Hello!

Since my old post about the same issue is closed, I'll reopen it now.

I would like to bring up a troubling topic. Namely, Ubisoft's disregard and disrespect towards Ukrainian gamers. In order to make my case and to explain the importance of my plea, I need to start with explaining some background. Disclaimer: this is in no way intended to offend any ethnicity. However, I will be quoting Wikipedia in order to establish some important facts.

So over centuries Russia has had complicated relations with its neighbours. While representatives of many countries can share their stories, I am going to focus on relations toward Ukraine. Part of the Russian policy toward Ukraine was (and, as it is apparent with the current invasion) destroying its native culture / language. Information about this can be found in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russification_of_Ukraine

But to be brief, in 1720 Tsar Peter I of Russia issued a decree in which he ordered the expurgation of all Ukrainian linguistic elements in theological literature printed in Ukrainian typographical establishments. Later Empress Catherine II of Russia issued a secret order to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Empire in which she instructed him to institute a program of Russification for the provinces of Ukraine. In 1862, all Ukrainian Sunday schools were abolished and proscribed. In 1876, tsar Alexander II of Russia issued a secret decree banning the use of the Ukrainian language in print In Soviet Union russification of Soviet-occupied Ukraine intensified in 1938 under Nikita Khrushchev, then secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party. After Western Ukraine was reabsorbed into the Soviet Union, most prominent Ukrainian intellectuals living there were purged or exiled to Siberia.

This last part is especially traumatic for many as even my family, who were considered intellectual elite, were exiled to Siberia (most murdered).

MY POINT. So why am I bringing this up? The reason is, currently whenever someone logs in to Ubisoft Connect from Ukraine, they are greeted with Russian store and no option to change Store language. No game has Ukrainian interface and games purchased in Ukraine are mostly language-locked in Russian preventing players even from being able to change language to English. Knowing how much suffering has been dealt in order to force the people of Ukraine to speak Russian, don't you think it's extremely insensitive of you to expect people to speak Russian and force the language that was used to replace our own?

Furthermore, when buying games in Ubisoft from Ukraine I'm fairly sure the purchase is being made from a Russian-registered Ubisoft legal entity. Considering the fact that today Russia and Ukraine are in a state of war and the Ukrainian Crimea peninsula has been annexed by Russia in 2014 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexa...ian_Federation), how is it fair that Ukrainians need to pay VAT to Russian Federation for purchasing Ubi games?

TL;DR - Russia and Ukraine are at war. During USSR times, all the "republics" have suffered greatly from enforcing Russian culture. This is not an opinion - these are plain facts, and information about this is freely available on the internet.

As someone whose family was literally slaughtered simply because they refused to speak Russian, I find it extremely insensitive that Ubisoft is forcing Russian language on me. I feel deeply insulted by the fact that even though you have the means to, say, translate your store into Ukrainian (which many Ukrainians would praise you for (and which many translator teams would volunteer to do for you for little to no reward like they do for Steam)), you choose not to and that you assume that every Ukrainian user has to speak / understand Russian in order to access your store.

Possible solutions? Easy. You can either create a translation server (akin to Steam) and drop new strings for community to translate or hire a couple of translators. With how low average incomes are in Ukraine, you can find a team that can keep your store translated and updated for relatively low cost.

Additionally, since you already have a legal entity in Ukraine (Ubisoft Kiev (which, according to international transliteration also should be converted from Russian-based "Kiev" to Ukrainian-based Kyiv)), please stop making Ukrainians pay VAT to Russian Federation.

It is up to you, Ubisoft, to do the right thing.

P.S. When it comes to international relations, it is common courtesy to respect the culture of the people you are dealing with. If someone were to, say, travel to Japan from France to conduct business there, they would do their utmost to respect the Japanese culture and language. So how come do you, Ubisoft, when conducting business in Poland, Russia, Spain or Italy, have the courtesy to respect the local languages, but when it comes to countries formerly occupied by USSR, you choose to completely disregard theirs?

There's this huge dissonance between a rather serious tone of the main story and ridiculously absurd and absolutely absurd and comical side quests. Why is this? What drives the writers to create side quests this way? I mean, surely this is intentional.

So far I've seen a woman screaming about her love for cats, a man who covers himself and his hut in [censored] so it stinks and refuses to bathe, some dude who is an extreme nudist and wanted me to steal other peoples' clothes... Seriously, who writes this? Are the writers even aware of the tone of the game? All the side quests feel like something from Monty Python. Why can't the game stick to one tone? I mean, look at the Witcher games. All the side quests in those games (including the funny ones) are grounded in the game's world and tone.

The more I think about my experience with Valhalla, the more strongly I feel that ultimately this GOOD game is just not rewarding enough to play. This has been mentioned before in a discussion about exploration, a discussion about equipment and this one about being bored.

THE big question: why do we play open world sandbox games? If you play for the story only, then, I guess, good for you. But purely story-driven games tend to not have open sandbox worlds.

In a sandbox game players need MOTIVATION. They need to know that some form of a reward awaits them after clearing a location / completing a quest / finding a secret, etc. Valhalla kind of lacks in all these departments. There's no reason to collect gear beyond "I want to collect it all" (which is not for everybody). There's no reason to level as the game is not challenging. There's no reason to explore as exploration only (at best) boosts character progression making Eivor even more overpowered.

So yeah, Valhalla's ultimate issue: It's not rewarding enough. I hope this gets addressed.

So yeah. As much as I like the new action/RPG direction the game is taking, I can't help but regret the sudden change in the genre. Assassin's Creed used to be historical fiction. As in, it took historical settings, depicted as accurately as the plot needed them to be, populated it with historical events and characters (whose historicity was, again, as accurate as it was technically possible), added some sci-fi elements like the artifacts and the Animus and that was that. And it was good.

With the last 3 games, however, it has become more and more fantasy. Less things make sense in terms of reality. How did the priest in Memphis know that Bayek will have a vision? How did a priestess in Valhalla know that Eivor will see a dead jarl if he drinks a potion atop the mountain? We have magical abilities, prophecies, events that make no sense in terms of believeability or plausibility.

It used to be that whenever a game in the series used to bend historicity, it was only to a believeable extent and only to serve the story. Assassins were not a group of fanatical killers, but an organization that protected free will? Sure, okay, I can go with it. Rodrigo Borgia became a pope to get the staff of Isu? Sure, it makes sense.

But where has it gone now? We're seeing an equal number of men and women as both soldiers and bandits. This was historically never the case. And you bend this why? To paint history in a way that is more pleasing to the modern audience? Sure, in our day and age most of us are civilized. We understand why equality is important. We also don't have slavery anymore. And we value human life. Does this mean we need to portray the past in a similar manner? I don't see why in a historical setting, historical accuracy is being bent this way. What purpose does this serve?

Every new game in the series keeps not just bending historicity. It completely breaks it. And I just don't see why they need to do this.

I was kind of disappointed when I entered a church during a raid, shot an explosive arrow at a guard, accidentally hit too many civilians and got de-synced. I mean, whut? It's a raid. Things happen. People die. That's the point. Valhalla's ad campaign said #Likeaviking. But the game is nothing like vikings. It's more like #LikeaModernDudeCosplayingAsVikingInaParodyOfMiddleAges.

As I played Valhalla, I kept haaving a sense of having paid for being a beta-tester. There are plenty bugs, the game is poorly balanced. And then there's this. A game with this amount of bugs was not properly tested prior to release. Period.

So whenever Eivor is in a town, he (or she) puts on a cloak automatically. Can I disable that? If not, then can this option be added?

It's time Ubisoft. I have been a loyal fan of your franchises for many years. I like the open worlds that you create. However, I always felt sidelined as your games never included Ukrainian localizations. Please support Ukrainians by actually hiring them to translate games into their language.

@cmc-serres One that comes to mind in Witcher 3 . Is the granny and her pan. Everything does not have to be serious. Also playing hide and seek with the children

You could not be more wrong. The pan quest, while simple and slightly funny, still had a darker tone with a murder inside a hut and a hint of a character you know from the 1st game who you will meet. Indeed, if it were a simple "Go get my pan" - that'd be silly. But TW3 quests often have a deeper layer to them. Same goes with the orphaned children who unknowingly live at a mercy of children-eating witches and who are so naive as to ask you to just play with them. Nothing here has tone that differs from the general tone of the game and its world.

In previous AC games (Origins, Odyssey) there were funny moments and some quests that were kind of absurd (like the one where you had to help an old man get a [censored] in Odyssey, or the one with finding a lost husband in Origins). But even then these quests didn't entirely miss the tone of the game.

What I'm seeing so far in Valhalla misses the tone completely. Nudist dude asking to steal other nudists' clothes? Seriously? This is bad (or rather primitive and childish) writing.

After more than 60 hours I gotta say you are right. Exploration is not rewarding. Finding a chest with an ingot in it is just no fun. Or travelling around an area you've visited a couple of days back, find it re-populated by bandits and clearing their camp only rewards player with some resources they no longer need. It kind of sucks. I wish exploring and re-visiting areas would be more rewarding.

Hello! No offense, but dear Ubisoft, you've been a disappointment to me as a fan lately. Your worlds, while beautiful indeed, tend to be flat and lack depth.

Avatar is a franchise that's very dear to my heart (and I believe the same is true for many other players). Its world deserves better than what recent Assassin's Creed games were. As in, gorgeous to look at and run through once or twice, but too empty to ever return to the place you've been to before. The world of Pandora needs to have RDR2 level of interactivity, reactivity, immersion, and believability, and not the level of your AC Origins, Odyssey, or Valhalla. I mean, those were gorgeous-looking games, but none of them gave enough reason to go back to somewhere you've been before. And, even worse, none of them gave reason to go anywhere beyond the stupid ever-present question markers saying "here are the places where there's something of interest, don't expect to find anything interesting beyond these points".

The world of Pandora has huge potential. Please do not pull a Ubisoft while designing it. Please.

https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/94000/the-man-behind-the-man-nothing-happens-once-i-beat-tedmund/1

This is not resolved yet. I've encountered the same issue.

So I contacted support to ask a few questions.

Will I lose the mission with Nicolaus Copernicus? - Yes, you will not be able to play this mission after 1 September 2022.

Will I lose the mission with DaVinci Disappearance? - Yes, you will not be able to play this mission after 1 September 2022

Also, if I install the game now, will I be able to access the two missions above if I run it in September? - No, you can access the two mission up until 1st of September 2022. After that, you will not have access anymore.

I absolutely hate it that I can't even back up the game to access this content later!

Here's something else that I found offensive. According to UNESCO, borsht is a traditional Ukrainian dish: (https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/culture-ukrainian-borscht-cooking-inscribed-list-intangible-cultural-heritage-need-urgent). I find it insulting that Ubisoft keeps playing to the Russian tune and associates this dish with Russians in Far Cry 6.

I am enraged by this news. I don't care much about multiplayer, but I replay the Ezio trilogy every year or two and I don't want to lose access to my DLCs that include a new story with Leonardo DaVinci and Nicolaus Copernicus! This is unacceptable!

I am enraged by this news. I don't care much about multiplayer, but I replay the Ezio trilogy every year or two and I don't want to lose access to my DLCs that include a new story with Leonardo DaVinci and Nicolaus Copernicus! This is unacceptable!

I mean, many Ukrainian gamers are so passionate about our language, that they are making their own translations. It would be decent of developers and publishers to finally acknowledge the existence of such a numerous nation and start providing Ukrainian localizations in their games. There are many talented translator/proofreader groups in Ukraine, too, who could very much use the support right now.

I invite you all to sign a petition, urging Ubisoft to add Ukrainian language to their games if you haven't already done so.: (https://www.change.org/p/ukrainian-localization-for-ubisoft-games-%D1%83%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%97%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B0-%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0-%D0%B4%D0%BB%D1%8F-%D1%96%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80-ubisoft)

@sailormoon-ua Soon they'll understand that having FSB in a game is pretty much like having SS. Soon. I hope.

It's time Ubisoft. I have been a loyal fan of your franchises for many years. I like the open worlds that you create. However, I always felt sidelined as your games never included Ukrainian localizations. Please support Ukrainians by actually hiring them to translate games into their language.