Black Desert Online

Black Desert Online – Some QoL Changes!

When I want to game, but don’t really have the time or maybe I’m out of spoons, the game I jump to is almost always BDO – this game has a lot of AFK / passive game modes that make it absolutely worth it to get my gaming fix when things are a bit rough. It has also been quite some time since I played, and a lot of QoL changes have taken place that I am completely in love with.

First, I created a Dosa, my first male character (my one issue with BDO is that classes are still restricted by gender). I made a season character – but seasons have changed now, they’re no longer static dates that rotate, you can create one when ever. I had a scholar in the works (the newly released class before Dosa) but decided that I didn’t want to continue with that, for now. Anyway, apparently life skills are now family (account) wide! That was one of the first changes I noticed. This is a fantastic change, I used to swap characters all of the time and I’m very glad it went account wide. On that same note, harvesting tools are also now shared across your family, another VERY delightful change.

One of the less favourable changes that happened is the hotkey for fishing, it’s ‘ now (the key beside enter) on QWERTY keyboards, other languages might have it elsewhere. To stop fishing, right click and move back to battle stance. Confusing, I actually had to watch a video on how to fish since the changes took place.

There’s been a bunch of other changes too, things I haven’t managed to wrap my head around yet. I don’t know what artifacts are, how to use them, or what to do with them. The same can be said for the transfusion window. I do have bits and bobs scattered all over the place, so I’m taking my time and sorting things out and figuring what I want to work on – when I don’t have the time to actually pay attention, I set up for some AFK fishing (there’s an event going on at the moment) or some mount training.

BDO has never been the easiest of games to get into, there’s a LOT to it, and the cluttered UI easily scares people away – but – I think learning the mechanics slowly is doable, and I really love how beautiful the game is as well as the incredibly robust life skill system (crafting). There’s apparently a new life skill releasing this year and I’m excited to see that, too. Plus, the game doesn’t require a subscription and the expansions are always free. Sure, there’s lots of ‘please buy this’ in the shop, but I’ve honestly never felt that pressured, they give away so much for free.

In any case, I’m enjoying my return and hopefully I can figure out what else has changed given some time. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Black Desert Online (Remastered)

I bought a copy of Black Desert Online when it released, which I think was back in 2016 – and I played it for a month (maybe?) and I got to level 18 and then I forgot about it. That’s pretty much how it goes with me and games. I finish very few, I stick with even fewer. Anyway, back in January I heard that you needed to migrate any old accounts over to Pearl Abyss or they’d wipe your characters. It was a big debacle even though I wasn’t actually playing at the time and I probably didn’t really need to migrate my level 18 sorcerer over.

Of course I did, and then promptly forgot about the game, again. Some of that isn’t my fault, seeing as I have 5mb/s download speeds a game like BDO (41 gigs give or take) takes me an incredibly long time to download. Their launcher also doesn’t let me set the speed of the download, which means I have to wait until the house is asleep and not using the internet in order to download anything. This is why I prefer to download things on steam, where I can set the speed so that it’s a rate that doesn’t actually interrupt the family using anything but still lets me download 24/7. Anyway.

After almost a week of downloading during the nights / evenings, I managed to get the entire game. I logged in – and I’m COMPLETELY overwhelmed and lost, more so than with ‘regular’ games because this one is pretty far out of my comfort zone. The only thing I could remember from when I played last is that you can fish while AFK.

So that’s what I did. I filled up my bags with useless level 1 fish and I stood there admiring the beautiful game while I played but didn’t play at all. I decided it would probably be best if I looked up some videos on how to play, and maybe starting over wouldn’t be too bad of an idea, either. They do have a bunch of very nice returning player / new player servers that are meant to get you caught up, so I created a guardian on one of the ‘season’ servers, and we’ll see if I can get into it at all. I certainly wouldn’t hold your breath, but stranger things have happened.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!