Archeage: Head Start, An Epic Failure

What do you do when one of your closest MMO compatriots is excited to the point of sleep deprivation decides to go all in on a ‘newly’ released MMO?  You sign up for a founders pack to get in on the Head Start!  Hopefully Alysianah is prepared for the onslaught of questions ;)

Well I broke down on this past Saturday and ordered the Silver Founders Pack.  I did it for two main reasons.  The first being the draw to a new game.  As a “MMO Nomad” (TM Alysianah Enterprises) the draw to a new game can be hard to overcome unless it looks like a dud.  More on that later.

The second reason, traditional MMO launch woes.  I decided to try to help a sick Aly out in trying to get into the game as the servers have been going up and since launch.  Apparently there was a DDOS attack on Trion’s servers as a whole as attempts to get into RIFT as well was a failure.  So I stood watch over a stream and a few other resources while.  Most of Saturday was hampered with occasional windows of opportunity to get in.  I can definitely forgive Trion a break on this as it is completely out of their control.

What I can’t forgive them for are the additional issues completely in their control.  There are many with Head Start access that were given the #2028 error when trying to Update or Launch from the Glyph portal.  Apparently there is an issue that does not correctly link the Founders pack to the players account, thus denying them the ability to update or play the game.  Their work around included relaunching Glyph to resetting your password.  The latter could not be achieved as whatever server they were using was timing out during the operation.  After a daylong session with a Senor GM, I woke up the next morning with my account finally active and able to get in.

Now once you get in, the issue is staying in.  There are many accounts of people having the client crash.  The game gets choppy and eventually the game dies.  Additionally there have been reports of the game just going black screen and you can do nothing.  There are times where you can relaunch the game and the black screen will appear.  I have had both of these errors happen to me.

Again like most MMOs, the servers were getting crushed when you could log in.  During prime times, all servers were queued up.  The lowest I have seen at the start of prime time was 1200+ up to 2800+ after a crash.  Waits have been in the order of 1-2 hours and a crashed client puts you at the back of the line…

What I don’t get is why they have not opened other servers already?  This by far has been the worst of any modern MMO I have had to wait in a queue to play and no relief given.  Additionally they have not mentioned new servers coming up for the release to the general public on the 16^th.  If they fail to open up new servers and not allow people to join the current ones till a later date, expect queues to crush the current 2800+ number.  On the bright side, Patrons have priority log in.  That does not mean that there won’t be additional Patrons at open launch.  I doubt Trion sees how they are going to be hurt by not having enough servers up to handle the load.  Who wants to Patron when you will be sitting in a queue as your paid time ticks away?

Additionally to not having access to the Head Start players tossed out a decent chunk of change on, those players lose out on the massive push for land.  Land has a huge importance in ArcheAge.  Most of your crafting comes through what you grow on your farms.  Various plant life, animal husbandry and other resources can be grown and harvested here to be used in the creation of a great many things.  Armor, weapons, houses, vehicles and many other things need what they provide.  So by not being able to log in a join the rush, players have been denied part of the benefit of having Head Start.  For crafters, this is a huge kick to the gut.

Now let me say that I like Trion.  I loved RIFT back in the day when it was my main MMO and like Defiance as a casual MMO shooter.  They have done well with those offerings.  It just seems like they have lost their mother fucking mind with the release of Archeage.  Bad marks all around and I hope they get their act together.

I’ll talk later about the game, but for now all I wanted to talk about Archeage.  My advice, you should not play it at the time of this post.  If you are a patron, it’s a waste of your time till server pops calm down or they open up servers.  F2Pers, you will never get in during prime times as patrons will take their place before you in the queue.

Trion is really shooting themselves in the foot.