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Black Desert Online (Orwen Server Ch. Mediah O1)
MyDcmbr
PEWPEWPEW!!!America's WangRegistered User regular
PEWPEWPEW!!!America's WangRegistered User regular
Black Desert Online
So what is this? Well it's another Kor- whoa, wait, wait! Don't go! Just give me a minute of your time!
Ahem, Black Desert Online is a Korean action sandbox MMO. If you've played the recent Blade and Soul than I can tell you the combat is very similar.
If you haven't then let me explain.
The combat is basically a third-person action game. You have to dodge attacks, position yourself, counter, and sometimes sit back and wait for an opening. There are no auto-attacks in this game, for you or the enemy. If you dodge an attack (any attack) then you're not going to take damage. Though the same applies for the enemy.
Not unlike a fighting game, each of your attacks create opportunities for combos. No hotbar, tab-targeting combat here!
There are also no healing classes. Speaking of!
PA Presence Info
We are on the server Orwen . PA Guild name is Arcadians. Typically, we hang out in Valencia O1 which is one of the channels you can pick from when logging in. You can switch from one to another, so if you pick the wrong one, no big deal. Guild invites have to be done in person in game. Please tag @Arthil if you want to get into the guild so he can coordinate a meeting point.
Please post your info on this spreadsheet courtesy of @Arthil
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WWmYtkktX50_hgQKVjtoS4WdEsG6WzqjEz9XxZZJteE/edit?usp=sharing
Classes
Unlike most games, you don't pick your gender then pick a class. Classes are associated with either male or female. That said, some classes do have a male and female counterpart. Though while very similar, each one play a bit differently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGu3RAHFqHwWarrior: Classic sword and board guy. Surprisingly mobile and can actually block all damage from the front with their shield. Don't let the tankiness fool you, Warriors have great DPS (spoilers: this will be a common theme with all classes).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPIwU5qw7PoValkyrie: The female counterpart of the Warrior. While not as mobile as the Warrior the Valkyrie have a number of abilities at their disposal that make them even better tanks that the Warrior. Plenty of knock downs and shield skills along with group buffs. And yes, they can still DPS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJmt0LKXyEoSorceress: Wiki page is rather empty, which is surprising since this is one of the more popular classes.
Anyway, remember up there when I said "some classes have a male and female counterpart"? Well Sorceress is one of those exceptions.
Sorceresses (Sorceressi?) are, basically dark magic wielding kung-fu masters. They are highly mobile and rely on combos and AoE skills. They're pretty powerful in the right hands, but can be very unforgiving to people who make mistakes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q82yVYegygTamer: Another class which lacks a male counterpart. Tamers are summoners/ambush experts. Fast, mobile, and fantastic for hit-and-run tactics. Plus their kick ass wolf-pet-thing-made out of ink helps to create general chaos in battle. For solo PvE-ing Tamers are very newbie friendly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiEDwnjgYd4Ranger Another female only class.
Rangers are, surprise surprise, long range DPS. They have some AoEs to stun/snare enemies, but their biggest advantage is their range. Staying out of reach is the order of the day so some players may not enjoy the kite-ing style of gameplay. That said Rangers are a solid choice of PvE and PvP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOSp0nVfQ68Wizard/Witch They're classic, Merlin styled spell casters. Absolutely devastating spells, but long cast times. Still, for totally destroying large groups of enemies in a short amount of time the Wizard/Witch takes the crown. A Witch is the female counterpart to the Wizard. Very similar to Wizards, in fact they are pretty much identical.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq0rkfAHz-IBeserker: RAWWWWR KILL EVERYTHING RAAAAWWRR!
Do you just want to jump right in to a group of enemies and become a whirling force of death? Beserker is for you! While probably one of the least mobile classes the Beserker absolutely excels at jumping in to the frontline and causing total-fucking-chaos.
Oh and they can pile-drive people!
That's it for the current classes, though in the future NA/EU will get access to some Samurai and Ninja themed classes.
The World
The world is pretty damn big. From what I understand it'd take a player around three hours to go from one end to the other.
There is no Fast-Travel. However the game does have an auto-pilot system so you can set a waypoint and your character will run/ride there while following the roads.
No loading! Seriously, once you are in game you will never see a loading screen. The only exception would be special dungeons and the like.
For the rest of the tidbits about the world I have to share some videos, because, goddamn, you need to see it.
There are several large cities in the game, this is a tour of one setting to give you an idea of what you'll be dealing with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G6EXTBrwUYTo give you a sense of how big the world is and the no loading thing here is another video that takes you (pretty much) from coast to coast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZoXQMhzlQ0This is a Sandbox game
This is one key point to keep in mind. Black Desert is, at the end of the day, a sandbox game. While there are quests (in fact a FUCK TON of quests) at the end of the day much of what you do is up to you.
Do you want to tame and breed the best race/war horses in the realm? Have at it!
Do you want to create a merchant trade empire? Get crack'n! You can transport goods and have employees crafting/gathering for you!
Relax and fish? Hell you can set sail on your own fishing vessel and bring in BIG fish.
Which leads me too,
All the shit you can do that ain't fight'n!
Gathering, Crafting, and Trading play a pretty big role in the game.
In fact, watch these two videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9scrIgSWLk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSaXunpISUEAnd do note that some of the things he talks about are Korean specific and not necessarily how the NA/EU version works, but the over all idea should be the same.
Man, there is a lot of shit to do
I honestly can't list and explain all the crap you can do. Let's just say that Combat/Questing is, like, only 30% of the game.
PvP? PvP!?
So yes there is in fact PvP in the game. It comes in a couple of flavors, but for a quick and dirty run down you have:
Guild vs. Guild: Join a guild and fight other guilds. Sieges and the like won't be in at launch, but will be coming with the first major patch (about 4 weeks they say). If your Guild is at war with another Guild then you can kill or be killed by your enemy without any penalties.
Open World: At level 50 you will automatically become flagged for PvP. The system is designed to strongly encourage PKs to fight PKs. For instance, being a PKK is far more rewarding to the player than being a PK. In fact just ganking random innocents nets you nothing but problems. For instance, if you are a big enough asshole when you're killed you'll drop gear, other equipment will break and become useless, you'll spawn in a random stot, face debuffs, and basically be a giant juicy target for everyone. As an innocent you will drop no gear and experience to penalty. The exception (AFAIK) is when you are transporting trade goods. You'll drop one item when killed, but as the video above details you don't really ever have to transport trade goods yourself.
Arena: Very much the classic PvP option. Just an open arena for you and your buddies, or anyone else for that matter, to jump in and kill each other.
Instaced PvP: Basic 3v3 mode.
Crimson Battlefield: After level 50 you can join in. Basically a giant melee of two teams fighting it out.
Siege: GvG siege fights, won't be in at launch. Expect it about 4-ish weeks later.
Random Tidbits
The Devs for the NA/EU version have been super cool and routinely ask the community what they'd like to see, what systems should be changed, etc. Since Westerners have different gaming tastes compared to our fellow Asian gamers, the NA/EU Devs have been giving quite a lot of leeway to change things to appeal more to the western market. So, yay!
One random thing the Devs are doing (that they totally didn't have to do) is having regional accents for the NPCs. Instead of having all NPCs speak generic ye olde English or what-have-you. The NPCs from various regions will have a specific dialect. American English, British, Aussie, Irish, Scottish, and Arabian to start. It helps add a lot more flavor to the various lands you will explore.
As you may have heard, the only way (AFAIK) to get XP is by killing mobs. You do not get XP from quests. You get money, materials, and reputation from quests. That isn't to say that the game is a grind. In fact it doesn't take long at all to reach level 50 and that's kind of the point. The game is a sandbox. Getting to 50 teaches you your class, the world, and various mechanics. Once at 50 the world is your oyster. PvP it up, craft, build a trade empire, sail the seas, fish, explore dungeons and ruins for treasure, hunt down world bosses, etc etc.
There are several mounts in the game. Horses, Donkeys, Camels, and Elephants. Horses, Camels, and Elephants can be tamed in the wild. Donkeys, IIRC, are just bought. Camels and Elephants are the only mounts that can cross the Black Desert. You can breed Horses (and maybe Camels and Elephants) to increase various stats. You can also get, make, buy various accessories for your mounts (saddles, barding, etc)
Guilds can own a War Elephant!
You can also start impromptu horse races with your friends!
You can climb up damn near anything!
The character creator is fucking amazing and free right now from their website!
Holy shit I forgot about Housing! Housing is nuts in this. Damn near any building you see in those videos can be bought.
*This Intro post brought to you by @Axen *
Steam
Humphrey Bogart wrote:So we get stiff once in a while. So we have a little fun. What’s wrong with that? This is a free country, isn’t it? I can take my panda any place I want to. And if I wanna buy it a drink, that’s my business.
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Combat is much flashy.
SteamID: steamcommunity.com/id/lehmancm/
BnS: Draggan (Server:Poharan)
They ask for input here.
Also horse breeding.
I've also gotta give a lot of respect to the devs for asking each region what they want from the game and moving it towards that for them. The server thing PLA mentioned is one, but they've also changed up their cash shop to tailor it better to each market.
I doubt I'll buy in for the english language beta since I've already played it a bit, but I'll be there at release for sure.
I will mourn your passing in high detailed cheek bones, dear Axen.
Name Reservations (for those who preordered) start Febuary 9th.
CBT2 (for people who preordered or got lucky with a key) goes from Feb 18-22.
Official release March 3rd.
Headstart for players who preordered the Conquers pack begins Feb 28th.
There are also four classes NA/EU won't have access to right out the gate (but expect them down the line). They are;
Blader: Basically a Samurai dude.
Plum: Samurai girl.
Ninja: Come on now, you can figure this one out.
Kunoichi: Female Ninja.
As with the other classes, while the new classes have Male/Female counterparts they still play a bit differently.
edit- Truth be told NA/EU wasn't supposed to get Tamer right away either, but they were able to get it ready sooner than expected and decided to add it for launch. :biggrin:
For those who suffer from Alt-itis fear not! All of your characters are part of the same "Family" and in general everything you do is for the good of the Family.
Not unlike how GW2 handles multiple characters.
edit- Also worth viewing.
edit- Oh, this completely slipped my mind, but I should point out that the game is not F2P it is B2P. Buy it, play it forever and ever.
Done! :hydra:
Completely action oriented. This short video breaks it down very well.
Black Desert is an almost entirely PvP focused game.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
*puts fingers in ears*
I'm not listening, I'm not listening, lalalalalalalala!
All PvE is world. There aren't instanced PvE dungeons and trials. There's no hard PvE 4man/6man/raid/whatever content.
It's Sandbox (think Elder Scrolls) + PvP.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
That said, there are dungeons just not instanced.
The dungeons are big, full of mobs, mini-bosses, and main bosses. Along with fancy loot and such. Given the action combat nature of the game you can in theory solo them, but it'd just be infinitely easier to go with a group.
There are also raid level world bosses that require a lot of people to bring down.
Guilds can also summon a world boss for their members to fight. You get rare materials and the like for killing it, but it costs Guild resources to summon. So it isn't something you can spam.
They have a 100 floor dungeon in the works. Basically a giant fuck-off challenge for people to try and accomplish.
Speaking of Guilds, the Guild system in BDO is pretty indepth.
I'll just copy and paste the info here. Do note that the info is from the Korean version. The NA/EU will be very similar, but some of the numbers might be different.
tl;dr,
As a member of a Guild you get a daily wage from the Guild.
Guilds can collect taxes from Nodes (villages, trading posts, camps) they control. I don't think you can control multiple Nodes and I think the tax rate is fixed.
Guilds can fight each other for control of Nodes.
Most anything you do either benefits the Guild or hurts it. ie: Completing quests benefits the guild (Guild gains money, resources, points, etc), killing innocent players harms the Guild (Guild looses Karma which is a valuable resource to do Guild Things).
Guilds have to pay an Upkeep fee each week, luckily Guilds with 30 or less players do not have to pay that fee. If your Guild has 31+ members you have to pay Upkeep, but at that point paying the Upkeep probably isn't going to be a big deal anyway.
It's supposedly easy to get a donkey for free.
Yeah, donkey is like the most basic thing, more for trading than anything.
Not too hard to get a horse for free either really.
Speaking of.
Tier 5 is the highest tier you can get in the wild. In order to get a sweet Tier 6-8 horse you either need to buy one from a player (craaaazy expensive) or spend the time to breed one yourself.
Horses also have skills and these skills may or may not be passed on from parent to child.
Breeding an exceptional horse is big, BIG money. However it is also quite a time/resource/money investment and there is a not-so-small chance of it not paying off.
Male horses can be breed twice, female horses once. You can actually straight up "sell" one of your breeding attempts to another player. Which is also a pretty decent way to make cash.
The only cap to the number of horses you can own is basically stable space, but with multiple stables in multiple cities and villages you're gonna be able to own more than a few at once.
Like most anything in BDO it isn't half-assed and it will take a concentrated effort.
Right now (AFAIK) there are four classes with a new weapon type:
Warriors get a greatsword.
Sorceresses get a scythe.
Berserker gets, uh, cannon gauntlets?
Valkyrie get a lance.
These weapons come with their own skills and change up how the class is played.
For instance, with the scythe a Sorceress can grab and pull enemies toward herself.
Speaking of gear and weapons.
There are no level restrictions to gear. A level 1 could wear "endgame" gear if they wish. Thing is all gear is pretty basic by default though each set, especially endgame gear, does have a particular innate bonus, but a player can upgrade them and dictate what stats, bonuses, procs, etc they want based on their playstyle.
So while endgame gear would still be desirable for players, you can simply keep your starter rags and upgrade them to be still effective at higher levels.
I got mine: Kierstyn Loch. :hydra:
Second closed beta starts the 18th.
They made a number of changes to the game since the last beta.
Energy. Crafting and gathering in the NA/EU version will consume energy. The Devs are not going to sell Energy Potions on the cash shop. What they have instead is a system in which a player can convert X amount of their own energy in to a potion and then the player can sell that on the marketplace. And by all accounts energy regens at a pretty good and surprising rate considering. Oh and if you have a high enough skill level you'll have a random chance of not consuming energy at all.
There will be a cash shop and "mileage" shop. Cash shop sells boosts and cosmetic items. Mileage shop sells only boosts. Players earn Miles from just playing the game.
They've increased the drop rate for World Bosses to help insure that everyone who participates gets an item.
They've reworked the Karma system for PKing and PKKing. It's even more in favor of PKKs. They're also adding a Bounty System in which a (innocent) player can place a bounty on the player that killed them. Instead of using money as the reward, the player will use their own Karma making the bounty target very appealing for PKs and PKKs alike.
Well, there will always be assholes, but there are a lot of systems in place to strongly discourage people for outright murdering everyone they come across.
In no particular order;
You have the Karma system, positive Karma is a good thing. Negative Karma is bad. You loose Karma from killing people. If you become a big enough asshole then when you die you will loose XP, drop some of your gear, some other gear will become broken, you will get a debuff, and you'll also spawn at a random point in the Region you're in. Things will stay that way until you crawl out of asshole town, but it is harder to go up than down.
IIRC there are four tiers on the road to asshole town. Green, Yellow, Orange, Red. Greens are innocents. Yellows are people who have on occasion killed people ie: They don't really PK, but sometimes they can't pass up someone hauling trade goods. Orange are people who often kill players and should be watched carefully. Reds are assholes and face all those penalties I mentioned. Likewise, Yellow and Orange faces some penalties too like XP loss and increased item degradation when they die.
AFAIK the best way for a Yellow player to regain Karma is to kill Orange or Red players, Orange players need to kill Red players and Red players need to kill other Red players.
Guilds also factor in to it. In order for a Guild to do anything they must spend Karma, among other things. Guilds gain Karma from their members. Guilds will also loose Karma if their members are killing innocent players. Without Karma Guilds loose access to a lot of Guild functionality.
Open world PvP doesn't start until level 50 (level cap).
For rational people there is zero profit in killing an innocent and nothing but headaches. That said, about the only target that would be somewhat profitable would be players running trade goods. But, a few things about that is 1) as long as the player isn't on foot they'll be moving fast. 2) Even if you die while moving trade goods you'll only drop one item. 3) You don't even have to put yourself in harms way, you can just hire NPCs to move the stuff safely for you.
There will always be a certain (small) percentage of players who are simply out to ruin other people's day penalties be damned. However, the NA/EU Devs are actually banking on that to happen. They've set things up in such a way that if you and your buddies want to go out and fight other players, there will always be a steady supply of guilt-free targets that'll benefit you to kill.
That said, I'm not sure how crazy the NA/EU players will be. One thing that gives me hope though is that most all the complaints I've seen about PvP (from the KR/RU servers) have been from PKers whining about the fact that their victims suffer no penalties and how unfair it is to be a PKer. :razz:
edit- Oh and don't worry about "friendly fire" as it were during world boss encounters. Players basically have a safety and you need to turn it off to actually hurt another player.
To summarize, if you get killed by a player and are an innocent the only thing that happens to you is that you just respawn at the nearest respawn point. If you're not an innocent then you face varying levels of penalties.
That's some Kandata stuff.
Another thing is that while they call level 50 (I think 55 in the next beta) the level cap the game actually doesn't have a real level cap. You can continue leveling forever. However, past the "level cap" you will only gain a small stat boost with each level. This seems to fade out around level 100. All in all those extra 50 or so levels of stat increases don't really amount to anything game changing.
The Attacker
Players who instigate PvP by flagging (ctrl+c) and hitting first will glow red on their character and immediately lose 10,000 karma. Should they find them self the victor of combat and kill their opponent, they will lose an additional 200,000 karma. (Axen's Note: If you are a member of a Guild then the Guild itself will also loose Karma. Exactly how much I do not know.)
With a Karma cap of 300,000 it wouldn't take more then 2 kills to be negative karma.
Keep in mind that for the next 3 minutes (from your last attack) you will be able to be attacked by any one due to being the instigator of PvP. During the time in which you are flagged, you may freely attack while flagged with out losing the initial 10,000 karma (Axen's Note: You'll still loose 200k for killing people though). However if you stay out of combat long enough for your PvP flag to fall, you will again be penalized when instigating PvP. (Axen's Note: penalty being that initial 10k loss.)
The Defender
Should you find yourself on the receiving end of an attack, life is pretty straight forward, defend yourself or die trying. You will not have to flag (ctrl+c) to fight back or be penalized for successfully defeating your attacker.
Players may also assist in killing a person who has flagged red and not be hit with any penalties either.
Negative Karma
Players who have engaged in too much bad karma activity with out taking time to refill to a positive karma status, will find themselves in a risky position. Some of the risks involved with being a "criminal" in game are:
Fishing and Whaling are a thing. You can even go all Ahab and go after the King of the Whales.
Taming. Finding and breeding horses until you get the fabled Uber-Horse!
Hunting! Gotta get those trophies for your home!
Housing! Phased housing so everyone will have access to the home of their dreams! Also the homes are not in special zone, they are literally the buildings you see that make up a town.
Crafting! Very indepth and if it ain't for you can hire workers to do it all for you. These workers even have their pros/cons making you want to use the right person for the job. Likewise they require a place to live and a steady supply of beer!
Trading! I'll be real here, I think EVE Online is probably the only MMO with a more complex trade system. (Which is nothing but a good thing!)
Honestly there is so much more stuff, I can't do it justice. Even horse breeding is a crazy and complex thing that might make a person filthy rich or broke. Housing is as in depth as it gets without being full on The Sims. You can build boats and ships. Sail the oceans. Take part in Guild v Guild warfare for control of a village. Or full on Guild Sieges!
Hell, it is a game in which you actually get a daily wage from whatever Guild you are a member of.
So yeah, there is a lot of stupid shit to keep you distracted.
edit- Annoyingly 90% of the info you look up or read about is taken from the Korean version which is fairly different from the NA/EU version. The Western Devs have been given a lot of leeway to changes things in a manner that is more in line with their target audiences' expectations. For instance the Korean version is F2P and very cash shop focused. Take character creation, you have to pay for most of the hair styles and colors. NA/EU version is B2P and character creation options are all unlocked and on top of that they're adding more "western" face options to the various classes.
Another thing is that there is no Player to Player trading in the game. However, the NA/EU Devs are looking in to it since it is a system most of their players would expect. However it does stop gold sellers, so we'll see. But it is something they are keeping a close eye on.
Oh and another concern is that it might flop due to being F2P in every region except NA/EU, which is of course B2P. I like B2P as a business model, but MMO crowds are super trendy and leave games fast. You guys think there will be enough that stick with this to keep it afloat in NA? I really hope so because I am seriously thinking of picking this up. Action combat in an open pvp world with neat stuff to get upto sounds extremely fun.
I am going to try and get in to the beta at least and see if it's something i'm interested in, but at best it would just be a side game for me.
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Guild housing. Just like normal housing, but guildier. They did toss around the idea of maybe having a few non-phased guild mansions while still having the normal phased guild mansions. Not sure if they did that or not.
Guild node control. So a guild can control a "node" (usually a village or camp). This control isn't any more involved than just collecting the taxes (tax rate is fixed and not set by guilds) produced by all the trade that moves through the node. Trading is fairly in depth, but the short version is when trading you will see a line connecting various spots together. Those spots are nodes. I'm not sure if guilds can control more than one node. There are also a LOT of nodes.
Guild wars. Guilds can fight each other for control of a node. Exactly how a victor is determined I'm not sure. I do know that declaring war costs a lot of Karma and money and it isn't something you can really do more than once a week. IIRC one other guild can join in on each side.
Guild sieges. This won't be in until 2-ish weeks after launch. Guild sieges involves a guild attacking another guild's keep. Complete with siege weaponry and war elephants! I've no clue how the guild keep works or how sieges play in to the general guild war for nodes.
There are also Guild missions that guilds can accept. These range from kill quests, crafting, or transporting. These missions require a guild effort and reward the guild for completion. Those missions are available to all guilds, but are first come first serve. Accepting a mission takes karma and such. There are also less involved guild missions that are not first come first serve and can be completed by multiple guilds.
While not a guild mission Guilds can summon special raid level bosses for their members to fight for swank personal and guild rewards.
You have five villages (A-E) all connected by a blue line. Any trade goods bought and sold among those five villages will not be subjected to a penalty fee because they are all connected (connecting nodes is a whole other beast I won't get in to here).
So say your guild controls village C. Any trade goods that are bought/made in A or B and sold in D or E "pass" through your guilds controlled point and will be taxed upon sale of the trade goods. Which your guild automatically collects.
As you can imagine hundreds and hundreds of these transactions happen every day making big money for your guild.
I said I wouldn't touch on connecting nodes and I lied. Just a real quick and dirty explanation;
AFAIK what nodes are connected to what differ from player to player. A player spends Contribution Points (earned by just doing stuff) to connect nodes as they see fit (with the player's Trading skill being the limiting factor). The more nodes connected and the farther away they are the more profit you make (even including all the taxes). Selling goods in a node not connected to anything comes with severe tarrifs. Which at best you might make a minimal profit and at worst actually loose money.
Just want to mention that housing is a big thing in this game, but you don't have to be Scrooge McDuck to own a home. In fact you don't have to spend any money on buying a house. Houses are bought with Contribution Points which a player gets for doing pretty much anything. Quests, talking to NPCs, trading, etc. Also you can own multiple homes and even have multiple people with "owner" access so they can decorate and do whatev.