This is an all positives post. I'm not sure it will help, but there's a lot of good going on in Valencia.

Mostly.

First of all, Valencia has always been "treasure central". Basically, if there is sand there is treasure there. 

That's been BDO for awhile now.

I'm not sure this is the greatest idea as, conceptually or subliminally, aren't places like Land of Morning Light a Treasure? So, shouldn't there be treasure's there? It's like I support BDO so I always wear the Korea flag on my cheek or the earrings. People, more than a few times, have commented on it. Positively.

That being said, Valencia is doing something right in a strange way:

You can damage the creatures you are fighting - meaningfully.

This hasn't really been the case for a long time. I honestly can't think of a time when I could do something "clever" and get "rewarded" for it.

Valencia - Dekhia, has a bit of that. 

It's mostly the mechanics rewarding you with some extra attack power. Nothing based off your own volition, but it's something. 

If you could somehow swap this around to where our abilities were more than animations? 

Then you'd really strike gold. 

I think that has always contributed significantly to the feeling that the further along you get in Black Desert the worse it feels. 

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In a wholly separate thing, a little something is going on that is also good about Valencia - Dekhia. The scenery is "recaptured".

I have always said that you have a really bad habit of putting our grind locations in the least interesting places you can.

Valencia - Dehkia somewhat breaks the mold on this. 

While they are not precisely scenic? They DO manage to be in places that "are worth looking at" and "not depression inducing". 

If you have to grind a place for a year or more to progress on one item the place or places you have for 'options' should be desireous. 

This has always been rather lacking about such places.

When you're gear is 190 ap I do remember feeling like Sulfur was a lot more fun. You could "feel" the hits you made on mobs.

What I ultimately wnat to point out though is that when I "look" at regular Valencia for the longest time I "felt" like it was lost to me. I could just one-shot everything. There was a tiny sense of impacting something, much more rewarding than punching a tree, but also a quiet dread that the game was just being abandoned by the devs. 

Valencia 2 lets me hit things relatively meaningfully. It wouldn't say it is satisfying. It is is only when the mechanics let me do damage that I do damage. Otherwise I'm just going around and around in a circle. Be at a tower or roaming, it makes no difference. My abilities and my gear are meaningless. I just hit until it falls down and then then next thing appears. There's no... play?

But I notice that I'm mildly enjoy Dekhia here. I think that's because I do actually feel like my skills are more than animations. That I am not just waiting on mechanics or addons to be re-applied. And the gameplay isn't "run around in a circle to fill the silver meter". 

Further, there's creativity in the way these creatures behave. Dekhia was largely known for "everything oneshots". Otherwise known as, "it deletes your crystals and is anti-progression to play it". 

This rather repairs that impression while also adding fresh "fun" memories (a sense of positive nostalgia) to an already nostalgic place.

So, you did a lot right in this place. A lot right.

One negative comment though:

It's bad money. The silver per hour is rather terrible. I starts to become "okay" in some places, I don't want them to get flooded, so I'll withhold saying. But overall, you need to reward players for where they are at in their gear a bit more. 

There's some serious burn out for players at the top end.

I don't want this to turn into a negative post so I'll say it like this. You've got a three tier metric when it comes to gear at end game. This metric is invisible for most people as I don't see many have the skill in mathematics to notice. However, I whale will. 

This is probably intentional. It benefits whales and keeps them playing. 

I have no problem with this. More power to you.

However, there's an issue. The player that's making a doctor's or physician's salary (or any medical degree really) are going to be your average 200$ package buyers one a month. And they are going to start to feel the pinch in gear because of this metric. IT is part of why the game has a lack of "reward" when you hit things. If you whaled, you'll feel it. If you didn't you don't.

This won't ever change for them. No matter how much they try to whale. This means that there's generally a sense of "it's hopeless" when it comes to "I want to play, but I feel like I can't". 

I don't mean that they can't turn the game on or play it. I mean that when they "play" with the mobs it is more like waiting for the game to let them land a feeling of significance back?

I'm sure someone in your math department will know exactly what I'm on about, but I'm not saying this aloud. So, take a look there. Your making most people feel like their abilities are just animations. That their agency in the give and take of combat is just a function of whenever some mechanic lights back up to say, "okay, you can damage again now." People burn out when they realize there's no way to just go "pow" and have an enemy explode from their own coordination rather than making the stars align with their skills.

If you really want to understand this I will be very clear about it in an odd way. I have some schooling in helicopters. The pre-flgiht inspection you have to do to your aircraft before take off can be extensive. It is tedious and a major reason there are few helicopter pilots. In like manner, there are a whole host of things you have to do in BDO these days to get a "hit" to have "impact". 

This really seems to go against the spirit of not only this game's overall vibe? But it significantly contributes to the sense that the further along we play the worse the experience gets. To the point where we're punching trees. The meter on the health ticking down like water leaving a humidifier. 

So, Valenica. Great job.

- however: The sense of our characters and our agency in directing them having anything to do with the combat experience? Completely non-existent. It's a real problem. 

I... dont understand what you mean. For one, there is no Elvia in Valencia, so the title does not make sense.
Secondly, in case you mean Dekhia, none of the spots in Valencia have mandatory damage mechanics. If your AP is above the breakpoint, you will do sufficient damage with or without the buffs you get from some of the mechanics (and places like Crescent dont even have that, only a debuff mechanic for mobs). So I dont understand what you mean by "I only get to do damage when mechanics allow me to". Also, since all Dekhia spots are tower spots, there is no "roaming", and running around the tower waiting for mechanics just means youre shooting yourself in the foot in terms of income.

Which brings me to my third point, money/hr. While its pretty bad at Sulfur/Pila Ku/Aakman/Hystria, thats because these are treasure spots and youre taking a hit in income for a higher chance to get the treasure. Cadry and Crescent are still top of the chain in terms of income of what we have in the game right now.

Basically, I disagree with most of your points there. Dekhia Valencia is good income, or has sufficient tradeoff for the spots where it is not. You have sufficient agency in when and how to do damage if you have the right gear for the spot, and the mechanics only serve to support your cleartime / increase trash and rng drops through the special mobs.
The only point that is somewhat true is that there is a cap to how effective increases in gear are, because of the 10 second respawn timer minimum. Which means that if you have enough gear to clear a wave in 8 seconds, youre still waiting 2 seconds until the next spawn every time, which can be annoying. But imo, its not that bad, and income is still good enough to not make it feel too impactful. With the AP cap for cadry and crescent being around 1100, it also takes some rather serious gear to even reach the cap and the respawn timer. So these "whales" youre talking about (which in most cases arent whales but simply people who spend more time in the game) do get a pretty good return on their investment.

Would be nice if there was an Elvia zone in Valencia, but especially Mediah.

There's no reason to hang out in Mediah.  No real treasure, the music is really bad, the environment is hard to take if there's nothing else to keep you there......... it's a sad waste of space.  And I like the towns there...........

Are you talking about some swag in game or are you really going outside with a korean flag on your face bcause of bdo? 

Tarif is one of my absolute FAVORITE towns in this game! I really wish they'd give it more depth. A nice overhaul and a facelift (maybe update the quests/story, size, and textures of Tarif while staying true to its lore and history). I love the creepy witchy vibe (almost like Blair Witch) and the lore surrounding it (especially on Sorceress). But unfortunatly the way it is now, there is nothing to keep you there (similar to Land of the Morning Light). It's dead and empty. Which is a shame because lore-wise its really cool. I'd love it if they'd do more with their witchy areas (Tarif and Hexe). Focus more on the cool fantasy aspects of the game. Currently Mediah, as well as Valencia, are the WORST questlines (in my opinion anyway) in the game. Bland and uninteresting.

Well, they already "revamped" balenos, serendia, and calpheon.   i'm sure Mediah is next

Hmm, true. I wish they'd have done it differently though. It's telling the same story just in a different context. It'd be better if there were class stories (I don't count awakening/succession as it's pretty much the same with every class with minor differences) rather than streamlining everything (Illezra, black spirit, and zone quests). When you actually just take the time to think about it, NONE of it makes sense. Drakania doing quests for humans (which she LOATHES), getting envolved in foreign politics (for example; Sorceress getting envolved with Calpheon, Kamasylvia, and Land of Morning Light politics), Illezra's envolvment with ALL characters (even ones from distant worlds or realms), ect. When you think about it in that context it's little wonder there are so many people who spam 'R' and miss what lore this game does have.

I think Class Stories would add more immersion and up the replay value (both of which are sorely lacking) of this game. Only have zone quests available to characters with ties to that specific zone. Stories would be so much better if they were class specific. But sadly that will never happen with a game that has over twenty different classes...