The three main reasons that killed, or severely damaged, EU Aden (Essence) servers.

[Enthused]

#1. PRICING

Pricing is, by far, the biggest reason why the population of the EU servers quickly died and resulted in multiple server merges. The main premium currency box, known as an L8000 on EU, is priced at $25. One of those boxes is basically worthless, because it requires dozens of them to really obtain anything of value. This is due to the very low enchant rates, lootbox rates, and special craft rates.

You simply have to drop huge amounts of money to get a single good item you need, and when you factor in the sheer amount of different p2w items in the game now, it is easy to see why it costs well into the 5 figures to obtain all the items you need in order to not just compete, but to actually survive more than 1 hit in PvP.

The fact that premium currency (L2 Coin) will not be dropping from mobs, means that paying money directly is the only feasible way to obtain access to this currency that will be required to create all the p2w items needed. No amount of farming will help you if L2 Coin doesn't drop from mobs. This could possibly still be okay if the prices of L2 Coin are extremely cheap, but I suspect that will not the case at this point. The price of this currency needs to be low, that way most of the players will be able to buy a large amount of it, and not just whales. Failure to have affordable pricing for the general population will kill these servers faster than you can blink, and this is by far the biggest death sentence topic in regards to player retention.

 

#2. Player Killing (PK) System

The current PK system will, absolutely 100%, result in large numbers of new players quitting this game. There was essentially zero penalty for mass killing of entire zones. EU/RU was forced to implement a small fix because the situation was so out of hand. But basically what is going to happen on these Aden servers, is a small group of players are going to go from zone to zone and PK every single char they come across. Lowbie zones included. This sweeping of zones will not stop, either. Every zone will get PK'd over and over until the players quit. Entire farming zones will literally be completely empty because the moment you teleport in, you will be instantly PK'd, and there's absolutely nothing that you can do about it. There will be people that spend all day PK'ing people, and they cannot be stopped. Even if you try to chase them down and attack them, they can instantly teleport away to safety and you won't even be able to touch them.  There is no way to counter it. You will lose.

 

#3. Class Balance

While class balance comes in at #3, don't underestimate how important this factor is. Class balance in this version, and this patch that is coming to NA, is ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS. I cannot emphasize enough just how bad the balance here is. Dark Elf Death Knights, along with Titans, will run the show here. Starting with DE DKs, they are incredibly strong in all aspects of the game. They have a pull, they can blow you up in 1v1s, and they can AOE 1 shot entire parties and raids. If a clan here decides to roll mostly DE DKs, they will never lose a single siege. As for Titans, they run faster than you, they are unstoppable, they will keep you knocked down, and you will get immediately killed. There is zero counterplay for you against them. You just die, and there's not a single thing you can ever do about it. If they want you dead, then you are dead. This is due to the fact that they will have Frenzy and Zealot up, both of which last for a full minute and are on extremely short cooldowns, along with Knockdown, which has nearly a 100% land rate. In most cases, they will Rush you, instantly knock you down, and kill you, before the knock down even ends. 

Every other class is pretty much irrelevant in this game. Sure, you need healers as well (Cardinal/SE) and even throwing in a few Overlords is nice. SWS/BD will be alts that are simply boxed and will stand and be left at the siege respawn points to buff up the raid before you make a push. But any clan that focuses on rolling only DE DKs, and Titans, will completely dominate the competition to the point that it will be laughable.

 

CONCLUSION

The PK system and Class Balance won't kill the game. They will severely impact the game, hurting the population badly, but not kill it. However, bad Pricing can and will kill this game. Whatever price you are considering charging for L2 Coin, I strongly urge you to cut that number in half. Even then, it might not be enough. I fully understand the mentality of the mobile game monetization model that is implemented here. I fully understand the aspects of targeting the whales and empowering them through this system. But you need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. L2 so far has leaned far too heavily on the side of the whales, at the complete expense of the casuals/free to plays. You need to adjust this dynamic. Both of these players, despite being on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum, need each other in order to survive. 

I have seen what can, and will, happen if you do not adjust course before this game launches. The players deserve better than that.

[PrisonMike]

1 hour ago, Enthused said:

#1. PRICING

Pricing is, by far, the biggest reason why the population of the EU servers quickly died and resulted in multiple server merges. The main premium currency box, known as an L8000 on EU, is priced at $25. One of those boxes is basically worthless, because it requires dozens of them to really obtain anything of value. This is due to the very low enchant rates, lootbox rates, and special craft rates.

You simply have to drop huge amounts of money to get a single good item you need, and when you factor in the sheer amount of different p2w items in the game now, it is easy to see why it costs well into the 5 figures to obtain all the items you need in order to not just compete, but to actually survive more than 1 hit in PvP.

The fact that premium currency (L2 Coin) will not be dropping from mobs, means that paying money directly is the only feasible way to obtain access to this currency that will be required to create all the p2w items needed. No amount of farming will help you if L2 Coin doesn't drop from mobs. This could possibly still be okay if the prices of L2 Coin are extremely cheap, but I suspect that will not the case at this point. The price of this currency needs to be low, that way most of the players will be able to buy a large amount of it, and not just whales. Failure to have affordable pricing for the general population will kill these servers faster than you can blink, and this is by far the biggest death sentence topic in regards to player retention.

 

#2. Player Killing (PK) System

The current PK system will, absolutely 100%, result in large numbers of new players quitting this game. There was essentially zero penalty for mass killing of entire zones. EU/RU was forced to implement a small fix because the situation was so out of hand. But basically what is going to happen on these Aden servers, is a small group of players are going to go from zone to zone and PK every single char they come across. Lowbie zones included. This sweeping of zones will not stop, either. Every zone will get PK'd over and over until the players quit. Entire farming zones will literally be completely empty because the moment you teleport in, you will be instantly PK'd, and there's absolutely nothing that you can do about it. There will be people that spend all day PK'ing people, and they cannot be stopped. Even if you try to chase them down and attack them, they can instantly teleport away to safety and you won't even be able to touch them.  There is no way to counter it. You will lose.

 

#3. Class Balance

While class balance comes in at #3, don't underestimate how important this factor is. Class balance in this version, and this patch that is coming to NA, is ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS. I cannot emphasize enough just how bad the balance here is. Dark Elf Death Knights, along with Titans, will run the show here. Starting with DE DKs, they are incredibly strong in all aspects of the game. They have a pull, they can blow you up in 1v1s, and they can AOE 1 shot entire parties and raids. If a clan here decides to roll mostly DE DKs, they will never lose a single siege. As for Titans, they run faster than you, they are unstoppable, they will keep you knocked down, and you will get immediately killed. There is zero counterplay for you against them. You just die, and there's not a single thing you can ever do about it. If they want you dead, then you are dead. This is due to the fact that they will have Frenzy and Zealot up, both of which last for a full minute and are on extremely short cooldowns, along with Knockdown, which has nearly a 100% land rate. In most cases, they will Rush you, instantly knock you down, and kill you, before the knock down even ends. 

Every other class is pretty much irrelevant in this game. Sure, you need healers as well (Cardinal/SE) and even throwing in a few Overlords is nice. SWS/BD will be alts that are simply boxed and will stand and be left at the siege respawn points to buff up the raid before you make a push. But any clan that focuses on rolling only DE DKs, and Titans, will completely dominate the competition to the point that it will be laughable.

 

CONCLUSION

The PK system and Class Balance won't kill the game. They will severely impact the game, hurting the population badly, but not kill it. However, bad Pricing can and will kill this game. Whatever price you are considering charging for L2 Coin, I strongly urge you to cut that number in half. Even then, it might not be enough. I fully understand the mentality of the mobile game monetization model that is implemented here. I fully understand the aspects of targeting the whales and empowering them through this system. But you need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. L2 so far has leaned far too heavily on the side of the whales, at the complete expense of the casuals/free to plays. You need to adjust this dynamic. Both of these players, despite being on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum, need each other in order to survive. 

I have seen what can, and will, happen if you do not adjust course before this game launches. The players deserve better than that.

If it costs more than $10 to get 8000 worth of l2 coins, the game will be dead in 3 months 

[PrisonMike]

19 minutes ago, J0nSnow said:

Does everyone know with this version of game, the only way to get 100% rez after death is to pay real life money?

 

[Enthused]

1 hour ago, J0nSnow said:

If it costs more than $10 to get 8000 worth of l2 coins, the game will be dead in 3 months 

These new servers are going to have major flaws, but they can be mostly overlooked as long as the pricing is right. Bad pricing is the one issue that will not be overlooked. Once people realize that premium currency (L2 Coin) is required for pretty much everything, including rezzing yourself after getting PK'd, they will leave. I could make 1000 more forum posts on pricing alone, and that wouldn't even be enough to show how big of an issue pricing is for the success and well being of this game.

[AshesOfAden]

2 hours ago, Enthused said:

These new servers are going to have major flaws, but they can be mostly overlooked as long as the pricing is right. Bad pricing is the one issue that will not be overlooked. Once people realize that premium currency (L2 Coin) is required for pretty much everything, including rezzing yourself after getting PK'd, they will leave. I could make 1000 more forum posts on pricing alone, and that wouldn't even be enough to show how big of an issue pricing is for the success and well being of this game.

Although i give half a year to essence(i mean aden) will collapse as classic did with empty servers with few players in it , even hero's standing in Giran spreading buff as there is fk all to do.

[Enthused]

16 minutes ago, gags said:

Although i give half a year to essence(i mean aden) will collapse as classic did with empty servers with few players in it , even hero's standing in Giran spreading buff as there is fk all to do.

I think the success, or lack thereof, of these servers is going to entirely depend on the pricing. Pricing is everything. Everyone is sick of old days of having to spend thousands of dollars just play a game. If NC tries to continue with that strategy, this entire project will crash and burn.

[Dawe]

I understand what you are trying to do.... but the sad truth here is that the aden server is designed to stay alive for 6 months top.

Dont think for a single second that they chosen otherwise...

The developers just one day came to the office and said: "We need to extract the rest of the money from the NA market. Lets start Essence server there for 6 months, and milk them dry."

Period.

[AshesOfAden]

43 minutes ago, Enthused said:

I think the success, or lack thereof, of these servers is going to entirely depend on the pricing. Pricing is everything. Everyone is sick of old days of having to spend thousands of dollars just play a game. If NC tries to continue with that strategy, this entire project will crash and burn.

Well they will carry on as they do on Live server chronos/naia thats how they killed classic, they been told thousands of time but they are to ignorant and its easier to delete comment than actually tell koreans that something has to be changed , plus they had quite good profit year this year and last due to covid so they think everything is going well sales are up and etc , but sadly if you check sales last years quarter(NCsoft shares all info about the sales just gogole it ) sales are going down.

[AshesOfAden]

7 minutes ago, Dawe said:

I understand what you are trying to do.... but the sad truth here is that the aden server is designed to stay alive for 6 months top.

Dont think for a single second that they chosen otherwise...

The developers just one day came to the office and said: "We need to extract the rest of the money from the NA market. Lets start Essence server there for 6 months, and milk them dry."

Period.

Exactly what I said before half a year same as classic it will die,

 

I will log on into aden just to see live game pvps/pk at the beggining and there will be something to do at the begining until it will get unplayable and I will go back to Live same as half of the players will do ,its not relevant to players unless someone spend a lot to be on top and will carry on from day to day just sitting in town.

 

PS. 

Edit: fell sorry for @Sunshine as after we wount see him/her again  at least one GM who used to replie in forums  

[Enthused]

I agree with every comment posted in this thread so far. I think Sunshine is well intentioned and will do a good job here as CM, but ultimately everyone here knows that the Koreans call the shots. The Korean mentality and NA mentality just doesn't align. 

The potential for this project is through the roof. In the DK preview posted earlier today, they revealed the first sign that Aden will be diverting from the broken Essence model by nerfing DK Ultimate Transform. This alone is huge for fixing the balancing issues, and is just fantastic news in general and I hope this trend continues.

Sunshine, I know I have mentioned it 100 times already, but you need to get on your bosses and the Koreans about pricing here, if you haven't done so already. Don't accept no for an answer from them. You have a mountain of potential going here. Overpricing L2 Coins will kill this game. If you need to throw yourself on the fire and get yourself fired for doing so, then so be it. This is a hill worth dying on.

[AshesOfAden]

9 minutes ago, Enthused said:

I agree with every comment posted in this thread so far. I think Sunshine is well intentioned and will do a good job here as CM, but ultimately everyone here knows that the Koreans call the shots. The Korean mentality and NA mentality just doesn't align. 

The potential for this project is through the roof. In the DK preview posted earlier today, they revealed the first sign that Aden will be diverting from the broken Essence model by nerfing DK Ultimate Transform. This alone is huge for fixing the balancing issues, and is just fantastic news in general and I hope this trend continues.

Sunshine, I know I have mentioned it 100 times already, but you need to get on your bosses and the Koreans about pricing here, if you haven't done so already. Don't accept no for an answer from them. You have a mountain of potential going here. Overpricing L2 Coins will kill this game. If you need to throw yourself on the fire and get yourself fired for doing so, then so be it. This is a hill worth dying on.

Imagine yourself once you just get a job would you listen someone in forum to lose your job?  

@Sunshine he/she cant demand anything, project is on Koreans and NCSOFT West management mercy.

 

Can't see any success fore sure as advertisement is poor and start date chosen is worst day of the week as peoples have jobs and its a mid-week...  as whales will go back to Live servers after a year or less

[Draecke]

this is just a hit & run cash grab show, worse then classic was so let's be a bit realistic here lmao

anyone playing this version of the L2 is getting precisely what they deserve / pay for

[AshesOfAden]

2 minutes ago, Draecke said:

this is just a hit & run cash grab show, worse then classic was so let's be a bit realistic here lmao

anyone playing this version of the L2 is getting precisely what they deserve / pay for

Agree , Just fell sorry for @Sunshine as her/his job won't last long

 

[PrisonMike]

2 hours ago, Draecke said:

this is just a hit & run cash grab show, worse then classic was so let's be a bit realistic here lmao

anyone playing this version of the L2 is getting precisely what they deserve / pay for

And what's live version exactly?

[Sunshine]

Whoa, feeling a little popular here! 

I'm a little suspicious of you @Enthused--trying to get me fired by sacrificing myself—you're trying to kill me so soon?! 

Truth is, I will do my best to make sure that the conversations here are being put in front of the right people. I will get what answers I can, and give what answers I can give. Know that I do appreciate you all taking the time to continue to engage and give me your thoughts. Keep them coming!  

[Mach5]

6 hours ago, Draecke said:

this is just a hit & run cash grab show, worse then classic was so let's be a bit realistic here lmao

anyone playing this version of the L2 is getting precisely what they deserve / pay for

Most likely, especially since NCwest has never been able to deviate from what KR says they can do. That said there is potential for this version if the stuff Enthused listed is addressed. I've played some "other" essence servers that I enjoyed because Lcoin dropped from mobs, pking was punished pretty hard, and they nerfed DK and Titan.

That said if any one of those things isn't addressed it's almost certain the server will be dead in a couple of months if that. Nobody wants to drop $1k to just have low to mid tier gear, nobody wants to constantly get pk'd with no potential risk to the pker, and nobody wants to get 2 shot by 70% of the server that's running DK/Titan.

500 hp pots also not good for server health.

[AshesOfAden]

8 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Whoa, feeling a little popular here! 

I'm a little suspicious of you @Enthused--trying to get me fired by sacrificing myself—you're trying to kill me so soon?! 

Truth is, I will do my best to make sure that the conversations here are being put in front of the right people. I will get what answers I can, and give what answers I can give. Know that I do appreciate you all taking the time to continue to engage and give me your thoughts. Keep them coming!  

You do popular here as you are the only one who replies to us "customers" @Sunshine I see good vibes from you so far, can you move from Aden to Live maybe and leave Juji/Hime with Aden?

[Minereth]

Remove cash shop

[Draecke]

21 hours ago, J0nSnow said:

And what's live version exactly?

less abusive then Classic and for Aden (Essence) on my wallet, that's for sure

 

[PanZloty]

Every server goes down through the l2 store
do you see it

[WutWutWut]

On 7/23/2021 at 4:05 AM, Sunshine said:

Whoa, feeling a little popular here! 

I'm a little suspicious of you @Enthused--trying to get me fired by sacrificing myself—you're trying to kill me so soon?! 

Truth is, I will do my best to make sure that the conversations here are being put in front of the right people. I will get what answers I can, and give what answers I can give. Know that I do appreciate you all taking the time to continue to engage and give me your thoughts. Keep them coming!  

Out of all points pk point can be done. Developers many times did custom pk patches to control pk players.
Comes a bit hypocritical from a guy who was carpeting eu servers "enthused"  but at least he is highlighting the problem
I suggest you to make any thing you can polls/ forum feedback threads or anything in your power to get those custom anti mass server pk patches
aion classic managers making polls, not sure if its just trick to pacify ppl or actually feedback which going to be given to korea, maybe you can use that.
dont repeat eu mistakes

[ReTrAiA]

I would like to believe, but I can’t. L2 is a shell of its former self. The game peaked many years ago, and ever since NCWest has done the complete opposite of what the players told them they wanted 100% of the time.  It must be profitable enough, cause why else would they do it?  If it’s the Koreans that make them treat us like crap, or it’s their own decision, I don’t know. Maybe one day, when not a single person is willing to play anymore, they will actually make a server that the community has told them they wanted and was willing to pay for. 

[Blitzball]

14 hours ago, WutWutWut said:

Out of all points pk point can be done. Developers many times did custom pk patches to control pk players.
Comes a bit hypocritical from a guy who was carpeting eu servers "enthused"  but at least he is highlighting the problem
I suggest you to make any thing you can polls/ forum feedback threads or anything in your power to get those custom anti mass server pk patches
aion classic managers making polls, not sure if its just trick to pacify ppl or actually feedback which going to be given to korea, maybe you can use that.
dont repeat eu mistakes

i find it incredibly funny that like 10 people decided to pk the server to extinction, the devs did nothing and then the server shut down because of it.

ivan big biznis with kompot sounds better.

[palfer]

Too many words... but I can only believe in what i see. First fix Chronos and the classic servers... then... maybe then... I ll be able to believe in the new server. I feel that this server ll be more of the same... I would love to be wrong!!!

[Nortewemko]

           Well, what i see since EU essence opening and u guys have the chance to provide a good service based on the players feedback (its hard to believe in that but ok).
           The server is not even on, but ppl can see that pk system without any heavy penal gonna kill the server on the first month or less like EU server that lost toons of players tired of pay to ress on pve. Maybe some heavy debuffs with slow /no tp/ less pdef patk or real drop and a kind of pot for 1k lcoin that allow u to decrease pk level killing mobs for 20 minutes (without the pot the pk level of debuffs not leave in any form).

And ofc, lcoin prices is the point here , the massive players of this patch currently play on illegal servers, some whale players remains on EU,  where the situation is, big gear to face mobs , none want to pay to pvp for bosses that got nerfed drop on this patch. So they go privates. If The lcoin prices goes cheap, for shure u can farm all players from them without need to process them like innova did and i believe, nothing gonna happen to them, so if u give a good service to community, u can bring them all, they're w8ing for the "NA salvation",  .

mmm pk system....lcoin prices.....mmmm let me see, HA! we know that u guys get the pendrive from korea and just upload the game on server, but, this game nowdays is just Dark elf dk and orcs in the goddes of destrucion patch, and the other classes , except some support here ou there, are in 2004 prima guide patch, so , if possible, make this game balanced.

There is a lot or exemple that NA can work on it, its ez to provide a good service based on other servers errors , so ppl that may come to play here It's already vaccinated on essence patch, so it's easy to see right away if it's a good idea or not to play here on the first week. I wish u guys gl.