Greetings Inheritors,

 

This is the ArcheAge Development Team, and we hope everyone is having a fantastic 2023 so far!

Today marks our first content update announcement for 2023, and we're going to share some exciting news about what you can expect to be updated in March, while also going through other content that is currently in development. Please note that the information outlined below is subject to change upon actual release.

 

Rise Up the Ranks

We'll be adding two different ranking systems in which you can climb up the ranks just by participating in various content.

[Enthusiastic Achiever]

Rankings are based on the total Honor Points/Vocation Badges/XP accumulated during a certain period.

[Diligent Spender]

Rankings are based on total Honor Points/Vocation Badges/Labor spent during a certain period.

 

The ladder will consist of the top 100 players across all servers, and ‘Activity Coins’ will be given out as a reward.

Activity Coins can be exchanged for items such as Manastorm Crystals and Eternal Enhancer Crates from the Contest Coin Collector ‘Sopere.’ 

 

Instance Renewal

To add a bit of variety and some unique fun to the Arena, we will be revamping ‘The Fall of Hiram City’ and ‘Skyfin Nest.’

[The Fall of Hiram City Renewal]

• Normal mode and Hard mode will be combined into a single mode.
  • Hiram Priest (Hard Mode) will no longer be available.
  • It will no longer transition into night time.
  • Disavowed Hiram and Wendigo will appear (they used to appear only in Hard mode).
• Duration will be shortened.
• The arena used to be open daily, but will now only be opened 2 times per week; on Fridays and Sundays at CET 17:00–18:00, PST 15:00–16:00.

[Skyfin Nest Renewal]

• The Skyfin Nest Arena will be re-opened.
• The arena used to be available by chance when entering ‘Golden Plains Battle’, but now the two will be separated so that you can directly enter either the Golden Plains Battle or Skyfin Nest Arena.
• Fixed the issue where the ceiling was closed.
• The rules and rewards will remain the same as before.

 

 

Brilliant Erenor Accessories

You will finally be able to awaken Erenor accessories into a higher tier.

 

You can awaken a Mythic or higher grade Radiant Erenor Accessory into a Brilliant Erenor Accessory by using a Radiant Erenor Awakening Scroll or Blessed Erenor Awakening Scroll.
 

Improvements

[Skill Balance]

Healing Skill Additional Healing will be added.

• It adds additional healing to the amount healed when using a healing skill on an ally.
• Along with the addition of the Healing Skill Additional Healing, Psychic Shock and Skill Stack settings will be adjusted for Spelldance.

[Faction Activity Points]

• Faction Activity Points will be adjusted for each content.
• We will increase the weight of influence for Siege content that is directly related to Faction activity, and Faction Activity Points for raids will last longer than before.
• We also made adjustments to minimize the possibility of artificially influencing the scores through intentional forfeiting.
• Faction Activity Points will no longer be visible.

[Exiles]

• Along with the changes to the Faction Activity Points, improvements will also be made to the Exile system so that more players can be exiled. We hope this will resolve some of the difficulty there was in transferring factions due to the limited Exile capacity there was before.
• A bidding system will be added to the Auction in March. We are considering making the Faction Change Scroll available through purchase with Gold depending on the Faction situation in the servers (regardless of Dominant/Weak status).

 

Of course, we don't think the imbalance in faction numbers will be completely resolved through the update in March. However, we believe the best approach is to gradually implement improvements for a better competitive environment while closely monitoring the situation rather than introducing sudden major changes. We hope you can understand the reasoning behind our approach.

[Prestige Shop Item Additions]

Growth support items will be added to the Prestige Shop as an additional guild benefit.

Using the relevant items will generate an "effect region" for 30 minutes where members of the same guild can receive the effect.

• Using Guild Elixir: Growth will partially decrease the guild member's equipment enchant cost for 30 minutes.
• Using Guild Elixir: Advance will partially decrease the guild member's equipment tempering cost for 30 minutes.

[UI Improvements]

Given that there was too much information being displayed on the in-game screen, we have improved the game menu UI and eased the access to the system through the menu.

 

We have also improved some chat settings to make conversations easier to check. When chatting with someone of a certain rank, a special icon will be displayed before their character name.

 

Furthermore, seconds will be removed from chat time.

[Quest Limit Expansion]

Because players were unable to accept the quests they needed when the quest limit of a certain group was maxed out, we have changed the existing “quest limit per quest group” to be a “common quest limit” instead.

We have combined all quests except race quests. You can now accept up to 150 quests (a total of 152 quests, including race quests).

[Instance Team Recruitment Restriction Added]

A feature where you can define Level and Equipment Point requirements when recruiting for an instance team will be added. 

 

We hope this change can improve the recruitment process and the game experience.

 

Global Arena Beta Service

In addition to our updates, we are currently developing a global arena where players in EU, NA, Korea, SEA, and Taiwan can come together and enjoy the game.

 

We are planning to launch a beta version with the event arena "Make a Splash" during the first half of this year, then keep expanding the game with cooperation content, competition content, faction war, etc.

 

The global gladiator arena "Make a Splash" will have the same format as the existing global arenas. Players in countries where the global build is applied can enter the arena at a designated time and fight within the same space.

 

However, the team entry feature will be restricted and players of different regions will only be cooperating with each other. We will also consider applying a team entry feature and competition between regions, depending on the type of arena that will be added later.

 

Development Progress

[Daru Transformation & Vocation Content]

We are aiming to release the Daru transformation system this summer for the players who enjoy Vocation content.

 

Meeting specific requirements will activate a skill that will allow you to transform into a Daru for a certain period of time. By transforming into a Daru, you will be able to enjoy all proficiency-related activities plus various benefits.

[New Race: Fairy]

The Fairy race, which many of our players have been waiting for, will finally be released next year, in 2024.

 

Fairies have been residing in ‘Goldleaf Forest’ in Nuia, preserving the early forms of civilization. Players can only choose female Fairy characters who will always be neutral as they don't belong to any faction. Fairies will be able to choose their own faction and serve as a member of that faction as they grow.

 

More details will be available in our next Dev Note.

 

Lastly...

2023 will be a busy year for us as we will be working on the global arena, the new race, and all the new game content and improvements.

 

We will continue looking into your feedback and make sure we provide solutions to issues happening on the live service to improve our game. Please look forward to them!

 

Thank you for your love and support for ArcheAge.