The perfect solution is here which i admit:

Another borrowed feature from an old school PvP MUD I use to play. Large groups in MUDs are non existent because most MUDs just simply don't have player bases to necessitate that kind of thing, but once a long time ago.....

Misfire when in a group of [insert number here] or more your spells and attacks no longer accurately hit your target as you direct them. Instead a heal can sometimes land on a different, even uninjured ally or enemy. An melee attack might instead hit another target in its range, same with offensive spells and projectiles. Area effect spells will also have chances to inaccurately strike unintended targets. The accuracy reduction would be in the ball park of 25% still allowing zergs to function but to penalize them enough that it's a questionable advantage when facing a group that's equally capable but not bolstering equal numbers. It's also a realistic feature, in the fray of a large scale battle, friendly fire is only more possible and further likely.

This was an extremely useful and even fun feature in Duris. It caused us to of course build or group right up to and before the cap. I'm sure it'll have the same effect in Albion and deter zergs from assembling as often as they do now. It still allows large groups but adds a realistic chance that things won't always go their way just because they have superior numbers. The current anti Zerg and burst mechanics can remain with some tuning down, no one wants to play a game where their own individual influence is greatly penalized due to having more attackers on a target. A group debuff like misfire is more suitable over an individual seeing 0s or something silly because another player decided to target the same target.

Proposal to fix the Zerg / Guildsize/ owned territory problem witch would lead to 3 or 4 mega guilds to own the entire map.

Conceptual Idea:

1) Any kill on an unflagged player while you are in the group that did the kill counts towards the kill count of your alliance
2) As more territories the Alliance owns as bigger is the Area Multiplicator
3) Killcount is reducing over time with %per hour
4) there is a list in guild which shows the kills based on (1) per member

Now continously the Agressor Factor of an Alliance is now hourly calcualted with Area_Factor multiplied by killcount

What does this mean? It just calucaltes an agression factor that goes through the roof as bigger your groups that zerg unfallged players and as more territories you own.

Based on the threshhold of the agression factor certain things change for the alliance:

1) below threshold peacefull all is as today
2) above Agression 1 for the members of this alliance regarding their protection : green gets yellow rules, yellow gets red ...black gets lethal 1 which gives -5 % to all stats include movement speed
3) above Agression 2 ....green gets red ...yellow gets black...
4) above agression 3: everything is black including towns

You manage the zerging and mega merging of guilds. You not make it impossible but you pay a price for this domination.

I do not think that the proposal is accurate, but the general idea which is adding "cost and consequences" to size and related zerging is where we need to go to adjust it and counter this trends or we will end up with super guilds that zerg everything.

If attack size of the attacking force is >>>> number of attacked ones, there is a chance of 10 % or 5 % or whatever chance, that the "wrath of the gods" is called.

This wrath of the gods calls a group of angels similar amont as the number of attackers (if 2;1, but double if 5:1 or bigger), locks the area for 120 seconds and the power of the "guardian angels" is directly linked to the power of the victim (if you went naked, your angels are weak) which assist and heal the attacked one during the 120 seconds. As bigger the difference in numbers as higher the chance to trigger guardian angels..

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When we last spoke with him, he talked us through the day of a game designer. But the other perspective, focusing on the way how an idea becomes reality in the game, is also very exciting. So we sat down with him again and let him explain how features and gameplay elements find their way into Albion Online

How do you start?
„Some of my job is spent figuring out how to achieve certain things – anything from huge features such as our Hellgates to something as simple as requesting a reskin of a mob. The thing is“, he went on, „that this stuff takes time. We need to draw the right conclusions from community feedback and make decisions accordingly“.

So what do you spend that time on, then?
„It very much depends what exactly we are working on. Practical example: sometimes the task is extremely clear, like when we‘re creating a new mob or boss.

„There’s a few things to consider when designing a new boss. The first, naturally, is the environment he will be placed in. For that I need some information from the level designers on the theme of the environment, like, which faction does it belong to? What’s the predominant setting. Stuff like that.

„After I know where that boss is placed, I’ll come up with a concept that fits the setting and faction. I will jot down a few ideas on possible spells and abilities that would fit the theme I came up with for this boss. For example, a Necromancer in an Undead dungeon needs to summon additional mobs.

„I set up different phases within the fight to make the encounter feel exciting and varied. After that, it’ll go ahead and create a first prototype to test against. After this test, it’s usually back to the drawing board to overthrow some things and refine others.

Empa explains that this is mainly his part in the creation, the actual gameplay. Without artists, and sometimes coders, it’s impossible to create a new enemy. „We usually have a one page design reference where the skills and concept are outlined – as well as some reference material for the actual design is provided. It helps tremendously if you have some visual reference to talk about with the artists, so you can work towards the same vision."

Teamwork
„And you need that artistic power. A lot. You need a new model. Textures. Spell effects. An avatar picture. Animation. Usually, a total of four different artists are involved in the creation of the visuals of a new mob. Sometimes you also need a coder to enable you to make new spells that have never been made before in the game.

„Once all the things are ready and I am happy with how the combat phases are set up, we connect it and have our QA trying to rip it apart. QA testing is a crucial part of the design process. You want to spot possible flaws and errors in the design and the technical implementation early on. „If those QA tests have ironed out bugs and imbalances, the mob will go into the game and I’ll head on to the next task.“

Some guilds have complained about the following
it is possible to use unequipped/naked characters as scouts for PvP and as they do not have any gear to lose, this is essentially risk free
Related to this, there was the suggestion to remove the user counter for certain regions, such that it is not that easy to find out how many people are in a region when you enter it

Our views are as follows:

Naked Scouting
We agree that naked scouting is an issue that we would like to address if possible
However, we currently have no good solution for this.

Suggestions such as increasing the respawn timer will not really work, as you can easily get around this by using more characters for scouting and just cycling through them when one is subject to the respawn timer

Suggestions that impose a cost to dying are not feasible, as either the cost is too low for organised guilds or far too high for normal players who just happen to walk around under-geared and get killed

Suggestions to impose a minimum gear requirement to enter certain zones will not really solve the issue, but thus move it a bit. Naked scouting will become "lowest possible gear" scouting and will really not be that different. Also, we do not really want to close of zones to players that do not have strong gear yet

What we might consider is disallowing the "respawn in this region" function on death for certain regions. Thus, if you die and are not resurrected, you can only respawn in the closest city, closest guild territory or in your home. That solution would be very similar to how it is in Eve Online, where you can also scout with low value ships, but can not easily respawn in the region that you were killed in.

Still, even if we did this, we will likely have to get used to the fact that scouting is easily possible and will become a part of the open world guild vs guild experience, whether we like it or not.

Active User Counter for Regions
There is advantages and disadvantages in showing the number of active users in the zone when a player enters.

In safe zone clusters, the counter is not a problem and can certainly stay
In PvP zones, if we show the number, on the one hand it will encourge PvP (as you know that there might be a target in the zone), on the other hand, it discourages it as you might be warned early if another group is around.

If we removed the counter in all or certain PvP zones, we believe that professional guilds would use even more scouting (see above) to essentially get the same information that the counter provides.

All in all, we are undecided about the issue and will possibly run a test case by making certain regions have the counter and others not have it, and then analyse how this affects the player experience. Such a test would happen a bit later in our development cycle, as too many other things related to PvP are still subject to change

First thing I did was create and delete my first character only to read the warning on the patcher the next time I opened the game. Why? Because my friend started at different area and I had no idea how to meet up other than reroll starting area.

The flexibility of the character customization is really nice. The progression and fame system (I've only got to Tier 3 weapons/armor) feels satisfying for now. The sheer amount of things to do seem exciting and I could see how this game could be really fun with a decent sized guild. However, you're right. I don't think I'll have enough time to really get the most out of this game. Although for now staying in the green zones and crafting up gear and working towards some goals seems pretty chill and casual.

Ha, no worries about deleting your first character. Depending on which founders pack you picked, the rewards aren't all that great and there will be server wipes before launch anyway so you'll get them back when they really matter.

Honestly, the amount of time you're expecting to be able to commit is probably pretty average, maybe a little less. I don't plan on spending much more time than you but I'm sure it'll be fine (probably something like 1-2 hours most days after work and 2-3 hours on the weekends). I plan on finding a casual guild and just enjoying the crafting/world. Gear isn't super important if you plan on pvping; really your ability to replace gear is what's valuable, that's why joining a guild will be really beneficial.

In a guild you'll have all different specialties of crafters and ideally a large bank of supplies/gear. You'll be able to coordinate and find groups for farming mats/pvping pretty easily with a lot of Albion Online Items. This game does reward hardcore play but casual play will definitely still have its place. I'd have to read more into it but from what I understand, they limit your ability to progress at least to a certain extent so the top players will still only be so far ahead and the gap will stagnate after some time past launch.

The fast travel system for PvP areas needs to be removed and placed into the hands of players. Allowing players to form and create networks of fast travel routes, charging what they wish for those routes, and allowing them to control those routes. Travel should cost more than just Albion Online silver, and should come with penalties. Owning Territory in X zone, and in Y Zone which is two away from X, should allow guilds, or alliances of guilds, to build some form of Teleportation / Fast travel building – upgrading it as another building. Making a whole new host of utility style buildings. Travelling should cost a specific type of resource between locations, and it should be possible for Guild to tax use of the system. Meaning they may open up said fast travel route to other guilds, or alliances… but it’s going to cost you whatever they damn well please.. and if you don’t like it. Build your own.

Travel shouldn’t be from A all the way across the map to Z, it should happen in legs and jumps. Having a specific max Zone reach for each Teleport, meaning you must go A -> B -> C -> D, rather than a single teleport. This means that if you’re travelling through zones, other groups will be able to not only jump you and intercept your troops, but it will also mean information on who is travelling where and along what route can be filtered to Alliances and Guilds; offering more information on who is where, allowing them to suit up and respond if necessary.

I had a few more ideas for Greezone Carebear guilds in terms of progression and exploration but this post has been way longer than I thought it would be so won’t bother lol

To make the distinction between Red/Black and Green bigger and more defined. The further out you go the more hostile the land should become, not only in terms of PvP, but also in terms of the general content and Mobs you'll find within them. Yellow should, in theory, be not only the first stepping stones for people heading out into PvP, but also the demilitarized zone between the heavy conflicted areas of Red and Black, and the general safe harbors of green. If people are running their own fast travel network through Red Zones, they shouldn't then only be a single zone run through yellow to Green to sell whatever it is they have. There still need to be that risk, reward and grouping of travelling to stop any potential ganks from happening in Yellow from those who will most likely make a living from it.

With Yellow being larger it'd be possible to play the inbetween bandit, especially with a reputation system. A sort of nomad who doesn't belong in green and refuses to make the step into Red, preying on the week and any easy supply runs from Red he can get his hands on. When Albion goes live, if the current Closed Beta numbers are anything to go by, people are going to be swarming those zones for their levelling (the type of situation we're seeing now) with a large zone buffer the bandit can live, thrive and have enough land to move between.

If people introduced a Perm-Red right now for deaths in Yellow / Red, that limits that Characters choices to what is essentially the tiniest of tiny islands in terms of zones they can exist in. And we'll instead see even less PvP because of it. (No one wants to be limited to an even smaller area of an already small map), so you need to widen Yellow to make that choice to become "wanted" and "hunted" available, but still one that will have you hunted from both sides, Red and Green.

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In the last alpha test, the main purpose of PvE was to collect silver. Going forward, we want to give more meaning to PvE by doing something with the different factions in the game.

We will be introducing NPC agents that will give you missions and those missions will grant you faction standing and faction points. Faction points can be used to obtain special faction rewards, though it is likely that most faction rewards will also cost silver and need some extra ingredients.

Agents will have different levels, and in order to unlock higher level agents you will also need a certain standing with the faction first. Of course, the higher level the agents are, the more dangerous the underlying missions and regions will be.

Regarding the missions themselves, we are planning to introduce different types, such as combat, gathering, crafting and transports.

Destiny Board Changes and Progression Speed

There is two potential issues with the current destiny board: Power gamers, in particular if they have a strong support from their guild, can often unlock high end nodes really really fast. On the other end of the spectrum, other players might feel that some nodes are too grindy, i.e. that you have to repeat that craft / gathering action too many times in order to progress.

We believe that we can address both issues at the same time, by adding a learning points system. This system will work like a time-based skill queue in reverse: people will automatically accumulate learning points over time and unlocking certain nodes in the destiny board will require learning points on top of the usual task of getting a certain amount of fame in doing a certain activity. However, as learning points are pre-generated, if you have enough of them saved up, you can instantly unlock the node once you have completed the task.

On the one hand, this will make sure that we can reduce the grind on the task level while at the same time making sure that progression is not too fast.

In addition to that, we also will significantly improve and boost the role that mastery levels currently play. They will grant stronger bonuses and will also sometimes be required as a prerequisite for higher level skills and unlocks.

Value of Crafting

We believe that crafting should be valuable and that it should be possible for a crafter to earn money in the market place.

In the current state of the game, the problem is that once a player has unlocked the required skill, he or she can craft an infinite amount of items. This essentially means that one crafter in the world can meet the needs of everybody else. In the same way, one crafting building in the world could meet the needs for everybody.

We want to address this problem by introducing two concepts:
Crafting Endurance: crafting items will deplete some endurance from your character, which will recharge over time. This will not really affect you for normal items in normal amounts, however, might have an strong impact on special or higher tier items. The result is that those Albion Online Items will be limited in supply, allowing crafters to make money. Your crafting skill, in particular your mastery levels, will reduce the endurance requirements.
Building capacity: same as the above, but the limit is on the building level.

During Summer Alpha, 2015, Kam took his first glance at the world of Albion. Within his first week of playing, he knew that Albion would be the right place for his band of friends to call home. He took the initiative to not only inform his group about the game, but also establish himself as leader of a rather large organization as well; an organization that has not only provided us with a dominant performance during Closed Beta, but has also stood the test of time. Unlike many of the other vested guilds in Albion, WarLegend is one that has been established for more than a decade.

Although I was initially surprised by the longevity of the guild, seamlessly traveling from game to game as a disciplined unit, I was more intrigued by the reasons WarLegend was created in the first place.

“WarLegend was founded in July 2000 on T4C [The 4th Coming] by Thief, also known as Denpxc, with a single objective: being hated by all with the sole ambition of winning by force, and controlling the population through fear with Albion Online Items. It’s a multi-gaming guild, and the Albion section was created during Summer Alpha with only a few players,” said Kam.

The guilds objective was clear, and even though fifteen years have passed, it has ultimately stayed the same; control by fear.

Fear-mongering has been a successful tactic used by WarLegend all throughout Closed Beta. Let’s just say, many citizens of Albion point to WarLegend when asked why they are too afraid to enter black zones.

Although the guild appears to be at an all-time high in terms of success, the initial development of the organization naturally had its hardships that Kam felt were necessary to overcome.

“After trying to make our guild work jointly with other guilds, and establish alliances, such as the former powerhouse “ACE”, I came to the realization that it was necessary for me to develop my own structure. The leadership in ACE wasn’t well managed and most organizations suffer the same fallacies. This is something that was very disappointing to me,” Kam explained.

“Well-managed” would be an understatement when analyzing the level of structure that WarLegend has displayed as a top guild during Closed Beta. The organization has been able to sustain control over a multitude of black zones throughout the test, while also balancing the intricacies of keeping more than 100 members satisfied. Humbly, Kam gives credit to his prudent leadership for the success of the guild.

“There are a number of key members in the guild that really hold our system together. My first thought would be Oxandia, my right hand, who has assisted me since the beginning in every task we undertook with Albion Online Gold, whilst also managing our entire roster. Then, there is Nek, whom with I spent countless hours alongside in order to set up tools that were necessary to ensure proper functioning of our economy system. Finally, there’s Kingqueen who may have joined the party a bit late, but is one of our most committed leaders and also plays a vital role in the WarLegend staff.”

Gathering
Auto-Tool Use: For gathering, it will be enough if the right tool is in your inventory. You will no longer have to equip it. This also means that you weapon will not go on cooldown when you gather something. You can still equip a tool, but you will only really need to if you want to fight with it.

Rare Resources: There will be rarer versions of existing ressources that will spawn randomly (i.e. an existing resource node has a certain change to transform into a rare node for a certain amount of time). Those rare resources are used to craft rare items.

Other Notable Features
Mounts: We will add abilities to certain mounts, and possibly also auto-attacks to certain mounts to Buy Albion Online Gold. However, while doing this, we will be extra careful as we do not want mounts to be too powerful in chasing down fleeing players to keep open world PvP balance in check.

Arena/Solo PvP Options: This is still at concept stage, but definitely on our to do list.
A lot of additional small changes and improvements, that are too minor to list seperately.

Looking at the above feature list, we will not be able to have everything ready for the next Alpha test. However, if you have followed us before, you know that we are quite good at getting a lot of things done in a short amount of time.

Still, if we already launched the Winter Alpha in December, we believe that we would present you with a version of the game that would be far below its potential and still too similar to the current version for the test to be meaningful.

As we really want to present you with significantly improved game, we have decided to start the Winter Alpha in mid/late January. By then, our goal is to achieve at least 50% of the points mentioned on the list above. A specific start date for the Winter Alpha will be published in December.

We have found out that learning points in the summer alpha test did not work well. The main issue is that learning points can act as a total roadblock once a player runs out, and there was not much that the player could do about this. Here is what we will do:

You will still have learning points, but their role will change: you can use to instantly unlock a destiny board node that you have partially cleared (i.e. if you have 25% of the required fame, you can spend X learning points to instantly unlock the node with the help of Albion Online Items)

To counter-balance this, the baseline fame requirements f

or the destiny board will be increased.

The end result is that learning points help you to level up faster - and you get to choose where. They never roadblock you. And even if you run out, you can still continue to level up, though at a slower pace.

This mechanism is much nicer than the old system, and still helps to somewhat close the gap between hardcore players and regular players.

Note: crafting endurance and building capacity will be reworked along similar lines: such that they act as a bonus and not as a roadblock

Personally I'm sick to death of hearing the term 'Hardcore'. Its bullshit. There is no thing as Hardcore. Every game based on rules and game mechanics is more or less unforgiving than any other game, on a sliding scale. There are no rules to say at what point 'hardcore' applies. The same applies to 'Casual' . They are both completely arbitrary.

Listening to some folk on here you'd think that there were two extremes and you have to fit in one or the other, hardcore or casual. guess what ... you don't need Albion Online Silver. As per my paragraph above it doesnt really exist, The term hardcore more and more is becoming a tag people apply to themselves to brag or identify themselves as more superior to someone else. Its bollocks and makes you look like a petulant 12 year old.

By all means discuss changes to rules and mechanics and what they mean but FFS drop this 'hardcore' bullshit.

Let's be real here folks, zerging zones isn't skill or hardcore. It's the same ol thing that's been around in every other game out there. Want to know where those games are at now? Dead. And yes here is where people scream EVE, but let's be real once again. Nobody cares about that game asides from the people who have been playing it for years and years. You will not get that with AO.

You guys also call losing all your stuff "hardcore." The rest of the world calls it tedious and boring. I don't mind my equipped items being lost or lootable, that's fine and drives the economy. What is tedious, is that I also lose my inventory. So now, because a "skilled" zerg killed me, or if I decide to do some group PvP myself, I can't.

Ohhhh wait, yes I can keep PvPing. Once i go back to town, go to the AH, rebuy all of my stuff again with Albion Online Gold, then travel 3+ zones away again just to probably get in a couple group fights or zerged down again, and get ported back to town again.

ARMOR TYPE
Light
Medium
Heavy

MATERIAL TYPE
Cloth
Leather
Plate

ARMOR STYLES - (Armor Type + Material Type)
Light Cloth, Medium Cloth, Heavy Cloth
Medium Leather, Heavy Leather, Light Leather
Heavy Plate, Light Plate, Medium Plate

ARMOR CLASS - (three in total)
Most inner ring of the destiny board
Middle ring of the destiny board
Outer ring of the destiny board.

BASICS

Armor types are split up into three categories as mentioned above: light, medium, and heavy. Each type shares the same abilities and passives reguardless of the material type. Light armors provide enhanced damage, and offensive abilities. Medium armors provide slows, movement speed boosts, crowd control defense, damage reduction and stealth. Heavy armors grant bonus life, armor as well as defensive abilities.

In albion online there are two types of damage, physical and magical. We will use PR to describe the armors physical resistence and MR to describe the armors magical resistence with Albion Online Gold. The higher your PR then the less physical damage you take and the higher MR, the less magical damage you take. Melee weapons and bows deal physical damage while staffs deal magical.

Material types are split up into three categories aswell: cloth, leather, and plate. The material composition determines the armor's resistance ratios. For example: cloth armors will have a higher MR stat then the PR while plate armors will have a higher PR stat rather then MR. Leather armors are given a balanced PR & MR stat that is neither the best or worst.

Christmas is over, twelfth night has passed, and the decorations have been taken down.
Fame on all Veteran and Elite mobs increased as follows:
Veteran - 2.5x
Veteran Miniboss - 9x
Veteran Boss - 12x
Elite - 4x
Elite Miniboss - 12x
Elite Boss - 70x
Overhauled Labourer and Journal Fame values, to match new player progression numbers.

Reduced gem chance, and increased Labourer Fame gained from gems to compensate, on Novice and Journeyman Mercenary's Journals.

Reduced Fame requirements for unlocking Expert and higher Stone Hammers, as the lack of higher-level rock makes them advance slower on average at higher tiers.
Killing enemy players in GvG matches now scores 4 points, up from 2 previously.
All Hellgates in Red and Yellow zones are now T5, and contain T5 mobs.

Transmutators now have separate tabs for Wood, Rock, Fiber, Ore, Hide, and Other.
Altered Destiny Board requirements so that it should now always be possible to progress towards unlocking an item by doing tasks up to two tiers lower, then you may need Albion Online Power Leveling. For example, you can progress towards unlocking T6 weapons and armor by killing T5 or T4 mobs.

Overhauled the farming tree of the Destiny Board, most significantly impacting items crafted from farmables. A player who farms every day and plays for two hours every day should now find all their farm-related progression advances uniformly, and keeps up with their progression in other areas.

Most mobs will now wait for five seconds after spawning before aggroing players around them, to give you a chance to get out of the way.

Fixes
It should now be possible to attack buildings while in forced combat mode.
It should no longer be possible to loot players who haven't respawned, while in forced combat mode.

Active spell (ie selected but not yet cast) is now deactivated on knockdown.
UI text should no longer be broken when switching to fullscreen.
Fixed an error that occurred when mounting while repairing.
It should now be possible to click on siege camps on the world map to get info about them.

Removed duplicate entry for Steel Bar from Master and above Smelters.
Fixed Master's Axe making the player invisible.

Fixed the issue where Crafting Focus was used on your first craft, in the case where Focus was off but had been switched on the last time you logged out.
Spreading Flame skill on Infernal Staff should now spread its flame correctly.
Fixed a number of text issues in the Destiny Board.

Beginner and Journeyman Tinker's Journals should now correctly progress when crafting Journeyman's Capes.

It should now be possible to unlock crafting of Level 3 Elder's items in the Destiny Board.

It should now be possible to unlock use of Undead Book off-hand and Elder's Light Leather Armor in the Destiny Board.
Fixed icons for Trophy journals.

Fixed the issue where "above average" and "below average" were reversed in the market window with Albion Online Silver, so prices below average were shown as being above average and vice versa.

It is now possible to upgrade to Master's Butcher.
Fixed a bug where animal growth in territories was half as fast, rather than twice as fast as it should be.

Somewhat reduced maximum durability on two-handed weapons to keep behind-the-scenes balance math consistent.

Fixed faction reputation threshold values to properly reflect the design.

Gold also plays an indirect role in so called swap transactions, depending on the gold/silver exchange rate in the player-driven market. These work as follows:

For certain in-game expenses, we will be introducing a player market driven swap mechanism that will give discounts on silver prices if there is too much Cheap Albion Online Gold in the game. You will get the discount whether you have gold or not.

The mechanism works in the following way:
Assume that the gold/silver rate set by the game is 100 to 1 (last alpha, it was 10 to 1)

Assume that a certain action such as repairing an item would normally cost you 1.000 silver

Now, if the gold/silver rate in the player market is lower than 100, say it is 80, you will actually get a discount on the repair: instead of paying 1.000 silver, you will only pay 800 silver.

In general, the discount on your silver costs is the same as the percentage that the player driven gold/silver rate trades below the reference rate.

If, on the other hand, the gold/silver rate in the player market is higher than 100, then you will still pay 1.000 silver - you will not have to pay more. So, in a nutshell, if there is too much gold in the world, the silver cost for doing certain activities will decrease.
This is how the mechanism will work from a player point of view. What our system will do “in the background" - but only if the gold/silver rate is smaller than 100 - is the following: it will take the silver you paid. It will use that silver to buy gold from the player market. It will take that gold out of the game. If the gold/silver rate is higher than 100, than nothing special will happen, the expense will simply be taken in silver.

From an economic point of view, what this does is the following: if there is too much gold in the game, everybody will benefit as the silver prices for certain activities will come down. On top of that, if there is too much gold in the game such that the gold/silver ratio is higher than 100, it will act as some one wants to Buy Albion Online Gold, which will help our business model. We believe that this creates a really cool win-win-win situation between us as a developer, people who do not mind spending some money on the game and people who want to play entirely for free.

Getting to a point of complete self-sufficiency as a new player in AO was certainly obtainable. I define self-sufficiency as being able to craft your own tier three gear, weapons and tools, and being able to farm tier three and four mobs on your own. Therefore, you only rely on the AH for one mount. Becoming self-sufficient in a sandbox MMO is imperative for your enjoyment. I found that AO currently has a perfect model for new players so that once they become self-sufficient, they may venture into more high risk, higher rewards lands at their choosing.

This is crucial to the health of the game, which I will mention more in Softcore vs Hardcore and Long Term Feasibility. Once my girlfriend’s brother became self-sufficient, even he enjoyed the game much more. Knowing that if he made a mistake, he was more than capable of picking up where he left off. Even he ventured out into PvP lands with us. Bravo!

However, the only downfall to self-sufficiency is the ability to farm silver, given that tier three gear requires silver (or gold). A new player may not choose to buy gold immediately, and it honestly only took me a day or so to get to their three (premium and non-premium accounts will change this behavior entirely with Albion Online Power Leveling). That is too early for most players to decide if they want to invest in a free to play game. Therefore, SI will have to monitor the starter zones silver per hour drops carefully to make sure there is enough silver to go around for new players to support themselves during that time. Although, as mentioned earlier, if SI did reduce durability loss, new players can use the little silver they have farmed to sustain self-sufficiency. Therefore, they venture out into riskier areas when they feel they are ready.

PvP in this last winter alpha was non-existent. I found this to be very disappointing. However, I am extremely optimistic because I do understand that it was a one month alpha. Not a whole lot can be expected in terms of massive, open-world PvP when players are struggling to get to a point where they are ready for that, and find that the risk is worth it. Therefore, all of the PvP zones were empty. Many of these issues I discuss later with long term feasibility and risk vs reward mechanics.

In a nutshell, the few instances I did find PvP, I found further disappointing to where I just didn’t see any benefit. Most of the PvP battles I got into were just a big rodeo, where everyone kept circling eachother on their mounts while trying to assess if they have the advantage. Nobody wanted to dismount because of the cooldown debuff, which is frankly a stupid mechanic with Albion Online Silver. It was also damn near impossible to dismount someone unless your grouped was properly setup for it and caught someone off-guard. That should be changed also. But trying to chase someone down to jump their bones was pointless. Enough on that, again these are all issues with very simple fixes. Again, I am more focused on the longer term feasibility of PvP.

Softcore vs. Hardcore
This is the section I am sure readers will be most responsive to. I read many reviews and posts about how upset they were about AO becoming too ‘softcore.’

Let me be very clear with you, and I mean this to offend you, you don’t know hardcore PvP until you have come across me, and players like me. You can not hide, there is no place that you will find safe, and as long as you’re logged on, you will be hunted. I will do whatever is necessary to make your life miserable because to me, winning in a sandbox mmo, is making you fail.

So please stop posting about AO being too softcore. It is easy to make such posts until you are the one being oppressed. I will oppress you. I have made thousands of players quit Ultima Online and Darkfall Online, and I will make thousands of players quit AO.

The number one thing I said to my guildmates on a constant basis, is be careful who you makes friends with. 50 percent of the people in this Alpha will not be playing six months after launch. FFA full loot PvP sandbox mmos are simply too much game for most people.

I will not play Albion Online if there are no safe zones to harbor new players or softer styled players. I have been there and done that. All of those titles failed because of players like me. I will be apart of, or create a guild where we do noting but pillage and plunder others. I will buy hordes of gold, I have botted with Albion Online Gold, I have hacked, I have exploited every possible means so that you, who are reading this right now, will fail. Why? Because there is no greater enjoyment than watching you suffer. Do we really want to create another game that has this mentality? No!

@Bercilak made this statement in another post where the player talked about making it easier for him/her to gank others to take their stuff, and boy do I love him for it, “if you want a game where you can gank players at their spawn point, you’re at the wrong place.”

You are at the wrong place. This isn’t for Albion Online and nor should it ever.

Yellow zone changes: meh, its worth testing. Not sure if it is the solution largely because of...

Gold and Silver valuation in free fall... oh lord no! Oh well...
Items are likely to drop in value so much, that death will no longer sting but maybe be a small pin prick. Really no need to change yellow zones at all with the value of items to drop drastically.

Fame, crafting endurance, learning points: worth testing. I do see a better balance with these ideas

I am worried most about the gold and silver changes. Will inflation become an issue? Item costs and crafting costs are all but eliminated (user fees and taxes). Therefore, gold will not have any value. Not only because of the fact that you cannot spend gold in the economy (rather, convert it at an unfortunate premium), but silver will inevitably become inflated to where you can get a better deal from a player rather than from SI. In the winter alpha, I consumed 12,000 gold and 1million silver. I did not see any purpose or value in gold already, other than to leverage crafting and upkeep costs. Going forward, no one would need to Buy Albion Online Gold. Rather than buy 120,000 silver (12,000 gold) for $50, you can buy 150,000 silver from me for $50. With these new changes, heck you may be able to buy 500,000 silver from me for $50.

As I stated in @Bercilak thread and this report, I see a majority of the changes being too focused on one month alphas, one month play testing and one month data regression gathering. The picture must be focused on the 6 month to one year horizion. Did anyone play Vanguard: Saga of Heroes or the Neverwinter Nights mmo? What happened to those economies? They failed within months of release due to inflation (yea there were a few dupes here and there too I get that, however, there weren't enough sinks in the game to control it. Don't even think AO will be any different or be won't subjected to the same vulnerabilities).

All kinds of players! Especially the ones that usually have no guild to begin with.
let me explain, beginning with the most lonely players out there.

The solo player :
Because they are proud to be self-sufficient, family people, or just don't have a minute to chat. You know them.
These players roam around, they have every skill needed to make whatever they need, but need luck to find a group.
In time, they find someone in the same time zone to hook up with, but joining a guild is out of the question, they cant do the requirements.

You no longer need luck! If you decide to join this guild to get some free Cheap Albion Online Gold as reward, you can still do everything alone, or just give a shout and join up with another casual!
How would you earn favor? By either donating the stuff you needed to grind, or joining up with raids, or providing food... or not at all! All good!

The casual player
So you have a life? Hard to combine with hardcore games right?
So you have a powerful pc, but also a kid? Thus you play on a tablet most of the time?
Did you start to lose hope on every guild recruitment with the line "for active players" or "must pay upkeep"?
Every time you meet people, they progress much faster and you are left behind?
I know how you feel. Solo play is the default now...or is it?

It no longer is! If you decide to join this guild, most players will be in the same situation.
You will be able to simply ask the guild to feed your buildings, or a group to do something.
No matter if its for 30 hours straight, once a month or 30 minutes a day. There will always be support on your level.

The new player
You are not short on time, or happy on your own. And a lot of guilds have requirements you do not understand.
You are the kind of player that owns most games, but needs some guiding in the beginning.
Loyalty is somthing you carry in high esteem, but you have no idea what will suit you.

Do not fear, we are here. You can join our guild, and avoid all the sell-buy recruiting spam of the general chat.
Since we provide basic gear to everyone, you can either just try stuff yourself. Or we help you out.
Once you have a feel for the game, and know what you want to do. Or what guild you'd like to join.
We will gear you up with the style of your choice, give you provisions and if needed escort to your new guild.
From then on its all up to you. We will even put up a good word for you to the guild of your choice.

The altruists, who get more fun out of helping then PvP-ing.
You are the person who is always first to answer questions. And to all's surprise, you answer correct!
5 more minutes online, just to get that one player out of trouble.
Who needs favor points? You'd do it anyway!
Dps? Is that like Healing negative?

You will be the backbone of this guild, the person to help new players. The player whom everyone respects.
The one to handle the logistics of favor points, because you don't care about wealth anyway.
No matter if you are like a lone hermit with wisdom provided if needed, or like maria theresa living withing the comunity.
Players like you are a rare type, and hardly ever get the respect you deserve. But not in our guild!

PvP stops the angry voices in my head, give me more!
"Hardcore hu? Lets see if your core is harder then my hammer...", anger, rage, speed, power... no matter how much time you are given online.
You love the thrill of the fight, and you realize every guild member is the difference between killing and getting killed.
So you don't mind spending time to teach them, explain tactics, and conquer a couple castles while you're at it.
You know the feeling, a good group. No need to explain things, they know. No need to ask for heals, its already there.
But you need to join in at least 1 raid each week, 99% silver tax or more if they could, claiming your loot before you even got inside.

Not in this guild! Everyone joins the raids they feel like, and the loot is yours!
If you are in a group, send me a message. Time spend in groups while raiding or PvP-ing will grant you favor!
Got a good result? Like conquer a territory, ganked a gatekeeper, raided a hell gate... more favor!
No fear of losing gear in a risk. You will gain enough favor to just get whatever you'd like to try out of the guild treasury.

We at sandbox interactive are as usual keeping an close watch on the test, several of us are in fact in the game answering questions and playing alongside you!

And one of the more worrisome questions we tend to get is "How do I get silver?" Or "What's the best way to get silver?"

So in this short guide I intend to answer these questions and hopefully help people transition into the nature of Albion Online.

How do I get silver?

Silver is primarily dropped from humanoid mobs out in the world, when you first leave either Kings or Queens Market you will enter into an area with a lot of Albion Online Silver and tier 2 heretics.

What's the best way to get silver?

This is an opinion that will differ from person to person, I personally will go into how to make silver from PVE while @Korn wrote some tips on how to make money through the marketplace over at Using the market to make money right now

The biggest difference between how Albion Online and other games differs are that we want to have a real economy, this means we cannot pump the game full with silver or resources and have limited the amount of silver & resources entering the game.

Mobs & Resources works in a way that they will Spawn and their loot will continue to grow the longer they are alive, this means that most mob spawns in highly trafficked areas will be quite bad for maximizing silver income,

This is why we suggest people to spread out and settle either within or close to the PVP enabled area, despite the risk of PVP

The hard facts:
* Travel, freshly spawned mobs have the least amount of silver. Often territories that are percieved as too dangerous to go into have the best rewards.
* Mobs that have been alive for a long time often carry up to 20 times the amount of silver of freshly spawned mobs
* Only wear what you are afford to lose, you should preferably be coming home with more silver then the value of what you left home with.
* Group up! Find a Guild or some other Solo players and group up with Albion Online Power Leveling! Even being only 2 players together helps you take on much harder mobs.
* Look on the world map! Find the closest treasure territories, they are often a good source of silver

Equipment tips:
* Shields add a lot of armor and allows you to taunt the target enemy
* Leather armor got a great heal which will lower your downtime. (Bringing food is also great)* Using the defensive strike will buff your armor (stacks up to 3 times) will increase your survivability* The Ability "Disabling Strike" will help you a lot against mobs that cast spells, interrupting their spells will ease your PVE experience.

As I can judge, nobody sane will use Daggers. Much better use Cursed Staff. It's same but it's distance and has DOT effect. Also it give's you nice selection of passive effects at off-hand.

But I sitll want to believe, that Developers can make this weapon much better. I love this style - daggers. Just ask yourself: what Rogue type player can do in 1v1 fight and 5v5 fight? He should wear LIGHT armor because of +50-60% of damage to do at least some damage. And he will be extremelly squishy. Like mages. Is it fair? Well, maybe. But only if he can fight vs mages. Can he? I saw - cannot. If Rogue player wear HEAVY armor, he can live a some time more. But what he can do? Invisibility? Nope. Damage? Nope. Stun? Nope. CC? Well, I could say "bugged non-targeted sleep", but I, anyway, say Nope. It's really useless shame IMO.

So what future you figured for this weapon type - without survival and without CC, DOTs, debuffs (I can't count -14 (even x3 = -42 for 3-4 seconds) resistances as debuff)? Damage also very bad. Only one damage ability "Slit Throat" for whole Dagger's Thread, but before you should take a MELEE (try get close when your enemy have 2-3 knock-back abilities to Buy Albion Online Gold) fight for 10 second minimum and stay alive. I don't believe it is possible in mass pvp fight. I remember about poison ability at one-handed daggers. It's not bad, but still almost useless in mass pvp.

There needs to be a much bigger balance based around information of zones. At the moment people are using unclothed characters to run through gates to give them information on the other side, or other such scouting. Unfortunately, because of the zone-ing system, there will always be those who send something worthless through to the other side to check. However, once you do get a group through, there needs to be some way for them to know what, who and where, other people are in this zone. I’m not talking about having everyone as a dot on the minimap, but some form of spells that help with locations.

At the moment, we have but a single utility role within Albion Online: The Healer, and you can say what you like about the levelling of them, when it comes to fights – these guys can turn the tide. There needs to be more in terms of utility, Spells that allow you to know how many are in the zone, spells that give you X information within a certain radius. Other passives that allow you to be hidden from those spells. Albion Online seems to be lacking the play / counter play part of PvP. The cat and mouse game of hunter and hunted.

At the moment it’s very much a case of who can run the fastest and avoid the CC. There needs to be a dedicated scout spell class, or other such information gatherer. (For those of you whom have played Eve, think of this very much as your D-scan and your Probe frigates; those roles, and the equivalent stealth counter play, aren’t existent in Albion Online PvP making most encounters a “We stumbled upon X group” rather than any tactics being involved in zoning and territory denial).

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