Archlord

Archlord
Studio	NHN Games Corporation
Publisher	Webzen
Erstveröffent- lichung	Germany December 6, 2006
platform	Personal computer running Windows 2000 or Windows XP with DirectX 9
genre	Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Subject	Fantasy
Game mode	Multiplayer
control	Keyboard and mouse
system advantages preconditions	800 MHz - CPU , 256 MB RAM , 2x, DVD-ROM - drive , graphics card : ATI 8500 or GeForce 3 , Internet
language	multilingual, including German
Age rating	USK

Archlord was a free massively multiplayer online role-playing game (massively multiplayer online role-playing game - MMORPG) for PC systems , the 2006 by Codemasters was offered in Europe and North America and from October 2009 Webzen was supervised. In early December 2013, Webzen announced that it would stop gaming at the end of the year. - The server was shut down on January 1st, 2014.

Archlord's game world was used in the 2007 Belgian-Dutch film Ben X , the main character of which is an Archlord player.

history

The game was sold on October 3, 2006 after the beta phase was completed. The German version followed on December 6, 2006. However, the translation had serious flaws and the German client suffered from regular crashes. Since January 4, 2007, the game has been playable at no monthly cost; the game itself had to be purchased. Access to the game has been completely free since August 16, 2007. The client program can be downloaded from the Archlord homepage and full-fledged, unlimited game accounts can be created free of charge. Apart from the notice at the beginning of the game that you can shop in the Chantra Shop, Archlord is ad-free.

After waiving monthly fees, the number of players grew rapidly. On May 22nd, 2008 the number of 500,000 registered players was reached.

On October 3, 2009, Webzen took over the service for Europe and North America, as the license of Codemasters expired and no agreement with NHN Games Corporation was found. The game was initially only offered in English. a. also playable in German.

Extensions

In the German version, the first expansion (Episode II: Season of Siege ) was published on August 1, 2007 . In addition to patches, it also brought new game elements such as the Archlord system and the castle battle into the game. Different parties can fight for the possession of castles. Both the defenders and the attackers are supported by various weapons, e.g. B. catapults or castle monsters.

On August 18, 2008, the second expansion (Episode III - Spirits Awakening ) was released, which brought three new player zones, new weapons and monsters.

The following extensions have already appeared in the Korean version:

• Episode IV: Prelude to Power - New skills, areas, weapons and armor
• Episode V: Moonelf Rising - New Class (Swashbuckler)

Webzen named the game versions:

• Episode I: The Legend of Chantra
• Episode II: Moonelf Rising - Dark side of the moon (From October 15, 2009. The new class Swashbuckler was introduced.)
• Episode III: Season of Siege Warfare (From December 15, 2009. It brought new rules for castle warfare .)
• Episode IV: Chaotic Frontier (Starting March 25, 2010. New areas have been added.)
• Episode V: "Battle Ground"
• Episode VI: "DragonScion, Beyond the Evolution" (As of December 15, 2010. New race has been added.) +
• Episode VII "Ascent from Hell" - New Realm World (From July 2nd, 2011. Level upgrade from 99 to 120 added, Battle Square expansion with new weapons added)

Game world

Archlord is set in a fictional world called Chantra with different cities, villages and landscapes. The game world is divided into different areas. There are also instances such as caves and battle zones that can be entered via portals. The game world is shown three-dimensionally, which the player usually sees from the third-person perspective of his own character.

You can get around on foot, and mounts can be bought as you reach higher levels. For faster movement between different locations, teleportation portals are available, for the use of which in most cases virtual play money is required. You can also be transported back to the last city you visited with teleport scrolls.

The races of humans, orcs , moon elves and dragonscions live in Chantra, and they are not fundamentally enemies with one another. Each race starts the game in a different city. The starting city of the people is Anchorville , the cities of Delfaras , Tullan and Ellore are also in their area . The initial city of the orcs is Golundo , further cities of the orcs are Kuhn , Trilgard and Zylok . The starting city of the moon elves is Norine , their territory also includes Laflesia , Deribelle and Tor Fortress . The starting city of the Dragonscions is Cien , in their area there are still the cities of Sariend , Ranfa , Stull and Halien . Hideback Village and Terranoa are intermediate posts of all peoples.

A special feature of the class selection in Archlord is the automatic assignment of a gender when creating a character. So is z. B. a human magician is always female. The following classes can be selected:

People

• Knight (male), a melee who fights with halberds, two-handed swords, one-handed swords, axes or hammers. The knight is the defender of the human class, he has a lot of life points and wears heavy armor.
• Magician (Mage; female), a magician who fights with a staff ("staff") or magic wand ("wall"). The magician prefers to fight with elemental spells that do a lot of damage.
• Archer (male), a ranged fighter who fights with a bow or crossbow. In contrast to other ranged combat classes, the archer has a relatively high defense, he attacks with the power of fire and nature.

Orcs

• Berserker (male), a close-range fighter who fights with halberds, two-handed swords, one-handed swords, axes or hammers. The berserker does not have as many health points as its parallel class knight, but in return it causes damage that is far greater than that of the knight.
• Sorcerer (male), a magician who fights with a staff ("staff") or magic wand ("wall"). The warlock's skills are very similar to those of the mage. In addition, in the higher level he can summon the dead to support him in battle.
• Hunter (female), a long-range fighter who hunts with a bow or crossbow. The huntress is a good long-range fighter who can shoot very quickly with her short bows. Although she has less defense than an archer, she has the ability to dodge , which means that she can hardly be hit at a high skill level.

Moon elf

• Elementalist (female), a conjurer who fights with chakrams or staff. The elementalists have the power to summon a monster for each element to stand by their side in battle. If you like to fight with PvP characters, you should devote yourself to the elementalists, as they cause the greatest damage and can also summon their pets (summoned fellow fighters) who do special damage again.
• Ranger (female), a long-range fighter who fights with a bow or kataria (similar to a boomerang). The rangers move through the country at great speed and suddenly attack the enemy.
• Swashbuckler (female), a hand-to-hand fighter who is characterized above all by the fact that she is the only class so far that can carry two weapons, as well as being one of the fastest classes in the game.

Dragonscion

• Scion, a hybrid that fights with Xenon and Karon. The Scions are able to transform into three different "classes". These include the "Slayer" as a close combat class, the "Orbiter" as a long-range combat class and the "Summoner" as a magic class.

Course of the game

Server selection

First, the player selects a server on which to create a character. The maximum number of characters is limited to three per server. You can delete a created character by entering the password.

There is currently a PvP server called Tullan that was opened by Webzen in August 2009. On January 14, 2010, the three Player versus Environment or PvE servers (Brumhart, Evengarda and Gaiahon), as well as the PvP server Cyripus, were merged into two servers Europe 2 and Europe 3 . At the same time, a new PvE server called Europe 1 - Deribelle was opened.

The following servers are currently available:

• European servers:

- Zian - Sylvia - Urzark

• American servers:

- Gracia

Character creation

After you have selected a server, you get to the character creation menu, which offers few options compared to other MMORPGs, which means that many characters are similar. The following can be changed:

• Race (human, orc, moon elf, dragonscion)
• Class (melee, ranged, magician)
• Hairstyle (can be changed later in the game for a small fee)
• Appearance (can also be changed for a small fee)

control

Archlord is mainly controlled with the mouse. You can select a “running target” for the character by clicking, talk or trade with non-player characters (NPCs) by clicking, and double-clicking to attack NPCs or other players. Skills are used using the numeric keys, the “+” or “-” keys, with the “1” and “2” keys being reserved for life and mana potions, respectively. The various menus are called up by pressing shortcuts on the keyboard or using the bar at the bottom of the screen (example "m" = map).

Experience

By completing tasks ( quests ) or by killing NPCs, you get experience points, usually gold coins, sometimes potions, weapons, armor or other items. If you have collected enough experience points, you move up to the next level . With a higher level you get more life and mana points, you can accept new quests, learn new combat skills, put on new weapons or armor and use new mounts. The maximum level is 120, each character starts at level 1.

If you are killed in combat, you lose (from level 6) 3% of the previous experience points in your level, but you do not go down in the level. A revival takes place in the city last visited. If you have a special potion called Reverse Orb , you will be resuscitated on the spot with no loss of experience.

Groups and Guilds

Both the solving of the quests and the killing of monsters can be done by one player alone. The short-term association of several players in a group (party) is rewarded with more life points, better attack or defense values. Several players can also attack opponents together and share the experience points gained and the gold coins with each other.

When you reach level 20 you can found a guild. Guilds can wage wars against each other, only the head of a guild can become an Archlord.

trade

Most of the items that you get when killing monsters can be resold at a merchant NPC in a town, but the price is bad. All items can also be sold directly to other players. In addition, a maximum of 10 different items can be placed on the auction house's sales list at the same time. Items offered by other players through the auction house can be purchased by visiting the NPC Item Trader . To list an item in the auction house, you have to pay 3% of the asking price as a fee. The item will then be visible in the auction house for 7 days. If it is not sold, it goes back into the player's inventory and the auction fee is refunded. However, if the auction is canceled by the seller before the 7 days have elapsed, the fee is lost.

communication

The following chat functions are available in the game:

• normal chat: all players in the area see the message
• Shouting : everyone in the same area can read the message
• Whisper : only the other player addressed can read the content

As a member of a group or guild, messages can only be written to group or guild members or members of an allied guild.
You can also open several new chat channels in the game.
By purchasing stationery from the NPC Postmaster , messages can also be sent to players who are not logged in.

Skills and equipment

Fighting skills

• Each class has its own set of skills to be learned. You need points to upgrade a skill. This is achieved by moving up the level. For each level achieved, you receive a skill point that you can use with a trainer.
• Each class has its own NPC as a trainer (e.g .: Hunter → Archer-Trainer; Mage / Sorcerer → Magic-Trainer). Each skill can be upgraded to a maximum of level 5.
• The skills are divided into 7 different areas: There are the subdivisions "Combat", "Strength", "Class", "Passive", "Combo", "Heroic" and "Archlord". Archlord skills can only be used if you are the Archlord yourself.

Weapons and armor

There are four different types of weapons and armor. In ascending order they are: Normal , Rare , Unique and Elite . Weapons determine the player's attack value. Armor consists of 5 different parts: headgear, upper body, arm guards, lower body and shoes. You determine the character's defense. Only normal weapons or armor are available from a trader NPC, better equipment can be obtained by killing monsters or in the auction house for virtual gold coins.

Jewellery

• Rings give the player additional bonuses in various properties (e.g. strength). Each player can wear two different ones at once.
• Chains give the player an additional elementary defense and usually increase all of the player's values.
• Wings can be bought for real money in the Chanta Shop. These increase the running speed of a player.
• Unique rings / Unique chains is a second type of jewelry that you can wear. The Unique Rings / Unique Necklaces have special abilities and are very rare.

Armament

Weapons and armor and jewelry usually have free compartments ( slots ) that can be equipped with elemental stones or prayer stones . As a result, the item is upgraded and the attack or defense values ​​increase; some stones also give the player more life or mana points. However, there is a low probability that items can also be destroyed by the upgrade.

There are elemental stones for fire, air, water or earth attacks, the prayer stones are divided into the groups attack, defense and special. In addition, there are different levels of both the elementary stones and the prayer stones. The upgrade system is complicated by the fact that each item can only be upgraded with certain stones and because not every combination of stones is possible.

It is easier to improve armor, weapons and jewelry with reinforcement potions , which you occasionally get when killing monsters or in the auction house.

Craft skills

In addition to the fighting skills of the players and looting (can Ransacking ), deboning ( carving ) and skins ( skinning ) learn from killing monsters. This gives z. B. meat, bones or animal skins. When Webzen took over the service, the three skills were combined into a single (collection).

After buying a saucepan and learning the art of cooking, you will be able to use it to make dishes that increase your health or defense values ​​for a few minutes. Successful use of this skill several times will advance you to a higher level of culinary art. At each level you can learn how to prepare new dishes, the highest level is 10.

You can also buy an iron kettle and learn the art of alchemy to make potions from the parts of killed animals. The potion enables a short-term metamorphosis into an animal that is more mobile and has higher attack values. Here, too, it is possible to move up to a higher alchemy level up to a maximum of 10.

particularities

Player versus player

PvP areas are areas where you can fight against other players. Archlord distinguishes between two different types of PvP: In special arenas (so-called dangerous combat areas ), PvP is possible without restrictions, in the other areas attacks on weaker players are punished with so-called villain points (VP ​​or rogue points). The more you collect, the more limited the possibilities for interaction with the environment. From a certain "rogue level" traders can refuse their services and trading and group formation with other players becomes impossible. As a villain you are also attacked by the city guards. PvP is generally not possible within cities. In the arenas you get so-called skulls (English for skulls ) as PvP trophies. Since Webzen these have not been needed to expand the guild or to create a guild banner, which was still the case in Codemasters' time.

Guild versus Guild

Most GvG battles (guild versus guild) are carried out in the castle battles already described. However, outside of the castle battles, there is also the possibility of holding a guild battle. The guild that has achieved the most points after a predetermined time emerges victorious. Points are gained by killing a player in the opposing guild. It is also possible to declare war on another guild. If this guild accepts the declaration of war, the members of the opposing guild can also be attacked outside of the dangerous combat areas without punishment, but not in cities.

Refineries

In some cities there are refineries where you can refine 10 elemental stones of the same type and level to an elemental stone of a higher level. You can also create new items there if you have the necessary materials. Since Webzen took over the service, the refineries have also been able to improve manufactured items in order to obtain even better bonuses.

Chantra shop

After switching from a monthly fee to free games, Codemasters and its successor Webzen are using the so-called Chantra shop as a source of income. In this shop, players have the option of buying items from within the game that temporarily upgrade their character (e.g. increased experience rate, scrolls for fast travel, resuscitation stones). These items are paid for with W Coins , which the player can purchase for real money at Webzen.

Goal of the game

As with most online games, there is generally no specific goal as the game is designed to operate continuously. However, the aim of the game could be to become an Archlord. However, this is only reserved for guild leaders and is therefore not easily accessible for every player.

There are still many sub-goals for the player to achieve, such as new armor, new weapons or a new mount. The player can raise his avatar by victoriously finishing battles in his level (level); With a higher level new tasks (quests) are available, the completion of which can accelerate the advancement to the next level.

Become an Archlord

With the introduction of the first expansion it is possible to stand out as Archlord from all other players on the game server . In return, every guild that currently owns a castle takes part in the monthly siege of the Archlord Castle Rensphere . The guild master of the successful guild is then considered the archlord. Further rewards include a dragon as a means of flight travel, the ability to summon non-player characters, equipping members of your own guild with special equipment and conjuring up natural phenomena.

The Archlord loses his title when he dies. It is irrelevant in which situation he dies. However, should a player kill him, that player does not become Archlord. This is only possible using the procedure described above.

Lead the guild rankings

To top the guild ranking means having as many members as possible in your own guild and having a guild leader with a high level. There is a fixed maximum number of guild members, which can be increased if the guild leader of the guild in question emerges successfully in a fight against other players in dangerous combat areas.

Own a castle

Another desirable goal of a guild is to have its own castle. You can win this once a week in a castle battle for your guild. The special thing is that the previous owners can defend them during the attack. The owner of a castle can set a specific tax rate for the people who belong to the castle. Hence there are four castles (humans, orcs, moon elves, latria). Taxes are due when a player purchases an item from an NPC, travels through portals, etc. Aids in castle fighting are summoned monsters, catapults and siege weapons for the attackers and teleport, defense and healing towers for the defenders. As a further bonus, the castle owners have a secret dungeon in which they can grind without interference from opponents. The experience rates in this dungeon are slightly higher than the experience rates in the battleground.

Battleground

The battleground was added with "Episode V". In this area, PvP is limited to other races and the names are displayed as stars. You also receive charisma points for a player kill. Depending on the level of the opponent, these can be higher or lower. With 1000 charisma points each you can turn the lottery wheel of the battleground once to get to the set of the battleground.

Race vs. Race

The race vs. Race event was added with the battleground. It takes place every Thursday and Sunday at 12 noon (GST). During the event you try to kill special bosses with your race. Every race has a boss and most of the bosses are in the Center of Chaos (central point in the battleground). If a boss of a race is defeated, everyone of the race who is in the battleground receives a race buff for four days.

successor

In summer 2014 the beta version of a FreeToPlay PvP MMO called Archlord II went online. The servers were shut down on November 24, 2015. Archlord II had 300,000 registered players.

swell

1. ↑ http://archlord.webzen.com/news/notices/5227/al-notice-termination-of-service
2. ^ Archlord News, May 22, 2008
3. ↑ News Onlinewelten from September 1, 2009
4. ↑ Archlord notice on February 11, 2010 ( Memento of the original from November 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ^ Archlord-Welten.de, accessed on March 25, 2010.
6. ↑ Archlord Notice of January 5, 2010 ( Memento of the original of January 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Archlord 2: PvP MMO closes its doors at the end of November - News. Retrieved November 5, 2019 .