Point of view from a relatively new player.

[FlatIsJustice]

TL;DR: Game is too much of a grind for low rewards, players are leaving NCSoft is losing money and going completely the wrong way about it.

 

Please note: I am not an experienced player and my knowledge is very limited however I would like to share my personal point of view of my experience. 

 

So I started Blade & Soul a couple months back, never played an MMO before and I was loving every bit of it, however the more I moved on the more it became a chore to play. The idea of dailies is great, I don't mind that at all, in fact I enjoy it since it helped me learn team play and mechanics of basic bosses. And since it was a daily 80% of the time there was a carry so if I failed we would be alright. However the more time went on I started noticing things were a little off, now don't get me wrong I'm down to sit down and grind when I have the time but when you're limited to just dailies and weeklies it's pretty annoying to wait around.

The most recent patch (Blade and Ghoul) was designed for new players. However this isn't quite true.

Let's start with gold, a new player will get gold from finishing the main quest and dailies/weeklies. However with the gold reductions, prices of required items have shot right up. It is getting harder and harder for a new player to find their feet and do what they want, so what happens when a player can't find their feet? They leave. I left for a month or two and came back because I couldn't find any other good MMO's and it was mostly down to the combat system, it's perfect for me. However players I've tried to invite have just got up and left after finishing the main quest after claiming the game was too "Pay to win", "Complicated" or "Too much of a grind". So I did what I did best, tried to find an excuse to say "No it's not". But unfortunately it is. 

 

Upgrades. The upgrade system is pretty much like any other game, get X to upgrade X using X. This game uses processed materials (the common ones) and transformation stones.

Transformation stones are ridiculously hard for new players to get their hands on. The ingredients to make them from Forgekeepers is: Special Metal, Rare Element, Soulstones, Moonstones, Sacred Orbs and Elysian Orbs. The first 3 items are quite easily obtainable, however Moonstones, Sacred Orbs and Elysian Orbs. What do you want me to do? Dailies?

Moonstones. You can get 9 (max) a week for doing all your chores or you can get nothing. 
Sacred Orbs. 6 minimum or 17 maximum. + Some of peculiar chests.
Elysian Orbs. 0 Minimum or 9 Maximum. 

 

I mentioned the market earlier, where players can use their gold they got from dailies to buy items from the marketplace.
Moonstones: 21% increase in price.
Sacred Orbs: 3% increase in price (Not really an issue, sacred orbs are no longer a problem for now)
Elysian Orbs: 19% increase in price.

 

Well why not buy transformation stones directly off the market instead?
Transformation stones: 58% increase in price in the space of 2 hours. 

(Information gathered 18/10/2019)

 

After looking at all this I asked around what on Earth is going on. The replies were often "Use your credit card", "This game is dying" and more and more replies just like this. 

Please stop.

 

I've loved this game up until seeing all this and I've seen myself and other people saying "Don't get too devoted" because of this exact reason. I get what is going on, it's a free to play game but there has to be ways to make a profit.

I've always said "If the game is good and isn't completely riddled with pay to win items I will pay up." This still holds true to this day. If developers and other workers are gonna sit down and bash out good updates and an enjoyable environment then I'm all down to pay my part. Great skins, great events even the odd RnG box now and then, see what I get. But quite frankly, right now I won't be paying a penny because it will encourage these types of actions. So if I'm like that, then what if there is someone else like that? Maybe even hundreds of people thinking the exact same thing. If you want to earn a profit first fix your relationship with your community, it seems lately companies have started caring less and less about the community and I really hate that but what can you do, it's a business before anything else. 

 

I do not want to see this game die. The combat system is great, some skins are utter garbage but some are amazing and obtainable as a free to play player, doing dungeons with friends is fun, I personally love the upgrade system however the path to achieve it is a problem and will push future players (and maybe payers) away.

 

I will still keep playing until the day it's too much but I really hope that day doesn't come and I believe something will eventually change. 

 

Thank you for reading.

- Misa

 

 

 

 

[FlCosmin]

Yes NCSoft with their recent and by recent in the past few months the game changes are all over the place with no consistency but however the community is also here to blame for their toxicity and also for the management for allowing them to be like this, the main problem is that there are no active GMs playing the game to actually know how things are going in to the game like other MMO's I played where GMs where interacting with their player base through actually playing and get more insights on what the game has and what it lacks but there is none here.

I like the game but hate the community and how the game is managed it saddens me.

[FlatIsJustice]

6 minutes ago, FlCosmin said:

Yes NCSoft with their recent and by recent in the past few months the game changes are all over the place with no consistency but however the community is also here to blame for their toxicity and also for the management for allowing them to be like this, the main problem is that there are no active GMs playing the game to actually know how things are going in to the game like other MMO's I played where GMs where interacting with their player base through actually playing and get more insights on what the game has and what it lacks but there is none here.

I like the game but hate the community and how the game is managed it saddens me.

Is there a way to contact the GM's directly with all the information they need on a silver plate? Because I would happily go through all the statistics and go asking communities directly what they really want. Even make some recommendations of my own. Seeing a game that's so brilliant at it's core crumble for such a petty reason is... agitating. 

[Nemises]

1 hour ago, FlatIsJustice said:

Is there a way to contact the GM's directly with all the information they need on a silver plate? Because I would happily go through all the statistics and go asking communities directly what they really want. Even make some recommendations of my own.

Not really. You will be told to post your thought in this forum and then they will be summed up with all the other ideas worth to mention and send to the developers team for discussion. At least this is how it is supposed to work, as far as I understood the NC employee right. If that really happens all the time, I don't know. Actually you will never know which idea from this forum is shared with the developers for a discussion. There have been plently good ideas, were we never had a feedback like "the developers decided to not implement this in the near future, because *insert reason*". 

[Hyunkel]

Il y a 2 heures, FlatIsJustice a dit :

Is there a way to contact the GM's directly with all the information they need on a silver plate?

As Nemises said, you can do this right here on these forums which are monitored by several staff members everyday. Player feedback and suggestions are always welcomed, and are being actively forwarded.

[FlatIsJustice]

21 minutes ago, Nemises said:

Not really. You will be told to post your thought in this forum and then they will be summed up with all the other ideas worth to mention and send to the developers team for discussion. At least this is how it is supposed to work, as far as I understood the NC employee right. If that really happens all the time, I don't know. Actually you will never know which idea from this forum is shared with the developers for a discussion. There have been plently good ideas, were we never had a feedback like "the developers decided to not implement this in the near future, because *insert reason*". 

If this is true would an official update be possible? 13/25 of the threads on the first page have complaints about the current patch. New players are being turned away because of it.

[Amarathiel]

Here's my point of view. Everything you say is well double-edged blade sort of thing at least in my opinion, not wrong but also not completely true.

 

Main problem in my opinion is indeed the acquisition of moonstones. Developers kinda wanted to make the game be both pvp and pve oriented where you do both things. That doesnt really work in EU/NA where half the people want to do only pvp and half want to do only pve. Therefore making it hard to get half of the materials needed because they mainly come from pvp only.

As for gold, developers do not want you to buy all the materials required to upgrade stuff from market with only using gold, that's not the main point. Reason why you dont get any insane amounts of gold per day. This is something i see most players do alot even though game wasnt really designed for that purpose and then they say there isnt enough gold. If developers wanted you to buy so many resources from market using gold, they would buff that gold gain alot :P

all the upgrade materials except moonstones and soulstones are relatively easy to gain once you learn all the solo dungeons.

 

Developers just should give players way to farm all materials in equal quantities through pvp or pve depending on their preference, especially moonstones. That would solve things partly at least.

[kenamaury]

The response of the moderators is the same as GM's somewhat empty.
The suggestion is that they play 2 or 3 gm 5 months for the game.
There is no cash advantage game or with that it doesn't matter. In this way, they verify the economy of the game, verify the game and the requests, another 300 points that happen in their game that are not known until it explodes in the forums.

[Merlin DE]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb Hyunkel:

As Nemises said, you can do this right here on these forums which are monitored by several staff members everyday. Player feedback and suggestions are always welcomed, and are being actively forwarded.

Well if its true, maybe you can explain why about 90% of our feedback seems to be ingnored and silenced to death?

• Clan PVP:
  Since Clanpvp was introduced, people complain about the beginning of Clan-PVP during the european DaySafeTime since in many European Countries KlanPVP starts at 10PM and ends at 12 AM which is quite late for people who have to work the other day. It would be easy to change but no Change, no Responce why it wont be changed, nothing
• Battelground Matchmaking:
  People requesting a better matchmaking for Battelground since PVP-Gear was introduced. Never any changes nor any response. Oh well sorry ther where some changes, the more people quit pvp, the bigger the possible difference in ranking betwen the groups where made. So now you can have a group with an average of 1320 points and can get matched against groups with an avareage with way above 1400 so you find a match overall
• Reworking the ranking for Arena so that not one person can occupie the fist 8-12 Classrank for a single class. I remeber times where one person appeared in the top 20 with 8 FMs, same for other classes
• Reworking the battlesystem of arena so you not alread lost half of your HP befor you even can act. Last time with my old PC i went to Arena and when the battle starts my screen got bright again and i already have been in an aircombo lost 3/4 of my HP. Many people complained about this and suggested to place players on the field and start a battletimer simmilar to TOI for example
• many other PVP related suggestions and complains
  Result, istead of listening to the players you decided to limit times when pvp can be done cause to many pvp players quited
• Constant requests for valuable farming points for materials. No one want to get things on a silverplate but we want some decent farmig oportunities where you can farm your stuff in a reasonable amount of time
• constant complains about the Mao Glove which is just a freaking break throug item but for many much harder to obtain then the gloves itself because of the poor droprate
  could be solved by adding the glove (wich you need 2 times btw) to the merchant, obtainable for 1 or 2 Mao Tokens
• many other complains / suggestions wich were hushed up until they got into oblivion

Maybe you can also explain, when you are listening to us, as you claim, and appreciate our feedback, why NC-soft continue keep making "mistakes" they should know the community will rage about?

And tbh, there have been a lot of mistakes, frankly in ever patch they did in the last few month.
I saw a lot of complains in my nearly 4 years, but never so many in such a short time.

 

So either you dont listen to the community, or you just dont care what we want.

 

No offense, but after nearly 4 years seeing the same shity phrases over and over again while never something realy changed, who you think will still take you serious?

 

[FlatIsJustice]

17 hours ago, Amarathiel said:

Here's my point of view. Everything you say is well double-edged blade sort of thing at least in my opinion, not wrong but also not completely true.

 

Main problem in my opinion is indeed the acquisition of moonstones. Developers kinda wanted to make the game be both pvp and pve oriented where you do both things. That doesnt really work in EU/NA where half the people want to do only pvp and half want to do only pve. Therefore making it hard to get half of the materials needed because they mainly come from pvp only.

As for gold, developers do not want you to buy all the materials required to upgrade stuff from market with only using gold, that's not the main point. Reason why you dont get any insane amounts of gold per day. This is something i see most players do alot even though game wasnt really designed for that purpose and then they say there isnt enough gold. If developers wanted you to buy so many resources from market using gold, they would buff that gold gain alot :P

all the upgrade materials except moonstones and soulstones are relatively easy to gain once you learn all the solo dungeons.

 

Developers just should give players way to farm all materials in equal quantities through pvp or pve depending on their preference, especially moonstones. That would solve things partly at least.

Then perhaps I could recommend the same fix they used for Draken Cores. You get a 1 off bulk reward to give you a hand to grind something else. Because when crafting, Moonstones and Elysian Orbs seem to on the same tier on rarity (or that was how it was supposed to be). So you do X quest to get Y moonstones so you can go grind them at Z. Perhaps a third Celestial Basin/Moon Refuge. 15-20mins of grinding per Moonstone/Elysian Orb seem fairs, no?

[CrazyDude90]

vor 19 Stunden schrieb Hyunkel:

As Nemises said, you can do this right here on these forums which are monitored by several staff members everyday. Player feedback and suggestions are always welcomed, and are being actively forwarded.

The players are giving you feedback since YEARS and the game becomes more and more P2W, grindy as hell, more and more bugs which dont get fixed ( some of them since years!), the performance get worse on every patch, random disconnect from your servers, crashes, and so on... I could make a list of all issues, bugs, and so on..... but guess what... ncwe$t & nc$oft showed us more than enough that the most feedback get simply ignored.

I know ncwe$t/nc$oft have to make money but this game is nothing more like a cash cow while nearly every feedback gets ignored and the game get worse and worse with every patch.

You want feedback? You got it for years so stop ignoring it! You "guys" are destroying a game with so much potential just because this company is money hungry as hell... disgusting.

 

I love the game itself.. BUT.. how you guys "manage" it is horrible and disgusting.

[Sahto]

In addition, and making this my own tl;dr.

 

Yes, it is way better for new players now

 

• No story which keeps you stuck since its plain easy to conquer yourself
• Free weapon to progress
• No weapon you havce to upgrade from day 1
• Short story since most quest been scrapped or already extinguished
• free stuff after finishing story
• plenty exp and  easy upgrading raven tier stuff
• fun and actively core community

And thats  it, basically. Still there is also an interesting twist here

 

• bottlenecked after aransu tier content

In all honesty the refined story itself keeps myself playing. NC tremendously trying to make people leave though.

[CrazyDude90]

vor 8 Minuten schrieb Sahto:

Yes, it is way better for new players now

I am 100% sure the majority of players dont think so.^^ I could write a BIG wall of text with examples whats NOT new players friendly in this game. Trust me. xD

 

vor 10 Minuten schrieb Sahto:

free stuff after finishing story

Pls tell me what "amazing" free and useful "stuff" you get with finishing story? The things you get are already years old.^^

 

vor 11 Minuten schrieb Sahto:

plenty exp

plenty exp? where? we lost so many ways to make EXP in this game. So tell me please where you get plenty exp? example: No exp charms for tower tokens, nearly no exp from monsters in open world, exp that can be transmuted and/or crafted are expensive as hell, the login exp are lower than before because of the event currency, and so on... so where?

 

vor 18 Minuten schrieb Sahto:

NC tremendously trying to make people leave though.

AMEN. Nothing more to say.^^

 

And all this from a perspective of a players who play the game since alpha without breaks.

[zentoorama]

I played BnS about a year before archer patch. I left cos I saw no reason to play. I had to get TREMENDOUS amount of resources and gold to upgrade my weapon to have the ability to clear high AP dungeons. And after that came the Archer patch and I thought I'll give it a try again, I played 2 weeks and I'm leaving again cos Nothing has changed, and the amount of resources INCREASED EVEN MORE! No, I won't play this game 8 hours a day to be somewhat decent geared player, I already have another job and I dont want to waste A LOT of time at this money sucking game. IT IS NOT REWARDING! After about not playing this game about 2-3 days i got a LOT of free time and my mood became much more stable. Leave this "Game" and be happy.

[Merlin DE]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb zentoorama:

...

After about not playing this game about 2-3 days i got a LOT of free time and my mood became much more stable. Leave this "Game" and be happy.

NC-Soft react with: Yay! mission succesfully acomplished!

 

[Sahto]

Am 20.10.2019 um 17:30 schrieb CrazyDude90:

 NOT new players friendly in this game.  "amazing" free and useful "stuff" . plenty exp?

Isnt it? You don't have to play weeks to "finish" the game = more quality time doing other stuff. never said freebies are OP items, yet not a hassle anymore to obtain this (trash what it had always been, through dungeons cores etc.), and yeah plenty exp, you get hm15 in no time.

 

overall I tried to be sarcastic

Am 20.10.2019 um 17:30 schrieb CrazyDude90:

I am 100% sure the majority of players dont think so.^^

events and everything is targeted to new players. so it is if any they who benefit.

 

But then again NC deletes "The dead Refuse to Die" and lock everybody out from "Know Thine Enemy. Part 2".

 

 

vor 22 Stunden schrieb Merlin DE:

NC-Soft react with: Yay! mission succesfully acomplished!

 

Mission text: Avoid UE4 at all cost

Edited October 22, 2019 by Sahto

[CrazyDude90]

Gerade eben schrieb Sahto:

Isnt it?

For the story part you are right. But after that you get nearly no EXP. so no its not.^^

 

vor 1 Minute schrieb Sahto:

You don't have to play weeks to "finish" the game

Finish the game? what? You meant the story? Dont you?

 

vor 2 Minuten schrieb Sahto:

and yeah plenty exp, you get hm15 in no time.

Hm15^^ sweet. And then? where is the rest of this "plenty EXP" in B&S? they removed so much ways to get them AFTER HM15. :)

 

vor 3 Minuten schrieb Sahto:

events and everything is targeted to new players. so it is if any they who benefit.

Thats why many players doing that for oils/pet packs because you can obtain them SO EASY in this game outside of events right? :) The events are no "bonuses" anymore or just for new players. You need a massive amount of pet packs/oils to upgrade you stuff. Ncwe$t + nc$oft know that and continuously removed more and more ways to obtain evolved stones ingame + promised other "good" ways to get them and what happend? Problem solved? Definitely no.^^

Thats why events got more and more important for ALL kind of players. Thats why its not only for new players imo.