Here is why I don't trust them in providing an entertaining environment to play

[Slaelia]

I'm just a random player, I'm waiting for a few things IRL to move on, and while doing that, I felt like I could enjoy some good old MMO.

 

The servers opened, I heard about it, and here I come, ready to discover what everyone calls "classic".

I got a lvl 20 artisan, a lvl 21 spoiler, a lvl 40 sorc (reroll to get death whisper, one day maybe), a lvl 55 SE (main), and some trash chars for funzies.

 

Call me crazy, I've been playing 6 to 16 hours a day since launch (I took a few days break here and there), and here's what I've learnt:

- This game is not the good old Lineage 2 I wanted to play. It's a version so tweaked that you encounter annoying bugs here and there that gives you this uncomfortable feeling of playing a beta (small things like lvl 1 to 40 displaying everyone as fighter in party, the lvls displayed on buffs from scrolls being wrong, the quest rewards being different from what is written like the 3200 a for spider quest where it stated 1000 in game ****FIXED HAHAHA APPLAUSE TY*****, or the transfer quest that say u'll get 250k xp but u get between 150 and 180k...).

- The amount of bots is not the problem yet, it's the lack of administration that sucks. "Don't do forum threads, go write a support ticket". Ok. I did a ticket. Elvenerino still farms with his 2 boxes. He's online 20h/24, he's really behind his computer 1-2h a day max. He just changed spot since my report. Not in IT anymore, just SoS now... A few days after my ticket has been closed. I understand that a guy with probably VIP4 on 3 characters matters more than a single account with VIP3 (fading to 2 sorry), but stop the hypocritical forum bashing, you do not intend to do anything about bots, and tickets are just ignored, you answer "We are investigating" and you do jackshit. If it was just lvl 1 to 20 characters farming low zones for adenas, I would shut it, but lvl 40+ fully geared chars farming important spots where you drop books worth from 500k to 6kk, it's just bleeping the game up.

- Buying from adenas sellers is a better option than buying from the L2Store. If you do not do anything against bots, do not complain if everyone buys their character already built, or adenas, and do not pay NCWest in the process.

- Let's assume the rates are what they are, we play a game that is not L2, all databases are wrong, we have to build a new one. THEN DO NOT TWEAK THEM AFTER GOING LIVE. And moreover, do not tweak SOME areas and not the rest. Either you make a big change and we start anew and understand the new rates and change our databases, or you don't do anything, but "fixing" some zones is admitting that you did shit and completely breaking the game for people who played with the previous rates. I did play 1 to 40 BEFORE the adenas x2.

- What else did you tweak? I like the fact that you made your own game, but AT LEAST DECLARE IT FFS. Do not brag about GOOD OLD NOSTALGIC experience if you do a different game. Lvl 55 takes a lot more XP than lvl 56. So there are some kind of big steps. This is new. Thanks for noticing. Spoil rates are so weird that I don't want to talk about it.

- What the heck is wrong with administration? Every single maintenance takes 1 to 3 hours more than expected. Aren't you pro with hosting L2 after 10+ years? What is new? What did you tweak so hard?

- The more accounts you have, the stronger you are. Halloween event was such a BAD MOVE that I can't even understand how you guys really came up with this. A chance for a TRADEABLE top D weapon for 3 hours of afk per account per day. This bleeped up the economy real hard. Why is this thing tradeable? Some people made 10+ accounts just for that shit. 3 accounts per computer... Some people even found a bug to be able to do this on every single char of the account, so 6 halloween boxes x10+ accounts per day. No matter how low the chance was, some top D were so frequent that we see +10 xbows already. And yes, there's a final S, there are several +10 bows.

Let's quick math here.

Let's assume the enchant success rate between +3 (excluded) and +14 is 66%.

You are the lucky owner of a +3 Xbow.

You have 66% of getting a +4.

43,56% of getting a +5

28,74% of getting a +6

18,97% of getting a +7

12,52% of getting a +8

8,27% of getting a +9

5,45% of getting a +1.

 

This means that without glitches, one guy should overenchant 15+ weapons to be sure to get a +10.

=> I thought there was a 3 account limit per player, and I myself tried to connect 2 boxes with success, but I see plenty players with more boxes. Some even state it openly "yes I have several computers lol noob". Wtf? Is it L2 having a full CP made out of boxes? OK.

 

 

To people who will tell me how bad I am to not be lvl 60 with my in game time, I'll have to provide a quick answer: I'm not playing competitively.

I'm trying to have fun, communicating a lot in game, and not optimizing as much as I could / should, were I to run for top lvl. I didn't come here with a full CP, and I do not want to get involved into any of the current strong sides (Lotus / Skynet on Giran serv), as they are full of egocentric bastards that I can't stand So yeah. I'm low lvl, low gear, but still trying to get the best experience out of it.

 

All in all, the game is still fun in some aspects, with hardcore grinding, interesting pvps, but the company hosting that thing just slowly makes me wonder WHY THE HECK DID I COME BACK TO OFFICIAL? What's the point when all that comes to my mind every day / every maintenance is: what will be their next move to bleep the game up for a handfull $$$?

 

Cheers.

[Slaelia]

I forgot to talk about queues

Like everyone I let my computer running with 2 clients, so that I do not ever get to wait to connect. Some non VIP do the same and hit NPC. Do you think this is viable? I think this bleeps up the server more than opening more slots. I think fishing should be taken out of the game (it has nothing to do with the Lineage 2 I know), and I also think that once every 1 hour we should ALL fill a captcha to stay in game. This would change the game sooooo much. Less boxes, less bots, more active players, more slots per server...

But you don't want that. You want many box / bots with VIP.

[RogerG]

Pretty accurate list of fudged up things. Incomplete though.

And things haven't change at all

[Devoid]

On 11/21/2018 at 7:03 PM, Slaelia said:

Let's assume the enchant success rate between +3 (excluded) and +14 is 66%.

You are the lucky owner of a +3 Xbow.

You have 66% of getting a +4.

43,56% of getting a +5

28,74% of getting a +6

18,97% of getting a +7

12,52% of getting a +8

8,27% of getting a +9

5,45% of getting a +1.

Assuming all weapon enchant rates are the same is a critical mistake.

On 11/19/2018 at 1:15 PM, Silence said:

Right after Prelude (BETA and release) it was changed so that:

1. Physical weapons use 70% success rate from +3->+4 until +14->+15 and 35% from +15->+16 onwards
2. Magical weapons use 40% success rate from +3->+4 until +14->+15 and 20% from +15->+16 onwards
3. Still no max enchant level for weapons

These rules were never changed later on BUT they were not applied to R grade items (introduced in GoD) […]

 

[Adeezah]

Very well stated!

[RogerG]

1 hour ago, Devoid said:

Assuming all weapon enchant rates are the same is a critical mistake.

Only bows are taken here as an example. I don't know whether 66% or 70% is the right rate, but it does not really matter.

My personal issue about overenchant is the following:

- When overenchanted D weapons appeared, it was still hard to get top D. Who would in his sane mind risk losing something that hard to farm? Someone who buys adenas, obviously... Or someone who knows a glitch.

- I saw overenchanted FP (currently >8kk adenas), and overenchanted C weapons (ranging from 6kk for akat to 18kk for eminence). Who the hell tries that? Did you see the Yaksa +12? Can you really tell me there's THAT many Yaksa, and that the guy is THAT rich, that he can risk it so often?

[Lightkeeper]

2 hours ago, Devoid said:

Right after Prelude (BETA and release) it was changed so that:

1. Physical weapons use 70% success rate from +3->+4 until +14->+15 and 35% from +15->+16 onwards
2. Magical weapons use 40% success rate from +3->+4 until +14->+15 and 20% from +15->+16 onwards
3. Still no max enchant level for weapons

These rules were never changed later on BUT they were not applied to R grade items (introduced in GoD) […]

[citation needed]

[nerdas]

11 minutes ago, RogerG said:

Only bows are taken here as an example. I don't know whether 66% or 70% is the right rate, but it does not really matter.

My personal issue about overenchant is the following:

- When overenchanted D weapons appeared, it was still hard to get top D. Who would in his sane mind risk losing something that hard to farm? Someone who buys adenas, obviously... Or someone who knows a glitch.

- I saw overenchanted FP (currently >8kk adenas), and overenchanted C weapons (ranging from 6kk for akat to 18kk for eminence). Who the hell tries that? Did you see the Yaksa +12? Can you really tell me there's THAT many Yaksa, and that the guy is THAT rich, that he can risk it so often?

 

Fukin "Enchant weekly quest" mate , what does it lead to ? just doing the quest on every character u have rewards u with ? 

[Devoid]

35 minutes ago, Lightkeeper said:

[citation needed]

C1, C4, GF, HF, GD and Ertheia contains these rates. You can literally pick any of these yourself and look inside to confirm it.

Prelude (PTS and release) had different weapon enchant rates, but they do not matter. R grade weapons also use different rates (as seen in GD and Ertheia), but classic has no R (R95, R99, R110) grade.

[JohnStamos]

@nerdas NOTHING! It rewards you with nothing. There is only a chance to get a scroll whether it is D, C, or B. I've done it four times and only gotten back fragments.

34 minutes ago, nerdas said:

 

Fukin "Enchant weekly quest" mate , what does it lead to ? just doing the quest on every character u have rewards u with ? 

 

[NotMyClassic]

This is not 15 years ago and as such, the business model they used back then would not work today. They could not rely on just catering to just the old school original L2 playerbase and make profit. It's just not possible.  All the changes in this version of the game allow for faster. easier, more casual leveling and advancement.  I would guess that many old school players even welcome the changes that allow them to not have to commit their lives to the game. Most have grown up, have other responsibilities, and cannot do what they did 15 years ago.

Personally I had just started college when L2 originally came out and I spent so much time leveling, grinding, etc. But hey, I was younger then, and had less responsibility. Now I get to play a few hours a night at most and welcome the ability to still advance with the new daily quest options.

That being said, this is not Classic L2 and never will be. This is a "F2P" version where, like in every other F2P game, there will be imbalance. Some will still invest hundreds to have the edge and honestly the business knows it will bring them the $$$. You can and will easily spend more on this F2P game than any subscription based game, knowing that unless you do, you will be dwarfed by anyone who pays for VIP 4 on a monthly basis. 

The main problem with this version and in turn NCWest is their game moderation.  I have never seen such improper GMing, support, and forum transparency on any other MMO I have ever played, including WoW, GW/GW2, LotRO, Eve, Terra, and so many others I have played since I first played L2. The fact that they have to include in the opening MoTD in-game how to block adena seller spam shows their unwillingness to do anything to rectify the issue. While in another instance the banning of legitimately played accounts is rampant while obvious bot parties go untouched. This is what ruins the game, more than any other mechanic in the current version. People are afraid to group with anyone because they can have their account locked just for partying with someone that may be using 3rd party tools. It's happened to 6 players I personally know and who knows how many countless more who have posted on these forums of the same thing. They do not thoroughly investigate these cases and refuse to do anything to help you.

Here is just a few of the issues I see that could be improved to make the player experience so much better and encourage trust in the company and willingness of people to invest in the game.

1. They have the ability to remove adena spammers to a great degree, but are unwilling to put in the effort.

2. Verification of violating ToS is minimal and does catch innocent players frequently.  Is it better to ban innocent player or to miss banning a real violator temporarily? Obviously your perspective will vary depending on the situations you have experienced but it is not good practice to alienate your active, honest, paying players.

3. There is minimal transparency in the forums about many issues that people have been asking for forever. No response from GMs on hot topics. This is not conducive to trust in the community.

4. With the most recent post by @Hime on adena rates, Yes they are trying to stay somewhat true to the classic experience, but I think they should try and consider the fact that what worked 15 years ago obviously does not work today and the player base has changed. While the rates may be "parallel" to other classic servers, that does not mean they are correct. Is it not obvious that higher lvl mobs should drop more adena? Apparently not to them.

You have to know that the view we have of NCsoft due to these issues is very negative. Would a company not want to improve their relationship with the community?  I would think that every effort would be taken to do so to create a more trusting relationship with their customers. It's been over 15 years...so I doubt anything would change. Why doesn't anyone address these issues in a forum post or something? The more transparent a company is with their customers the happier they are. I know there is a bottom line. Money. The better relationship with a company the more likely people are willing to invest in it. It can be that simple, if you are only willing to try.