ArcheAge + Reviews Update

I meant to make an update sooner, but I've been so invested into ArcheAge I don't have much time left for other things.

It's been an intense two weeks, to say the least. For the first week, it was a battle just to play the game. On top of that headache, I found out that the one zerg guild I wanted my guild to avoid was on my server. This came about due to some issues with our originally planned alliance, the Council of Erenor. But, in the end, it's worked itself out (at least for now), so it's not so stressful.

We were able to get our Tradeship a bit over a week after Launch. The day after, our guild also got our first Galleon (A Lutesong Junk, pictured below). As we're a small guild, we have trouble manning both of them so we don't really see a reason to try hard to get more. We definitely could, but now our resources are better focused at getting neat houses and whatnot. Speaking of which, we got a deed for a medium house to act as our "Crafting Hall" last night. I'll post a screenshot of it in the next update (so in a month or so :D ).

My ArcheAge launch review was published  on the same day the game went live as I had been working on it since beta. I used the Early Start to fine-tune everything to make it as accurate as possible for launch, and it was ready to be published as soon as the game went live. Of course, someone at OnRPG (not sure if it'll be me) will come back to the game after it's had time to mature to give it another look. Until then, though, you can find the review HERE.


In non-ArcheAge news, I recently did an article on the Early Access of a hack n' slash/ARPG game called Fight The Dragon. It was a surprising amount of fun, and I especially liked the unique take on end-game content. As the name suggest, you fight an epic dragon as the end-game boss. And you don't have to max out your character to do it, either. From the start you can challenge this dragon and you can continue to do it over and over, using items you get from regular adventures called Dragon Scrolls. The dragon has (at least for now) 1,000,000 HP and it will take some time to get it down. I haven't achieved it yet so I don't know what happens when you do (And I'm purposefully not looking into it as I would like it to be a surprise). Anyways, 3 Sprockets decided to use a quote from my article on their steam page.

ArcheAge Update

It's been about a month since I last posted a blog. In that month, Amitabha has been revived and has begun to flourish. With Head-Start for ArcheAge coming up in just three days, we're all excited for whats to come. Although, a lot of us must admit that the excitement we have is laced with a bit of trepidation, as a lot of us are fearful of what effect the recent changes to the Marketplace will have on the game. The term "Pay-to-win" has been thrown around a lot lately.

We've learned a few new things regarding the game. The most important being the launch date - September 16th. This means the Head Start begins on the 12th. We've also learned that we'll be restricted to two characters at launch, with the potential to purchase more slots. The maximum amount of characters we can have per server, per account, is four with a total of six characters account-wide. This is both a relief and a bit disheartening - a lot of us (including myself) have paid $150 and we feel that we should be able to get all that the game has to offer, in terms of character slots, at least, without having to pay even more.

Another thing we've learned is that Northern Continent will not be available at launch. A lot of people think it will be at least two months before it's made available. This threw the plans of a lot of guilds out the window, as a lot of strategy centered around the Northern continent. A lot of people plans to rush to the highest level and are afraid they'll have to nothing to do while they wait for Auroria to be made available.

Onto Amitabha, though. We have joined the Council of Erenor, an alliance of thirteen or so guilds who have a non-aggression pact, along with plans to generally improve the gameplay of all members of the guilds in the alliance. Part of the reason of the CoR's creation is the combat the number of so-called "Zerg Guilds" who plan to play the game. These are the guilds that have members in the hundreds that are generally toxic to the community.

Amitabha has also gained a lot more new members. We're still fairly small - we generally have somewhere between ten and fifteen people on TS3 during the beta - but we're a dedicated lot. I originally restarted Amitabha with the idea of creating a small and tight-knit casual group of players. Since then, though, I've found that we've evolved into a community that is a bit more hardcore than I anticipated. I've yet to find out if this is a good or bad thing, but we'll see.

Above is the emblem we have created that will be used in-game on our sails and flags. This is because our typical Amitabha logo doesn't look so good when seen from the backside of a sail or flag. We felt we needed something with no text that could represent us, so the above was created. As Amitabha was originally a Shaolin guild within Age of Wushu, we made use of a couple Buddhist symbols (The Eternal Knot and the Dharmachakra). We also stayed with the roots of our logo and made use of a circular blood smear. I think it looks quite nice.

Here's how it looks in-game.

 We have yet to decide on a server, but if you see this logo in-game, you'll know it's us.


Well, that's all for now. As always, thanks for reading. I'll try to update again after the Head Start.

ArcheAge and the Rebirth of Amitabha

So, as the beta events for ArcheAge have been happening, I've found myself focusing on the game a lot more. If anyone has read any of my other blog post concerning ArcheAge, or my Early Look at the Russian ArcheAge Open Beta, you'll know I like the game a great deal. And my love for the game has continued into the Trion version. Although, I'll be the first to admit that certain parts of the game should be tweaked - such as F2P LP restrictions.

My time in the ArcheAge closed beta has inspired me to re-create Amitabha within the game. We've received multiple members, a number of which are quite active and all of them are Founder's. We're going for a medium-sized guild with around 50 active members at most. We want to be somewhere between casual and hardcore. We definitely do plan to play hardcore during the first weeks of the game, however. Especially during the 4-day Early Start.

I have also decided to upgrade from the $50 Founder's Pack to the $150 Founder's Pack once I get the money to do so. The alpha access will be nice, as I have a lot to re-learn about the game. Especially considering all the changes between the Russian and Trion versions. Plus the bonuses from the pack will be nice. Part of my early-game plan is to get a cash-shop mount and a cash-shop glider. 

I've re-designed the Amitabha website a decent amount to get ready for our transition into ArcheAge. I've removed as many old relics from the site from our time in other games that we no longer play as possible. I also re-did our permissions and rank system to be more in-line with that of ArcheAge. One of our new members, who has been promoted to officer, has paid for our site and TS3 server for over a hundred days. We also have several very active members, a couple of which have also been promoted to Officer in preparation of ArcheAge. So it looks like Amitabha will have a full revival within ArcheAge with a strong core membership.

I've also experimented with importing our logo into the game. The system for doing it is quite nice, and you can even purchase clothing to have it printed on. As you can see, I'm wearing and "Amitabha" shirt. The only issue I ran into was that one side of the sail shows the logo in reverse, so you can imagine that would be a problem. I'm considering a slight re-design that will turn the Amitabha lettering so that it can be read from any direction. There's also the option of coming up with a crest or something that will represent Amitabha in ArcheAge that has no letters. I'm not sure yet.


Other than that, no real updates yet. I am working on an Early Look for an awesome game called Robocraft. I've played it in the past and coming back to the game to see how far it's come is great. I know it's an over-used description but it fits the game perfectly - It's a mix between Minecraft and World of Tanks. It's amazing right now, especially playing with friends. I'll have it done before the up-coming ArcheAge beta event on the 14th.

Ingress + Articles update

This month I submitted reviews/articles on Endless Legend, Divinity: Original Sin, Ingress, and Ascent: The Space game (which hasn't been published yet). Endless, Divinity, and Ingress were all superb games. I'm still playing Divinity and Ingress (especially Ingress), and the only reason I'm not playing Endless or Ascent right now is that they're not complete. I would recommend you check out all of the games, though.


Speaking of Ingress, this past week or two have been pretty fun. The "virus" released by Dr. Bogdanovich, that has greatly reduced the life-span of portals that don't receive regular XM recharges, has resulted in a lot of portal changes. This is perfect for the new influx of players thanks to the #NewAgentInitiative program and iOS release. Plus it makes playing in a town by myself a lot easier and interesting.

This week, my town has been visited by Resistance agents three times. I'm not sure if this is because they have plans that require portals in my town, or if they're just coming because they noticed my small town becoming an Enlightened-controlled haven. Either way, it's been fun having challengers. I'm able to take out their portals fairly easy, as they seem to only put up to level 6 reso's on the portals. Not sure if they're being considerate of me, or if they're just no higher than level 6. 

If things continue as they have been, I should reach level 5 either today or Thursday. 


That's all I have for today. My posts will probably center around Ingress and ArcheAge for the next few weeks. Thanks for reading.

Ingress and Summoners War + Article updates

So, I've continued to play Ingress and have continued to have a blast with it. Honestly, the game has been so enjoyable that I've decided to upgrade my phone to a device that can better play it (an LG G2). A few days ago I created my first link between two portals in my small town. A couple of days after that, I created my first field. It wasn't any fancy, just a simply field that covers less than a quarter of my small town that gave the Enlightened nine Mind Units. I have actually started coming up with a road-trip plan for a portal I want to span a huge area of open space between my town plus two medium sized towns. The entire trip should take about three hours and I honestly have no idea when I'll make it - I'm thinking once I hit level 4.

My first field.

I've made a few trips into nearby towns for key collection so that I can help with future links/fields and so I can recharge portals from afar. Also, you might see a fully resonated portal in the top left corner of the above screenshot. Apparently someone passed by and turned it into a level 4 portal. Not sure if that'll be a problem for me. It has two shields, and I'm honestly not sure if I want to make the effort to cap it. I think it might provide some nice items since it's the highest portal in town - so it may be a boon.

Other than Ingress, I've still been playing Summoners War. I recently discovered that I can set it to auto-play in combat, so I've been spending a lot of time leveling up my creatures while doing other things like reading or playing games on the computer. It's still quite fun, and I enjoy how the game isn't really pay-to-win. Well, I suppose you DO need the cash shop currency to get some of the best stuff, but I've gotten about 500 of the cash shop currency since I started playing, from my daily wishes, missions, my crystal farms, etc... So it hasn't been an issue - especially since the game is mostly PVE driven and the PVP arena is fairly balanced.

My current line-up. I love my Nine-Tailed fox.

Other than that, I've been working on a few games for OnRPG. I recently completely my launch review of Divinity: Original Sin. Just click the link to see it if you like. I'm still working on Ascent: The Space Game - it seems like more projects with higher priorities keep popping up. It shouldn't take long to finish, I just want to get a bit further in the game and then need to collect all my screenshots. I also got the OK from Dizzy to do a review on Ingress, which shouldn't take long at all. And I recently got a key for Endless Legend to do a review. So my plate is pretty full for this month. 

Other than that, the only other bit of news I have right now is that Dizzy has a project for me on September 19th, which he says should keep me plenty busy. So that's something to look forward to.

Ingress Update

Still playing. Walked about 7 miles so far playing the game. My town is small, unfortunately, so the leveling is slow - just now reaching halfway to level 3. Like I said, my town is in the middle of most of the major towns in the state, so it seems like a lot of people have keys to my area - well, at least in the nearby Resistance-nest that is Hutchinson. They've got that area down tight thanks to four or five high level agents, while we only have two or three mid-to-high level Enlightened in the town.

That's good for me, though. The Resistance in Hutch have been keeping the portals in my town recharged. So I know they wont go neutral by themselves due to neglect. I am working on capturing some of the portals on the main street so I can do some links and a small field. I'm kind of hesitant, however, as if I do that, that's three less Resistance portals for hacking and I don't know if/when any Res will come through town to switch them. Of course, there would still be six or so portals afterwards.

I got one resonator down, and have plans to kill two more that are right next to each other (From two different portals) either later tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on how many XMP bursters I get from my night circuit here in a bit.


I went into another town yesterday. It was a small town, though, so only three portals. I plan to go into Hutch tomorrow, which has a decent number, though.


Oh yeah, I finally figured out that holding the fire-button when doing XMP bursts can give you up to 20% extra damage. Also, holding the hack button down initiates the glyph mini-game that gives bonus items. The glyphs remind me a lot of what I've seen from Shadow Cities gameplay videos, so I'm wondering if Niantic will someday introduce a feature that uses them similar to how Shadow Cities did.


I also noticed (along with a shitton of other people, apparently) a couple of codes in this picture, from a recent announcement of... an upcoming announcement >.>

One of them seems fairly obvious (After doing a quick course in Ingress code breaking). The other is to advanced for me to figure out right now. Especially considering that I somehow got the supposedly easy code wrong... unless I need to reverse it or something.

That's it for now. 

Ingress and Summoners War + Ascent the space game

So, these past few days I've been playing very little Dragon's Prophet. I haven't played much Chivalry, either. This is because I found a couple of mobile games that were interesting enough to pull me away from them and I've begun working on another project.

I downloaded Summoners War a few days ago and it's been quite fun. I love monster-capture type games, and this definitely fits that. I am a bit sad that the method of getting new monsters is based on RNG. I mean, I'm a faithful follower of RNGesus, but it's still kind of annoying getting crap after crap. Although, the crap makes for great fodder in leveling up my main summons.

The combat system in the game is also pretty fun. Generally, I don't like turn-based combat, but Summoners War has kept it simple, yet strategic. Really great for a mobile game, especially when a majority of the time you're just logging on to play for 5-10 minutes at a time. The progression, at least for the summons themselves, is also massively skewed thanks to RNGesus, but it does give you something to keep playing for. I'm just afraid I'll end up getting bored/frustrated with it and quit.

The other game I've been playing a lot of the past few days is Ingress. I got a new phone with a new provider and decided to give it a try. My last phone/service was a bit iffy when it came to GPS lock/Data in my area. But the one I'm with now is pretty stable, even in the middle of no where. The only issue is that my new phones resolution is a bit smaller than the suggested resolution for Ingress. I read into a lot of ways to fix this, and I may still decide to go with them, but I found a work-around that lets me get past the few issues I was having. After getting past those issues, I can easily play the game with my phone, although there is a bit of text overlapping on some tabs - nothing serious though.

I was worried about playing in a rural area, but was surprised to find that my small town of about 900 has a number of portals. I also have several towns that aren't to far away, including some cities and one being Wichita which has something like 400k people - and seems to be fairly active going by the intel map. Here's a screenshot of my town (and yes, that is exactly how big it is - for about 10-20 minutes in any direction it's nothing but farms, too.

I suppose now I should say I decided to join the Enlightened. I enjoy being the underdog, and it seems like almost everyone plays Resistance - the numbers support that.  From the above, you can see that there is one Enlightened(Green) portal, and a lot more Resistance. This is because someone from one of the nearby bigger towns came through a few months ago and submitted a ton of portals. They're all level 1 with one level 7 and one level 8 resonator each. So they're not very strong and great for a low level like me to learn the game with.

The single Enlightened portal is one I grabbed earlier today. I took out the first resonator earlier that day and came back later after re-filling my weapons reserves to finish it off. Once I took over the portal, I put a four level 1 and four level 2 resonators on it, plus a very rare and a rare shield mod to help protect it from anyone that happens by - though I doubt that'll happen... or that the shields will stop anyone. 

My next goal is to capture the four portals in the middle and make a very small field with them, just to get familiar with it. Then I guess I'll farm a lot to get higher level so I can upgrade the portals enough so that I can make a bigger field to surround the town. Still learning, though, so that strategy may change. Or someone from Resistance will make an outing and come re-take everything and screw up my progress. 

For those that familiar with Ingress, it's the Augmented-reality mobile game that Google's "Niantic Labs" created. It has some pretty rich lore, combines geocaching, Alternate Reality Game techniques, and (of course) Augmented Reality. If you didn't notice, I included links to several wiki-pages in the last couple of sentences. In short, the game is incredibly fun - even while playing by yourself, but it is meant to be played with several people (even if you're just coordinating over the comms and not actually meeting in person). I do have two invites for the game, though I'm honestly not sure if you need to be invited anymore since the game is out of the beta - however, if you want one, just let me know in the comments and we'll figure it out.


Other than that, I've been playing a game called "Ascent" or "Ascent the Space Game" with the URL of "thespacegame.com." It's an interesting game, but very hard to get into, though from what I understand the developers has been working on improving that tutorial and new player experience. I haven't played it enough to write much on it. But so far it seems like a mix of elements from Shores of Hazeron (one of my all-time favorite games) and EVE Online (another game I enjoy), so it should be fun once I get more into it.

Anyways, that's it for now. Thanks for reading.