Lineage II

Since Lineage 2 is the poster child of Grind on this site I thought it was only fair that someone points out the changes that are coming to the game in the next few months.

I guess its no longer going to be the grind king and some of you guys will need to select a new game to crucify.

I know many of you will brush this off as nothing will change the entrenched mind but it is good news for the many players who left because of the grind alone.

www.curse.com/articles/details/11785/ 

Lineage II: The Chaotic Throne – Gracia

Leveling: Lineage II’s Big Change Click to see full image</center></div>One of our greatest assets is our fantastic group of players, who are a very dedicated, hardcore bunch that spend a lot of time and effort building up their characters and battling each other in big player vs. player (PvP) fights like castle sieges. However, the process of building and leveling characters can be a very long and frankly tedious process in Lineage II, which may serve as a barrier for letting a much larger group of potential customers to fully enjoy our game. While in the past the developers in Korea have continually built the game with this hardcore mentality firmly set, with the release of Gracia, they’ve completely changed the rules and made Lineage II even better and a lot more fun.

The big change is that leveling a Lineage II character is now extremely easier—and we say “extremely” in a fairly conservative manner. A normal new character that goes through the beginning quests can gain a few levels in just a few minutes, and players should find leveling now quite easily, all the way up to level 60 and beyond. Players that could spend several months of hardcore grinding to get up to a competitively high level will now be able to accomplish the same feat perhaps a month, if not less. They’ll also be able to get to their occupation changes a lot faster, so developing a selection of specialized characters is a much more realistic option. Building characters is now a lot fun and easy to do, rather than a long-term activity many players would rather do without. This drastic change in leveling is due to several factors.

For one thing, experience rewards for killing creatures and accomplishing quests has been increased across the board. This means that you’ll gain a lot more for generally doing the same things you always do. Running out of quests trying to gain experience, or continual creature farming, is not nearly as big of a factor any more. Also, new repetitive quests have been added in each race village to help out players even further.

We’re also introducing a cool new Vitality system. For one thing, you accumulate Vitality for not being logged in. You can also get Vitality points by staying in a peace zone, or by hunting raid or boss monsters (you’ll get a percentage of your earned raid points in Vitality points). New characters and existing characters before the update goes live also start out with the maximum number of Vitality points.

So what do you do with Vitality points? You consume Vitality when you kill ordinary creatures and gain experience, though Vitality won’t get spent if you’re taking on a quest creature, if you don’t get experience for killing a creature, or if you’re taking on a boss. When Vitality is spent, your experience and SP bonus is greatly increased, depending on how much Vitality you currently have. If you’re maxed out in Vitality points (Vitality Level 4), your bonus will be 300% of the normal experience and SP gain. If you have a few thousand Vitality points (Vitality Level 1), the bonus is 150%. Because Vitality is so easy to earn, players will be in the bonus consistently and the overall experience gain can be huge.

To help characters level even more, the buffs available to low-level beginning players can now be used all the way to level 62, and we’ve even added a few more buffs for players to use. These buffs like Haste and Vampiric Rage help out tremendously in dealing with Lineage II’s various creatures and quests, and makes solo play a lot easier.

With Gracia, Lineage II is now a lot easier to play, and the level barrier is not nearly as tough as it used to be. Players will be able to get to the high levels relatively quickly, and can enjoy some of the best parts of the game like PvP and castle sieges without having to spend a huge amount of time getting there.

That sounds really fantastic, but there is still the grind for adena.  Since the leveling speed is increased, it will be even harder for players to earn enough adena to buy the equipment for his/her level.  I hope i dont sound like I am complaining, I am actually very happy with what they are doing.  Just that thought comes to mind and I can't help wondering if they will ever work on the grind for adena.

Originally posted by dragonxrider

That sounds really fantastic, but there is still the grind for adena.  Since the leveling speed is increased, it will be even harder for players to earn enough adena to buy the equipment for his/her level.  I hope i dont sound like I am complaining, I am actually very happy with what they are doing.  Just that thought comes to mind and I can't help wondering if they will ever work on the grind for adena.

Excellent point, I thought of that myself but hey, its a start.

Originally posted by Torak

Originally posted by dragonxrider

That sounds really fantastic, but there is still the grind for adena.  Since the leveling speed is increased, it will be even harder for players to earn enough adena to buy the equipment for his/her level.  I hope i dont sound like I am complaining, I am actually very happy with what they are doing.  Just that thought comes to mind and I can't help wondering if they will ever work on the grind for adena.

 

Excellent point, I thought of that myself but hey, its a start.

Oh totally, its a great start.  I'm just wondering if they have even considered increasing the amount of adena dropped.
 

Hey this update may get me back again !

You have to grind for something, you have to look to achieve something in an mmo. Armor, levels items. Somegames just go overboard. I played lineage 2 on and off for a long time, ill most likely be playing the update. I have friend keys if people want to try it.

you will have to pm me though, cause i will probably not check this thread again.

great job NC.... but 2 years to late !!!!

if they had changed the rates earlier maybe more ppl than the 200 russians and greeks (just watching their bots run in circles) would play this game today.

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Players that could spend several months of hardcore grinding to get up to a competitively high level will now be able to accomplish the same feat perhaps a month, if not less.

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Haha. Yeah right.

I'm sorry, but I pick up a non-MMO game and it is fun immediately. I'm not going to change my expectations and willingly put in a month of play _before_ I get to the main part of the game like the PvP. This is why every MMO to date fails.

Originally posted by Mylon

 

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Players that could spend several months of hardcore grinding to get up to a competitively high level will now be able to accomplish the same feat perhaps a month, if not less.

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Haha. Yeah right.

I'm sorry, but I pick up a non-MMO game and it is fun immediately. I'm not going to change my expectations and willingly put in a month of play _before_ I get to the main part of the game like the PvP. This is why every MMO to date fails.

I would imagine thats why they are lessening the grind, to get you into the action at a much faster rate. Also they are putting in very cheap "standard" items so that addresses the money issue, at least in part.

I wouldn't say its "late" like the people who dislike the game no matter what they do say, its just evolving like all MMOs to adapt to the current market.

L2 is still very popular worldwide and still has a bunch of expansions in the pipe and no doubt it will continue to evolve and improve as it has over the last 4 years.