Hello, I am Brain Hack Magic.

Counterclocking is my first work and today I am pushing it to the next level, Early Access!

2 mins sneak peek of the gameplay:


5 mins gameplay:


Please DON"T skip the tutorial!!!
Please DON"T skip the tutorial!!!
Please DON"T skip the tutorial!!!

I made a video just in case you did.



- Playstation 5 controller is now supported with Steam compatibility (plug and play)

It has certainly been a journey for me.
Please join me on the ride and let me know how I can improve this game!


-Brain Hack Magic

As a lot of you know, there’s a big update coming. As we’ve been going through the patch notes for it, we figured it might be fun to tease some of them ahead of time, without spoiling the surprise. We’ve assembled a handful of genuine notes for the upcoming patch, provided without context, to whet your appetite while we put the finishing touches on the update.

Anyway, get ready for your first hint:

• The next big Dota Update is going to release on a date that rhymes with Smaypril Twemmieth and comes between April 19th and April 21st.

OK, that one was advanced level. We should have put that at the end. Here’s some easier ones to build up your riddle skills:

• [UNIT] is now controllable by the player that dug it up
  
• [HERO]: Always has 0 Intelligence. Always.
  
• [ITEM]: Now has an initial and max stock of 4 and a restock time of 120s
  
• After this effect the soul is forcefully returned to the body
  
• [HERO]: Base armor increased by 1
  
• [UNIT TYPE] now gain 15 movement speed during the night.
  
• Mana cost reduction effects only apply to mana cost
  
• [ITEM]: Requires Echo Sabre (2500), Diadem (1000), Recipe (1000). Total cost: 4500
  
• Any player can use a [NOUN] to [VERB] to the other one after channeling for 3 seconds.

Heroes of Arkesia,

Our teams at Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG met recently to discuss player feedback, share insights, and talk about the next steps for Lost Ark in the West. The dust hasn’t settled yet and our teams have a lot of work on the horizon to materialize these conversations, but we wanted to share our thoughts and plans with you.

We’d like to start off with a huge ‘thank you’ from both of our teams before we dive in. The love and dedication shown by so many while playing Lost Ark has been inspirational. While we’re extraordinarily grateful to see the excitement around the recent updates, we understand that you are still experiencing inconveniences and pain-points.

Last year, our top priorities were introducing content into the Western shores of Arkesia at an appropriate cadence to avoid burnout, working to pull forward quality of life (QoL) changes, and waging the war on bots. Now, our goal is to continually improve the Lost Ark experience, while layering in the exciting content that has yet to arrive. Many updates and changes are required to achieve this goal, and that’s only half of it— to constantly work on creating a better game, we need to listen to our player base and ensure that you feel heard so we can build a better game together. We recognize that we’ve fallen short of accomplishing our desired relationship. Like the game itself, our current goal is to continue to grow, improve, and foster a better connection.

As we work to set the best course for the rest of 2023 and beyond, you’ll find some of our thoughts and plans below. These are focused on areas of player feedback and directional goals, not content coming to Arkesia over the coming months. While you might still find one or two spoilers, we’ll be following up with the 2023 Roadmap - Part 2 next week to share those plans.



One of our top priorities over the last year was taking care of the bot problem. Enormous effort was made on both Smilegate RPG and Amazon Games’ part, and together we’ve implemented a variety of changes to restrict bots from exploiting the system to gain economic benefits. During this process, we realized new players may be hindered from progressing, like not getting enough gold for honing. We’ll keep an eye on these unwanted side-effects, and actively work to resolve them.

Material accumulation by bots also requires action. We have banned millions of bot accounts in an ongoing effort, but the materials they have produced still pose a risk of inflation. We will continue to take strong actions against RMT participants, and will take future action based on both gold and other materials' production figures.

Many technical measures have been developed and tested, and we will continue to invest in future measures. Specific tactics can't be revealed for security reasons, but we can assure you that we are keenly monitoring bot activity patterns and are ready to respond to their modified activity. While it will be difficult to ever completely remove bots from Lost Ark, we've made significant progress in limiting the impact they have on gameplay and the economy. With new measures and constant ban waves, our changes have led to 55 billion bot gold removed from the game, and a 99% decrease in bots interacting with the economy.

After we implement additional changes next month, we’re planning to share an article with more updates on our progress and approach.



Thankfully, we still have new players embarking on their first adventure in Arkesia every day. However, our version's vertical content update cadence is significantly faster than the original version in Korea, and we've noticed that new players find it hard to catch up to the content level. One year after launch, new/returning players are having difficulty adjusting to reaching combat level 50, learning Legion Raid patterns, setting up for raid requirements. To address, we will cut down on 'unnecessary' content exhausting new and returning players, starting with:

1) Low-Tier Improvements
In order to enjoy Legion Raids, 4 gear progression steps are currently required (Tier 1 301, T2 802, T3-1 1302, T3-2 1340). Too many honing steps are overwhelming new and casual players alike. Having repetitive gear progression seems unnecessary, so we plan to integrate them into 2 tiers.
Guardian first-time clear and Tower rewards will be enhanced to be on par with the integration, so players will not have to play each tier's content multiple times.

2) Horizontal Content Improvements
So far, we have been focusing mainly on improving and alleviating honing difficulties. However, new players are also suffering from collecting horizontal content materials. To improve their experience, we plan to make collecting Runes/Tripods/Cards/Gems easier for everyone.
To reveal some of the things we have in mind, new 'Uncommon' runes will be added in the early progression period to help players acquire and use runes more easily.
The new 'Deep Dive' and 'You Have a Plan' set's collecting difficulty will be improved, and cards/card xp needed to complete the sets will be provided.
Sailing content will be changed, with improved co-op quests and enhanced rewards.

3) Alt Progression Improvements
As you probably know, we introduced the 'Silver Honing' system in the March update. We will continually expand the levels that the system covers to ensure players can easily progress on new classes and alts. The expanded Silver Honing system will come with the next class launch. We also cut down the requirements for two of most needed materials (silver and honor shards) to make gear progression easier. Looking forward, we are currently contemplating methods to improve the engraving/gem setting difficulty for alts, and will let you know (when decided) what we develop.

4) QoL Updates
We recently made Triport activation roster-bound, so once a Triport is activated every character in the roster can benefit from it. Moving forward, we will also work on reducing other unnecessary and time-consuming activities while progressing alts. For example, having to play through story quests after completing them with the main character is an issue. 'Knowledge Transfer' is in place to let players skip this inconvenience, but due to many restrictions, it's difficult for actual new players to use. To address, we are working on alleviating the restrictive conditions.

5) Improving the Battle Item Experience
While looking through the various suggestions players have given us, we noticed there were issues with acquiring/using battle items in the earlier tiers. We rated this as a critical issue, and after discussing with the developers, we plan to change the system to let players use battle items for free in early tier Guardian Raids. We are aiming to implement this change before summer comes. Along with providing battle items for free, we will add a guide to help players out with the appropriate use of battle items. Thank you for the great suggestion— we are always open to more ideas.

These will take some time to develop, but we’re hoping to prepare them by the end of summer or early fall. We will implement the improvements as soon as they are completed, and thank you for your patience in the meantime.



Along with the content mentioned above, frequent content updates are leading to enhanced exhaustion and gatekeeping, making gameplay difficult for new and returning players. With dozens of patterns to memorize, burden is put on new players attempting to learn. To address, we are preparing the following updates:

• The best way to help progression is to provide appropriate content for the players' current level of play. Through this point of view, Argos is an extremely difficult raid considering it is one of the first raids a new player encounters, without having enough time to adjust to Arkesia.
  
• When the progression adjustments listed above take place, players will get to enter Argos raids much earlier in the game, so alleviating the burden of the mechanics in the Argos Abyss Raid is a must.
  
• We will reduce the number of patterns in the raid to ease the learning curve, and change most of the 'wipe' mechanics to plain damage-dealing ones. This way, players can overcome mechanics and patterns by using appropriate skills/battle items/reaching relevant Item Levels, as well as getting help from other party members. We do not want players to experience too many situations where one player's mistake results in everyone's failing so early in the game.
  
• Smilegate RPG’s research and development team is also looking into applying similar changes to the earlier Legion Raids like Valtan and Vykas. Not every wipe mechanic will be adjusted, considering their designation as top-tier end-game raids. We’ll be sure to share more details on these changes when they’re available.

With these changes, we hope every player in Arkesia can experience the fun of trying out end-game raids without too much stress, while simultaneously learning about the types of patterns and mechanics they can expect to see in harder end-game content.

Similarly, we know the community conversation surrounding dailies is a hot topic these days, and we’re aware of the sense of discontent regarding Chaos Dungeons, Guardian Raids, and Una's Tasks. Currently, these daily activities are critical for obtaining the materials necessary for gear progression, and allow hardcore players to have something to earn every day— so reducing them is not a simple problem to tackle. We need more time to think about it, but we understand the repetitiveness of the content, and Smilegate RPG is undergoing internal research and development to discuss resolutions. To help cut down on the grind in the meantime, we'll introduce the Ebony Cube - a new activity that combines Boss Rush and Dimension Cube - in May.

When further plans for reducing dailies are confirmed, we’ll make sure to share in greater detail. Until then, QoL updates like Ebony Cube will be implemented as fast as possible in our version.



We know that players have expressed some questions and concerns with the current content release cadence. Catching up to the new end-game content is important to us and our players, but there are two problems with speeding up the process; localization timelines and player burnout. If content is localized too quickly, the overall quality may be compromised. Regardless of localization timelines, there’s still the problem of having to digest too much content at the same time, or constantly feel pressured to hit the next required Item Level, related to the previously mentioned exhaustion and issues with new player catch up mechanics.

Our goal is to introduce content as fast as we can without having these problems occur. However, we know this is not satisfactory for players. Therefore, we promise that new classes (at least) will be updated as soon as possible. New continents and Legion Raids have to be updated in order, while classes don’t have the same restrictions. We’re excited to share the next 4-month roadmap with you next week, and hope that you feel heard when the content plan is revealed.

Another piece of content we plan to integrate at a faster speed heading forward are in-game events. The events in our version have mostly been older events in Korea, which isn’t ideal. Heading forward, our teams at Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG plan to introduce more events applied simultaneously across the versions, including events similar to the recent April Fool's event in Korea. Of course, some of them will be Western-exclusive, and some will take place at the same time as Korea. We are open to suggestions!



We still have a long way to go, and understand that one letter isn’t a magic band-aid (or even a Splendid Elemental HP Potion), but we hope this letter becomes the first step in our road to more open communication and positive changes to the game. To thank you for your ongoing support and dedication to Lost Ark, we’ve prepared a gift for all players that will be sent out alongside this letter. As a first-time log-in reward, you’ll find the following in your Product Inventory:

• A Mokoko Skin Selection Chest
  
• A Moko Pet Selection Chest
  
• A Mokoboard Selection Chest
  
• Collective Battle Item Chest x100
  
• Silver x2,000,000
  
• Relic Rapport Selection Chest x3
  
• Pheon x50

These items can be claimed by anyone who logs into the game before May 19.

As we progress into 2023 and beyond, our very first priority is you, the players of Lost Ark. We plan to close the distance between you and our teams at Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG, by taking one step at a time to interact more with you. We’ll see you again next week with the 2023 Roadmap - Part 2, which has some exciting surprises.

Thank you for the patience and dedication you have shown past year. We will continually strive to exceed your expectations.

- Amazon Games & Smilegate RPG

• Fixed an issue where revealing the Boss Stage and another specific stage were freezing the game when being revealed;
  
• Fixed an issue with unlocking the 5 Statue achievement. The achievement will be unlocked when going to the Area Selection.

Greetings Custodians,

We have just released an update which provides some Quality-of-Life updates, bug fixes and stability improvements. We have also recently released some new content! Please see the patch notes below for more details:


Hellscape Deco Pack

Humanity’s struggle for survival in the wasteland has been full of missteps. Hellscape organisms are one such aberration. The result of a Sanctuary’s rogue project, the original intention of these creations remains unknown – but the outcome is the stuff of nightmares.  

This repulsive Deco Pack combines organic matter and artificial structures to create eerie, pulsating Outposts where tendrils creep, lesions light the path, and patterned bloodstains decorate the walls. Use these materials within your next creation to bring it to life in the worst possible ways.  

The Hellscape Deco Pack includes: 

• 2 Blocks: Bloodmesh, Gnarlvine 
  
• 2 Props: Tower Lesion, Keyhole Lesion 
  
• 1 Animated Prop: Flesh Bloom 
  
• 8 Decals   

Boltshot Trap Mod – Relentless

The Relentless Mod for the Boltshot trap gives Builders even more control over the vicious volley of arrows launched at unsuspecting trespassers. Adding this Mod means the Boltshot’s 14 arrows are no longer triggered simultaneously, but staggered, launching over the course of 2 seconds to increase the duration of its deadly onslaught.  

• Multiple title crashes have been fixed, which should help provide a more stable experience.

• More rust has been added to the texture on the Dead by Daylight Deco Pack Blocks Set, reducing the resemblance to the metal on Traps. This should help you spot traps more easily without altering the visual intentions for the Deco pack.
  
• We have fixed an issue which caused armor to appear floating below Hornet after reequipping the Armor Mod on a Hornet with a Recorded Path.

• The “Continue” button on the Accolade Screen will now require you to press and hold to proceed. This should help prevent accidental skipping of Accolade selections.
  
• The Building controller presets have been swapped from “Default” to “Original.” This will allow you to rotate blocks with the face buttons instead of having to first open the “More” menu.

• Subtitles within the Sanctuary will now be set to “Enabled” by default. They may be turned off in Settings.

• Fixed an issue which prevented players who participated in the Open Beta from unlocking the “Feed the Beast” achievement.
  
• You may also unlock the 5 achievements associated with each Advisor by adding 10 more levels to the level you started with at launch.
  
• Fixed an issue which caused HRV to get stuck in collision between a sloped Framed Glass Block and a Cathedral Block.

- The Meet Your Maker Team

Hello hello! There's a little update today that fixes a bug where colonist assignments were removed when you entered a caravan, plus some other useful changes. :)

Changelog is below! And if you encounter a bug, please share it over on our Official RimWorld Development Discord.

Cheers! - Tia

- Clarify that pawns with no xenogenes cannot implant their xenogerm into another person. Show correct warning message on attempt.
- Updated psychic bonding hediff tooltip to factor in pawns contained in buildings.
- Updated player name-in-game content.
- Fix: Load stack count is incorrect for caravan itab when there is only one thing in the transferable and the player isn't taking the whole stack.
- Fixed some typos.
- Fix: Magenta square fetus graphics when reloading.
- Fix: Pawns leaving map have their assignments reset.
- Fix: Error on corpse destruction when completedObligations is null.
- Fix: Gibbet cage description mentions they are made of "steel" but can actually be made of any metal.

Change Log:

• Added a Shepard's Crook that when held down attracts farm animals to you. This was suggested by a community member.
  
• Added a new location (The Church) and several church basement levels.
  
• The new location contains a mission line (more added later) that will end with you receiving a new NPC.
  
• The new NPC is a healer that will heal the lowest health person in your team but has no attack.

Hey everyone!

We've been fixing up a lot of bugs the past weeks, as well as fixing some additional file compression, while preparing for the big upcoming update. We'll talk about it once it's out, because there will be a lot of new features and changes (like security cameras, advanced guard systems, paratrooper backup, etc.) that we hope will make the heists a lot more fun.

As for this update, this is what we've done:

• Improved some effects like explosions to reduce performance impact (still work in progress)
  
• Made presets unlocked by daily challenges
  
• Added boss moves for sword-based bosses
  
• Reduced bandwidth for multiplayer
  
• Flipped task UI buttons (hold to press and vice versa)
  
• Added camera smoothing menu/UI
  
• Fixed some types of items that could go out of sync
  
• Fixed wrong clothing colors
  
• Fixed missing/wrong colliders in Pongo City and Pongton
  
• Fixed that the aim path visualizer wasn't showing
  
• Fixed fairy wand blueprint
  
• Fixed error spam (leading to crash) in the lobby
  
• Improved text readability in the lobby
  
• Reduced loading time and improved framerate in main menu and lobby
  
• Made it easier for AI to walk through doors in Pongolantis
  
• Fixed blueprint counts in lobby
  
• Fixed Pumpkin Harvest objective doors getting stuck, and fixed boss drop
  
• And more!

Also, a few new cosmetics has made it into the update:

• Camoflauge t-shirt
  
• Camoflauge normal shirt
  
• Sandals
  
• Balaclava
  
• Night vision goggles
  
• Tank top
  
• Surgical mask

We'll see you at the next update, which will bring some really cool features to the heists, as well as improved main objectives. The update will also bring improved particles and visual effects that will look much better and run way faster. We hope that this update will close the gaps in the heists, and create a more complete experience, which will allow us to focus on making brand new heists with all these new features right out of the box.

Until then we hope you'll have fun with the game, and don't hesistate to contact us about any bugs, issues, or just to say hello.

Noot noot!

Hello everyone!

Boy oh boy - It's been a little while since there's been a game patch or update. (October of last year to be exact!)

I'm pleased to let you know there are some following changes to the Demo! This includes a bunch of fixes, quality of life updates, and features rolled back from the full game!

• A new introduction screen has been added to introduce the story and set the tone for the start of the game.
  
• The sprint endurance slider has been completely removed, allowing you to sprint for however long you want.
  
• Sleeping in a bed will now progress time to 6:00am on the following day, rather than always using an 8 hour offset. This allows you to always start the day reliably after sleeping.
  
• Added a new moment in the game to tell the player when they have completed the demo (players can still chose to carry on with sandboxing).
  
• The default inventory slots has expanded back up to 36 slots. This removes player frustration in the early stages of the game. For existing saves, you can retrieve the extra slots from the bag found in Quinn's General Store.
  
• A portion of the Illisor Steppes region has been unlocked in the demo, giving the player a hint of what's in store in the full game.
  
• The interior of The Dancing Moon ground floor has been adjusted.
  
• Museum items will no longer appear as they serve no purpose in the demo.
  
• Some items are now flagged as "important", preventing them from being sold or destroyed. This includes tools and quest related items. (You can still transfer them to other storage boxes.)

• The "Introduce Yourself" quest has been adjusted for a better and more straight-forward player onboarding experience.
  
• Added more references to the main story during the tutorial quests.
  
• The quest journal now has categories for Main Quests and Side Quests.
  
• The market deposit box can now only be used after completing a certain quest.

• Changed the selection of music in the main menu and The Dancing Moon Inn to better fit the tone.

• A new overlay appears after transitioning to different areas in the game that displays your current location in the world.
  
• The market deposit UI has improved mouse interaction.
  
• The social and store links on the main menus have had a visual update.
  
• The map/discoveries UI and menus have been rescoped and simplified. The map will now only show you where NPCs are and if they have new quests for you to do.
  
• Moved the health bar above the item hotbar.
  
• Some icons have improved visuals.
  
• Item icons now have distinct coloured backgrounds depending on their type.

• Fixed a soft lock that can occur when interacting with particular items.
  
• Adjusted a collision check in the Illisor Plaza to prevent players from falling in the river and getting stuck.
  
• Fixed a visual artefact on level tokens when highlighting all interactable objects.
  
• Fixed an issue with a miss-fired event in the market deposit box, which caused further instability with inventory items.

Feel free to continue reporting any bugs via the Discord bugs channel.

Discord: https://discord.gg/kpGVRKPn5W

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DancingMoonGame


Thank you so much for playing!
-DjMonkey

Streaming Now! https://steamcommunity.com/broadcast/watch/76561198038894498