ArcheAge 3.1 Announced!

XLGames’ ArcheAge website has shown a teaser for the upcoming 3.1 update.

The teaser website says that this update (or at least more information of it) will be released on January 19, 2017 for the Korean version of the game.

According to XLGames’/AmiGO!’s post, the update (for the Korean version) will be called “Arche”, as it promises to go back to the roots of ArcheAge. (More of the information behind the name choice will be explained next week, as said in the post.)

In this patch, there seems to be key points XLGames wants to implement in this patch:

• More character and item growth (possibly higher levels? new gear tier?)
• Increasing the amount of overseas trading
• Balance new and veteran players in multiple aspects
• Add/improve conveniences

A Little Bit of Lore Behind this Update

A long time ago, there was the group of people called the Ipni. The strongest mages and warriors of those people formed the Defenders of Ipni. They fought against their enemy Nachash. However, the Defenders of Ipni were never able to defeat Nachash due to his immense strength. They worried that if they lost, Nachash’s army would conquer everything. But there was something that the Defenders could do; they were able to revive themselves and keep fighting, but as a different person. Gradually, their ability to use magic dissipated. Fewer and fewer Defenders kept reviving. They eventually stopped Nachash’s army, however, the Ipni people were still afraid. They were afraid they couldn’t call themselves the Ipni anymore since they couldn’t use magic. Even with Nachash’s army being conquered, death was imminent. They worried about losing their culture; their sense of identity. Some took the chance, and let death take their life to ressurect them into a better life. But with such blessing comes a curse: forgotten memories. Who were you in the past? Will you die for your people, remembering why you fight?

(That was a rough interpretation I derived from Google’s translation. Thanks, Google!)

*The Ipnir formed the Defenders of Erenor.

*Nachash is localized to Akasch in our version.

Looking Back on Past Updates on Character Progression

• ArcheAge 3.0 – Revelation: The introduction of Abyssal Skills enhanced the current ten skillsets. After the launch of this update, we did some balancing.
• ArcheAge 3.1 – “Arche”: Has more character progression. Possibly more levels? More skill trees in the future?
• (More details concerning this will come out next week!)

New Zones

• New bosses, better loot, and more honor to collect are things to look forward to in this update.
• As teased in previous articles and on the 3.0 website, we will be adding a new zone, called “Whale Song”. This zone will be northwest of Golden Ruins. The Whale Song zone, as well as other (Auroria?!) zones will be released as well! 
• (More details concerning this will come out next week!)

Ipnir/Erenor Gear, as Well as Other Gear

• A new tier of gear is arriving! It’s stronger and more powerful than Ayanad/Tier 7 Obsidian! It seems to be called “Ipnir” or “Erenor” (localization may change the name). 
• Gear, while crafting and regrading, will continue to have their RNG aspects reduced.
• (More details concerning on how to craft this next tier, as well as other gear crafting information, will come out next week!)

Gear Quality and Some Other RNG Matters

• The benefits of having a Mythic over a Legendary were not that big. But now, we have special items that will strengthen a Mythic, so it feels stronger.
• (They seem to be saying that you can add sockets to an armorpiece or weapon with this item.)
• The method of socketing Lunagems has not changed, unless otherwise noted in update notes in the future.
• Working on reducing RNG for these kinds of things.
• (However, I’m sure these items are going to cost A LOT so… Depending on your bravery with lucrative overseas runs… Either your gear will catch up to the top dogs or you will fall even more behind.)

Promoting Maritime Trade

• With such gear updates brings the need to add in more income.
• And with the added income, you can get better gear…
• So we have decided that we promote trading overseas and make it a bit more lucrative to do those than continental runs.
• This is done by introducing/enabling Aurorian packs to be made and sold to the Nuia and Haranya.
• And if you still love your land runs, you can stick to Auroria, because you can now run packs all over Auroria! (For example, there is now a pack machine in the Golden Ruins camp area!)
• While these routes are riskier than safe zone land runs, they will bring a lot more gold in than those safe zone trade runs.
• (More details concerning this will come out in a later post.)

What are you excited for in this update?

I will try to keep up with the updates as best as I can.

Source for Information:

http://archeage.xlgames.com/mboards/amigo/12981