Lost Ark Online

KR balance patch came out today (notes for those interested here: 테스트 서버 적용사항 상세 안내 (내용수정))

Glaiver & Soulfist are pretty huge winners thus far. I'm incredibly excited for the graphical overhaul on my SF - check them out at: (spirit bomb at 28 seconds is the best)

Voldeth said:

KR balance patch came out today (notes for those interested here: 테스트 서버 적용사항 상세 안내 (내용수정))

Glaiver & Soulfist are pretty huge winners thus far. I'm incredibly excited for the graphical overhaul on my SF - check them out at: (spirit bomb at 28 seconds is the best)

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Mmm yea, that is pretty fkn tight. Congrats.

Does that concurrent number exclude the bots because that would easily eat up 50% of that number

It's a shame steam is the only way to get somewhat information on numbers, since companies stopped giving their own a long time ago. Since I am sure there are many like me, that dont use steam unless the game comes from there.

There are more bots in that game than there are real players. The fact that a new player could log in and never interact with a real player prior to max level is fucking awful. You can watch 100s of bots running a lvl 1-50 script, so most new potential players just newp right on out.

I was so hyped for this game, and what an absolute shit show it became almost right out of the game. Amazing potential, best combat in a top down iso view game I have played, plagued by nothing but bot, after bot, after bot.

I also hated the timed event shit. Cant log on at 9am on a tues? missed an event. Cant be on at 12am midnight for something else...missed an event. That shit is for the birds as well.

Pasteton said:

Does that concurrent number exclude the bots because that would easily eat up 50% of that number

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There are barely any bots anymore so that number is at least 90% accurate.

The number of players has massively declined plus about two months ago they smashed the bulk of the bots and their numbers have also massively declined. There are also restrictions in place that makes it a pain in the ass for newer players as well as hindering the market in general (i.e. max 20 items can be listed per day), so no one lists mid range accessories or many tripods any more.

For a year they let the bots run rampant which affected gems and fusion material prices, but now with the gold nerf to earlier content the money generation is extremely focused on the hardcore people running 6+ raiding chars which also fuels the bus community. The bot outfits that do continue through each ban wave are focusing on the gathering mats which keeps them low, we already have shard nerfs which is crippling the amount chaos gates award and silver is not as limiting as gold. So gold gold gold is the only thing that matters but it will only get harder for the lower and mid level players to obtain as the Eglacia abyss and Akkan raids cause more nerfs.

If you are ahead of the honing curve and fortunately still have a static raid group that plays you aren't worried. But the average player situation only gets worse as time goes on.

Malakriss said:

The number of players has massively declined plus about two months ago they smashed the bulk of the bots and their numbers have also massively declined. There are also restrictions in place that makes it a pain in the ass for newer players as well as hindering the market in general (i.e. max 20 items can be listed per day), so no one lists mid range accessories or many tripods any more.

For a year they let the bots run rampant which affected gems and fusion material prices, but now with the gold nerf to earlier content the money generation is extremely focused on the hardcore people running 6+ raiding chars which also fuels the bus community. The bot outfits that do continue through each ban wave are focusing on the gathering mats which keeps them low, we already have shard nerfs which is crippling the amount chaos gates award and silver is not as limiting as gold. So gold gold gold is the only thing that matters but it will only get harder for the lower and mid level players to obtain as the Eglacia abyss and Akkan raids cause more nerfs.

If you are ahead of the honing curve and fortunately still have a static raid group that plays you aren't worried. But the average player situation only gets worse as time goes on.

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This is a pretty accurate take as opposed to those above who are commenting about something they haven't played in a really long time. I haven't ran into a bot in a long time, they've completely banned them and enforced it significantly for several months now. They occasionally pop back up but get banned pretty quick.

Almost no one plays multiple alts at this stage of the game. That was a thing up to about Brel normal. You really only focus on 1-3 characters and progress the alts leisurely. There isn't enough time in the week to do more. Game has way more than just a healthy population for an MMO (there isn't a tier of raid content that doesn't have multiple lobbies up at all times, all my queues are instant pop, etc). Having 50-80k concurrent players is a massive success; that places the game as easily having 200-250k players logging in regularly. There isn't an MMO on the market that is significantly more successful (FF dips down after expansions and encourages players to unsub and check out other things, WoW has been in huge decline for a long time, etc). Not to mention (and most importantly for the future of the game) it is making boat loads of money. They've released Western only skins, have updated the patch cadence, etc. You don't invest in this type of stuff without seeing money coming in.

Bubbles said:

There's just too much mindless grinding for the western gamers to endure. Vast majority do not want to do the same shit on 7 alts just to gear up the main.

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Yea I gave it a real go, made a main and about 3 alts. It was the most I could manage with the time I had. I just couldn't bring myself to grind it out on all of them, and didn't have the funds to keep my main enhanced high enough to keep up with other people. If they changed this game so that you only had to play 1 character ,and could stay competative putting in a few hours a day, I'd probably play this shit non-stop. As it stands I can't do it, which is a shame because its one of the most fun games I think I've played in years in terms of combat and raid mechanics. (Oh they would need to make a newb tier raid mode also where you could enjoy the fights and still progress even if a few people died, so the game was actually puggable and not a douche fest of getting kicked if you make one mistake.)

Brodhi said:

Yea I gave it a real go, made a main and about 3 alts. It was the most I could manage with the time I had. I just couldn't bring myself to grind it out on all of them, and didn't have the funds to keep my main enhanced high enough to keep up with other people. If they changed this game so that you only had to play 1 character ,and could stay competative putting in a few hours a day, I'd probably play this shit non-stop. As it stands I can't do it, which is a shame because its one of the most fun games I think I've played in years in terms of combat and raid mechanics. (Oh they would need to make a newb tier raid mode also where you could enjoy the fights and still progress even if a few people died, so the game was actually puggable and not a douche fest of getting kicked if you make one mistake.)

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...You are not looking for an MMO. The genre has never allowed individuals to 'stay competitive' while only playing a single character for a few hours a day. Individuals who play 24/7 will always have a significant advantage. Lost Ark is a million times more friendly in that regards as the amount of content that you can grind is limited unlike an EQ where someone who can grind a billion more AAs than you.

They've also somewhat addressed the later part - they've nerfed most of the older raids to be doable even if you're terrible. The current tier hard mode still falls into that category and based on your post, it sounds like you would be kicked by the 'douche bags' not looking to carry you.

40 - 50k concurrent players is a very good number. Any company would love those numbers.

Lost Ark is still one of the most popular games on Steam, even if you adjust out the bots.

40-50k is fine as long as one is playing a popular class. If not then those sweeping class changes can be rather painful. Even more so when one's RNG is on the low side. To change my main's build it would have cost me hundreds of dollars. Sure, some green-quality trash accessories could be sniped but they wouldn't meet the thresholds needed. Purples were 250k+ and blues 150k+ the few that did come up; as long as one could compete with the sniping bots.

Yes, the bot farms have largely moved on. Unless things have changed, most botting is single users doing endless chaos which no one will ever see. Plus the mentioned sniping bots. Granted, g2g still has plenty of listings from some of the bigger bot farms.

The game does have the best combat and raiding in the genre.

i got like 100k or so and a bunch of mats and other shit if anyone wants it im on azena, i quit shortly after valtan came out game got super boring

TecKnoe said:

i got like 100k or so and a bunch of mats and other shit if anyone wants it im on azena, i quit shortly after valtan came out game got super boring

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Obligatory "I'll take your stuff". I'm on Azena, if you're done for good you can send to my Slayer - Jesseigh