Black Desert

[Inc42]

I just loaded this up this morning before I went to work, and was only able to play with the character creator before having to leave.

I have not yet decided how I feel about the character creator. I hate that they are gender locked, and beyond that the general appearance is locked as well (if you are a wizard you are not just a man, but an OLD man), but the options for details were amazing once I got past that. Usually I dont mess with faces that much in games that give a bunch of sliders to allow customization, but here the controls were so easy to use and let you make so many changes that I was able to do some cool stuff. There are so many options on how to customize the faces and bodies, along with saving custom poses I assume you can do in the game later, that I do not understand the though behind the locks at all.

I still want to play a Valkyrie, since that seems to be the only healing class, without looking like a cutesy little girl though

I am not tied to any servers yet, so if anyone out there wants another player let me know!

[saipaman]

Locked types could be a pre-planned Quality of Life upgrade.   Once interest in the game starts to fall off, unlocking would at least get some press and perhaps boost game play.

[chuckv3]

Not sure if a character is locked to the server, but I'm picking Valencia 3 for no significant reason.

[Noyjitat]

I must admit that if I can't use my mouse and my arrow keys in a game like I did in COH, I have major trouble.  I suppose I could find and learn a game controller.  But right now it seems that if I want to play with the character creator I have to delete one of my characters (and that takes 24 hours), so I guess I should just woman up and do that.  I would still like a thin, younger wizard.  And I'm rambling.  I am not going anywhere in the game because I can't move well, so I won't be a dedicated player.

You have to basically forget everything you've learned up to this point with black desert (also arrow keys are painful to play in mmos lol) take you time and get use to practicing the what appears to be very overwhelming mouse + keyboard combo attacks. The game gets better and better as you learn how to do what and when. Don't ignore the gathering, processing, and crafting missions either. Because you WILL need to level and use those skills if not for the potions and food but also for the missions that award contribution exp and points that are very useful other forms of crafting (sending workers to make horse gear or to work at a mine or farm), item rental (such as fence for your garden) and your residence (which is like the coh base builder and also is required for advanced cooking and advanced alchemy) and finally for trading profession (to establish trade routes by connecting nodes on the world map)

All of that might seem overwhelming but it becomes easier with time and patience and you won't be bored there's so much to do. 

[Noyjitat]

Not sure if a character is locked to the server, but I'm picking Valencia 3 for no significant reason.

those are named channels, much like grandville 5 etc. We have 3 servers and each server has several named channels.

[Noyjitat]

I just loaded this up this morning before I went to work, and was only able to play with the character creator before having to leave.

I have not yet decided how I feel about the character creator. I hate that they are gender locked, and beyond that the general appearance is locked as well (if you are a wizard you are not just a man, but an OLD man), but the options for details were amazing once I got past that. Usually I dont mess with faces that much in games that give a bunch of sliders to allow customization, but here the controls were so easy to use and let you make so many changes that I was able to do some cool stuff. There are so many options on how to customize the faces and bodies, along with saving custom poses I assume you can do in the game later, that I do not understand the though behind the locks at all.

I still want to play a Valkyrie, since that seems to be the only healing class, without looking like a cutesy little girl though

I am not tied to any servers yet, so if anyone out there wants another player let me know!

Valkryie has a healing skill but bdo doesn't really have a "healer" like most games do. But she is indeed my favorite good mixture of tank, damage, control and heal. If you wanna live you gotta eat food, drink potions and not stand still to get smacked by a mace or mauled by a bear. The npcs are very stupid and clumsy at low levels in black desert but they do get smarter and they do walk around and patrol in the later levels. (some remain stupid no matter what)

Combat is pretty mobile and isn't as hard as one might think, although it does seem very overwhelming at first. Combat plays easier than wildstar which has a very "dodge this" and "don't stand in that" system. You don't get the telegraph bars here though unless that will be in whatever form of endgame or world boss system they eventually might add.

[Noyjitat]

Locked types could be a pre-planned Quality of Life upgrade.   Once interest in the game starts to fall off, unlocking would at least get some press and perhaps boost game play.

They're locked for a reason and that isn't likely to change. Play a warrior if you want a male valkryie which is very similar and eventually we'll have ninja's (male) and it's counterpart kunoichi (female) 

[Noyjitat]

Above all this is a game you get to actually be a noob in and have to learn and the adventure is there. I feel like this might be the only new mmo I've played in awhile that has really gotten alot of things right from the start. It ain't perfect but it isn't remotely close to being bad.

[Inc42]

They're locked for a reason and that isn't likely to change. Play a warrior if you want a male valkryie which is very similar and eventually we'll have ninja's (male) and it's counterpart kunoichi (female)

If that was the case I would be totally fine with it, but they have different powers. The warrior does not heal/buff like the valkryie does, at least according to the descriptions.

I dont mind playing female characters, I did all the time in CoH because I had stories that fit females better, and sometimes its just fun to play something totally different. I don't like being forced into it though. It's not a deal breaker, I'm still going to try the game (right now, once it's done patching in fact), I'm just saying that the system does not make sense to me.

[AmberOfDzu]

Above all this is a game you get to actually be a noob in and have to learn and the adventure is there. I feel like this might be the only new mmo I've played in awhile that has really gotten alot of things right from the start. It ain't perfect but it isn't remotely close to being bad.

Fully concur.

I also very much like how you can minimize the game and it conserves resources. It's one where being AFK isn't a bad thing. And in fact, it's an easy game to play on the side while you're doing other things in another app.

[Felderburg]

This thread and some very cursory looks into the website have me somewhat interested (and worried it may be a huge timesink, if one likes to get involved in lore and "living" in a world, since there seems to be more than just combat - it looks like the exploration / crafting / housing are all fairly well developed). 2 questions:

1. Is the standalone character creator not available anymore? The page doesn't seem to have a link.

2. Speaking of characters, I know that gender is limited by class. Is that all that's limited, as far as bodies go? I get that costumes may be different (wouldn't want a ranger wearing armor, I guess) but is everything else the same? For example, I could make a ranger with some specific face settings (or however it works) and use those exact same settings on a valkyrie to get the exact same look, right?

[Noyjitat]

Fully concur.

I also very much like how you can minimize the game and it conserves resources. It's one where being AFK isn't a bad thing. And in fact, it's an easy game to play on the side while you're doing other things in another app.

One bit of realism this game has is that you spend energy when you do work. You can't go out and farm mines for hours on end or collect plants because you spend 1 energy for each thing you create or harvest. (this energy is separate from your spells and melee attack resources) Energy increases as you level so don't worry. They have energy potions but the best way to get energy back is to either go back to your house and literally have you character sleep in a bed or to do the trading missions. (avoid haggling with the traders because that costs energy)
Energy regenerates much faster when your sleeping but normally only regenerates at 1 energy per 3 mins (if I'm remembering that correctly) Also some gathering missions also reward you energy when you complete them.

So you actually do have reasons to go afk or to take a break from work related missions.

[Noyjitat]

This thread and some very cursory looks into the website have me somewhat interested (and worried it may be a huge timesink, if one likes to get involved in lore and "living" in a world, since there seems to be more than just combat - it looks like the exploration / crafting / housing are all fairly well developed). 2 questions:

1. Is the standalone character creator not available anymore? The page doesn't seem to have a link.

2. Speaking of characters, I know that gender is limited by class. Is that all that's limited, as far as bodies go? I get that costumes may be different (wouldn't want a ranger wearing armor, I guess) but is everything else the same? For example, I could make a ranger with some specific face settings (or however it works) and use those exact same settings on a valkyrie to get the exact same look, right?

character creator was disabled sadly

Each character has preset faces but you can full modify them. So if you don't want your tamer to look asian you can change her face it just might be a bit difficult.  (piss off pc crowd, I love asian women, I'm just using an example)
Rangers I believe are locked to having elfish ears but you may be able to shorten them and make them look more human if you prefer.
Wizards are supposedly locked to looking old but I haven't tested this.

[chuckv3]

I spent a few hours yesterday and another few today getting a valkyrie to level 12. I hated the beginning quests (kill beetles, then weasels, then foxes, then wolves, then imps) all of which are pointlessly easy. Then I got to the level 11-13 guys who actually attack, aggro and can do some damage. I'm not onboard with the complexity of everything, but then one person's "confusing" is another person's "rich" or "deep", so maybe I'll get there. I have to say the combat is very nice. Of course it only takes 2 days to learn forward+leftmouse is one type of attack and backward+rightmouse is another, and leftmouse+rightmouse is yet another, and the (FAMILIAR) 1 thru 0 for other attacks, potions and heals. It's really not that tough to get used to, which is maybe why those lower-level baddies don't fight back very much. I'm liking how movement is integrated into the attacks. Melee can do something similar to kiting by doing the strafe+mouse attacks while pivoting. I'm getting a lot of mileage out of that one at levels 10-12.

I sold 4 different crystals to get enough silver for a horse (skipped the donkey entirely), and not sure that was actually a wise choice. I don't know what the crystals do or where to slot them, so I sold them. Probably a noob mistake, but I don't care at this point. I'm sure I'm going to be griping about having to run back to the horse, or "where did I leave the horse now???" But of course it's on the map, so senility won't screw me up too much there. Complaining about things you yourself do, as if they were somebody else's fault, must be an old guy thing. So, yeah, I must be an old fart now at 52. Turn that racket down! Get off my lawn! Pull your pants up!

After only 2 days, I think I like it. I like that there are more crafting-type things to do than just sheer combat. I haven't DONE any of that yet, but on days where I'm not in a face-punching mood, I'm sure I'll appreciate having something else to do. And since I work from home I can always park my character at a fishing hole or something like that while not actually paying too much attention. The only thing I will probably never like is the whole middle-earth setting. But that's cosmetics and semantics. I'm sure I'll get over it.

For my first 2 days I'd give it 9 out of 10, mostly because of the extremely helpful in-game help, guides and videos, and the interesting (console game-type) combat with it's position-sensitive effectiveness, move+attack aesthetics and combos.

[Felderburg]

character creator was disabled sadly

Alas. I don't suppose there's a copy of the installer file that someone still has, is there? Would it even work?

[Noyjitat]

Crystals

The black spirit is where you equip crystals under transfusion. These "can" be destroyed upon death (not the entire piece of gear, but the crystal itself) Each crystal can be used only in the slot it says it can be used in Armor = chest, gloves, boots, etc unless it says all equipment. You will need to take the piece of gear off either before opening the transfusion window or before right click them out of the equipped armor slot and into the transfusion window. To remove a crystal you can right click equipped crystals here too but it will be destroyed. If you want to remove and keep a crystal you'll have to buy a black spirit essence from the pearl store. I would recommend not destroying any luck crystals you get.

Make sure you login everyday folks even if you can't play. You'll get loyalty points which can be used to get free character slots (5000 points) storage and inventory space increases, buffs, inventory weight limit increase (yes they also have a weight limit so this is important) and many other items. You get 100 loyalty points everyday and if you login all seven days of the week you get a bonus 100 points for logging in everyday. This another method to get things for free without paying a dime if you have more patience and dont want to or can't afford to spend on a game.

[Noyjitat]

Quicker gathering

Grain soup - earned from certain missions as rewards or can be made from cooking in your residence (not the simple cooking option in processing)
Gathering suit - missions sometimes reward these although I can't remember which because I earned two of these so far
Better tools - "dull" tools are the worst and only have 10 uses and the slowest gathering time, then comes standard tools which don't have a prefix to the name of the type of the tool which have 30 uses and are a bit faster than dull tools, next comes sharp tools which have 60 uses are noticeably faster than dull tools, next is steel tools which have 130 uses and are way faster than dull tools (these steel tools are also a reward depending on what version of the game you bought) and finally comes shining tools which has 250 uses and is much much faster than the previous tools. Sometimes a worker will also craft a lucky tool (if you're rng is on your side) this tool increases the luck stat while gathering and the luck stat does what it suggests and increases your chances of getting better or more loot.

Toolworkshops are a necessity unless you plan to buy tools from the playermarket. Get a tool workshop that can make atleast tier 2 tools for the time being to save yourself some future headaches: Olvia has up to tier 3 craftable tools, velia has up to tier 2, heidel has up to tier 3 and glish has up to tier 4. tier 1 and tire 2 Tools require mining and lumbering materials while tier3 and up requires some alchemy materials as well.

All three of these options stack so you can really reduce the time with a suit, the food and good tools. Don't forget to take the suit off and put your armor back on when you go back to doing combat.

[Waffles]

I'm always the guy that feels the need to play the underdog.

I always like to play something that's not necessarily a one trick pony, and not something you can faceroll to win.

In that regard, would you say the Sorceress is a good pick, and if so, how would you spec it early on?

[Noyjitat]

The mage or warlock of any fantasy mmo is never the underdog nor is ranged damage. The warrior has a shield and lacks some of the controls and the self heal a Valkyrie has but they end up getting better defense out of that shield eventually. Berserker might be more prone to damage but it's also good for killing things fast. The npcs in bdo are pretty dumb during the first 10 or so levels kinda like skulls and trolls were in coh but violent bears will kick your ass if you don't dodge those claws.

I like my valkyrie and it took some time to learn; hell im still learning and suspect I will be for awhile. This isn't your typical combat style mmo so you'll truly be a noob for awhile, but don't let that scare you away. This is one hell of a game!

Don't worry about specs, just read the skills and read what you get later on as you level and the skillpoints required. Don't be afraid of using knockback or "turn around the target" skills because those are a very handy form of mitigation.

[Noyjitat]

If you're looking for free armor (free meaning no cash shop) you should visit this site: http://bdo-fashion.com/

Pictures and how to obtain. Some are crafted or looted just like any other game. Some of the cash shop items obviously look way better but I found a plate mail skirt for a Valkyrie that looks pretty nice. http://bdo-fashion.com/valkyrie-talis/