The new MMORPG Lost Ark is still struggling with issues. Overloaded servers, queues, and missing transfer options are among the biggest problems. Amazon has now commented on the current status and what they are currently working on. We at MeinMMO summarize.
What is going on with Lost Ark? The new MMORPG is still plagued by technical problems, even if they are not as severe as those in New World. Still, over a million people log into Lost Ark simultaneously every day, leading to massively overloaded servers.
Hours-long queues are just the first hurdle. Once logged in, players often cannot play with others, as the matchmaking servers are also down. The shop is often inaccessible, and the bonuses from the crystal aura also disappear.
This is particularly hard to bear, as more and more players are reaching level 50 and thus are necessarily dependent on group content like the Guardian Raids to progress meaningfully. However, these raids won’t function even if you have a full group. It can take over an hour to enter a raid.
After a server downtime on the night of February 20 to 21, Amazon has now commented on their website about what they are currently working on and how they intend to address the ongoing issues surrounding Lost Ark.
Lost Ark introduces new region, aims to prevent queues
How is Amazon responding? As a first reaction to the enormous queues a new region for Europe has been opened to limit the influx of new players to the old servers. The publisher further states that they cannot increase server capacity any further, which is why the current focus is on moving players from full servers to emptier ones.
To facilitate this, every player who pre-ordered a Founder’s Pack has received another one. You could theoretically take advantage of this on the new region, so you won’t have lost anything except your time if you switch to the new region.
However, players who do not want to change servers also received this package again, and they are naturally happy about the double bonuses. Whether Amazon’s plan will work remains to be seen.
The much-discussed request for a Power Pass to immediately continue playing at level 50 when switching servers remains unheard. According to Amazon, this is also technically not possible.
Server transfer as a solution still in progress
What is the status of the server transfer? Transferring your character from one server to another or even to a new region would significantly reduce the issue of long queues.
Unfortunately, the current status according to Amazon is that a server transfer is technically not possible because the Lost Ark server infrastructure was never designed for that to function. Currently, Amazon states that there is no viable option for a server transfer.
In the same sentence, they also emphasize that “they will not stop until all options are fully exhausted.” So, server transfers do not seem to be off the table for Amazon yet, but you shouldn’t expect it anytime soon.
Even worse news about matchmaking: Besides the long queues, the biggest problem in recent days has been that matchmaking simply often does not work, preventing players from playing with friends or strangers.
Amazon emphasizes that they see the problem and acknowledge how severe it is, but they broadly state that they do not even know where the error lies. The servers were restarted overnight in the hope that this could help. They are working together with Smilegate on a long-term solution.
When that solution will arrive and what it will look like is still open. So unfortunately, you can expect that the matchmaking issues will persist for the time being.
There is also good news
What has been fixed? The issues with the shop and the crystal aura should, according to Amazon, have been resolved. A “promising” patch was deployed to the server last night to make the payment bonus more stable.
Users often had the problem that the premium service of Lost Ark, the crystal aura, simply did not work even though it had been paid for. The shop also often did not open, took a long time to load, or returned errors when trying to purchase something for real money.
According to Amazon, these problems should now be much better, although not completely resolved.
What else has happened? The issue with gold sellers and bots has also been tackled by Amazon. You have surely noticed that links to dubious sites where you can buy gold for real money have been posted increasingly in the general chat.
While Amazon is working on better moderation of the in-game chat to quickly ban such spammers, a temporary solution has been implemented. The area chat can now only be used from level 35, which should mitigate bot activity somewhat.
Otherwise, Amazon currently advises simply hiding the area chat.
What is Amazon working on? The publisher reaffirms at the end of the blog post that they are aware of the current issues. They continue to work on improving the matchmaking problems.
Amazon also states that the stability of the shop and the crystal aura is a priority. They want to keep working on both issues. They also warn that both problems will ultimately lead to a restart and server downtime. When that will happen is not yet known.
How is your experience with Lost Ark currently? Are you actively playing the game, or are you spending more time in the queue than in the game? Or are you like our authors and stuck at level 50, unable to participate in group content? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments here on MeinMMO.
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