In a press release published on the night of March 2 , Amazon Games revealed that they're still working on resolving some major issues that Lost Ark players have been encountering since the game was rolled out in the West.
Several points are addressed in this press release:
- Problems related to the Crystalline Aura
- Crystalline Aura and Login Rewards on Western Europe Servers
- Gold sellers and "bots"
- Queues on Central European Servers
Crystalline Aura Fix
In the weekly maintenance that took place on February 24, we fixed the ongoing issues surrounding disappearing Crystalline Aura. This was one of the top reported issues over the last few weeks, and we’re happy to let players know that it’s now resolved! Please be aware that after our maintenance periods it can sometimes take a few minutes (or a few loading screens) for Crystalline Aura and store items to display normally after logging in, so don’t worry if this happens!
Europe West Presence Event Crystal Aura Rewards + Europe West March Login Rewards
When we opened the Europe West region we put a special daily attendance login event in place to help players progress. Unfortunately Crystalline Aura and Crystals were obtainable rewards, which created an unintended scenario that allowed players to redeem upwards of 352 days of Crystalline Aura on their accounts. We quickly swapped these out for new rewards (Una’s Tasks [Daily] +1 x10 and Rare Combat Engraving Recipe Selection Pouch x10), but we understand the frustration around the change. While we won’t be banning players who took advantage of this error, to maintain a fair atmosphere we will be revoking Crystalline Aura that was obtained from the event.
We will host an additional login attendance event again in March exclusively for players in Europe West. This event will contain updated rewards, and we’ll share more details in the near future.
Matchmaking issues
While we’ve put some changes in place to help improve the unstable matchmaking that occurs in Europe Central region, it’s clear that these efforts have not been impactful enough to make a major difference. The team is still working on a long-term fix for this problem, and want players to know that it is a top priority for the team. We've identified a possible fix that it is currently in testing, and we will share an ETA as soon as possible.
Gold Sellers and Bots Update
We are constantly adjusting tools, improving chat filters, and acting on reports to ban gold sellers and bots from the game at a rapid rate. In fact, spammers last an average of less than 10 minutes in-game before getting banned. However, it is clear that there are more actions we can take to put a stop to this problem.
Additionally, we’re currently making improvements to our anti-cheat and anti-spam tools. While we won’t detail these plans (as doing so can open the door for bad actors to try and circumvent our efforts), upgrades are on their way. Another step we have taken to help combat chat spam is to restrict area chat for characters under level 30. While we understand that area chat is an important feature in Lost Ark, this will stop spammers from being able to instantly create new accounts in order to spam. Players under level 30 will still be able to participate in chat with groups, friends, in dungeons, and more.
Player reports are instrumental in helping us ban spammers and bots. Submit a report in-game by holding ‘CTRL’ and clicking on a player name in the chat window. Be sure to select the “Suspected Scamming/Cash Transaction” or “Suspected Use of Illegal Programs (Bots)” option from the dropdown menu, as it will aid our support team in taking swift action. It’s also worth remembering that while we work to improve our fixes for spammers in chat, you can always create a new chat tab by clicking the “+” icon in the chat box and selecting the chat types you want to include or exclude, such as area chat.
Ongoing store issues and missing items from product inventory
Nothing new on this side: players who are still struggling to get what they bought, Founders Packs included, will see little change soon a priori. Amazon Games is still working on the problem and invites players wishing to collect their rewards more easily to connect during off-peak hours to facilitate inventory and store loading. Good luck explaining that to those who connect at peak times by constraint: we don't have to wait in line for hours, come on!
Queues on Central European Servers
We are aware that server queues in the Europe Central region have remained lengthy, but as we have previously mentioned, unfortunately we cannot increase the number of players that each server can hold. Additionally, adding more servers is not possible based on the complexity of the game systems and how they work with each other. Because of this, our current focus will be on improving game health and stability in Europe Central so that we can ensure the players there have the best in-game experience possible.
Lost Ark is a free game, yet some players do not hesitate to spend large sums in the game store. Looks like Shroud really enjoyed the game as he spent quite the money for Lost Ark.
