Smilegate held their media showcase for LOST ARK earlier today in South Korea to cover the games service schedule. OBT’s (open beta test) are considered official soft launches so this is indeed the long anticipated release of the game (after 7 years and over $90 million in USD).
The following are the changes made for the OBT:
-We have been experimenting with ways to make skills feel more impactful. Will be reintroducing blood effects
Skills are being tweaked to clearly separate:
-much shorter CD skills that can be spammed
-longer CD skills that are situational
-Tripod has been tweaked so that each tier in the tripod feels more like a chain of effects rather than each tier feeling like its own bonus
-Better AI, new patterns, changes to content where players had no other option than to just circle tank
Identity skills : every class has received balance changes or overhauls to identity skills to better fit the class style
-PVE/PVP balance separation. Skill damage adjustments/CC duration etc are different for PVE and PVP
-Ways to increase MS in town, such as mounting in town
-Item set effects to add depth to farming
-Balance chaos dungeon rewards. Chaos dungeon rewards were deemed too overbalanced since it has unlimited entry
-Field Boss / Secret Dungeon rewards are now going to be based on contribution
-Skip prologue/cutscene
Updates in official release will be based on:
Seasonal updates:
will be like a brand new expansion, completely overhauling endgame content meta
Episodes:
New story, new NPCs, new regions
New activities and collectibles
Middle Updates:
Endgame update : higher tier raids, dungeons, gear
Will continue to work on visual updates.
Housing System: build your own island (mobile game land building style), Invite NPCs with high amity, dress them, Able to gather resources
Silmael battlefield:
-Available for soloqueue, guild v guild, or queue as party
-Areas in battlefield include areas focused on PVE if you don’t like PVP
Epic Raids:
-New raid that requires a large number of people
-Map interaction mechanics (Should feel more like a traditional raid vs current raids which are Munster Hunter Lost Ark edition)
-Many ways to clear
Roguelike mode:
Death = start over
Class updates:
-New class will be included
-Region/Island updates:
-Lots of new islands are currently in development
-New region will be included
-Existing regions will have more story and content such as side quests
Business model:
-Inventory will be offered to everyone, but storage expansion will cost money
-Some gear will directly/indirectly (not specified) be acquired faster for paying players (I think this is referring to the dungeon entries)
-Highest tier gear cannot be obtained any faster by spending money
-Skins
-Mounts
-Recustomize character ticket
-Increased dungeon entries
-Convenience: life tools, pets, storage, time reduction, Resurrection charms
