Viblo

+1 to what @Merlin DE said. And that’s without mentioning that there has to be some sort of longevity to their income methods. The way NCW has handled this game, most people are angry at the publisher for having been terrible all around, meaning that people will be skeptical to upcoming games published by them. They screwed us over with Blade & Soul, so why even bother with the next game they bring to the west?

It seems like a lot of people keep thinking that UE4 will be some saving grace for this game, but that's not even remotely true. As OP mentioned - all the P2W elements, unbalanced classes, lack of communication, recycled events, and overall horrendous decision-making won't suddenly go away by the upcoming engine transition. We might get some better performance, but all the existing issues will still be there. That's both the fault of NCW and Bloodlust. Both companies are honestly terrible. The remaining playerbase should leave Blade & Soul behind and spend their time on something valuable. To be honest, considering the amount of times this company has screwed the playerbase over, I don't think I'm ever going to touch another NCWEST game going forward.

They confirmed.. somewhere that they were announcing the Zen Archer update this week. They tend to post the articles on Wednesday or Thursdays, so I guess we’ll see very soon. Edit: https://twitter.com/bladeandsoul/status/1168326416489828354?s=21

Most of this game's UI is really bad. Newer UI elements like the Martial Tome's changes in the March update very clearly shows that the development team knows how to design a nice looking menu, but there's so much old that really needs polish. The Chat, the Status Effect rows, the quest list (not Quest Journal), the party/alliance list, Currency Exchange, the Friends List (although I suppose fixing it would be the bigger priority), Character Info, Transmute, Achievements, and every single tooltip in the game. There's also stupid stuff like Equipment Upgrade Paths having a scroll bar available, but considering 10 classes is seen without scrolling and scrolling makes one more class show up... real necessary. Even with Zen Archer on its way, having a scroll bar is just weird when it has no purpose whatsoever. Just make the list slightly longer. And don't even get me started on how the Refine Splendor in the Unity feature doesn't correctly display the chances of refining the stones. It's hidden behind text. Nice going with your promise to not just port the game with reckless abandon but rather to "make it yours". Here's what I mean if you guys feel like fixing it: It's meant to show the success ratio where it says 'Stellar Radiance Stone', which I guess makes it work with the Korean text, but it takes up too much space with western characters. It's been like this for half a year and no one at NCW has managed to notice it and forward it to have it fixed.

Glad to hear you'll at least continue the discussion. This sort of thing does feel really bad though. The community representatives and the producers for this game keep asking for our feedback, and even after the community very clearly voicing their opinion around this, you seem completely powerless to change anything. Because of that, it feels pointless to give you any feedback in the first place.

Skyreach Gloves - Stage 1/3/6/10 in Equipment Upgrade Paths has an incorrect name At this point I'm pretty much all out. The only other thing I picked up was how Den of the Ancients on the World Map doesn't have 'the' in the name.

Hearing that phrase since launch over and over while the game instead gets worse every patch is getting old. If you know the removal of a beloved feature like the Soul/Mystic Badge exchange is on its way, you should be there to make sure the developers already knows how much we like it and preferably stop them from making the change. We don’t want to hear that you’ll send the feedback — the feedback should already have been given. Also, one more thing: at least own up to having messed up with not relaying the information about the feature being removed. Apologize and make sure there’s some kind of compensation to help those who didn’t have time to change their equipment.

You're right, they did explain it was a limited time exchange, but that does not make it any less stupid. It's been shown that featuring a system where you can swap equipment based on which specialization you wish to play doesn't break the game in any way. The only thing it did was provide players with a more versatile gameplay experience. There are zero reasons for this to not remain permanent.

As I said, we gave them positive feedback on the introduction of the gear swap system when it released, and the developers and publishers decided to take it out of the game. I carry no blame on the playerbase.

Wow. This is a big ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ you to the community. I cannot believe how you constantly preach your asses off with "we do listen to all feedback", "give us more of your feedback", "we love all kinds of feedback", and then go ahead and remove one of the most positively changes that was letting us freely switch our Soul Badges and Mystic Badges. Glad to see this new Sage Loya producer is helping kill the game more.

That was kind of the point of my post -- what the other things apart from the localization filters that could possibly be the cause for the ever-worsening optimization. It's why my conclusion included this:

The whole "Korea uses a different client" got debunked by Cyan a few weeks ago (https://www.reddit.com/r/bladeandsoul/comments/chbxcl/hey_ncwest_its_time_naeu_gets_its_own_dedicated/eurhs5i?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x) and their internal server is the one we see on streams. It's usually one patch ahead of the live server so they're able to test the content in advance. As for Unreal Engine 4, the new engine won't magically fix everything. Preexisting issues will remain unless they're actually, you know, fixed. I agree with you, but I don't think it's acceptable to excuse poor region support just because the game isn't from around here. Thinking of it from NCWEST's perspective, they agreed to partner up with Bloodlust to publish the game in the west for mutual gain, but clearly Bloodlust isn't holding up their end of the deal by ignoring glaring issues in the game. The support from Bloodlust from day 1 has been atrocious and I can't believe NCWEST is alright with being the punching bag when most problems come from the developers.

As I kind of expected, the performance adjustments from Roots of Malice update weren't actual improvements. You added some extra channels to Mushin's Tower and reduced effects for Blade Master's Spectral Blade. 10/10 for effort. The actual issues that we face in the game are all still there, and it goes further than simple changes like those you made. To clarify as much as possible: this isn't something you can fix by lazy changes like those in Roots of Malice. You must understand yourself that it's something larger than removing some particle effects from 3rd spec BM. There has been plenty of talk about it's because of how translations are handled (specifically with how western client goes through a filter that maps KR strings into EN), so how about starting to look into that and then, you know, get back to us about it? At this point, your own players are optimizing this game more than you ever have through mods, but there are limits to what we can do, so please do your part in fixing this. Do your part and properly investigate the rumored optimization difference between the western and the Korean game clients. I read the official response from you where you said there are a lot of factors to count in, and while I agree, the video comparison of the performance difference should still be grounds for a comprehensive investigation.

I hope there's a response ASAP. It feels like a huge scam.

Hello again, Thanks for the update! I’m glad to hear you’re making progress on the issue.

Blade Dancer’s Thundering Blade specialization gain a lot on using manual mode over Simple Mode, regardless on if the ‘Flicker>Flicker>Lightning Flash’ issue is resolved.

Wow, that concept is fantastic. So glad you posted that to give us all an idea of what it could be. I agree that the current user interface need a lot of work. It feels outdated and cluttered as a whole.

Hello, Of course! Here's footage of the issue from Wednesday. Keep in mind that the video may delete itself within 7 days. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/460618270?t=00h50m28s The two spawned orbs, the "Keeper's Gaze", are meant to display a laser between the two orbs. If you skip forward to 51:24 when the mechanic repeats (but with an additional laser), both the old and the newly summoned orbs suddenly displays their respective lasers. Hope that helps!

From my point of view, all your "topics" are completely based on speculation aiming to denigrate NCWEST. Assuming your statement about them hiding your topic until they found an appropriate response is even true, it's pretty obvious why they would. You're slandering both the game and its publisher. Other MMORPG publishers would likely have removed your post entirely, yet you're here with an explanation about the situation that makes perfect sense from a community coordinator. Don't be in such denial over being corrected. Other PVP scenes like Duel Arena and Tag Match did receive changes - major ones, in fact. The current consensus is that certain items like Moonstone Crystals are most efficiently obtained from playing Arena matches. Why it's still pretty dead is due to others reasons, and I'm guessing it's largely due to frame-rate drops, ping, and people being busy grinding PVE content. The scope of NCWEST's influence over those issues are hard to know, but having more servers would cost a fortune and frame-rate drops can only the Korean development team take care of. So what if it's an uncommon move? They gain nothing other than a more populated PVP environment. In fact, they might even lose out by doing this since they're actually gifting us free Blazing Sunfire Chests - an item that costs real world currency. Perhaps it's an indirect way to get players invested in the World Championship, and if so, I think it's brilliant. There is no reason whatsoever to complain about this. As for the dev team getting a "punishment" for not finding enough participants... this is just dumb. As Baskerville said, the registration period already ended when they started the Shackled Isles event, so again -- they gain nothing by doing this apart from some people getting invested in Shackled Isles as well as giving the registered players a better chance of playing it before the championship begin. And no, the dev team wouldn't actually close the western game servers for lacking participants. That's a laugh.

Both last week and this week, all of my raid members experienced an issue on Gangshi and Tongshi where the laser from Gangshi and Tongshi's Keeper's Gaze mechanic wasn't displaying. It seemed to appear after the mechanic repeated at 60% and two lasers spawned. All my Graphics Quality settings were at max apart from SFX Quality for Others which was at 2 and no mod was in use to enhance performance. Please do reach out if a possible investigation requires more information.

The Dungeon In Progress feature features an incorrect name for Cursed Gatekeeper Onubek in Sandstorm Temple Stormbringer Soul's Guide section of the tooltip refers to Hongmoon Soul - Stage 6 rather than Hongmoon Soul - Stage 1 This is possibly not the fault of any localization team, but a slip-up from the devs due to them removing stage 6 and above in a prior update. Skybreak Ring Chest, Skybreak Ring, Skybreak Earring Chest, Skybreak Earring, and Raven King's Soul's tooltip features an incorrect name for General Moyun Raid currencies feature inconsistent "Acquired from" information. Scarlet Bloom: Temple of Succession Elusive Merchant Gong Hyunku, instead of the correct description Temple of Succession Elusive Merchant Hyuntae Grand Celestial Wings Emperor's Tomb Exchange Merchant Hee Gisang, instead of the correct description Emperor's Tomb Elusive Merchant Hee Gisang Hive Queen's Wings Dasari Palace Gardens Merchant, instead of the correct description Dasari Palace Gardens Dragon Trader Suh Seyun Raven Feather Shadowless Exchanger in Khanda Vihar, instead of the correct description Khanda Vihar Shadowless Exchanger Wei Ido

I fail grasping your logic. With the Legends Reborn, I can agree the damage requirements for the final stage were a bit high, but they took that feedback and heavily adjusted the current Hae Mujin's Outlaw Arena event for us, and it shows. One of my alt characters can almost defeat the final stage in time, and that alt is far from high geared. NCW knows people would riot if they put Sacred Vials and Pet Packs behind the final stage of Hae Mujin, so they don't. All you get is a title, a high-tier temporary weapon, and a pair of wings. How is that so bad? It's a reward for the players who put more effort into the game than others. And no -- the logic that those who clear doesn't need the temporary weapon is flawed. The alt I was talking about only have Aransu Gauntlet - Stage 6, so it could definitely come in handy. If you ask me, I'd be even happier if they actually put additional Sacred Vials locked for those with higher gear only to scale rewards. Those on, say, True Ascending Soul need Sacred Vials way less than those at a high gear level. Ultimately, I think most here expect rewards for doing nothing. NCW has been fantastic in addressing your concerns already, so give them credit where credit is due.

In case the patch notes for Roots of Malice does not cover what was specifically adjusted to improve the performance, could you shed some light on it? You mentioned Blade Master's Spectral Blade specialization, Mushin's Tower, and certain dungeons/raids. Is it actual code that went into improving the performance, or did you only, for example, reduce effects, NPCs, and animations?

Since the Empyrean Shadows update, I've been having frequent issues with the chat box. Sometimes, the upper portion of the chat box won't react to the cursor. both when using alt (to bring out the cursor) and pressing ESC to bring out the options. I recorded it happening and posted it on Imgur here: https://i.imgur.com/yYKjuXz.gifv. I unfortunately haven't been able to pinpoint any particular reason for the issue. All I know is that it's fixable by opening the Customize UI (Shift+1) feature and closing it. Thanks in advance!

This article is pretty lacking in information. It does not specifically detail where the event currencies can be obtained, how many you can obtain from each instance, nor any information regarding the achievement. I hope the patch notes make up for it and are as beautiful and comprehensive as the patch notes for Empyrean Shadows.