Tool_of_Society

I wasn't restricting my conversation to only the F2P era in the quote you responded to. For half the game's existence it didn't have a cash shop in it so excluding any conversation on that era when discussing "classic" lineage 2 is an odd demand. MMORPG = Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game Each of those games are massive multiplayer online experiences where you role play characters in different environments. At the very least Warframe counts as a MMORPG just like Guild wars 2 or eve online or any other number of games that are f2p without massive p2w mechanics.

Well I started in closed beta and the concept of a cash shop was far far off into the future back then. So I had many good years worth of events that had nothing to do with a cash shop. Path of Exile provides an excellent experience as f2p. Warframe is basically the pinnacle of how to do it right. They aren't always making perfect moves but they do respond quickly and fix mistakes. Heroes of the storm didn't require any cash to get stuff done. I ended up paying for skins because I wanted to support the game's continued development..I did some DOTA 2 and while I didn't play much I didn't feel I had to spend cash to compete or to be superior. I'm not into mobile games which tend to be oozing with F2P a^^hattery...

Not all F2P games work that way. It is the easiest way to squeeze cash out of your playerbase if you don't actually care about the players or the game's future beyond the next profit statement. When we were promised an event was coming when the servers came back up I for one didn't expect this. I was naive enough to hope for some sort of interactive event that didn't require my wallet. You know something like the stuff we saw in the REAL classic or even in the last event. I understand they need to make money. There's just a way better way to go about it for all involved but unfortunately NcWest as a company is captives to the whims of NcSoft in Korea. Lineage 2 is the last game of NcSoft I'll ever support unless the company itself starts making some serious changes. For now they've got me by the nostalgia with lineage 2. Yes I'll continue to put money into the game but that amount has been decreasing lately.

I've seen that occur in Dwarven village AND dion. In Dwarven village the bots were running up to a dwarf then running off all following the exact same path. Probably dumping loot/adena off on to the dwarf character.

I don't know if you're talking about my experience here. https://forums.lineage2.com/topic/13185-adenadropspoil-bug-when-being-6-lvl-higher-or-more-than-monster/?do=findComment&comment=95033 I can confirm though that my drop rate has been "normal" ever since. "Normal" being low and sad.... Spoil is bad too.

It was super nice to be able to afford to use shots and to buy some books.

I had a similar experience as I recently added a BD to my party that I made as a replacement for another character. When it was 10 or 9 levels below the highest level character nothing was dropping but xp was still happening. After a few hours I had made <500 adena with no drops and I'm pretty sure I had made the adena prior to the arrival of the BD. Now that the BD is within 8 levels everything is dropping normally now. At the time I had chocked it up to the drops being broken in general but I found it suspicious that even after hours of grinding I had made nothing.. So is there a thing that makes it so no drops occur if you have a 10 level spread in a party or something?

They changed most of the leveling areas in that level range to no longer drop adena or items but hey they now have slightly boosted XP and spawn rates........ It's freaking terrible and is creating massive choke points for trying to level and make adena.. For bonus super fun points you might even get PKed by a summoner that you can't even see thanks to the broken nature of their pets now and the broken ability to teleport while in combat and red.

What a great idea that no one has ever thought of trying. You're a fountain of wisdom and knowledge..... You would have a point if there wasn't such a small number of choices at the level range I was discussing. You can't just decide to level on mobs that are level 60 or 20 when you're level 48. The game doesn't work that way so the number of choices is hard limited by the available mobs and population density. The last patch included changes that made over half of the leveling areas impractical for those that aren't botting or engaging in RMT. Sure they boosted XP in those areas some but you now require an external source of income to afford to level there. It could be worth it if the XP had actually been boosted substantially but that's not what happened. Definitely wasn't worth the marginal increase in XP just to lose those spots as viable leveling areas for non RMTers/alts. I mean I'm sure some high level players who are making alts LOVE this change because they can toss adena down a hole for a while and be fine. I'm still trying to figure out where plated leather gaiters drop now.

No

Oh I'm quite interested in knowing where this spot is.

They basically ruined two of the five spots they suggest to people in the mid high 40s. FoM, AI and Cruma are hardcore money sinks and the XP increase is irrelevant.

Uh no. Wearing heavy armor was a legit strategy for many classes that you just listed as always wearing something other than heavy. Hell even the heavy armor only classes you listed would wear light for the extra PVE damage. It's been an integral part of lineage 2 since day one.

A fix for the NEW system that was just introduced...

Yeah basically PKing is a bit ridiculous right now. No grade limitation by itself is a problem as low grade reds can now carry weapons well beyond their level. Combine that with the teleport working while red and IN COMBAT so now the pker doesn't even have to worry about dropping anything as a red. Run in dump your attack chain and then click to instantly teleport to safety. The buff to protect lowbie players from higher level PKers is now irrelevant as newbies can find themselves being PKed by someone their level that is using B grade or higher gear. Then there is the whole summoner pet thing ugh.... Don't even need a weapon or to even be in the area to PK someone. No risk and all the reward for PKers now. =/

I've said repeatedly that I started with one account and went through beta with one account. I bought the second copy of the game in 2005. I did end up having four accounts by the end of 2005 with the last two copies of the game being bought in late 2005. In hindsight I made an error by not starting with two accounts. It didn't really matter as I was able to make many in game connections from the first day so I didn't need a buffer. I leveled with and took good care of my buffer friends. Since it is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game I took advantage of the ability to socialize and made productive deals with my fellow players. It also helped that I was a no lifer who lived in the middle of a corn field with basically nothing to do during the cold season. Along with all the other standard things like making my own shots buying in no tax stores while playing the market etc..The game definitely taught me patience. The patience to wait for a good deal to appear. Patience to hold off on selling. the patience of sitting and waiting for my SPS to regen mp because clear mindwhatever wasn't nearly enough and the stupid pony wrecked my XP for little mp stupid bloody mana not REVGENING ARAFGASFASGHGHGH...That's actually what drove me to create my second account for a SE.... Maybe I just had a magically delicious luck of a time :shrug:

Probably because you were new to the game and thus didn't have everything optimized from day one. By that point in the server's life (C4)I was playing 4 accounts. I made adena every-time I headed out while using shots. In the closed and open betas I played one account and I had a top NG weapon just before 20 and I used shots. I was already well informed on the game and how korean mmorpgs worked in general so I had an advantage going into the game. I did do a lot of run then SOE to get to the next area/town in the early days to save adena. EDIT : Events were generally better then because there was no pay store requirement like there is for the modern version of the letter event. Requiring you to buy packs just to finish off the words was greedy. I miss the old school squash and letter events.

Man I'm super stoked that the brightness thing has finally been fixed. I gave up hope on that at least 4 years ago because of the age of the game. Showed me wrong

On the positive side the game client is way more responsive now. It's amazing how much of a performance hit that xingcode stuff was.

I have no problem getting the auto attack to use my macros. I just dragged the macro from the macro window into the box. What I have issues with is it's refusal to loot and it's insistence on targeting things two rooms over even with the "short distance" setting..

Well at least they finally fixed the brightness issue after 15 years....

Oh I've heard from others that some illegal servers had the button setup to do that stuff but that was never on the official servers...

It worked and did what it was designed to do. Unfortunately if you believe the button should nuke bots from orbit because you clicked it then you're going to be disappointed.

Well I vividly remember my SPS PVP consisting of sleep nuke sleep nuke because sleep would break on damage during c2. I played a de assasin in closed and open beta bot I quit when the server went live because the game wasn't ready yet. So I basically missed C1.

Welcome to 2004 enjoy your stay.