In an update to the Unreal Engine 4 splash page, Blade & Soul announced a few more features players can expect with its upcoming engine overhaul. Revival, as it's called, brings with it a more streamlined battle UI, as well as improvements combat with a new battle response system.
Blade & Soul's Unreal Engine 4 update is still coming this summer, and the NCSoft team is slowly peeling back the veil on what players should expect from the update. Today, the team updated the Revival website with information on some of the changes coming to the battle system when the UE4 overhaul happens.
One major change is to the UI. In a video posted by the B&S team, the UI is being streamlined in order to provide the best information possible without overwhelming the player. The video shows the changes coming, including a visual change to how buff timers are being shown with simpler visual aides to help the player focus more on the action rather than trying to decipher the information being presented to them.
"Our goal is to present the most essential data in the easiest format," the video states. "Player condition is easily readable at a glance with the new UI."
In addition to the changes coming to the battle UI, Blade & Soul players can expect changes to combat itself in the form of a new battle response system. This system is meant to "make battles feel more immersive," according to the development team.
"As part of our Unreal Engine 4 upgrade, we are planning to implement a more responsive dungeon combat system, to make battles feel more immersive. For many dungeons, the gameplay was straight-forward—learn the mechanics, DPS the boss. Unique plays or heroic efforts weren’t appreciated or encouraged. In the new responsive dungeon combat system, the aim is to provide positive responses to your skill combos. We want each and every move during a fight to feel meaningful, and provide acknowledgement for combos that are done well. The end goal with this system is to get the player more invested and immersed into executing skilled combos."
As such, players can expect to see more feedback to encourage players to "keep going and let you know what's working." Additionally, if you complete a successful combo, you'll be rewarded with an immediate game animation, giving players an indication that "something was done well."
You can check out the full blog post about the new response system on the Blade & Soul website. While we still don't know the exact date the Revival update is coming, NCSoft has stated that it should arrive in Q3 2021, specifically the summer.
