The long-anticipated Western debut of Lost Ark took place via Steam yesterday with record-breaking numbers.
That said, this is still the early access phase for the game, reserved to owners of Founder’s Packs. Lost Ark is officially launching this Friday as a free-to-play game, which means it might very well double or even triple the current peak number of concurrent online players.
The early access update also introduced DirectX 11 support (which massively improved performance on most PCs), global chat, custom PvP matches and spectating, and Korean voiceovers as an optional DLC pack.
We are including 15 playable classes.
To match the Sorceress release in Korea, we will also include the Sorceress advanced class, replacing the Closed Beta option of the Summoner.
The Striker class has also been introduced since Closed Beta.
Global Chat has been added to allow players to communicate with others in other worlds of the same server region.
Each chat room can hold a maximum of 100 players.
Players can see the previous chat logs before they enter the room and chat messages that were sent when they have logged-off.
Korean VO has been added as a DLC pack on Steam. Please note this only affects spoken dialogue to allow players to experience the original VO of the game. Text options are restricted to English, French, German or Spanish.
For a full list of Accessibility features added, please visit our accessibility options article.
Text-to-Speech Accessibility is available for reading chat messages. Additional improvements have been made after Closed Beta Feedback. To use this feature, players have to activate Windows Narrator outside of the game. Once the “TTS” setting is turned on in-game, chat messages or text typed will be read aloud by Narrator.
Speech-to-Text Accessibility is available for transcribing voice chat in a Party or a Raid. To use this feature, players must turn on the setting under Game Settings » Community » Chat and must participate in a Party voice chat.
Added the Room Of Growth, which is accessible after completing the Northern Bern World Quest “Afterimage of the Rift”. This feature allows you to experience and learn additional game modes that Lost Ark has to offer, such as mounts, pets, crafting, engraving, disassembling, and refining.
Added Procyon’s Compass - Adventurers will find a menu accessible through a Widget that showcases the active Field Bosses, Ghost Ships, Chaos Gates, and the current Adventure Islands.
Added Adventure Island - This is a new activity that directs users to islands that are only available during certain times. Once on the island, you’ll be given a co-op quest and must face a boss in order to receive a variety of rewards.
Custom PvP matches and spectating has been added.
To match the Sorceress release in Korea, we will also include the Sorceress advanced class, replacing the Closed Beta option of the Summoner.
The Striker class has also been introduced since Closed Beta.
Each chat room can hold a maximum of 100 players.
Players can see the previous chat logs before they enter the room and chat messages that were sent when they have logged-off.
Text-to-Speech Accessibility is available for reading chat messages. Additional improvements have been made after Closed Beta Feedback. To use this feature, players have to activate Windows Narrator outside of the game. Once the “TTS” setting is turned on in-game, chat messages or text typed will be read aloud by Narrator.
Speech-to-Text Accessibility is available for transcribing voice chat in a Party or a Raid. To use this feature, players must turn on the setting under Game Settings » Community » Chat and must participate in a Party voice chat.
We’ll have a lot more coverage on Lost Ark in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, you can check out our beta hands-on preview.
