Greetings Adventurers,
This is The MMORPG, Black Desert.

On June 8th, the offline event - Heidel Ball - took place in Korea, and it’s where the Executive Producer in charge of development for Black Desert, Jae-hee Kim announced the update roadmap for the 2nd half of 2019

While there are Adventurers that caught the news from our livestream, we’ve prepared this GM Note for those that missed the stream.

So once more, let’s witness the future of The MMORPG, Black Desert.

Main Points Improvements

1. 1. Buffs

2. ● Reduce the cooldown on each of the foods so that people can eat again if they used the wrong item.  

   ● Improve buffs of bigger meals and elixirs so that you won’t need to use a large variety of items.

   ● Make it clear for you to know what you already ate. For instance, if you ate a Calpheon Meal, then the Calpheon Meal icon will appear.

   ● Regular debuffs, buffs, and short buffs will be displayed in 3 rows. This will allow you to see the current status of your buffs even more clearly.

3.  
4. 2. Interaction

● Make it possible for you to interact with NPCs and objects while mounted on horses and other mounts.

● This improvement will allow you to stay on your horse while talking then continue on our way.  

3. 3. Enhancement

● We plan to develop more ways for you to get stacks by playing various contents.

● We are also planning to buff the 20 stacks you get for using Dragon Scale Fossil in the to-be-updated Sherekhan to 40 stacks.

4. 4. Balance

● We’re going to be more cautious but bold when buffing and nerfing classes.

● Class balance constantly sways due to a variety of changes like time, popularity, patches, items and so forth. We will continue to listen to your opinions and put in the effort by analyzing data to make truly necessary balance changes and keep adjusting balances in the direction it needs to go.

Development Progress

1. 1. O’dyllita

● We decided that simply adding a new region would be pointless so we are trying to plan how to make the region distinct.

● O’dyllita is now under development again and is aimed to be released this winter. Instead of O’dyllita, we released Star’s End and Blackstar with new stories and hunting grounds that could be released sooner. Please look forward to the new hunting grounds, new goals, new contents and more from the new region.

2. 2. Territory War and Platoon Subjugation

● Development of Territory War has come to a temporary stop and we are currently discussing how to improve Node/Conquest War. We thought Territory War would be meaningless if Conquest War and Node War were left untouched.

● Platoon Subjugation was at first a function for convenience. We wanted to allow Adventurers that login during the weekend to have sub characters go out and bring in some income, even though it wouldn’t be the most efficient method. However, we are contemplating the experience this system gives to our adventurers and the kind of impact it would have on the philosophy and on Black Desert itself.

Summer Updates

1. 1. Life Skill Balance Rework

● This isn’t a major change from the past, but our basic direction is to increase the merit behind increasing life skill levels slowly by increasing the number of products that can be made at a time with life skill mastery which in turn will give additional income.

● We believe the direction of life skill planned must be precise before we can continue with our updates.  We will be adjusting life skill levels and masteries and increase income evenly between the different life skills. Life skill reworks will be available on Black Desert Global Lab soon. Please try it out yourselves and give us your feedback.

2. 2. Life Content Improvements

● We are also improving on Life skill contents as well.

● Ocean breeze effects or other effects that may affect fish in the sea

● Fishing Guru and Farming Guru being able to build farms, ranches, or plantations.

● Life skill linked sea minigames, minigames that can be played in taverns, and other new play patterns.

● Reworking Imperial Craft Delivery with Imperial Delivery by integrating them to increase overall profit are currently under discussion.

3. 3. Hunting Grounds Rework

● Rare monsters were prepared to be a change up to the repetitive pattern at Fadus.

● They are different from the regular rare monsters as if these rare monsters are attacked, then the monsters in the surrounding area will also attack, they use 3 different weapons and their attack patterns are different for each.

● The one holding the staff uses magic attacks from range, but they are easier to attack from behind. The one holding a dagger has fast attack speed so they may be difficult to deal with.

● Also, the one with the axe mostly attacks from melee range so it is advantageous to attack from a distance, and the like where you can experience various attack patterns.

4. 3. Polly’s Forest

● Polly's Forest will be completely changed from being similar to Helms to more like Gahaz.

● As there isn’t enough room in Gahaz and Crescents to share between everyone there, we will make going Polly’s Forrest a good alternative.

● Polly’s Forest hunting ground difficulty and item drops will be adjusted. Additionally, treasure mushroom boss monsters will appear. When you defeat this monster, your character will become more powerful.

5. 5. Ash Forest

● We’re preparing to rework Ash Forest to become a higher tier hunting ground compared to Hysteria for the top end Adventurers that surpass Abyssal level.

● Ash Forest is being developed to recommend AP 310 and DP 400. New monsters will also be added.

● When a certain monster is attacked, all Ghosts in the area will have their DP decreased. However, their AP will increase and swarm the area so you will need to stay on your toes.

● Ash Forest is aimed to be released this month. Previously, the reason for getting stronger was for people that were PVP focused. However, in the future, hunting grounds like these will be the reason why people will strive to become stronger.

● If previous hunting grounds were only focused on silver income, hunting grounds in the future will be focused in steady income, rare item drops that can make you rich, try to get more Combat or Skill EXP, or try to get specific items, and the like. This and reworking previously unpopular hunting grounds to challenge top end Adventurers to fill their appetites.

6. 6. Conquest War Rework

7. 

   ● If previous Node War and Conquest War were closer to pure test of strength, then the new Node War will be designed to test the guilds’ coordination and strategy.

   ● Also, we are also discussing possibilities to combine areas to make goals for strong and weaker guilds. Balenoes unification, Calpheon unification and the like.

   ● This won’t be a simple fix for the current problems by reducing the number of nodes or castles. We are trying to make the wars more interesting even if the number of guilds decreases and for the guilds that are currently participating to find it more fun.

8.  
9. 7. New PVE Content - Altar of Blood

● Altar of Blood is a new form of PVE content, where you will be able to use your own gear.

● Basically, Altar of Blood is played in a part of three in a simple defense-style game where you will need to protect the relic from the flood of monsters. Instead of simply relying on the specs, you will need to know the timing, direction, and characteristics of the monsters your fighting to protect the relic.

● Communication between Adventurers is crucial and the three Adventurers will need to continue to plan and cooperate, if the team is not able to think on their feet there will be no hope of success. Successfully defending the relic using tactics will bring a new kind of fun.

● There will also be a ranking system for this so that you can complete with other people’s strategies as well. As this content requires 3 party members, gather some guild members or friends to try it out.

8. 8. UI Rework

● Develop a single UI that will be shared across both our PC and Console platforms.

● We need your feedback to make Black Desert’s UI better for the future and easy to use. It might be inconvenient and awkward at first, but please try using it and give us your feedback.

9. 9. New Class - Shai

Shai is going to be a type of class that does not exist in Black Desert.

Unlike the other classes that are specialized in combat, the Shai are better suited for a supporting role. Therefore they have very few skills but their strength comes from how easy they are to use.

They wield a Florang, a huge boomerang that is the same size as their height, as their main weapon. And a special Viclari that has the power to heal and protect allies.

Shai and their characteristics of curiosity, cheerfulness, and their fondness of silly pranks are expressed in their skills.

Their main skills are named ”Hop”, “Come Out, Come Out”, “Get Well”, and more. The skill “Come Out, Come Out” discovers all enemies hidden in stealth in the area,  “Get Well” heals allies. Can’t you also already kind of guess what “Hop”, “Go Away” and ‘Play Dead” are going to be?

Actually, specialized classes like Shai depend on preferences so in a development perspective, it was a lot of concerns. At first, we worried if it can be released as an independent class at all.

There was a lot of requests from multiple countries, we also have gained the know-how from releasing 17 classes and 17 awakenings on how to make such a class fit into the Black Desert world. So we decided to take up the challenge.

Shai class is different from other classes as it is specialized in gathering and alchemy. A Shai character will be created with Professional level gathering and alchemy. They must have this to be significantly advantageous than other classes.

Shai is the only one that can make bonfire through alchemy. The bonfire was developed to only have a social function, but it will have small added functions as well.

As this is a class not built for combat, Shai will not be that powerful. Still, she was developed so that she does not fall that far behind other classes when it comes to defeating monsters. On the other hand, Shai is given a unique and powerful skill set and role in war to support allies.

Start your journey with the three new types of donkeys that will be added for the special enjoyment of Shai’s using donkey skills that is exclusive to them. Especially, enjoy the various Donkey skills that only the Shai can use to go on a journey. Unlike the video, you cannot ride the donkey backwards, but you can lie on your donkey and enter “Wander mode”. This is one of their fun skills that allows you to travel across Black Desert in peace. Start your adventure with a Shai today with the three new types of donkeys.

The Shai will be playable from now on the Black Desert Global Lab and you can start pre-registering for the Shai on our official websites. We expect to start early customization on June 19th.

As we release the Shai class, some of you may worry that we started changed our direction with classes. Black Desert has always released beautiful and stylish combat specialists. This was a common way for developing, and the rules we came up with were too worldly. We had an unspoken agreement not to make classes that do not fit the world.

So the idea came to be, why don’t we create a class using a race within the game? Starting with the Shai, even if they aren’t popular, our small goal is to release a new type of class every year.

10. 10. The Great Ocean

Although it may be the case that sea-faring content may not necessarily carry the greatest appeal to all of our adventures, we were quite taken aback by the level of interest and persistent requests for such content updates. The Great Ocean update aims to live up to such anticipation.

We tried to take a new direction with the ocean contents this time around. The previous ocean contents revolved around fishing, sailboats and frigates, and sea monsters. We believed that keeping to this formula would make it difficult to bring something fresh and interesting. So we have planned a whole new sort of ocean content.

Starting off with the addition of tidal currents and wind direction. If you are lucky or studied ahead of time, then you can travel across very quickly. However, if you were not prepared than traveling may become even harder than before. Remodeling ships, hiring a crew, and using a variety of devices to sail across the sea and winning over the currents and conquering the ocean will become a new objective.

New ships are prepared for you to enjoy the new content as well. They will be very familiar to some of our Adventurers, they are carrack, galley, and the like. We paid special attention to how ships are handled and controlled so that it would be more fun.

To add even more depth to the ocean contents, new islands will be added and various goals will appear. Each new island has a unique theme and story, and has unique content like bartering. There is also an island where Crio and Papu are competing against each other. There’s also an island where you would just be awestruck by looking at the fantastic view.

Also, you all know about Patrigio, the emperor of the night, right? The truth behind Patrigio can also be found here.

The screenshot you’re looking at now is the Panokseon (Armored Ship) that is under development. We plan to add sailors to the update to allow adventures to man the cannons on their ships while playing alone. We believe this will provide a more active adventure on the high seas compared to our existing Great Ocean content.

The Great Ocean update is fairly large so the update will be applied over 2 weeks. To start off on part 1, the new standard ship and new islands will be released. Then in part 2, contents unique to the ocean contents will be released.

We hope you await the Great Ocean with as much anticipation as the Shai.

Surprise Gift!

Thank you for all the love and interest you’ve given to Black Desert. As a token of my appreciation, here is a surprise gift to all our Adventurers across the world, the Wizard Ghoshpy.
Collect this special gift by entering the coupon code below at [Redeem Coupon] on My Page until August 31st.

GIFT-OFHE-IDEL

[Coupon Redemption Notice]

※ The coupon can only be redeemed once per family.

※ The coupon can be redeemed and received from web storage until 2019/08/31 23:50.

※ If you incorrectly enter the coupon code 10 times, then you will not be able to redeem coupons for 1 hour.

And that wraps up the Black Desert’s update roadmap for the 2nd half of 2019.

Please look forward to a far more interesting and exciting adventure in the Black Desert world.   

Thank you.