Introduction

This year the Calphe:ON Ball has been changed to be more of an open discussion instead of showing a roadmap. Content which is close to being released has been showcased and from now on, future presentations will be in the same format. In episode 2 of the Calpheon Ball, another update will be showcased which is as big as the main content update this time. In the future, updates may be shown through different formats such as Late Night Talks with PA, instead of always through the Heidel and Calpheon Ball.

The presentation today was hosted by CM Endlaive and CM Lemoria, with CM Alejandro translating the the event live for us! Make sure to give some love to the CMs and all the staff working in the background to make Calphe:ON Ball possible! <3

If you missed the presentation you can watch it here:

• Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1230297248
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waJbcQP65H0

 

Coupons and Events

Coupons are valid until January 31, 2022 @ 23:59 UTC

• CALP-HEON-WITH-YARR
  • J Hammer and Advice of Valks +100
• ANSW-ERIS-KZAR-KAAA
  • Blessing of Kamasylve (7 Days)
• WARF-ORBL-ACKS-TONE
  • Secret Book of Old Moon (7 Days)
• THAN-KYOU-EVER-YONE
  • Cron Stone x1,000
• CALP-HEON-EXCH-ANGE
  • Weapon Exchange Coupons (3 set)
• SURP-RISE-JSHA-MMER  
  • J Hammer and Advice of Valks +150

Twitch Drops:
Twitch drops are back between 13th December to January 1st. Check the official post for all the rewards and how to link your accounts
https://www.naeu.playblackdesert.com/en-US/News/Detail?groupContentNo=2275&countryType=en-US

Special Event:
Character tagging will only cost 1 Marni Fuel during the event period! More information will be added later.

Scroll of Equilibrium:
The scroll is available through the rewards tab (Y) from 11th Dec to 9th Feb. The item can then be exchanged at Alustin after 29th Dec, for a Chest of Equilibrium, containing a special scroll and HP/Breath/Strength EXP coupons. The special scroll can then be used to transfer your level, Combat/Skill EXP, Inventory slots and Weight from one character to another.
Full details can be found on the official website – 
https://www.naeu.playblackdesert.com/en-US/News/Detail?groupContentNo=2295&countryType=en-US

Winter Region Sneak Peak!

This year the Calphe:ON Ball kicked straight off with a live sneak peak at the new Winter region, before an official trailer was shown of the upcoming area.

The new region is called the Mountain of Eternal Winter and is finally arriving early 2022 globally (approx March) after a particularly lengthy development. A global release was not possible for this region due to translations and localisation, but will be coming to Korea very soon.

Sneak peak clips:

• https://clips.twitch.tv/OddFrigidSpaghettiJKanStyle-yAdgBUF8mqI_eMcP
• https://clips.twitch.tv/PowerfulBlindingDadKappaClaus-fRu-Hv_r1ya7SQnK
• https://clips.twitch.tv/RepleteCarelessNostrilSwiftRage-PCelZW1j0t8-Mkk4

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Story and Enviroment

The snow capped mountain peaks are distinct and this new area will be different from other regions. The extreme temperatures means there is constant snow and extreme weather elements at all times. Another focus on the new region was to add replayablility so that players will want to come to the region again and again even if they have finished the story line before. The new area is suitable for players even at level 1, but also has content for experienced adventurers too. New players will have the option to start their initial journey at the Mountain of Eternal winter with a completely new starting questline.

In the live demos, the developers showed a revamped questline with full voice acting and new mechanics such as stealth objectives.

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Monster Zones

Monster zones for Mountain of Eternal Winter have mechanics designed with more strategies and less running in circles for endless hours. The monster zones are going to be soloable zones. The first zone is called the Labyrinth and although it is a solo monster zone, the more players around you, the higher chance the boss will appear. The monsters in this zone are insect inspired and the queen monster is the boss. Players will work together once she spawns to help defeat her and all gain rewards.

The next monster zone is similar to an escape room/prison break. Once you enter, you will need to complete certain objectives and puzzles/mechanics to open the different gates and rooms. The concept of this monster zone is to be a PVE dungeon and was inspired by Dungeon Keeper and other similar dungeon crawling games. There are different objectives and mechanics for each room and due to its design, it can be expanded on in the future. There is also a special Golden room that players may come across if they make their way through this area and complete all the objectives.

The next monster zone is similar to the stars end crystals. There are towers around the area and hordes of monsters appear once the towers are attacked. The advantage of these spots is that you can sit in one area and have the monsters come to you. Some events may happen, such as random elite monsters can spawn and monsters having different mechanics.

Okjinsini monster zone is the green gem monsters shown in the trailer. These monsters explode when they are killed and damage the other monsters around them. Whilst grinding you may also come across random events where a large blizzard will appear and the guardian of the void will come to challenge you. This is designed to be a difficult fight which is rewarding.

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New Gear Slot – The Artifact

A new gear slot has been added called “Artifacts”, which are the first new gear slots since Alchemy Stones were introduced.

There will be 2 slots for Artifacts and they are designed to be like a “good luck charm” that can add more customisation to stats and allow more diversity to your build. Each artifact item can be infused with “lightstones” which are similar to crystals but will not be destroyed if you die. The stats can be things like HP, Evasion, Accuracy, etc. There will be multiple options and players can mix and match the lightstones to create what they need. The lightstones can also be leveled up and enhanced.

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New Gear Items

The Fallen God Helmet (called Labreska Helmet) will be added with the new region and will be obtainable in a new way. The helmet also has a unique set effect which can be used with the new Blackstar Sub-weapon, which has also been shown and will be similar in PVE when compared to a PEN Kutum.

The Deboreka belt will also be introduced, but this item will drop from the Crypt of Resting Thoughts in Odylitta. The stats for this item is 24 AP and Accuracy 12 at PEN.

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Transport – Snow Boarding

In the snow region, transporting around the map will be more difficult due to the terrain, because of this players will be able to use a snow board down the mountains. A clip can be seen below.

https://clips.twitch.tv/AggressiveSilkyPuffinBleedPurple-7J2DqBaRDKAAF3PU

A sneak peak at a Shai riding an Alpaca was also shown, indicating that this new mount will be arriving as well! Later in the same clip, a Shai could be seen ice fishing.

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Developer Talk

New Class?

• Although the Wukong Class was datamined recently, there is no release date yet or mention of a “Wukong” class at all. The decision was made to not develop new classes whilst the class reboot was in progress. CM Endlaive refered to a “Rhutum(?)” class that was shown in a previous presentation. 
• There were no plans to share this image originally, but because of the questions about a new class, Pearl Abyss showed a teaser of the next female class which is in very early stages of development.

Heidel Ball roadmap?

• Pearl Abyss admitted that they were too ambitious at the previous presentations and are very sorry about the lack of content and empty promises.
• The 10V10 Crew content is planned to be coming after Solaire Arena
• Some of the other content has been put on hold for now and more updates will be coming later
• Solaire Arena 3v3 and 1v1 ranked area are planned to come very soon and will have ranked matchmaking. The matchmaking is still in development but a concept image has been shared below. The arena will arrive with 2 maps, one of the maps will be more open, whilst the other is more crowded and chaotic. The ranking system will have rewards and the ranks will be per character instead of for your account. The area will be coming as soon as it is ready and will be released globally in all regions at the same time.

• Red Battlefield updates are also planned to be coming as soon as possible. The Valencia City map is still in development and will be more like a war zone in the city streets. This new map will have objectives with points to capture, and not just a team deathmatch like the existing maps. Estimated release date is December for KR and other regions shortly after.
• Mythical Dine (T10) is still in development and a showcase will come as soon as it is ready. It will have a unique look like the Mythical Pegasus.
• Calpheon Eliva realm is still in development, as soon as the winter region is done, the blackstar raid and Calpheon Elvia will be the main focus – a short clip of the Calpheon Eliva Troll monster zone was shown https://clips.twitch.tv/DignifiedCalmLemurHeyGuys-g3aYxS4kz3eAUUId
• Terror of the Abyss – this is the monster zone where your vision range is reduced while fighting monsters. If you die you lose 50% of the loot. This content is still planned but is still in early development stages.
• Mini server devleopment is completed and may be coming with the new winter season. The mini servers have already been used in other regions and may be used with events or as a reward for events in the future.
• The next season servers (winter season) will be coming at christmas.

PVP Content

• There are no plans to change the karma system in any major way just yet.
• A clip of the new RBF map was shared. https://clips.twitch.tv/FuriousLongMoonImGlitch-rrohloknDztQqjFq
• For Node War and Siege, building forts can be annoying, especially in Mediah where the terrain is uneven and there are a lot of rocks. They are hoping that the remote install for forts will help with a lot of the problems.
• Ping system for node war and siege is coming soon (images shown below)
• There is a big issue where Shai can’t use DP gear due to the stat caps in wars. Pearl Abyss stated that they are continually monitoring the stats and that they will be changed through natural progression of the game, but changing stats specifically for each class is not something they can do at the moment.

Life skills

• There have been lots of questions and feedback, such as Fishing and Training afk activities not being rewarding enough, or Alchemy, Hunting and Trading not being popular anymore.
• A lot of players say that grinding is better money and a lot of life skill players are now grinding to get money to buy the items they were gathering themselves before. Some of the feedback has been to improve silver income for life skills. Add Agris fever or Tuvala sort of gear for lifeskilling
• Pearl Abyss acknowledged that life skilling has fallen behind in comparison with grinding. Although AFK activities should be less money, they agree that the current state is not realistic when grinding is constantly improving.
• Life skills will be looked into properly after Mountain of Eternal Winter is released. The appeal of life skilling is something they are constantly trying to work on, and ice fishing is being added in the new region.
• They want to make life skills more meaningful. Harpoon fishing for example, should be more fun and accessable instead of just buffing the rewards.
• For hunting, caphras stones will be obtainable as loot and this update will come soon. Hunting Whales and Khalks will have improve too in future updates. Hunting will become more valuable and more different variety for hunting will be added. Lots of good ideas have been given already and is being discussed internally at the moment. For example, Molars from Whale hunting could be used for alchemy or spirit stones.
• A lot of players asked about the future plans for Ocean content, such as when a new ship is coming. There was also feedback that with the oasis 1 silver compass gone, it makes travelling the ocean particulary hard.
  • A bartering expansion is planned and blue battlefield is still something they would like to create. However, ship movement issues and collision is a big issue and needs resolving first. Pearl Abyss suggested a compass treasure item specifically for the sea obtained through life skills.
  • Cosmetics for carracks was also something that was discussed. The idea to decorate ships is something that a lot of players want but Carrack cosmetics are not easy to make. The original skin has a lot of detail and creating new cosmetics would take time. New cosmetics in some capacity will be coming in the future. Lighting will probably not be a cosmetic but some sort of decoration like a theme (eg. La Orzeca for ships) is something that is being discussed.
  • Getting on and off ships is also a problem. Pearl Abyss are going to make ships check back into wharf if they have been idle too long. A way to TP directly onto a guild ship by pressing the icon is also being added.

Monster Zones and Items

• Unpopular spots need to be reworked and rewards updated.
  • Kamasylvia and Dreighan are planned to be updated soon. The update wont be as dramatic as the valencia update since the monster zones have good item drops already.
  • For spots that used to be popular but aren’t as busy anymore, like Mirumok, adjustments will be made to bring back the original appeal. Gyfin Lower Zone will be revamped to a solo dungeon concept.
  • Protty cave, Waragon, Scyraia Upper level were also mentioned and described as mid range spots that need attention. They are hoping that there will be more options for players around 240 to 270 AP.
• Treasure items – there are no plans to add pity system to other treasures.
  • They thought about this a lot and decided that they dont want to ruin the value of the other treasures. The infinite potions felt very manatory which is why they took the decision to add a pity system. However, the other treasures are a different concept and the value needs to be retained.

QoL and Other

• Console only
  • A game version for next gen consoles is currently under development. The main focus at the moment is on optimization issues and working on optimizating for older consoles too. With so many recent updates, there are a lot of memory issues. Memory usage is being worked on with the next patches and frequency of crashes have been on the decline.
  • Jan 5th 2022 for class reboot is still on target and optimization issues will be focused and content will be coming as soon as possible.
  • RBF is currently disabled and will be back as soon as possible.
  • Future release dates may be changed but the content will be coming in the original order, as soon as the issues are resolved.

• QOL and Other
  • Costumes used to be developed one per month, but now we are released one per week. Even with this timeline there are a lot of classes and it takes time for each class to get a new costume.
  • The Guardian costume is being reworked and a teaser image can be seen below as well as some other upcoming costumes design

Guardian Costume

All Classes


Kuno and Ninja Costumes


Berserker Costume


All Classes

 

• Atoraxxion loot is not guarenteed. Some parties have to kill kraten 5 times because someone in the party does not get loot, or player turn off loot so others can pick theirs up. Pearl Abyss said they came across the same issue when playing through the dungeon themselves. Although it wasn’t originall planned, there will be an update to fix this next week.
• Skill addons will be listed directly in skill window so that they are easier to read (image example below). The Skill window will get an update to be clearer as well.

• A lot of players have been asking when the Black Spirit Adventure board will be reset. Many people are collecting dice and waiting for reset instead of getting the rewards. There will be a 2nd list of completions added soon.
• Life skill guild quests are neglected and are too tedious. Pearl Abyss recieved lots of feedback about guild missions and are planning lots of QOL improvements to be added soon. Guild mission rewards will be buffed. There are many different ideas of how to buff it, such as rewards like Khan raid mission. There are also plans to add more titles to the guild.
• A new game engine was developed for Crimson Desert, will the game engine for BDO be updated? Black Space Engine was made for Crimson Desert and is based on the Black Desert Engine. The Black Desert engine is improving at the same time since the two engines are so similar. For example, climbing walls was added to new engine, and this may now also be possible with the Black Desert engine as well.

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Live Q&A

The Live Q&A section was taking questions directly from players at home.

• Are we getting Tier 5 pets?
  • The release of Tier 5 pets is being delayed for various resons. We want tier 5 pets to be something that is not compulsary but something you get if you want it.

• Since the Valencia Red Karma content, there hasn’t been any update to bandit gameplay since, will there be any future content for red players?
  • Truthfully, there are no plans to add red player content. There are various reasons for that decision, such as wanting PK to not be the main option for players. Duel system and arena of Solaire are the main PVP systems and we hope players enjoy this content instead.
  • Pila Ku jail in Valencia was added to help protect new players and players who have less gearscore.

• An Alpaca mount was teased earlier, will you be able to breed the new mount?
  • Alpacas will be tameable and will be available through events. You have to play as a shai to get the mount. But there is still room available for flexiblilty depending on feedback.

• Will there be more usage for alts?
  • Boss alts are one of the main uses for alts at the moment. Big changes for alts would have pros and cons.

• RBF has dead maps and FPS = DPS is still a problem
  
  • RBF has been discussed already. FPS and DPS is still problem and not sure how to fully fix the issue. They are fully aware of the issue and are trying to make the different smaller so that it does not make as much of an impact.

• More servers for other regions (MENA, TR)?
  • Aware of the sitation and some servers were added for TR region, if more servers are needed then improvements will be made depending on the data. More servers may be added to TR and MENA regions for the upcoming season servers.

• Rewards for RBF and PK?
  • As said earlier, they hope PK is not the first option for adventurers but hope that adventurers are enjoying the upcoming PVP contetnt. For RBF, more rewards are being discussed, especially since other PVP content is coming.

• Are there plans to improve all the bugs in the Great Ocean content?
  • Issues need to be fixed before more ocean content. Otherwise they feel it is pointless to add more content in a buggy enviroment

• Lag and FPS issues in large scale content?
  • Aware of the issue of lag and desync. They believe one of the reasons recently is because of an influx in participants with preseason and reworks. There will be continous improvements. and it will be looked into further.

• Traveller map and Arch Map split cooldown?
  • They are aware of a split cooldown on the 2 different maps but they are worried that there is a potential issue of abusive play if they allow this to happen. They will discuss this feedback again since it is something players want.

• Can infinite pots be added to family inventory?
  • There is no plan to add this

• Are there plans to add NFT?
  • There are no plans to add this. They would like to focus more on game content.

• Global Siege was a lot of fun, will there be more events?
  
  • The Covid situation is stopping global siege from happneing. They want Calpheon ball in other regions like Russia and Japan. They hope after covid they will be able to do more global events.

• JP Hedgehog and Global Hedgehog is different and doesn’t give the same ability.
  • It’s a cash item so changing what it does is not something they really want to do. They will look into it and discuss to see if it needs to be changed.

• Can the Old Moon and Kamaslyve Blessing be merged into the Value Pack?
  • At the moment there is no plan to merge those. Each item has its own purpose so they don’t want to merge them into one item.

• There are good hair styles added with the costumes but sometimes we don’t want the hair ornaments with the hair style. Is there a way to remove these and keep the hair?
  • Although they are always working on adding more customisation, this would be a very tough challenge