Black Desert Online

[Ahhzz]

Played a good bit this weekend, and absolutely amazed at the detail and depth of the crafting system. It resembles some of what I saw in the beta of Archeage, but didn't plaster it behind a paywall. I'm very pleased to have gone ahead and paid my $30 (while slightly wishing I could have justified a pre-purchase for the bonuses), and also splurged a little (shhhh) and bought some pearls for pets while on sale, and a little held back for "just in case"

The scheduled maintenance falls uncomfortably right before my normal wakeup time, and well into my "should have been at work time", which is annoying as hell, but I guess someone has to miss play time. I just wish they'd bump it to ... say.. 11:00 AM EST, but I guess that would eat into too much EU play time. Oh well.

Fishing is sufficiently different from WoW that I enjoy the change, and I seriously like that they actually encourage an AFK play-style, for not only fishing, but for your workers to be productive. Still working out exactly how I want to make money, but I'm comfortably stalled at level 20 (stayed 19 for well over 12 hours), sorting out as much as I can.

Applied to two guilds, found the second much more to my liking, and was told to "hold on a couple of days", just in time to get an invite from the first I turned it down, as I think the second will be a better fit for my play-style, but now I have to wait for a response from the second.

Anyone else have any thoughts or insight?

 

[Disparia]

From time to time it feels like I'm playing a very elaborate "app" ala Farmville, Sims Free To Play, etc, where there are artificial limitations imposed to your progression. I know it's a bit of a cultural thing mixed with attempts to keep the game economy stable mixed with it's buy-to-play nature so I'm working within those limitations. However, I'd be lying if I didn't sometimes feel... limited. After 5 years of playing a subscription-based game the mental transition to this type of game is a little rough.

With that said, I'm still enjoying it since I am bit of the grinder-type. Would be nice if it carried me all the way to Camelot Unchained (subscription PvPvP oriented game). I put in $80 total, so if I get 5-6 months out of it I'm happy (like if I was paying $15/month for a sub). The action combat in BDO is nice, but what I fear is that I'll need to be part of a large guild to get regular PvP action down the line since there's no open PvP area (Ettenmoors in LOTRO, Cyrodiil in ESO).

 

[Ahhzz]

From time to time it feels like I'm playing a very elaborate "app" ala Farmville, Sims Free To Play, etc, where there are artificial limitations imposed to your progression. I know it's a bit of a cultural thing mixed with attempts to keep the game economy stable mixed with it's buy-to-play nature so I'm working within those limitations. However, I'd be lying if I didn't sometimes feel... limited. After 5 years of playing a subscription-based game the mental transition to this type of game is a little rough.

With that said, I'm still enjoying it since I am bit of the grinder-type. Would be nice if it carried me all the way to Camelot Unchained (subscription PvPvP oriented game). I put in $80 total, so if I get 5-6 months out of it I'm happy (like if I was paying $15/month for a sub). The action combat in BDO is nice, but what I fear is that I'll need to be part of a large guild to get regular PvP action down the line since there's no open PvP area (Ettenmoors in LOTRO, Cyrodiil in ESO).

I know what you mean.... I hate running into those walls of need-more-energy. I get the contribution points, and I treat it like any other consumable resource, and consider it a good thing since it's retrievable. The energy thing, I'm just using as a smaller portion of the game. I do something that uses up all my energy, like making planks or cooking, and then when I run out, I go do some of the myriad quests clogging up my log. I get a good bit more frustrated about the lack of inventory space, especially as so many things should stack (seeds), but don't....
meh. more thoughts later

 

[xfia]

I have wanted to play it for years.. seems like the next big mmo for people that like the style of combat. cant say I couldnt see it coming.. just the youtube beta vids are enough to get people ready to war lol

 

[WhiteNoise]

Best MMO I've played in years. I'm trying to level up to 50 but I get side tracked so damn often with other things that it is hard to stay focused. lol L31 atm.

 

[Ahhzz]

Just wanted to add this here for anyone playing

http://www.blackdeserttome.com/map/

 

[Disparia]

https://www.blackdesertonline.com/news/view/85

Mediah expansion tomorrow as well as cash shop update.

 

[Solaris17]

aw hell yeah!

 

[Ahhzz]

https://www.blackdesertonline.com/news/view/85

Mediah expansion tomorrow as well as cash shop update.

Now, that's surprising... the only good thing about their update/patch schedule is that while it definitely eliminates my morning gaming 1-2 hours, if it runs late, it doesn't really bother me. I remote in, and wait until a patch is ready, let it start, and when I get home, away I go

i would like to know what "Cash shop update" means.... Anyone who played on KR or RU know what's involved in the Mediah system?

 

[Ahhzz]

Patch looks pretty impressive, altho it will be a while until I get to the majority of it. I've been creeping to the upper 20s, dragged kicking and screaming by my farming/fishing/horse training/logging/beer-cooking fingernails. I expect I'll clear 30 by this weekend, especially since I've decided that I'm not making nearly enough money fishing, and I either need to get serious on only fishing, and nothing but, or go ahead and level a bit, expanding my horizons.

 

[Disparia]

L44, my grinding will pick up now that the Crimson Battlefield is available (50+ to join).

Also helpful, my new Logitech G700s arrived yesterday. The scroll wheel on my Steelseries Sensai Raw was so borked (even after multiple cleanings) that I had an second mouse plugged in for scrolling purposes. Can imaging trying to sell to a vendor and your inventory keeps jumping up or simply trying to scroll in or out while fighting.

 

[WhiteNoise]

My main is only at L34 mainly due to me doing everything but leveling. I do have 4 alts that are at L15 each. So far I have to say my witch is my favorite but the ranger and warrior are a close second. Pretty fun to play. I'm stoked about auto-pathing. Gonna take advantage of that shit right away.

 

[Ahhzz]

I'm anti-stoked about auto-pathing. Welcome to the start of the "easy button" for the US launch of this game... I don't think our Korean overlords understand exactly how much the American gaming population will whine about how hard it is to play a game, and then after having concession after concession, complain that there's no challenge in the game any more.

I have a level 31 ranger that has been dragged kicking and screaming the last 11 levels, and a level 15 Valk, and I really don't know how she got there.. I went out to kill things, looked up 2 hours later, and she was level 15.

I'm saving my alt slots for now, as I want to get into the blade, or Ninja, and the Plum, I think. Not sure when I'll rack up enough Loyalty points to get everything I want, so not grabbing the extra Char Slot yet

 

[flmatter]

Welcome to the start of the "easy button" for the US launch of this game... I don't think our Korean overlords understand exactly how much the American gaming population will whine about how hard it is to play a game, and then after having concession after concession, complain that there's no challenge in the game any more.

hmmm flash back to WoW.... one of the reasons I got away from it was the cookie cutter approach so others can play with out having to read or watch videos on proper builds.

I am still on the fence about black desert, just don't know. I am almost done with PoE, or at least the main part of the game. I like what I have seen about black desert so far. I may pull the trigger on it soon.

 

[Ahhzz]

hmmm flash back to WoW.... one of the reasons I got away from it was the cookie cutter approach so others can play with out having to read or watch videos on proper builds.

My point exactly, I'm afraid....
I am still on the fence about black desert, just don't know. I am almost done with PoE, or at least the main part of the game. I like what I have seen about black desert so far. I may pull the trigger on it soon.

Despite the money I have sunk in PoE (Packrat+OCD= outta room!!!), I still use that as a casual escape from time to time, which probably means I'll never "finish" more than a couple of times, and never at the highest level.
The SO has jumped back into Rift, which is where we took refuge after WoW: unfortunately at that time, we were looking for "WoW-again", and not "something-almost-as-good-as-WoW", and it didn't hold us long. Upon revisiting, she's really enjoying it, and I think I could as well, but BD has my attention pretty solidly, so I just play a bit here and there with her. Even with the paid expansions and other money-pulls, it's still a solid game.
I do regret not going ahead to pre-purchase BD for a few of the perks, but I just couldn't be sure until I got my hands on the full game for a few days. It didn't take long to lock me in tho, and I think it will be at least worth my money and time for 6 months to a year. If I still get half as much enjoyment then sa I have now, I'll consider it worth it

 

[WhiteNoise]

Auto-pathing has been a feature in BDO in Korea. They left it out of the EU/NA version and just added it in. BDO is designed with AFK functions. I play maybe an hour a day, maybe a handful of hours a week. So anything I can do while not playing is a boon to me.

 

[Disparia]

I don't have much of an opinion on it, my character already had L30 breath and L24 strength before auto-loop was enabled. Used it recently to finish off strength and now I've switched to a wagon for "at keyboard" trade, training, and horse leveling. But while running errands I might auto-loop for the horse/training gain. The way I see it, you're going to be in the game anyway and if there wasn't auto-loop you'd be AFK fishing for massive profit or reading from a bookshelf (knowledge gain). Auto-looping just opens up more AFK activities.

Since this is how the game was designed the damage or benefit, depending on how it's seen, is already done. Kind of like the tightly controlled marketplace and lack of player trading. They really can't do any big changes at this point without a massive disruption in the economy.

 

[BiggieShady]

Well, I got the game yesterday, and first thing that hit me was a nasty hair transparency bug that came with the expansion and hasn't been fixed since ... additionally the engine seem to have issues with all semi-transparent surfaces that aren't vegetation, making them overly bright or incorrectly lit. Other than buggy hair transparency sorting and messed up lighting on feathers and such, game looks gorgeous when you are not moving. With movement LOD pop in rears its ugly head, but as far as MMOs go, it looks great and gameplay is fun. Hope I'll find some time to play it

 

[WhiteNoise]

This game is awesome but I haven't touched it in about 2 months now. I got side tracked with other games but I hope to get back into BDO eventually.

 

[Disparia]

I've been slowing down a lot. Sign in, AFK fish, check bag in a couple hours. Sometimes a world boss is up and I'll join in.

Between the recent bans and people feeling burned out channels are pretty quiet these days (that's not necessarily a bad thing given the non-stop toxicity for the first 3 months of the game). I know a lot of us were hoping for more PvP by this point such as nodes and sieges so it could be break time for many.

 

[Ahhzz]

.....

.... more PvP by this point such as nodes and sieges so it could be break time for many.

Coming this weekend

 

[newconroer]

It is, in effect, still just another modern MMORPG.
All of the usual MMO issues and grievances still persist.


At the moment the only MMO that looks to change up the fundamentals laid down by WoW, after they evolved them from EQ, is Pantheon - which will be taking us back to more old school style.

 

[Ahhzz]

Ninja Edit!!!


Well, how about Ninja Post?

http://2p.com/43683802_1/NinjaKunoichi-Class-is-Expected-to-Reach-Black-Desert-by-MMORPGmaster.htm


I've got no real desire to run a Ninja, and I'm hoping that they don't overpower the stupid things. But, for those that want to play Ninja, the info should be released next week

 

[BiggieShady]

So far I have been playing with a controller from the more comfortable seating position (only mmo beside tera that can be played with a controller afaik) and it has been fine and dandy but ... time has come to catch me a horse, guess I'll be switching to mouse and keyboard for that, gotta hotkey the rope and read badly written instructions many times

 

[Ahhzz]

Gonna wake this up a bit. Anyone still playing this here? I've got 148 days or so /played, most of which (obviously) was AFK, either fishing or riding, or an unfortunately large amount of time standing in front of the bank, while I drive to work going "Damn it!! I needed to chop that lumber/grind that wheat/etc!".

Not overly pleased with many of the recent changes, the so-called "P2W" changes. They've introduced what is essentially a monthly subscription service, where certain benefits (extra inventory space, more weight allowed, bonus return in the Marketplace) are available for $10 per month. They've also allowed people to purchase items from the cash shop (such as the monthly Value Pack) for Real Money, and then resell them in game for in-game currency. This allows people to quickly purchase better gear on the Marketplace to improve their character. They did this ostensibly to "allow players who couldn't normally obtain the benefits of the cash shop to enjoy those items". Unfortunately, the reality is that the most beneficial items like the lucky underwear {+1 to in-game luck}, and ghillie suit {masking characters name and guild tags, which give you away to enemy PVPers}, are not available to resell. I don't know that it's caused a large issue in-game, and I have purchased a couple of Cash Shop items for the minor benefit they give (- 10% durability loss to weapon, +.5 meter jump height), and a Value Pack. But the basic process is slightly abhorrent to me. It really does reek of P2W, in my opinion.... However, the players are limited to selling 5 Cash Shop items per week, and the higher priced, upper tier equipment has sold quickly, both before and after this introduction.

One of the in-game resources is "Energy". Energy regenerates at a rate of 1 every 3 minutes, unless you're using beds, or in-game limited bonus recharger items. Initially, everything that would be considered loosely "Crafting" in most MMOs such as cooking, alchemy, manufacturing, gathering, etc, used 1 energy (Called loosely "Life Skills" in BDO). As your skill went up in each one of these, you not only gained ability to gather/create more items, you also gained a chance not to use energy each time. So, instead of burning 10 energy to chop 10 trees, you might only use 6 or 7, and were more likely to gather bonus items like (believe it or not), a cleanly cut lumber plank instead of just a log, heheh. Twice now, Daum cum Kakao (the rebranded BDO publisher post merge), has eliminated the energy requirement for some skills, previously "processing" (converting the logs to planks, and then to plywood, or grain to flower), and most recently cooking and alchemy. This has led to speculation, as Gabriel Iglesias would say, "Whyyyy??!!!" One answer is a potential change to the Node investments. You could "invest" energy into a specific area of the map, supposedly allowing better drop rates from the mobs in the area. Changing this so that your workers (who can be assigned to automatically gather resources from these areas) have a better return rate on normal and/or rare items would be a welcome change for many.

The Node Wars released a couple of months back appears to have fallen flat. Too many players did not get what they expected from the new mechanic, and left the game, leaving several large, successful guilds stripped of active players, and those that remained wanted to play the game for the non-PVP elements. Unfortunately, this left the guild as easy target practice for the PVP players left in the game, some of whom actively search out such guilds, declare them as enemies, and then use the mostly-helpless gamers as occasional punching bags.

Even a few of the top guilds (including the number 2 guild on my server) went thru a dramatic drop in attendance, and wildly cleansed inactive accounts. The more determined PVPers have filtered to the more active PVP-based guilds in the game, making a very dramatic shift in power between guilds. Where before, a guild might have a balance of 3:1 or 2:1 PVP to PVE players, or even lower, now the higher ranked guilds boast 6:1 and higher numbers of PVP players. Smaller guilds become smaller as people get bored and leave, or get tired of being targeted by large, blood-hungry guilds, and simply stop playing. Some of the more troll-like PVPers are banding together, and, ignoring the structured PVP Node Wars, find their joy from random, repeated PVP against afk fishers, horse trainers, and lone players in the wild.


*sigh* this has turned into an ugly conglomerate of a primer for those outside the game, and a mild commentary on the state of the game from my point of view. I'll go back thru maybe this afternoon, and try to clear up some of it, isolate the primer portion from my editorial. If I can't manage to make time in a day or so, I'll just delete it all, and leave the detailed postings to those more qualified

I have had my first guild dissolve out from under me in the wee hours of the morning. In the second guild, the Leader left after causing us to be targeted by several guilds. This resulted in me being randomly killed while AFK multiple times per day. I've joined a more stable guild, with members across several games, and those left in the BDO arm appear to be here for a somewhat longer haul. Promising, at any rate. First node war this past weekend, and found my gear dramatically lacking, and my skills somewhat worse than I feared. But, having a structured guild, with plans for the party events stated clearly, and available, is a substantial improvement. Not sure about my long term investment, but for now, I still enjoy the "free range" aspects, "Life Skills", etc, and the PVP portion appears to be open for improvement. I think I'm "Cautiously Optimistic"