Housing will open on Sunday, the 6th of August at 3 PM EST / 21:00 CEST. Please note, depending on server issues, we may adjust this date and move it further away to let everyone have a chance! We strongly believe in not changing it but......
- There will very likely be queues
With how popular the server is, and the fact we're going for a SINGLE SERVER, we're expecting to have queues on the first day...s. Too many of you! But fret not, we've boosted our server capacity fivefold to handle all of you! We'll be starting with restrictive queue settings to make sure everything ramps up in accordance to our expectations. Better to start slow and have everyone play lag-free than hammer it and the experience be miserable for all. While a single server may seem insane at first, we want to assure you, it's better for the long term health of the server. Having 2 dead servers we must merge in a few months is not our goal.
- Delivery of credits and bundles
For those who donated, you'll notice your credits haven't been added to your accounts yet. This is to be expected! For technical reasons, we will have a system automatically delivering items and credits once you have made your first character. Please note, with the insane volume we're expecting Friday, it may take a while.
Miscellaneous
We have setup a backup domain name under https://aa-classic.to/ ! Please keep this in mind should our main domain name, aa-classic.com were to ... fall, slip, slide and hurt its head
Donations for RU players
For our RU community, if you've wanted to donate, you'll notice it's a bit difficult due to the sanctions imposed on Russia with the <insert real world events> happening. If you'd like to donate, please submit a ticket on Discord, we've found a solution that should work for you guys!
Welcome to the final blog post before the much-anticipated release ! This is going to be me just dumping a ton of information on your poor selves, so hang on tight.
First and foremost....
AAClassic will be opening its gates on Friday, the 4th of August 2023 at 3:00 PM EST / 21:00 CEST
On behalf of the Darus, I would like to thank everyone who's joined the Discord, registered on the website or just been following the project. It's gotten massive, really bigger than we all expected. We'll be doing our best to match all of your high expectations, and we truly hope our server will be what people think of when they remember the game ArcheAge, years from now.
On a personal note... I'm just amazed at the insanely positive reaction this project has generated. Everyone is thirsty for a good experience and so far it seems my ideas have resonated with the community. Thanks everyone for being so supportive, I'm sure many reading this know how important their contributions were, from intensive testing to endless debating in the pursuit of the best systems ever. I feel blessed having had all of your support so far and I can only wish it'll continue.
Now for the rest of the news!
The Open Beta has ended
Our Open Beta ended earlier today. Five thousand of you showed up! That was insane huh...
Performance on our initial beta server was not great during the first weekend, but our new servers proved themselves to do a lot better during Saturday's abyssal! Over 600 players were gathered to stress the server, with dozens of boats all sailing around without as much as a hitch ! To thank everyone who showed up, we've saved the account list. You'll see a new title in your inbox a few days after release. Thank you to all our [Abyssal Sailor]s !
Game-related information
- Bait fishing has been adjusted
Some of you will have noticed that bait fishing does not work with an Auroran Lock, because Mackerel and Sardines, ingredients for fish buckets, are not available. To adjust for this, these fishes have been added into Lilyut Hills, Tigerspine Mountains, Karkasse Ridgelands and Silent Forest ! This change is temporary and the fishes will migrate back to Auroria when the continent opens
- Racial skill changes
To help ensure a better balance between factions, and give Warborns and Dwarves passives now that they do not have transformations, the following changes will occur:
1. Warborns, with their strong bodies, will gain the 5 minute swim speed buff racial skill Elves have
2. Dwarves, with their small stature, will gain the 5 minute fall damage reduction buff that Firrans have
3. Nuians will see their construction speed racial replaced with Harani's cannon damage
- Changes to the game's economy
Along the removal of P2W, we also remove a huge source of materials in the game: RNG Boxes. These will likely cause shortages of Archeum, Lunarite and Regrade Points. To help compensate, we'll be introducing some measures soon, one of which we can announce today: Archeum Tree yield will be boosted by 25%, and will be adjusted up if needed after a few weeks of observation. This market is archeum heavy, especially with items going... poof. We'll need it! More changes are being considered, but breaking the economy is not our goal so we're being cautious.
- Name reservation being available
For the many of you who have preordered, name reservations are available! You'll be able to lock your desired character name, and unlock it when time comes to make your character. Be warned, creating a character will invalidate existing reservations so don't waste it locking a name you won't use! Reservations will stay enabled for an entire month.
Marketplace related information
- The end of preorders
Preorder bundles will be removed from the shop at Midnight, EST on the 4th ! We're letting people who missed out have that one last day, and then no more! All items inside the bundles (costumes, glider) are EXCLUSIVE to these bundles and will never show themselves again.
- Small preview of the Daru Trinket shop
A question that has been coming up a lot recently is about a preview of the Daru Trinket shop. Here are the basics: Daru Trinkets are obtained every month, with each subscription month granting one. For the price of 1 daru trinket, you'll have access to image items, like the Solid Future's Promise among many more. For 2, you'll have access to costumes from the era, like the Evergreen suite. Finally, our highest price point will be 3, which will grant costumes that were not in the game in 3.0. I heard something about a "white knight" in there? Not sure what that means! For those worried, there will be at least 6 items at every price point
- THE MARKETPLACE ?!
In the coming days, we will be posting a full overview of the finalized version of the marketplace. Keep an eye out! We swear it'll be out before the game. As for the general description of it, we believe it holds absolutely no P2W items AT ALL. This is part of our core philosophy and we're sticking to it!!
Release related information
- Housing unlock
Housing will open on Sunday, the 6th of August at 3 PM EST / 21:00 CEST. Please note, depending on server issues, we may adjust this date and move it further away to let everyone have a chance! We strongly believe in not changing it but......
- There will very likely be queues
With how popular the server is, and the fact we're going for a SINGLE SERVER, we're expecting to have queues on the first day...s. Too many of you! But fret not, we've boosted our server capacity fivefold to handle all of you! We'll be starting with restrictive queue settings to make sure everything ramps up in accordance to our expectations. Better to start slow and have everyone play lag-free than hammer it and the experience be miserable for all. While a single server may seem insane at first, we want to assure you, it's better for the long term health of the server. Having 2 dead servers we must merge in a few months is not our goal.
- Delivery of credits and bundles
For those who donated, you'll notice your credits haven't been added to your accounts yet. This is to be expected! For technical reasons, we will have a system automatically delivering items and credits once you have made your first character. Please note, with the insane volume we're expecting Friday, it may take a while.
Miscellaneous
We have setup a backup domain name under https://aa-classic.to/ ! Please keep this in mind should our main domain name, aa-classic.com were to ... fall, slip, slide and hurt its head
Donations for RU players
For our RU community, if you've wanted to donate, you'll notice it's a bit difficult due to the sanctions imposed on Russia with the <insert real world events> happening. If you'd like to donate, please submit a ticket on Discord, we've found a solution that should work for you guys!
