Black Desert

One thing she gets wrong in that video and we kinda touched on it earlier. The different type of quests and the knowledge system.

You have your Story quests which tend to send you off somewhere. Some times to kill things but other times just to go to a certain point to find something or to just talk.

You have your Town quests which tend to be your hey go kill x number of things.

You have Black Spirit quests which is your primary guide for your characters progression through the game which tend to be kill quests, but they also help guide your through different mechanics of the game. From getting your mount to using black stones.

You also have exploration, trading, crafting quests.

If you wanted you could skip every single quest in the game except for the Black Spirit quests. They're needed for when you hit 50 and need start leveling past that. So it's better to them along the way than having to go back and do them.

It's interesting to note that the xp curve on the NA/EU beta was lower than what it was for the other versions. In the follow up poll for CBT1 they asked what people thought of it. So it may end up changing before launch based on user feedback.

The Knowledge system is also tied to your questing. Some things requires you to have a certain amount of knowledge on specific subjects before you can do them. Whether it's getting other quests or buying items from a vendor. For vendors you then have to chat them up with conversations with these knowledge points to raise your status with them. Only after doing that enough will you be able to buy certain items from them.

Knowledge is also tied to what you know about the mobs you fight. When you first fight something all you see is a health bar that changes from green to red to dead. Only after you kill enough are you able to see more information like the health bar changing with each attack.

Another cool thing about the Knowledge system is that it's linked to your family name. So you don't have to 'relearn' everything if you do an alt. That information travels with you.

ranalin, is the game world linear? In the sense that you start in this area, level up enough and then go that area ... etc?

Certis wrote:

ranalin, is the game world linear? In the sense that you start in this area, level up enough and then go that area ... etc?

Nope. Soon as you log in you can go anywhere. Granted you'll get slaughtered when running into some higher level mobs.

Edit: To answer better... For leveling It starts off that way in that you're surrounded by lower level stuff but as you move out the places you can go spirals WAY out. Unless you go node hunting or being a completionist you could end up completely missing zones. It's up to you how you want to explore and level up.

ranalin wrote:

One thing she gets wrong in that video and we kinda touched on it earlier. The different type of quests and the knowledge system.

You have your Story quests which tend to send you off somewhere. Some times to kill things but other times just to go to a certain point to find something or to just talk.

You have your Town quests which tend to be your hey go kill x number of things.

You have Black Spirit quests which is your primary guide for your characters progression through the game which tend to be kill quests, but they also help guide your through different mechanics of the game. From getting your mount to using black stones.

You also have exploration, trading, crafting quests.

If you wanted you could skip every single quest in the game except for the Black Spirit quests. They're needed for when you hit 50 and need start leveling past that. So it's better to them along the way than having to go back and do them.

It's interesting to note that the xp curve on the NA/EU beta was lower than what it was for the other versions. In the follow up poll for CBT1 they asked what people thought of it. So it may end up changing before launch based on user feedback.

The Knowledge system is also tied to your questing. Some things requires you to have a certain amount of knowledge on specific subjects before you can do them. Whether it's getting other quests or buying items from a vendor. For vendors you then have to chat them up with conversations with these knowledge points to raise your status with them. Only after doing that enough will you be able to buy certain items from them.

Knowledge is also tied to what you know about the mobs you fight. When you first fight something all you see is a health bar that changes from green to red to dead. Only after you kill enough are you able to see more information like the health bar changing with each attack.

Another cool thing about the Knowledge system is that it's linked to your family name. So you don't have to 'relearn' everything if you do an alt. That information travels with you.

Ah, I just saw BDO thread here and remembered that one; I skimmed through the first page and checked couple videos briefly, same as with Crowfall (the only difference being that I'm much more familiar with CF).

ranalin wrote:
Certis wrote:

ranalin, is the game world linear? In the sense that you start in this area, level up enough and then go that area ... etc?

Nope. Soon as you log in you can go anywhere. Granted you'll get slaughtered when running into some higher level mobs.

Edit: To answer better... For leveling It starts off that way in that you're surrounded by lower level stuff but as you move out the places you can go spirals WAY out. Unless you go node hunting or being a completionist you could end up completely missing zones. It's up to you how you want to explore and level up.

To follow up on this I did not do much in the way of quests in the beta. I just ran off and started to explore and kill things.

If I crossed quests I would pick them up and maybe complete them or just keep going in whatever way I was heading.

The knowledge system can make this sort of interesting to do because when you first fight things and have no knowledge you can't see the creatures health bar so are not sure how well you are doing against it.

A few times I was fighting things that were higher level than me but could not tell if I was winning or not till something died or I lost my nerve and disengaged.

I think it adds something to the overall in game experience.

There were large areas that I found not populated with creatures at times which made exploring those area not as exciting.

Greetings,

With CBT-1 complete and the holidays behind us, everyone is getting excited to see an update from the BDO Team. First let me thank you for all of the feedback we have received so far, there has been a staggering amount, and we are excited to see so many people invested in the game. Next week a portion of our team will be going to Seoul to discuss the CBT-1 feedback as well as the CBT-2 and launch plans with the developers. This opportunity will allow us to provide the feedback directly, we believe it is crucial that this level of communication is in place to ensure we provide you with the best service possible.

Following this trip, Project Manager Belsazar will be working on the latest PM Diary, you can expect to see it after the second week of January, check out the previous post here. This will give us time to digest the feedback and we want to make sure that there is actual content to post about. After the new PM Diary is published, Belsazar will begin working on a new Question and Answer session as promised in his previous post.

Thanks again for your enthusiasm, and I look forward to providing more updates!

So after finding out that it'll be 3+ weeks before we're likely to see CBT2 i went looking at the JP and RU options of playing the game. I didnt want to pay the fees for an ID to play in KR, and come to find out that the JP and RU games are also F2P. So all i needed was a VPN connection.

I ended up doing the RU option because it was MUCH easier to set up. I started off with the JP option, but it was just too frustrating. RU option you download launcher and download the game and English patch. After the launcher downloaded the game, install English patch, i started up the VPN and voila! Game time!

Another cool option with the RU version is that it has the Blader class available. So i'm trying that out. The combat is brilliant with this guy and the moves he's able to do makes me giggle with glee. May have to rethink my Ninja idea for the NA version.

IMAGE(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm272/ranalin/2016-01-02_263732320217_-28_-466_zpss6jy2cl8.jpg)

Hey Ranalin are you using a premium vpn or a free one? I didn't have much luck finding a free one that would connect to one of the accepted RU regions.

b12n11w00t wrote:

Hey Ranalin are you using a premium vpn or a free one? I didn't have much luck finding a free one that would connect to one of the accepted RU regions.

beta version of WTfast.

Not sure if it has the pay version like the non version or not.

For those of us with time to read but not watch videos Massively has a couple longer first impression articles:

http://massivelyop.com/2016/01/01/bl...

http://massivelyop.com/2016/01/04/bl...

I'm stoked for this, though I'm content to wait for the proper release at this point.

I bought into this for nothing more than the opportunity to play an mmo with Maladen again life the EQ2 days. Plus it looks fun although I'm not a huge PvP guy.

So works been busting my butt so not had much time to put into the game except for some of the afk type tasks.

Spent a couple days doing nothing but running around with a pack on my back. Getting my STR up to level 13 so far. Now i dont immediately get overweight when i loot something.

I have also been fishing. Past couple days i'll buy a new fishing rod (they break down with use) and just go afk. When i come back to my desk my inventory is halfway filled with fish and when i trade them in i make 100k+

Past 3 days of this and i've gained over 600k. It's even more if some of the non fish stuff sales on the AH.

I have also dabbled in breeding horses. I picked up 2 T3 horses and one was female. This is the result:

IMAGE(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm272/ranalin/2016-01-06_308677139-1422_-68_1709_zpschgxhlsv.jpg)

since CBT1 is done what's the difference between the Tier 3 Horse in the explorer's package and the Tier 5 Horse in the conqueror's package? I see this but.. wrong language;
http://black-desert.com/forums/blog/...

When does CBT2 start? I bought the Conquerors package and I want to play.

No word yet on CBT2 they're currently in KR this week so wont be till next week or later that they'll begin discussing time tables.

As for the different tiers of horses. The number of skills and speed and performance all go up with each tier. It goes as high as T8. You can find up to T4 in the wild, but have to breed to get that high or win race tokens to buy them off a vendor.

Seriously! AFK fishing FTW!

All i've been able to do this week is before going to bed has been sale off any fish i have in my inventory to the trader in the farthest city south i know and buy a new fishing rod (they degrade after each catch). Ride my horse (almost a full level of xp on the horse for each trip) back up to this isolated north shore where there's a RICH supply of fish (only seen 2 other people fishing up here) and start fishing. Do the same again before i head off to work. On top of all this if everything i have sells that i put on the AH i'll have almost double this amount.

IMAGE(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm272/ranalin/money_zps77c2i6cl.jpg)

What server are you playing on Ran?

The Russian one.

Which reminds me the money is after the huge cut they take in fees for me not being a premium player. Just a lowly F2P one.

New info... and more to come from the KR trip (FYI current level to start pvp is 30):

http://forum.blackdesertonline.com/i...

Dear Players,

First and foremost, I’d like to personally thank everyone again for participating in our CBT1 and supporting us so far. We are grateful that you enjoy Black Desert Online and share your love across all platforms on the web.

We have received plenty of feedback:

Well, what can I say:

As you may have read here, myself and a part of our team is currently in Seoul, South-Korea, to meet the developers (Pearl Abyss) in person to discuss your feedback and the next steps towards CBT2 and Launch, both to happen in Q1 2016.

So far the meetings have been very promising and it has been a pleasure to meet the guys from Pearl Abyss. As a little intermezzo until the next ‘event’ starts in January (not the CBT2 *tease*), we would like to present the updates that we can confirm so far for CBT2 and/or launch or the features that have been initiated to be deployed at some point in the future.

Let’s start with the most recent feature to be implemented.

Party Play Revamp

On the 8th January, the KR the Korean version will receive the revamped Party Play setting which is based on our feedback from CBT1. So far players had the feeling that they were penalized for playing together with friends, as the experience benefit was rather turning into a malus. As we are still preparing launch, the running services will be able to enjoy the new benefits sooner of course. We will see this in our CBT2.

The change as of today will be as follows:

[diagram]

*Example: A scenario where every player in the party kills a monster for 100EXP and considering all party members are in perfect range. If you move out of range EXP won’t be shared.

The benefit increases if you consider that you can work together to kill larger mobs of stronger monster types. But be careful, the more you move away from each other and the killed monster, the higher the chances to lose the bonus. But fear not, developers doubled the share-range for the party bonus and additionally the developers reacted very positively towards our suggestion to add an indicator that will allow you to monitor whether you are in range or not. The indicator will be probably implemented latest by launch and it will look similar to the Wifi Symbol (on your cell-phone) that will gradually indicate whether or not your party members are in range.

Experience gain will be determined based on the lowest party member’s level and the monster level.

Happy hunting!

Field Boss Drops

Those of you that were able to participate in our CBT1 event Shadows Looming might have come across our field bosses Red Nose, Hebetate Tree Spirit or Bheg at Serendia Temple or at the Altar of Agris. Those bosses seemed to be quite strong and required more than 40 people to kill. However, once your characters are fully developed, it will take between 10~30 people to kill them, depending on your equipment and level. That being said, as before only a handful of players acquired a guaranteed drop, this has been significantly increased to reward those contributing to kill the monster.

Energy System

Unlike the KR version, processing requires energy. Especially at a lower level this may slow you down more than you might enjoy. However, this feature is part of a controlling mechanism to prevent the marketplace to be overflowed with certain items, hence destroying the actual benefit from using that feature in the first place and to partially slow down the progress in benefit of the game’s longevity.

However, we have taken your feedback into consideration and the result should be in everyone’s interest. Energy Potions will not be sold in the Cash Shop. In addition, it is currently being discussed to add a system that allows players to consult an NPC that will magically transfer your unused energy into an Energy Potion which can be sold on the marketplace. Ultimately this will lead to a shift of energy and allow people to collect energy over time to utilize it when needed.

Additionally, processing at a higher profession level will receive a chance of not consuming any energy at random.

Please note, this is merely the first part of the PM Diary. The heavier topics such as PvP and Cash Shop will be dealt with in the next part, which we will share around mid/end next week.

Best regards

PM Belsazar & the BDO Team

Update

We have confirmed with the developers that depending on the level difference of the player and monster the percentage exp from the monster killed fluctuates.

The level that pvp unlocks will be increased for CBT-2

Guide video for all the classes (NA launch wont have Blader/Plum or the Ninja/Kunoichi)

Ranger: https://youtu.be/12Lb5YkMYAY
Tamer: https://youtu.be/fGT9ee0hlns
Blader/Plum: https://youtu.be/UkLjSv9u3sE
Wizard/Witch: https://youtu.be/3j7XkFpojb8
Valkyrie: https://youtu.be/ejO2bkleoAA
Ninja/Kunoichi: https://youtu.be/f0D-Y0NrEFY
Berserker(Giant): https://youtu.be/Wfxk8EeDd1o
Sorcerer: https://youtu.be/vKPHxNjQqEQ
Warrior: https://youtu.be/taFIzCQtWEc

Tamer looks sweet, I hope pet AI / pathfinding is bearable.

CBT2 announcement next week

http://forum.blackdesertonline.com/i...

IMAGE(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm272/ranalin/miles_zpsdzm4cmu5.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm272/ranalin/CashShop1_zpspplvovyq.jpg)
IMAGE(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm272/ranalin/CashShop2_zpsnjjdtj3g.jpg)

Below you will find a short summary for the lazy readers.
February

Family and Character Name reservations early February
Cash Shop

Cash Shop details announced. See post for details.

Possible pay2win items moved to mileage shop
Mileage system will be improved
CBT Feedback

Leveling Curve

Experience from monsters will be adjusted
Group Play
Party Loot Bag will be re-implemented
Energy System
Energy exchange rate into potion might be adjusted for CBT2
Karma and PK
Possibly looking into ‘bounty hunter’ features (see details in post)
Join the PK discussion >>here<<
Player to Player Trade
Trading might be disabled for CBT2; discussion ongoing
Server Setup
No update
Learning Curve
Missing profession quest bug in CBT1 will be fixed for CBT2
Guides or channels towards guides will be offered

New Stuff!?

Localization
All regions will receive their English accentuation to emphasize their role and contribute to the environment and atmosphere of the game
Cinematic Intro
New cinematic intro in development; maybe available at launch!?
Castle Siege and Node Wars
Will be updated after ~4 weeks after launch
First test runs will be done on live service to fine-tune server settings

The future…

Look for yourself ^_^
Stop reading the summary you lazy bum! -_-

Update

You will not receive Mileage with pearl purchases, the only way to get mileage is as a daily login reward.
Cash Shop & Mileage items cannot be traded or put on the Auction House

Whelp, no longer waiting for release. Figure it's B2P so might as well get some goodies while I'm at it. That and I want to see how well this runs. It may be time for a video card upgrade.

I know i say this about every other game, but seriously this is one of the best looking games and THE best MMO as far as looks go.

Still unless you're afraid you cant run the game i'd wait till closer to the end of the year. The new cards will be MUCH better.

If nothing else, this game has provided for some comedy gold, as the brothers McElroy demonstrate (some NSFW language, etc)

Is the combat action MMO type?

NVm - reread first post

ranalin wrote:

I know i say this about every other game, but seriously this is one of the best looking games and THE best MMO as far as looks go.

Still unless you're afraid you cant run the game i'd wait till closer to the end of the year. The new cards will be MUCH better.

Oh, I can run it, it's more of a "this gives me an excuse".

I just wish they'd hurry and start CBT2.

News this week. They basically said it won't be January. I imagine it'll be very early February and then release by April. End of March is end of Q1, right?

Q1 launch so end of March.

I suspect, because my luck with this type of things is typical, that the CBT2 will start on Jan 29th (The Division Beta starts on the 29th) and Launch will be in March. They've already said no open beta so CBT2 is it. Honestly all they have to make sure is that their infrastructure is up and running and they've finished localization. End of March will give them time to finish whatever voice acting they need done.