Crafted by Smilegate using Unreal Engine 3, Lost Ark is a highly-anticipated PC MMORPG around the world since it was first revealed. For the first time since the first Closed Beta held last August in South Korea, Smilegate broke its silence and shared with the media what the team is working on. Basically, Lost Ark is being polished further based on the feedback gathered from the test phase.
Other than improving the combat animations, the touted “Tripod System”, which was supposed to make characters of the same class unique in terms of skill combinations, will be strengthened. This follows feedback that the system was rather dull and making no real strategic impact on making characters unique. The quest system is also revamped into Adventure Quests and Cooperative Quests.
It was discovered in Closed Beta 1 that it is imbalanced to have all the classes do the same quests solo, and hence Cooperative Quests with other players will lower the difficulty for some. 3 new classes will be added in Closed Beta 2, including Destroyer (heavy melee DPS with a gigantic hammer), Arcana (short and middle range control spells by drawing cards), and Summoner (pets pets pets).
Certain graphics will also be changed to suit the storyline scenarios better. For example, more NPCs will be added to crowd around an injured NPC showing care and concern, rather than just looking away and missing the whole point of the storyline. Several minor UI changes and game optimizations have also been carried out. Smilegate has yet to announce a schedule for Closed Beta 2.
