As drastic as it may sound, server merges might be a good idea at this current point in time.
I dont know about some of the other servers, but all the US based servers are Light now even during peak hour times.
Yes we know NCsoft just done a major sweep in reguards to those we cannot mention, in the process people we used to group with or just people in general have also been caught in the act also.
Many people have quit, reguardless wether they were legit or not, this in my opinion is bad, bad for all of us.
Kain basically has no population anymore, its almost impossible to get a group now where before all this took place, id be LFG for maybe 15 - 45 mins. Last 4 days i have been LFG and soloing for the last 3+ hours.
No PvP for high level players anymore and lvl 75+ roam around in lower level areas trying to provoke some pvp with the notion of maybe the low levels we kill have some high level mains who can come out of the wood work and pvp us.
Olympiads are ghost towns now, hardly any olympiad fights are going on and there is days between people accually signing up, Heros stand around for hours waiting for people to sign up and no one does, total waste of time = more boredom.
So, NCsoft finally decide to do something about the unmentionables, but in the process kill any grouping or xp grinding chance we had before this ordeal went down.
Question is, what are you prepared to do about this NCsoft? Some servers are in a pretty bad way, only servers i see get high populations now is the Euro servers, have they yet to be swept also?
Makes me wonder, how much of a subscription base has NCsoft really lost from this, not just from mass bannings, but also from people just quitting from losing game life friends that they have played with for not only months, but years.
NCsoft have gone out on a very fine limb, they mass ban the unmentionables in a hope to bring in a fresh batch of players with the re-release of the Epic Edition of Lineage 2. Very bold move, one not well thought out if you ask me.
If i had to guess, judging by what a future patch will be bringing us in reguards to what people have been asking for for years now, id be guessing that in order to get populations back to where they once were to at least keep a steady customer base and not lose any more players from sheer boredom, NCsoft will ethier have to increase the rate XP is gained at lower levels so those hwo decide to come and play this game now in its current state can get up there where the majority of the servers already are OR merge servers.
So, what do you plan to do about these ghost towns you have created NCsoft?
Feel free to post your own experiences here, i would like to hear how it is from other servers also.
I do have to agree that there just aren't the same amount of players in the game now then there were. Others might disagree but I don't see it that way.
What I think they should do is to add more, different and real content to the game in order to get more players in.
Since I am not privy to the numbers I really don't know if server merges are the thing. After all, in one day Teon went from "light" (which was a shock) to full. So who knows how the populations are.
I do know that any online game company worth their salt keeps track of these things. They know what the servers are like and will do what is best for the game (meaning, they need to stay in business and keep the game viable - they are still working for profit after all).
the populations isnt the problem. its how big of an area that population has. if you fit the current server into area below aden w/o cata it would be flooded w/ people. because there are so many places to hunt the population gets very spread out
the populations isnt the problem. its how big of an area that population has. if you fit the current server into area below aden w/o cata it would be flooded w/ people. because there are so many places to hunt the population gets very spread out
No, when you run from Giran to Oren to Hunters Village to Aden to Goddard and from these major towns port to the cata's / Necros that are close by on a constant basis for 3 hours straight yelling LFG in both the towns and the cata's / necro's and no one sends you a tell during PEAK hour times, you know there is problem with population..........
I have to agree with you at this point in time about the server mergers. I'm unsure about the xp rate part, but I would vote in favor for a server merger. They should have a poll about which servers to merge.
As drastic as it may sound, server merges might be a good idea at this current point in time.
I think you need to come up with a different solution to your problem. This one's been rejected before.
Reguardless of it being rejected before, or how you feel about your server being merged with another, this problem that NCsoft has only just created has to be fixed, now what can you add to the table that would fix the unpopulated servers at this present time? Keep in mind that the servers before this mass banning appeared to be somewhat populated.
Personally, i dont like the XP idea ethier but you have to look at this realistically. WoW has a new expasion coming out with in the next month or two, EQ2 has a new expasion also due to be released first week of November.
Vanguard is due to be released at the end of the year followed by Warhammers new release next year and Conan also with press release update of what is going on with Lineage 3 in the first quarter of 2007 along with Aion.
At the present moment on Kain, we have:
1) Hero's who cant get no Olympiad action.
2) People who cant get groups.
3) People who have been banned for the unmentionable.
4) People who have quit because there friends have been banned and there is no one left to group with.
Now, you can pretty much strike 3 of the list, but i put it there because it leads to 4, which shouldnt happen. Not saying people should of been allowed to do what they were doing for the sake of they're friends, but do you agree with NCsoft going to the extent they did at probally a make or break time for this games subscriber base in terms of whats coming up and what is around the corner?
After putting some more thought into it, i suppose another way to stop server merges and increase the FUN factor of the game would be to increase the HP / Mana regen of levels 40+, this way you wouldnt really need to increase xp gain at all and with some hope the re-release of the Epic Edition of Lineage 2 might grab a few new players, but id be willing to bet Lineage 2 slowly starts to die of from here on in.
Sure the people who have been here since day 1 will more then likely stay and chant this isnt the death of L2, and your right, no MMO really dies until the servers get shut off, like AC for example, but its the death of its growth i feel as many people, cheaters or not cheaters will use this opportunity to move on to other pastures.
Can NCsoft fix this issue? reguardless if it be higher xp gain at higher levels ie 65+ or faster HP / Mana regen after 40+ or server merges, people need to actively participate in getting something done before more people quit, which is highly likely.
Please, don't complain about boats and then complain because NC banned the boats. It's just not good form.
Anyone who was banned "unjustly" is totally capable of getting their account back. I know of at least one person who was banned for a good reason that got their account back, sooooo...
So, oh ye soothsayer of doom.. why are you complaining about the banning of the boats?
Please, don't complain about boats and then complain because NC banned the boats. It's just not good form.
Anyone who was banned "unjustly" is totally capable of getting their account back. I know of at least one person who was banned for a good reason that got their account back, sooooo...
So, oh ye soothsayer of doom.. why are you complaining about the banning of the boats?
Again, your looking at this all wrong, this has nothing to do with who was banned or why they were banned, this is a server population issue that i would be willing to bet that every server is and would be having near to the same issue at this point in the game.
Im not bored of the game, im bored of soloing, why would i want to play a MMORPG to solo? Kind of defeats the purpose of playing a MMO in the first place when i could save my 45 bux a month and go play a RPG on a console dont you think?
I logged in for 15 minutes yesterday on Hinde and recieved 3 invites well outside peak hours when I wasn't even trying to party...and for a tank of all things. Join a clan.
I logged in for 15 minutes yesterday on Hinde and recieved 3 invites well outside peak hours when I wasn't even trying to party...and for a tank of all things. Join a clan.
Oh again, taken way out of context, it seems we need to be in clans to group, no outside communication from clans what so ever?
Now what do you need to make a clan? people.......
What do you need to make a clan succesful so people keep logging in? active people.......
Cant do ethier with hardly anyone logging in lately, and yeah your a tank, the core function of a group is a Tank, sort of makes sense why you would gte picked up dont you think?
Lineage II: The Epic Collection was due to be released when? Yesterday? And they cleared the servers of lots of unmentionable recently...perhaps in preparation for the hoped influx of new people due to that and Christmas?
Don't worry, the servers won't stay light for long...they never do lol
I logged in for 15 minutes yesterday on Hinde and recieved 3 invites well outside peak hours when I wasn't even trying to party...and for a tank of all things. Join a clan.
Oh again, taken way out of context, it seems we need to be in clans to group, no outside communication from clans what so ever?
Now what do you need to make a clan? people.......
What do you need to make a clan succesful so people keep logging in? active people.......
Cant do ethier with hardly anyone logging in lately, and yeah your a tank, the core function of a group is a Tank, sort of makes sense why you would gte picked up dont you think?
I dont think he was suggesting you make a clan. Was most likely suggesting joining a good one. There is only a 24 hour penalty for leaving a clan now. So try a few out. You dont like one join a new one the next day. shouldnt take to long to find a good clan and get some good parties. As far as server merges go. Hmm I dont know. But I dont think the problem is that they banned alot of bad players and now you cant find a party? that sounds bad. Maybe pick new friends? Eh maybe they can combine Kain and Erica and have a few players on one server then. On Hindemith I think we have alot of players though.
Lineage II: The Epic Collection was due to be released when? Yesterday? And they cleared the servers of lots of unmentionable recently...perhaps in preparation for the hoped influx of new people due to that and Christmas?
Don't worry, the servers won't stay light for long...they never do lol
Great logic on NCSoft part.All banned unmentionables will start new characters to remake their groups.Guess what will see any new player that decides to give L2 a try right now?
I dont think he was suggesting you make a clan. Was most likely suggesting joining a good one. There is only a 24 hour penalty for leaving a clan now. So try a few out. You dont like one join a new one the next day. shouldnt take to long to find a good clan and get some good parties. As far as server merges go. Hmm I dont know. But I dont think the problem is that they banned alot of bad players and now you cant find a party? that sounds bad. Maybe pick new friends? Eh maybe they can combine Kain and Erica and have a few players on one server then. On Hindemith I think we have alot of players though.
Yeah i understood what he meant, but he was speaking from grouping only inside a clan community or he wouldnt have suggested join a clan.
Different time zones dont allow everyone to fall into the clan community, just a example.
Meeting new friends is the hard part as its hard to meet people who arent alts or double alts or triple alts of someone else's character who is already in a academy.
Decent clans? well. i think its safe to say that any decent clan out there onyl wants 70+ people to join, not because its a elitest thing, but more or less protection for the person under 70 who cant hold his own if lets say he was 55 and a lvl 75+ ran past him while he was leveling, sure its not as much % loss as it used to be, but as you lvl higher it gets worse, gank squads etc.
Im not trying to make excuses, i just want to see more people in the game as you all do, tired of running around areas and not seeing anyone for days on end or trying to converse with unmentionables.
1) There is hardly any high level people on each server to fill or warrant a decent olympiad. Days go by at times and still Heros / Olympiad combatants go with no fights.
2) Its getting harder and harder to get to higher levels because its becoming harder and harder to make a group OR get the group to stick together for longer then a 1 hour period, has anyone here ran to floor 9 of ToI lately only to have the group fall apart 30 mins later?
3) Does the grind after 65 have to be so long and boring? Is there anything NCsoft can do to spice it up OR speed it up? Constant player progression comes to mind here, no matter how little it is, give people alternatives reasons to grinding other then just pure levels.
4) Those new players who join this game through the marketing of Epic Edition Lineage 2 are literaly going to take at least a year before they even get a new character to 70, depending how much they play of course, but lets base it of 6 - 7 hours a day 4 - 5 days a week, 70 seems like a realistic figure, no PL of course.
With all the new games due to be released and alot of them have high expectations not only from word of mouth or reviews, but from the people behind the scenes working on them, is it safe to say that this little stunt from NCsoft with the Epic Edition re-release might be a little too late?
I tend to think it is unfortunately.
Does anyone else here think or feel that they went a little over board with the mass bannings after letting it go like they did for the past 3 years only to do something about it now on the door step of the re-release of the game?
Personaly, i think they did, not only because of the sheer number of subscriptions they cost themselves, which is fair enough, they were breaking the eula, but what about the server economies for all the new people who will pick the game up of the shelf in a games store?
These next few months are going to be very very interesting to say the least.
Our automated friends are thin on the ground, not gone altogether. I still run into farming/plvl'ing groups, but now they are controlled by a live player, and most will move to a different location if you ask them to.
New players are going to see complete ghost towns, as did i when i took a rolled toon out to Dwarven village to do some levelling. There was no-one, and i mean no-one around. It's good that we can play unhindered, however i feel that newbies will get the impression that the game is being re-launched because the servers are empty. I wonder if NCSoft could introduce some mega incentives to start new toons at the same time the influx of new people are coming on board, so we all go back to those areas. Maybe they could chose 50-100 players for each newbie zone to recieve a reward for staying under lvl20 for a few weeks and helping out populating these areas.
I think server merges might be an idea at this point but only a couple. The first few weeks whilst the larger alliances fight for the CHs and castles will be great fun, there will be a lot of stuff going on and many more people about. There are obviously downsides to this problem but it's early here and I can't be bothered thinking about them :p I'd just enjoy the uproar that a merge would cause.
well, i think that character transfers among servers would be more efficient than server merges. but who am i and what i know? i know some old players and posters that flame everything will react in every proposal, but they re NOT those that keep the servers alive. new players is the secret and ways to attract them.
but who am i and what i know?
I've never felt merges were necessary in all my time in the game, there are complications with it. Plus my main reason for not wanting to be on my server has always been the insanely high population of open cheaters there - a population that is growing rapidly. I always wanted to get away from those players, but a merger takes them along with you. It gives them more people to kill which means more motivation for their behaviour since NCSoft seems uncapable of doing the slightest thing against them.
As I have said since the very start of this game, cheating is the worst possible thing that can happen to it and it truely shows now.
Why should I come back and spend hours upon hours getting one more level for 78 while being harassed and hunted down by 100+ hardcore and not so hardcore cheating players who simply 'do not care' about a thing except to hurt someone else.
I'm all for PvP games, I love them, I love death penalties and difficult leveling and I am always up for the challenge. But all of that is pointless if everything boils down to hundreds of hours of XPing/Farming to get a chance at competing.
The new patch adds yet more advantages to those rulebreaking players and increases the pressure on those who play within the rules.
I simply no longer see a proper way to solve this problem. The cheating players are far too entwined amongst the real players on most servers for any clear judgement on bannings. I could name over 100 characters off the bat that should not even be allowed in the game any longer, but that solves nothing.
The best solution is character transfer. Those who have clanhalls and want to transfer should be given the maximum adena value that can be bid for their hall (since they are all worth that, excluding the lower grades of course). They can then move to whatever server they wish and try to make the best of things.
I say this all in the most impartial way that I can.
As some said in there post, Yes i do think there Ban hammer was a big mistake. Yes they did a good job of removing fully automated friends, but they also hit players that used buffs bots. Now im not going to say buff bots are good, But speaking from what ive seen over the last few days, many of the ppls that lost there buffers have gone to a new game. There friends have started to go to :(.
I dont blame NcSoft for what theyve done, but i think they did it to late, So many ppl fell into the trap, they watched the automated friends live for so long, they started to do it :(
I've never felt merges were necessary in all my time in the game, there are complications with it. Plus my main reason for not wanting to be on my server has always been the insanely high population of open cheaters there - a population that is growing rapidly. I always wanted to get away from those players, but a merger takes them along with you. It gives them more people to kill which means more motivation for their behaviour since NCSoft seems uncapable of doing the slightest thing against them.
Well i dont know about your server, but Kain has been clean of the unmentionables for the past 2 weeks, its been great going to Devotion and getting some decent xp for once.
Everywhere that used to be over flowing with the unmentionables on Kain have been swept clean, its been good for the most part in this aspect.
As I have said since the very start of this game, cheating is the worst possible thing that can happen to it and it truely shows now.
Ill agree with you 100% here, but i will be more specific.
It truely shines now because you can see how many people have recently been banned.
Why should I come back and spend hours upon hours getting one more level for 78 while being harassed and hunted down by 100+ hardcore and not so hardcore cheating players who simply 'do not care' about a thing except to hurt someone else.
Well i dont understand the hurt part unless your refering to griefing of being ganked, then thats something you have to live with, after all, this is a PvP game, thats what its all about.
I'm all for PvP games, I love them, I love death penalties and difficult leveling and I am always up for the challenge. But all of that is pointless if everything boils down to hundreds of hours of XPing/Farming to get a chance at competing.
Yes ill totally agree, a time sink does not mean hard core player.
NCsofts idea of hard core player seems to be someone who can sit in front of the computer 10 hours a day 6- 7 days a week.
While this type of gameplay is ok with me ( because i do it myself ), this game just doesnt have the number of subscriptions to make it work. You can easily go for a few nights with no group at all, take Olympiad for example, perfect example, there isnt enough high end players to make it worth doing, you ethier see the same people over and over again or you stand around for hours waiting for people to sign up, again, NCsofts version in this game of hard core is time sink.
Besides, mindlessly grinding for months on end isnt the only way to progress your character, there can be minor alternative ways to do it which NCsoft just dont seem to want to implement, after all, content is king in the world of MMO's.
The new patch adds yet more advantages to those rulebreaking players and increases the pressure on those who play within the rules.
You lost me here with this paragraph.
If you read the patch correctly which im sure you did but maybe misunderstood some things, there making it harder for the unmentionables to do their buisness simply because the more they kill themselves to delvl, the more they debuff themselves.
Now if this is going to work the way i read it, they will eventually get to a point where they just simply cannot hit the required mobs / NPC's to cause them death, their accuracy will be very low.
Yes there is ways around it for them, but at least this slows them down, defiently a step in the right direction.
I really dont see how anything else in the patch is really catering towards the unmentionables, unless your refering to the change to the way items are dropped on death, which is basically only Red chaotics players will drop stuff, i agree with this to be honest because if NCsoft keep the drop rate and spoil tables as they are now in its current state, then yes, i agree with it, if they increase the drop rate / spoil tables then no, id like gear to drop still as it wouldnt be too hard to replace.
I simply no longer see a proper way to solve this problem. The cheating players are far too entwined amongst the real players on most servers for any clear judgement on bannings. I could name over 100 characters off the bat that should not even be allowed in the game any longer, but that solves nothing.
Its a tough call, from a buisness stand point you can see why NCsoft has let it go on this long, from a better gameplay point of view, there really is no reason why they would of let this go on this long if they were truely interested in this game.
Just another cash cow is all i can say.
The best solution is character transfer. Those who have clanhalls and want to transfer should be given the maximum adena value that can be bid for their hall (since they are all worth that, excluding the lower grades of course). They can then move to whatever server they wish and try to make the best of things.
Very bad idea on the adena returned for clan halls, i believe they should be rewarded back with the adena they spent, but not the maximum.
Lets say for example they go through with the name change idea that Mistryl posted earlier ( very bad idea also by the way ), whats to say the clan lord gets his 2 billion adena back, name changes and server jumps.....i can see that happening.
Also, look at how much adena would be generated into the server if hyperthectically a merger was to happen, thats ALOT of adena.
In reguards to character transfers, i support this seeing it really does no harm.
I say this all in the most impartial way that I can.
All i can say is, maybe NCsoft should of opened their eyes and ears to their community a little earlier and we wouldnt be having this problem.
I say no to server merges cause I like being able to run from West Blazing Swamp trough DC area, Cemetary, to Forsaiken Plains and not see a single live player!!!1
I say no to server merges cause I like being able to run from West Blazing Swamp trough DC area, Cemetary, to Forsaiken Plains and not see a single live player!!!1
Does anyone else here think or feel that they went a little over board with the mass bannings after letting it go like they did for the past 3 years only to do something about it now on the door step of the re-release of the game?
Well, wait a minute. Presumably the people who were caught in the mass bannings were probably "not players" therefore it doesn't really matter. They wouldn't have been there for you to group.
I do know of some players who got caught but one was admitting that he was botting so that seems at least reasonable.
The bannings have nothing to do with not finding a group in my opinion. The real issue is more real players in the game.
And I think you could join a clan that would inivte a player not yet 70. Just have to find it.
That is the deal with this game. Clans are important. Or at least a close knit group of friends.
If you read the patcj note for PTS. you will see HP/MP scrolls are coming with it. This will mean higher XP gain. finally a way to get our healers back up mana wise, a tank will have a way to push his HP back up when a bad spawn ocurs. A death does not make you cringe because you dropped a expensive piece of equipment. with scroll to remove that penitlyfor all but a red, will also discourage the Red player. Many you can not just say kill a bunch and go die it off, due to the scroll not being good unless you are not Chaotic.
So in many ways several things are being answered.
As to lower players in clans, this has been addressed with Acadamy, and now with patch the fact the player will no longer be booted to move into the body of the clan. There are alot of changes that have been made. But you see people have to make use of them. As too leveling faster for lowers, they have now extended new player buffs to all lowers not just 1st player on the account.
You also have to take in the fact that not only were there mass bannings, you have to look at how many re-rolled to Franz to get that fresh server feeling. Franz is the new FOTM. Give it awhile and things will even back out.
Does anyone else here think or feel that they went a little over board with the mass bannings after letting it go like they did for the past 3 years only to do something about it now on the door step of the re-release of the game?
Well, wait a minute. Presumably the people who were caught in the mass bannings were probably "not players" therefore it doesn't really matter. They wouldn't have been there for you to group.
I do know of some players who got caught but one was admitting that he was botting so that seems at least reasonable.
The bannings have nothing to do with not finding a group in my opinion. The real issue is more real players in the game.
I wouldnt be here stating this fact if that was the case, which unfortunately, it isnt, besides that wasnt the point i was making.
The point i was making is a few that other people have made in this thread and others.
Yes alot of non player operated unmentionables got banned which was a good thing for both NCsoft because they know they will re-buy accounts and get the ball rolling again and us because it opens up all t hose areas that were once flooded with them. The other people who got banned were player controlled buff bots.
Now obviously people arent going to spend the next year rerolling a new buff bot and as pointed out are moving to other games and because the point where NCsoft let this whole entire problem get so out of hand alot of people were doing it, and i can be willing to bet majority of the heros have all used some sort of 3rd party program at one point or another, reguardless of how, when or where and what accounts they used them on, the fact still remains that they have participated in it.
The forum population is also very thin, yet this game for such a time envesting time sink of a game had a large number of subscribers for such a niche crowd when it acually came to having the ability to sit down and pour so many hours into this game on a constant basis, because of this fact people are leaving, peoples friends are leaving and obviously, peoples mains are quitting and going else where because of this.
I dont know if Kain is just freakishly different from other servers which i highly doubt it is, so id be guessing that other servers are having the same problems:
Not enough people signing up for Olympiads which in turn wastes everyones time for hours every night in the hopes of some PvP action.
Not enough high level players period which in turn leads high level players aching for pvp, starving more or less and they go grief other lower level areas in a hope to draw higher levels out for pvp.
Not enough people period when you dont have enough people online in your clan to group with.
After last nights patch, and the way it forced clans to disband there allies, is going to create drama amoung clans itself in soem cases as to who should deserve what sections and titles.
All in all, i just want to see more people in the this game, its pretty simple really, whats the point in having such a massive virtual reality when there is no where near enough population to fill it, and you can virtually go for days without seeing anyone unless you go back to town?
I don't think server merges are the way to go here. I do think it is time to allow server moves by single accounts / toons.
As far as the bannings. If they were bots already, then they wouldn't have helped you anyways.
I know on Bartz, it is showing light but the server has alot of peeps on it. Maybe you are in the wrong places on your server.
I dont know if Kain is just freakishly different from other servers (...)
Yes, it is.
There were (and probably still are) lots of people botting on Kain and admiting it openly (not here, of course :)). It was par for the course for every higher level player. En vogue, even. Not that all of them did it, of course, but enough to make Kain into a percieved botter's heaven.
They're now paying the price for their behaviour. To hell with them.
In other news, on Teon everything's as usual, just a little fewer automated semi-NPCs.
I don't think server merges are the way to go here. I do think it is time to allow server moves by single accounts / toons.
As far as the bannings. If they were bots already, then they wouldn't have helped you anyways.
I know on Bartz, it is showing light but the server has alot of peeps on it. Maybe you are in the wrong places on your server.
Allowing server transfers is going to have the same effect as if they just simply merged the lower populated servers with medium popluated ones.
People will leave in droves from the lower populated servers just to have a chance at some higher populated PvP action, so the same thing happens, just over a slower period of time where NCsoft go " Hmmmm, geee, look how unpopulated that server is now, we could save money not running that server and merge it with this server which is only running at half capicity ".
So in the end its bound to happen, but i do agree, server / character transfer is the way to go, server merges may be a bit harsh atm, but we ran some ideas a few pages back.
The ideas included:
1) Server / Character transfers
2) Add more content to draw new players in
3) Some people agree with certain server merges, not all
4) HP / Mana regeneration increase ( which i t looks like we will be getting in the new patch with the implementation of HP / Mana scrolls, how these work or what the cost of these is anyones guess, but at least they work of grade tier, finally ).
5) More player progression to make the grind past 65 and above more meaningful.
I tell you whats ironic though, is that you mention maybe im in the wrong places, last night i spent 3 hours, no word of a lie, 3 hours running from Giran to Oren to Hunters Village to Aden to Goddard then to all the catacombs and necroplois that were ajoining these cities shouting LFG the whole time, not spamming of course, i ended up giving the hell up, standing around in HV and just chatting for awhile and i get a random group invite out of no where from a guy about 40 mins after i stopped.......didnt even know the guy.
Maybe i should stand around in Hunters Village more often. :)
There are plenty of people, plenty all over. Less bots, which is quite nice, but plenty of players.
Let me rethink the last 24 hours and how my playing went. I got home about 3 PM and logged into a shot crafter alt in Giran to craft while I did chores. Ended up talking with new players and some older ones and crafting shots for quite a while, sold faster than I could craft as is ALWAYS the case.
Switched to another dwarf up in the new territories for a few buff rounds, had to find a place to level since the frozen maze was crowded, found a place and said 'hi' to eveyone who passed.
Switched to my main (clanned) and got a party invite before the screen loaded. Hunted in a cata for a couple hours. Wanderd around doing errands for a while, turned down three unsolicited party invites, then reformed with clannies for another hour before logging. This morning logged into the alt dwarf and at once ran into another dwarf (whose boots I had returned the other day) and had a great duo for 40 min before work.
So I see NO NEED whatsoever for any type of server merger talk. Hush up. If you want a better server, come to Erica.
Perhaps the reason that some players cannot get a party has to do with player repuatation, not server population.
IMO... Anyone complaining about bannings of players using illegal third party programs is a supporter of bad behavior. I don't give a rat's patootie if the unmentionable is a resource gatherer, a buff-autofollower or Mister "I own noobs/enemies" because my lil program auto-heals, auto-logs, auto-cp-pots, sees you from halfway across the map, etc etc etc.
As far as I'm concerned, the servers are better off without them, even with a lower population. How many legit players have said "screw this game" because the cheaters roam about with impunity? I'm much more interested in giving them an incentive to come back over giving cheaters an incentive to stay.
As for the population problem on the servers, the answer to that is advertising. I go to EB games and ask for a lineage II game card and they give me the Deer-In-The-Headlights glare. Lately I can't even get a CoH/CoV/AutoAssault card there. What gives? How is a game community supposed to survive, let alone grow, when the company itself doesn't care enough to promote their own product? They have Korea, that's all they need apparently. That is your solutiuon to the population problem. NCS has no interest in solving it.
As for server mergers, I don't agree. Too much crap, duplicate toon/clan/alliance names, who gets what castles and what clan halls, etc etc. Same issues with transfers. You get to build a high level toon in relative "peace" and then get to go to another server and own without paying your dues there? Not what I call fair or cool. (Then again, who said life was fair?)
I decided after C1 that I needed to leave Gustin. Me and a small group elected to restart on Sieghardt of all places. I had to start all over again, with the odds stacked against me and we've done fairly well all things considered. No it wasn't a quick fix. But I'll tell you what...
If you are unhappy with your server's current condition, come to Sieghardt. With the Academy clans, you will surely find people willing tro help you get started. You'll get to re-experience some of the game that was fun (like lower level quests and raids), meet new people and face new challenges.
No server is perfect and lord knows Sieghardt has its issues, but maybe if some strong-willed high character folks who really wanted to make a change came here, You could create what you are looking for instead of asking NCS to do it for you (which won't happen).
Of course I'm putting out the welcome mat, but maybe you would rather collectively choose another server, be it Franz, Gustin, Kain whatever. If enough of you make that choice, you might find others following the trail you blaze.
Or, hey, you can sit here and wish for things that will not happen (or if the skies split asunder... make for situations you are not considering atm) or complain about NCS actually doing something about bad players.
The forum population is also very thin, yet this game for such a time envesting time sink of a game had a large number of subscribers for such a niche crowd when it acually came to having the ability to sit down and pour so many hours into this game on a constant basis, because of this fact people are leaving, peoples friends are leaving and obviously, peoples mains are quitting and going else where because of this.
I agree to a point. I really do feel there are significantly less "players" now then when I started. That is not to say that it is not easy to get a group if one wanted one, "if" one spent the time creating the contacts, support system etc. But yeah... this game is very much a 2 trick pony which in some ways is a strength but only for a few people.
The times that I've had an amazing experience ingame were the times that I realized that this game does offer something unique.
Not enough people signing up for Olympiads which in turn wastes everyones time for hours every night in the hopes of some PvP action.
that's because Olympiad is extremely high end content.
The people who participate in the Olympiad are just going to have to wait for the players who have "other things to do" to catch up. I very much look forward to this part of the game but don't believe it should be "easier" to get there.
This might just be me, but I like the idea that it is hard to get to high lvl and that not everyone is high lvl. I have one character in WoW that is lvl 27. He was created on the first day the game went live.
I have fun with him but obviously don't play that game all that much except for maybe 20 minutes before I retire (sometimes). Point being, I was in the large city of Storm Reach and was looking around at a huge group of people. All with top armor, weapons and all lvl 60. No one was very special because everyone was special.
L2 offers the most dedicated players a chance to shine. Cheaters aside.
However, the real issue is that you either grind or you pvp. Not much else. Yes there is the market but most people play games to have fun. I highly doubt the majority of players enjoy playing the market (for those who love the market: read "majority").
Granted there are players who love crafting or buying and selling. But I bet dollars to donuts that most people want to play these types of games to experience epic adventures, be see amazing things, fight amazing fights.
It would be a shame to cheapen the higher lvl experience. It IS a shame that getting there is cheapened.
This game is an interesting experience because the game is the players. They decide what happens. Unfortunatley that is a mixed bag because we are then relying on each other to create our gameplay experience to a certain extant.
Being in a clan war and truly disliking your enemy (to a point)and seeking him/her out can create a very compelling gameplay experience. But how long can that last before it gets tiring.
Some things like the epic sieges I've been in or the searching out and destroying (or being destroyed by) our enemies creates great highs. But the middles and lows need help because quite frankly, for the average player they are a bit lacking.
Not enough high level players period which in turn leads high level players aching for pvp, starving more or less and they go grief other lower level areas in a hope to draw higher levels out for pvp.
yeah, I think this is true. Sort of a double edge sword. The players who strive to be most powerful end up being part of a very few and are "starved" (good way to put it) for something to do that is meaningful.
Not enough people period when you dont have enough people online in your clan to group with.
Someone also mentioned that the landmass is so large that it is hard to fill up the world. I personally like that but what the issue is is that there just aren't the players to fill up noob areas, gludio/gludin etc. If you think about it, alot of processing power is going into maintaining a world where only a few people really venture.
Heck, the only time I've been to gludin is when I was lvling a dwarf and needed to get to southern wastes via gludin gk. What a waste (no pun intended).
After last nights patch, and the way it forced clans to disband there allies, is going to create drama amoung clans itself in soem cases as to who should deserve what sections and titles.
I have mixed reactions to this. I think smaller alliances but larger clans is a good thing because it really does put more power into the clan leaders.
However, it also separates groups of people who relied upon the alliance network for their groups. Yes, there are larger clan sizes but what about truly large alliances where the larger clan sizes can't fit everyone.
All in all, i just want to see more people in the this game, its pretty simple really, whats the point in having such a massive virtual reality when there is no where near enough population to fill it, and you can virtually go for days without seeing anyone unless you go back to town?
No argument there.
The problem I see is that the strengths of this game (player created conflict) is also the games weakness because there really is not much else to do but strive to be higher lvl and compete.
People will say there ARE other things like roleplay or exploring etc. But truth be told, I highly doubt that the majority of players who seek out a pvp game really care for that. At least that is not why they are here. Exceptions of course.
Does that mean all players are like this? No, of course not. But really, is there a thriving Role Play community here? One would think there should be because the game doesn't force a lot on you and gives you a reasonably rich pallette to work with.
There needs to be a very real change to the gameplay so that there is desire to not only start the game but be satisfied with where you are if you are not high lvl. I've made a post like this a long long time ago. 1-20 should not be rushed through but should offer a rich experience (some of the most fun I've had in the game were 1-20 but then again there are many reasons for that) that is different from other parts of the game.
Otherwise "noob" benefits will then turn into "mid lvl benefits" and essentiall we will all be rushed and herded to 60-70+ and in my opinion cheapening the "god like" ability of being high lvl.
Here's an idea. It would have to be fleshed out (and some of you players will have to stretch your imaginations a bit so don't take what I'm about to say as finished idea) but what if sieges, which are a huge part of the game in so many ways, offered different challenges for players who weren't high lvl?
So, You have your high level warriors. But what if offering low lvl players some sort of mini-game that is actually vital to sieges and allows them to participate in a meaningful way. Could be anything such as a variety of tasks to fix the crystals of a castle, maybe sapping the castle walls. Someone mentioned having banners.
What if low lvl players were given the ability (and there would be a limit) to carry a banner that would give sections of the battle field buffs (or debuffs).
True they are low lvl. But maybe carrying a banner gives them more protection, maybe even damage reflection to a certain degree. Maybe the low lvl players who are fixing the crystals, sapping the walls can be protected to a certain extent by a charm or token or maybe give buffers/healers another role.
In other words, make the content such as sieges accessible (to some extent) to all. Even if it is in a small but meaningful way.
Otherwise, many new players are going to realize that they will never really be able to compete in a siege unless they bust their butt and might go to another game.
In a nutshell, make the game meaningful to all levels but don't cheapen any level range in the game.
No offense but have you stopped to consider that perhaps the problem isn't the game?
Im not soloing because i want too. Im soloing because i cant get groups around my level range now.
For a few weeks after C5, it was great, people was grouping everyone, there was people acually using the LFG window, amazing as it may sound, now its all just dwindled away.
No offense to you ethier Elro, but have you read the pages between that quote and here? Just curious is all, cause you missed some good points from Sovrath and some other people also.
We had the original NA servers for three chronicles. C4 came out and a Euro server opened up, C5 happened and another Euro server opened up.
Why would they add any new servers if the deman wasn't there?
I have to agree with Jilly. The world has more than doubled in size.
The reason you aren't in a party is because after around level 52 almost everybody is partying in clan or alliance.
And your timezone sucks (Aussie). You simply are going to find that no matter how many merges, it would take all 10 to make traffic heavy enough for Aussies. You match time zones (not really but nearby) with countries that mostly have their own servers. That's not amazingly correctable.
As an additional note if you start to find that it is hard to find groups....consider a great FEATURE known as the Party Matching system. It will take time for you to get people using it but I'm sure if there are others looking for clanless pickup groups they would be happy to start using it.
I agree, not enough people open the party window, though on some nights I see 10 open looking for all sorts of classes. I use it to find duos now and then.
Just wanted to chime in briefly here with a quick factoid that might be useful in this conversation:
*Within the past 30 days, Lineage II has had all time highs in a) concurrent players, b) total active accounts and c) number of bots banned.
I also want to assure you that we do monitor the server populations and would consider a merge if the conditions met the criteria, but presently they do not and there is no need.
The game isn't dying right now, it's growing. As others have observed, the addition of the new server can serve as evidence of this.
*Within the past 30 days, Lineage II has had all time highs in a) concurrent players, b) total active accounts and c) number of bots banned.
Hehe, while I believe you Rust, technically the order in which those occurred effects the importance. If concurrent players occurred toward the start and mass banning occurred near the end, you can't really claim the prior :p
Sorry, I know that's too rocket-science-esk for you business guys :p
LOL ok Ill stop, TY for the info and pwning the naysayers.
*Within the past 30 days, Lineage II has had all time highs in a) concurrent players, b) total active accounts and c) number of bots banned.
Hehe, while I believe you Rust, technically the order in which those occurred effects the importance. If concurrent players occurred toward the start and mass banning occurred near the end, you can't really claim the prior :p
Sorry, I know that's too rocket-science-esk for you business guys :p
LOL ok Ill stop, TY for the info and wtfpwning the naysayers.
Actually, the banning pace has been pretty consistent for longer than 30 days, but I like to wrap things up in a neat little bow when I can't disclose exact numbers.
And despite being blinded by my solid gold management desk and platinum back scratcher, I am taking the order of things into account. :)
*Within the past 30 days, Lineage II has had all time highs in a) concurrent players, b) total active accounts and c) number of bots banned.
Hehe, while I believe you Rust, technically the order in which those occurred effects the importance. If concurrent players occurred toward the start and mass banning occurred near the end, you can't really claim the prior :p
Sorry, I know that's too rocket-science-esk for you business guys :p
LOL ok Ill stop, TY for the info and wtfpwning the naysayers.
lol.. yeah, I was thinking the same thing and I'm a silly musician.
"Hey look.. we have the most players and active accounts logged in" (makes note in report)
BAM BAN! "Hey look, we have banned the most bots ever" (makes note in report)
Glad to see you guys know which end is up Rust :p
Keep up the good work and don't forget to have your assistant polish your desk and back scratcher once in a while. :)
On a side note.. BF 2142 was released today and Kain is deader than dead. No hero chat in hours, no one in town and absolutely 0 people on my friend list. I haven't sold more than 1k all day.
On a side note.. BF 2142 was released today and Kain is deader than dead. No hero chat in hours, no one in town and absolutely 0 people on my friend list. I haven't sold more than 1k all day.
I checked out the Kain forum on Blah. Lots and lots of bans...
The game isn't dying right now, it's growing. As others have observed, the addition of the new server can serve as evidence of this.
Others have observed that everyone, well not everyone but ALOT of people have moved to Franz, its not like Franz has aquired all these brand new players from out of thin air just because you opened up a new server.........
If it truely is growing, then people must be quitting at the character creation screen, because i dont see any new players except the godzillion amount of academy alts that high levels run around with.
Another thing id like to know is, why do clans always disband and reform new clans? Personally i hate clan hopping, there wouldnt be many clans i know of on Kain that are more then a year old, maybe Dragon Slayers and LoK.
And despite being blinded by my solid gold management desk and platinum back scratcher, I am taking the order of things into account. :)
o.O can you disclose salary numbers? Because apparently rocket science was the wrong career choice for me. Though I guarantee my last office had more platinum in it than yours :P
It is obvious that after the bannings there are less accounts logged in and server status is light.
Although server status is light, I still do not see a large drop off in population. If anything, I can at least hunt in a catacomb once and a while. Server status constaintly being heavy isn't really all that good.
The number of players I can play with now, compaired to the number of players I could play with before has stayed constant. Showing that the actual number of PLAYERS has not greatly decreased, and the requirement for grouping has increased.
It is also obvious that there is a thinning in community, esspecially since release, which of course in expected. Banning EULA violators is one way to bring new blood, but it is hardly enough, since the current player base is a large % of this and has lived with it for practically 3 years. It is a good move for those who wish to play legit, but in order to get more players new and exciting content besides grinding will have to be offered to compete with new games being released on the market.
Those that are against this are just too comfortable in their little corner - get out and roam the land and you'll notice that there are fewer people. People keep their accounts active after they leave so it seems like there are many - but that ain't the truth. This game is made to have a TON of people. Castle sieges have gone boring because of so few people attacking - its pitiful.
Mergers might be difficult, but there comes a time when they are needed to keep those still in game interested. Many of the people still in game are happy soloing, but those that only want to party eventually leave because of lack of people.
Now I dont know about Bartz and Sieg cause their server populations seem high - but for the smaller servers, a merge would be great.
What's wrong with server mergers? It just means more pvp, more groups, more socializing .... more fun :p
Great opinion, too bad you didn't bother reading the official statistics that you're full of crap and things are fine :p
LOL there's a reason why the cliched expression "Liars figure and figures lie" is so quoted - dont believe everything you see. I read what was said by RustNC - it was on the same page for me :p
If your so adamant about not having mergers, then try visiting different servers, compare, and then come back. I don't care about overall population/people - I'm talking about the smaller servers. Go to the racetrack on Bartz and then go the racetrack on Gustin - ull be amazed at the difference. There are many times I'm on when there isn't a single person in the arena or just 1 or 2. A lot of Europeans from Gustin went to Franz which kinda sucks :p
If server merges happen - it's going to be down the road, a lot of planning is needed and I think NcSoft needs to start thinking of that.
God, you mean people are wasting time gate hopping at the arena? I've been on Gustin, I have a toon in Aden. It's not that bad at all. Servers go up and down in pop, but this is nowhere near as low as it was during late C1. Even Giran was nearly empty for awhile. That's when things are really so low it becomes an issue. There are still thousands of players on each server each day.
Statistics don't lie, ever. People merely misinterpret them. Generally, people that failed high school math shouldn't be allowed to draw conclusions from numbers, but they still do. Those are the ones to watch out for. The server may not be busy like Bartz, but that doesn't mean it needs to be merged. Some servers are always going to be heavier than others. If you dislike it so much, reroll. The servers are by no means empty, however. That's just absurd to suggest.
There were only crazy elves, bluish elves that looked kinda evil, the incredible hulk, some short fat man trying to sell me pills, and this crazy dude running around trying to stab me in the back!
WHAT KIND OF WORLD IS THIS???!!!!
Where are all the people...I mean...I just see...OH MY GOD!!! I DUNNO WHAT I SEE!
What is that? 110% proof? Ouch, kinda burns when u drink it...
Those that are against this are just too comfortable in their little corner - get out and roam the land and you'll notice that there are fewer people. People keep their accounts active after they leave so it seems like there are many - but that ain't the truth. This game is made to have a TON of people. Castle sieges have gone boring because of so few people attacking - its pitiful.
Mergers might be difficult, but there comes a time when they are needed to keep those still in game interested. Many of the people still in game are happy soloing, but those that only want to party eventually leave because of lack of people.
Now I dont know about Bartz and Sieg cause their server populations seem high - but for the smaller servers, a merge would be great.
What's wrong with server mergers? It just means more pvp, more groups, more socializing .... more fun :p
Well, from what I've seen recently, the difference between light and heavy just boils down to how many bot partys are running around in cata/necros and/or spamming trade in giran........the amount of active player groups doesnt seem to have changed much since these bans.
Though I wouldnt mind seeing inter-server char transfers allowed....
Go to the racetrack on Bartz and then go the racetrack on Gustin - ull be amazed at the difference.
Perhaps people are realizing that the racetrack is a waste of time? Hindemith is "Light" yet there are usually tons of people at the track. The only time I go there is if I'm doing a class change on a new toon and leave my SE there for buffs.
Oh, I'll admit it's entertaining reading all of the "OMG you cheated!" shouts at the track. Fun stuff.
Perhaps people are realizing that the racetrack is a waste of time? Hindemith is "Light" yet there are usually tons of people at the track. The only time I go there is if I'm doing a class change on a new toon and leave my SE there for buffs.
Oh, I'll admit it's entertaining reading all of the "OMG you cheated!" shouts at the track. Fun stuff.
No server merges.
It's merely an example - go to Giran and check the number of shops in Bartz and then Gustin and you'll also see a big diffence. I'm happy for those servers that are doing well - but you guys are just too comfy and don't like change.
As for suggesting I switch servers - yeah I'd do that after spending all this time getting to Mystic muse - gimme a break and try to offer more realistic advice. Suggesting such a thing is just plain idiocy and you know it.
Like I said, Hindemith is "Light". There are no shortages of shops in Giran, HV, Aden, the track, etc. I guess Gustin just sucks. Please don't merge Gustin with Hindemith.
So wouldnt it be better to have "heavy" server w/o bots?Because seems that server with only players - light , server with players+bots - heavy.
Yes and NO!
If we got more players, sure...it would be great!
But if server capabilities were cut down and players stayed about the same and it said heavy, then no!
Again, L2 is roughly 3 years old. 2 years of sad marketing, bashing on websites such as MMORPG, etc. Have not given this game a good reputation. You mention L2 and ppl think of bots, farmers, cheaters, scammers, boring grind, GRIND, and GRIND!
If you want more players, this game will have to be "re-released so to speak" but as we know that isn't going to happen. It is hard to re-release a 3 yr old MMO.
What they can do, is try to develop new, exciting, and dynamic content, while making it possible for the casual gamer to play the game, esspecially without the use of 3rd party help. Once the game changes all together to benifit the majority of the gaming population the majority will come. L2s visuals are still considered one if not the best on the market. But also it's grind is considered one of the most boring, and cheated grinds on the market. For me, instead of getting rid of cheaters, they should get rid of why people cheat, because they simply do not have the time to grind so much.
In my honest opinion though, I think NCsoft kinda blew it! If they got rid of cheaters in C1, and made the grind more entertaining (more PLAYABLE content anyone?), and made it possible for a casual player to even progress threw the game at a reasonable speed, then this game would be a hard hitter and would probally have over one 3 million subs in the US alone! And we know koreans and asians, don't really like this grind...because when another game...ermm...WoW...hit the asian market L2 world sales dropped and WoW subscriptions skyrocketed.
If you are looking for a casual more content driven and dynamic game, with good graphics....you just might have to wait for Lineage III; and hope that NCsoft learned from their mistakes in L2, to create a superb game.
So wouldnt it be better to have "heavy" server w/o bots?Because seems that server with only players - light , server with players+bots - heavy.
Yes and NO!
If we got more players, sure...it would be great!
But if server capabilities were cut down and players stayed about the same and it said heavy, then no!
Again, L2 is roughly 3 years old. 2 years of sad marketing, bashing on websites such as MMORPG, etc. Have not given this game a good reputation. You mention L2 and ppl think of bots, farmers, cheaters, scammers, boring grind, GRIND, and GRIND!
Honestly what more to L2 is there, grind, grind more grind and yet even more grind and when your high enough which is 70+ which has basically taken you a year anyway, PvP / Seige which isnt a constant thing anyway and leads back to doing one thing again, grind........add into the fact scammers, cheaters etc etc, and its bound to get a bad rep.
If you want more players, this game will have to be "re-released so to speak" but as we know that isn't going to happen. It is hard to re-release a 3 yr old MMO.
Exactly, even though they are going for a re-release now with the relase of the epic edition, its going to be a hard battle for NCsoft to draw new players in this far into the game.
With so many new and exciting titles already holding peoples attentions and more due to be released at the end of 2006 and early 2007, i honestly think they should concentrate on Lineage 3 if anything.
What they can do, is try to develop new, exciting, and dynamic content, while making it possible for the casual gamer to play the game, esspecially without the use of 3rd party help. Once the game changes all together to benifit the majority of the gaming population the majority will come. L2s visuals are still considered one if not the best on the market. But also it's grind is considered one of the most boring, and cheated grinds on the market. For me, instead of getting rid of cheaters, they should get rid of why people cheat, because they simply do not have the time to grind so much.
Yep totaly agree 100%. They should just get rid of how people cheat.
WHen you honestly step back and think about it, the game gets maintence for 2 hours every week, wouldnt be hard to change some code around in the process to stop them logging in so their coders have to spend the next few days figuring it out.
Wont stop it completely, but will minimize it for sure, probally to a point where they just go away to a certain extent.
In my honest opinion though, I think NCsoft kinda blew it! If they got rid of cheaters in C1, and made the grind more entertaining (more PLAYABLE content anyone?), and made it possible for a casual player to even progress threw the game at a reasonable speed, then this game would be a hard hitter and would probally have over one 3 million subs in the US alone! And we know koreans and asians, don't really like this grind...because when another game...ermm...WoW...hit the asian market L2 world sales dropped and WoW subscriptions skyrocketed.
So true, and well observed.
There is other ways to make a game hard core other then creating a massive time sink just to level, to me this isnt hard core, it just brings out the people who can put in the hours to do it.
Hard core to me is team enviroment assisted gameplay where it takes multiple people to overcome something that is a huge monument in the game, dynamic raiding, seiging or what ever the case may be.
Constant player progression should of been added in C2, as many games by this time had constant player progression as well as pure leveling. Reguardless of how little or small the constant player progression was, people still found it fun to be growing stronger throughout each level instead of waiting months to get another level to learn a bunch of new skills to only have to grind for more months to get to the next stage of their tier upgraded skill sets.
If you are looking for a casual more content driven and dynamic game, with good graphics....you just might have to wait for Lineage III; and hope that NCsoft learned from their mistakes in L2, to create a superb game.
If its one thing NCsoft have probally learnt, judging by all these official polls they hold now, they have learnt to listen to there community.
I personally feel if they did this from the beginning, this game would be head strong still and would be for quite some time to come, as it sits with me now, unless Kain starts to get a abundance of 60 - 65 lvl players all of a sudden out of no where, i might find another game to play myself, got to admit, Vanguard is looking really good, been keeping my eye on it for years now, i think its going to be hard to beat that title, in a gameplay sense.
Like I said, Hindemith is "Light". There are no shortages of shops in Giran, HV, Aden, the track, etc. I guess Gustin just sucks. Please don't merge Gustin with Hindemith.
LOL /signed
For a time during C1, Giran was down to less than 20 shops on Hindemith. Server population will fluctuate. Suggesting that because it is light for a month means your server is dead...is simply foolish.
ROFL. We had complaints for months that servers were too full and people couldn't log in.
Seriously, the staff just has to sit back and laugh at all this sometimes. One thing applies in customer service, you can't make everyone happy. Different people want different things, but you cater to the majority. Which...as this thread indicates, is totally against such a thing...including the NCsoft staff.
ROFL. We had complaints for months that servers were too full and people couldn't log in.
Seriously, the staff just has to sit back and laugh at all this sometimes. One thing applies in customer service, you can't make everyone happy. Different people want different things, but you cater to the majority. Which...as this thread indicates, is totally against such a thing...including the NCsoft staff.
No sith, its people like you who take everything so far out of context one starts to scratch his head on how you comprehend where you get these things out the posts.
Notice its titles server merges / population growth ideas?
Big difference between chanting WE NEED SERVER MERGES!!!
One only has to sit back and laugh at your ranting in every thread that would change your gameplay style.
No sith, its people like you who take everything so far out of context one starts to scratch his head on how you comprehend where you get these things out the posts.
Notice its titles server merges / population growth ideas?
Big difference between chanting WE NEED SERVER MERGES!!!
One only has to sit back and laugh at your ranting in every thread that would change your gameplay style.
These suggestions are to bring fresh meat to the servers, not just to replace people who left.
Like I said, Hindemith is "Light". There are no shortages of shops in Giran, HV, Aden, the track, etc. I guess Gustin just sucks. Please don't merge Gustin with Hindemith.
LOL /signed
For a time during C1, Giran was down to less than 20 shops on Hindemith. Server population will fluctuate. Suggesting that because it is light for a month means your server is dead...is simply foolish.
I find this to be a total moot point for the simple fact during C1, hardly anyone set shops in Giran PERIOD.
The places to go shopping in Prelude / C1 was Gludin / Dion, you didnt even have to waste your time going to Giran, risk death running to Giran OR waste your money porting there.......
No sith, its people like you who take everything so far out of context one starts to scratch his head on how you comprehend where you get these things out the posts.
Notice its titles server merges / population growth ideas?
Big difference between chanting WE NEED SERVER MERGES!!!
One only has to sit back and laugh at your ranting in every thread that would change your gameplay style.
These suggestions are to bring fresh meat to the servers, not just to replace people who left.
Exactly, server merges was a idea or suggestion so to speak and i asked for peoples feed back on it PLUS their own suggestions on how they could enhance population growth.
But as usual, there are those certain people who cringe at change reguardless of how good it is for the game, its like a sin to some.
For a time during C1, Giran was down to less than 20 shops on Hindemith. Server population will fluctuate. Suggesting that because it is light for a month means your server is dead...is simply foolish.
As usual - you exagerate what people say. I never said Gustin was dead - I have a great time there and I do see lots of people - I just don't see enought for such a big game and think more people would be great - hence I want to merge some servers. I don't care about the light/heavy status - tbh I don't see any difference in lag at those times anyways. I just want more people :p
And as said above - your examples are out of context and not well thought out of. This game takes years to grind, even if new players come in they wont reach 3rd class for minimum another year.
Like I said, Hindemith is "Light". There are no shortages of shops in Giran, HV, Aden, the track, etc. I guess Gustin just sucks. Please don't merge Gustin with Hindemith.
LOL /signed
For a time during C1, Giran was down to less than 20 shops on Hindemith. Server population will fluctuate. Suggesting that because it is light for a month means your server is dead...is simply foolish.
I find this to be a total moot point for the simple fact during C1, hardly anyone set shops in Giran PERIOD.
The places to go shopping in Prelude / C1 was Gludin / Dion, you didnt even have to waste your time going to Giran, risk death running to Giran OR waste your money porting there.......
LOL are you ******ed, by the end of C1 I was wearing B grade weapons, had Doom plate ready to roll when recs switched to 100%, and was waiting on skills to release for the new levels. Most of us were entirely in a Giran/Dion society at worst, though it was majority Giran since the release of C1. You're full of crap.
LOL are you ******ed, by the end of C1 I was wearing B grade weapons, had Doom plate ready to roll when recs switched to 100%, and was waiting on skills to release for the new levels. Most of us were entirely in a Giran/Dion society at worst, though it was majority Giran since the release of C1. You're full of crap.
LOL!? if someone is full of it its you. First of all we aren't talking about your personal achievements - I fail to see what they bring to this discussion. Also stop exagerating and taking everything to the extremes.
You can't compare the now shopping mecca that is Giran to what it was in C1. People were playing there - but there were also tons of shops in Gludin/Gludio which there aren't now.
I do agree with you that there are fluctuations in the populations - that ain't hard to see. That doesn't mean that more people aren't needed. Try some constructive thinking a bit.
That's crazy to suggest that Giran was not a huge economic venue by the end of C1. Many players were stepping into B grade, several were approaching upper 6x levels. Giran was a huge market, as big as it is today by the end of the chronicle. The Giran arena was the hotspot arena. You are thinking Prelude to even suggest large numbers of shops in Gludin. By C1 Gludin was the ghost town that it has been ever since. Giran was terribly busy, but about 2 months before C2, it was getting quite empty. Hindemith itself was getting low on players to levels that aren't even comparable to Gustin specifically (I have toons/nubs on Gustin to play around on). The server survived just fine, even when it became hard to find CSS because the market was so empty. That's part of the game. The current servers are nowhere near empty. They are not at all "so light that you can't find parties." There are plenty of players, and the discs are back in stores again. It takes 3 months to reach 70 these days.
Constructive thinking? LOL the solution to this problem is for people to stop whining and enjoy the light hunting grounds while they last. You will be competing for rooms to hunt again in no time. People start doomcrying the second they log in and can't find a party one night. Buncha babies.
If you want busy servers, reroll to the big ones. There isn't and shouldn't be another option. Frankly I dont trust you and I have a job like Spudnik. As far as Im concerned, if you show up on my server lvl 76+ and I've never seen your name, you botted.
If you want busy servers, reroll to the big ones. There isn't and shouldn't be another option. Frankly I dont trust you and I have a job like Spudnik. As far as Im concerned, if you show up on my server lvl 76+ and I've never seen your name, you botted.
Don't know who talked about rerolling to your server... but no thanks. I'm legit, proud of it and there's no way I would put that effort into another char again.
In any case, I'm happy RustNC said that they are monitoring it - which means it is an option, not an impossibility. Only time will tell when it needs to be done :p
So far people in this thread who have contributed something to it other then ranting about change destroying their gameplay have ethier suggested or agree'd with these ideas:
1) Server / Character transfers
2) Add more content to draw new players in
3) Some people agree with certain server merges, not all
4) HP / Mana regeneration increase ( which it looks like we will be getting in the new patch with the implementation of HP / Mana scrolls, how these work or what the cost of these is anyones guess, but at least they work of grade tier, finally ).
5) More player progression to make the grind past 65 and above more meaningful.
I think NCsoft would allow server transfers / character transfers before they forced people to reroll to other servers, id quit for sure if i had to reroll to another server unless there doing a 300% xp month in the process of making people reroll, this is hyperthectical of course for the reading impaired.
Or "hyper"thetical isn't a word. Just a note to the writing impaired.
Neither is "hyperthectical." However it is amusing that a person would accuse others of being reading impaired while making such a blatant misspelling. Self-owned, I guess. Kind of like the "your an idiot" crowd. Anyone that says "your an idiot" is, by definition, an idiot.
For the idiots out there, the correct form is "You're an idiot."
He has used "hyper" numerous times. the ct I assumed was a typo :p Either way, it's hard to make a case for your cause when not only your ideas, but your insults even sound stupid.
He has used "hyper" numerous times. the ct I assumed was a typo :p Either way, it's hard to make a case for your cause when not only your ideas, but your insults even sound stupid.
If I desire to call you an idiot, I will do so quite directly. What is the point if the guy doesn't even realize his mistake? Then...we're just making fun of him. That turns from funny to mean. My point in closing...SirE is a meanie.
Wildrain, your reply to my post centres mostly upon 'unmentionable' which I assume is a reference to Farmers rather than the more problematic kinds of rule breaking players existing in the game.
I am well aware they have banned a great deal of Farmers recently, and one person who botted a 9 man party t Noblesse and achieved hero status on Gustin. Farmers are not as much of a problem as the genuine players who cheat. Farmers have one objective - making money, that is their motivation and it is the sole reason why they are here. Recreational cheats (who turn out to often sell adena on the side) are here to win, to be heroes, to take castles, to 'own' other players and 'dominate' their server. Farmers are almost exclusively passive unless approached, Recreational cheats are almost exclusively highly aggressive.
The problem we face overall (on some servers worse than others) is a rapidly festering view that cheating is accepted, that everyone who is anything does it, every alliance has cheats, every clan accepts them, everyone grouped a bot at one time.. etc.
The recreational cheats love these views and always fan the flames by showing their latest botted characters, or how untouchable they are because NC can't catch them and various other things.
This is dangerous because it creates a large perception amongst the playerbase that cheating is rapidly increasing and it leads more and more genuine players to give up and leave the game, while of course luring more people into cheating themselves to keep having 'fun'.
I have watched my server closely while playing it and I can safely say that standards have dropped dramatically over the last 6months, even more dramatically over the last year. Right now there are probably 100-200 players who would not associate with any cheats or accept them in their clans. There are around 200-400 cheated characters openly playing, whether purchased from farmers, botted by their owners, powerleveled by bots or using botted buff characters (the latest craze). Most of these will openly admit what they do without any fear of punishment both from the community and NCSoft. The rest of the population is made up of a growing number of people who turn a blind eye to cheating players and take advantage of their playstyle to have 'fun'.
On Gustin it is at the stage where I don't feel it is recoverable anymore. Months of "no one cares" and "everybody does it" (among other things) has helped to lower standards to such a level where you would have to ban most of the server else it will always remain broken.
There is a lot more to be said on the subject concerning communities, their behaviour and attitudes and how it effects the game but I've said enough so far.
When i say unmentionables, i mean any form of cheating / hacking, farming wouldnt be classed as cheating or hacking seeing we all do it in some sort of fashion. Those who farm to sell adena offline etc arent acually cheating but more or less breaking the eula rules and regulations.
Anyways, I agree that some servers more then others got caught up in this hip and happening thing which was cheating or hacking. Kain is a prime example, i honestly didnt think Kain was its own beast when it came to cheating / hacking and was freakishly different from other servers, i just assumed other servers were just as bad, appartenly i was wrong as someone else stated in this thread.
You could literally tell the night after they done the sweep on Kain that they had indeed done just that, the massive amount of space that just all of a sudden appeared in Giran was unreal to say the least and every single catacomb / necropolis was empty, its a little more populated now, but no where near it was before, very hard to get certain mats / materials now that were so common a few weeks ago.
I can deal with farmers, most of them stick to thier own little areas and dont tend to mess with legit players anyway. Farmers will be a on going thing in MMO's to come, simple because like you pointed out yourself, there is money in it, look at the extent they went just for this game alone.
Over the past 2 and a half years, majority of the people and friends i have talked into getting this game have quit for 3 main reasons:
1) The click on the ground to move aspect is to simplistic, adds no skill required what so ever for PvP or PvE, postioning has had no emphasis on damage output or meaning what so ever, except in one case, which is due to AoE spells etc, still, in PvP how often do you see AoE's going off? Hardly ever, if ever.
2) Lack of player progression and a very large lack in quests to do wether they be solo or group. Not only the lack of quests, but the message we seem to get from doing quests seems to be a large waste of time for the most part. They reward some of the stupidest things sometimes, it just makes no sense, with less then a hand full of quests acually worth doing. Hidden Truth quest line comes to mind here, very well thought out and perfectly rewarded for time spent doing the quest, well done NCsoft on this quest line, lets see more of them please, alot more.
3) The grind past 65, does it have to be so tedious and boring? Not to mention repeditive? Months and months of killing the same mobs over and over and over again just to get a new level, meh, id rather run my own head over with a lawn mower.....
Anyway, my main concern as is many others who have noticed the same population problems on their own servers are mainly worried about their servers population, few ideas that people hashed out and some agree'd on, some were against them were:
1) Server / Character transfers.
2) Add more content to draw new players in.
3) Some people agree with certain server merges, not all.
4) HP / Mana regeneration increase ( which it looks like we will be getting in the new patch with the implementation of HP / Mana scrolls, how these work or what the cost of these is anyones guess, but at least they work of grade tier, finally ).
5) More player progression to make the grind past 65 and above more meaningful and more fun to boot.
See if we can get somewhere again with some more ideas.
Recreational cheats (who turn out to often sell adena on the side) are here to win, to be heroes, to take castles, to 'own' other players and 'dominate' their server. Farmers are almost exclusively passive unless approached, Recreational cheats are almost exclusively highly aggressive.
Those are not recreational cheats, those are pro-cheats. They are really bad, but they were often allowed to get to their position, and once there, they're really set for life. This is why the sports approach to the game of deep monitoring the top of the game is a good idea. They are extremely damaging to the game.
Farmers are damaging as well, but its a more passive kind of damage. Those can be dealt with using more sweeping kinds of methods, and they should be very fast.
The real recreational cheats are pretty much for all intent and purposes irrelevant in the grand scheme of things and is generally a waste of time to deal with (and risk creating more recentment than good)
Well Chaos I use the term recreational cheats to differ from
farmers who would otherwise be deemed professional. Recreational is used to illustrate it is done for entertainment and/or 'fun'.
I think in the MMO world it is stupid to not heavily monitor the cheating situation, of course if proper anti cheat measures were incorporated initially, or even added later it would save long term hassle for the GM team.
Ideally as a developer you want to ensure each one of your servers communities has the right attitude with regard to breaking the rules of your game, including the general community of course.
You also need to ensure your game is protected from some of the worst forms of cheating around in the best way possible. Of course everyone knows that anything coded/built can be decoded/broken and thus cheats will circumvent almost all anti cheat methods. In which case you ensure your methods of prevention are updated regularly (weekly at most) and that there are multiple subtle protections in place.
The final port of call should be the GM and support team who deal with players who slip through the net, in addition to helping players with non cheating issues. Firm but fair should be the motto here and with a well set up community and even the most meagre preventative measures will assist the GM's nicely.
It is akin to owning a castle (the game) which you build in a populated area (community) and ensure it is well built to avoid being captured or penetrated (prevention). In this example the GM's would be in a role of defending the castle and being an active guard on the walls - you have used prevention and community management to make the castle strong and well supported, the guards (GMs) merely reinforce that. After all anything can be destroyed if unguarded.
Ideally MMO developers should be sitting happy when their playerbase is complaining about their games features, balance for characters, skills, items, areas, races.. etc.
Those are after all things which the developers have 100% control over and it is always a good sign even if it seems bad. When the majority of complaints that a developer faces are about rogue players it is not a good thing as once those players settle the community is harmed and without a community no MMO has a point whatsoever.
I should really write the MMO makers handbook - oh and for those who might criticise my arrogance or assumption that I know enough to write such a book based on my forum posts just remember it is a forum and I put nowhere near as much effort into this as I could!