TL;DR: I predict Salvation to be released Dec 20th, 2017
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We've been providing monthly previews for the last year or so, including content and promotion previews. As far as I can tell, providing this kind of information has been a positive thing and I intend to continue to be as transparent and informative as I can be.
Well folks, it’s that time again! Another month has come and we’ve been met again by prolonged radio silence about the “month preview”, this time 10 days into October! I feel it’s time for another round of busting Neutron’s chops. Strap yourselves in!
It was only 10 months ago (http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?p=3547768#post3547768) that Neutron was promoted to assistant producer of NCWest. We were all excited to have an increase in communication between the players and NCWest, and had been grasping at the juicy carrots dangled from the promises of the new assistant producer. What else could we possibly be in store for? These were exciting times!
The January 2017 Preview (http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?p=3547769#post3547769) debuted on December 21st, 2016. A whole 10 days BEFORE the month arrived. This extra effort was undoubtedly thanks to Neutron’s holiday spirit and a desire to tie up loose ends before the holiday vacation from work. Curious to note that this was on the agenda:
Return of the Test Lab
I'll be spearheading bringing back the lab tests. We'll have more details in January once we're up and running again from the break.
I was jazzed up. I wanted more! The day following his promotion announcement, Neutron posted 16 times! Holy cow, we were spoiled! I was starting to feel great about the direction we were moving. All this communication? It felt too good to be true. And then as quickly as the elation hit me the abandonment issues began to settle in. 20 days silence (https://i.imgur.com/O9G9pbY.jpg), arguably warranted. It was the holidays, after all. And all we want is for our Assistant Producer to be merry and happy! I was hurt, however, and lashed out at our benevolent overlords (http://boards.lineage2.com/showpost.php?p=3549140&postcount=28) for the lack of attention I was getting and was then firmly reprimanded and escorted back to my place.
But Neutron was back, and boy was he at it! He managed to dust his shoulders off and expel the voices of haters from his head. He wasn’t going to allow his mind to be addled by the concerns of the impatient players! 13 more posts followed in the wake of his triumphant return in the New Year! I take back everything I said, this is gonna be AWESOME!
Neutron was putting in work. He was taking the time to respond directly to long-winded posts and being very transparent with what was in the works concerning: bringing zaken transfers online, getting rid of the bot infestation, hero coin reward update, grand crusade patchnotes translation and update preparation, imbuing the forums with a positive outlook, etc. I want us all to acknowledge that. We were getting loads of useful information back from Neutron.
There’s been an obvious taper off from his involvement on the forums. I don’t know if this is due to burnout from overexertion or if he has just been offloaded a lot more responsibility. I know it takes a long time to formulate thoughtful forum posts and to research accurate information to relay to us, so perhaps posting on the forums just takes too much time out of Neutron’s day?
Take a look at Neutron’s post-count starting the month he was promoted:
December - 20 posts
January - 35
February - 82
March - 61
April - 16
May - 24
June - 15
July - 6
August - 26
September - 15
October (one third into the month) - 2
The enormous spike in February and March was due to the upcoming Grand Crusade patch and subsequent discussion. It’s quite obvious we were spoiled during this era of Golden Information, and it was not to last. Coming up to the April release of Grand Crusade I feeling very confident in the direction Neutron was taking us. It started to feel like NCWest cared once again about Lineage 2.
As the summer months hit we hit a dry-spell in the flow of communication (maybe due to one or two summer vacations?) The 13th anniversary event was continually delayed month after month with little word on what was going on with it. Stale repeat events were met unenthusiastically,mostly due to the change or complete removal of decent rewards, and the spark of NCWest New Hope began to fade and fizzle out.
The first major exodus of 2017 hit with the announcement of the Ancient Kingdom Cloaks (http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=293558). An event which spawned much zealous fervor over the ever-increasing gap between the big spenders and the casuals, and a forum thread spanning over 180 posts and 24,000 views. It’s the third most viewed topic of 2017, more popular than the Grand Crusade thread (http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=292279). People were passionate about these cloaks, for better or for worse, and the decision to include them into the game came as a shock to me.
The second major exodus of 2017 came with the demise of profitable fishing (http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=293670). This time Conguero shouldered the brunt of the backlash, and like a sentient inflatable punching-clown, he bounced right back up at us and came in swinging (http://boards.lineage2.com/showpost.php?p=3568356&postcount=22)! Nearing 500 replies and over 45,000 views, this fishing thread claims the top spot as 2017’s most popular (or in this case: unpopular) forum thread! This PR disaster couldn’t have come at a worse time. Neutron was busy playing host (http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?p=3571180&highlight=development+team#post3571180) to the big-wigs from NCSoft Korea (a.k.a. The Development Team®) and was unable to shield Conguero from the flurry of angry customers. What I’m curious about is how much of the vitriol was directly shared with The Development Team® And what exactly their reaction to all this was?
In early August we learned that the Salvation update (http://boards.lineage2.com/showpost.php?p=3566363&postcount=4) is planned for 2017, yet nearly 2 months later there was still no test build (http://boards.lineage2.com/showpost.php?p=3570186&postcount=53) for NCWest to get to work on. Assuming Neutron will be able to deliver the update by Fall 2017 (his prediction) we can set his deadline (where Fall ends) at the winter solstice, which this year is December 21st. Updates are on Wednesday, so we need to keep our pitchforks firmly stowed away in our barns until after the December 20th Wednesday server restart. Bringing this whole long-winded, rambling manifesto of a post back full circle with my own prediction that Salvation will be live, December 20th, 2017. Neutron will have kept his word, and I’ll look like a jerk. Also, I’ll eat one of my socks and post the hospital bill as proof of my penance.