Blade & Soul News & Announcements

Interview With Lee Wang-Soo, Lead Concept Artist!

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:30:32 +0000

When you think about Blade & Soul the first thing that comes to mind are the characters. The in-game graphics that take full advantage of Kim Hyung-Tae’s work is still a hot issue amongst many players and fans.

However, it is not just Kim Hyung-Tae that does all the work. In fact, the character that was popular with a lot of CBT1 testers, Nam So-Yoo, was created by Lee Wang-Soo, lead designer of the concept art team. He has been friends with Kim Hyung-Tae for ten years and has been working on Blade & Soul since 2006.

Lee Wang-Soo has been working on concept art for races, backgrounds and the world of Blade & Soul since the beginning. Right now he works on characters, items and outfits as a guide and mentor. He is the man who breathes life into Blade & Soul and we’ve had a little chat with him.

I made Nam So-Yoo, says NCSoft’s Character Artwork Leader, Lee Wang-Soo.
“I’ve made a unique character fitting the scenario.”

What are the special traits and design concepts behind Blade & Soul's character design?
The games that currently exist in an eastern fantasy setting all have similar lore. Blade & Soul tried to move away from the typical Chinese concept and attempted to incorporate Korean and other eastern cultures as well. It is why we’ve tried to make the characters match the scenario.

What was the hardest thing about designing the various characters for Blade & Soul?
The hardest thing about designing a character is meeting Kim Hyung-Tae’s standards. Creating a character that fits the story wasn’t too hard because the scenario already defined the character’s personality very well, so the real challenge came in designing outfits that were different from other games with an eastern fantasy setting.

For example, trying to make a character that would blend well in eastern fantasy while remaining unique. It was a difficult balance to maintain with all of the outfits, and we've had a hard time trying to produce things that players haven't seen in other games.

Original artwork for the Lyn race. It looks a lot different.
Many say the art style of Art Director(AD from now on) Kim Hyung-Tae is either like it or hate it. What is your favorite character that you’ve created?
It is true, his style is so distinct that there's definitely a divide between those who like it and those who don't. However, if you look at it from a commercial art perspective I have a lot to learn. The hardest part of designing a character for Blade & Soul was mimicking Kim Hyung-Tae's art style.

As of now we’ve created a little guide after analyzing the AD’s art style, and with this guide we can recruit new members and still have that new member work on the artwork. As for my favorite character, it is Nam So-Yoo.

Nam So-Yoo was a hot issue during CBT. Is there a deep meaning/some kind of real life episode that you’ve based this character on?
There were many complex things that went into designing Nam So-Yoo, and even though she doesn’t exist I’ve taken her personality from a popular Korean drama called Wife’s Seduction and its lead character Koo Eun-Jae. Nam So-Yoo will also be a big part of Blade & Soul’s scenario.

The character’s traits are as you can see from the name; (Nam means Other and So-Yoo means belonging) it means “Someone else’s”. When I first got the name and the character I designed her like a normal girl, but after having a talk with the AD we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t right and reworked it.

When I worked on it the second time I tried to make her look confined; the design didn’t show her inner wickedness, simply making her look like a rich girl instead. The current incarnation of Nam So-Yoo came from when I worked on her for the third time. We wanted to show that undeniable charm, like a femme fatale and we tried to reflect that with her.

Blade & Soul’s popular NPC, Nam So-Yoo, and her original character artwork (left) compared to her in-game 3D model (right).
“Character design, we’ve approached it with designer label concept.”

When you work with the AD, how is the work divided?
As he is the art director, he came up with the original concept for the character. The artwork team creates characters, monsters and weapons. We receive scenarios from the development team and we have a conference with the AD and make rough concept sketches.

Each character will get about 3 ~ 8 sketches and we pick the design that best fits the personality or one that just has an awesome design and work on it from there. During this process if the character is someone that comes up in the main storyline, the AD personally picks them out. Rough estimate time of working on one character is about 8 ~ 10 days but characters like Nam So-Yoo can take up to a month.

We’ve heard Blade & Soul went for a Pan-Asiatic concept unlike other eastern fantasy games. How do you define this with the characters?
The one concept we’ve put great care into was the “Designer Label” concept. We try to create the outfits as a whole and since it is not divided into parts we have no normal specs for the outfits. We were able to create outfits that never existed in MMORPGs.

It was also hard to show the grade of the item without the stats. Instead of making a complex outfit a high grade one, we’ve tried to make a simple yet quality material the higher grade.

The one challenge we ran into while designing an Eastern outfit was “How do we make this look luxurious?”. Even though we tried to make the Ancient Full Dress Attire look cool, it didn’t come out looking good. As a result we tried to keep the original 90% and the new 10%.

We tried not to obsess with the Eastern concept and say instead, let's put the Eastern in the 10% of the modern and the results are the characters you see today.

Hong-Moon School Dobok looks more modern than Eastern Fantasy.
The original artwork and the in-game 3D models are almost identical, how much do you keep the 3D models in mind when designing your characters?
We’ve had many talks about the artwork when we saw how they implemented the AD’s design in-game in the early stages of development. Since they were able to bring out the full potential of the artwork in 3D models we had to really up the quality of the artwork to have a quality 3D model.

As a result we now give our full attention to the texture and the edges, as well as colors and little things in the artwork. From this we somehow managed to make the artwork look like an illustration, and the in-game models are a better quality as a result.

What are some of the characters you personally designed? Also, what are some things you wish people would look at the most in the characters?
There aren’t too many NPCs I’ve designed myself. Some are Kan Myo-Woul one of the Eight Grand Masters, Poison Herb Master and Hong Suk-Geun... the big version. Of the outfits, I’ve also designed the Infernal Dobok, and with females we’ve tried to make the outfits show the natural curves of women. The polygon counts are higher around those parts as well (laugh).

With the Infernal Lord boss monster we designed the monster first and then tried to make the outfit around the per-existing boss. There were some things that were changed but we are happy people and proud of the outcome.

Kan Myo-Woul of the Eight Grand Masters’ and her detailed original artwork (left) was perfectly modeled in 3D (right).
Since the females are so well defined the males play an awkward role in this game.
Right now 90% of the main characters are female (laugh). Internally we are trying to work on more male characters and truthfully we are slowly raising the numbers on male NPC’s to try to fit the ratio of male and female. Our next 3rd CBT will be a lot better regarding this problem.

We’ll see how many unique male characters make an appearance during the upcoming CBT3.
“Nam So-Yoo’s story will carry on until the end.”

Was there ever a case where the concept changed from the artwork?
Actually Nam So-Yoo was supposed to be Do Chun-Poong’s son’s wife and only make a brief appearance.

As I said before, after the third artwork was finished and shown to the team, we had a talk with the scenario writer and the project director and decided to carry her all the way to the end to Blade & Soul’s story. Almost every scenario will have Nam So-Yoo appear sooner or later.

Have you ever based your characters on a famous celebrity or taken note of Buddhism or Taoism?
We have a few character based on celebrities, as well as NPC’s based on developers. (First Interview) When you look at the credit roll you can see the relationships between the characters and the developers. We try to make the faces look similar, and the game will have many parodies regarding Korean programs and comedians.

We're currently avoiding any religious approach. In the beginning we tried a divided faction based on the concept of Yin and Yang, but from the concept of 건곤감리 (Kun-Gon-Gam-Lee: which is what the Korean National Flag’s based on. Kun means Sky while Gon means Ground) we only kept Kun and Gon.

Each race is a different size and concept, what was the easiest and the hardest character to create?
The concepts of the races were already made with Bae Jae-Hyung & Kim Hyung-Tae before I even joined on this project. Early development had each race with something unique like the Lyn’s ears and tail. Jins had wings, Gons had horns coming out of their skin and Kuns had a flower stalk.

Many of them disappeared during the development process but there are still things like Destroyer’s Iron Wall, which is formed from the horns coming out of the Destroyer to defend.

The easiest race to design was the Jins, as they were most like humans. The hardest was the Kun, because in the early stages of development the Kun were an intersex race, meaning they had no gender. So that gave us a lot of trouble, not knowing if we should draw them like females or males.

Later many artwork team members decided to make them into a slender female race and made them look Eastern European. I think they are the most attractive race.

There are many sexy outfits like the see-through outfits.
We try to avoid anything too suggestive or obvious. Of course we leave it to the designers, but we try to avoid outfits that would bring us bad press. We try to keep the sexy things part of the undergarments.

The see-through outfit shown during the Art Conference last year won’t be implemented in live servers.
Lastly, would you like to say anything to those dreaming of getting in the artwork industry?
Back in my days when you were drawing it was a fight with yourself, but now there are many tools and systems there to help you. Drawing is making your imagination come true and you should be able to show what you imagine in full detail.

I say read and draw a lot to get the experience, and later have a vision of what you want to draw and do it. For example if you have a vision of yourself wanting to draw better than the person in front of you, I think it will help you become a better artist. Right now, I personally think of Kim Hyung-Tae as my rival and I'm constantly trying to be better than he is.

This is probably something that everyone says but the best way to become better is to constantly try and put effort into your art. Look back and see if what you drew today is better than what you drew yesterday and if so, in what way it is better? Go back and try to fix the errors.

Source: ThisIsGame. Article translated by Yuan and Nayami.

Developer Interview Relay

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:21:29 +0000

We will continue to update this thread with new interviews as they are released.
Update (2/9) - Added interview with lead concept artist, Lee Wang-Soo.

Developer Interview Relay Has Begun
On January 19th, we posted an interview with Blade & Soul's lead programmer, Hong Suk-Geun. Many of us found out that a lot of the important NPCs in the game are named after real people in the Blade & Soul development team. When we first heard the back-story, we were amazed by the witty yet sentimental feel of it. I'm sure many of you thought the lead programmer would look similar to the master in his small form, but after seeing Hong Suk-Geun's image and smiling eyes, he looked similar to both the hulking transformed version and the regular version.

The Developer Interview Relay will cover various topics from never-before-seen amusing episodes in Blade & Soul to stories of hardship and difficulties that arose in the conceptual and development processes. I really hope these refreshing interviews will quench the thirst that many of you have been suffering from over the past few months due to the lack of news and updates.

So, when does this interview relay begin? The subsequent interviews containing interesting stories of Blade & Soul will arrive in early February. Below is a schedule of the coming interviews. We're also going to be answering a lot of the Korean communities questions in between the second and third interview articles.

Developer Interview Relay Order
	Developer (Position)	Details
1st	Hong Suk-Geun (Lead Programmer)	Get to Know the Developer
2nd	Lee Wang-Soo (Lead Concept Artist)	Intro to Character Creation
3rd	Choi Hyung Gun (Cinematic Team Leader)	Intro to Cinematic Creation
4th	Song Hoh Gun (Sound Team Leader)	Intro to Sound Setup
5th	Joh Young Hwan (Lead Artist)	Intro to Scenery Creation

This interview schedule is subject to change.
Yeon, Blade & Soul's Korean community manager, proceeds to leave instructions for the Korean community on how to submit questions for the development team. Since we're not part of the Korean community it would be rather difficult for us to submit our questions. However, ask anyway! Go ahead and (neatly) leave your questions in a reply to this article. Our translating team may pick a few questions, translate them and submit them to the official Blade & Soul Korean site for us, if they are up to the task of course.

Source: Official Korean site. Article translated by futilepath.

Interview With Hong Suk-Geun, Lead Programmer!

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 06:51:43 +0000

"The 3rd CBT will allow for even lower spec’d computers to enjoy B&S than the listed minimum requirements."

Those were the words spoken from the Lead Programmer Hong Suk-Geun. NCSoft held an interview with its Lead Programmer with the media on the 19th of January and talked about the problems and the talks after the 2nd CBT. Even though he’s put a lot of work into Blade & Soul he is more widely known as the "Master Hong", Master to Tens of Thousands of players.

Team Bloodlust’s Lead Programmer Hong Suk-Geun
First, introduce yourself and the work you do.
I am the lead programmer for Team Bloodlust. My role within the team is to try and connect the server, client and the graphics to work perfectly together. I try and make things run smoothly without compromising one for another.

How did you end up becoming the Master Hong within the game? Also any plans for a reappearance?
It was because the Producer wanted me to. Other than Master Hong, many of our staff make an appearance; we see it as our own little credits. I am glad he’s dead in the beginning and other than him making a slight appearance during the Grand Desert he won’t make another appearance.

Modeled after the Developer Hong Suk-Geun.
What difficulties did you guys run into during the development of this Eastern Fantasy game?
The biggest hurdle for us was the action, it was hard to keep its diverse action and also keep a clean functioning server especially for a large MMORPG. It was difficult to capture both action and keep the server stable.

As an engineer I like to have a set number of things expected to implement into the game. Deciding to implement 100 or 1000 takes a whole different schematic from the start. However, since Blade & Soul took a different turn with other MMORPGs we were not sure how things would turn out. This was one of the greatest challenges developing this game.

Since this game is such an action oriented game we are worried about the "hit boxes", how did you solve this?
Non-targeting games have the ‘all abilities are AOE’ system and because of this hit boxes & syncing became a problem. However, Blade & Soul did not have any of those problems because Blade & Soul is not a non-targeting game. In fact, B&S just displays the targeting differently. We actually are more worried about how to make the action sequences look more fluid.

I’ve heard Blade & Soul uses a different type of system of hit and damage in combat, care to elaborate?
We call it the ‘After Judge’ system which started from a small concept. Unlike other games once you shoot a projectile it does not judge whether or not the projectile hit right from the start. Instead, it judges once the projectile reaches the target. The same system is also implemented for melee combat. Because of this, the players will feel the action while playing the game.

Since the skills and the actions were so fancy and elaborate the combat felt a bit slow. Will this change as your level gets higher?
If you look at it statistically B&S’s combat is faster than most other games but since the game was developed so that you would have to react like an action game it could feel slow. The combat won’t be getting any faster than this and we feel this is the right speed for the game.

You’ve somehow managed to put in many skills with a limited set of hotkeys, were there any difficulties?
The skill interface that changes depending on the situation was implemented to make the action & the auto targeting easier to play on. The concept of “works when certain conditions are met” is easy but actually implementing it to the game was hard. It wasn’t difficult technologically but since it required the perfect harmony from the skill placement & the skill’s actual effect and combat scenario it was pretty hard to pull off. We’ve tried to take a heuristic approach but still testing & remaking the system.

All those different skills lay out within 4 keys.
Problem with a zone style of map is the load times, but Blade & Soul’s load times are very short, how did you accomplish this?
We did not want the player to feel taken out of the game while waiting for the loading screen; we’ve used the algorithm in the game to pre-load the content. Thanks to that the loading times were significantly shorter and we are continuing to work on the technology.

Does the algorithm work when you are standing still?
It doesn’t. The algorithm only works by collecting data from how the player moves around the world.

There were many new approaches with Blade & Soul, were you ever against or surprised by them as a developer?
The thing I hate the most as a developer are the abstract plans and most of the things I’ve thought that was ridiculous worked out great, so I can’t say much about that. I’ve said no to the ‘auto targeting’ the most but it currently works just fine.

You are using the Unreal 3 Engine, what are the pros and cons of the engine?
Whenever you choose an engine to build your game around, you look at the functions and the toolset. Unreal engine had a very solid foundation of this and was easy to take and edit. However, since this was made for FPS type of games it lacked a lot of MMORPG type UI features and we took a long time developing those for the game.

How much of the physics engine was implemented within Blade & Soul?
If you want to implement a physics engine you have to do it server side. However, currently there are no such physics engines that can run server side. Even if it exists we thought it wouldn’t match with our server. Also, hardware acceleration was different depending on the brand so it was hard to implement within the game but we are taking full advantage of the client side stuff such as the outfits.

What is the goal of optimization for Blade & Soul?
We’ve bickered a lot with the art team about the optimization and worked hard on it. We should never expect people to get better specs as the time passes; internally we’ve experimented on high end specs from 5 years ago and other various options. We just know that the 3rd CBT will require less power than the 2nd CBT to run.

How many people can you server take?
We can’t say the exact numbers but it will be the same amount as previous NCSoft games.

During the 2nd CBT people experienced a lot of PVP imbalances because they weren’t sync’d properly, were these issues fixed?
We do CBTs because our internal tests are never enough and we’ve received a lot of feedback during CBT. Truthfully we’ve received an overwhelming amount that exceeded our expectations and sync problems are almost solved now.

During the 3rd CBT the placement sync will be addressed, which made many Kung-Fu Masters angry.
Have you thought of ways to reduce player fatigue caused by playing the game so we can enjoy the game longer?
From the results of the 2nd CBT, we are pretty optimistic on this issue. Besides this is not really a developer’s problem it is more for content distribution.

Most AAA titles have some kind of means to connect with their mobile devices; will Blade & Soul follow this path?
We can’t say exactly but we will probably have more things to do on your mobile devices than other games.

What is the one thing that the development team is most focused on?
Preparing content & implementing it is a large work load, but ‘Will this content be stable and ready?’ is the biggest worry. Also there were many things we needed to prepare before launching the game fully. The development team members complain saying “We just want to program the game.”

What would you like to say to your fellow team members as a lead programmer?
First and foremost I would like to tell the Bae Jae-Hyun Producer to stop trying new things and make stale system and tell my team members to go home already. Most in this industry think working day & night is common but that is not very good for a long project like this one. Projects like this that take years and years to complete won’t depend on a few team members staying all night working, in fact what’s better is to go home and rest up so you are fresh and ready work the next day.

What would you like to say to those who want to become a developer / programmer?
It is a good thing that you love games and play them but most important thing is to finish school. Just because you play a lot of games don’t mean you’ll start becoming a genius at coding. In truth, when we interview employees we first look at their academic achievements.

Hong Suk-Geun smiling with the character modeled after him.
Source: GameMeca. Article translated by Yuan and Nayami. Special thanks to Seraphy for the find.

Year of the Dragon 2012

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:42:53 +0000

The Year of the Dragon has arrived! Team Bloodlust left the 2011 year with a warm message for its loyal community, thanking us for such a great year.

We at the Dojo would also like to thank you, Team Bloodlust, for creating such a masterpiece and giving us the chance to finally try it out with two fantastic closed beta test events in 2011! We look forward to CBT3 in 2012's first quarter and official Korean launch this year!

Originally Posted by Yeon

Greetings to the Blade and Soul Family,

Leap-Year 2012 has arrived!

We would like to thank you for your continuous support and love towards our game last year. 2011 was an unforgettable year. We formed a lot of bonds and made great memories. We also improved upon many areas that were lacking in Blade & Soul post-CBT2 thanks to you.

With the start of the Year of the Dragon, Team Bloodlust promises to work hard and strive to meet your expectations.

We would like to wish our community and their friends and family great happiness throughout the new year.

Happy New Year!

Source: Blade & Soul's Official Site. Translated by futilepath.

Fall 2011 Recap & Beyond

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:42:35 +0000

Hyung-Tae Kim, Art Director of Blade & Soul Chinese Interview
The past several weeks have not been the most lucrative times for those seeking out information in regards to Blade & Soul, but they haven't been the worst either. All good things come in time, and hopefully within the foreseeable future we'll have plenty to show and many new shiny objects to drool over. In the meantime we'd like to present you with a quick recap of a few significant tidbits of information that came into light via various interviews and Q&As straight out of Shanghai.

First we'd like to present to you the Chinese Interview with Hyung-Tae Kim, the Art Director of Blade & Soul. During this interview he talks about their artistic goals of how they wanted each race to have a specific feel, the inspirations that influenced his artistic style, and what the future holds for Blade & Soul. We've been able to translate all of Hyung-Tae Kim's statements, but have currently been unable to get a clear translation of the Chinese questions and commentary. However, it takes almost nothing away from the over all experience as we still get an in depth look into the mind behind the art of Blade & Soul. Enjoy!

"We’ve tried very hard to show the perks of each race from its physical appearance. Jins were designed to show idealistic beauty of the Human Race. As for the Gons they were made with more mature taste, strong male and sexy female. Unlike the Gon and the Jin we’ve had a lot of problems designing the Kun and the Lyn. For the Kuns we wanted to express the beauty that was beyond the human race, a beauty unlike this world and more of a unique beauty. Lyns we wanted to show the ultimate cuteness with this race, but nothing of niche cuteness but more likeable whether you are male or female."

"One of the ways to express the sexiness with the female models is my instincts as a male; they are basically what I find attractive. I think if I was a female art director the males would have received more sex appeal. What I try to do when I design female characters are try to really bring out the attractive parts but make the other ways bland to make the other areas pop more and ultimately I think that’s what got most people’s attention and the reason why people like my design."

"My inspiration for my art comes from all the objects around me. I don’t get inspiration from just staring at normal things, rather I try to look at things from a different perspective or reinterpret them and apply it differently. That way you will still get this familiar feel yet a fresh feel because it could be located differently and what not. Let’s take a shoe lace for an example, I could put that on the shoes like it usually is but I could take it to the hair and give a familiar yet refreshing vibe to it. Of course I also take in to player feedbacks and apply that to my design, such as a really good place for a background or a natural monument."

"I think the attractiveness of the Eastern Fantasy games are not just visuals but also the gameplay and the feel you get while playing it. For that reason I try to add more of Eastern Fantasy vibe with the Story and the combat, however since Eastern Fantasy has been done a lot there was a risk of our visuals being stale. That is why I tried the method from before, look at it from a different perspective and reinterpret it to give it a design that knows no borders or time and tried to build a whole new Eastern Fantasy. That is why our game could look a bit different than the past Eastern Fantasy games but when you actually get in there and play it you will get the strong Eastern Fantasy vibe stronger than other games currently out there."

"When I illustrate, I take a piece of paper and a pencil then sketch after that I take that to Photoshop to tidy up the lines then I paint and color. Now a day, unlike before they use 3D Data to decorate the background and in-game effects. We also sometimes bring the whole game screenshot to illustration. When we made the game, we tried very hard for the in-game graphics to simulate the illustration feel close as possible."

"Blade & Soul showed some of its content with the 1st and 2nd CBT but we still have many things we haven’t revealed yet. A vast open world and brand new cities, and lots of unique NPCs to accompany on your journey, I urge you all to wait for Blade & Soul with love and enthusiasm and explore the world of Blade & Soul when it is available. "

The Future Classes of Blade & Soul
The developers of Blade & Soul recently confirmed a few things in regards to the future classes that will have some jumping for joy, and some crying in a corner. First off, there will never be a pure healer class in Blade & Soul as of right now. This will probably ultimately prove to be a good decision by the developers as many of the game mechanics revolve around the players ability to avoid damage and ultimate control and out play their enemy. By avoiding a healer class this ensures that these game mechanics will continue to be a fundamental part of Blade & Soul.

With that said and done, Team Bloodlust did confirm two new classes that have a guaranteed spot within the game. The first is one I'm sure everyone has heard of already; The Summoner. The second has been highly anticipated and almost expected; The Gunner. The summoner will be playable during the next phase of testing. As for when the Gunner will see its debut on the battlefield, that is yet to be determined. There was also talk during a Q&A session in Shanghai of a Chinese influenced class, something along the lines of a Taoist-like class that would use curses to debilitate and cripple their enemies. Whether or not this intriguing class idea ever sees the light of day, well, we'll just have to wait and see!

Closed Beta Test; Phase 3
That's right! CBT3 finally has an estimated time that is actually practical! Team Bloodlust mentioned in Shanghai that Blade & Soul will commence its third phase of closed beta testing in Q1 2012. This new phase of testing will feature content up to level 40 and a new playable class; The Summoner. Now, obviously this is a bit of an upset for some that had hoped to see it sooner, but at least we now have a more realistic time frame of when to expect CBT3 to actually start. The delay will probably also mean a more complete Summoner class and much more content well into level 40. We might even be able to expect new cities, towns, and possibly even a new dungeon! But regardless of what new content there is to see during this new beta phase, the Summoner will surely steal the show.

Shanghai Online Question & Answer
During the Tencent Games Carnival in Shanghai, the developers for Blade & Soul held an online Q&A. Now obviously not all of the questions were answered, but a few very interesting ones were addressed that fueled some of the information for this article. Here are some of the more interesting questions and their answers.

Will Blade & Soul be adding a class influenced by Chinese culture?
We will think about adding a Taoist-like class who uses curse spells and also a more Chinese influenced class. But we will be designing a gun-wielding class for future content.

What can players do after reaching max level? The PvP seems boring and without characteristics.
Combat is the game's core system, and players can engage in PvP combat after reaching level 20 and wearing a faction;s costume. We will be adding special PvP maps which will require more players' participation, more strategies and teamwork. We will also consider adding a DOTA-like PvP map into the game.

Why is there a need to add in the FPS-like crosshair on the screen?
Majority of the skills in Blade & Soul will not require players to highlight the target, but it is needed for skills which are aimed at only a single target. The crosshair is actually there as a guide, player need not use it like in a FPS.

Can players fish or cook in the game?
We have a number of life skills in mind for the game currently, but we will be adding them step by step. I personally like activities like fishing and cooking, as combat can get tiring. During this time, I would rather find a quiet place and relax.

Will the current 4 races have some uniqueness other than looks and the classes available?
Earlier in development, we thought about having different racial abilities and life skills for each race, but after internal discussions we felt that it was too bland. We are shelving this differentiating process for now, but it will happen in the future.

Are the classes in the game balanced now?
In Closed Beta 1, we got much positive feedback for the Kung-Fu Master. In Closed Beta 2, we buffed the stats up a little for the other classes. From then on we can see each class having both positives and negatives against at least 1 other class.

Closed Beta 3 for the Korean server was delayed until Q1 next year. What new content can we expect to see?
The delay happened as we are editing some game content according to feedback from the first 2 beta phases. In order to optimize the game, the delay had to happen.
The 6th class will be playable in Closed Beta 3. More content between level 30 and 40 will added as well, especially open world battles. After Closed Beta 3, we will be adding SNS (social) features to the game.

In both PvE and PvP, is equipment the main factor in a players potency or is it how players control their characters?
While both aspects contribute to gameplay, the controlling of characters stands out. The type of loots players are rewarded in the game depends on how well they executed their moves to defeat the targets.

From what we have been shown, Qinggong only involves speed running and some high jumps for now. Can they be utilized during combat?
We are currently looking at how the skills can be integrated into actual combat and will be added in the near future. For example, players will be able to enter combat once Qinggong is used.

Will there be any healer classes added in the future?
No, there will never be a pure healer class in Blade & Soul.

Are there any limitations to costumes characters can wear?
No, there is not. Other than the default undergarment, characters are not restricted access to any other costumes.

A special thanks to Yuan for translating the Hyung-Tae Kim interview and MMOCulture for the Q&A.

The World of Blade & Soul

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:00:49 +0000

A games environment is one of the most important aspects of a video game. What would a game be without an environment to immerse yourselves in, without terrain for your avatar to tread on, or uplifting music that sets the mood? Team Bloodlust seems to know this quite well and has, in my opinion, taken it to the next level, setting the bar extremely high for MMORPG graphics and sound tracks. Utilizing Unreal Engine 3's full potential and comprising an originally composed, fully orchestrated sound track, Team Bloodlust nearly achieved perfection with Blade & Soul's oriental fantasy atmosphere.

Enough with the chatter! Let's get right down to the media, shall we? Below you'll find some footage and over 800 down-loadable screenshots of Blade & Soul's first two zones, the Dragon's Forest (Levels 1-20) and the Great Desert (levels 20-37). Both videos contain over 30 minutes of first person zone footage paired up with over 15 original Blade & Soul tracks that can be found in each zone.

A Chat With Blade & Soul's Art Director, Hyung-tae Kim

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 23:56:57 +0000

Thisisgame.com held an interesting interview with Blade & Soul's Art DIrector, Hyung-tae Kim, during the games second closed beta test event last week. This article was translated by futilepath just the other day and posted in another section, so this may be old news to some, but to those that just follow our homepage and RSS feeds here's a nice treat for you!

The discussion was about character designs and graphics, something Blade & Soul's Art Director, Hyung-tae Kim, was comfortable answering.

The attire is the center of attention in Blade & Soul. What will the attires we get from siding with one of the factions be like (the factions that appear at levels 22-25)?
It seems like a lot of the users chose the Hong Chun Cult attire (image). But I am revealing this now; the attire for the Moo-Lim Allegiance (image) will be way better looking. These attires can be upgraded as you level through their ranks. We will be adding more attire for each faction in the future content. Keep your hopes up.

The users are amazed at the amount of attires currently found in the game. What is the one attire that you put the most effort on?
All attires were made with great effort, but if I were to choose, I would say it’s the Hong Moon Clan attire (the one you get from the tutorial at level 1).

Blade and Soul's first dobok; Hong Moon School Dobok.

Users tend to choose attires that can be found on NPCs. Will users be able to wear those as well?
It will come down to whether the users can acquire it or not. All attires in the game can be worn by the players, but just not attainable yet. There will be a lot more attires that become attainable in the future, so do not worry.

What would be the best attire one can acquire in CBT2?
I can’t tell you the method in obtaining one, but the one shown in the artwork behind me (image below) can be acquired in CBT2. I don’t know when a user with that one will appear in-game though. (The attire can be obtained through the level 38 instanced dungeon.)

This outfit can be obtained in CBT2, from the level 38 instance.

The attires are designed with no difference in upper and lower parts. Moreover, there are no graphical changes when equipping accessories (rings, necklace and earrings). Any plans to change this?
There are no plans to change that. The attires can be obtained from NPCs as well as monster drops. There is a named boss called the Golden Destroyer in the Giant Desert area that drops a set. The set includes the basic attire along with a hat and a wing-like addon.

This dobok drops from the Golden Destroyer world boss and is called the Golden Dobok, aka the "winged" dobok.

We can mix these with other attires, but the one dropped by that boss is the best match. Don’t you usually try to match your shoes with your pants in real life?

We made it so that obtaining the full set will make the user feel the coolest. We initially tried to implement the graphical effects of accessories, but the minute details weren’t catching the eyes, so we decided not to implement them.

Clothing is made up of one outfit, one hat and one other head accessory, all of which carry no stats. One of each can make up an entire matching set.

I felt that a lot of online games have attires that can be worn in real life. In short, they looked too plain and simple. Isn’t a game supposed to be a place where a person escapes boring reality to feel special and look much cooler and fancier? I tried to emphasize that into Blade & Soul, and hence the results.

We steered away from separated attire (like top attire, bottom attire, foot attire, etc) to make playing Blade & Soul feel like going to a party and having fun. You always want to look your best at a party right?

We will introduce monster attires and other unique designs in the future. They will cater to the users’ tastes.

These are the outfits that the GMs flaunt around in. Expect a wider variety of outfits in the future.

The preset designs changed in CBT1 and CBT2 due to user feedback. Will they change in the future tests as well?
We take all forms of feedback into consideration. There was one user that posted a bunch of Korean art relics in an organized fashion that we took into serious consideration. We got a lot of new ideas and concepts from these relics. There was one where a tree looked like a dragon soaring through the sky, expect to see something like this in-game in the future.

We are constantly receiving feedback; NPCs and characters’ legs are too thick, the ankle is too thin, etc. So we look at helpful comments like those instead of comments like “Great game!” or “Love this game!!” to make the game better.

Speaking of feedback, it looks like love towards male characters will be lower than female characters.
That is true. I am saying this now but I hope the users will give more feedback on the male characters. The developer Team thinks they are designing cool looking male characters, but since the feedback is significantly lower than females, they are considering making the males sexier.

Guys make female characters because they are guys, and girls make female characters because they are girls.

Isn’t it because the female characters are too beautiful?
Something we are regretting. A male user should pick a male character, we are trying hard to fix this problem! =)

How do you plan to change the male characters?
Nothing special. Just changing the hair style, facial shape, and animations. We think the main problem with the male characters is that they are too plain and simple. In short, we think they lack charisma and appeal. It is hard to add different characteristics visually to male characters in online game, such as a thuggish look, reckless/brash look, bad boy look, etc.

This is easy in console games, however. Hence we altered some things, but it looks like we need to change more. Therefore we need more feedback.

What if the user feedback asks for thigh size reduction for female characters?
If we are changing body parts, we need to do it in relation to the other body parts. We don't want the users to have a “I like this character but I don’t like this body part, so I won’t play it” mentality.

Isn’t that Blade & Soul's Art Director, Hyung-tae Kim’s, trademark?
That is why there may be a limit on how much we can change. I think we will add more options for users to utilize instead of changing existing ones.

We know that a lot of manpower was used to make the stunning graphics. Was the majority of that manpower used towards the games fashion and character design?
There are actually more people for the animation and environment department. Character design is limited to only a minor group of people due to the unique artistic style. They still do their job well. I believe animation decides a game’s gameplay quality. Blade & Soul animation, in my opinion, is the peak of online games. I am confident to say it is three times better than other well-made games out there.

The important aspect is how the target I am hitting is hit rather than how I am getting hit. Blade & Soul's hit animations are different depending on how the target is hit. You can be lifted into the air, be choked, or stumble and roll over. This applies to not only humanoid mobs but all the other mobs as well. To this extent, we consider the target’s hit animation more important.

We place more importance on stylistic combat and animation with another person rather than the same animation being used in zerg vs zerg battles. We want to provide users with unique experiences by expanding on this.

Server stress seems to be enormous. In real tests, server downs may occur within an hour.
That is why the server team is struggling right now. The amount of pressure on the server during regular open-field gameplay is about the same as another game’s RvR. If you look at it the other way, I guess you can say we are making good use of our servers.

Given how good the graphics are, it looks like a lot of resources go into each character.
We did not use more polygons or special effects to increase the graphic quality. We used a technique used in movie production called Mi Jang Shen (??). It models the character around the location, environmental color effects, contrast, light/shadow, and angle of the camera.

The graphics is considered great because we adjusted this technique to be neither too detailed nor sloppy. Since you played the game, you would have found out that Blade & Soul is not that demanding of a game. The graphic engine team’s effort is a factor, but aren’t you able to play the game with semi-high settings even if you only meet the minimum requirements?

Are there extra options available for those users with high-end specs?
We are working on adding those options. Right now there is a noticeable different between high settings and max settings. We are trying to make the game look better even on the medium settings. Obviously, we are thinking of adding more options for max settings to satisfy those players.

The monsters all have unique designs and it’s hard to find the same mob in different regions. Is there a reason you are not recycling models?
We are not focusing on new designs for monsters, but rather, to make fighting new monsters in new regions to be always different.

We are not making monsters that look different, but have same attack patterns (aka easy to farm). We are focusing on the AI and the animations/behavior of each monster type. The animation team is working hard to make the skill motion look and feel unique.

Since humanoid monsters use the same skills as the player while also looking similar, there is a PvP feel to it.
We place importance on the concept of PvP. Monsters appear in martial-arts settings but person to person relationships are more important. Expect more humanoid enemies and other monsters sporting different action styles in the future.

Blade & Soul's Future, Q&A Confirms Summoner Class!

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:49:49 +0000

Hey folks! We're going to be popping out a few translated articles from Thisisgame.com while we get our CBT2 coverage prepared for you guys. Today we've got a Q&A with Blade & Soul's Director, Jae-Hyun Bae, and Lead System Designer, Sung-Jin Hwang.

Points of Interest:

Summoner class confirmed.
Developers considering a gunner class as well as a class that uses musical instruments.
Content involving a raid or alliance will appear in later content.
Advanced character customization will be enabled eventually (think Aion).

This article was translated by futilepath. Give him some love!
Source: Thisisgame.com

Blade & Soul's Jae-Hyun Bae PD (Left) and Lead System designer Sung-Jin Hwang (Right).
User feedback for Blade & Soul's second CBT is satisfactory. People are saying the game doesn’t feel like an MMO. How is the development team evaluating this?
Jae-Hyun Bae: In-staff evaluation isn't organized up yet so I cannot say much that at this time. We are focused on the higher than expected number of traffic in the servers. Truth be told, there was too much traffic for the staff to handle. So we ended up opening another server.

The additional server was meant to be a backup for if a server broke down. We were worried about severe drawbacks that may occur if the servers had any problems, but thankfully everything is running smoothly.

The plan was to bring up a total of 4 servers for CBT2, but instead they added a 5th server on the weekend.
I agree that Blade & Soul does not feel like an MMO because it’s a game focused on combat. We wanted to make an MMO where enjoying combat is easy while satisfying the hardcore players as well. We will be developing other content that players can experience after combat.

Blade & Soul has a lot of features that mix the aspects of MMO and MO. We combined the wide communication available in MMOs and focused gameplay in small areas of MOs to try to produce the best results.

We know there are the "Eight Elites" NPCs in-game that represent each class. What is the next class that will be introduced next? And will you add race-specific traits and skills?
Jae-Hyun Bae: We had 6-10 class concepts initially. The "Eight Elites" you encounter while progressing through the storyline are eight of the 10 candidates (the NPCs you encounter when you do the quest to unlock your classes talent tree system). There are currently 5 completed classes, the next class will be the Summoner as seen in the G-Star 2009 trailer. There is talk of adding a never-before-seen class too. There is also talk of classes using guns or musical instruments, but it is not final. We will decide based on player feedback and their preferred way of playing the game.

As you all remember, during last year's G-Star there were no race restriction for classes, so taking off the racial locks wont be difficult. However, we are still deciding on that matter. Whether we want to present racial traits is another matter to ponder over. A Lyn Blade Masters or Destroyer class may present some entertaining aspects in the game. We are still trying to decide on whether its better to recycle the same animations for all the race and class combinations, or restricting classes to certain races but making special and unique animations for each one at the same time.

Sung-Jin Hwang: Talent trees provides different builds for the classes resulting in different styles of gameplay. The talent tree’s importance will be emphasized even more because it is still not complete.

Class advancements or different races is still being discussed and is open to ideas so we can’t say much on that matter.

CBT1 contained an Assassin NPC as one of the "Eight Elites." The Assassin didn't become available as a playable class till CBT2.

It seems that content progress is too fast because most of the campaign is solo-able.
Jae-Hyun Bae: The players seem to have a great understanding of the contents and controls. Solo play was our intention. We set the difficulty so that solo play is viable anywhere else, with the exception of big dungeons. I am amazed watching the solo-play videos. Further content is also geared in this direction. The idea of being unable to level without a party is not even considered.

The players in any country claim that their content progress is the fastest. Korean player base usually says they are the fastest, but in reality the countries are all similar. For example, World of Warcraft content progress is the fastest among European players. If we look at the big picture though, the players that blow through content are a the small "hardcore" group. The rest are casual, normal players. Even in Blade & Soul, there are a lot of players that have not reached the Giant Desert region yet. It is indeed very hard to balance the hardcore and casual gameplay. The Lineage and Lineage 2 era were considered hardcore, but it is different now. It is our mission to compromise and balance between these two.

What about the future endgame content?
Jae-Hyun Bae: We haven’t decided on the level cap for OBT and beyond. Further updates will definitely raise the level cap higher.

We are focusing the end content on combat: content where PvP, PvE, soloing, and party play aspects are all met.

We are steering away from the idea of faction-owned regions or dominated content. We don’t want to harm the players by having the ruling-faction users abusing the privileges and rights.

The 2nd CBT saw a variety of bosses among dungeons and open fields. Field bosses are usually swarmed by players. Working as intended?
Jae-Hyun Bae: It is more of an obvious result rather than intended result. We can put all of these named monsters inside dungeons to fix this problem, but we are still debating. I get curious watching players spending hours hunting a named monster when they can spend those hours questing or playing further for better gear. But I view these actions as entertaining, so there is no need for change.

We are focusing on preventing kill steals, but also letting the players communicate with each other. One of our tasks is to find a balance between the two and implement them in-game.

The open world bosses will be tweaked based on how the players approach them.

When is the Guild system coming out? Also, is there a raid or alliance content in the works?
Jae-Hyun Bae: The Guild system will come out exactly as it is named, probably around the time for OBT. Furthermore, we are adding a social networking communication. It will be like Twitter or Facebook. We will be adding more on these in the future.

Sung-Jin Hwang: The last dungeon in the 2nd CBT is the Sacrificial Grave and geared towards a party of 4 hardcore players. The dungeon is meant to have players get used to party play. Content involving a raid or alliance will appear in the later content.

I heard that the official launch may be later this year or will it be delayed further? Will the developers hold another CBT or delay the OBT?
Jae-Hyun Bae: There are delays while going through the developing process and new feedback that may arise from inside-testing. The 2010 G-Star demo received a large number of feedback, thus the game was delayed because we tried to change the game accordingly.

There were many things to do after the 1st CBT, and it will probably be the same after 2nd CBT. If we really want to hold OBT, it is possible after 1 or 2 months. All we need to do is refine the version we have now and expand on it, but whether the players and the creators will enjoy it is up for debate.

We will reflect upon the feedback we will receive after the 2nd CBT. But we will not be delaying the wait. What the CEO said at the initial announcement is right. The game will launch either at the end of this year or early next year.

There is complaint about the lack of inventory space. What do you think of the suggestion that equipped items will disappear from the bag?
Sung-Jin Hwang: We will change the inventory based on feedback. Equipped items staying in the inventory is working as intended. We designed it so that tablet-combine and such are accessible by simply opening the inventory. If the equipped tablet or weapon disappears from the inventory, the player will need to go through the hassle of opening another window.

The gathering and crafting features seem interesting but too boring. Players may create bots dedicated to just crafting or gathering.
Sung-Jin Hwang: The features are designed with casual players in mind. It was meant for those players that only play once or twice a week. We are considering the problems of bots.

Gathering professions were just introduced in CBT2 so it is currently receiving a lot of feedback. The crafting system and the auction house systems are features that need to be tweaked.

Jae-Hyun Bae: Bots and "workers" dominate crafting systems in most games as time passes quite often. Of course, there are users that love gathering in itself, but they get driven out of competition due to lower efficiency (of gathering) that the number of regular gatherers (regular players) slowly diminish. Regular users are unable to experience and enjoy the gathering system. While this is happening, a "worker" will gain monopoly power if he can direct the market flow and balance in his favor. We tried to find an answer to this problem and thus is the result (current system in-game). Of course, we know there are complaints of it being boring, so we are tweaking it a bit so that certain materials will drop from dungeons and monsters.

The gathering and crafting system was put in like this so that even casual players can enjoy it.

The synergy system is receiving positive reaction, but without a tutorial the difficulty immediately scales, and there is also talk that succeeding a disabling skill on a boss monster will totally break that boss’s attack pattern.
*NOTE* Synergy System: Elite enemy NPCs (bosses) cannot be controlled by a single players status ailment attacks unless two abilities that cause the same effects are used twice back to back by the same player. Status ailments such as knock downs, aerial abilities, stuns, groggy states and knock backs must be performed by two or more players in a short period of time in order to successfully effect the boss.

Sung-Jin Hwang: A tutorial on the synergy system is in the works, but there are users saying that it is easy to use after trying it for the first time. Now, apparently you always win if you use any skills that puts enemies in a knock down state. The developers perspective is that difficulty against monsters should arise in any situation, and that players need to know what these are and react accordingly. For example, the final CBT2 demon boss will exhibit a pattern where it will stand up if the web skill (Assassin) is used. Finding a fun yet diverse party play is one of the steps we are taking.

Jae-Hyun Bae: It seems that knock downs are too easy in small dungeons while leveling. This is not a bug. The players are making good use of their skills. We are considering adding a penalty where a monster knocked down once can’t be knocked down for a certain amount of time, but it's not likely. Monsters in the leveling areas are meant as practice targets for players. Rather than skill or balance patches, having the right monsters in the right regions seem to be a better option.

We are planning to make monster AIs that react to knock down attacks and counterattack depending on different situations.

In PvP, once you are knocked down you are pretty much done for in the current state of the game.

1v1 PvP is fun because it requires strategy and patience, but that is not the case for RvR situations. Are you planning to fix this?
Sung-Jin Hwang: There are a lot of skills that have hidden properties. The level is low right now so it is difficult to experience it. There are special skills that negate the effects of certain skills. Attack skills also have properties that help other players. Only those players that delved deep into the talent tree will see these. For example the Summon Sword skill can protect your allies. A lot of the community is trying to find the hints, and the developers are thankful for that. More on this will be revealed in the future.

There are currently 2 different factions in the storyline, but are there plans to further divide these? And is the P2P model confirmed?
Jae-Hyun Bae: The business model is up to the business department to decide. But we can safely say that stuff like inventory expansion will not be included in a P2P model (this probably means that Blade & Soul will have a cash shop but no game-affecting items being sold).

The factions will be divided more and more as players progress further into the storyline. Stories based on allied combat in certain regions may appear: specific storyline of the 2 current factions, and the relationship with the Guild. We may also have the players make their own storyline through the Guild system that will be implemented later.

Will character customization be more freely accessible?
Jae-Hyun Bae: We can actually change it now. Each NPC in-game is made through our advanced customization feature instead of modeling. Since a lot of players want free customization, we will implement that in the future (In the form of actual customization like Aion, instead of the current presets). We are aiming to make customization better than any of the games currently out.

Soon players with funky looking characters like the above NPC will be running around the Blade & Soul world!

Were there any episodes of difficulties or determinations while making a game that is completely different from games like Lineage 2?
Jae-Hyun Bae: We actually did not plan to make anymore MMORPGs after Lineage 2. Developing process is very long and the cost is high. Its uncomfortable for the developers to be using money for such a long period of time. It is also very complicated skill-wise. We started making games in 1998. Lineage was made by 1 person (what?!). Blade & Soul is the 2nd game where we used a team of developers, Lineage 2 being the first. Usually it takes 3-5 years to make a game, 2-3 years to launch internationally, so 7-8 years fly by just like that.

You wanna add a lot of things in MMOs but are limited by technical skills. You also need security protection from hacking and bots since the service is divided into the client and the server. We decided to not make an MMORPGs after Lineage 2, but our disappointment for Lineage 2 was too great, we wanted to do more.

We took our hands off almost immediately after Lineage 2 launched. Disappointment and regret soon followed because planned quests and combat features were not implemented into the game. We started creating Blade & Soul due to this reason. If you think about it, the developers are always in this cycle.

The 2nd CBT is ending on the 10th. Are there any future tests?
Jae-Hyun Bae: We do not know. There will be a lot of work to do after the 2nd CBT ends. We need to organize logs, receive the feedback, and also take the forum comments into account. Due to the amount of work, we will avoid immediately launching the game or refining the current version.

We will aim towards the best course of action for both business and technical aspects. It seems that having another test will produce a better product.

What are you preparing to ensure that Blade & Soul will be loved for a long time?
Jae-Hyun Bae: A game’s life span is determined by how long it can keep a person entertained. Meeting good people and building relationships while having fun are major factors. Some talk about the cash value of items but this is just a conceptual number.

Having an enchant system may indeed keep a game going for a long time. I personally think enchant system is good. But the problem is that the players and the developers abuse it. It grieves me that enchanting is a subject of frustration and hate. Therefore, Blade & Soul will not implement an enchant system. Other games have it so we see no need to use it in our game.

Blade & Soul is aimed towards being a great game where you meet other people and have fun. Networking in MMOs was a gradual progress, but with the recent rise of social networking systems, ways of meeting other people are heading towards a different direction. It is an area where we need to dive into.

Recent NCSoft games make use of mobile/hand-held devices. Will Blade & Soul also connect with mobile applications?
Jae-Hyun Bae: There are a lot of ideas. Aion and WoW mobile apps came out similar, but this was the result of natural trend flow. Since a lot of people are connected through the network, we plan to do the same.

Some of the ideas include sending a message, crafting/gathering, and checking the auction house. We will also try to make it so that you can actually play the game on the mobile devices.

Lastly, we want to apologize to the beta testers for delays and server problems. We want to thank the testers for doing their duty even through all this.

We will take all the feedback into account and do our best to produce the best results.

The Assassin

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 07:51:58 +0000

The Assassin class is a very deceptive and lethal combatant. Using a short sword, or dagger, the Assassin eliminates their enemies with incredible precision and agile movements. Assassins utilize the element of surprise to take control of fights, slipping into the shadows and only revealing themselves when they see an advantage. They also have many explosives and traps at their disposal, allowing them to quickly eliminate targets or get away from the worst of situations. Assassination isn't the only thing they have going for them, believe it or not. They also posses the ability to protect their allies from harm.

The Assassin class is only available to the Jin race. They are apparently the most difficult to master in Blade & Soul, rated at 4.5 stars out of 5 by Team Bloodlust.

Assassin Skill Video
Below is an official video demonstration of the Assassin's abilities. Yuan is in the process of translating the subtitles, we will keep you guys posted! Be sure to spread the word on this epic video by sharing it on Facebook, Twitter and other social outlets!

An Interview With Blade & Soul's Art Director

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:08:18 +0000

His rough, only-pencil-sketched, bare illustration will make a great poster on anyone’s wall. His characters’ unreal physical proportions are his uniqueness and a trend that has an undeniable and dominating presence in the world of game art today. Even before Blade & Soul kicked off, Hyung-tae Kim had many fans of his own, but now, he has become a legend who is an inseparable entity from Blade & Soul!

The community managers over at Blade & Soul's official Korean website put together a list of the best questions asked by the game's fanbase for Hyung-tae Kim, Blade & Soul's art director. Hyung-tae Kim set aside his CBT2 work to answer the communities questions, which can be found below.

The most frequently asked question for you is how and why you chose to pursue a career in art, ultimately achieving a position of AD (Art Director).
I started drawing very young, but not extensively until my middle school years. When I was in grade 8, I met “Jung JoonHo” who was an illustrator for “Lineage 2” by coincidence and improved my skills by viewing his works. I think that was the turning point in my life where I decided that I will pursue drawing as my career. When I was working under a game company as a concept artist, I found that my illustrations tended to lose their “taste” in the process of getting turned into actual in-game graphics. I wanted to do my best to prevent that from happening in the future and I naturally became an AD as I studied 3D animations and game development.

Many people who follow your work think that your design pattern is at a very stable and perfect state. Are you willing to keep your style for the future?
It is true that my style of drawing is quite reserved to how I usually draw. I do think, however, that I have made a significant change to myself through Blade & Soul, and that is going from 2D to 3D. I do think that changing my idiom at some point through considering different themes and symbols might be a good chance, but I think the style of developing my skills is through a very slow or a very fast pace.

Many believe there is a significant history to how you came about your unique design. Could you tell us?
I want to differentiate between Blade & Soul and other games out there as “Haute Couture” and “Prêt-Porter”. A lot of clothes in other games are very similar to what we see in our lives (shirt, pants), and follow the code of “Ready to Wear”. They are fit to a very comfortable system, very user-friendly with common details and materials (A bit of triteness). I wanted to challenge the design system of ordinary games with “Haute Couture” in mind, and I am designing to the best of my abilities to find a new meaning of art within an expression-free world.

It indeed would be funny to say “I did it with instinct...” about how I draw physical body lines, but it’s true. If I were a woman, I think I might have been able to draw men a little better. To elaborate further, my unique style took its current form because I wanted to break the flatness of 2D through emphasizing lines and shapes in a way to give it more of a live feel.

The Jin, whose race was initially named “Li”
This question was the most asked from people who have uploaded fan arts on our site. They are curious to what kind of programs and what kind of brush you use while drawing. Could you also please tell us where you place the greatest importance during your drawing?
When I am organizing the lines of my initial sketch or choosing colors I use “Adobe Photoshop”, and for coloring I use “Corel Painter”. Then I go back to using “Adobe Photoshop” for finishing up and adding the last few touches. I sometimes use “3D Studio MAX” as well when I want to incorporate a background with my illustration.

I can’t really pick out the most important matter in my drawing process since there are so many, but if I had to pick one, it would be the “Art’s purpose”. To put it easily, I make sure to have a solid definition of what I want to show people through my works.

When the plan for your interview was released to the public, the fans went crazy over it. What do you think about your current standing and your skills?
I think my current standing is somewhere I feel like I’m a rookie artist about to debut on my first stage. The reason is that we’ve got so much attention from all over the world and it’s the first time I’ve worked as an AD, not an illustrator. I’m trying my best not to lose my passionate rookie mindset. I’ve always been serious about drawing, but I don’t get to experiment a lot these days from working directly with the game’s degree of completion. Just those two jobs keep me real busy. The development of my art style is something I am trying to show my fans even after the release of Blade & Soul.

I can sense that you are being very critical of yourself to pursue perfection. Who are some of the illustrators that have affected you in the past? Are there any illustrators that you are keeping an eye on?
From our country (South Korea), I’d pick Jung JoonHo (Lineage 2), Lee SeulGi (Zera, Brawl Buster), Lee KyungJin (Magna Carta 2), Lee GeunWoo (Tales Weaver, Vindictus), Lee SangBun (Dragon Nest), Park JungSik (Huxley, Dragon Nest).

From overseas, I’d pick Murata Renji (Blue Submarine No.6), Shirou Masamune (Ghost in the Shell), Kuroboshi Kouhaku (Kino’s Journey), Ugetsu Hakua (Burst Angel), Yukito Kishiro (GUNNM) .. Are the few of many illustrators that I consider as rivals and worth keeping an eye on.

Early illustrations of Lyn
The fact that you told us how this is your first time being an AD might bring more expectations from you. Recently, a lot of people have dreams of becoming and AD, so could you give us a brief general description of the job? Also, people are curious about if you only partake in the art section of Blade & Soul.
AD’s work is primarily focused on constructing the game’s vision and QC (Quality Control), rather than actual drawing work. ADs set the direction of artwork, and the process of how it gets completed. In such process, Ads eventually look over illustrators’ works to stabilize the quality of artworks and game graphics. ADs check over various components such as characters, backgrounds, animations, effects, GUI, and etc, and so ADs need to have a very thorough understanding of the game itself and game production in general. As for me who was originally an illustrator, I actively partake in the design of monsters, costumes and also draw illustrations when I can fit it into my schedule (It’s sad how I have to sacrifice my own free time to do this…) Oh, and one more. I also make videos. All the trailers of Blade & Soul that have been released so far have been made by me.

Even though all 4 races of Blade & Soul have equally distinct characteristics, which race did you come to like the most? And which race gave you the hardest time?
Well, I have invested tremendous amount of time into designing all 4 races, but the races that gave me problems till the end were the “Kun” and the “Lyn”. The presence of the race “Kun” practically disappears if players have a hard time catching their theme “Beauty”, and so I went through 3D remodelling over and over again with the team, revising the direction of their art. We tried to the best of our abilities to give a non-repulsive, non-maniac, and universally cute image to the “Lyn”.

When you are designing for Blade & Soul, do you find motives from around you at all?
Every structural object that exists around me can be a motive for a design. I follow the design, except changing it and applying it to a completely different place. For example, applying a mountain shoe’s shoelace ornament onto a character’s neck would be it. I ended up with a habit of observing every object with a hawk’s eye. Also I find great ideas from the writings of our fans from our website. Recently, I’ve read and was impressed with the idea of incorporating Korean Natural Monuments (Protected Animals, Structures, Wonders) into the game. I am doing everything I can to make that happen.

The Gon, who were initially designed to have horns.
Admitting that you actually consider ideas from the fans might make them come up with more and much better ideas for you! Have you checked out any fan arts at all? How did you feel after looking at some of them?
Often times, I am very impressed. If I was to take on drawing as a career in an age like today, I might have given up! In order to appreciate and motivate artists for more and better drawings, I am in the process of planning something sneaky with the Blade & Soul Business team ^^

There are a lot of fans who are curious about the production of figures or illustration books. I guess their wish is to meet your colorful design in real-life form. Are there any plans for this yet?
I really want to make an illustration book, but I am pressed for time just with game production. A personal illustration book would be nice, but my goal is to have a Blade & Soul illustration book composed of our staffs’ hard works before my own sometime around the release of the game itself. There are over a thousand of impressive illustrations and will be a successful project since all our art staffs are talented. I’m sure you will be able to see figures and what not after the release of the game.

The subtitle to the 1st CBT was “The Signature Eastern Fantasy MMORPG”. How will you develop the world of Blade & Soul which is “Moohyup, but not Moohyup at the same time”?
The team is trying to express “Moohyup” through actual game “experience”, rather than independently special features of the game. To follow that up with artwork, we tried to show fused modern visuals, rather than expressing “Moohyup” through its strong characteristics. When you play the game, I am sure that you will feel that such “experience” will be a “Moohyup better than classical Moohyup”, so I won’t worry too much.

Thank you so much for giving us your time and for answering all these questions. Lastly, do you have anything to say to your fans?
There were a lot of things released in the 1st CBT, but we still have so much to show you throughout the whole game. Our staff is doing their best in designing everything from vast deserts, a nail mark in a corner, every single stitch marks, and to every breath of your characters. Do expect a lot for the 2nd CBT, and please keep cheering us on. Please go all the way through the CBT to the grand desert and meet the Blade & Soul’s world, people, and your fate! Thank you.

An illustration being prepared for CBT2
This article was translated by BlkNoiz, give him some tasty e-cookies! The original article can be found on the official Blade & Soul website, here.

CBT2 Has a Date!

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:15:14 +0000

Update (8/22) - Received a map of the new zone being revealed in CBT2, the Great Desert. The zone will contain more than 10 instant dungeons.

We finally have a date! Blade & Soul's second closed bets test event will start this month on August 29th and last until September 10th (KST Dates)! Like the first closed beta test event, CBT2 will take place in Korea and will only be accepting Korean residents.

So what's new in CBT2?

Content and level raised to 37.
The Assassin class will be available for play as will the previous 4 classes.
The gathering and crafting systems will be available.
Multiple new dungeons unlocked.
New zone/area available; Grand Desert. (Map)
Contested PvP zones will be making its debut.

The Dojo will be covering this closed beta test event for our community as it is not protected by a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. Our coverage will include a daily livestream, direct translations and more media than you'll know what to do with! Be sure to visit our Beta Discussion forum section to chat about anything CBT2 related.

We would like to thank Huan, Yuan and Elimer for getting this information up (here) hastily for our community!

Community Voice: PvP

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:04:59 +0000

Welcome to the Dojo's first official Community Voice!
Wondering what this is all about? Starting today, the Dojo will be releasing Community Voice articles containing a non-speculative Blade & Soul subject and a poll relating to the subject. Think of these articles as a recap segment of a specific Blade & Soul fact and a chance to voice your own opinions and speculations on the subject at hand.

What We Know About PvP in Blade & Soul
PvP in Blade & Soul is based on an optional flagging system. This means that PvP in Blade & Soul is not forced upon anyone and requires you to actively engage in player battles by equipping special PvP uniforms, or Doboks. Much like all body armor in Blade & Soul these PvP Doboks provide no stat advantages to your character and, besides its PvP purpose, are purely cosmetic.
*Note* New to Blade & Soul's stat customization? See this article for an explanation.

So, how does this work exactly? Upon equipping a PvP Dobok of a certain faction your name will appear red, hostile, to anyone that has the opposing factions Dobok equipped, of course their names will appear red to you as well. Whether or not these PvP Doboks only work in contested zones is currently unconfirmed by Team Bloodlust. We'll be sure to test that out for you in Blade & Soul's second closed beta test event, which will take place next month. Keep in mind that you can not swap out gear once you're in combat to prevent an inevitable defeat. Choose your battles wisely!

How does one obtain these PvP Doboks? You can acquire these Doboks through completing a quest for the corresponding faction upon reaching level 16. You can also buy them from the factions quartermaster if you've misplaced your quest reward Dobok. Blade & Soul's first closed beta test event only contained two PvP Doboks. However, Team Bloodlust has stated that there will indeed be more available in the later levels.

The two PvP Doboks found in Blade & Soul during CBT1.
Community Voice Polls
This wouldn't mean anything without the communities voice, your voice. So, let's here it! What do you think?

What do you think of this system?

I love it! Here's why...
I hate it! Here's why...
I'm neutral. Here's why...

How will you PvP?

I will wear my PvP Dobok proudly and fearlessly at all times, even if it will lead to my ultimate demise at times.
I will be a defender, equipping my PvP Dobok only to save or help others.
I will be a devious rascal, only equiping my PvP Dobok when victory is guaranteed.
I will equip my PvP Dobok whenever the urge to PvP arises, defender or not.
I will store my PvP Dobok, hoping to never kill or die to another player.
*Insert own answer here* Be sure to respond to the article with your own answer.

Welcome Back!

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 17:35:13 +0000

Welcome Back!
Hey everyone! First off I would like to take a moment to welcome everyone back and thank you all for your patience during this unexpected downtime. As most of you are already aware, the Dojo experienced a prolonged period of downtime after the Curse Network experienced a massive hardware failure. The following statement was released to explain what had happened.

"At approximently 7:30AM PST, on June 22nd, our primary SAN controller experienced a catastrophic failure, bringing it offline. This controller was the primary controller for most of the database nodes, and most of the web nodes. Redundant systems failed to come online, even though they had reported as 'ready' before the primary systems failed.

After replacing the failed controller, it begain booting and copying it's configuration from it's peer server. Unfortunately, as soon as the configuration was copied, the secondary controller also died.

After replacing the second failed controller, we began powering the servers that reiled on the SAN for their data - all of the database servers and the network-attached storage (NAS) file servers that store all the media, static content, and most of our web files as well.

This process only took a few hours. The main delay was an extended period (24 hours) of checking the continuty of the data on the disks. This was the majority of the downtime experienced.

As we started pulling our servers online after check was complete, we noticed an issue with the firmware's on the new SAN controllers. The newer firmware versions were conflicting with the storage array, and thus, the controllers couldn't talk to the disks.

The manufacturer told us that this was a known issue, and provided us with a method of repairing it. We then backed up all the data again, and proceeded to apply the firmware patch.

After the patch, we were able to restore the drives, and start booting up the critical systems, followed by the non-critical systems.

We can assure you that at no time during the hardware failure was any of your personal information compromised. We take the sacred trust you put in us with your information VERY seriously.

Thank you,
The Curse team."

Additional action and resources are being used to improve and expand infrastructure to try to prevent something similar from repeating itself in the future. Revast and I would once again like to thank everyone for their patience during this time and hope you guys will continue to rely on us for all your Blade & Soul addiction needs!

New Wallpapers & Concept Art!

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 01:59:04 +0000

Wallpapers
Let's start things off with some tasty new wallpapers for you folks! These wallpapers were part of the recently released official Blade & Soul fansite kit provided by Team Bloodlust, Blade & Soul's development team.


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Concept Art
We've got precisely 43 scenic pieces and 23 character pieces. Some are new while others you may have seen already. These were pulled from the newly released official Blade & Soul fansite kit mentioned above as well. I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say I can't wait to see these locations come to life in-game.

Traveling in Blade & Soul

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 21:47:15 +0000

E3 Update - NCsoft, Team Bloodlust and Blade & Soul will not be at E3 this year. Looking for E3 coverage anyway? Check out E3 2011 presented by Curse!

Today we're going to be discussing the various travel methods used in Blade & Soul. This includes your characters basic movement, Qing Gong, Teleportation Scrolls and Dragon Streams.

Let's start things off with your characters basic movement. Like most MMORPGs Blade & Soul uses the W, A, S and D keys to control your character. The W and S keys send your character running forward or backwards while the A and D keys turn your character left or right. It's that simple.

Now, for you advanced players looking to get the most out of the game and the best results, you can hold down both the left and right mouse buttons at the same time and this will cause your character to run forward. You can then slide the mouse left or right while doing so and this will turn the camera and your character similar to that of the A and S keys. Holding down the right mouse button alone while holding down W has the same effect. Blade & Soul also has strafing, or side stepping. This technique will allow you to move your character to the sides without loosing sight of your target. Simply hold down the right mouse button and either A or D to execute the strafe mechanic, this will allow you to strafe in the specified direction while moving your camera and character at the same time.

Want to be good at Blade & Soul? Make good friends with that right mouse button for both control and visual awareness. "Keyboard turning" is definitely not the way to go in this game. Doable? Yes. Effective? No way!

Qing Gong
Qing Gong is Blade & Soul's most basic form of transportation. By double tapping your W key, you immediately transition into the Qing Gong state, granting you an incredible boost in both speed and agility. While in this state you run at very high speeds, jump incredibly high, and preform some visually impressive acrobatics while doing so.

There is a limitation to this ability however. Aside from only being able to use Qing Gong out of combat, this mechanic requires a resource in order to be used, a meter located directly under your characters health and ability meters. This resource meter will continuously drain at a constant rate while you are preforming Qing Gong. Once this meter is depleted, you will be forced out of Qing Gong and will not be able to re-enter the Qing Gong state until you have recovered a portion of the resource meter.

You will obtain the ability to enter the Qing Gong state while going through the tutorial zone at the start of the game, which is completed by level four. Qing Gong is quite efficient short distance travel, impressive to look at, and most importantly fun to use!

Teleportation Scrolls
Teleportation scrolls are the next step in travel within Blade & Soul. These scrolls come at a moderate price, at least for new players, and allow you to instantly travel to a major city or quest hub of your choice. To use a teleportation scroll simply click the button on your minimap and choose your destination. After a short animation you will find yourself at your desired destination. Each use consumes one scroll.

These scrolls are obtained through the occasional quest at lower levels and can also be purchased off vendors. These scrolls are somewhat scarce and expensive, so use them wisely. And for the love of all that is holy don't accidentally vendor them! Nayami definitely didn't do that. Nope, he sure didn't! Not him!

Dragon Streams
Dragon streams are a method of travel used to get to difficult to reach destinations in Blade & Soul at very high speeds. If you thought Qing Gong was impressive you haven't seen anything yet!

To use a dragon stream simply walk over a dragon stream location. These location appear as yellow streams of light coming out of the ground. Once you enter a dragon stream a short uncontrollable cinematic will begin. Your character will preform an impressive amount of acrobatics during this cinematic, hoping, dashing, and flipping their way to the given destination at incredible speeds.

You will gain access to dragon streams in Blade & Soul once you reach level 15 and complete the "Faith" storyline quests. Once this quest line is complete you will be able to enter any dragon streams you come across. These are generally strategically placed to grant you access to areas you couldn't otherwise reach, as opposed to just being another method of quick travel.

This sure beats the average "flight path" mechanics found in other MMORPGs.