Jun 1, 2022

Lost Ark - HardcoreHenry

Greetings heroes of Arkesia,

All Lost Ark servers and regions will be brought offline on June 2nd at 12 AM PT / 7 AM UTC / 9 AM CEST for this week’s regularly scheduled maintenance and update. Downtime is estimated to last up to 5 hours and will include the following fixes:

Fixed an issue that caused the client to stop responding when loading into Haiger's Manor or Rivelvarr Ruins. This content will be re-opened to players.
Chaos Dungeon exchange vendor rewards have been adjusted to be character bound. Shards earned from Chaos Dungeons are Roster bound, so players can share them with other characters on their Roster in order to redeem rewards from the exchange on alternate characters.
Fixed an issue where the Basic Horn-rimmed glasses would appear as white when equipped at the same time as the Wily Dawn Chestpiece and Pants.
Fixed an issue that caused an "Invalid Customization Info" error to appear when attempting to load an older preset in the Character Creation menu. If this issue persists, players can navigate to the folder containing the customization files (found at Lost Ark Live\EFGame\Customizing) and change the file extension of all saved presets from ".cus.bak" to ".cus" to resolve the error.
Chimek, an NPC from Wild Wing island, will no longer appear throughout Naruna Hot Springs.
Timers displayed in the Adventure Island menu will no longer reference UTC time in all regions.
Fixed a performance issue seen in various endgame dungeons and raids when using the Korean VO DLC.
Remaining entry counts will now show correctly in the Integrated Dungeon menu.
Fixed an issue that caused the Awakening Skill to be triggered when using the Smart Ping feature on a controller. Smart Ping can be trigged by pressing A, B, X, or Y while LB + LT + RB + RT are held down.
Reverted the dash distance changes on the Radiant Golden Cloud mount. The cooldown for the dash remains at 5 seconds.

Additionally, the team is still working through the following issues:

This update includes a speculative fix for the Island Siege timing issue that will be put in place with this downtime; we will update players on this once the build is live.
UI elements (such as items) may still get stuck on the player’s cursor in various situations.
Players on the Vykas server are unable to donate to a guild.

Thank you for your patience, and we’ll see you back in Arkesia soon!

Jun 1, 2022

Update #296: Interdiction Scourge

Star Traders: Frontiers - Trese Brothers

You can hear the Interdictor engines screaming as they whip out of the launch day -- one, two, three rushing headlong into the void, rushing to meet the incoming torpedoes and bomber wings. Update #296 dives back into the high-adrenaline life of a defensive Wing Leader and helps buff up their ability to stop incoming Bombers from reaching the capital ship. Also, with this update, we've rebalanced and tweaked how all anti-Radiation and Ion Storm Talents work (better!) so check that out as well. A huge thanks to everyone posting feedback, the great discussions about balance.

If you are enjoying the on-going updates, be sure to tell a friend and leave a review.

Want more Trese Brothers sci-fi?

We always love seeing how many of you have pieced together the lore of Star Traders from the stories within, and enjoy the flavor of this universe your Captain is a part of. In our next game, we’re telling a very different sci-fi story but with the same depth we bring to all our worlds. Check out the dark-future feel of our upcoming cyberpunk heist RPG, and wishlist it today!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

Defensive Interdictors

With Update #296, we've integrated some great feedback from the community (thanks @Innocent!) to help improve the balance in favor of defensive Interdictors having a better shot at really stopping enemy bombers from reaching your ship, even as they shoot down incoming capital ship long-range fire.

First, defensive Interdictor Initiative has been adjusted to always trump that of Bombers. Therefore, defensive Interdictors always get an attack against an incoming Bomber before it can complete its bombing run, removing the chance that the Bomber wallops your capital ship and then your Interdictor shoots it down.

Second, we've fixed a long-standing issue (which also could cause a crash at times) where the Wing Tech "Knock from the Void" Talent could conflict with an Interdictor's targeting choice and cause the Interdictor to miss its turn because its target was Knocked. Interdictors are now coordinating with your ship's Wing Tech to make their choices around this and will never waste a turn, assuming there is another Bomber target. If a target is Knocked from the Void, then it is not subject to any attacks for the turn (that has always been the rule).

Anti-Radiation and Ion Storm Talents

Navigators, E-Techs, Engineers and Scientists all provide Talents to help shield your ship and crew from Radiation Storms (quadrant) and Ion Storm (system) Rumors. With this update, the balance on these Talents has adjusted a bit, as some can provide additional XP or even create Scientific Intel. All of the Talents now shield your ship and crew from the ravages of the storm while still capable of granting additional bonuses (the XP boosters / Intel creators used to not shield you...). In addition, while you have the Talents on cooldown, these have gone from a partial shielding (reducing damage) to a full shield (no damage). So, stocking up on a few crew members with these capabilities is even more helpful now for your ship than before.

To offset this balance shift, we've adjusted the cooldown on these Talents by a small amount -- +1 week for the regular shields and +3 to +4 weeks for the ones that pack extra bonuses.

Additional Fixes

With #296, we've also fixed a search string issue with searching contacts (you could search "sells weapon" but needed to search "buy Intel") and updated the hover text to be clear -- buys / sells is correct in all searches.

We've fixed a visual display issue in upgrading components where the bonuses from your components stacked every time you opened the screen (+4% ... then +8% ... then ...) -- now the values stay correct in the display all the time.

Finally, thanks for the report on the broken hat -- the character's hair no longer sticks out through hats :D Derp!

v3.2.43 - 6/1/2022

- Defensive Interdictors always trump attacking Bombers Initiative
- Knock from the Void Talent no longer crosses badly with defensive Interdictors and prevents bombing attacks
- Improved effect of all anti-Radiation and Ion Storm Talents; when available they completely mitigate damage
- Extended cooldowns of all anti-Radiation and Ion Storm Talents 10-30 Turns
- Fixed issues with Scientist "Amplified Assay" and "Distortion Field Survey" not triggering for Ion Storms or Rad Storms
- Fixed search string for contact to use buys/sells (Buys Intel, Sells Weaponry) instead of buy/sells
- Fixed crash with small craft combat and Knock from the Void or Emergency Grounding
- Fixed issue with ship bonus displays doubling and tripling upon multiple opens of upgrade components
- Fixed issue with hair clipping around hat

Jun 1, 2022

OFF GRID devblog "Keep it Clean"!

OFF GRID : Stealth Hacking - Semaeopus

Hello and welcome to the latest devblog.

As we are now firmly into tech and feature lock and finalising all systems to help speed up developing content, this last couple of sprints we decided to get to grips with the AI and get it cleaner and easier to write and use for gameplay. It made sense to do a pass to tie up loose ends and close the door on some of the AI designs or features that had been left open ended (thanks to the modular system they can always be further added to later!). But in digging around and doing code review, we came across a few other things that deserved some attention too...

OnMissionStart()

While doing AI clean-up, we ran (once again) into the complicated mess our mission start-up process had grown into over the years, and decided it's time to give that a thorough look as well. Since this all was something that had just been built gradually as we've added new features and changed design requirements, it wasn't all making awfully lot of sense any more, with confusingly named functions both on C# and in the Lua API, half the game system starting up in an event called "OnMissionStart" which was actually executed way before the mission starts, halfway through then mission setup, before we've spawned in any characters or even started loading any save data and so on...

A good months worth of digging around, and documenting the relationships between everything into a graph, and searching through the codebase for all kinds of legacy systems and checking what it's all doing, we now have pretty good documentation of all the things that happen between loading a level and letting the player in, and were able to re-organize and rename our way through it to create something that makes a bit more sense. And had a good chance to update some truly ancient systems here and there to work with same logic everything else does, and remove some that had no purpose any more.

Apart form some renamed Lua API functions, this is of course all completely hidden from the player's point-of-view. But it certainly makes it easier for us to work with and keep track of what's supposed to happen, and when, and also smooth out the level start experience and even improve our fail-safe systems in case something goes wrong when trying to load a save or start a level from a mod. So while it took ages to get done, and certainly wasn't as interesting work to do as creating new game systems is, it was definitely maintenance work worth doing!

AI cleanup

In the last couple of sprints the majority of the work related with the AI all revolved around doing a big cleanup and review of all the corresponding systems. It was significantly more broad and complicated work than we initially thought, but thanks to that in the future it is now going to be easier and quicker to tweak or add new features or systems, and more importantly much cleaner for modders
to expand the AI too!

Some unfinished and unused systems were removed, several AI actions were
improved with cleaner code, there were systems we tidied up that in the past were
needed but have been deprecated because improvements in the overall game and AI design, or thanks to a more flexible agent creation system. We also had a spell bringing the documentation up to
date and inline with these changes, and so OFF GRID’s wiki, especially in the agent definition page now gives a much more accurate and detailed portrayal of these systems.

Change List:

Core Systems

refactored mission startup

Much AI code tweked and cleaned
Global AI Systems (GOAP system and ModularAgent for when spawning NPCs)
Agents Personality
Chairs (for agents to sit)
Every AI action (generic, use point and specials)
Drone specific code
Flashlight related code
NPCs Animation Control
Code related with AI using devices on amok
Unfinished and unused AI systems and actions removed because they were outdated
Added information in our wiki about some actions already added and overall information in the Agent Definitions page

Bugs fixed

AI bug fixes and tests

If you haven’t already - be sure to wishlist Off Grid on Steam - each wishlist makes a big difference to us, and we really appreciate your support!

Jun 1, 2022

Team Update & June - July Roadmap

Lost Ark - HardcoreHenry

Heroes of Arkesia,

Members of our team joined Smilegate RPG in South Korea last week to look at the roadmap, improve tools and processes, fight the war on bots together, and more as we continue our collaboration. Coming out of those meetings, we have a few topics we’d like to discuss before sharing a sneak peek at the June and July roadmap. We recently shared an update on our battle against bots that we encourage you to read if you’re interested in learning more about our efforts. We’ll keep this team update focused on a few other topics we know the community is interested in, such as Advanced Class release cadence and a discussion about release notes, before we dive into the upcoming content.

Team Update

Advanced Class Release Cadence

Lost Ark first launched in Korea in 2019 and Arkesia has been growing ever since, with new challenging activities, continents, and classes. There’s a vast amount of content we’re working with Smilegate RPG on bringing to the Western version. Lost Ark only launched in the West three-and-a-half months ago, and we’re excited to continue a fast release cadence as we work to catch up with other regions and grow the global community. While there’s a lot of content that has yet to arrive on Arkesia’s Western shores, we know that one of the top player questions is regarding the Advanced Class release cadence. Below you’ll find a glance into our plans and reasoning before we share the June & July roadmap content.

We are planning to release one new Advanced Class every two months for the rest of 2022. We’ve worked with Smilegate RPG to carefully plan out this schedule, which is a much faster cadence than other regions as we catch up. We know some players are eager to max out their roster and want them even faster, but Class releases build excitement and bring new (and returning) players into Arkesia. Having a steady flow of content releases that include Advanced Classes during Lost Ark’s first year in the West will help support the long-term health of the game. While the specific Advanced Class schedule is not set in stone, we can say we’re planning to release the first 21 Advanced Classes before other new, or future, classes.

Our teams work with Smilegate RPG to evaluate a variety of factors when looking at which Advanced Class to release at a specific time, such as planned balance updates/reworks, relevance of the abilities and playstyle to other content, community feedback, and more. The release of the Glaivier and Destroyer Advanced Classes provide a good example. Our teams knew we wanted the Destroyer to release at (or around) the Valtan Legion Raid for players to begin leveraging the massive stagger damage in end-game activities. However, releasing the Destroyer shortly before a planned rework wouldn’t be a great experience, so we pulled forward the fan-favorite Glaivier Advanced Class into its place, and released the Destroyer alongside Valtan.

We know the importance of having a variety of playstyles, and when a new Advanced Class releases we want to provide players who enjoy it with paths to quickly progress. Along with planning out the Advanced Class release cadence, we’re also working with Smilegate RPG to plan in-game events and features that will help players progress their characters. As we’ve mentioned previously, we’ll let players know what classes are coming out near Powerpass grants or progression events to ensure players can make an informed decision about how and when they want to use these features. In the roadmap below, you’ll find more information on the next planned Advanced Class - the Arcanist.

Behind the Scenes - Release Notes

Since launch, we’ve promised to be as transparent as we can with the Lost Ark community around the world. With changes to Lost Ark impacting moment-to-moment gameplay and a variety of game systems that players engage with every day, we fully understand the importance of clearly communicating those changes as specifically as possible. We wanted to acknowledge frustrations in the community and ensure that it’s an ongoing area of conversation between our teams and a focus of ours to improve. Our goal is to always clearly communicate changes, but on both the April and May updates we’ve fallen a little short.

Lost Ark has a colossal amount of content and systems. When we work with Smilegate RPG to compile game-builds blending content that released years ago in Korea with newer content like QoL updates and balance changes, things get complicated very quickly. Neither of our teams intentionally leave release notes out, but occasionally, when layering content together and handing-off details, a few changes can slip into the build or get lost. Additionally (also due to the enormous amount of content) a bug can slip into the build that goes unnoticed by the various QA teams working around the clock. Certain bugs can even look like changes to the game, and we know that can be extremely confusing— we’re looking at you, rapport bug. We appreciate the bug reports submitted by players on the Official Lost Ark Forums, which we review and strive to fix as soon as possible. If you ever have a question on something you encounter, make sure to check the forums for updates on issues that sometimes arise after a content release.

Our teams at Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG appreciate the passion and patience of the Lost Ark community, and we’re excited for the future as we continually improve our collaboration and work to provide the best experience in Arkesia. Now that we’ve wrapped up this team update, let’s dive into some of the new features, activities, and the new Advanced Class arriving over the next two months.

Roadmap - General

The content found below are some of the highlights we know players are looking forward to, and similar to the previous roadmaps, isn’t a comprehensive list of everything releasing in these updates. Stay tuned to our website, social channels, and the release notes for the full list of new islands, store updates, events, bug-fixes, and more. We’re also planning on giving every player a free Punika Powerpass this summer, and are fine-tuning the details for another Express Event. We’ll let you know when the dates and details are finalized!

June

Legion Raid - Vykas (Normal & Hard)

Battle the Covetous Legion’s Commander Vykas, who will join Valtan as the second Legion Raid available. Legion Raids are difficult team-based activities that require teamwork to understand and enact the strategy necessary to counter each Legion Commander's unique characteristics, abilities, and mechanics. As Legion Raids are challenging and take time, there are gates (or checkpoints) that will save a player's progress as they advance through the Raid.

Like Valtan, this Legion Raid will require eight players. To enter normal mode, players will need to reach item level 1430, and for hard, 1460. The Vykas Legion Raid will grant materials allowing successful players to finish crafting their Relic gear sets, alongside a host of other valuable rewards.

New Guardian Raid - Kungelanium

Joining Deskaluda, the frost predator Kungelanium will enter the gauntlet of powerful Level 6 Guardians available to challenge in a Guardian Raid. Kungelanium will be available for players to challenge once they reach item level 1460 or higher. Like other Guardian Raids, you can attempt to vanquish alone, with a party, or matchmake with up to three other heroes.

Thronespire

Thronespire is a new single-player dungeon experience in a twisted dimension with 50 levels. Once you enter a floor, you’ll have a limited amount of time to clear it before moving to the next, or failing and need to re-try. While similar to the Shadowspire and Fatespire solo dungeons, Thronespire has a few key differences. In Thronespire, you’ll battle until overwhelmed, working to defeat as many floors and enemies as possible before you meet your match and succumb to the Demon Legions. Completing the first 25 floors grant first-time clear rewards (you’ll earn all rewards for the floors you conquer). The other 25 floors are focused on prestige and completion times— proving you have the solo skills it takes to conquer anything the Demon Legions throw your way. Players will need to be item level 1325 to participate.

New Store Cosmetics - Yoz’s Jar

Yoz’s Jar is a new consumable that arriving in the in-game store that will introduce a variety of Epic and Legendary skins. If you have a skin you don’t like or wear anymore (or maybe one from Yoz’s Jar you’re not a fan of) you can break it down for “Cloth”, which can be used with a Jar to roll a new skin from a determined list. This new cosmetic system will also give a chance to acquire Legendary skins, which provide better benefits than Epic skins. No worries if you like an older skin more than the looks of your new Legendary one with bigger bonuses, you can ‘Overlay’ the skin you like over the Legendary skin! Like the rest of the content previewed here, we’ll share more details as we head toward the June update.

July

New Mage Advanced Class - Arcanist

The Arcanist imbues special cards with her Magick and uses them to for a variety of effects. From slicing up enemies with a deluge of thrown cards to summoning powerful Magick attacks or team effects from the cards themselves, the Arcanist has a trick up her sleeve for every situation. Despite being armed with a variety of skills, the Arcanist will sometimes leave things to the fate of the cards with her specialty skill “Card Deck”. When the player lands an attack, it charges the Card Meter. Once the meter is completely charged, a card with random stats registers on the Card Deck, which can be pulled out and used to varying degrees of devastating effect. The Arcanist will join the Bard and Sorceress as the third available Mage Advanced Class.

Valtan Legion Raid - Inferno Difficulty

The most difficult version of Legion Raids, the Inferno difficulty is all about proving you’re the among the best of the best in Arkesia, and earning the prestige. Rather than chasing the normal rewards of gear, materials, and everything else you’d receive in a Legion Raid, Inferno rewards instead showcase your victory with titles, achievements, Stronghold structures, and more! A new in-game vendor will be added for players to access a variety of prestigious rewards, earned after various numbers of clears.
There are a few key differences between Normal/Hard and Inferno difficulties:

‘Scale of Balance’ is applied, and the raid requires use of the Book of Coordination, so everyone’s gear is normalized against the level of your Legion Commander opponent.
The gate progression system will not be active - you can’t make it half-way and come back later in the week.

Inferno mode will not count against your weekly attempt limit for Legion Raids, so you can play Valtan on Normal/Hard and Inferno in the same week, and try Inferno as many times as you’d like.

Valtan Inferno difficulty will require item level 1445 for players to participate.

Challenge Abyssal Dungeons

Similar to how the recently released Challenge Guardian Raids applies Scale of Harmony to equalize your power against your foe, Challenge Abyssal Dungeons will use this treatment in a new weekly activity. With greater challenge also comes greater rewards. Various honing material selection pouches— like Challenge Guardians, you can pick the offering closest to your item level— will rotate through the rewards, and cards aplenty are available as drops or in the end-of-dungeon loot auction. You can play through each Abyssal Dungeon once (per roster) each week.

Looking Ahead

We’re excited to witness the epic battles against Vykas, and seeing which heroes are able to defeat Valtan in the Inferno difficulty. Stay tuned to our website, social channels, and the release notes for the full list of new islands, store updates, events, bug-fixes, and more over the coming months. See you in Arkesia!