ArcheAge – Server Merges aka. Evolution

ArcheAge is merging servers, and of course all of the ones I play(ed) on are affected: Naima and Calleil. (Of course those two aren’t merging together, so I’m still going to end up on two different servers: Kraken and Hanure.) So it looks like if you didn’t stick with one of the very first full servers with all-day queues, you’re getting merged.

Out of curiosity I logged in to see what the game looks like now. It’s still on my to-do list to finish leveling my Elf from 48 to 50, which probably wouldn’t take more than a day. Oh, actually I guess it’s 55 now. Or is it more now? Clearly I haven’t been paying attention. I dread trying to play again, though, because as with most MMORPGs, I fear the re-learning curve. It’s probably not that bad with ArcheAge, but still, it was a dangerous world out there at level 48.

My first surprise when I logged in was seeing a completely different blue loading window. I’d swear it didn’t look like that the last time I played, but that can’t be true. It can’t be that I haven’t logged in even once since whatever that expansion was that raised the level cap to 55. Or maybe it’s changed more than once? Now that I think about it, I have a vague recollection of seeing a different loading window since the original green one, but I sure don’t remember it being blue. Maybe the Leviathan expansion changed the window again. This picture looks pretty Leviathan-y:

And as soon as I got into the game world I remembered why I haven’t played any more: I can’t be bothered to setup my hotkeys again. Somewhere along the way they were lost. And as soon as I tried to collect the junk that’s been collecting in my mail (retroactive gifts for reaching levels 35, 40, and 45) I discovered a second reason why I haven’t played: My inventory is full and I can’t be bothered to sort it out.

Also, since I’m not a Patron anymore, I only have a pathetic 1015 Labor Points (and only 2000 maximum!). It’s like I’m not even a real person in the game. I miss the days when I would login to find my Labor Points sitting nicely at 5000. Now I have to login and let the game sit there to gain Labor Points, or use one of the various tricks to run in circles and stay online all day at work.

But hey, it’s not like I can do anything with Labor Points anyway, since I don’t own any land. I’m below the poverty level in ArcheAge.

Speaking of which, I love some of the transfer restrictions Trion has put in place. “You may not possess over 200,000 gold.” Ha! I have 306 gold. Perusing over the list of restrictions, it looks like I meet all of the criteria so maybe I should transfer to Kyrios, where all the cool kids used to play.

But I probably won’t. I’ll just continue to do nothing and go through the merge. It’s no skin off my nose either way.

Here’s what I don’t understand about Trion’s “Evolution:” What is the deal with Option 3, starting on Fresh Start servers? If they create a new server, what is the point of merging the others together? They’ll still end up with low population servers after the merge.

Posted on Blaugust Day 16. Read all of my Blaugust posts here.