What sense does it make to reduce classes to 8 ppl while those classes are not customizable at all?
What makes me play this game and not WoW (set the not mature graphics and gameplay apart) lets make a small comparison
Classes L2: 8 Classes WoW: 10 Classes
Skillwise customization: L2: only by overenchanting, in endgame all classes are the same WoW: highly customizable skills
Itemswise customization: L2: masterwork and normal, overenchanting WoW: custom stats, enormous amount of equal good items to customize your char to your playstile (I didnt play WoW for more then 2 years, add if you know more)
PvP: L2 ok this one is won by L2, open PvP > WoW: fraction pvp BUT also here, in L2 2ways to build your party in GoD (nuker or melee) unlimited party setups in WoW
World Size: I don't have to say much about this? L2 world is reduced to max 1% of the map for the endgame, maybe that changes in GoD
I'm still not willing to change to World of Warcraft, this game really is not my grafics and playstyle. But the Pros that L2 had before vanished and the cons are still there. I like my character bein unique... with GoD that uniqueness will be reduced from 1:36 to 1:8 ... beside mayb some stupid new haircuts (lol compare that to wow, if you consider the amount of different items you could use, they even have helmets!!!!)
/comment
p.s. don't jump on me because WoW:L2 comparison, I just couldn't resist because im really thinking of playing any other game when GoD comes out because it won't be innovative at all, and will have lots of cons compared to other games, if you have Pros to add, feel free to
First we don't have the full patch contents just th eideas that they are developing in Korea. Second how can you feel unique in L2? By playing a dead class (by dead i mean one that 90% around are being boxed). With +++ skills (everyone does that), by having a noble set... that can maybe being considered unique, we all loo the same and do the same skill enchants to be able to win, once we all know what is necessary to win in l2 and that is win in PVP, l2 isn't a pve game, never was never will be (don't see any pointed stuff taht GoD will change this).
Yes it's true that GoD looks more like a way to bring L2 close to an WoW like mmo, but the differences still there, there is no point in have 32 classes when the huge majority plays 5 or 6 classes as main ones (oh i have sub bla, bla, bla, bla and still you won't show on that when it's somethign serious, unless you rmain can''t pk and you whant to pk someone).
WoW is pve game, only pvp ther is arena and heavily unbalanced (you can see same classes in most of compositions).
Wow has more char customization? Truth they gone putting more and more over time, and on that i can only blame nc for not have intoduced dyes on armors and more appearance styles to make people feel unique, and also more acessories. But there is no such feeling of uniquiness when it comes to skills and armors, all do the same stuff that is supposed to be done by a determinade class on it's hole on a raid or party. I.E. paly be dd, tank or healer will act exctly like other paly on same hole and can't do much on other hole in an emergency situation. Oh my paly can be holy and tank, ok till 80 i can be healer and tank also but nc enforces us to choose a hole and master it, not to be a substitute for a class that noone whants to play. Unfortunaly overtime nc devs decisions killed many classes that are now either boxed or being played by few resistant players.
Imo, we still need more detailed info (official) about what will GoD exactly be, but truth must be told L2 need some changes.
I'm going to assume that after 7 1/2 years, NCK knows what they are doing. There will still be customizability. You will still be able to choose what weapon you prefer, and get skills that go with it. Sure all melees will have rush, and all casters nukes. But how is that any different from now? We are getting more hairstyles, new skills, more hats, the game will be SO much easier to balance. Just because the name of your class changes doesn't mean any of your gameplay has to change.
And the gameplay that set L2 apart from Aion and WoW is still there. Open faction/raceless pvp, insane pvp events via sieges, forts, TW, and really cool gear and skill modifying opportunities, to set you even further apart from others.
He said this in January 2010. In the meantime we have the sales numbers for the whole year of 2010, and Aion has increased its contribution to NCsoft's total revenue from 43% to 44%, while Lineage 2 went down from 26% to 20%: http://gametsg.yatta.com.tw/lineage2/index.php?view=pic&pic=307112
In other words, there is no way the developers could sell a reversal of the aionification of Lineage 2 to the shareholders. There will be no last-minute addition of more classes, the party size will not be increased from 7 to 9. The developers have been working on "Goddess of Destruction" since 2009; they will definitely not put in another year to redesign the small-party instances and hunting grounds for bigger parties.
That being said, there will still be plenty of customizability in "Goddess of Destruction". Deba from Inven.co.kr keeps on pestering the developers with question lists, and they keep giving different answers every time. So the details are obviously not yet finalized. But as far as we can tell now, the forgetting of the old skills will be a long-drawn process. There will be Awakened lvl 90 characters with most of their old skills still available, while others sacrificed some of them to upgrade their new Awakening skills. This goes contrary to the proclaimed aim of making party matching easier, but that's NCsoft for you :p