Black Desert Game Design Division Head, Jeseok Jang, began his first presentation by explaining that he be communicating more closely with us in the future. First and foremost, he announced that PVP content has been prepared and planned for the end of december up to the first half of 2021. This is because they felt that PVP-related content has been lacking and wanted to place a greater focus on its development.
Node War Rework
- This content has already been shown on Global Labs
- All changes are going to be tested thoroughly on Global Labs before coming to live servers an all adventurers are able to participate and provide feedback.
- All nodes have been changed so that all the nodes in that region are on the same day and the same battle.
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Guilds fight over a node one week and then can go for another node in the next week, allowing them to own multiple nodes if they are successful
- The max amount of nodes 1 guild can hold at once is 10
- The nodes can be stolen if you take on too much at once so you have to be strategic and may have to defend one node whilst attacking another.
- Kamaslyvia is also a new node war zone.
- In addition to all that, sieges have changed as well so now guilds can own multiple territories at once.
- Visual guides will be provided in the future to explain the changes in greater detail
Main Server System and Server Wars
- A main server system is being introduced for Guilds
- All guilds will now designate one server and gain benefits when playing in that specific server
- An example of one of the benefits you gain is that you can freely move between the different numbered channels under the same name without a cooldown
- Invasion week and server wars are also planned to add more content that ties in with the new main server system
- Invasion week will be held every 1 – 2 months and during this period you will be able to obtain attack and defense buffs and better benefits. However, your guild will become hostile with all guilds from other main servers and can freely “invade” other servers in open PVP battles. The details are still in development but the idea is that the main goal will be to steal the other server’s relic and if successful, your server will gain additional benefits
- Once Invasion week is over, each server will be placed into Calpheon or Valencia territory, with the hopes that it will be somewhat evenly split. Guilds belonging to each territory will then take part in a grand battle to invade or defend from opposing server guilds.
- Guild Campsites and tactical elephants will be added to serve as frontline headquarters in these battles and add more strategic elements.
- Developers are hoping that this content will be more open to all guilds despite their size and strength. The aim will be that guilds from the same territory will work together and protect eachother.
- Certain restrictions will be added to this content to ensure that adventurers who do not enjoy PVP are not effected. More PVE and life skill content will also be added that will effect the server war and create competition within the territories.
Bounty/Sheriff System
- A bounty/sheriff system will be added for players who feel weaker in PVP and need to call for help.
- The idea is still in development but there will be a system to call a sheriff or ask for help from the strongest adventurers.
10 vs 10 Crews
- 10 person teams (3 in reserve)
- New areas are being developed to create competitive PVP content between crews. The developers have a range of options such as Capture-the-Flag or a BDO mini-seige war.
- A rank system will be added for a Champion’s League and potentially global tournaments
Enhancement Changes
- More enhancment stages will be added to Blackstar defense gear. The stages between TRI – PEN (similar to Caphras levels) to help bridge the gap and make PEN more accessable.
- The materials needed to upgrade your Blackstar gear will mainly come from the Hadum grind spots
- *For players who have not read Global Lab patch notes, the Hadum Servers are a new channel in development (similar to Olivia, Season, Arsha). On the Hadum channel, low level grinding spots that are designed for under level 50, become endgame grinding spots. This content is continually being changed and new grind spots are being updated each week. Hadum Servers are currently only available on Global Lab testing server.
- The developers noted that they don’t want boss gear to become invaluable and will be implementing appropriate stat increases when upgrading Blackstar gear.
- Caphras Stones will be added as a basic reward for PVP content to help meet the demand on the market
Winter Season Server
- The next Season will be starting December 22nd 2020 (Winter season). This date is the official date for Korea and may not be exactly the same for EU/NA.
- More support will be added for new adventurers to help them transition from season servers into higher gear levels after graduating.
- A GM note will be provided soon with more details on the next season
Blackstar Raid – New World Boss
- A new world boss is planned to be added to Star’s End
- Once the boss spawns, platforms will appear around the mysterious meteorite hovering above Star’s End. Adventurers will have to get high enough to deal attacks to the meteorite.
- However, after some testing, the developers found that this made the difficulty quite high and are currently working on changing the layout of the boss fight.
- “Gimmicky” features are being added to the encounter to allow adventurers to hit the meteorite and spawn Incarnations of Corruption.
- Players will need to take up different roles and work together to defeat the new world boss
- Rewards for the boss will be materials needed to improve Blackstar gear
Mystical Fish Challenge
- The mystical fish challenge was created with the idea that a player could catch fish and it would impact the entire server. When a player caught all the mystical fish they were able to summon the Heart of the Ocean, Vell.
- To celebrate and recognise this achievement, an object or NPC will be added to immortalize the player who summoned Vell
- Initial thoughts are to add an NPC to Velia Wharf which may give buffs to players who interact with it
- Similar challenges and content are planned for the future and the first player of each region to complete the Mystical Fish challenge will be added as an NPC in their region.
New Region – Mountain of Eternal Winter
- The new region has been in development for quite some time.
- It is a never-ending winter and home of the Guardian class.
- The region is susceptible to sudden snowfall and players will need to light a fire or seek shelter if they don’t want to risk a frigid death to hypothermia
- Guardian class will be immune to hypothermia in this region and Shai can use their buffs to protect allies along their travels
- 2 new grinding zones will be coming with the new region
- The first new zone is called Okjinsini and resides on the Golden Mountain. In this area you may face snow trolls/yetis
- The second new grinding zone is Murrowak Labyrinth and in this area you can find monsters that have similar behaviour to ants. In these “ant” holes you can activate the queen’s nest and fight against the queen whilst her Murrowaks flood in to her aid. The fight is described as chaotic and defeating the queen will reward you will better loot.
- A golden dragon also lays in slumber at the Mountain of Eternal Winter (is this a future world boss?)
- The new zone is planned to be released in Winter 2021
Terror of the Sea – Hardcore Grind Spot
- Monsters will become more difficult depending on how many monsters you have killed
- Some ideas for this area are that monsters will hit harder, random bombardments will appear or Elite monsters will suddenly appear
- You can leave the grind zone with whatever loot you pick up, but if you die you will only keep half of the loot you obtained.
- There are plans to add a 2 week to 1 month time restriction on re-entering the grind zone if you were killed or left voluntarily.
Mansions – Housing Update
- If you invest contribution points and certain conditions in a city, you are granted ownership of land in the town and a property deed for a mansion.
- Mansions can be upgraded using various materials and will be far more spacious. You can design the interior and also customize the exterior however you like.
- There will be options to add trees, statues, your own garden, and lighting outside the mansion.
- New furniture is planned to be added.
- A competitive rank system is in the early stages and is not confirmed content just yet. The idea is to add more than just collecting expensive furniture and will be more focused on other methods. For example, rare points may be added to all furniture and you can collect rare furniture to increase your mansion ranking. Another idea is to add a way for players to hire thieves to steal from or try to deal a sneak-attack to other mansions.
Co-op Dungeon
- Pearl Abyss noted that instanced dungeons and more co-op content are the most-frequently requested content since the start of BDO.
- A new dungeon for co-op play has been developed, but there will not be any dungeon exclusive rewards because they don’t want it to feel like compulsary content
- The dungeon will not be instanced and will be open world. To enter the dungon you must go through a secret room in the Ancient Stone Chamber.
- The dungeon will be large and some areas may require 3 – 5 players. It is also designed for long sessions and strategic play, which may involve solving puzzles and more “dungeon” like content, in a way that fits BDO.
- Solo grind spots are still going to be developed going forward.
New region – Land of the Dawn
- Many players have been hoping for a Great Expedition Part 2, however, the developers felt that the ocean was not as big as they first thought and decided to work on an entirely new continent.
- The new region will be called the Land of the Dawn and is the home of Musa, Maehwa and Lahn classes.
- The region will be in the north of the map and expanding Port Ratt with an Asian Culture influence and theme.
- This content is in early development and estimated release date is within the next 2 years.