Props to AGS and Smilegate RPG

General Discussion General Discussion
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Dear @Roxx , if you do manage to read this note, please forward it to your team and Smilegate partners.

First of all, let me tell you, the game is GREAT! I’ve started playing MMOs back in 2000s with Runescape and later on transitioned to WoW, Lineage 2, GW2, ESO, and so on (basically, I’ve at least tried almost every popular MMO out there). At first when I saw Lost Ark I thought ‘damn, I am not really a fan of Diablo-looking games, … probs gonna skip it.’, but then I tried it in on Closed Beta and was … CONSUMED by it! The content is PERFECT! The combat is ASTONISHING! The work invested into cut scenes is simply BREATHTAKING! I am not sure if people watch cut scenes and are even aware of how great production that is! For instance Blizzard had always great cinematics, because they did this great realistic modeling … however, compared to these, I’ve noticed your cutscenes have actual Director behind it - what comes to mind is the cutscene at Yorn where you do some sort of a mini ‘musical’ - I was AMAZED! Those little things that demand huge effort from you, make this game MAGICAL!

Now, of course we have issues in EU. I’ve had my fair share of experience in MMOs and I was expecting this at the release. Those who played WoW early on, got to experience this. Those who played New World, got to experience this - even GW2, which is quite robust in this sense, had issues on expansion releases. ESO struggles when there are new events up. It’s something, us gamers, unfortunately have to accept. I believe there is a solution - if you have a lot more servers at the start, so all players can split well, it could help. However, we all know that communities would start raise up around Streamers and even then, certain servers would still be overpopulated, because players just simply follow the herd.

I love your engagement with community. You never went completely silent when there was something going on. We are getting patches and hotfixes almost everyday since the release. Of course a lot of inexperienced and uneducated players here take them as bad things, because they are greedy and want to be nr1 player in the server ASAP. However, those who notice this, know that this is really a positive thing: We have representative of AGS and Smilegate actively interacting with us, even during tough times. Developers are pushing patches and hotfixes everyday, which means they are working 24/7 (LITERALLY! Crunch times), because I was a Game Developer for 1 year and quit the job, because I couldnt handle the crunch times and we couldn’t provide patches and hotfixes as fast as you guys do. Hands down. And BIG props to your developers working day and night to improve the game !!!

And I also noticed that you moved maintenance windows to early morning in EU during work week - that is another great example where you listened to the community! We are of course not in stage like Blizzard (WoW is around for 18 years!), where they have routine maintenances that can be done whenever they run a ‘script’, so I am aware that actual developer teams need to be on standby during maintenance and after it to check stability. I am truly amazed by how many weird people co-exist with us, because I noticed, people are still bothered now - how? It’s work times in EU, so this is the best slot to do a maintenance. You satisfy majority - never focus on minorities, who might took vacations, have no job / school etc. The majority have work and schools, so this is great. Another props to you!

With the EU West opening, I hope something will change. However, I have to tell you, that until there are no Server Transfers, the majority of servers in EU Central will still be overpopulated. I estimate this will go for at least a month, because this is not a release of a new game, the game has already a tremendous amount of content. While in New World it took 1 week to reach endgame, and there was no endgame content, people quit and servers freed. However, in case of Lost Ark there is no way casual players will explore all endgame content before 4 weeks (if they play 2-4h per day). I’ve managed to churn in 123 hours of gameplay until now, and I have only 980 gear score main, alts are all T1 still. That is shocking 15 hours gaming per day!! I’ve never done something like that, but I took days of work and was simply consumed by the game - I must admit, a tad bit dangerous for my lifestyle, but I do see that once I reach Tier 3, 4 hours per day will be more than enough to do my daily routines.

Now @Roxx , if you do read this, I do have few questions for you, if you have the ability to answer them at the moment:

  1. Are you planning to implement Server Transfer at all in this game? To be honest, I cannot afford to start over on EU West with 123 hours invested already. Most of us will be in this situation I assume, since the game is out for 8 days (yes, I am counting founders, because there were queues already during headstart) and we invested a lot of time and perhaps money in our characters. I know that ST is not implemented anywhere in Lost Ark, but since AGS has experience implementing it in New World (quite quickly), could you guys assisst Smilegate RPG to get that? If we get ST, I’d most likely transfer, because I dont mind playing elsewhere, having 0 queues would be AMAZING!

  2. Are you aware of the issues where there is a lot of stress on servers that we cannot matchmake? Yesterday 4 of us tried to do some Dailies, but we couldn’t enter any dungeons / raid. We had to spam ‘Enter’ for at least 15-30min to get into 1 , and then repeat for every clearance. The time ‘wasted’ for queueing is enough to finish all dailies. Also, we got locked out in Abyssal Dungeon, even though we were kicked from it by the server - we couldn’t re-enter as it consumed our ‘Weekly entrance’.

  3. Are you still planning to provide us with a Roadmap for the game? I believe this was promised prior the game launch, but we haven’t seen it yet. Would be cool to see how the game is planned to progress and which classes come next etc.

There, that’s it. Guys, everyone, stay safe and healthy. The game is awesome and it is painful too, when we are in queues. I for sure believe that both AGS and Smilegate are actively working on finding a solution for the current problem, given the technical capabilities that they have.

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To be honest, I cannot afford to start over on EU West with 123 hours invested already.

What a ridiculous statement. cannot afford? Is life literally that bad that you just couldn’t stomach spending time playing a game, that’s right playing a game to get back to where you are?

I know we’re all frustrated, yes it’s a terrible release and AGS/Smilegate should of seen these issues. I paid for early access, so i’m as invested as anyone else here and i’ve managed the total sum of 10 hours clocked on steam, 3 of them actually playing the game and since the queues are such madness i’m just not evaluating spending hours in a queue, getting frustrated and then getting caught up in this mob mentality on the forums, as time well spent for me.

What i can’t fathom is some of the comments on here that are speaking like they’ve had to sell their house to play this game, can’t afford to feed their families because they might have to start on a new server, on a game that has been out less than a month.

Get a grip people. This isn’t real life. You have other options than to sit infront of the screen watching the queues.

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I am not hardlocked into my server. If I even get a Single Character transfer, i’d instantly take it! Just to transfer my main to the new Region. Even though I already have 2 Alts geared up.

But the time invested into my main (+ money) doesn’t make sense for me, to transfer to new region just to repeat the whole 100+ gametime process that I just did few days ago. Who would find this ‘fun’ ?

Server Transfer would INSTANTLY solve ALL the current issues they have, literally ALL.

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All speak about progress and time invested… but we are only one week in. That is it. This game will stand for years to come, if you are eager to play it. Therefore imho one week, no matter how many hours you played, is really insignificant and nonfactor.

Afaik they already stated server transfer is not and will not be planned.
So I am really not sure, what is the point of moaning for another weeks, instead of go and change the server right now to still be able to catch up. You guys killing your own game experience.

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lol, what even is this comment? so someone who invested over 100 hrs should just go and “replay” these 100 hrs and should just shrug that off? Not even counting in all the struggle to get into the game? You’re totally lost but seem to like to feel standing above others. You don’t. You’re just an ignorant that doesn’t seem to care much about others.

So yeah, time is precious, and some people just can’t “afford” to get that time back. I mean, you literally didn’t even played the game (sorry, but anything under 10 hrs is just a “I have seen it”).

So again…what is this post? Do you feel better now by laughing about others for their passion? What a joke.

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Are you planning to implement Server Transfer at all in this game?

They are not.

Are you aware of the issues where there is a lot of stress on servers that we cannot matchmake?

They are, the issue is caused by region population cap being at its limits while still having several tens of thousands in queues.

If I even get a Single Character transfer

They will not be adding this, SmileGate is the one who would have to add this.
And it would be between servers in the same region, not to servers in a different region.

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Are you planning to implement Server Transfer at all in this game?

They are not.

That isn’t entirely accurate. They don’t have the capability at the present time.
Can you point me to a link where someone from AGS says never?

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You cant say ‘playing for a week only’ … I can introduce you to life’s schedule of an employed person in EU:

Work time is usually 8hours. If you live in capital cities of bigger countries, you’d spend at least 1-2 hours traveling to work and back home. So lets say 10 hours is dedicated to your job. Lets assume you sleep for 7 hours… 1 hour for lunch, dinner aka eating. 1 hour for showering / prepping for next work day … results into 4-5 max to spend your free time to game each day - that is if you do not have any family at all. If you have a family, its around 3 hours each day for gaming.

Now In order to get to 123h gametime, like I have, I’d need to play the game for:
123/4 = 31 days. Literally a MONTH of everyday gaming, to get to where I am today after a week.

So the effort I invested in this ‘one week’ as you say, translates to 31 days every day normal gaming (meaning that I go to work, and dont have days off anymore to play just games). This was possible, because I took vacation for a week when the headstart started and played cca 12-15hrs a day. And all of that was planed. Amazon announced Founder’s Pack, and release date. I called my manager, arranged the days off for that week - and that’s it. I aligned with my wife about this, since of course my family time balance will be thrown off as I dedicated 15hrs to game everyday. That is why its soo important when I say, I can’t afford to do this again. I cannot take another vacation so soon, I cannot ask my wife to spend less time with her for another week (it’s already a miracle she kind of accepts this, that I do this on every launch / expansion of MMOs that I play)… but most of all, I won’t have joy to repeat all the Quests, Sidequests, Dailies, Grinding my gear to T3 again… gearing my alts, etc. … just because there is not Server Transfer.

And Cowen, I dont wanna fight you on Forums … and I belive if you are a casual gamer, then you find my above text disturbing, as I take days off just to play the game, but it is the truth. For me, gaming brings joy, like perhaps playing football does to you (just guessing if your hobbies are sports).

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The thing is, you either stay or you change region/server without a transfer right now, otherwise you will loose… because the transfer is simply not happening. And if it would, it would be (imho) possible in the matter of same region. Therefore not really relevant - as the real problem is overcrowded region… not a particular part but whole region.

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It is accurate, he was asking AGS. They cannot.
Never said it will never happen.
They want it, but it all depends on SmileGate, who’s stated that they won’t do it again because of how difficult it was the one time they did it.

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I think you misread the question.

Are you planning to implement Server Transfer at all in this game?

At all implies, well, at all. Not just the present.
Also you are not AGS…

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“Are you”
No, did not misread.

Edit: Nitpicking gets nitpicked.

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I have ADD and cannot read all that. What’s the TLDR?

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No, I am not, which I why I never would have answered that question. I was simply pointing out the inaccurate answer you gave. I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, maybe you didn’t understand the question. You say you did though, but later contradict yourself.

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I really like, that you can see, that they are working on the game everyday to make it better. This is the reason why i dont have the urge to flame or anything. Those guys need time. Thanks for your effort!

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I did not know one could say “Are you” when referring to a 3rd party outside of the conversation. A helpful english lesson, thank you.

And yes you are nitpicking. If you read my entire post, it was explained in better details at the end.

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I salute you to a great post on the forum.
With that said, I do like to know the answers to the questions you’re asking as well.
I really enjoy the game, since the game by the core of it is so well done. The director
of the game has shown his incredible talent to visualize and translate it so well to the individual teams that has been working on the game (and still works on it)! I sincerly hope that we can get some good answers from AGS and/or SGRPG. :crossed_fingers:

In terms of crunchtime… yeah. It kills the soul in you. So I really hope that they’re doing well, both mentally and physically.

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Dude… YOU answered the question, not me…

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Indeed I did, did you read the entire post?
It was explained in the last part.

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I can only talk from EU perspective… but the missmanagement of AGS is insane. And saying people should just change server isn’t the solution. I think the biggest problem are 2 things:

  • amazon, which don’t seem to hire anyone experienced outside of marketing or microtransactions. everything about operations is a joke. don’t forget that the whole system is matured for years, and AGS is only operating it. they didn’t have a clue about how you do name systems, they didn’t have a clue about server capacity, no clue about their own infrastructure (not scalable, which even led to a new but “redundant” region, which is not what a region is lol), not enough servers for planning, but reactivly throwing out servers like candy which solved what? (and people seem to underestimate the importance of enough servers to spread from the very(!) beginning)

  • a lot of casuals and f2p kids that follow the hype, but don’t care much about anything. everything stated above is ignored by most of the community “since its only a game” which is the most stupid argument ever. people saying “its only a game” trying to imply that whatever your problem is, it’s worth less. its ignoring the people itself and their emotions etc… problems are subjective, but people seem to just not care if others have problems. this pretty much shows that its no community. its a trollfactory (you can see on the comments which only laugh about the problems or downtalk people, but NEVER adding anything relevant to the topic or aknowledging the problem or the situation the other is in). most will just leave to the next game. welcome to the locust gamer.

this mix pretty much can exist because this game (and hype) is so big, it can literally sh!t on many things at this moment since most people don’t even know better or simply give a sh!t. and yeah, even if people talk about how bad wow was, they forget THIS is way worse seen from the point that AGS is only the operator, while wow had 500k players in beta, when they thought about havin about 100k players at release(!) etc…and they MANAGED it. while with LAO… everything was done and tested LONG LONG ago…

AGS is a joke. And in 20 yrs of online gaming I haven’t seen a company that big (this is no indie, some mmos were even developed AND operated by students etc) being so incompetent and delivering such a s*itshow for now a whole week long…which was even called out before it even started by MANY.

From product perspective, the product is pretty nice, but the one selling it is a greedy and sleazy company, which does not in the slightest care about player or customer experience (just run that shit and take the money). Now they try some damage control with throwing out some candy ingame gimicks which are pretty worthless in the whole context. If they had put the same energy into a healthy environment (like servers and regions) as they did in their aggressive marketing campaigns, I am sure we wouldn’t have the queues and no one would want to talk about server transfers since no one would care.

And if you want an easy solution: use regions for what they are. especially for EU f.ex. do regions based on the languages you have, so there is no hate in the chat because “languages” etc… instead of making some sh*t like europe and europe west AFTER everyone created their char…didn’t they learn from the server problem lol, its the same but in macro.

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