It has been a few months since welast talked with Amazon to talk about Lost Ark’s future, but with the publisher pushing content faster and faster, we just had to get insight on what’s to come. We sat down with Roxanne Sabo, Community Lead at Amazon Game Studios, to talk about last month’s Thaemine raid release, along with the second content roadmap, which included the surprising addition of the fast-tracked Echidna raid.
[Hardcore Gamer] Since we last talked, AGS has done a good job helping alleviate some of the material concerns with the extra endgame content, clear rewards and various events. Considering Echidna/Ladon is arriving much faster than anyone would have thought, only around two-months after Thaemine, will there be any additional aid to help players keep up? A big concern I’ve heard from many people has not necessarily been materials, but gold, and surprisingly, silver.
[Roxanne Sabo] Our team at Amazon Games has been able to work effectively with the team at Smilegate RPG to help players accelerate their progress to keep up with new content when needed. In May, players will also see the Endgame Acceleration Event, which will boost Elixir and Transcendence. This event will support players and help them more quickly progress through these newer systems to gain additional end game power spikes. We have also definitely seen the callouts from players who are in need of more currencies to continue to progress, and are taking that into account where we can.
With serious updates coming up, Smilegate RPG and Amazon Games made sure to give players some leverage to reach the required specs. For starters, a month before the Thaemine update we launched big events such as Super Mokoko Express, Descent into Darkness, and Endgame Progression Events that grant significant boost to character growth into the 1600. These events not only grant progression materials, but also gold. The aforementioned Endgame Acceleration Event beginning in May will also grant gold and materials relevant to the new progression systems. We also are planning to have boost events in the future for players preparing for content further down the road.
However, it’s also important to note that we expect players will be playing through content such as Thaemine and Echidna for some time to come. Players shouldn’t feel like they have to speed through these raids to reach any finish line, and can spend time progressing through them and earning gold and materials at a steady pace to continue on.
Thaemine saw nerfs in comparison to its Korean counterpart, mostly involving enemy damage output and health pools. Almost unanimously, the reception from the community has been highly positive considering the preparation time frame that was given. Is this something we can expect with Echidna or any endgame raid content moving forward?
The situation with Thaemine was an example of how when Lost Ark content comes to the West, players get the most current version of what is in Korea. Reason being is that because the content comes out in Korea first, Smilegate RPG takes feedback from players there and adjusts it accordingly. Players in the West get the advantage of receiving content at its most polished state, updated from a large amount of player feedback.
In the case of Thaemine, the adjustments made were to take a raid that was extremely difficult and make it more accessible to players. Given that was the last version that was in Korea, that’s what players here received. But there was some feedback from players in the West who wanted to try and challenge Thaemine at its original difficulty level, just as the Korean players got to experience. We wanted to make that happen so we worked with Smilegate and released “Thaemine the First” which was the original version of Thaemine as it launched in Korea. Ironically, players in the West can only access Thaemine the First after they clear the Thaemine Raid, so it feels like a second version of Thaemine.
As for if this is something players can expect moving forward, it’s hard to say. This is a live-service game and things can always change. If there is a large enough movement from players in the West to play something that they saw in the Korean version, I think we can explore those with Smilegate on a case-by-case basis.
Speaking of Thaemine, how has the reception been to the raid tier and The First race? The latter no doubt drew a lot of eyes and interest.
It’s been great, the reception of the raid has been phenomenal. Thaemine is something that players have been eager to play for a long time, and we’re happy that we were able to deliver it, especially with multiple difficulty levels, including the “Thaemine the First” race and leaderboard as was done in Korea. There’s always that gap between the versions in Korea and the West as far as content goes, but it was great to be able to work with Smilegate to recreate what was done for their players and give it to our players here while making sure the raid would still be accessible and enjoyable.
We’ve seen two exceptionally costly but beneficial vertical progression systems with Elixirs and Transcendence over the last six months. How does Advanced Honing fit into all of these systems? Is it the logical evolution of honing moving past 1620?
For starters, Advanced Honing is a new system that progresses existing gear for even higher item leves. Advanced Honing can be applied to the Ancient gear (approximately 19th honing level) or to Sidereal Weapons that have been evolved to level 6 and beyond. The ingredients for Advanced Honing will be looted from the upcoming Kazeroth Raid, Echidna. So, this is the new progression system being introduced along with the new Kazeroth Raid content. This is a new honing system with a random honing meter system, but with less reliance on a “luck factor”.
The server mergers a couple of months ago helped formerly low population worlds feel more alive and it brought together server-bound friends, allowing them to connect in the world. How does AGS see the region merger of NA East and South America impacting not only the raid and social scene, but also the market? What are some of the difficult logistics that need to be worked on?
The reason for merging the regions is to provide a more optimized experience for players. Regions that had lower populations experienced some difficulties in joining matches for group content, as well as supplies of valuable progression items becoming harder to find. With these merges, we hope that these difficulties will be eased by having a larger pool for players to go raid with and trade with.
One unfortunate aspect of the mergers was that we didn’t really get to pick which server we ended up on. It was almost a crapshoot if we found ourselves with newly-formed friends. For example, I’ve made a ton of bonds with people who are now on Nineveh and Balthorr over the last two years, but I’m stuck on Inanna knowing almost no one. With all the server and region shakeups, could we see the means of moving between servers in the future, be it permanently or temporarily?
One thing that is important to note is that players can still group up with others in their region for key content such as raids and dungeons, even if they play on different servers. But we also know that beyond that, players have always been interested in an opportunity to transfer or swap servers. At this time, we don’t have any plans for this, but we have definitely heard that player feedback and will let players know if that ever changes.
Seeing even more Western exclusive (or at least timed) cosmetics is always exciting, especially given the ‘80s and ‘90s anime theme. What was the development/design collaboration like between both Amazon Game Studios and Smilegate?
This collaboration is a great example of how we work together with Smilegate RPG to bring unique content to the West. Every year, the teams at Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG come up with ideas for new cosmetic items. Given that we at Amazon know the tastes of Western players best, Smilegate RPG will defer to us to suggest the key concepts for new items. In this year’s case, it was magical girls and boys, costumes inspired by anime.
Based on our recommendations, Smilegate RPG researches and designs the concepts for the skins. They share that concept art with us to make sure we’re all on the same page with how it should look. Once we reach an agreement, Smilegate RPG then moves to the next steps of 3D modelling, and designing the effects, animation, and sounds associated with the costumes in order to put these exclusive items in the game.
It’s a very collaborative process and one that we love working on! Both teams feel very rewarded when we see the excitement and anticipation of Western players for these special items we can offer.
Now that we’re quickly bridging the gap between the Korean and Western versions of Lost Ark, how has localization and development changed over the last few months, if at all?
The localization process for Lost Ark has been refined over the past two years of the game being live in the West. We’ve developed a strong system of taking our player feedback and sharing it with Smilegate RPG so we can work together to make updates for our players wherever possible. That process won’t change as the Western version is now closer than ever to the Korean version in terms of content. However, due to the need to localize content for several countries and languages in the West, there will always be a delay in the release schedule for new content in Korea and when we get it in the West. We won’t see a simultaneous release of new content across the West and other regions, but we will see closer parity than we have before.
Are there any final thoughts you’d like to leave with our readers with for the future of Lost Ark as we progress further into 2024?
Narrowing the gap between the Korean version of the game and our game here in the West is super exciting, and means that there will be a lot of surprises in store for players as Lost Ark continues development. We have a lot of very new features in the pipeline that we’re excited to share in the future, so definitely keep an eye towards the future of the game!
Amazon Talks Lost Ark’s Support Shortage, Accelerated Time Frame, Future
We talk with Roxanne Sabo about what Amazon has in store for their MMORPG.
