Questions & Answers
Game Design
Q: What will be done in regards to this terrible war system that makes little to no sense? The wars are perpetual so there is never a clear victor, the smaller clans are being abused by the larger more domineering clans and paying 5k rep points is ridiculous. Waterfallz (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=161292)
A: There is currently an issue with the clan war system which we have been addressing with the development team. Due to other more critical requests, this hasn’t been looked into yet but we are pushing to get a fix as soon as possible. On a broader note, the development team is also not happy with the current system and more changes will be made to the clan war system in the next major update Lindvior.
Q: Why are Daggers’ Maximum Critical skills messed up? We no longer have the critical damage bonus on the passive, and this is a huge blow (no pun intended) to our class. Waterfallz (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=161292)
A: As far as I know the skill was just made into a passive skill and according to our testing the critical damage bonus should be the same. We’ll look further into this and verify if it’s working as intended.
Q: Is there ever going to be a fix for the currently worthless Wynn Summoner cubic? Blackh4nd (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=196200)
A: The skill is working as intended and no changes are planned.
Q: Why all classes have the best SA in weapon except daggers, we need critical damage and might mortal again >< ¤ ShadowaY ® (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=194678)
A: The Special Abilities on weapons are balanced for all classes. There is currently no plan to change the SAs on daggers.
Q: +16 r99 weapons and Power Shirts make a huge difference in game. Is there a way to fix all of this and make the game balanced again? I am sure every player and staff member of NC West realizes that this was huge mistake. Now the player base is separated: those that started early in the Truly Free project, and those that started later. That definitely demotivates newcomers to the game. My suggestion might sound dumb, but it will not be bad if you ban all the +16R99 weapon users, I am sure they all break the EULA with no exception and limit the max enchantment to +10 or +8 as they did at Innova Servers. Somehow nerf the Power Shirts to make both the new comers and the current owners happy. It is the same with the Draco Event. Players that have started earlier have their dyes. Players that started later need to pay approximately 7 billion to get their dyes. Again this is huge imbalance. Maya1 (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=201156)
A: Players who started early will always have an advantage over new players as it is the case in most MMOs. Limiting the enchantment system would be unfair to those players who accumulated enough resources to enchant their weapon and no other territory, including Innova, has any limitation on the enchantment system. Regarding events, there will be other opportunities to acquire those items in the future.
Q: In Chapter 3 since you are decreasing our damage output (by how much will that be exactly?) because we will be the only class/race who can spoil once again and giving us an AoE spoil again (Thank you for that btw), are you at least increasing the Spoil Success/reward rate? To pre GoD standard? As of now spoil is useless even with AoE spoil with current success/reward rate is useless so if you are going to nerf us spoiler only to have us not be able to spoil too, please let us know so we can choose different Othell type not spoiler. But I wish you do something about this. Because I love the spoiler class and that's why I play it. SpoilR (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=206213)
A: We haven’t got our hands on the Lindvior build yet but once it is up and running on our internal QA server I will make sure to look into this and forward the appropriate feedback to the development team.
Q: Server Wars (coming someday): does this mean we can war clans from other servers and join some "instance" to meet them? Like it doesn’t matter anymore which server u play? That would be awesome. redmen (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=159011)
A: We don’t have much information about this new Server Wars system yet. Once we do and are ready to release the information to the public, it should answer your question.
Q: Wasn’t reflect supposed to be "nerfed"? ATM reflect isn’t nerfed at all unless u call it a nerf when u bound max reflect done by a character is based on his PDEF? Because in all honestly with free augments give away everyone will try get Active augment reflect on C-weapon and Passive augment reflect on their main weapon. This means people reflect easily up to 50??% of the damage so even if u have low damage output let say u do 1000 damage to Char A u get reflect 500 back on top of that reflect u get his damage added also . for me it really ruins PvP when I go to siege and do 1 good AoE I almost kill myself if not drop over right away while taking 0 "real" damage but pure reflect damage. NCSOFT has stated they nerfed reflect for all classes except a few who have it as Own skill still can boost it over the top but augments where nerfed. I want to know if the nerf was like I said max reflect is your PDEF is that working as it "should". 5k P Def. means u can reflect max 5k damage (which doesn’t sound like a nerf to me at all :X) redmen (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=159011)
A: Reflect damage is currently working as intended. There may be some changes made into the next major update Lindvior, but I don’t have the details at the moment.
Q: Can you once and for all use any of the city which is not in use for example Gludin and make it like a market city or however you want to call it so just there you would be able to make any shop so that would save so much lag in towns like Aden. Sitch (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=208468)
A: There are currently no plans to do that. Lineage II is an open-world and players may set up their shops wherever they want.
Q: Can NPCs like the Kartia NPC be placed them in a few other cities as well? Way too many people around 1 NPC in Aden. Sitch (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=208468)
A: We have placed a request to the development team to add more NPCs in other towns. This request hasn’t been implemented yet due to other priorities, but I am confident it will be done at some point.
Q: Are there any plans for better optimization for the game? I can play Guild Wars 2 on full graphics... but I cannot do the same with Lineage II. Siege (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=161927)
A: Lineage II is running on a modified version of the Unreal II game engine which is over 10 years old. The development team constantly updates and tweaks the engine to improve performance and graphic quality but there is so much they can do with a 10-year old engine.
Q: Are there any plans to reintroduce an improved version of the Manor/Catacombs System or something similar to ensure a source of Adena income for players? (It’s currently very difficult to get Adena and that’s related to the daily increase in bot activity.) Siege (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=161927)
A: There are currently no plans to re-introduce the Catacombs/Necropolis from the 7 signs system. However I believe the development team is working on an update to the Manor system which I agree is overdue.
Q: Are there any plans to create a search engine for automatic groups and dungeons to make the game more fun? (Yeah... something like that is in World of Warcraft...) Siege (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=161927)
A: This is a good suggestion and something that I personally would love to see implemented in the game. I don’t think it’s on the development schedule yet, but I will make sure to forward your suggestion to the development team.
Q: Are there any plans to enable any option that allows the system to use "QWERASD" motions or something more interesting that click-to-move? Siege (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=161927)
A: WASD is currently working as an alternative movement system for your character albeit it is not very smooth and optimal. This is something we have been asking the development team for a long time but it is currently very difficult to implement correctly due to the way the game engine and the character movement system work.
Q: There any plans to make crafting professions or something more interesting for all races? Siege (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=161927)
A: Revitalizing the crafting system and putting it back at the center of the economy is one of the high-priority tasks of the development team. You will start to see some improvements in the next major update Lindvior.
Q: I would like to know when I will get Spoil abilities back. My rogue is lvl 90 and I am lucky if I get 1 spoil out of let’s say 10 or 15 tries.... it’s very disappointing indeed because is my favorite class to play. LylSpoiler (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=159887)
A: I am pretty sure the change which was made with the Tauti update is working as intended, but I will try to get a confirmation from the dev team as to why it was changed that way if there are any plans to update it in future updates.
Q: Once we will get back 34 classes, some notes says if you are Othell Rogue (example), it will be possible to "choose” between the 4 "new" Othell Rogue classes: Adventurer, Ghost Hunter, Wind Rider, and Fortune Seeker. By the way, those notes come from not trustable Korean’s translations and might be wrong. My question is: if in-game as a human Othell Rogue (Awakened by Adventurer class, of course), will it be possible to change my class for another Othell Rogue? I mean, am I bound to my previous class’s skills essence or can I select another? Will it be influence by my race, or change my race? Will it change my lvl? Basically, can I be free to select any new Othell Rogue class I wish without being worried about race changes, penalties, lvl change, or things like that? Vincen† (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=193883)
A: Yes there will be a system in place when we launch the Lindvior update that will allow already awakened characters to pick their new class without any restriction, and keep their race and level.
Q: Same question from before, but for dual classes. [Once we will get back 34 classes: now you are one human Othell rogue (Awakened by Adventurer class, of course), will be possible change my class to another Othell Rogue’s?] If I took Sigel Knight as dual class based on an Eva’s Templar class (example), am I bound to the "essence" of the Eva’s Templar, or can I select a new Sigel Knight class essence without any penalty? Vincen† (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=193883)
A: Same answer as previous question, there will also be a system in place for Dual Classes to allow them to pick their preferred class.
Q: With the coming class changes, what will happen with Kamaels? Will be possible dualize more classes (like humans does)? What about Kamael gender restriction? Why keep it? If I want one Kamael male Yul archer, I will need make one Feoh/Tyrr lvl 85 and dualize in Yul for it? (Some classes just don't exist anymore, there is no ISS Judicator in new update, as well, no Kamael Sigel Knight. Stone of destiny was one horrible thing... really, really bad idea). Vincen† (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=193883)
A: I currently do not have enough information to answer your question accurately. We will know more once we get our hands on the Lindvior update.
Q: Has NCsoft ever considered removing GameGuard from Lineage II? Any 3rd party program can emulate GameGuard behavior, which is kinda normal since GameGuard is, as far as I know, firstly a protection program against keyloggers and similar threats, but this program is very annoying for any user, and it eats up a lot of computer performance. Would it be possible to play some day without the lack of installed GameGuard causing an automatic ban? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: This is something we have been discussing internally but I can’t give you a definitive answer at this point. The main point is that we cannot remove GameGuard without implementing another protection system.
Q: Have you ever heard about the Cache size change in the L2.ini file, which is by default at 32MB? Did you request an improvement regarding this value which is just too low regarding current video cards? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: We have been testing different version of the file with different values for the cache size but didn’t find that it improved performance. This was tested on both low-end and high-end hardware.
NCSOFT West-specific Topics
Q: Since the decision to no longer do a PTS prior to updates, we seem cursed to go through multiple emergency maintenances, tons of bugged skills, items, quests, etc, and most importantly, lots of unhappy players. We now dread events, patches and weekly maintenances. Most people believe you have completely abandoned the customer service aspect of this game because of problems like this. In light of this, would you please reconsider opening a PTS server the week (or more) prior to live updates so we can help you with identifying bugs? wildivy (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=198037)
A: There are many other considerations for opening PTS other than bug hunting. We need to create a separate client, integrate it into the NCsoft launcher, have a separate environment which includes a separate authentication and petition server, monitoring tools and so on. Currently our limited resources do not allow us to have a PTS server, but we are constantly improving our processes in order to deliver an update with as few bugs as possible. That being said, a PTS server may return in the future.
Q: Regarding the Echo patches we have received so far. We seem to have gotten these out of order. On 1/23 we got remainder of Echo 2, one little part of Echo 3, 4, and half of Echo 5. Sace has stated that we should expect the rest of the changes with Lindvior. I worry weekly maintenance patches will introduce new bugs since we will not have all of Echo patches in game. Slasherup (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=91607)
Question 1: Why we get Echo out of order?
A: I don’t have the exact specifics, but the development team intended to deliver the most critical fixes and improvements from all Echo updates to us which resulted in getting a mix of patches from different Echo updates.
Question 2: Will we get rest of Echo before Lindvior? (Quest, hunting areas, new items) Slap some Koreans if you have to.
A: The last I heard we will get the rest of the Echo patches with the Lindvior update. This may change however, and a small update before Lindvior with the remaining Echo patches is not out of the question.
Question 3: Lots of bugs on yesterday’s (1/30) small patch. Echo/Lindvior patch will be nasty bugged based on history. What steps will you take to prevent this from happening? (wasted XP runes, characters not being able to log in, quests not working)
A: All of those bugs have a different cause and not all of them are related to the patch itself. We are communicating almost daily with the development team in Seoul to improve the quality of our updates as well as refining our testing processes.
Q: What steps will you be taking to improve customer confidence in NCWest? Right now most of us think you guys are incompetent due to issues with bots, lag, and bugs. Show us that 2013 will be better than last year. Slasherup (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=91607)
A: I would like to rectify this statement a little bit because I feel it is unfair toward our support team which is working hard every day to provide assistance to all players who contact them, for free. Most of the time players who feel they had a bad experience with the support team or have a complain to make will post on the forum and be very vocal about it, however players who had a satisfying experience will just go on playing and won’t make a public statement. So keep in mind what you are seeing is not representative of the reality and is skewed toward the bad and not the good. Note that I am not saying our support is perfect, merely that it is better than what most players think. That being said I promise you that 2013 will be better than last year :)
Q: Will we get Lindvior update? When it comes, will be able to freely pick the new path we will take for our class and have the same service that the players had from Korea GMs? (manually editing classes for people) Syi (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=209137)
A: If everything goes as planned, look out for the update before the end of the first half of the year. Note that it is too early to give a more precise timeframe, and that it may change based on build delivery, testing progress and other considerations. I currently do not have any information about your other question, sorry.
Q: Will the transfer to Chronos come back in the future? Syi (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=209137)
A: Yes we are hoping to open up transfers to Chronos again once the server population has stabilized.
Q: Why the destruction/blessed giants scrolls won’t be available anymore in the future, how are the newcomers and new level 99 characters supposed to fight in a server where several people got +16 r99 weapons from previous sales. I am level 95 at the moment and I started playing some months ago, and I have to fight people with r99 +16 weapons and +6 r99 sets, but I have no chances to make my own items like this (using the store as they did), it is really unfair for the new player base, this need a solution, personally I don’t plan to keep playing the game if there will be people who could get incredible strong items just because they were playing before me. The chances should be the same for all. Syi (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=209137)
A: Nothing is set in stone and it is not out of the question to bring back those scrolls, or other scrolls, but I cannot be any more specific at this point.
Q: Do you have a test place, where you test the patches before applying them on real servers? Are you using a copy from one of the servers or just a fresh unedited server to test patches? Don't you think that a PTS should solve most of these problems? Ykara (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=156690)
A: We have 2 QA servers and a QA team which is testing every single patch we receive, however minor it is. Most of the bugs that crop up after a patch couldn’t have been identified during testing because they were unrelated to the patch itself. With a game as big and old as Lineage II, when you fix something it often happen that something else breaks in the process. The development team is doing their best to minimize this and we are also always improving our testing methods to reduce the frequency of this happening.
Q: Don't you think that valuable members of the community should be kept and not be kicked(IOW Banned) from the official boards and taking people with them to other forums, where they constantly keep all players that go there more informed than NCWest Staff? Ykara (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=156690)
A: The official forums have a set of rules that every poster has to follow. If a valuable member of the community breaks those rules, he/she will be banned the same as any other player.
Q: Can you please ask Spam to get back in-game? He made some visible and effective work with 3rd party users. Ykara (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=156690)
A: “Spam” is still part of the Lineage II Support team but his current position does not allow him to spend time in the game.
Q: What are the plans of removing the bots, 3rd party program users and RMT? Banning China will not change much, as every player knows that buying Adena from a real player is much safer than a RMT website. Again it is strange that the management of Innova is able to deal with this problem, while NCWest cannot. Maya1 (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=201156)
A: We are taking a wide range of actions to combat illegitimate behavior in the game, most of them which we cannot disclose in order to keep our edge. The IP blocking was one that we could publicly announce so we did it, but rest assured this is only one of many actions that we are doing.
Q: Do you plan on giving a money value to the accounts? (charging for account creation/playability) Right now it costs nothing to start a new account, which really makes banning bots a worthless effort, as it would take to awaken a new bot train under 3-4 days (although Lindvior will change that). I am sure there will be new players, willing to pay 1 subscription of let say 5 USD to buy a new account to play in a server that is lag and bot, 3rd party programs, and RMT free. Maya1 (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=201156)
A: Lineage II is “Truly Free” and charging money for account or character creation would go completely against our philosophy and business model. The game will remain free to play and we will improve our detection methods in order to provide a cheat-free environment to our players.
Q: Expanded account services: Will you add race change service in the future? When "Goddess of Destruction" update arrived I had to delete my main char to create new one because of race skills. I think it's not a secret that Orc have much better race skills than human. But now I don’t enjoy the game because I play on char with race I don't like. Ozzy (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=158710)
A: This is something we have been discussing internally and with the development team but at this point there are no immediate plans to create this new service.
Q: Will the in-game petition system be back? Colorado (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=163454)
A: We are currently making improvements to the system and hope to be able to bring it back sometimes this year.
Q: When a character got bot report, the GSU investigate only game-guard report or they use a "human eye" to test bots? Colorado (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=163454)
A: Our Game Surveillance Unit (GSU) uses all the tools that are available to them in order to identify and ban bots. If manual in-game bot testing is required, they will also do it.
Q: The priority of bot report investigation for characters 1~85, 86~96 and 97~99 is the same? Colorado (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=163454)
A: Yes we treat all players equally.
Q: I report a bot group day after day in the last 72 days, this bots stay in the same place, when a player of this bot party got lvl 99, this player leave the party and join one of "big clans" of server, another bot join the party and the "born place of lvl 99 toons" still stay in the same place (at least 2 of 7 is the same in last 72 days). GSU team speaks about a big time to investigate. The time of investigation is greater than 72 days? Colorado (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=163454)
A: Most investigations are done within in a few days. Sometimes it can take longer depending on the complexity of the case.
Q: Since December 2012 the number of people working in support team have more members working for players? Colorado (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=163454)
A: The support team staff did not change since December 2012.
Q: Exist any plans to implant FROST in our servers and kick off the obsolete game guard? Colorado (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=163454)
A: There are currently no plan to implement FROST in our service but we are considering other anti-hacking software to replace GameGuard.
Q: Cryo, you did say about 1 year ago, that the NCWest plans to translate the game to different languages too, what the players in the options menu can freely manage, it looked to a popular idea. Do you plan still to release these translations? LordOfSpoil (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=203197)
A: I believe you are referring to this post: http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=240608. I said that we only support the game in the North American territory and as a result we only translate the game in English. This is still the case, and while we are looking at other countries such as Latin America countries there is no immediate plan to have the game translated in other languages.
Q: There any plans to... Translate the game to other languages... for example Spanish? (the Spanish people of America and Europe appreciate this very much) Siege (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=161927)
A: Please see my previous answer
Q: I did ask it in the last year, but as I see now the whole team looks much motivated, I ask it again.
Do you plan to make higher activities on YouTube? Nowadays it is a very popular and cheap form of promotion if a company comments on their product or shows them through videos. Many another gamer company makes it and I guess they are very successful with these actions. LordOfSpoil (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=203197)
A: Yes we are looking at making better use of social network channels such as YouTube and TwitchTV. Look out for some activities in the near future.
Q: Do you have plans to make kinda of power wiki as it is in Korea? LordOfSpoil (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=203197)
A: We currently have no plans to make a power wiki similar to Korea. The power wiki team in Korea is several times bigger than our whole Lineage II Team here so it doesn’t look feasible for us at this point.
Q: When the Goddess of Destruction released, you made great work with the new website. Will you create new website for the new contents in the Lindvior update too? Like before the 34 class had own pages with skills example. LordOfSpoil (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=203197)
A: Yes before we launch the Lindvior update we will have a dedicated microsite where you will be able to find a lot of information about the update.
Q: Does the NCWest plans some rule changes in their bot policy? Right now as we know the progress while a bot user get ban is slow, because the rules, what the GMs must to follow. LordOfSpoil (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=203197)
A: We are constantly updating our internal policies regarding 3rd-party software violations however due to confidentiality and to keep our edge we cannot disclose every time we make some changes.
Q: Do you plan to make IP block against Russia too? By my experience they control much more bot trains on Naia than the Chinese farmers had, additionally they don't make only RMT activities, but most of them use the illegal PvP cheats/bugs against other players. Also they have dedicated Lineage II servers to their own country where they could play. LordOfSpoil (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=203197)
A: We currently have no plan to block Russian IPs.
Q: About the translations. I'm not sure that this appears only in the translation or in the Korean client too, but I did find that the English game client uses too many names from the Christian, Muslim and Jewish mythologies. So if I read the forum rules, it blocks the to talk about religion, sex, drugs etc., but even if these names appear in the game, some deep believer can feel, that may some people make joke from his religion. Or a person who believe in any another religion can feel, that the game in hidden mode support some religions, while his religion blocked here. When the translators try to translate the game, don’t they try to avoid from these issues? I do read a lot about the Ancient mythologies and these stuffs so, while maybe for an average person the name of Lilith or Leviathan is just a fantasy game name, I never know from where this name comes from. LordOfSpoil (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=203197)
A: We try to keep the translation as close as possible to the original Korean meaning. The development team uses a wide range of mythologies and historical events when they come up with new game content, without any discrimination. If you feel something in the game is particularly offending, feel free to report it to our support team and we will forward your feedback to the development team to have it changed.
Q: Is this possible: Due to everyday servers reaching max capacity of players logged in, implement server resets. Possibly Monday, Wednesday, Friday resets with Monday/Friday during non-peak times for less than 20 minutes. Feel this would help with possible leaks on your servers and the lag problem we all experience. Once a week server reset is not enough IMO. Enable the resets so not to affect instance timers already in place. Figure out a way to get players away from all these instances and back out in the game. Everyone just does dailies and never leave town. Need to find a way to get players out of town. Vood (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=205959)
A: Service interruption is never a good thing. We try to keep the game servers up and minimize the downtime during weekly maintenance as much as possible. We are working on other ways to alleviate the over-population problem on Chronos and Naia.
Q: When you start Ban 1.8k bot farm Adena on Naia server in locations MoS HF LoA or SoH, FoG, and etc? Alcyd (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=154980)
A: We are banning bots on every server every day.
Q: In the case of NC Korea giving up on lineage2, what will happen to NCWest? It has the resources to keep Lineage2 alive even without any future updates? DodgeThis (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=158839)
A: Don’t believe in conspiracy theories and rumors J The Korean Lineage II team is hard at work for their next major update and 10th Anniversary of the game. As far as NCWest goes, the game is healthier and more profitable now than it has been in years so we are not going anywhere.
Q: Does NCWest have any possibility to modify the game content as it is ATM? Meaning, has the possibility in changing the game as it is - making for example from Frintezza instance, back to no instance and to PvP for it? DodgeThis (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=158839)
A: If you asked me the question a couple years ago I would have answered no. But recently the development team is dedicating more resources to make custom changes to each territory that is running the game, so these kinds of changes may happen in the future.
Q: There are several bugs and features in game that don’t comply to customers’ requirements ( ex. war system as it is ATM), can NCWest change these according to customers willing in order to increase player satisfaction and make the game what once used to be, not only instance farming? Or we should take the game as it is and not expect any changes? DodgeThis (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=158839)
A: Please see my previous answer.
Q: Is there any chance of creating a forum post with bug reports and a moderator to update on regular basis the bug reports from players in first post and to have like a "to do" - " fixed" list of them? DodgeThis (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=158839)
A: Juji has recently created such a list and you can find it here: http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=253248
Q: Is it possible to have again "GM assisted raids" just to see that they are not as intended or written in patch notes? Like Cryo went to Valakas with SilentHorrors in order to see the disconnect bug that was preventing players for killing Valakas. ATM the Antharas/Valakas/extreme Tauti HP status are way higher than it`s written in patch notes. Also there is a bug when going Earth Wyrm Trasken that he disappears and cannot progress in raiding anymore. DodgeThis (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=158839)
A: This depends on the availability of our support staff. Please submit a request to them and they will look into it.
Q: There is a chance of us getting "REAL" events back, like when the server are Pay To Play, now every event is free GK, 1 Adena to remove aug and no XP penalty when you die or buy U$ 999999999,00 in l2 store to win something (it's business ok we get that but there is chance to have both event at same time for donators and non-donators) kenye (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=158113)
A: We had over 10 events in 2012 which were all free except for the Valentine event so I feel your comment is a little bit unfair. Also the game can be played in full without restrictions for free, so we try to provide some added value to our paying customers when possible in the form of events or other content.
Q: How many rounds were done on the Aden Prize Wheel on the two times you launched this event? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: I’m not exactly sure what the question is, but if you are asking how many times the wheel has been spun, I cannot disclose this information.
Q: Did you consider posting something like a list of prizes won on each server? Like "One Valakas necklace was won on Magmeld. One Anakim Sealbook was won on Chronos". It may just give some motivation for players to post that Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: This is a good idea and we will look into it for our next Aden Prize Wheel event.
Q: Do you think some items in the L2Store/L2Galleria were a mistake when you think about it now? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: I don’t think there were any items that we shouldn’t have introduced. That being said, if we could go back in time we would probably have priced some items differently and have placed some restrictions (such as 1/day or 1/account) of some of the items we have sold.
Q: Juji recently posted that Destruction scrolls will not be available again in the shop, whatever the grade. Do you think introducing DEAR/DEWR was an error regarding game balance? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: We may make the scrolls available again through other channels in the future. I don’t think it was an error regarding game balance.
Q: The price regarding NCoin purchase is not clear at all. Do you plan to chance it, so we could have an easy balance regarding NCoin and its price? I am especially talking about VAT. I will take as example Riot, which is publishing the game League of Legends. This company is selling "Riot Points" for real money, to purchase some items within the game. They are selling to several countries, in Asia / Europe / United States and they always give a price including VAT, whatever your country. Do you plan to include VAT in your price? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: We actually add the VAT at the purchase point (see this post for more information: http://www.lineage2.com/en/news/maintenance/ncsoftcom-maintenance-affects-non-usd-charges.php). I am not sure if it is clearly displayed during the purchase process though, I will check on this and see if we can make any improvements.
Q: Do you also plan to do something easy like "$1 = 100 NC Coins”? It would be easier to understand the value of items we purchase. For example I would think "Ok this item is 1800 NC Coins, so it's $18". Just something easy for us to do the math. Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: We currently have no plans to change the conversion rate between NCoin and dollars (80 NCoin = $1)
Q: Do you already plan to introduce more trade-able items (like the XP rune 50% you are selling since last week) or this rune is a test to see how players behave, and depending of the results you may add other items? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: This was a successful test and we are planning to introduce more tradable items in the future.
Q: Do you plan to decrease items price in NC Coins? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: We are constantly evaluating the price of items in the store and how players respond to it. We recently did decrease the price on many items (http://www.lineage2.com/en/news/store-promos/valentine-store-update-new-item-details.php) so the answer is yes.
Q: Do you plan to introduce a premium account system which would work by paying a monthly fee? If no, why? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: We currently have no such plans. We are really committed into keeping the original design of the “Truly Free” business model by providing the same level of service to everyone. However in the future we may introduce item bundles that you can buy every month and will give you benefits similar to what a premium account would give you.
Q: Since several months, tons of people are trading GameStop NCoin Card codes on the Lineage II and Aion forum. Tons of scams appeared also, and took place on the same forum we are using each day. Do you plan to do anything related to those trades, like creating some rules or forbidding those trades on the forum, to avoid old players being scammed? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: Players are free to trade their codes if they want to but they should be aware of the risks involved. We are not planning to monitor or interfere with those trades.
Q: In December, there was an article on Reuters (see here : http://www.reuters.com/finance/stock...rticle/2658297 (http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/036570.KS/key-developments/article/2658297)) that NCsoft sold its shares of NC interactive Inc. and create a new subsidiary for 2/3 of the previous money (see here: http://www.polygon.com/2012/12/13/37...-us-subsidiary (http://www.polygon.com/2012/12/13/3762362/ncsoft-selling-all-nc-interactive-shares-opening-new-us-subsidiary)). How does it affect NCWest regarding game management? Regarding game development? Does it change anything, or are you more linked than before to the mother company in Seoul? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: This had not impact on our department or the way we manage the game. As far as we are concerned, nothing changed.
Q: Don't you have the feeling that 3 people is too low to manage this game? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: You mean two now J I won’t lie and not say that I wish we had more resources, but I think that’s the case for any team such as ours.
Q: Do you plan to release a team bios like before (http://legacy.lineage2.com/community/teambios.html) including Sace, Juji and yourself, but also some people like Spam (who is as far as I know both responsible of Aion & Lineage II support team) and some GMs / Head GMs / Game Surveillance Unit / QA team ? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: We may do that in the future.
Q: How many times per month do you fly to Seoul? Is the time zone shift a problem since you basically deploy maintenance early for your time zone and late for Seoul and it often has bugs? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: I don’t fly to Seoul that often. The time zone is definitely one of our biggest challenges for a quick turnaround when we have critical issues. It happened a few times that we had to call some members of the development team at 3am their time and ask them to come in the office to fix an issue for us.
Q: Which control do you have regarding Lineage II server files? Can you just change so configuration files (to launch for example events with no teleport fees, no XP loss & so) or you are allowed to edit files like ai.obj (which is managing quests, scripts and monster AI) or files ruling skills & items? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: All game files are encrypted and we are not allowed to make any modification ourselves. However we can request such modifications to the Seoul office and they usually deliver them quickly.
Q: Do you think you could improve your relation with Seoul, or you are quite happy with its current state? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: Our relationship with the Seoul office and the development team has greatly increased in the past year or so. We are now able to request a lot more help from them and to develop exclusive content for us. So I would say that I am quite happy with the current state.
Q: How do you communicate regarding bot & RMT problems to Seoul? Do you even talk about it? I may take as example the bug with the Energy seeds in Seed of Annihilation, which were bugged for a long time because some users, using a 3rd party program to collect them, would bug them. Since a program was needed, it seemed that it was impossible for NCsoft to reproduce the problem and get a fix. It just gives the idea you are clueless about programs. Do you ever talk about it with Seoul so? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: The Seoul office is well aware of the state of our game service. We report weekly to them on a lot of topics, and that includes RMT and bots. Concerning the Energy Seed bug you are mentioning, I do not have the exact details on what was causing the bug so I cannot comment on it.
Q: I may be harsh, but there is almost no maintenance without bugs or unexpected changes. Of course bugs are never expected, but they are just too frequent those times. Does it come from a lack of time to test new patches, or a lack of manpower, or something else? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: There are various reasons and I cannot give you all of them. But one is that we are enjoying an increased amount of customization for our version of the game and it becomes more difficult for the Seoul office to manage all the differences between our version, their version and other territories’ versions, which in turn is causing more issues. We are actively working to make that process better though, so hopefully these issues will not be as frequent as they have been.
Q: Do you have a precise schedule regarding update, or can you just say "Ok this release is not ready enough, we will do it next week”? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: We usually plan our major update schedule at least 6 months in advance. Of course the schedule can change quite a bit during the course of these 6 months, but we usually manage to hit the target date pretty accurately. Store Updates and small patches are on a tighter schedule due to their frequency, usually 1 month or 2 weeks.
Q: IP Blocking is a first step regarding RMT combat, a small step but a step nonetheless. Do you think Chinese players are really a problem, when most of farmers / bot owners / Adena sellers are from Europe / Russia / USA? Do you plan to do something related to those players? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: The China IP blocking was one that we could go public with, however we are taking a lot of other actions regarding RMT but we usually cannot disclose them publicly otherwise we would lose our advantage. All of these other actions are not country specific, only the China IP ban was.
Q: In the past, on some occasions, GMs were seen during some raids & so (see Dodge post). Do you consider a player-led trip into the land of Elmoreden, so we can help you finding bad users, and some way to check them faster? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: This is not something we are able to do at the moment.
Q: A crash server is a weekly event. Why that? Is it hardware or software related? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: Most server crashes are software related. I do not have much visibility on what is causing the crashes but the development team is aware of them and constantly working to improve the server stability.
Q: Several websites (see for example http://www.lineage2.es/misc/retail.php) display the current statistics of servers, especially about its population. Any webserver can do that easily with few PHP functions (no need for 3rd party programs). Do you plan to implement such a thing one day on the Lineage II website? The status page being updated each 5minutes, it miss some accuracy. Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: We currently do not have any plan to do that.
Q: You talk about 1.5 million account created in 2012. How many accounts were banned during the same period? Do you really think it's a good thing to say such a number when everyone can experience in-game the RMT spammers and the bot characters farming ? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: I do not have the exact ban numbers at hand, but this number is still a testimony of the game’s popularity so yes I think it’s a good thing to announce it.
Q: Do you think there is Adena inflation on all servers? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: Inflation come and goes depending on supply and demand. We are constantly monitoring each server’s economy and I can say that currently there is almost no inflation; most prices have been stable for a few months.
Q: Regarding several bugs from NCsoft (Eyepatch texture crash, Windows 8 library problems), a solution was always found and offered by a player. Instead of banning this player from the official board, why didn't you take this as an opportunity to go a step ahead and use this work as a start, to find a fix faster? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: Firstly, game client files modification is forbidden and a banable offense. Posting such information publicly and encouraging players to modify their game client files was not something we could condone. Secondly, when contacted, that player did not respond to us. And finally while the “fix” described by that player seemed to correct the issue, it also created other issues with the game client so we could not use it officially.
Q: Why do we get mixed updates, with a mixed game client, instead of fewer updates following what Korea had? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: There is no simple answer to that. The development team manages overseas build (all territories excluding Korea) differently than Korea. They usually try to apply critical fixes and important patches first, regardless of the order they were deployed in Korea so that’s why we are getting them out of order.
Q: Why does the localization process take so much time, especially when some NPCs are still talking in Korean in-game (see Guillotine Fortress Quest NPC)? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: That was an unfortunate mistake but to be honest not one that happen often. Our localization quality has increased greatly since we launched GD thanks to our awesome localization team which is very dedicated to the game. It can take quite a long time to localize a major update because of the staggering amount of new text that is included.
Q: About the suggestion forum, do you even send some suggestions to Seoul? How does it work exactly? People are posting, but we don't even know if the thread was read. Some involvement from NCsoft would help the community trust in you Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: We just don’t have time to answer all threads or even report on what has been communicated to HQ or not. But rest assured that the forum is being read and when a good idea crops up, we do add it on our list of request for the development team.
Personal Questions
Q: In these days, you play this game like a player? Colorado (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=163454)
A: Yes, unfortunately not as often as I used to.
Q: How do you see, what was your/NCWest best and worst decision in 2012? LordOfSpoil (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=203197)
A: The Aden Prize Wheel was a very successful event and we are looking at adding new features like that in the future. I think one of the bad decision was not having a level restriction on the Memorable Raid boss event as it was heavily abused by level 1 characters and prevented a lot of players from logging in.
Q: What do you think about the Lindvior update? What is your favorite content? What do you think about the return of the 34 classes? Finally, as player what is the class what with you would like to play? LordOfSpoil (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=203197)
A: I personally love the new Dragon Weapons J I think they look awesome. I think the return of the 34 classes is a great move, I personally really liked the class diversity of Lineage II. My preference goes toward damage dealer type of class such as Archers.
Q: Will we see from you some more comments in this year, than in 2012? Many players was happy and did to you a lot of trust, when you made in 2011 an early translation for the Goddess of Destruction patch notes or that we could read your comments in 2011 more often. In 2012 mostly we did hear about while u gave the interview for the mmorpg.com site. The end of 2012 became a bit terrible I guess, a lot of legit player got ban, while you banned after unbanned a lots of cheaters, while servers lagged a lot, constantly server crashes. That all happened under the holiday time when most of people would like to play with his or her favorite game, but the service as we felt not double the activity to solve the issue, but went for 2-3 weeks holiday and let the players in trouble. So I think it would be a good time to, that you personally who mainly manage or control this game in this area, would write to us about it something. LordOfSpoil (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=203197)
A: I will try to be more personally involved with the community this year. Please understand that our team is very small and I do not have a lot of time to do that, but I will try my best.
Q: If I look another games, I feel, that the community of the Lineage 2 very separated from each other’s, as I did hear or read in another games has much more active community communication too, while here it is very minimal, example many of the Innova players simply hates those who play on our servers. What do you or NCsoft think about it? Do you or the NCsoft plan to take closer the players to each others and make a good "worldwide community"? LordOfSpoil (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=203197)
A: We currently have no plans to do that, I think every territory is focusing on their own community.
Q: Do you have ever played Lindvior yet? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: No not yet, but Juji has been playing on the Korean servers.
Q: When is the last time you played Lineage II by yourself, as a player? What did you do? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: About a week ago, I was leveling one of my old characters.
Q: Did you ever used a 3rd party program yourself to understand them? Especially since you were once in the QA team, you may be confronted to those programs. Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: No I haven’t.
Q: Do you think servers are in a good health in-game? Rank between 1 & 10Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: It’s hard to answer without knowing what you mean by “good health”.
Q: Do you think Lineage II franchise is healthy regarding all previous and current bugs? Rank between 1 & 10Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: Same answer as previous. Please define “healthy”.
Q: Do you have the feeling you can do better as Producer, seeing all the current problems at the moment? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: Thanks for the compliment :/ Considering the size of my team and our available resources, I am not too disappointed in what we have been able to accomplish. Most of the game servers issues that you have experienced were actually out of my control and I did my best to fix them in a timely manner.
Q: Cookies or Muffins? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: Not long ago I’d have said Cookies but Muffins are growing on me ;)
Q: Do you miss France? (not this girl in the party last month, the country :P) Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: For the food yes :) Otherwise I’ve been used to travel a lot so not too much.
Q: Are you doing what you thought was a producer role when you were not a producer? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: Yes and no. I have to delegate a lot of the work that I enjoyed doing because I can’t take care of everything myself.
Q: Do you sometime read forum or you rely on Sace to get a daily update about hot topics? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: I try to read the forums every day but I also rely on weekly report from our community staff.
Q: Do you consider some players / posters as annoying as possible, especially some involved in various fan sites? Laby (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=137153)
A: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion But I don’t like when someone is spreading false rumors about NCsoft or our staff.
Q: Since all the matters that concerns me are asked in the posts before me I will only make one Question/Request: Can you please answer all these questions thinking and speaking like an L2 player primarily and secondary as the L2 producer? nWildjohn (http://boards.lineage2.com/member.php?u=160565)
A: This is a “Producer Q&A” so I have to answer as the L2 Producer :) But I answered all questions as best as I could!