Black Desert Online

[Morreion]

Aug 9, 2013 9:30:15 GMT -5 Regolyth said:

The trick to nice models is nice textures..

Agree 100%- I've played games where I didn't like the overall graphics, I couldn;t really tell why, it was almost subconscious, but I think it's all about whether the textures are pleasing or not. For instance, I liked how Vanguard's environment looked, but they had some lousy textures that grated on me. Some of this might have to so with lighting/shading as well. In Vanguard, I remember wearing plate armor that looked sort of like wet plastic, which I hated. Loved the scenery, but disliked the textures. Getting all that to come together is a big plus!

[Morreion]

Black Desert – Transportation and housing the highlights this week (MMOculture)

Heading towards CBT in Korea in a few weeks, the weekly theme continues for Black Desert. This week, developer Pearl Abyss is taking us through some of the transportation tools available, as well as the housing system, where details are certainly the key.

Black-Desert.com Interview with Pearl Abyss

Apollonius: Our community would like to hear a bit more about the skill system.

Brian Oh: Players will be able to obtain skill points by killing monsters and invest those points into skills, which they like or think that they suit their style of play more. Though one needs to notice, that players will be required to meet certain level requirements in order to activate skills. Those investments on the skills will be also noticeable ingame.

Black Desert bracing for Korean closed beta test (Massively)

It's been a long time coming, but Korean sandbox title Black Desert is finally getting ready to move forward with beta testing. Testing was delayed almost three months ago as Pearl Abyss wanted to add a bit more shine to the game, but it appears that the game is acceptably shined and ready to open the gates.

Black Desert – Closed Beta Videos, Screenshots & Updates Day 1 (MMOcast)

We saw the Opening Cinematic and the new jumping system so now it’s time to take a fishing trip, another system showcased in Black Desert CBT Day 1. From what we’ve seen so far, it looks like fishing will have two phases: the first part when you will throw your fishing rod and lure back your prey (in a good or perfect move) and the second part where you will have to play a mini-game (by pushing WASD in a requested order) to successfully catch the fish.

More Black Desert beta vids, this time with parkour (Massively)

Black Desert's open PvP detailed (Massively)

While the systems are subject to change given that this is an early beta test, Steparu says that right now Black Desert's PvP is pretty unforgiving due to its free-for-all nature and the possibility of item and XP loss.

Uhoh.

Black Desert's beta housing system detailed (Massively)

As it stands right now, the system is limited to auctioned houses that are hard -- or at least expensive -- to obtain. There is no player-made housing in Black Desert's Korean closed beta just yet, so expect to spend time jostling with lots of players clustered around the auctioneer NPC if really want a home of your own.

Still more Black Desert beta vids, PvE impressions (Massively)

Today's focus is leveling and PvE, the latter of which is apparently lacking due to the pedestrian questing system. Steparu says that there are no dynamic events, though there are main story quests that become available at various points throughout the level range.

The article also touches on PvP and what appears to be a button for opting in or out of the game's open-world free-for-all system.

Some Assembly Required: Is Black Desert the new ArcheAge? (Massively)

I hate to admit it, but I'm getting over ArcheAge. This sucks because XLGAMES' fantasy sandpark is undoubtedly the most feature-rich MMO since Star Wars Galaxies. But Massively first covered ArcheAge in 2010. I first played it in 2011. And we're rapidly approaching 2014 with absolutely no sign of an English-language client on the horizon...

The classes are Fighter, Giant, Blader, Tamer, Sorcerer, Wizard, Valkyre, and Ranger. Most of these should seem pretty familiar to you if you've played a fantasy MMO before. The three that aren't as immediately obvious -- the Blader, the Giant, and the Valkyre -- all appear to be melee combatants. The Giant carries two axes and can transform into a wolf, while the Valkyre is a sword-and-shield-style fighter that one Black Desert fansite compares to the Warrior. The Blader is some sort of oriental warrior concept involving dual-wielding and a magic sword, according to Pearl Abyss.

In terms of PvE, players can expect class-based progression as mentioned above, as well as both instanced and open world dungeons. The questing system apparently needs a bit of work, but there's at least one interesting wrinkle in the form of an NPC-liking system already in place.


This game looks gorgeous, and having real player housing in cities is ingenious. On the negative side, housing is limited and will be auctioned off and I'm assuming huge guilds are going to snap them up. There is an open-PvP system- why do sandboxes always do this?- but you may be able to opt out.

[Morreion]

Black Desert's English client is being worked on by Pearl Abyss (Massively)

Are you eagerly anticipating a release of Black Desert in the west despite the lack of an official publisher or anything similar? There's good news to be had if you're one of the hopeful. Apparently an English client is being worked on by developer Pearl Abyss, reinforcing earlier statements by the company that success and release in the US is very important to the game's long-term viability.

Black Desert's next closed beta to feature new region (Massively)

Players will apparently be able to make repair anvils and temporary tents in the region, as well as take advantage of its proximity to the sea to satisy their fishing urges.

Black Desert shows off new features for its second beta test (Massively)

The town is a coastal fishing city known as Eferia, offering players plenty of saltwater fishing opportunities as well as the other services you'd expect from a seaside fishing town. Players will also be facing off against new monsters including what appears to be a dinosaur, a harpy, and... well, that third one isn't exactly clear. Still, it's more new stuff for players to look forward to when the second test goes live.

Black Desert heading to Russia, still lacks Western publisher (Massively)

Can someone in the MMO industry explain to me why Korean sandbox exports commonly head to Russia before they head West? My theory is that Russia and parts of eastern Europe are crazy for simulation-style games, since several great flight sims and military sims originated in the region. Maybe that passion extends to PvP sandbox MMOs like Black Desert, too?

I dunno.

Everything You Need to Know about Black Desert So Far (2P)

Black Desert is the debut title from the Korean game company Pearl Abyss which was founded by the maker of Continent of the Ninth (C9) Daeil Kim in September 2010. This sandbox MMORPG features seamless open world, large scale castle siege, housing system, mounted combat, dynamic weather system, in-game wiki system, open world PvP, fantastic graphics etc. and it has the combat system in the veins of C9 featuring active dodge, active block and various attack combination chains. Apart from the features I mentioned above, more new game contents can be explored in game since Black Desert is still in development currently.

Beta Information (the Korean Version of BD):
1. The first closed beta lasted for only one week from October 17 to 23 Seoul Time in 2013.
2. The second closed beta is coming soon in the first quarter of this year.
3. The third closed beta? It has not been confirmed if there will be a third closed beta.
4. Open beta is scheduled in the second half of 2014.

Black Desert's next beta dated, new teaser site live (Massively)

Korean fantasy sandbox Black Desert will kick off its second closed beta on April 4th. Pearl Abyss has put together a new teaser website to mark the occasion, and fansite Steparu.com has re-posted a lengthy gameplay video showing off nearly 10 minutes of footage from the title's first test phase.

Black Desert ramping up beta testing (Massively)

Black Desert's upcoming closed beta test will run for three weeks, according to Korean publisher Daum. The firm seeks five to six times more testers than in the previous closed sessions, 2P reports.

[Morreion]

Black Desert downplaying trinity in favor of formations (Massively)

2P has translated an interview with Black Desert producer Kim Daeil that originally appeared on GameMeca.com. Among the more interesting nuggets is the fact that the fantasy sandbox won't feature traditional MMORPG dungeons. This is due largely to the Pearl Abyss team's feeling that "dungeons seem to isolate players from the outside open world" and subtract from "the charm of MMORPGs."

The piece also touches on something called "collaboration gameplay," which appears to omit traditional tank, DPS, and support roles in favor of formations. For example, a group of players that forms a circle will be rewarded with higher defense bonuses while a straight-line formation leads to high DPS from the front-line player.

The interview also touches on adventure nodes, mazes and hidden underground cities, and much more.

You can milk cows in Black Desert (Massively)

Ready for another achingly awesome Black Desert trailer? That's good, because Pearl Abyss has released one that features "everyday life" in its action combat fantasy sandbox MMO.

Black Desert's extreme character creation profiled in video (Massively)

Overseas MMO expert Steparu is back with another round of Black Desert videos that make North Americans extremely sad about the ongoing Korean beta and the lack thereof here. The videos highlight character creation, specifically the hyperrealistic (and, er, extremely toned) Sorcerer, Warrior, Giant, and Archer models, male and female, complete with musculature and hair mesh toggles and sliders. We're not exaggerating when we say that this is extreme character customization, folks.

Black Desert – Looking at Closed Beta 2 through the eyes of a Giant Part 1 (MMO Culture)

Graphics are as gorgeous as ever, and combat is indeed faster and more “actiony” than before. Skills can now be chained together better, as you can see in the combat scenarios in the videos posted here.

Black Desert Online 2nd Beta Review in Progress Part 2 (Steparu)

Other than the death penalty the action combat keeps me on my toes. Most people are still confused on how the combat works in this game. It's not like the average spam three rows of skills type of game. Black Desert Online is an Action MMMORPG and the amount of skills it offer is just right, not too many skills to play around with and not so little to get bored with. Skills flow through each other that it looks like I am pressing one skill at a time, but in reality I am executing a series of key strokes one after the other. I've listed a sample combo and some of the commands below.

Pearl Abyss attending E3, looking for NA Black Desert publisher (Massively)

Steparu's latest and, for now, last Black Desert beta review has been published. It highlights castle sieges and endgame PvP, world raid bosses, and more. Interestingly, the writeup posits that the final version of ArcheAge "offers a much more vast open area with more freedom," though it's worth noting that Black Desert has plenty of room to grow since the observation was made in the game's second closed beta phase.

Steparu also reports that Pearl Abyss is attending next month's E3 in search of a North American publisher.

Black Desert might have a PvE ruleset, separate F2P and P2P servers (Massively)

2P reports that the game may have separate F2P and P2P servers as well as PvE-only rulesets that disable open-world PvP in favor of arena matches, guild wars, and sieges. The site also mentions that Black Desert's Russian cash shop will be limited to cosmetic items, there will be no IP blocking, and there will be no dungeons (only open-world bosses).

[Morreion]

This is quite discouraging- sounds somewhat like ArcheAge.

Black Desert fans are troubled about game changes (MOP)

When the primary beta process for an upcoming MMO is taking place in another region and language, it’s often difficult to understand how the game is shaping up. One Black Desert fansite understands this, which is why it’s posted a beta report that traces major changes and design decisions through the different testing phases.

These fans are concerned about how Black Desert is developing because of significant changes from the original vision to the current version. Some of these changes include the elimination of two of the three types of guilds, the increased pace of leveling, the denial of one-to-one trading, and a problematic PvP system.

Another worry is that open world content has been diminished or outright removed: “Why did the open world content disappear? Open world bosses were removed, open world houses were removed, open world shops (from your house) were removed. We don’t have the answer why, but the game does not look as an open world MMO anymore, but [instead] a single-player RPG where you have the chance to party up with your friends too.”

Black Desert – How we expect it to be and how it is now (Black Desert Fansite)

Let’s start with the Open World, Sandbox features of the game

Back in 2013, direct words from Pearl Abyss:

Black Desert Online puts a lot of emphasis on player interaction, be it combat, trade or politics, so it is important to us, that there will be a population able to accomplish that.

Unfortunately in Black Desert at this moments, there is no player interaction. a) There is no combat unless you are in a guild and have a pointless war. b) There is no trade nor politics, simply because there is no trade, and simply because everything is open to every single player. Right now in Black Desert online, you can achieve ALMOST everything solo. This collides with the initial idea of politics between guilds and areas of the world of Black Desert. c) how are the players supposed to run the economy and trade of the world when the game decides the higher and lower value of your items and not the player directly? Example, epic piece of armor (yellow color) having the same price as blue type of armor, it does not make sense!

Also why did the open world contents disappear? Open world bosses are removed, open world houses are removed, open world shops (from your house) was removed. We don’t have the answer why, but the game does not look as an open world MMO anymore, but as a single player RPG, where you have the chance to party up with your friends too.

[Morreion]

First impressions of Black Desert’s closed beta test: Classes, combat, and mechanics (MOP)

...Black Desert features an action-style combat system in the vein of TERA and Blade and Soul, and it’s a pretty damn fun one, too. You perform attacks and activate abilities by entering certain input commands – often directional keys plus mouse clicks (Back + RMB, for example) – and the game puts a heavy emphasis on learning your character’s combos, which are abilities that can be seamlessly chained together into multi-hit attacks.

...Throughout the game, characters will amass knowledge in a variety of areas. Practically everything you do gives you – or at least has the potential to give you – knowledge of a certain subject. Now, knowledge isn’t a “resource” in the same way that Energy is, but it does have a far-reaching impact on a number of other facets of the game. For starters, gathering knowledge is how you go about raising your maximum energy level – the more knowledge you collect, the higher your maximum energy pool will be.

Knowledge has an effect on combat, too. When you first fight a particular kind of monster, its health bar won’t actually deplete; instead, it will simply change color (from green to orange to red) to give a general indication of the monster’s current state. After you’ve killed enough of that type of monster, however, you’ll gain knowledge about it, which will allow you to see the monster’s exact health. Knowledge of a type of monster may also grant some other kinds of benefits when fighting against those monsters, but I wasn’t able to confirm anything during my time in the beta.

One of the more unique ways in which knowledge is used is the NPC friendliness system. When a player has gathered a sufficient amount of knowledge on subjects in which a certain NPC is interested, it’s possible to initiate a “conversation” with that NPC, which takes place in the form of a minigame.

First impressions of Black Desert’s closed beta test, part two: Crafting, gathering, and economy (MOP)

...Each major city (and many smaller settlements besides) contains a number of housing units that players can rent by investing the appropriate number of contribution points (and occasionally a bit of gold) into the properties they wish to rent. The housing plots are instanced, so there’s no vying with other players to grab a piece of prime real estate, and each is able to fulfill a variety of different functions.

Almost all housing properties can be rented for use as a character’s residence. Residences are your “traditional” player housing and can be decorated and filled with useful things such as crafting stations. But that’s only one of the things that housing properties can be used for. Properties can also be rented out as lodging for workers that players can hire from labor masters, which can be found in all major cities. The laborers, in turn, can be put to work on a variety of tasks, one of which is – surprise! – resource harvesting.

But there’s another intermediate step between hiring a worker and sending them off to get their hands dirty in your stead. Major locations in the game world – cities, settlements, and resource deposits, for example – are marked on the world map as “nodes,” and each node is connected to one or more other nodes. So once you’ve found the resource deposit that you want your workers to harvest, you have to connect the node of the city in which they were hired with the resource node in question.

...Cities and some settlements are home to NPCs known as trade managers, who buy and sell special “trade good” items. Players can acquire trade goods – whether by purchasing them from a trade manager, harvesting them from resources, or other means – then take them to another trade manager to sell for a profit. The node system comes into play again here. Let’s say you buy a trade good in City A and go to sell it in City B. If City A’s node is not connected to City B’s, your trade good from City A will sell for a substantially lower price than normal. But if the nodes are connected, then you’ll receive a “distance bonus.” The longer the distance from City A to City B, the higher the bonus; the higher the bonus, the more you’ll get paid for City A’s goods in City B (and vice versa).

...And to cap things off, I think it also encourages crafters to specialize. The energy limitations on crafting make it especially difficult for any one character to become a completely self-sufficient jack of all trades without putting in a time investment that’s exponentially larger than the time investment required to simply max out your skill level in one or two specific areas. Crafters will have to trade with other crafters to get the materials and items that they need, and since harvesting requires energy as well, some may opt to save their energy for crafting and simply trade with dedicated gatherers for resources instead.

...But then I remember ArcheAge. I remember that I thought that it would be the fantasy sandbox that I could really dive into. It drew me in with its allure of sandbox freedom (and hang-gliders), and then the excruciatingly poor handling of the cash shop killed my excitement on the spot. I think that Black Desert, like ArcheAge before it, will live or die based largely upon the implementation of its cash shop. If it manages to avoid the ever-lingering specter of pay-to-win, I think it has a shot at finding a reasonable amount of success in the West, but one misstep could be disastrous.

[dortmunder]

This is sounding pretty good, definitely going to be giving it a go.

I bought one of the pre-order packages after watching some gameplay, so I will be playing in the CBT2 when that starts up. Will decide from there if I'm going to play it a lot on release.

If it's really good I might schedule some vacation time for that

It doesn't sound like there's much in the way of end-game PvE. I personally really love doing dungeons etc. but I do enjoy PvP as well. The combat looks decent since I lean more towards skillshot/active combat than target-cast combat. Really wish someone would make a Dark Souls style combat MMO, but this is close enough.

[Morreion]

Black Desert Launched Last March in the West



Black Desert impressions from around the MMO blogosphere (MOP)

Aywren Sojurner: First impressions

“I’d heard a lot of impressions about the bland voice acting, the lack of story and sub-par questing. So, I went in with very low expectations of these things. While the localization and voice acting won’t win any awards, I’ve played a LOT worse in Korean-based MMOs *cough* Dragon’s Prophet *cough.* Sure, it’s lacking the charm and character of big name story-driven games like FFXIV and GW2. But it’s certainly a few leaps up from someone just running Korean through Google translate.”

Mystic Worlds: Player housing

“Housing serves multiple purposes in BDO. You must decide that purpose during the purchase. If you’re going to have workers, you must provide their housing. You can use it purely as a warehouse facility — your inventory has weight. Or it can be a home for your character, where you can keep furniture that provides buffs, crafting stations, trophies and/or establish a working storefront. I decided on a house where I can craft for my own use — for now.”

Nomadic Gamers: Black Desert Online impressions

“I didn’t delve into any of the sandbox systems like housing, cooking, crafting, gathering, getting a donkey or a horse, etc. Maybe due to that, I don’t feel any ‘stickiness’ to the game. Sure, the low-level combat is fun because you’re essentially a raid mob compared to what you’re fighting and it’s nice to feel super-powerful, but it also gets old with no challenge, so I don’t really feel the need to try out the other classes, nor to log in again. It was an enjoyable diversion for a few hours, but nothing I care about either.”

MMO Gypsy: About that Black Desert Online learning curve

“I still don’t know what the f**k I am doing. And that is probably a good thing too, given how I generally find new MMORPGs too easy, too repetitive and too been there done that. Really, BDO is doing a lot of stuff its own way; I can’t say how effective or worthwhile it all is yet, but between node and worker management, haggling and raising amity with NPCs, one million gazillion crafty things, sub-menus for every possible resource, horse breeding, AFK-fishing, shipyards, and feeding pets while looking to unlock the perfect residence, I have my hands full and then some. That Black Desert Online learning curve is no joke even for seasoned players.”

Healing the Masses: Early access imagery

“It is of course a pretty game, and while I might not be stopping to stomp the roses during my march to cap right now, it is still something I admire and something I will definitely be exploring a lot later on.”

Desert Nomad: The Nomad’s guide to Black Desert (MOP)

But if you go that route and sprint to the level cap by pure mob farming, you’re going to miss out on some pretty useful things. Although quests don’t reward character level XP (with very rare exception), they’re still immensely useful — especially for new players — in a number of ways. For starters, many quests serve to introduce players to the many different facets of the game, helping them to learn the ropes of gathering, crafting, trading, fishing, and so on. In addition, completing quests is the only way to earn contribution points (which have many uses, including renting property and connecting trade or resource nodes) and many of them provide useful rewards, notably including inventory space expansions and instant energy restoration. [Commenter Xijit also points out that completing quests multiple times (by way of alts) will still increase your contribution point maximum, allowing you to rack up a hefty pool of points by simply doing the early quests on multiple characters.] Obviously, if you wanna power level to the cap, you can always come back and do the quests later, but I personally plan to take my time on the road to max level.

Desert Nomad: How to win friends and influence NPCs in Black Desert (MOP)

Every major NPC — which is to say, NPCs with whom you can actually interact, like merchants, questgivers, and so on — in Black Desert has an attribute called Amity, which is a numerical rating that measures how much the NPC likes your character. Increasing your amity level with a given NPC can unlock certain perks provided only to people said NPC likes enough, including new quests from questgivers, a larger selection of items for purchase from a vendor, and things of that nature. As far as I’ve discovered so far, none of the amity-related bonuses are likely to be essential to your success in the game, but there are still plenty of great benefits — like a larger fence for serious farmers like myself — to be gained by taking a little time to get to know the NPCs. Just like in real life, it’s not strictly necessary to make friends, but it sure makes things a hell of a lot better.

Desert Nomad: Diving deep into Black Desert’s cash shop (MOP)

First, let’s establish some conversion rates. All cash-shop items are purchased using a currency called Pearls, which itself is purchased using another currency called Daum Cash, which is itself purchased using another currency called U.S. dollars. Or pounds sterling, or whatever — insert your national currency of choice here. The point is, I’m never particularly thrilled when the cash shop process starts by having me pull out my credit card to buy an in-game currency so that I can then buy another in-game currency. Maybe I just feel threatened by basic arithmetic, but it bothers me that I can’t just look at the price (in in-game currency) of the item(s) I want to buy and then be able to see exactly how much real cash I’m going to need to buy the necessary amount. It feels like they’re relying on me to mess up the math (a safe bet), resulting in my buying more currency than I need — therefore spending more money — or buying less currency than I need and, since I’ve already spent the money and I’m a sucker for the sunk cost fallacy, shelling out for the rest — therefore spending more money.

Desert Nomad: Quality of life in the Black Desert (MOP)

In Black Desert, a number of important functions are accessible only from the world map. Notably, you have to open the map in order to manage your properties and assign tasks to your workers. But for some reason, there are situations in which the game simply will not allow you to open your map. The most frustrating culprits here are gathering and fishing. If you’re gathering items or fishing – or if you merely have a fishing rod equipped, for that matter – your access to the world map is restricted. This is especially frustrating because gathering and especially fishing both involve a great deal of downtime that would make the perfect opportunity to open up your map, fiddle with properties, and give orders to your workers, if only the game would allow you to do so.

Desert Nomad: Avoiding overload in Black Desert (MOP)

Fourth up is the exploration and trading category (at least, that’s what I assume “Ex/Tr” stands for; someone feel free to correct me) represented by the wagon wheel icon. If you’re interested in quests that task you with delving into some of Black Desert’s more out-of-the-way locales, or if you just want to learn the finer points of the art of making oodles of dough by selling trade items, then you’re gonna wanna have this one enabled.