Snowyamur
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Posts posted by Snowyamur
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10 hours ago, Draknalor said:
I'm sure they will combine trove with archer release in september.
Only seems plausible because the Archer release will likely reel in new players, and those new players who are ignorant to Trove's mechanics will likely spend.
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From what I've seen lately, NCWest lacks a lot of things, but the main problems involve communication, online advertisement, and player encouragement for Blade & Soul.
Advertising
SpoilerI would think that for a North American publisher, they would be doing more to improve the online presence of this game in the United States, and over the past 2-3 years I played, the player count continues going down. Realistically, player counts are supposed to fluctuate because players come and go, but I have been seeing it primarily go in one direction downwards. Part of the reason has to do with the poor optimization, since if you can't play a game, you quit immediately. But part of it also has to do with the fact that not many people know about this game, which is a consequence from the publishers not boosting this game's online presence.
Whenever I check my mail or just browse the Internet, I see advertisements for a lot of other games, with Black Desert Online in particular showing up numerous times; I'm going to use that game as a good example. The publishers for that game know how to brand because part of boosting your presence involves slap-sticking your content on digital billboards, media, etc. enough times such that it interferes with people's daily online browsing. If they stop and look, that's proof they know about the game now, and that's something I haven't seen coming from NCWest. The publishers for Black Desert Online do this so often that I have to stop and look, and they do it so much I get annoyed and close off the ads, but it was a huge success for getting me, some online user, to know about the game, even if it annoyed me.
Can't play a game if you don't know about it.
Communication
SpoilerPeople on social media keep hating on the game, calling it Pay-to-Win, dead, and criticizing how much it sucks. At this point, it isn't constructive criticism; it's just annoying, but the fact that these people, who are part of the player base, are continuing to say these things is a red flag. And that red flag rose from the lack of communicative reception.
Online users can be belligerent, disrespectful, and rude, but certainly they have a capacity for understanding. Why haven't any NCWest community managers addressed what people are posting online? They could at least respond to these people because a majority of what people are saying, and who they're blaming, is wrong, partly because of misunderstanding information and miscommunication. They're going to keep doing this because they want attention, and ignoring them will not fix this problem. Sure, the reasoning for staying quiet might be because some of these people are trolling; that's not the point. Not everyone online is a troll, and treating them like you would treat a troll is disastrous.
If NCWest is under the gun to not respond as part of their job by NCSOFT, that's understandable, but I don't think neither would want to be under the guns of the player base, as Bethesda dealt with that with what happened with Fallout 76 and the game's merchandise, and they're still dealing with that.
The same issue can be seen on the forums. When players are asking about some things that are worth responding to from NCWest community managers, why is no one responding? A communication barrier between publisher and player was created, and its gap continues widening because of this lack of communication. If players feel like they're being ignored, they rage and start attacking, which is continuing to happen.
Worst of all is if players feel the publishers don't care about anything they have to say, they quit.
Player Encouragement
SpoilerIf anything, Blade & Soul does not encourage players to spread word about the game. The lot of us can agree that this game can be fun, and it is playable up to a certain point, but none of us will bother telling others about it, and if we do, what comes out is discouragement to not play this game, and encouragement to stay away from it.
There is a huge lack of encouragement by the publishers on the players to spread word about the game, and that is hurting the game more than people being unable to play it. This has to go into advertising: can't play a game if you don't know about it, and the players that do play the game, knowing it exists, will not bother telling others about it because they get nothing from it but false hope.
A large portion of a game's outward presence, both online and offline, is going to come from the player base and community. Because NCWest isn't encouraging players to spread the word, maybe by using a referral program for rewards, or telling players that if you recommend x amount of people to play this game, you get a cool badge, title, etc., the game continues failing because people keep leaving with no one to take their place. This explains the continuing downward spiral of the player base: players leave, and without any new players to play the game, the player count permanently decreases.
Remember: as players, we're the ones playing the game. Rewarding us for it can only encourage us to play more, and possibly spread word about it.
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Are they that important to add to Trove, though? It would make using it more worthwhile, but only for in-game cosmetics.
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Now if only this was on the official Blade & Soul wiki so people know better where to look.
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On 8/11/2019 at 9:10 AM, Sehjurasz said:
Something has to be wrong with this boss. His mechanics are completely different.
No, Yunsang's mechanics are the same as they always were, just in a different order.
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What I think NCSOFT central is doing, and hopefully this is true, is they're slowly adjusting towards a balance between server maintenance and bug/ optimization fixes and improvements (the latter being in-progress) and adding new content to the game. I think progress is being made towards further improving the optimization issues, while new content is being released at a steady pace, which is hopefully the direction this game is going in.
Regardless of how much the players demand for UE4 to be released early, it won't happen. I rather wait a bit longer so that the transition is done correctly than rush it and have it completely break and ruin the game. That's just my take on it. I also think monthly, at best weekly, updates on the progress towards the UE4 transition would be beneficial so as to take some of the heat off this situation, but that hasn't been happening, further proving my point that there is poor community engagement between the player base and the staff.
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16 minutes ago, SayhaSeer said:
Just because you and/or many others have issues doesn't mean NCWEST should stop adding them and ruin the enjoyment of new content for people who have no performance issues, it has nothing to do with being self-centred,
No, which is why I believe there needs to be a healthy balance between adding new content and fixing the game's technical problems. And after re-reading what I wrote, you're right; I was also being self-centered. But t I stand by needing this kind of balance for this game because this will be what keeps it afloat, not UE4 alone.
People want UE4 because they believe it'll help the game's performance problems. I'm sure it will, and I want it as well because I not only want my gameplay experience to be better, but I want more people to play this game and support it. However, the problem with people leaning too heavily on that side is that they're focusing too much on UE4, believing it'll save the game on its own, and completely forsaking the desire for new content to keep the game fresh.
Even if UE4 was released early by demand, that alone won't keep the game afloat because there are some players today who don't have optimization issues, and they aren't asking for UE4, but for more content instead. Like you said, there are PROS and CONS to this matter, which is something many users on these forums don't understand before making a hate-filled rant about this game. So even if the game becomes more stable in the future, no matter how good the performance will be in the long-run, if players don't like the content they see in this game, they won't play it. NCSOFT central has to also focus on keeping players hooked to this game as well, while keeping it maintained at the same time.
It's a constant struggle between making the game stable-enough to play, while keeping it fresh at the same time, which is what NCSOFT central is currently dealing with.
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Given you've done database coding in PHP yourself, why are you rambling about NCSOFT central being greedy and not coming up with solutions for them to use? That's what I don't get. It sounds like you genuinely care about this game, and yelling at them for how greedy they are won't change anything because they chose to ignore that after the past year and a half of people doing this. They will, however, listen to solutions if you have them that doesn't come across as "fix your code" because problems are not simply resolved like that. You can't just "fix your code" and make things all better; there's more to that.
People on these forums continue mentioning how they're coders, game programmers, and game designers, but they aren't coming up with solutions that could potentially fix these issues. All I see is nothing but verbal aggression and less problem-solving. Sounds a bit strange to me, and it raises my own suspicion that those who say they're programmers are actually lying when they aren't helping to provide solutions to the issues still present in this game.
These are just my thoughts. I'm not attacking people who claim to be programmers, but I'm questioning why, as programmers, they aren't working to provide solutions and are instead coming on to be verbally aggressive against this game and the company. I know people hate NCSOFT for failing to see the bigger picture, and that's understandable, but maybe constructive, and not "fix your code," feedback is needed, not just hate mail.
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Adding something is better than the company adding nothing at all to the game. If the game was not updated for months, or nothing new was added for months, just being bug fixes and maintenance, people would get bored of the game and leave. It's not just optimization issues that'll cause players to leave; it's the lack of content as well.
Not everyone has the optimization issues being mentioned constantly across the forums. Because of this, while said issues would definitely be a huge good in the right direction for this game, NCSOFT central needs to also focus on keeping their player base attracted to the game. If people find this game lackluster, they decide not to play it; unfortunately, given how poorly-optimized this game is, adding more content will actually work as a trap to lure players into a game they won't enjoy because they can't even play it. But that's not my point.
The point is that there needs to be a balance between content vs. optimization fixes, and while everyone wants optimization fixes, NCSOFT central needs to care about having a fair-paced flow of content as well. I know people want to just play the game, which is what I want as well, but this point needs to be understood so as to make sense of why content is still being added amidst the UE4 argument.
7 hours ago, Merlin DE said:Im not a professional payed coder but was involved into some adons / mods for PHPBB2 and 3 Forum-software. I learned how to code clean and gentle on preformance espacialy when it comes to database access.
Okay, and that's fine. Good for you that you worked modifying other games through PHPBB2 and 3-Forum software, but that means you're a freelance programmer, not an employed one. Being a freelance programmer vs. an employed one is different when it comes to what you can and can't do, but the job is nonetheless the same when it comes to what role you play. Both roles still code, so there's nothing different there.
When you're freelance, you can do whatever you want because you aren't under the watch or direction of company executives and producers. When you're employed, you're restricted only to what the company asks of you. I've done modding myself, and I can say that while not being an employed programmer, I have much more freedom, time, and pace with what I want to program and how I want to code. If I was employed as a programmer by a company, I'm limited in what I can do because I have to follow what the company wants, not what I want.
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We can't answer this for you, and if people try to provide estimates, they will most likely be slightly inaccurate.
Just get on the game and see for yourself.
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20 hours ago, Merlin DE said:
Sorry to say @Baskerville but who you try to fool and who should take you serious?
Over 10 Month and not only my friendslist still doenstn work, i cant see my friends, neither they can see me, and all you hear is "We know about your problem and working on it"
Either your "Dev-Team" is incapable or they simply dont care. At least NC-Soft doesnt care about the players who are affected, cause they dont even bother to offer the tiniest compensation while not fixing the problem after 10+ month. Lets say it clear, they simply dont care, as long as enough ppl keep cashing.Same thing you could say for any preformance issues. Since the first problems came up, about 3 Years ago, you keep telling us you are working on a solution, but with every new content added, we got more and more preformance issues so who should still belive your statement?
Clean up your code, get rid of transfering items one by one, instead transfer the selectet amount as one stack, would reduce a lot of database updates and serverload, they are just annoying time-sinks anyway
Stop adding high preformance using particle effects or at least give an option to disable them (for example visual effects of the Unity point system)
Just to mention some easy to do fixes
There are many hints here in the forum but no on listen, at least in the last 3 years...
We don't know 100% as to why content keeps being added and the optimization problems aren't being resolved, and continuing to lean off of the "not care" reason for everything is starting to get a bit old.
You don't work for NCSOFT, and neither do I. While all of our assumptions are easily-based off of what's being brought before us (poor optimization issues, poorly-designed events, terrible Trove, etc.), it would probably be best to take a step back and think of all these problems rising from the developers, programmers, and designers not fulfilling the expectations off their jobs.
If they didn't care, there wouldn't be content coming out at all. I'm pretty sure they care, but they're failing at their respective jobs, which shows from everyone yelling at NCSOFT after an update is announced, then released, on top of optimization issues still not being resolved, and bugs still lingering about. Whether all these issues stem from greed, we don't really know, and we continue using that as the reason because everyone else does.
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5 hours ago, SayhaSeer said:
Because not everyone having problems with FPS or unplayable game, I don't have any FPS problems, does that mean I can't enjoy new content? just because your game is unplayable
They were referring to a lot of the players who come on to these Forums to complain about the horrible framerate issues and optimization problems.
It's a bit inconsiderate to say what you said because it comes off as self-centered; just because you don't have issues doesn't mean others are enjoying the same luxury. There are plenty of BnS players everyday continuing to bring up the FPS problems, so it should be clear already that 1.) the optimization problems are still there, and 2.) many players are unfortunately having said problems.
What ThiccBoi is trying to say is what's the point of adding more game content if one can't even play them. They aren't wrong; if NCSOFT central adds a new raid, which they did, but people can't play it because of framerate problems, which is still ongoing, then how can one possibly play it? If players constantly die because they're fighting at 5 FPS, forget enjoyment; the game is unplayable, and that's what many players are dealing with right now.
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I like to think that most events released are for high-geared, end-game players, not mid-geared ones. The Sacred Longgui event was end-game, so it's likely NCSOFT central will do the same for the next event. This is, unfortunately, the only consistency the company has, and it isn't a good one for new- to mid-geared players. More events like these continue to close off opportunities for new players, which is disheartening, but what could we do? Community engagement between the player base and the staff isn't doing so hot right now, so if this is how the next event's going to be, then yeah, taking a long break from this game would be best.
This isn't even the worst of the problems. Blade & Soul still has optimization issues that have worsened with the recent patch, and now we're having another upcoming event for high-geared players, on top of World Championship Qualifications?
Where is the direction of this game going exactly?
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Well, for one, your processors are weak. In today's century, i7's are the way to go for processing power.
However, it isn't your PC that's entirely the problem. After the Awakening and Empyrean Shadows update/ patches, almost everyone's getting FPS drops and screen-staggering in raids, dungeons, etc. It's more an issue with the game's optimization than your PC that's causing the consistent low FPS and frame rate lag, which [hopefully] might be resolved in the upcoming UE4 update predicted to be released next year.
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On 7/7/2019 at 4:07 AM, NekoNoKishi said:
But now, lets say it clearly. Unity refine splendor system is PAY TO WIN. NO LESS.
1/ It is not achieveable through sheer effort. You would need to spend 49 HM for a CS reset .. on average it cost about 100g for 1 blue box (not including merchant) .... probably about 1000g for a purple fuse and over 10K gold for a legendary .... you need 25 of them not including Ascension stone which you can only MAYBE obtain once a day (you need RNG to get a purple box and then even more RNG for a leg one!). basicaly even for a crazy farmer like myself it would take a year of gold to get it .... for a regular player i would say 5 year maybe 10 probably never ...No one said you had to use the Refine Splendor System. Like every other system in the game, it relies on percent (%) chances to earn a higher-grade item from refining, but if it's that bad as you say, why do it?
The Unity Splendor system itself isn't P2W because the stones can be bought for 5 [Frozen Feathers], which are easily obtainable by doing CS and HM. So, the actual refining system is by chance, but working to get the stones needed to refine IS obtainable by effort. Since you're a player who farms for Purple and Legendary Splendor Stones, then I can see where you're coming from, as I tried going for Purple myself, and the percent chances aren't fair. However, I don't agree with it taking a regular player 5 years to get a Legendary stone, so that's a bit exaggerated and out-of-place.
On 7/7/2019 at 4:07 AM, NekoNoKishi said:2/ it is game breaking , with it you will do 100-200k more dps from the +AP% bonus on skill and even more from the PERMANENT 100 AP ... how fair is that !?
If it's against PvE monsters, when does it matter whether it's fair or not? You're fighting AI, not players with emotion who react to things considered "overpowered" or "broken." If I can kill high-leveled dungeon bosses very quickly, what's wrong with that? It makes farming for mats. much easier and less time-consuming.
If the Unity system applied for PvP, which I'm sure it doesn't, then it would be game-breaking because higher-leveled Unity players would outmatch the lower-leveled ones. The boost in stats would just be a nightmare to deal with for players who aren't even high-leveled in Unity, and it wouldn't make sense as to why it would apply to PvP to begin with. The point of the Unity system is to create a form of progress, w/ the reward being boosted stats, and Unity can only be leveled at Level 60, so it isn't easily accessible until a character hits that level.
On 7/7/2019 at 4:07 AM, NekoNoKishi said:3/ it is RNG ! that mean you can spend 500K gold and still be stuck in purple !
What else is new? This entire game is a gambling simulator for how it's 80% RNG, 20% gameplay.
On 7/7/2019 at 4:07 AM, NekoNoKishi said:4/ time gated => you can only buy 10 CS reset a day !
And that's bad... why?? For someone who farms as much as you do, I wouldn't think this would be relevant, but somehow it is??
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Honestly dude, if you're that mad at this game and the company leading it, just leave the game and push it out of your life. Be done with it, and move on.
NCSOFT will learn the hard way that when their games slowly die and they're on the verge of collapse, maybe listening to their player base wouldn't have been so bad.
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2 hours ago, Ren36 said:
You realize that the bug i brought up was consistently tested "within the acceptable guidelines of the game" by said programmers, who came to the conclusion that they found no cause for it and was later on fixed by their playerbase? What is there to lose if NCSoft himself tasks their programmers to find the cause? They literally had to listen to the higher-ups to find it.
What bug are you talking about? The last few posts you made were about hating on NCSOFT for not listening to the community and the programmers for being incompetent. There was nothing about a bug from what you typed. And do you have proof of NCSOFT's development team having "consistently tested" their code, or proof that the playerbase fixed this bug you're talking about? Stop making stuff up, dude.
Also, NCSOFT is an "it" because it's a game industry/ corporation. Get your facts right.
2 hours ago, Ren36 said:They are obliged to follow the procedures, but not to code instable and flawed codes. They have test servers in korea for a reason. I already mentioned the mismanagement of ncsoft itself, but taking out the programmers is not right. As a whole, ncsoft including their programmers are at fault.
Yes, programmers must do a good job with their work, otherwise they wouldn't have been employed in the first place. I'm not completely removing programmers from the equation of the problem, but I'm saying that the "blame all programmers for being lazy" argument really needs to stop. It's an overused and unsupported argument because most of the time, it's the executive decisions of the company that result in a game being so poorly-designed and distributed to the public.
Programmers and game designers can only do so much within what they're allowed to do, and most of the time, they have to follow what their higher-up producers tell or assign them to do.
You don't know for sure if South Korea has test servers; quit assuming stuff you can't state as hard fact. Granted, I'd be worried if they didn't, so I'll assume they do, but you act like you know everything NCSOFT has, when you don't.
2 hours ago, Ren36 said:Critic isn´t a bad thing, it shows concern in a different way and after 3 years of mismanagement or lack of awareness and pointing flaws out by the community, just to keep the status quo is what you prefer as a Mod. Sugarcoating words for the sake of not hurting someone when something is clearly wrong with every side and their lack of interest to resolve it is what we missed for many years.
You also don´t mention the publisher ncwest and only refer to the programmers, but when compared to the russian counterpart they pale in comparison.
Feedback and problems are resolved faster on the russian server even though they are "only" publisher themselves.
And efforts that are now taken due to a decrease in revenue/money by NCsoft are caused by a decrease in players and could have been done by the community itself if they hadn´t continued give away money, when the state of the game was clearly going downhill.
Threads that are about the game itself and point out bugs didn´t even receive replies from ncwest until recently. And the things that a publisher should provide aren´t even taken serious looking at the emergency take downs. Even streams contained wrong information or weren´t mentioned at all aka cold storage and HM resets being removed. What is there to praise in a civil manner, when a game is reduced to 1 server?
You wanna stay civil after everything has been taken? Where were you when they weren´t civil?Instead of going over this poorly-organized block of information, I'll just make a few points.
You're saying I don't mention NCWest? Why should I? NCWest has little control over what definitively goes in the game; most of the decisions come from NCSOFT HQ based in South Korea. Most of NCWest's responsibility is to help maintain the game here in the NA, but people keep accusing NCWest for everything, when they aren't at fault for everything. Besides, there are people on this Forums anyway continuing to blame NCWest and attack, so I don't need to do anything about that.
What is with your obsession with the RU sector for NCSOFT? What they do is their own business, as it remains connected with the central company, and I'm pretty sure that if what they're doing is good, NCSOFT would find it practical to make NCWest do the same. Throughout this entire argument, you've only been comparing NCWest with the RU sector for NCSOFT over what one does and the other doesn't, which to me strays away from the point that the greatest issue facing the Blade & Soul community right now is NCSOFT's engagement with its community. Stop whining about why NCWest can't do this nor that; post a solution, and maybe then the developers, designers, and possibly the engagement staff would listen.
That's all you had to say, but you decided to rant, curse, and spit at it.
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We really need a better way to report troublemakers... We got so many in this game that it's suffocating.
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On 7/3/2019 at 4:47 AM, Ren36 said:
The speed at which bugs are resolved by the playerbase through mods or addons exceeds paid programmers in NC headquaters. Let alone the the amount of bugs that haven´t been fixed since release, the programmers of NCSoft aren´t even capable to find a coherence between premium windwalking effects and bg crash back then and repeatedly claimed that they couldn´t find any problem with the client throught tests.
You do realize that working as a freelance game programmer for modifying games is different when working as an employed game programmer for a particular game industry, right?
Freelance programmers have more freedom to do what they want within acceptable guidelines of the game they are modifying without fear of losing their job. They don't have to listen to higher-up executives nor producers, and they are in charge of the pace they wish to develop at. Most importantly, they can develop whatever they want, and make what they envision to be.
Employed programmers sign a contract that makes it where they are obligated to follow the procedures and processes set forth by the company. They are led by higher-ups and producers on what they can/ can't do, and they lack the freedom to develop what they believe is good for game because it must be approved first. Essentially, they are not in charge of their own project, but are actually in charge of projects handed out to them by their producers. They have to follow the rules of the company, or else they lose their job.
If you can't understand that and go straight into, like many others, mocking the developers, then your point is pretty much flawed.
On 7/3/2019 at 4:47 AM, Ren36 said:And now these very programmers should code UE4? Lazy people unable to find or fix bugs? People that don´t talk our language or play this game, NCWest that never finds solutions for our feedback and lastly NCSoft management that is disconnected from reality, what is going on their servers.
Yes, let's once again say that the reason why bugs and technical errors aren't fixed is because the developers are lazy; not like I never heard that before.
Dude, have you ever programmed a game before, or worked as a programmer in a game industry? You need to understand that the developers are not 100% at fault for why the game is going downhill. They have to follow the procedures set forth in their contract by the industry they employed at, and they can't just go off on their own doing whatever they want. Most of the decision-making that goes into a game is by the executives and higher-up producers who manage the project; they work UNDER them.
The problems inherent in this game have nothing to do with the developers being lazy because I can tell you right now, that's an overused excuse that has little value. I'm sure the developers want to fix bugs and technical problems, but they are obligated to follow what the producer and executives want, and what the company wants, not what they want, so if the company decides bug-fixing doesn't matter right now, they have to follow that, or they risk losing their job. They aren't lazy, but just trying to keep their job; geez, show some respect, dude.
On 7/3/2019 at 2:52 PM, Ren36 said:They prefer to jump at the throat of a person, who brings up scripts for fishing, which is more fun for them.
They? Not all players are jumping at anyone's throats; some are providing suggestions, so you're wrong there. You're one of the people you just described here, so you're no different. You basically just attacked yourself.
Also, and ironically, the only person who's attacking anyone's throat in this thread is you.
The amount of cursing you did in this thread is more than the cursing I deal with when moderating an online game server for Garry's Mod, and the people in that game are MUCH WORSE than the people here, so you just broke a record for being the greatest ranter here who can't prove a point in a civil manner.
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I spend 100+ keys on Trove, and I get items easily obtainable through farming...
No thanks. I'll spend my NCoin on costumes which are only obtainable at certain times within a given year.
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1 minute ago, Amarathiel said:
based on my observations and own experiences with the game I can say to stop blaming games graphics being unoptimized or servers being too bad. If what i read is true and the game is filtering out localized text, that is where most of the problems are. If I also understand it correctly, it doesn't take much to see how that type of filtering can easily cause unexpected random errors and lag when it has to constantly changed Korean text into English in that manor every time you open inventory or target a boss. When something is hard coded and some other program attempts to change that hard coded material, in this case localized text, it can easily break the hard coded code and cause issues. I think this is what we are mostly seeing.
Why I think this? Since people say that turning down graphics to essentially 0 will not help them and gives no changes whatsoever, that obviously means graphics and bad PC specs cannot be the main issue here. Something completely else is causing the problems. May it be localized text causing incompatibility issues or windows settings causing conflicts or something completely else, no one really knows for sure, can only speculate until proven. Main point is, it is probably something completely different than just graphics being unoptimized or servers plain crappy. To be fair, i'm starting to think that server problems and fps problems are just the symptoms caused by something else lurking deep in the game codes.
Yes, so i.e. the source code for the game is breaking on itself.
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So after reading the Producer's Letter, this is what I think.
Improvement on Player Reception
SpoilerIt's great to hear, from a Blade & Soul producer that the development team is
Quote"continuously read[ing] [our] feedback on the game and us[ing] the community input to make appropriate changes"
but I can't help but feel dissatisfied that they didn't address plans to be more receptive and responsive to player feedback and suggestions.
This is one of the greatest issues present in both the game and its Forums because people still believe that no one on the development team is listening, and while the statement above proves otherwise, I think it would have helped to shed light on the issue around community engagement. Saying something about working to improve community responsiveness would have helped players at least know that what they provide to this community in the form of ideas, suggestions, etc. isn't for nothing. It would have also helped with strengthening the community's trust in the development team, let alone the company.
The recurring issue I read about on the Forums is people continuing to blame poor decision-making by the company on greed and money-making schemes. Now, if there's one thing for sure, we actually don't know if most decisions are made towards greed; we only assume that from incorporated systems like Treasure Trove and the severe RNG gambling with loot boxes. However, the fact that we make these assumptions is insight into how bad the trust is between the player base community and the company, while also being proof of how perception towards game industries has worsened, which is something I wished was spoken about in this letter. Saying that our feedback is continuously read isn't enough; there should have been stated agreement that the BnS Team will work towards improving its community engagement.
The UE4 Update
SpoilerIt's great that we're finally getting an update for the UE4 port for Blade & Soul because people have continuously asked about that, and the video helps to shed some light on it, but I don't think that video alone was enough of an update.
Maybe before-and-after changes would have helped to give people a more visual representation of how UE4 can potentially improve the game. Perhaps providing an approximated date for the UE4 update for Blade & Soul would have helped people get an idea of when they should expect the update, instead of continuing to guess in the dark. Even providing a list of how UE4 will improve the stability of the game would have helped players, who were curious about this update for a long time, know what to expect as beneficial to come for their own gameplay and performance.
Everything above could have been included in the video provided in the letter, which would have made it longer, but more detailed and insightful. Unfortunately, this content wasn't present in the 40-second clip. I know the video is a sneak-peak, but at this current stage of desiring updates on UE4, players want more detailed information, explanations, and insight into not only the progress on the update, but how it will make a player's experience playing Blade & Soul more enjoyable.
From the letter, the Senior Producer acknowledges that,
Quote"We know that the Unreal Engine 4 upgrade to Blade & Soul has been on everyone’s mind, and while we don’t anticipate the game upgrade to happen this year, rest assured that development is progressing and we hope to be able to share some more news about it in the coming months."
but as someone who continues waiting for the UE4 update, what I really want to know is an approximation for the update's release. Saying it won't release next year is a start, but that's not enough, and we're still left in the dark on the progress. At this point, we need an approximation, not an ambiguous answer, and I think something like that should've been mentioned to at least give players a more accurate idea on what to expect. Sure, the producer mentioned that more news will come "in the coming months," but again, at this point, we need hard answers; we'll even accept approximates.
I'm sure this update will resolve many stability issues with the game, but there just isn't enough from the video and letter for me to infer how the UE4 transition will make playing the game more enjoyable and less annoying.
Resolving the Game's Technical Issues
SpoilerIn almost every Forum thread that's considered a rant, players state about the bugs they experience in the game. I've played this game long enough to know that these players aren't wrong, as I continue encountering bugs myself, on top of many other technical issues:
- dynamic animations not working for certain actions.
- quest items being stuck in my inventory/ safe after using the [Level 60 Voucher].
- certain exercises in the Hongmoon Training Room not following the right spec., and therefore can't be completed.
- the F4 Marketplace search bar breaking (but was fixed, only to break again).
- and many more.
Why doesn't the letter address anything related to working towards resolving gameplay issues, bugs, and technical problems? Players on the Forums and in-game mention these kinds of issues, and it's great that other players have resolved them, but they shouldn't have to resolve them had they been noted of and fixed by the game's development team. One or two of the things I stated above aren't necessarily gameplay bugs, but they're nonetheless issues that need to be resolved, which haven't been resolved with the current Empyrean Shadows update.
Mentioning something about working towards resolving many gameplay bugs and technical errors would at least show the community that the team acknowledges even the smallest of errors, and will work to remedy the situations they're currently in, strengthening the communication between development team and player base.
Acknowledging the RNG Gambling Problem
SpoilerThe most prominent feature of Blade & Soul is how it's about 80% RNG and 20% gameplay. Almost all Dungeon/ Raid loot boxes are RNG, loot boxes purchased from events are RNG, and using the Treasure Trove is RNG.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this game a gambling simulator now?
Players will actually spend thousands on Trove, hoping to get items they want, only to be left with dissatisfaction because the RNG system screws them over. I've read online about players using 200+ Trove Keys for this year's Tropical Treasure Trove, and they still couldn't get the items they want. It's clear already that this form of spending for an anticipated reward one may never receive is gambling, and Blade & Soul is not a gambling game.
How come something like this, which is discussed so prominently online, across social media, in-game, and on the Forums, is not being addressed in this letter? This is one of the leading factors as to why players leave this game and distrust the company that owns this game. Many players continue being dissatisfied by the high-levels of RNG present in Blade & Soul, and this issue wasn't even acknowledged in the letter, nor mentioned. Players are spending hundreds of dollars and euros to get desirable in-game items to make their experience more enjoyable, but the RNG is killing that off.
It would've helped if the letter addressed improvements towards the RNG system, perhaps even the removal of certain RNG systems inherent in the game to make it more fun and less of a grind. One thing I believed should've been mentioned was adding numeric percentages for the RNG boxes so players know the chances of getting something they want, so they don't go throwing away thousands for nothing. Why isn't that something written down in a wiki somewhere? Isn't it illegal to be withholding that kind of information from the player base?
As a player continuing to be active in Blade & Soul, I really want this game to improve. I think this game has great potential, but with how it's currently managed and the direction it's taking, it's sinking into the ground, and thousands of players have acknowledged this already. I only ask that please, listen to the community. Respond to us, talk to us, anything so we know that there are those listening to us. A letter doesn't exactly say if the development team is listening to us; direct responses will.
Many of us, who still play and support this game, want it to improve; we don't want to see it leave our respective regions, nor sink into the ground. It's that valuable to the lot of us, and we want to see it become better.
Thanks for reading.
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12 hours ago, Misaki said:
Id say people here say a lot at least the players. NCsoft EU ( is there even EU ...feels like everything happens in NA) and NA just dont listen.
You cant blame people for not trying when our companies themselfs refuse to help the playerbase and do something about it. I think West has just given up. Maybe they know the game wont survive. Dont think BNS will shut down but maybe in the future it will be sold we all have seen numbers steadily go down.
So people do try but nothing ever happens. Some bugs are there for months and months but when something goes wrong in F10 its insta emergency maintanence. They care about money not about the people here. Fact is they closed german and french servers because simply they cant afford to keep them open. Giving lame excuse it will help the raiding makes no sense since how can you raid with french people we dont speak the same language. Most germans and french people will stick to their own and raiding will stay the same. I guess admitting we cant afford would look worse than lying.
If NCSOFT decided to shutdown Wildstar out of nowhere, the same could happen with Blade & Soul, but being more likely should the game not provide enough revenue to keep the company afloat, or it no longer being a worthwhile project to work on with all these issues. I would be saddened, but not surprised, if Blade & Soul was going to shut down in NA and EU because KR is the company's top money-maker from this game, and given that this game was originally made in South Korea, it's also not surprising that the reception in the West is weak, which can potentially reinforce the decision to withdraw this game from the West.
But that's the thing. As a BnS player from NA, we get little to no reception from GMs and Team Bloodlust. What we say carries little value to them, and be it for money, greed, or selfishness; we don't really know the exact reason, but we say it's out of money because that's a common stigma held against game industries making games only for money. From recent patches, updates, and announcements, it's clear that the direction for this game isn't clear nor defined, and as I read on the Forums, the greatest problem with this game is the lack of consistency, which I couldn't agree more. This game is so inconsistent that every change makes previous features useless, and by useless, I don't mean power creep; I'm talking about revising systems originally set in place. When people spent hours using those features for loot, advantages, etc. only to have it stripped from them over some system change, that makes people unhappy. This was the White Orb scandal that happened months ago which infuriated many people, who likely spent hours farming for them, and it's the same thing.
After talking to people from my own region, many people are slowly leaving the game primarily because of performance issues, and I don't blame them. That's known already, but one thing they told me was that they're also leaving because no one listens, and everything they've done to help the game was futile. To this day, performance problems still aren't resolved, the game continues to remain a gambling RNG simulator, and there are bugs that I still encounter while playing the game. As customers, we deserve better treatment and support from Team Bloodlust because we're the ones keeping the game alive. If we chose not to play this game, nor spend money on it, this game would've been gone by now, but we're still doing it.
That's the sad thing: we're still a part of this game and its community, which continues going downhill.
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21 hours ago, ImoutoMaster said:
Of course i know they want money sure but 50€ is like i said way to much.
Almost any MMORPG that has instant-level vouchers are going to charge about 50 Euro, and in the NA, it's 60 USD. For today's digital gaming consumer market, that's a fair price for an item that allows you to bypass everything related to leveling and jump straight into the end game content. It's expensive because it permits instant-leveling, and that price will not change for a very long time.
21 hours ago, ImoutoMaster said:We created our Warlock back in a time Awakening was not even a myth not even known in Korea the class was totally different and actully usefull but they gave us the awakening patch even tho no PVP Players wanted it. Instead of removing the Awakening from PVP they simply didnt care thats the reason i am outraged we are telling them what they have to do but they dont even consider listening instead they restrict play times which feels like "shut up you stupid pvp players we dont want you! we dont earn money with you guys!".
Correction: you're telling them what you want, not what they have to do. Every suggestion made for PvP is not always going to be the best thing to implement in the current state of the game, and just because they don't implement what people suggest, it doesn't mean they aren't listening; it's because that these suggestions, as design choices, are bad to make. You should know by now that a videogame, especially an MMORPG, is dynamic and going to change no matter what people say, so if you're upset that the Awakening patch messed up PvP, then stop doing PvP for a while and do something else, or quit the game entirely.
Besides, PvP in this game is so poorly-balanced it's disgusting. Why are you still using this system in the game?
21 hours ago, ImoutoMaster said:I am by far not the only one who dosent see any reason in playing warlock anymore its pretty much every warlock who liked PVP. I am talking as someone who actully likes PVP and is playing it from time to time earning alot of soul stones from it since you get alot of beans in gold rank but i cant manage to find any warlocks.
That's fine if you like PvP in this game, but how does this justify needing a class-change voucher, or making the stupid choice of deleting one of your characters, which I'm sure you leveled up and committed many hours to?
21 hours ago, ImoutoMaster said:And again i am not a warlock main nor am i only playing warlock. I have 8 Chars with only one warlock which i leveled for like 20 Hours.
So let me get this straight. You hate the Awakening patch because it hurts PvP in some way, with the added zone timers and class adjustments. Fine, that's understandable. You ask for a class change voucher, which many of us here know will never be added to the game because of the possible complications that could follow. Then, you tell us you have EIGHT characters, with one of them being a Warlock, and you're asking for a class change voucher, while also refusing to just play another character class?
Oh my God, where was this argument going in the first place?...
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[Suggestion] Buying NCoin Gives Bonus+ NCoin
in General Discussion
Posted
As a game consumer, I often like to get more bang for the buck. In other words, knowing that I will get extra for what I initially spend is, to me, thinking that I'm getting my money's worth in the form of a better deal. To keep it simple, I think that getting free bonus NCoin that comes with initial NCoin purchases would make buying NCoin more consumer-friendly.
Looking at initial NCoin values, most have been set such that even if a player spends at maximum 10 or 20 USD on NCoin, they can't be overpowered. I use "overpowered" because this game is unfortunately Pay-to-Win, but the fact that it's Pay-to-Win will help explain a point I have later on. For my explanations, I will use the USD because I'm most familiar with that currency value.
So, the current NCoin trade values are as follows:
which is 0.8 NCoin/ 0.01 USD (1 cent). So, you're getting below 1 NCoin unit for every cent you spend on NCoin purchases, which means you're paying more for less.
Hongmoon Store items usually average pricing around 950-1430 NCoin, and this is exclusive to items players usually want, like cosmetics, event loot boxes, and Trove, but that's the minimum for Trove to be used effectively (unlocking item slots, buying keys). That's quite expensive for in-game items because this means you're spending at least 10+ USD for one item.
The fact that there are players spending 20+ USD on NCoin and only getting the raw NCoin is anti-consumer considering how expensive in-game store items were designed to be. This discourages players from buying NCoin knowing they pay more for less. To alleviate this, I was thinking of having bonus NCoin be handed out with large dollar purchases to tell the consumer that you will get more for spending more.
I have updated the NCoin trade values with bonus+ NCoin that can be included, which are as follows:
From these conversions, you'll get an increasing percent value as you spend more money on larger NCoin bundles, which reinforces the fact that you're spending much more to receive a lot more in return. So, I would like to point out that I'm not an economist, but I know what's considered consumer-friendly vs. what isn't, and these conversions are what I believe to be more consumer-friendly than what's currently given.
It's highly probable that NCSOFT can lose profit if they do this, mainly because they'll be giving free NCoin away with larger purchases, but I don't think this is immediately the case because:
Doing this will help the following in the long-run:
I would like to know what people think of this idea. I think something like this would at least tell me that I'm not being ripped off for what I buy, while also giving me confirmation that I'll earn more by spending more. What do you guys think?
Note: I will abstain from making any response to anyone's feedback to avoid tone, mood, attitude, and drama. However, I will respond to any corrections that need to be made.