So anyway, I've been gone for something like four years, maybe five. I've been playing City of Heroes and having a blast. Due to a misunderstanding, I wasn't even able to log in to Lineage II for a little while, but since I wasn't playing I didn't worry about it. Now that it's gone F2P, it seemed like a good time to drop in and see what the new world looks like. Took some negotiation, but thanks to a support person named Verminthrax I was finally able to get back into my game account. Many thanks, whoever you are!
At the moment, I'm downloading the client. The first thing I notice is we're down to five servers, and almost all of them are brand-spanking new!
Wow. How did that happen? Were there changes to the server-side host that made consolidation a necessity or did the game pass through a bad dry spell? Just massive server-side hardware upgrades, maybe?
I also notice that most of the players who are participating in the forums seem to be European. Is that because of the consolidation or have most of the American players moved on?
I even see one thread asking for Arabic characters and on a couple of servers Japanese clans are recruiting. Is NC Soft NA now the sole non-Korean provider for Lineage II?
It's all very curious.
Unfotunately, I suppose that means all of my characters are gone. Oh, well. The highest ones were only in their mid-40s anyway, except one dwarf who was 52. The resources and adena I'd stashed away are probably gone, too. That's gonna hurt, but I'll just have to rebuild.
I noticed the player's guide on the official website claims that level 20 only takes an hour now, and level 40 about two more. Really? Level 40 in one good day of game play? Amazing. It took me three months to reach level 20 on my first retail character. In the four-month long Japanese beta period (both closed and open) I was only able to reach level 31 or so.
I see random PK, gold farmers, and dungeon hounds are still a problem. I guess some things never change. Once upon a time I pointed out that the three problems were really one problem, but the changes I suggested were never put in place and here we are, half a decade later. I suppose it's true, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Anyway, once the polls shut down and server times are reset to whatever they're going to wind up being, I'll pick a server and start over again.
Are there any roleplayers still around? The game is even more fun when roleplayers get together in-character to add their own special magic to the official canon. RP was always kind of difficult though. On more than one occasion it inspired massive, unprovoked PK attacks on my friends and I. Really, folks, it's just a game! Nothing here has any relevance on life in the real world and slaughtering a dozen people's characters just because their playstyle is different than your own is really nothing more than playground bullying.
Well, hello Lineage II community. For what it's worth, I'm back. At least for now. I used to call Gustin and Lionna home, but they're both gone now. It's kind of heartbreaking.
There is also oficial russian servers and european from company Innova but most are reluctant in joining for now which makes most europeans move here, even tho NCwest hasn't rly prepared a warm welcome to them. And also NC Taiwan if i'm not mistaken.
A lot of things have changed but it's rly dificult to tell them all..It's true lvl 40 can be done in around 3 hours, and class change quests are done in 20-30 minutes, all to make the player hit the new levels which become the most relevant with the last update (85+).
2 words of advice! Do not PK below 60s, the rules have changed a lot and it's quite punishing for lower levels. And i advise the most less played server if such suits you, as Naia- old EU server- (for example) has had for now some high traffic problems.
There is also oficial russian servers and european from company Innova but most are reluctant in joining for now which makes most europeans move here, even tho NCwest hasn't rly prepared a warm welcome to them. And also NC Taiwan if i'm not mistaken.
A lot of things have changed but it's rly dificult to tell them all..It's true lvl 40 can be done in around 3 hours, and class change quests are done in 20-30 minutes, all to make the player hit the new levels which become the most relevant with the last update (85+).
2 words of advice! Do not PK below 60s, the rules have changed a lot and it's quite punishing for lower levels. And i advise the most less played server if such suits you, as Naia- old EU server- (for example) has had for now some high traffic problems.
Perhaps a little history is called for. Back in the day, American players were so common on South Korean and Japanese servers that NC Soft and NC Soft Japan finally blocked all American IPs. Being who and what we are, many Americans simply joined cheap or free proxy IPs in the Philippines and routed their game through them. It added some lag, naturally, but what choice did they have? Then new Lineage II servers were added in the Philippines and Taiwan and China, and all of Asia blocked American IPs. It was part and parcel of the licensing agreements NC Soft forced them to sign. I don't know if those blocks are still in place. I assume they no longer are.
Finally, NC Soft NA announced a North American closed beta (which I was in), followed by an Open Beta (and a long argument with the PvP crowd that led to perhaps one of the greatest marketing mistakes ever made, the Open Beta server was not wiped when it went retail). Europeans flooded onto the American servers because the server cluster on the East Coast gave less lag than the servers in Asia (as I recall, the original server cluster was not on the East Coast, an East Coast cluster was added later). I'm not certain what happened after that, but obviously the opening of European servers did not result in IP blocks against them by NC Soft NA. Strangely enough, even though Americans could not play on Chinese servers, the Chinese have been playing on American servers right from day one. Some of them were even in Closed Beta.
Now, I'm not trying to be critical here (except the one comment about not wiping Open Beta server). I'm just relaying the facts to the best of my memory. I don't know how things stand now because for the past five years I've been playing CoH instead. Back in the day there was some debate over whether or not there even was a real market for Lineage II in North America. The game is still here, so obviously there is a market. I would imagine the size of that market is still debated among key decision makers at NC Soft NA, but that's pure speculation on my part.
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Edit: As an aside, I failed to mention that while all this was going down I actually lived in Tokyo and for a year or so, I had retail accounts on both the Japanese and American servers. I personally benefitted from NC Soft NA not blocking Asia.
For your answers. Yep the game went through a massive dry spell.
First they took the North American servers, and merged a bunch of them in groups of 2. So we were down to almost half the servers. Then (Half caused from the problems that occurred from merging) there was an even larger mass exodus from the game. There were rumours that L2 was going to be shut down, then we got the notice that all the North American servers were going to merge into Chronos and all the European servers would merge into Naia. For a while the servers were packed (Still not like it is now), then the numbers started to dwindle again, as again they caused alot of problems via the merge and another mass exodus occurred. There were rumours that we might be merging into 1 final server. You could walk into areas on Chronos (The busiest of the 2 servers) and easily find an area to level in without a single person in the spot.
Then instead of the notice we expected that the servers were being shut down, we got the news that the game was going Free to play. They opened 1 new server the day the game went free to play, but they underestimated the amount of people coming back and within 2-3 days we had another server opened. A few weeks later the 3rd server (Bartz) opened. Even with the 5 servers, there is a large portion of the time the servers can not be played on due to to many people logging in, so I am guessing more might be opening in a short while, especially after more people hear that the game is free to play now.
As for the languages changing. Nope NC West actually lost geographical area that they "Officially" cover now. And they actually moved all of the European servers back to Texas as well, since they no longer have the rights to offer the game there. But in becoming Free to play, alot of the private servers closed, as their reason for existing (People wanting to play for free) ceased to exist. And I guess a majority of people from Europe and South America that used to play on the privates moved here to play on official servers. The Russian company that now owns the rights to host the game in Europe is deemed as semi shady, and they make you pay for more services then here, so that is why NC West is picking up more people world wide, as its the only part of the world where Lineage 2 is truely free to play. In Korea the game is still on monthly subscription from what I have heard.
As for the game, since it has gone Free to play, and the Goddess of Destruction update, the game is on easy mode now. What took me nearly 7 years of straight playing (Getting 1-80+), people are now doing in a busy weekend. If you follow the opening quests you can hit level 40 without trying in maybe 1-2 hours. I think that took me 6 months the first time I did it.
Heyas BK, I remember you from back in the day. Welcome back. Make sure you look on Chronos as any of the characters you had left behind will be there. Whether they have any of your adena or equipment left on them is debateable as there have been numerous old timers coming back and finding their accounts partially or fully stripped. So fingers crossed for you there.
Game mechanics have defintely changed, some good, a lot bad (but we'll see how it pans out). One thing to note now though is levels 1-40 is basically your tutorial period. You follow the quest chain from the get go and the game gives you a bit of training, some free equipment and a bit of money to get you going. It is pretty care bear compared to when we first started. That said, the real game content doesn't really start until lvl 85+ now, so the faster you can get there, the sooner you'll actually get to effectively participate.
One thing to note is that with the mentor system, new (returning players) can get access to xp/sp boosts as well as good buffs to help them get to 85+ sooner. As always, find some friends or a clan to help out. If the journey is half the fun... well you get the picture.
Heyas BK, I remember you from back in the day. Welcome back. Make sure you look on Chronos as any of the characters you had left behind will be there.
Thanks for the heads up, Incheiri! I logged onto Chronos and some of my old characters did survive, but the highest level survivor is 17! The character I made the day before yesterday is already 32, and would probably be higher but I spent today visiting old haunts. I'll keep on with the new one for now. She's on Bartz and so far the population density seems about right for my taste.
So the game doesn't even really start until 85 now, eh? Pretty poor game design in my opinion, but then, for Lineage II the only opinions that seem to matter are those of the management in Seoul. I suppose I ought to just accept that, but I'm a stubborn old man not prone to accepting much of anything. (^_^)V
Well they changed the game so you can quickly get up to lvl 85 now in a weekend if your hardcore, or probably a few weeks if your casual. After 85 the XP gain is supposed to slow down dramatically. Yes it sucks in some ways, but I guess they want everyone to be within a 15 level gap for PVP, as they know the only way to keep all the new players interested is to get them into PVP quickly and not have them overcome an 8 year hear start.
Personally I didn't like it. It took me over 7 hard years to get my toon to 83. With a bit of really casual playing I managed to get to get to lvl 84 in maybe 5-10 hours, and then to 85 in another 5-10 hours (Maybe less)
I also notice that most of the players who are participating in the forums seem to be European. Is that because of the consolidation or have most of the American players moved on?
I even see one thread asking for Arabic characters and on a couple of servers Japanese clans are recruiting. Is NC Soft NA now the sole non-Korean provider for Lineage II?
Really, what a shock! I tought United States is made of Europeans who moved there and even today more than 50% of this country is populated with imigrants..... whats the problem if europeans play in US servers, or arabians or japanes? Why do you care? the so called "american nation" is made by imigrants from all the countries.
Really, what a shock! I tought United States is made of Europeans who moved there and even today more than 50% of this country is populated with imigrants..... whats the problem if europeans play in US servers, or arabians or japanes? Why do you care? the so called "american nation" is made by imigrants from all the countries.
You're projecting your own suspicions and paranoias onto me. I never once stated or implied that I felt it was a bad thing. If forced to choose a side, I would side with those who prefer an international game environment. I am not choosing a side, because I've only been back a few days and I'm waiting to see how things look as I level up. At this point in time it honestly does not matter to me personally one way or another.
For your answers. Yep the game went through a massive dry spell.
First they took the North American servers, and merged a bunch of them in groups of 2. So we were down to almost half the servers. Then (Half caused from the problems that occurred from merging) there was an even larger mass exodus from the game. There were rumours that L2 was going to be shut down, then we got the notice that all the North American servers were going to merge into Chronos and all the European servers would merge into Naia. For a while the servers were packed (Still not like it is now), then the numbers started to dwindle again, as again they caused alot of problems via the merge and another mass exodus occurred. There were rumours that we might be merging into 1 final server. You could walk into areas on Chronos (The busiest of the 2 servers) and easily find an area to level in without a single person in the spot.
Then instead of the notice we expected that the servers were being shut down, we got the news that the game was going Free to play. They opened 1 new server the day the game went free to play, but they underestimated the amount of people coming back and within 2-3 days we had another server opened. A few weeks later the 3rd server (Bartz) opened. Even with the 5 servers, there is a large portion of the time the servers can not be played on due to to many people logging in, so I am guessing more might be opening in a short while, especially after more people hear that the game is free to play now.
As for the languages changing. Nope NC West actually lost geographical area that they "Officially" cover now. And they actually moved all of the European servers back to Texas as well, since they no longer have the rights to offer the game there. But in becoming Free to play, alot of the private servers closed, as their reason for existing (People wanting to play for free) ceased to exist. And I guess a majority of people from Europe and South America that used to play on the privates moved here to play on official servers. The Russian company that now owns the rights to host the game in Europe is deemed as semi shady, and they make you pay for more services then here, so that is why NC West is picking up more people world wide, as its the only part of the world where Lineage 2 is truely free to play. In Korea the game is still on monthly subscription from what I have heard.
As for the game, since it has gone Free to play, and the Goddess of Destruction update, the game is on easy mode now. What took me nearly 7 years of straight playing (Getting 1-80+), people are now doing in a busy weekend. If you follow the opening quests you can hit level 40 without trying in maybe 1-2 hours. I think that took me 6 months the first time I did it.
Chinese players i believe were IP blocked, but they did the same thing and re-routed through unblocked IPs to the US. Same thing as Chinese Players in WoW. They were stuck with Burning Crusade up till the launch of Cataclysm, but they re-route through proxies to access the Taiwan Clients and IPs, enabling them to play in US Servers.