Snowyamur

The new launcher is designed to be a more organized launcher that allows players to access the game faster because of its more-accurate and modern build. Honestly, from a design perspective, the old launcher was simple but boring, yet it had the issue with file management and figuring out the game settings beforehand. Also, some people like it, some people don't. It won't please everyone, but the problems could sometimes be the launcher itself, or mainly client-side with the computer/ laptop people having insufficient computers/ laptops to run this game.

Lower the brightness settings of your own computer/ laptop?

Using someone's words in quotes is a cliche argument tactic that's overused and weak. It's also a primitive way of saying, "I'm distressed about your argument, but I couldn't find a way to phrase it myself." Please don't do that if you want your meaning to be clearer. As to what I said above, I was referring to the fact that by combining the servers into one, the result was having that server be moderately to highly-populated in-terms of player population. Before the merge, there were less players than anticipated on both servers, and the merge was designed to remedy that, which it did, and that's why it's doing better as one server than having two mainly-empty servers. Given that Blade & Soul is an international MMORPG and not closed-off nor restricted only to the east, I'd say that people talking in different languages in the in-game chat is common. This is also the case considering that NCSOFT is operating general-region servers (North America, Europe) than specific, although KR (Korea) is specific, and I don't know why they can't go that route with the U.S. and Europe. If you're distressed about how there are people in-chat talking in different languages, it's important to recognize what I said above. You might've played other online games where people in-game only speak English, and that's because you join servers that are region-based, with people who most likely speak the same language. Granted, the merge has attracted trolls and some of the most incompetent cockroaches and pests I've ever heard and seen, but I think the language barrier should've been expected by now. It's bad, but what can we do about it? We aren't in charge of the servers; NCSOFT is, and they aren't doing much to fix anything when it comes to small problems like this.

Okay, then I'll ask what the eastern version of the Merchant of Wonders sells? I'm not asking for how cheaper the prices are over there; I'm asking what they sell.

More servers sound great, but when it comes to saving some money on maintenance and wanting to have a populated server over an empty one, this isn't a bad choice to make. Plus, when the server merge happened, it turned out pretty well.

So what does the eastern, or European version, of the Merchant of Wonders sell, then @Ishtar?

That's correct, and there are a lot of loopholes with this that can be discovered very easily if looking at it as a whole. However, there are minors who play Blade & Soul, and this bill passing would only mean that the game loses out on earning profit from the minors, which is usually more or less bad considering minors spend recklessly. That still doesn't mean western players would want loot boxes. As a western game myself, I'm tired of how RNG is what fully defines this game because virtually every looting system in this game is RNG, but this is because I'm a western gamer. For an eastern gamer, it's the complete opposite. I'd say yeah, if this game is rated 18+, and if it is already, loot box gambling would be legal because we would be of that age of consent, but still. NCSOFT only cares for their potential customers, and this bill slices off the minors, which will have a painful impact, but not a deadly one. Which is why governments shouldn't try to "parent" the parents; that's called an oversight dictatorship. From this fact, it might just be enough to make it so this bill doesn't pass, but I wouldn't know any better; I don't work in a legal firm nor law.

That... that doesn't make any sense @Showta. You're telling me I'm better off spending 80 USD to gamble, in which my odds of winning are low, than spend 50 USD on something I know I will 100% get? What...?

I'd be very careful walking around saying that @LilyFU. You're treading on some dicey turf when remarking on a general population of people not knowing something without further evidence to back that up. What? The articles I listed involve this Senator's bill being inclusive of "pay-to-win microtransactions;" they play a huge role in how this game functions and makes money for NCSOFT. I don't understand why there are those still continuing to be in denial that this game isn't P2W. I see it on social media, I see it in online rants, and I see it here. It doesn't make sense why people are this much in denial about something that's clearly there and out in the open. True; that's a good point. The game industry at this point is powerful to overlook laws and policies that bind them, but keep in mind that violation of these policies can lead to a complete shutdown of an industry if not followed. It may just be a game to you but, it means the world to us The Red Cross policy on using the Red Cross emblem in videogames is one such policy that, if not followed, could result in complete removal of the game from the market, as well as the shutdown of an industry if extremes are taken, which shows how serious and binding these laws and policies could be to oversee the power of game industries, or just keep cultural aspects in check. Also, in the next 5 years, sure, things might still be the same, but this game may no longer be playable in the west. Honestly, if NCSOFT chose to do this, they'd lose a large chunk of their profits because there are many western players still purchasing thousands worth of NCOIN, on top of having Premium. It would be a move that would prove that eastern game industries are only in it for themselves, but at the same time, it would be a move that would forever tarnish their reputation and ruin them in the long run.

Good point @Hanuku, and NCSOFT is rich enough to find their ways around laws. While I'm not fully endorsing that fact, it's a fact that may at least keep Blade & Soul in the west should this bill be passed. As for the last statements you mentioned, I'll keep law and justice in mind.

Yeah... that's way to expensive for my characters' wallets to handle.

I'm still in favor of being able to manually-select your idle animations. Just saying; it would be perfect for screenshots.

I didn't think of it that way. That's interesting to point out @Hanuku; thanks for that. Additionally, from the articles regarding this Senator's bill, there are loopholes as to how he defines "Pay-2-Win" because microtransactions doesn't automatically mean they're P2W. Some people spend microtransactions on costumes, cosmetics, cool in-game aesthetic effects, basically anything that gives neither an advantage nor disadvantage, which isn't explicitly defined in what the bill entails. I agree. Making it where loot boxes give items that are all satisfactory to a player in some way, without the out-of-luck cards as you described, would certainly make these boxes avoid falling under what the bill declares "unfair gambling" such that they aren't unfair. However, keep in mind that any item that makes a player stronger, that can be bought with cash, is P2W; that can't be dismissed, and boxes like the [Lustrous Box] provide contents that are P2W, which is what this bill is trying to make illegal in the U.S. Interesting analogy you bring up as it relates to law, but law and in-game P2W are two different concepts. I agree, the small defense NCSOFT adds to Blade & Soul is that their events, with the loot boxes and such (Trove, Lustrous, etc.) have a small portion that can be obtained for free. However, the free might not be enough in the eyes of many F2P players, in which this defense is denied by a majority of them. It's a difficult balancing act trying to seal the gap between the "whales" and the F2P players because once a player is able to buy materials for upgrading their character, that's when the gap opens and becomes very hard to close. If anything, NCSOFT should look into making things fairer for F2P players. I can't stress enough how important that will be for the lifespan of this game. Then again, they're greedy... might expect the worst to come.

Interesting point you bring up @Grimoir. Nowadays, parents are more lenient, or don't care, when it comes to their children playing videogames. I remember as a kid, when I first started playing my first shooter, which was Return to Castle Wolfenstein, my parents got really mad at me, but over time, they came to accept that this is kind of thing was a norm now. Truthfully, I didn't turn into some violent individual, but them being upset then compared to now just shows how far we've gone in defining what's right or wrong for our children to be exposed to. As for the government handling what's considered the "parents' job," I'd say they shouldn't get involved. It's not their business; it's the family's alone. If NCSOFT made it that way, then they would lose out on a lot of players, and not many adults have the time to play videogames. Most of their money [likely] comes from prepubescent children undergoing puberty, so as to dress up their waifus by spending money on the costumes available in the game to satisfy their fetish desires. Games restricted only to adults would push this game to the brink of collapse, and I'm not sure that's something we'd all want.

I don't really have any issues with character idle animations. I'm happy that characters even have idle animations to begin with because that's extra work on the animators. I'd really like it if we could choose our own idle animations though for the four races, similar to how we could do it in the character creation screen.

I heard online about how the U.S. Senator plans to ban loot box gambling and P2W, on top of making it illegal to even have these features in any game made or imported in the U.S. To verify this, I found articles on the same subject matter, accessible via the links below: U.S. Senator Introduces Bill To Ban Loot Boxes And Pay-To-Win Microtransactions You Can Now Read The Proposed Senate Bill That Would Ban Loot Boxes In Games Kids Like [UPDATE] Loot Boxes Could Become Illegal In US If New Bill Passes We Shouldn’t Trust The US Government To Know How To Ban Loot Boxes And Microtransactions Game studios would be banned from selling loot boxes to minors under new bill Personally, I'm a bit nervous about what this could mean for Blade & Soul given this game has loot box gambling, P2W, and RNG all over the place, and concerned if NCSOFT might just make the dumb decision to pull this game from NA in response to this "because it isn't making them enough profit." At the same time, I'm happy that loot box gambling is being banned because kids are being exposed to "legal" in-game gambling mechanics that is gambling nonetheless and harmful for them due to risk of addiction. Ever since the whole Star Wars: Battlefront 2 problem that caused all of this, I'm content with not having to pay to excel in a game that I could get better at with time, but I really like Blade & Soul and am hoping this won't cause some executive decision to pull the game from the western market. These articles are worth a read, but for all those among both the NA and EU regions, what do you guys think of this? Keep in mind this could have an effect on the EU region as well.

Not really. We still need to check off "Exact Match" to have search results pop up.

Have you tried purchasing Premium through here?

Don't you get a reward for completing it? If so, that would be why.

That sounds strangely broken to deal with in PvP. I'm not sure about that...

First off, calm down. If you can't explain a point without cursing, it's probably not a good point at all. Secondly, I'm not sure how low-leveled you say you are. You're saying all these players are HM 18-25, which is true, but I could only assume you're really low-level if you made it clear that: The thing is, these mobs aren't that hard to kill when you reach at least 1400+ AP. You made it sound like an absolute struggle to fight them off. Thirdly, I can't figure out why you were doing Soulstone Plains to begin with. Was it to farm [Soulstones] and [Evolved Stones]? Was it to farm Faction insignas and raise your Faction standing? The problems you describe are there, but what are they hindering? You say it's one thing, but it could be the other; it's a bit cluttered for me to see. I'm curious to know why you're investing days-worth of time in 2-year-old content, for loot that could be farmed elsewhere, when it's currently plagued by high-leveled Ceruleans. There are other things in-game you could do to achieve the same farm, and these are more fun than standing around in half-hour to full-hour intervals, which is what most of these "high-geared gorillas" are doing. Granted, NCSOFT isn't doing a good job at improving their Faction system. It was cool as a concept, executed poorly, and it's now an abandoned project to work on. You were playing content that was bad to begin with, and there's content outside of Factions that I can say are better. TL;DR; the solution to your problem is do other things in the game. Leave Soulstone Plains to high-geared players who want to AFK all the time.

To simply put, players who claim this game isn't P2W are in denial. I'm well-aware of how P2W this game is, and I'm also aware of the times this game scammed its players ([White Orb] scandal, [Starshine Box] RNG problem). However, what frustrates me is how this debate continues being looped among players such that it gets virtually nowhere. This is happening here, this is happening on social media, and it's happening in-game. We all get it: Blade & Soul is P2W.

They could just make it where fighting these Faction raid bosses would scale with one's level. That way, even if such a boss is in a low-level zone, it would always be powerful. There wouldn't be constant insta-killing of bosses, and if these bosses are defeated, then it would be rewarding to the players who participated in the fight.

Yeah, but if Blade & Soul did that for their forums, it would be copying. It has to be something unique and different without copying how another game handles its own forums.

I really don't want Blade & Soul to turn into TERA with all these class restrictions. Fortunately for this game, it doesn't have those stupid gender-locked restrictions for new classes, but it's slowly going to be compensated with more and more race restrictions for classes. Why can't the Yun wield a bow? They aren't all magic, you know. They can be archers, too.