Starting Areas, Towns And New Content

Heyo. Since there is a major upgrade of Lineage 2 coming up I thought now would be a good time to bring up in a post a talk about some of the content in the game. The veterans would know more than me about the higher leveling areas.

The starting area buildings to me are very nice. I was just wondering if I was the only one who thought the starting areas were fairly 'plain' looking.

I think the orc area is the best in its design but that the other ones could use some additional content. Also some of the main towns, Giran, Gludio, and the other lowbie one with the music quests whose name escapes me at the moment, maybe Dion.

What got me thinking about this was the MMO 'Sword Of The New World'. I have seen the starting areas whose artwork is very similar to Lineage 2 and it seems to me that they have more content, making it look less plain and more appealing. There is no day and night cycle and it is has a sense of invisibility and clearness but it does look more fulfilling than the Lineage 2 starting areas. No offense to meant to L2. L2's clarity and gameplay are much better. I just think that the starting towns could use some work.

By the addition of new content I am referring to items such as market carts, fruit vendors, blacksmith anvils, and festival streamers just to name a few. I was wondering if some players thought that the addition of items such as this would take away from the 'open-ness' or 'plain-ness' that for me seems to radiate from the starting areas.

I also think that if some of those things are added, that with the release of the 'Lineage 2 trial codes' or 'free trials' there would be an increase in number of subscribers. I have talked to many people who started to play a free trial in "The Talking Islands" and they didn't like what they saw at all. So they didn't become a player. They are actually not getting a idea of how good L2 really is.

I have also wondered why the game designers have not added this sort of thing already and maybe they did it for some reason that is far over my head. I am thinking that maybe it has something to do with the heavy graphics and the day and night cycle which to me is still the best I have seen for eye enjoyment.

The foliage in the game is great. It adds a real sense of "real life" to the game and still leaves the feeling of a fantasy setting. It is just in-the-towns and starting towns that I get a feeling a blankness as if something were missing.

What do you guys think?

I think you got some good suggestions. :) Over the course of the game, NCSoft has updated a lot of their previous content. (Even in the next expansion, a long-time dungeon Cruma Tower is getting a big update!) But over the course of these updates the newbie towns have remain somewhat unchanged.

yeah snag is with gracia you ll spend a grand total of 20 minutes in the starting areas so ... hardly worth the effort

your suggestions of cosmeltics are valid but ask yourself the following question: Who really looks at this tuff besides Newbies/novices? i can say with full certainty i'm concentrating more on the speed of levelling, and the power / looks balance of my character over how decorated the town is with stuff i cant interact with.

fruit vendors are great but unless i can buy some fruit that will do something for me besides give me an /eatfruit emote i really cant care.

listen, its not that i dont like the idea. i do. i know a LOT of players that were roped in on graphics alone, MANY more on sound and ambiance. but i cannot advocate throwing more pixels at a town i both no longer visit nor can interact with.

what NC has done with CT2 is allowed the new player to SKIP level 1-20, FLY through 20-30 in CHEAP gear, and find clans faster cause theyll be in Dion faster. NC knows the game's players are mostly all nearing an average level of 76 and few new players even SEE a vet anymore. the ease, and speed of 1-40 is so VALUABLE and PRODUCTIVE for clans seeking Reputation that new players are almost GUARANTEED to find vets somewhere passing time on an alt. and its not a truly bad thing either - some such clans will assist these new players by showing off skills, castle, clan halls, etc. all the decoration of a newbie town would be lost on a new person who got picked up by a clan with a hall or castle.