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Blue Protocol Communication Deep Dive #6

Blue Protocol Communication Deep Dive #6 - New Features and Monetization System

Welcome Adventurers of Planet Regnas!

The Blue Protocol Database team is here to provide the community with a detailed and expansive deep dive article covering all of the information found on the original livestream from December 15th, 2022. This article’s information flow will be chronological to mirror what happened during the communication stream. Additionally, if you prefer to listen to the voice translations in real time, feel free to check out our live translation video below. Let’s get started!

Introduction

Left, General Management Director Suzuki. Center, Executive Producer Shimooka. Right, Development Director Fukuzaki.

This will be the broadcast to convey the latest updates to the additional features available in Blue Protocol. In addition, the team has taken Covid-19 prevention measures once again for safety when conducting the communication stream. 

Project Sky Blue has been looking at the feedback from the previous stream through social networks such as Twitter and thank everyone for participating in feedback. The developers also wanted to formally apologize for the issues that the fan-kit had because the Heavy Smasher class was not yet available in the kit.

  • What is Blue Protocol?

Blue Protocol is a game developed by Bandai Namco that is an Online Action RPG geared towards PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S developed using Unreal Engine 4.

Fan Art

Credits: Siromazyo1, Depicting the character 'Charlotte' from Blue Protocol.

On the communication stream they have displayed artwork from players around the world which was gathered through social media. The character above depicted is Charlotte from Blue Protocol which was made using Minecraft. The drawing took approximately 20,000 blocks in the game to make! Additionally, the team was also made aware that there is a lot of communities built on various platforms such as Discord and Minecraft servers that have to do with Blue Protocol. Thank you for all the support!

For artists who want to share their artwork, please include both the #ブルプロ and #ブルプロ通信 hashtag through Twitter. Project Sky Blue will then showcase the various artwork that was shared through Twitter on their upcoming streams.

Blue Protocol Console Information

Bandai Namco have officially confirmed that Blue Protocol will be releasing on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in Japan.  There will not be any physically packaged disc versions and you will have to download them through the store of your preferred console.

Additionally, the development team is considering cross-play features. This has not been fully decided yet, but the team really want to implement it. More information will be available at a later time.

Blue Protocol Publisher Information

Publishers listed: Bandai Namco, Cayenne Tech, Smilegate Megaport and Amazon Games.

An announcement was also created to show the official publishers for each region available to Blue Protocol including what service options are available.

Bandai Namco –  Japan (PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S)
Cayenne Tech – Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao (PC)
Smilegate Megaport – Korea (PC)
Amazon Games – North America, Europe, South America and New Zealand (PC Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S)

The publishers will take care of the management and promotion of the game in their own respective countries. Each region will have its own server, and each server will have multiple channels.  Players from a different publisher will not be able to play with one another. More information from the publishers will be provided by each publisher at a later time.

Project Sky Blue also wanted to address a specific concern that players might potentially have in regards to other regions influencing the direction of the game. They explained that their process for the team is to take the feedback from publishers and check to see if it matches what Japanese players want or if it would be better as an exclusive change only for a specific region. Project Sky Blue thinks that it is important to make a game with a Japanese style which is made for a Japanese audience. They firmly believe that Japanese styled games are the most accepted around the world and will lead to other countries enjoying them.

Japanese Network Test Information

Pictured, Japanese Network Test information which begins in January.

The Network Test for Blue Protocol will be conducted on January 14th, 2023 at 14:00 JST until January 16th 14:00 JST. During the test, the server will always be open, but we plan to conduct scheduled maintenance to increase the server capacity as necessary. 

Additionally, the Network Test will have a maximum participant capacity of 50,000 players. If the applicants exceed the number of 50,000 for the Network Test, a lottery will be conducted to select the test accounts. 

Information of selected winning participants will be sent out potentially before the end of this year. It is possible that you may not receive a message until next month regarding if you were selected it or not since there are a lot of technical issues going on behind the scenes which need to be corrected for the upcoming Network Test. Before coming to the stream, the developers noted that almost 200 employees around Fukuzaki held an internal test of the game which still displayed many bugs.

Blue Protocol New & Updated Feature List

New Feature: Fishing

Pictured, A Peacock Rockfish was caught the length of 31.2 centimeters.

Fishing was the first new addition to Blue Protocol which was showcased. To begin fishing, you walk up to a spot that you are able to fish at and interact. Once you begin fishing, there is a tension gauge where you have to control to make sure the line does not break. It will break when the gauge is full, so make sure to lead the direction correctly. You are able to fish only at certain spots and many players are allowed to fish in a single spot together. These fishing spots for instance can be available in Asterliese, west side of the gate as an example.

For now, fishing is just a mini-game which will allow you to catch fish for your own enjoyment. You also have the ability to sell the fish which you have caught. It would take a long time to develop the rest of the features related to fishing, so they wanted to release it as a standalone mini-game first. They plan to introduce more meaning behind life skills in general  with future updates. They also were hinting that you might be able to use it for cooking in the future. What else is it that we do with fishing again?

Updated Feature: Swimming

Center, General Management Director Suzuki swimming in the ocean.

In the previous testing phases, you were only able to swim at a fixed speed and only get out of water when you found stairs. Now you are able to dash in the water to move at a faster speed or jump out of the water onto the ground as long as the ledge is not too high.

Updated Feature: Channel System

Pictured, Channel System and how it works in tangent with the megaservers.

This section is for explaining how the Blue Protocol megaservers operate with their channel system.

  1. Each city such as Asterliese can hold up to 200 people per channel.
  2. Each field zone is able to hold up to 30 players per channel.
  3. Each mission area such as dungeons, arena, or tower can hold up to 6 players.
  4. Each raid can hold up to 30 players.
  5. Time Attack runs can only hold one person.

New Feature: Camping

Center, Development Director Fukuzaki using the camping feature in Minster Hill.

The development team has added camping areas in field zones. The camping area allows you to restore your health by interacting with the tree trunks or simply by sitting down and using an emote. These areas are away from enemy mobs, so you do not have to worry about getting into combat when you are near a designated camping area. It is completely a safe zone. If you have threat or aggro on enemies while running to the camping area, they will immediately reset before reaching the area.

For convenience, they have now placed portals around the field zones which will allow you to teleport to camping areas on each parts of the map. With this feature, you are able to directly teleport to a camping area instead of having to ride your echoes to get to certain parts of the map. Please note that you must activate the portal before being allowed to teleport to each camping area.

New Feature: Roaming Gourmet Chef

Pictured, Roaming Gourmet Chefs which will give you different buffs based on their costume color.

In addition to having camping areas, a roaming gourmet chef NPC will be available in each camping area. Pictured above are the gourmet chefs which will give you a buff based on the costume color they are wearing. Each camping area will have a gourmet chef with one of the three colors available. This essentially means that there are three possible buffs that you can obtain.

New Feature: Happy Nappo

Center, General Management Director Suzuki sitting with Happy Nappo in the field area.

This is a mini-game feature where you can find a hidden Happy Nappo in the field zone.  If you find them, you will unlock achievements. In the upcoming Japanese Network Test, Happy Nappo will only appear in certain areas to not spoil any parts of the game during the official launch. The developers mentioned that this feature was added since they removed the Fog of War feature for maps.

New Feature: Beauty Salon

Pictured, Beauty Salon feature which will cost 1 ticket to use the character customization feature.
Pictured, Beauty Salon allowing you to change the hairstyle of your character.

The Beauty Salon is a new feature that was added in order to have the ability to customize your character outside of your initial character customization which was made from creating your character. There are two beauty salon options to choose from. To make a change to your character, it will only cost 1 ticket. 

You are able to configure the following parts of your character in the Beauty Salon: gender, hair, eyes, eye lashes, pupils, mouth, teeth, nose and make-up available through face painting. NOTE: You are able to save your character presets even if you do not have the ticket currency to be able to change your character yet. There are several slots that you can save your character preset to if you go inside the Beauty Salon.

The developers also mentioned that they will continue to expand on the customization features which are available.  Do not worry!

New Feature: Dye Shop

Pictured, Dye Shop feature allowing you to select which parts of your outfit you can dye.

The Dye Shop allows you to customize the colors of the clothing which your character can wear. The parts that you can dye are: Hat, Upper, Gloves, Lower and Shoes. You can also change the color patterns, saturation levels, and the brightness level of the outfit. Please note that not all clothes can be dyed. Clothes that can be dyed will have a mark on the icon which will let you know that this part is able to be dyed.

In order to be able to dye your outfits, you need to have the dye materials which are obtained from certain events in the game or through the cash shop feature with real money.

New Feature: Town Pet Interaction

Center, Player interacting with animals in Asterliese. You can pet them and play with them.

The development team has added the ability to be able to interact with animals in town. You are able to play with them by walking up to them and interacting with them. You are given the ability to pet them and even make them do some tricks!

Updated Feature: Photo Mode

Pictured, Photo Mode option which allows you to freeze the animation of your character and edit the visuals of the photo.

The developers wanted to expand on the features which the Photo Mode has. With the Photo Mode, you are able to use it even during combat. However, they decided that even if you are using your skills in combat and using photo mode, you will still have a cooldown attached to them or else you would be able to abuse it. Therefore, combat skills will still maintain a cooldown.

With the Photo Mode, you can do things like pause the animation of skills, emotes, and edit the specific player that is next to you. To elaborate on this, you are now able to configure their animation by pausing the emote that they are doing. This can be done by the Play Button feature next to their player names in the Photo Mode UI.  Therefore, if a player is doing an emote and you choose to go into the Photo Mode, it will temporarily save the emotes that are seen in Photo Mode and you can choose to play out their animations to your own liking.

Note: You will not be able to move the position of the other characters, you are only able to change the animation of their timing.

New Feature: Theater

Pictured, Theater Mode which will allow you to watch old cutscenes which you have experienced.

The Theater feature allows you to go back and watch the previous cutscenes which you have experienced.

Note: The character in the cutscene will have your current outfit equipped in the cutscenes.

New Feature: Plug Equip

Pictured, Weapon Slot System and how the percentages work for success. Weapon Slots are capped at 4.
Depicted, Plug Equip system which allows you to enhance your abilities by adding it into a weapon slot.

Previously, we use to insert Echoes/Battle Imajinns into our weapons. The developers have decided to change it from Echoes to Plug Equips. As a result, you will now be putting Plug Equips into your weapon slots. Note: Weapons only have the maximum ability to have 4 slots. Therefore, only 4 Plug Equips can be attached. If you want to move your Plug Equip from the slot, you need a special ticket which will allow you to transfer the Plug. To obtain a transfer ticket for the Plug Equip, you have to use real money.

Plug Equips allow you to enhance your own character’s powers. It will feature rarities from 1 ~ 5 and will grant you potential special skills and stats based on the rarity. You can obtain them from doing various things like clearing mission events in game, adventure board, or from certain events. Plug Equips will also not be purchasable in shops.

Additionally, there is a percentage chance for your weapon to be crafted with a regular success rate or a great success rate. With the regular success rate, you will always be able to get one weapon slot with your crafted weapon. However, in order to receive the benefits of having 2-4 slots crafted on your weapon, you have to get a great success rate.

New Feature: Teams (Guild)

Pictured, Teams (Guild) feature has been added. Each time you increase your Team level, you increase the amount of players you can invite to your Team.

The Teams (Guild) feature allows you to create a group with your friends. A character will only be allowed to be apart of one team at a time. As the players in your team continue to play the game, the level of the team will rise which will increase the amount of players you can invite in each rank by +5.

Additional features to improve Teams will be implemented in the future in regards to things such as revoking membership due to inactivity. 

Updated Feature: Elemental Burst

Pictured from Left to Right: Fire, Ice, Thunder, Earth, Light and Dark elements which inflict status effects based on the element. These are Element Level 1 ~ 2 effects

The Elemental Burst system has been changed since the previous test phases. Now, the Elemental Stacks will be displayed on enemies so that you can see it a lot easier through the Elemental Gauge. When the gauge fills up to the maximum level, it will glow in a blue color and the Elemental Burst Effect (Level 3) will trigger. This effect causes players to do massive damage. Remember, each class possesses skills with their own elements. 

There are 6 elements which inflict ailment effects based on the element you cast. Depending on the skill that your character uses, your character will inflict an ailment effect to the enemy with the element that you are specialized in. This creates an Elemental Ailment at Level 1 ~ 2. Casting spells or skills of the same Elemental Ailment will increase the strength of the element and add more stacks. Example: Continuously using a Fire element skill will allow you to reach Level 2 Elemental Ailments with the Fire element. 

Elemental Ailment Effects (Level 1 ~ 2)
Fire: Burn DoT Effect (Damage Over Time)
Ice: Slow Effect
Thunder: Paralysis Chance Effect (Won’t happen very often)
Earth: Enemy Takes Increased Damage
Light: Enemy Deals Reduced Damage to Players
Dark: Blind Effect (Enemy attacks can miss)

These are all the elements currently available in the game along with their status effects. Keep in mind, these only apply to the Elemental Ailments at Level 1 ~ Level 2. At Level 3, there will be an upgrade to your element which modifies your power. This is known as the Elemental Burst Effect.

Pictured from Left to Right: Fire, Ice, Thunder, Earth, Light and Dark elements which inflict status effects based on the element. These are Element Level 3 effects.

The Elemental Burst system expands once you reach Level 3. Each ailment effect that your element inflicted will be upgraded and replaced with a new modifier which increases the strength of your particular element. The developers said that in order to upgrade the LEVEL of your Elemental Ailments (Level 1~2) and reaching the Elemental Burst Effect (Level 3) it will need a lot of attacks from your party. Without Elemental Bursts Effects, missions will be very difficult. 

Note: Burst refers to during the time that the Elemental Burst Effect is activating. Burst Finish refers to after a certain time period passes upon being inside the Elemental Burst Effect.

Note: All Elemental Burst Effects will apply their damage during the Burst Finish stage.

Elemental Burst Effects (Level 3 MAX)
Fire: Knockdown Once (During Burst) – Great Damage (Burst Finish) 
Ice: Freeze Effect  (During Burst) – Damage (Burst Finish) 
Thunder: Knockdown Once (During Burst) – Damage  (Burst Finish) – 100% Paralysis Effect (Burst Finish)
Earth: Freeze Effect (During Burst) – Damage (Burst Finish)
Light: Knockdown Once (During Burst) – Damage (Burst Finish) – AoE Heal Regen Buff for players near the enemy (Burst Finish)
Dark: Knockdown Once (During Burst) – Damage (Burst Finish) – Life Steal (Burst Finish)

Example: Reach Dark Elemental Burst Effect  -> Elemental Burst Effect Activates -> Enemy Knockdown Occurs ->  (Burst Finish) Damage is inflicted to the enemy and the Life Steal Effect begins after a certain time period passes inside the Elemental Burst Effect.

As you can see, Elemental Bursts have effects which happen upon entering the Burst stage and they also have an additional effect that occurs during the Burst Finish stage after a certain amount of time passes. 

One important thing that you should understand with the Elemental Burst Effects is that it is used by both players and enemies in the same way. Meaning if you are affected by the Dark Elemental Burst Effect from the Enemy, you get afflicted with the state where enemies can steal health from you.

Additionally, if a player is Frozen during the Ice or Earth Elemental Burst Effect, they cannot do anything until after the Burst because the enemy triggered a Burst onto the player. If your teammates have the Frozen status effect, you are able to free players by hitting them out of it.

There’s also another type of ailment that is not apart of elements. This is known as the Sleep Ailment. If a player is afflicted with Sleep, other players can interact with the sleeping player to wake them up. 

New Feature: Rewards Plus System

Pictured, Rewards Plus system which gives you extra rewards from a mission for using 1 Result Bonus ticket.

The Rewards Plus system allows you to gain extra rewards from a particular mission or dungeon. This is designed for players who are typically more casual and cannot afford to play as much as the hardcore player is able to play. Since the system is very strong, they limited the amount of Rewards Plus tickets a user can have to 10. 

To obtain Rewards Plus tickets, you are able to get them for free from certain events in the world. You also earn 1 Rewards Plus ticket for free each day. The tickets are naturally refreshed 3 times within a certain time period. The developers did not specify the time period so it can mean certain login hours or throughout a number of days. 

Additionally, you are able to to get them with real money purchases through the cash shop but because this system is so powerful they are limiting it in the shop too so it will not appear often. 

New Feature: Quick Party System

The Quick Party System allows you to form a party with players in your vicinity. It’s conveniently used for players in your area that are doing similar quests or similar activities. If you go the the Command Menu and activate it in the party menu in the top right corner, it will put you with other players nearby. The rewards and drops will be shared between all players in the system.

Explanation: Forming Parties

What are the ways that a player can join a party?

There are four different ways in which a player can join parties in Blue Protocol.

  1. Direct Invitations from other players
  2. Matching System (Missions, Dungeons)
  3. Quick Party System (Form parties with members in your vicinity which is convenient for questing, shared drops and rewards)
  4. Recruitment List System

Updated Feature: Recruitment List System

The Recruitment List system allows you to search for other players to join your party. You can have people automatically join your party from the menu. When you create a Recruitment List, you can select which criteria you are searching for and include custom comments about your task. For instance, you can add special tags from the list displaying that you are looking to form a party for a hardcore group. An additional tag that you can add to supplement your listing can be that you are looking to do raids. It works very similarly to the Party Finder feature in Final Fantasy XIV.

New Feature: Unbroken Tower

The Unbroken Tower is a newly introduced feature to Blue Protocol. It is a dungeon system that contains 20 floors which you must clear in 20 minutes. Additionally, you only have 12 revives available. There are several difficulty versions and the developers are playing on first difficulty level which is known as the Tower of Beginnings.

Once inside the Unbroken Tower, when any player activates the teleporter, all players will be taken inside so be prepared for combat. After you are in combat, to clear the floor there are perquisites such as “Defeat 2 F-Greater Goblins”. Once you clear the required task, you can advance to the next floor by having any of your party members interact with the next teleporter. Remember, each floor will have different conditions which are required in order to clear it. Be swift!

Additionally, in between some floors there will be a rest station. This will allow you to heal you and your party. After that, you can continue by interacting with the teleporter to climb the tower.

Monetization System

Pictured, Monetization System explained in Blue Protocol.

The Monetization System in Blue Protocol has been explained. As we all know, Blue Protocol will be a Free-to-Play game. It will include the following monetization options: Season pass, Regnas Store (Cash Shop), Gacha, Rose Orb Store, BP Point Store and lastly the Season Store. 

All the systems EXCEPT the BP Point Store and Season Store are powered by what is known as a Rose Orb. Rose Orbs are the premium currency which is used to purchase items and services.

Cash Shop Purchase Options

Pictured, Items which you are able to purchase from the Cash Shop.

The things that you can expect to be able to purchase are things like costumes, mounts, accessories, stamps, items to raise the great success rate of crafting a weapon, tickets to be able to transfer your Plug Equip slots, EXP UP Buffs, Rewards Plus tickets, Luno Buffs, Season Pass and more.

You are also able to purchase a Name Change feature which comes with a cooldown if you want to Name Change again immediately.

Note: Costumes in Blue Protocol do not offer any stats. Mounts will not offer any speed upgrades either.

You are also able to earn in-game rewards without using any paid features. A Free-to-Play player will be able to get things such as costumes, gacha tickets, accessories, mounts, stamps, Beauty Salon tickets, etc without having to use the Cash Shop. These are obtainable from clearing missions or certain quests. 

Additionally, you are able to earn currency like GC which allows you to exchange them for accessories, costumes and mounts. To earn GC, you can participate in raids and increase your currency.

Updated Feature: Season Pass

The Season Pass System has been explained with more detail. One cycle of the Season Pass will last approximately 50-60 days. The maximum level a Free-to-Play player can earn is up to Level 60 on the pass. The paid Season Pass version goes up to Level 100 and you can claim the rewards from both the Free and Premium tab. Pricing has yet to be introduced so they cannot talk about how much the Season Pass will cost yet. 

By clearing certain raids or quests from the Season Pass, you can level up your pass with the Season Points earned to obtain the next set of rewards. The Season Points can also be used to access the Season Store which has a lot of things like costumes, gacha tickets, etc.  

The Premium Season Pass has TWO options which you can choose from and are indicated by a RED and GOLD book. The cheaper Premium pass is known as the Advanced Pass which has its own set of rewards. However, the more expensive Premium Season Pass is known as the Royal Pass. The Royal Pass gives more rewards such as extra items on leveling up the pass and gives you an instant boost of 25 levels in the Season Pass. It will also include all the rewards from the Advanced Pass by purchasing the Royal Pass.  Please remember that you can only choose between one of the Premium options. After that, you are locked in and cannot switch once you have purchased either the Advanced or Royal Pass. 

Note: The Free version of the Season Pass has less quests compared to the Premium version of the Season Pass. With the Premium Season Pass, it has more quests for you to be able to gain Season Points.  The Premium Pass contains the Advanced and Royal Pass options and they will have the same amount of quests.

Additionally, Premium Rose Orbs can also be used to raise the level of the Season Pass but it will not give any Season Points which are typically used for the Season Store or to increase the level of your Season Pass. The rewards that the Season Pass offers are things such as currency, GC, Luno, costumes, gestures, weapon skins, gacha tickets and more.

Note: If you cap your Season Pass LEVEL whether its through the Free or Premium version of the pass, you are still able to earn Season Points which you can spend at the Season Shop to earn various rewards.

Conclusion

This concludes the information that was provided in the Blue Protocol Communication #6. The developers have stated that there will be another Blue Protocol Communication Stream after the Japanese Network Test which will discuss the results of the Network Test and talk about the things that we can expect on the release of the Japanese version of the game.

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