Ok, I have had a lot of issues about this game starting from falsely advertising it on playstation store as "free" way back last December 2020 to the in-game graphics because of heavy pop-ins, slow loading of scenery and invisible walls to blue screen during reviving after getting killed by world boss to poorly written quests and storyline. But what grinds my gear most of the time is the rediculous and stupid RNG MECHANIC that this game is heavily based upon. First let us talk about bosses, both world and field ones. Yesterday at noon katzvriak spawned and as we all know it spawns in every server and I went to join for the hunt starting at Media (since I was late for Balenos). I did few hits spamming every heavy skill my Dark Knight have and when we killed it i got none, not a single loot. So i decided, ok maybe a bug so i moved on to the next server and again did my part damaging katz, but after it died i didnt get any single loot, again! I was confused, but headed to the next server this time I stupidily get caught by its AOE even though i was already out of the danger zone and I died. I get revived without gping to bluescreen, but as soon as it died I didnt get any fucking loot for the third time! I was furious that after the hunt I used my microphone and made my rant. My guild mates noticed it and one told me that katz is damage based boss, like WB, the lesser you put damage the lesser you get loot. So, ok i said, i let it passed. But when Quint and Muraka spawned the same day yesterday I went to join in. We went on Quint first and as a DK, it is hard to get close combat with Quint because it can easily kill me with its stompping alone, so I always distance my self and only used my two mid range skills. I didnt made any significant damage since I barely attacked it. But to my surprised I was able to bag an adventurer's belongings and in my mind well, I thought WB is damage based. Again, happend to kzarka the same day, i didnt put enough damage to it but for the second time yesterday i got to bag an adventurer's belongings. So i thought well, this rng is kinda buffling. Now, let us talk about ENHANCEMENT because the same day yesterday, after doing bosses i decided why not try to enhance my TRI dragon slayer since I have 100 valk's advice scroll, so I pop it up and added 10 more valk's cry to it plus a permanent +1 enhancement chance making a total of 111 fail stock, but but all FOUR attempt failed, luckily I have crons put into it. Then later that night I decided to enchance my DOU ogre ring to TRI using the same amount of fail stock (111fs = 50.55%) and it fucking failed. Considering it is already at 50% it still failed. So ok, i said, so I tried it again this time with a fresh Ogre ring bought from the CM, I went to PRI it with 10fs using valk's advice and it went through and decided to DOU it, but instead of using the same fs (35fs) that i did with my previous Ogre ring that failed to get TRI I decided to used 40fs plus 1 making it 41fs (50.20%) and to my fucking surprise it failed, like what the fuck? This had more success rate than the previous 35fs and this one failed like that?! I was so furious that I decided to buy another Ogre ring from the CM and enchance it to PRI this time I used my last alt character since my two previous characters already have rediculously high failstacks with them. And as usual I used 10fs from valk's cry to PRI my gold accessories because it always works on me that way, but it surprised me again because it fucking failed to PRI with 11fs (52.20% success rate). This time i said, this game has the WORST and STUPIDEST RNG MECHANIC in the world of MMORPG. Now I know why most players already left and leaving this game, because it sucks. That is why Mihoyo is kicking Pear Abyss's @ss because of this heavily RNG based mechanics that this game have. If you guys at Pear Abyss could be more considerate, be more customer friendly and make this RNG a little less burden I think you guys might get more players playing this game than those who are leaving it already. Remember this was NOT a free game, we BOUGHT this game and to make us suffer like this so that we should put more MONEY into it, it is not worth it. We are not your milking cows! No matter how much event you throw, no matter how much shenanigans you put if you dont FIX this stupid RNG then people will continue leaving this game! You know I'm not all negative about this game since there are also good things in it like life skills and trash money and most of all the lewd voice over by female characters and their big boobs. I dont care if I get banned by voicing out the obvious reason why this game SUCK. I am not a sheep, if I see what is wrong I voice it out because as a customer who bought this stupid game it is my right to do so! I am just thankful that I did not bought any single pearl because this game doesnt deserve more money from me. To the developers you can check my log, my platform is Playstation, server is Asia my family name is Smartape and my main character is a Dark Knight named Lunafhreya because I'm not lying.

TLDR 

TLDR is used when someone has read the post, but has no reasonable argument due to many truths being spoken!

Personally agree with most of your rant albeit with thousands spent on this game, but that spending has been cut to bare minimum do to the reasons you have mentioned and for no other reason than the enhancement system feeling like a one-arm-bandit when IRL money involved!

However, I like the game and don’t quite agree with the debate over the lore as it does have some good foundation and I also do not have problems with invisible walls etc since upgrading to the XSX, the combat is fluid and satisfying (Lahn) enough to warrant play, but, doesn’t keep me playing or spending as I used to, now I only play with one of my daughters who loves the aesthetics!

what I can say with confidence about RNG is that it should have a failsafe mechanic attached to FS chance as having a high FS does not guarantee success and the higher the FS the more 20/40/60/80 FS have been put into it failing many times over and which usually equates to far more than what the high FS is actually worth when concidering PEN ogre is 80bil and getting that to pop will far exceed its worth, unless your lucky!

Main L62 Lahn 401gs was 550+ PEN roulette and now have 117-190+ FS x4 (RNG is RNG and having back ups, collateral etc can be said and done, but at what point does a FS become a certainty or even viable, it doesn’t due to RNG and that’s the problem and personally think an upper limit should be considered)

Daughter has L35 Nova 550+ GS with only a few weeks played and using exactly same methods, but, I would not dare to gamble going for PEN on her toon as I’ve learned it’s a money sink or live to play to obtain through enhancing!

If luck is on your side your golden, if buying is an option that’s good but only if you remember how you got there initially and when all said and done as some would say “if the enhancement system was easier no one would play it” that doesn’t say much for the game now does it, so what keeps the full TET/PEN players around or do they all leave when obtained?? I think not!!!

Thats the problem, GS disparity with the lucky and unlucky with less or same hours played as the majority still stuck at a lower GS and only because of RNG!

@UBTHEJUDGE, well, that is the problem of most players especialy those who already invest real money on this game. They would rather keep silent rather than voicing out issues that is potentialy game breaking because of fear that they might get punished in doing so (i.e. getting banned). I do agree with your statements especially when it comes to failsafe. It keeps bugging me what is the purpose of putting percentage in there if enchantment is still heavily rely on RNG? Like what happened to me, i easily pop PRI at 40plus % but failed twice at 50plus %. Some can even pop below 20% at TRI or even TET, but with high percent of supposed sucess rate, your chance of failing is still higher! So fuck that logic! 

I think most players that say nothing are the ones that leave the game or as you say, may suffer conciquence for doing so, but I’m guessing it’s more not upsetting friends/guilds for fear of losing that friendship or being ousted for causing drama.

Personally, I think that those that do speak up are doing so directly via feedback and you don’t see it here as not many use the forums, myself included, the suggestions I’ve put forward seem to be heard and most have been around retaining players and due to being in two guilds which have both seen many players dwindle to single digits within months and the rest are greyed out names lost in the abyss!

The enhancement system definitely deters players, apart from those with a gambling mindset or skin thicker than a rhinos arse, introducing loans will not work as some would still fall into the enhancement trap because its part of the game or focus to much in paying it back and forget what’s enjoyable by maintaining payments at the cost of future progression!

If seasonal content arrives sooner than later the game may retain the current players and also bring those that leave back, but only if the seasonal gear is carried over to retain as a back up set in going for boss TET/PEN and if and only if PEN Tuvala is achievable by all that put the time in, there has to be achievable goals to chase or players will just tire and realise the carrot is on a stick and isn’t getting any closer and spot something that seems tastier within arms reach!

Peace!

Rng is for lazy cash shop orientated publishers/developers. Always has been since the days of the first free to play mmos on pc, to mobile, to console, and always will be.

(Speaking of which, did you know of a little early 2000s 2.5d isometric pvp mmo called Conquer online? I sure do, started out fantastic and fair, purely skill based and then the developers put in what is still one of the very worst examples of a cash shop marketed to western audiences by an asian development team, it would take hundreds of thousands to reach a state where your player was invincible, literally 1 damage taken by anyone who had a gs lower than you, you'd LOSE not just accessories but armours on failed enhancements etc, and some of that team would later go on to work at, you guessed it, Pearl Abyss ;) )

Anyway, my main gripe is how unbalanced the gear gap gets and it's connected to rng in a way because Whales can force their way through bad rng, a few who don't spend large amounts can luck out and the majority get f in the a. Kinda flies in the face of the cm team and devs continually talking about how they don't want to create large imbalances whilst their actions with every Pearl Shop update along with the abysmal enhancement chance for higher level items speak to the exact opposite..oh and ensuring in their drive to create conflict that every new great grind spot is tiny and can only accomodate the already geared siege guilds and largest pvp guilds who at much time of the day will control it and milk the new drops to death.

But hey, at least we have ls mastery now! Yeah, can't even stay logged into the game longer than 10 minutes now without either crashing or running into loading screens along roads, the game taking 10 minutes before I can even get back on...With all that cash PA are scking up you'd think they'd ensure there were ample servers, which there ARE NOT.

Oh and while I'm at it, F your Fing Pearl store pricing.

Ok... i read it...

But only first line

After that.. TLDR

Ok... i read it...

But only first line

After that.. TLDR

Just buy all your gear then. No rng hassle. Ez. And all mmos have rng this rng is the same as the rest but at least you can buy all the gear you could want instead of literally all other mmos where you have to get it dropped. So you spend 1000's of hours in raids and dungeons just to get nothing. And when you do get the drop its usually fazed out in 3-4month when next dlc drops.

Let’s not talk about other MMO and how they implement gear progression with stronger sets each DLC as that’s their thing!

May I just say that BDO is great, love it, but feel more could be done to retain the console players rather than see the hustle and bustle then tumble weeds for months!

My insight into how BDO is structured is from playing since launch on Xbox so two years, I’ve twenty two slots meaning all classes with all but Sage levelled previously 58-62, then rolled to have fifteen Shai to test family income from passive life skills thus having pre levelled professions to speed things up, rolled those Shai back to all other classes to further test and feed my main with fail stacks, energy and conquest points!

In doing the aforementioned I broke away from the meta sheep mindset and tested the game thoroughly from a new players perspective thus dealing with the power creep and dealing with GS disparity from top guilds farming low level grind spots then complain about KB etc which is ludicrous!

 I would spend days looking for and hunting higher GS players in low level spots to defend newer players and recruit them to the guild!

My conclusions:

There are quite a few options in BDO to level up and obtain GS but there are some flaws that new and returning players have to deal with, so @Hazy it seems like for one you forgot how you got there and to finish; you have either deleted or used all the free FS or your sitting on billions just sat in storage because you buy all your gear!

Free FS equals temptation, period, buying is ok on good days but a good day is not meeting someone from a top tier guild farming mediah or lower Valencia, with having every class levelled over and over again, I can say from an analytical perspective there are apparent problems new players have, period!

Fluctuating CM, overwhelming LS/Node and worker system and especially when life skills quests don’t really have a central hub/unions and every other NPC in the game has LS quests.... to name but a few.

Food for thought:

 I was watching some well known streamers playing BDO yesterday and actually talking about why seasonal content is the best thing to come to BDO in bridging the gap and the new player experience and the conversations when talking to friends/followers or lurkers and one thing that stuck was the general answer to how long it would take for a new player to progress to be competitive when asked in response to what the game is like, is it worth playing etc!

Streamer states around a year to have decent gear/skills/level/income/passive income and generally the new player response “Oh, f that” and leaves the game or doesn’t play the game at all!

Dont get me wrong I love the game and play most days, but, I don’t play it every day for hours on end and spend thousands like I used to and won’t until I can maintain a guild and it’s players than spend each and every month deleting greyed out names that have not logged in for over thirty days!

It is more to do with how ambiguous the RNG nature is with FS when new players say “but it’s a 40% chance and I’ve failed ten times and now it’s over 50% and failed again”, then having to deal with all the other perceived problems to then repeat the process time and time again which causes demoralisation from frustration.

Personally, I think seasonal content could have been introduced sooner and hopefully it drops before a new area!

In regards to the pre rants regarding new and veterans obtaining the same GS through the seasonal grind:

Vets will still have the advantage with more disposable income when selling not needed TETs to then fund/buy PEN also and the obvious SP advantage which is a huge factor in damage, higher HP/Mp/Sp/Wp utility for survivability and the obvious other advantages of established worker empire, CP, energy and income and last but not least, how many new players are going to reach full PEN season gear on their first outing?

Why can’t the elitist see the bigger picture in how having a healthy player base from top to entry level actually creates a healthier economy, healthier community and above all a healthier player base, the rich and powerful don’t stay that way unless the little man is around, why do you think the CM fluctuates so often or do I have to go in depth on how events equate to returning/new players, the overload in materials effect CM stability due to undercutting to make a quick sale to try and get stronger and the rich capitalise to inflate later down the line?

Buy, hmmmm!

I've personally made all my gear but my two tet disto's. After 5bill in crons I just bite the bullet and bought one then later the other. And I usually enhance for profit/grind and life skill. I merely mentioned buying all your gear because some people think bdo HAS to be rng dependent when you can pretty much avoid it and make steady progress with no set backs. Usually only when you start to get ahead of yourself and think about cutting corners do you hurt yourself. I will %100 agree that somethings need rework and other things need added. But what I see mostly in people who start is no patience for the marathon that is this game. They want everything now with little to no struggle or time investment. Negating the hundreds and thousands of hours other had to do earlier in the game to get the same.

How very true and you hit the nail on the head, the game is a marathon and takes time to progress, but, in saying that we all have to see it as a new player also!

BDO is very much a shared space and with nothing to separate or balance other than Olivia servers, so, new players subjected to the wonders of what BDO has to offer are met with peer pressure from friends or for no other reason than wanting to try PvP in a PvP orientated game!

Think of it like like a martial art as an analogy as that’s what I’m proficient at the most and the biggest reason that drew me into BDO, new comers to the gym are coached for months on end with very few actually making top tier quickly and those that do are either a natural born fighter or years in the making, but, everyone that enters the doors wants to better themselves but we’re all in the understanding that skill trumps size and even weight thus equating to GS and everyone is trained accordingly, in saying that, BDO shares the same ring and there is nothing worse than an elite picking on the newcomer, it’s frowned upon!

BDO needs that balance to help new players obtain their training wheels so as to highlight strengths and weakness, rather than throwing a newish player into the ring with Chuck Norris and saying you will get there in the end after a good thumping, it’s just bullying rather than training!

BDO doesn’t have a pamphlet with the do and do nots, nor does it have an extensive system that teaches the player how to and to not FS, life skill, silver grind proficiency etc and that just deters most players as they just want to get better and experience the beautiful world without feeling like every fight is against Chuck Norris saying get gud kid!

The balance only comes from what is on offer, whether that be a game or sport and at its heart bdo is a PvP game and that should be addressed from all perspectives from a new player all the way through to Node wars and Seige!

GS trumps skill and experience and with nothing more than peer pressure and you tube/google to train the newb PA needs to create balance for the new players and us vets need to accept that or the turnover will always be the minority over the majority.

I have made suggestions previously in regards to balancing with the game and PA need to adopt either a Karma system that scales to GS and relating to the area for the GS (400+ In lower mediah flagging a 300- player in helms would insta red) as there is no reason veteran players to not have more than one set for different areas and equip accordingly, this would create balance and also create a healthier CM for lower green and blue accessories etc, or as said previously, bring in seasonal gear asap!

Personally I like both as much as each other as the Karma system would also protect from KB idiots as an example;

550- at trees/Miru would receive Karma loss when flagged by 550+ so the lower player would go red before the higher GS player this would deter the lower Gs players from salty KB tactics but also create the notion to think twice from entry level to top tier in just picking a fight unless in GS appropriate areas, intrepidation on both ends would be a good idea all round, thus forcing town respawn or GvG over silly behaviours!

Food for thought;

Can we imagine trying a new game that has PvP whether that be a FPS, Fighting game or RTS and there was no system to balance and the longer a gamer played the stronger they get, how would you feel jumping into battle royal knowing and experiencing the onslaught if weapons could be stronger the more you played, character had more HP and DMG in fighting games and established bases and resource banks in RTS, seriously, as a new player would that be a good experience?

BDO is different for sure, but how and at what cost!

Alright lets look it at this way.  You guys are focusing on PEN specifically so I will address this. 

Build a 100 stack off of TET -> Pen failures starting with the 50 stack or get 100 stack off of the quests or coupons or in game rewards.

Ok this is why a PEN is 10 Billion.  (It's more expensive on PC).  110 failstack (100+10 valks cry). Buy a tet, sell a tri, +5 failstack, repeat.  This brings the price to about 300M silver per attempt.  You are pushing for a 165 failstack which is 5% success rate.  This is one out of 20.  Then it costs 300m silver per costume, or $22.00

3.6+.15n=5, solve for n -> 9.33 fails from 110 failstack

So TET costs 850M-tri 440M = 410M per attempt, at 9.33 attempts to build your stack.  so 410M *9 = 3.7Billion

once a 165 stack is achieved, then buy costumes, 1 costume per attempt and you should get it within 20 attempts maximum which is,

300M*20= 6B, so now you are at 9.7B which is why the price is so high.  Poeple are selling kzarka's cheap right now for 8.3B So you gt a discount on longswords but if you prefer to pay it in installments this is how you do it.

I PEN a green on just 110 FS and it took 33 attempts because I had the incorrect method, but once you get to 165 it's good to start cronning.  I didn't realize this and just spammed crons 34 times and made my first PEN to experiment with it, now I know better and know what I am doing.