The MMOFury staff recently had a change to sit down and chat with North American/European Lineage II Producer, Tim Tan and ask him a few candid questions about the recent Hellbound update, pet system changes, and the upcoming Gracia update. Check out the full interview here! (http://mmofury.com/gamingnews/news.php?extend.140)
So, have any of you read it? What are your thoughts?
And for once i wish someone would ask them what are they going to do about game monsters?
That when they had to restructure the spawn layout of monsters in the world for the catacombs they left alot of the world barren. We now have whole areas with just nothing..... Do you hear me Tim Tan?
We need more monsters and spawn points to make the world lively once again.
MMOFury:
Hellbound has been out for a little over 2 months now, what do you consider the biggest accomplishment?
Tim Tan:
I would consider the addition of the Steel Citadel including Beleth and his minions the biggest accomplishment of the Hellbound update.
hahahahah, you were never even able to get passed the second tower in this update and now on bartz you can't even get passed the first because the demon prince is bugged. You can't even get anywhere near beleth and that guy talking about it as an accomplishment.
I always get the feeling, when reading an article with NCNA staff, that they don't know anymore about what's coming in L2 than we do. They are kept just as much in the dark by the Korean devs as we are.
I mean seriously, I think they could have interviewed any player and gotten just as much detail and information on Gracia as that was... Plus it'd probably be more interesting.
I wonder if he even plays the game or is just the guy "with the light in the bottle".
I mean really, they could make this game the best that there is in 1 update, but it is NCSoft, hence the theme is "Epic Fail"
To be honest he didn't say much.
Nothing really new though he did hit the auction house idea and why it's this way and told us they weren't changing the fortesses. He didn't mention anything to bold about the future of L2.
That could have been fun. NC needs some more showmen.
His answers mean squat. It was all everything I knew. Questions about the future and auction houses? You can tell that was made up and denied any claims to it because there was no changes to Auction Houses in CT2.1 or CT2.2. We already know that, there could be changes for CT2.3 though, but since thats almost a year away thats not in his scope.
He was proud of 3 updates in a year? This update barely adds any content, basically just system changes. That doesn't take much time at all, a private server staff could do these changes themselves. This update is as big as... a mid chronicle update, only slightly bigger and seems to warrant a PTS. There's not even enough content to call it anything but "Gracia", so they have to use a decimal system now. The irony is Gracia isn't even a continent yet and they are calling their expansions based on it.
What was funny is his remark about an auction house.
Tim Tan:
Lineage II uses a private store buy/sell system. Buying and selling items in Lineage II is designed to promote interaction between individual players. We don’t currently see a need to change this system at this time.
Interaction he says. Sorry but most shops I see are as death as a rusted nail on a coffin. They are up and running 24/7 as most players have these shops up while they sleep anyway.
In for example Rappelz you do have both the playershops AND an auction house. In this you can see "more so called interaction" then we will ever see in this game if you would ask me.
Not saying that Rappelz or any other game is better just making it clear that a system like this could be used alongside the current system.
You know this Tim reminds me of a professor I knew:
He would open up a seminar as a chairman of sorts. Then he would ask the speaker to start and he would sit down on the front row in plain sight of the speaker.
More then once this professor had the habit of dosing off.
He then would still tell the speaker after waking up (usually by then the speech had be rounded up and people had had their go at asking the speaker questions etc.) that he enjoyed it.....
Maybe NcSoft could arrange for US to submit a few questions that have been bothering US and see if he would take the time to respond in a more forthcomming and complete manner.
I fail to see why there in no interaction between him and us at all... :(
Maybe NcSoft could arrange for US to submit a few questions that have been bothering US and see if he would take the time to respond in a more forthcomming and complete manner
They've done that with pretty much the same results. All talking and no answers.
Maybe NcSoft could arrange for US to submit a few questions that have been bothering US and see if he would take the time to respond in a more forthcomming and complete manner
They've done that with pretty much the same results. All talking and no answers.
The other problem is that the players will ask things like "why aren't you doing anything about botting" and NC will say "we do, and we allocate more resources than we like but it's an uphill battle and in the end it's up to the players to not bot" and then we are at an impasse.
For all we know NC does spend an innordinate amount of time on such matters but it's just not possible to stop it. However, the players don't want to hear this and then they remain ******.
And, if we ask questions about the future of the game all we get is "We can't really comment on that but rest assured we are excited about the future of Lineage 2".
It seems to me that for 4+ years NC and the playerbase have been going round and round about issues and the same issues. Over and over and over again.
And, if we ask questions about the future of the game all we get is "We can't really comment on that but rest assured we are excited about the future of Lineage 2".
It seems to me that for 4+ years NC and the playerbase have been going round and round about issues and the same issues. Over and over and over again.
And thats why you have to ask the hard questions and not the typical ones that you know what kind of answer you will be getting back.
Like.....
When will you be upgrading the in-game community server? It is and has been player unfriendly, it is not being used to it's fullest by NC.
Since the reordering and shifting of game monsters and spawn points in Chronicle 3 when we got catacombs. The world of Aden is now a barren land it is no longer a dangerous place like it use to be. When will you be increasing the amount of monsters and spawn points?
And thats why you have to ask the hard questions and not the typical ones that you know what kind of answer you will be getting back.
Like.....
When will you be upgrading the in-game community server? It is and has been player unfriendly, it is not being used to it's fullest by NC.
We are aware of the difficulties that players have had with the community server and are working on possible fixes. Unfortunately there is no definitive time frame that we can offer for when this will be fixed.
Or...
Since the reordering and shifting of game monsters and spawn points in Chronicle 3 when we got catacombs. The world of Aden is now a barren land it is no longer a dangerous place like it use to be. When will you be increasing the amount of monsters and spawn points?
With the additon of the 7 Signs and subsequently the Catacombs, Necropoli it was nesecessary to make some hard decisions as to the placement of monsters. It is always a difficult thing to balance all the content within the world so that new players can take advantage of a robust and exciting world but that developers can continually add new content. Unfortunately technology just has not caught up with the the possibilities of game design.
For real, I've never seen a game with SO MUCH unexplained stuff, dynamics, rules etc.. and with support that, or dont know anything either, or know but dont let us know everything.
Dont explain things, dont reply, when reply are not clear, dont listen to gamers.. etc.. etc.. etc..
There should be an interview with Spam when he's in the mood to share and he will give you all the answers you ever wanted, not with some spokesperson who probably can't even name all the classes in the game.
And be more gutsy when you ask questions...What Splatter asked are the right line of questions, and he was probably holding back too. Who cares if you will never get another interview, at least there would be a chance to get something useful out of it.
You made the statement that "hard questions" had to be asked.
You can ask any question you want. You can go as point blank and "no holds barred" as you like.
But you will always get the type of answer that I gave example of.
Players need to realize that NC is a Korean company and they actually do business differently than western companies (traditionally).
I really do think they approach L2 in a way that allows them to say "this is what we are making... log on if you like".
I can't say that I completely disagree with that but it does cause frustration.
But look, even they realize that their original designs for l2 are a lot different than what the majority of players want. Hence you get the new Vitality system, ways to get players gear that will help them lvl, etc.
L2 is becoming easier so they aren't completely in a bubble. Whether or not it's the right thing for this game remains to be seen.
Being blunt, I have to say that the interview was very disappointing. To begin with, all of the questions were softball. But even with the easy setup, Tim Tan managed to fall short on most of them.
I think most players will read that interview and conclude something along the lines of: "I don't think this guy plays the game or is in touch with his customer base at all." In the past I have expressed frustration with decisions that I assume come from senior management. This interview gives me a glimpse into that and reaffirms my frustrations.
An example would be the NPC buy shop in Elmore where you can buy a starter set of non grade boots, and you can get the same set of boots in Aden. I can see no reason to waste a slot in high level towns that are selling low grade equipment.
Basically the farther you move out into the world the higher grade of equipment should be available in NPC shops.
An example would be the NPC buy shop in Elmore where you can buy a starter set of non grade boots, and you can get the same set of boots in Aden. I can see no reason to waste a slot in high level towns that are selling low grade equipment.
Basically the farther you move out into the world the higher grade of equipment should be available in NPC shops.
I completely agree.
So they could say:
we are always adding to and modifying npc shops to reflect the needs of the players. At this time they are operating as intended
These are the types of answers that they come up with!
And I agree with ghostwhisper... it's like he phoned it in.
What is the place of the OL in the overall game design and what design considerations are being given to fix it and the PP / other support toons to encourage true participation and to balance the roles and power of the toons?
Why, when we see the likes of Sony adding and in game chat server to the clans/allies is NCsoft unable to bring the game into the current state of game development?
Why isn't NCSoft allow to augment / tune its server to better service the needed and playstyle of the North American audience that it serves. What overriding corportate rule prohibits this and what does Korea think about the current market share loss with the game entering into its 5th year?
I am sure I have other questions, but these are the types of things I am interested in.
Yes, I like Spam when he can talk, but he too is not in control but rather a person put on the ship to keep it off of the ice burgs. He gets to sit in on the meetings and I am sure his depth of knowledge of certain things is awsome, but really Tam is the one that can bring real light to us, should he wish to.
What is the place of the OL in the overall game design and what design considerations are being given to fix it and the PP / other support toons to encourage true participation and to balance the roles and power of the toons?
Thank you Zhanig for your question. Please know that we are always concerned with class balance as well as their role in relation to other classes. Our Dev's are constantly looking at the overall performance of a class and should they find that a change is needed, it will be modified accordingly. At the moment the Overlord is performing as expected but we will continue to monitor player feedback and make changes if needed.
and...
Why, when we see the likes of Sony adding and in game chat server to the clans/allies is NCsoft unable to bring the game into the current state of game development?
We are always looking at new ways to improve the game experience of Lineage 2. It is always of interest to us to consider ways to augment our games such as implementing a voice chat system. If we can find a way to integrate these systems and if it makes sense to the feel and intent of the game then we will find a way to include it in a future update.
This one is fun...
Why isn't NCSoft allow to augment / tune its server to better service the needed and playstyle of the North American audience that it serves. What overriding corportate rule prohibits this and what does Korea think about the current market share loss with the game entering into its 5th year?
Though Lineage 2 was created and is developed in South Korea we listen to all segments of the Lineage 2 community. We have had numerous question and answer sessions and always monitor the suggestions of our playerbase. Should a comment or suggestion work with the design intent of Lineage 2 we will consider it for future updates. We believe that the core mechanics of Lineage 2 resonate with our playerbase no matter what region they hail from and design the game in a way that will always take this fact into consideration.
We are always concerned with the overall performance of our games as their lifespan increases and though it is expected that the playerbase will cycle through this time period, rest assured that we will continue to evaluate and make such changes that will add value to the core community of Lineage 2.
I am sure I have other questions, but these are the types of things I am interested in.
Then the oil fields dry up.... out goes the mooolaaah. :confused:
In comes the wasteland that were the Oil fields.
I would consider more plentiful energy supplies here.
Btw adequate replies Sovath but I have the feeling the answers you made are more in line of what a Community Manager would supply then the "office-suit" that Tim Tan is.
So if you are after Alyra job you would be a good consideration from my point of view (No offense here to you or Alyra).
I have the idea that he is more of a head-beancounter pressed into making public statements then a manager but that's me talking. :p
lol, thx Oytis and Zhanig. I have one foot in the corporate world and one in the Artistic. Guess which pays the bills? When you are surrounded by people who use "leveraging" and "Productizing" (which is not a word I looked it up) all day long and are required to create correspondence in this manner, it tends to become part of your day to day lexicon.
The scary thing is that after seeing NC interviews over the years, they really sound like that. You could plug in any combination of catch phrases and buzz words and create a whole new (yet not new) interview.
Tim-Tan? Isn't that one of the characters from "Cats!"?
lol, nice work on those responses Sovrath
you could definately work for them
and as far as Tim Tan or any of them in an interview, you can forget about any real answers to real questions.
Back when Lineage Radio was still working, an occasional interview was given with many restrictions on what questions could be asked.
for instance you were not even allowed to mention bots, in an interview or on the air as a DJ.