Lost Ark launch day patch fixes chat, voice-over, and more

Lost Ark has arrived in the West — kind of. The launch has been delayed following deployment issues. While you wait for the servers to open up, you can take a look at the important changes included in the latest hotfix.

As detailed on Lost Ark’s website, the launch day hotfix contains 13 improvements to the MMO, several of which revolve around chat and voice-over. Area chat, for example, ought to consistently work now, allowing players to communicate with others nearby. Missing VO in a few cinematics has been restored, and an option for VO has been added to the character select screen. Missing audio for various classes, like the Sorceress, was also brought back. See the full list at the bottom of this article.

Despite the launch day roadblock, Lost Ark is still doing quite well on the financial side. It’s already sold 1.5 million Founder’s Packs, which give players early access to the MMO, as well as a variety of in-game bonuses. You don’t have to spend any money to Lost Ark if you don’t want to, though — the PC game is free-to-play.

Hotfix Patch Notes

• Fixed area chat, which now will allow all players to talk to other players in a given area.
• Fusion Material rewards from the Welcome Challenge have been increased to better support player progression.
• Mari’s Secret Store will now display the regional server time instead of UTC.
• Fixed quest dialog UI to avoid text overlap on certain 4K resolutions.
• Player names will no longer be shown as “Unknown Player” in Voice Chat UI.
• The words “Royal Crystals” and “Crystalline Aura” are now displaying in non-English languages in the Steam overlay when finalizing a transaction.
• Fixed the title “Nightmare” which was displaying as blank.
• World bosses now drop the proper gear for the Martial Artist classes.
• Added an option for Voice Over on the Character Selection screen.
• Sorceress audio now plays when playing in a non-English language.
• All classes now have audio when using voices 2, 3, or 4 in a non-English language.
• VO is now present in the “Stronghold Ceremony” quest cinematic.
• VO has been added for Kazeros in the “With Gratitude” quest cinematic.