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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
The Competition has just Stiffened
CaptnChuck
Member
Archeage 2 has been announced.
https://www.mmorpg.com/archeage-unchained/news/archeage-2-announced-running-on-unreal-engine-5-2000119374
Will it learn from its mistakes or will it go down the same path as the original Archeage?
Which game will come out on top? The newer one that has learnt from the mistakes of its predecessors, AoC, or the older one, AA, that has more experience?
The next two years are going to be very interesting.
https://www.mmorpg.com/archeage-unchained/news/archeage-2-announced-running-on-unreal-engine-5-2000119374
Will it learn from its mistakes or will it go down the same path as the original Archeage?
Which game will come out on top? The newer one that has learnt from the mistakes of its predecessors, AoC, or the older one, AA, that has more experience?
The next two years are going to be very interesting.
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Its prob going to release in like 2 or 3 years. Similar to AoC. It will definitely be AoC's main competition, way more than New World.
All of this ofc, is assuming that they don't go down the path of P2W again. But looking at L2 and Archeage, both of which were developed by XL games, I don't quite trust them.
Agreed. Gotta be honest I don't bet a penny on this game, even less to consider it a competition considering who's developing it. Each to their own I suppose.
I heard a bird ♫
Not true. The best MMOs have always been eastern. Lineage 2, Archeage, BDO, FF14 etc you name it. They are all, or at least were, really good games when they came out. Its just as time passes, due to the f2p nature of the games, they all eventually become P2W. That's the biggest problem with eastern MMOs. Poor monetization.
EDIT - Since a lot of people seem to be misunderstanding me, I would like to rephrase. What I meant to say was that the east always has a lot MORE good MMOs than the west, because of the sheer amount that gets released every 2 or 3 years. That being said, it doesn't mean that it is better than the west. It just has more amount of good MMOs than the west. The best of each region can easily compete with each other.
A plus is that it will be using UE5, which looks like a very beautiful engine. I don't know how good the atmospheric effects are in UE5 though. That wasn't shown in the demo.
You're assuming that AA2 will be in direct competition with Ashes, which it may not be. After all, all we know about AA2 is that it will run on Unreal Engine 5, but we know nothing about the gameplay, etc. While that is a huge draw for a lot of people, it won't mean anything if the game fails in terms of gameplay. Also, as @bigepeen said, XL Games have a reputation of ruining games with poor monetisation, whereas Intrepid don't.
We'll have to agree to disagree on that fact. The likes of EQ are the best games ever. I don't think I've enjoyed an eastern MMO.
Both have good games. Its just that the east has more. Sadly, they just can't seem to use a good business model for either of them. Subscription based payment models are the way to go for MMOs, it really isn't that hard to figure out.
Maybe they learnt from their previous mistakes, but idk. I don't quite trust them either.
Future Crafting Plans: Herbalism > Alchemy & Scribe or Mining > Metalworking > Jewel cutting (Pending)
Although it would be an amazing surprise if they actually design the game in such a way that it is not all about hopeless RNG which you need to spend a fortune of RL currency on to get anywhere.
Would be nice if more MMO's started being built more for player satisfaction & retention rather than a quick cash grab which barely makes it out of beta and then just dies.
I'm not worried in the least about AA2 threatening AoC. The only thing I could see AA2 having over AoC is high-end graphics, since they're using UE5.
lol kek cheburek.
We have some gooooood 4-6 years until production because they just started.
Side note - I am still very afraid for the combat system though.... at a minimum I am hoping it is like GW2 where even the hybrid tab targeting skills can be evaded/dodged rolled out of. Otherwise, AoC may only bring over WoW/FF players but maybe not GW2/ESO/NW players.
Their combat sucks. Their PvE difficulty and variety is trash, when they're aiming to be a PvE Game. They have about 7 months left. I don't think they have the time to fix all of this unless they delay it even further.
I agree with PvE difficulty and variety not good enough for release but if by release they make at least some changes then i will give them the benefit of the doubt to continue updating post release (I think they said their goal is for frequent content updates like monthly... will see about that).
But more importantly for me, I loved the combat being skill based with 0 tab targeting and I had a lot of fun playing it during the preview. It is basically similar to ESO in this aspect. Are their tweaks that are needed i.e. ways to break out of stun lock or no global cool down on weapon skill slots, sure. But those are indeed issues that can fix by release. They also will be adding more weapons which I'm exited about!
NW honestly has a good base. The game engine, world (albeit small), and ranged combat, looks good from what I've seen. The problem, and why it won't be real competition to AoC, is that they changed it from an open world PvP game to something that caters to mostly PvE while not having much PvE content.
They won't have time to implement enough PvE content by the time it releases. People will blindly enjoy the first couple weeks or so grinding until they hit max level. Then they'll finally be ready for PvP, but realize that everyone is running around with their PvE flags up, so there isn't much to do in the open world except grind limited PvE content. PvE players will get bored quickly and leave the game.
The only PvP available will be limited to instanced mini-games (sieges), which will probably be less fun than the standard FPS or Battle-Royale. What's the point of PvPing in a MMORPG when all of the PvP is instanced? I don't think Amazon has even considered this question. PvP players will get bored quickly and leave the game.
I'm calling it now that they will continue making bad game design decisions until the player population is gone roughly 6 months after launch. I'm not rooting for them to fail, but this is just how I see it playing out, unfortunately.
they all had the room for slacking as there was no competition, not anymore
While I have not played all the MMOs listed, to boast that the only good MMOs have been 'Eastern' is complete and utter nonsense bordering on fanboi-ism. You ever hear about a little game called Everquest? What about EQ2, DAoC, WAR, CoH (and I could go on)? These games have ALL been great so please take your bias elsewhere.
From what I know, the games you listed have all been very pretty but also grindy. Pretty is a very superficial feature that becomes less important the longer you play, imho. If that's your criteria for what makes an MMO "the best" then ok, you win but I personally believe superior content is the most important factor.
NW will not be competition simply because of the time frame. With NW supposedly releasing in 7 months and AoC in 2 years, that gives players nearly a year and a half to play out NW, find out how not great it is, get bored with it and move on, all before AoC comes out.
I also don't believe AA2 is a threat either because the development cycle will be a minimum of 4 years if not longer. Like above, that will give players 2 years to play AoC before AA2 even debuts. If you haven't hooked your players by then, I guess they can move on to AA2.
I heard a bird ♫
I corrected myself in a reply above. What I meant to say was that the east always has a lot MORE good MMOs than the west, because of the sheer amount that gets released every 2 or 3 years. That being said, it doesn't mean that it is better than the west. It just has more amount of good MMOs than the west. The best of each region can easily compete with each other.
FF14 is more of a final fantasy game with an MMO skin and more influenced by western than eastern MMOs besides. It's also the farthest thing from pay to win lol
It's also a completely different beast in that it's heavily story based.
Ive played pretty much all mmorpgs since meridian and i have to say western mmorpgs have much better mechanics.
Eastern mmorpgs lacks in lore, questing, combat and endgame content. They are also extremly grindy.
The only "good" eastern mmorpg are really FFXIV and even though i played it to lvl 80, i think its kinda overrated and quite grindy. Lienage 2 was meh, and Archage was only for young F2P players not beeing able to pay a subscription, and very overrated. Same with BDO, Aion, Tera etc.
0dbea148-8cb8-4711-ba90-eb0864e93b5f
I heard a bird ♫
First off i would say it be probably playable in 4 to 5 years maybe longer. How the hell will it be ready in 2 or 3 years ??? (common sense please)
Second off ill bet you all the gold in the world; It will be P2W
Very little