The Glade 4.0

I was itching to wander back and see if I could fall in with anybody fun to play with again. So I'm poking around, seeing what changes have been made in the last nearly 2 years since I stopped playing, and noticed that the game is going free to play November 22nd. It's late, and I'm lazy, so I'll dig up the page and link it tomorrow, but there are three tiers of account: Free accounts, "Premium" accounts, and Captain's Club accounts.

Captain's Club accounts are accounts with active subscriptions. Premium accounts are free accounts that have ever paid for at least one month's subscription; this is retroactive, so former players who return automatically have Premium accounts.

The list of things that distinguish Premium and Captain's Club accounts actually looks pretty small; essentially, Captain's Club accounts get a 20% bonus to xp and loot (shortening cash grinding, presumably) and don't have to buy access to the end-game PvE raid content like free and Premium accounts do on a mission by mission basis. So it's really quite a steal! Sign up for a free account after it goes F2P, subscribe for one month and cancel, and you've nearly got all the benefits of an ongoing subscription!

Anyways, if anybody had ever considered checking this game out, but never got around to giving it a chance; the time is coming up. And if anybody used to play and returning sounds like it might be fun; Premium accounts basically have all the features you used to anyways, so you can do it for free!

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

...

How gimped are the free accounts?

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Raell Kromwell

Complete breakdown of account level features. The highlights:

Free accounts get 2 character slots per nation (per server, I think). Since they consolidated servers way back, you can play one nation per map cycle, switching from one cycle to the next if you wish. Premium and Captain's Club accounts get 6. Free accounts may purchase more as microtransactions.
Verdict: Not really gimped at all, especially since economic plots are per account.

Free accounts get 2 dockyard slots per character. This means you can have two ships at a time, and transfer between their two locations if you sail them to different places. Premium and Captain's club accounts get 5. Free accounts may purchase more as microtransactions.
Verdict: hardly gimped. 2 is a bit tight, but that's still enough to have a cargo hauler and a combat ship if you like. Red zones will pose more of a threat, though, because if the port you're docked at with your 1 combat ship is flipped while you're offline, you don't have the easy out of transporting to another combat ship and playing normally from there. Instead, you'll have to sail out through the PvP area.

Free accounts don't get ship storage slots. I'm not exactly sure what these are -- I think they may have added a feature where you can stick an old ship into storage instead of using up an active dockyard slot for it. Premium and Captain's Club members get 100 per character.
Verdict: I can't recall ever using it, whatever it is, so it probably isn't a hassle. Can be purchased as microtransactions, regardless.

Free accounts get 2 economic plots account. Premium and Captain's Club get the full 10. Free accounts can purchase more as microtransactions.
Verdict: A bit of a handicap. It'll reduce the amount of money you can make "crafting." That said, if you're not heavy into PvP, 2 plots (or purchasing a few more; these would probably be my first or second recommendation for taking advantage of the microtransactions, along with dockyard slots) along with normal PvE action ought to be able to keep you relatively comfortable as far as being able to afford ships. If you plan on PvPing, you'll want the extra cash flow afforded by running a more comprehensive economic venture.

Free accounts don't get ship insurance (reimburses you some money when your ship sinks). Premium and Captain's Club accounts continue to get insured for free. Free accounts can insure their ships as a microtransaction, looks like.
Verdict: minor nuisance. The game released without insurance, and the payout doesn't replace a ship at market value anyways, and is often quite small.

Free and Premium accounts must purchase access to "Premium Missions." These are the multi-group PvE missions at the high end, and perhaps the daily cash missions for max levels, too.
Verdict: Do you like raiding? From what I hear, the loot is nice, but in that self-perpetuating raid to raid better stuff way. Probably pretty necessary to get the edge in PvP, too. I'm not sure how much content has been added since I stopped playing, so I don't know how cost-effective it would be to just buy the missions.


All in all? Free is a good bargain to get your feet wet and level up. Paying for a month and cancelling is a downright steal. Ongoing subscriptions are really only worthwhile for heavy PvPers, alt-o-holics, and maybe raiders.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

It should be noted that if you ever had a full account and reactivate, you get the Premium account status.

Yes, it should. I think I mentioned that, but if I didn't -- like I said, fantastic deal for old players to return for free.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

As far as I can tell, the date for Free to Play starting is this Monday, the 22nd. It's kind of odd, they haven't been making a big stink about it; my only guess is they want to launch their marketting machine only after they have it available rather than generate interest and have people look it up only to have to tell them "It's just 3 weeks away!" or whatever.

Oh, also -- Uinan, it was you who used to play with DFK! and I, right? And got fed up with the PvE content playing hide-and-seek if you either fell off a quest chain or outlevelled a port and didn't want to backfill? (IIRC, that was your chief complaint, at least)

They added "Broadsheet Peddlers" to each town; you can talk to them and they'll tell you the headlines going on around the Caribbean -- in other words, they'll point you to ports to find quests you haven't completed, and you can filter by level appropriateness. Found this out by stumbling on one and going, "Whoa, that's useful."

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

That was indeed my #1 complaint. Spending more time trying to find quests to do than actually working on quests to progress.

I was hoping that might of gotten changed when you posted about this. I might have to take a peek.

I forget your character's name, and didn't see it in the society roster. Lemme know so I can throw you back on my friends list (or know which name on there it is, lol) and say hi if I see you.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I honestly don't remember. Was the name of some real French naval captain of some sort.

Lol. I'm still Elise LaFleur on the French. Antigua, after the server merge. If you haven't played since the merge, it'll give you the option of Antigua and Roberts. Port battle times are roughly American/Late European and a much broader Eurasian time block, respectively. It looks like I'll be rolling an alt if a friend tries out the game on F2P, too, though. I'll post the alt's name when I make it, hehe.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Dammit, that's what I get for quoting a month-old target date. Yesterday, from the primary Community Rep:



Real shame they're missing the Thanksgiving window.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades