Sorry but Eternal set on a tank and 3 out of 4 feohs with Helios caster (+300 wind I guess) and Saphire 3x lv3 and 1xlv4 is not a part of Paulina's gear. But ye I guess they are on +/- lowest possible gear to farm there efficiently. Put Paulina armour set on the tank and he will get 2 shot. Remove casters and sapphires and one train will take 5min+, if not longer, to finish. Ofc their party setup is perfectly balanced for that: DD with offensive brooches and 300 weapons, supports with armours to survive but that's already several billions of investment
Lets not forget, that new player is able only to play Feoh as dd (maybe yul too), and tank after, lets say 3h atelia farm, will have headache of running circles all the time. I have a commercial slogan: Come ppl, play l2, u can "choose" to play feoh and to be able to play u must pay for the gear. That sounds great! Isnt it?
Quit the QQ guys, l2 business model is about milking whales, nothing else You're only hitting the l2store button for a couple of euros ? You're not the business target, so you're not considered valuable customers, hence nothing will be done for you.
There is a big part of server who doesn't donate or donates very little, and yet they all want thise maphr scrolls, eva runes, good items, without them there be signifinatly lower demand on items which comes from store or most of them. So why donate if you don't have what to do with this junk? More free players, bigger demand, so donators gets more better deals. I guess this was one of the reasons why brooch price went down, since all donators have them lv 5/6, and for lower players it was too expensive.
The ISS reached level 94 with around 185kk adena (when the stuff at the AH sells, because undercutting prices is for bi..). I still have some stuff to do (such as Spezion) and stuff i've forgotten to do (alts, olymp quests, etc), but lets be generous and say that i'll get lucky on that last stretch to 95 and i get another 185kk adena. That would put me with around 370kk. By now the internet intensifies as all the salty vets are furiously mashing the keyboard with better strategies and stuff. The point of this (this little experiment) was to show that NEW PLAYERS, following what the game provides them (quest lines and their rewards), reach a point where they have progressed (10) levels and using the prices available at the action house today (20/5/2018) here's whats available to them: TW Heavy set: Not available as a complete set as there are no Breastplate listed. or TW Light set: 219kk, Cheapest with no enchants or element. Apoc Duals: 450kk, Cheapest (only 1 available) with no SA and no element. Huh.. But lets say that new player uses that ever so rare thing called common sense and pops the 30 day TW gear (that he didnt waste on easy content) at level 95 to push forward and ignores low tier equipment as thats for plebs. R99 gear it is: R99 Heavy set: 629kk with no enchants or element. or R99 Light set: 568kk with no enchants or element. R99 Duals: 700kk Cheapest with no enchant and no element. Salty Vets? Shut it! I know how F2P games are supposed to be run. Go away! My question, and a question that i'd like Fragola to ask whoever NCSoft person can answer, is: How does NCSoft's F2P model work? Because i dont get it.. Even mobile games lure players in with easy to get stuff (usually basic stuff) and then, if they want more, they have to pony up. On Lineage 2 its the opposite: Have you gone through 94 levels and want new equipment? Two options for you: No or L2Store. Oh, have you made a bad decision chosing your revelation skills? You can reset it for the cheap price of 100kk adena. Ah, you're new and didnt know better and want a free reset? How about: No! Farm the money or L2store. Dude, that dualclass isnt what you thought it would be? You can reset it! For the measly 100kk adena, and ill cut you a 10kk discount for each level it has until level 95. Dont have adena? Farm it foo or L2Store. Again.. There are easy changes that could be implemented that would help players out. These players even without clicking on the L2Store button, would inevitably end up using it (indirectly) by buying from other players. NCSoft wins, INNOVA wins. Or am i missing something? For the Salty Vets still hyperventilating: Before doing this experiment, INNOVA was kind enough to send me an email titled "3 important questions for you, please answer" that i kindly ignored. I dont realy care, but im not gonna lie, andrius3022 initiative did get me a bit curious.
I don't have an answer for L2 but I've played two other NC games and the same games in Korea are a lot more p2w than what we have overseas, and as we know NC games in NA/EU are quite p2w. I don't think that you'll find an answer that will satisfy you, a lot of Koreans love to pay to win.
I am working on these ideas these days, based on the given feedback, but I'm open to your suggestions as well, so go on.
start from basic things. r99 drops from somewhere.. for example CH instances.. bosses now 105 lvl, pretty hard instances for avg players.. only one good thing there, even for full party with maphr and PA only it gives like 400+B exp.. that's it.. drops.. what drops.. appearance stones? very useful and valuable.. and fix dragons respawn.. bring back old system, or at least 11days like it was before and 1-3hours window (for pvp). like baium long time ago. 5days 1-8hours window. for example previous valakas was killed may 13th, around 10h moscow time, and next spawn was today, after how much? 8 days and 10hours.. i'm not pvp player, but my friend complain about this.. now what.. you can take that dragon with 7 peoples cp if all buy 6+ PA, bring chars to dragon npc, dragon spawns, you enter. because nobody knows when dragon respawn is. for example it was interesting to watch pvp for lindvior, that was like 2h+ nonstop pvp. i think both clans was happy with that. and latest fix with "random respawn" just destroyed another clan pvp event. now what left? only sieges. and even those is unbalanced..
A real help here would be 90-day R95 Paulinas with full attributes - you need a PVE/PVP set for top content anyway, and this could help people reach at least 101 - and this is like 20 minutes of programming from Koreans. The reason why everything costs so much is because Koreans have no idea how to deal with inflation and have to remove Adena from the server somehow, to which I applaud, but it mostly damages low level players as they are found in a place where the only solution is that sweet L2Store button or RMT (to pay less). The main problem is: we can't just give them adena, because that would cause huge inflation and solve nothing. If, however, they had a chain quest where they have to farm for 30 minutes a day (preferably solo but it has to be doable by support classes too), and get a bound (yes, bound) set and weapon, which they upgrade every day with quest rewards like bound attribute stones, later bound crystals, 100% enchants that work up to +6arm +4weap (+6 set is nothing), and 1st SA, they would still get 1. good gear 2. the feeling of progress 3. real help. After the chain is done they should get an opportunity to unseal the gear, for a price in pure adena, which should be a price good enough to be reasonable for these people whenever they feel like it, and yet high enough to discourage botters and make sure they gain 10x less from this than farming. Free 30-day chaos essence (unpacked), free reset tokens on certs, revelation skills, dual skills are obligatory here too. That pretty much leaves the adena problem only. Main problem with giving adena opportunities to people, and why NCSoft doesnt do it, is because of the fact that botters will always find a way to abuse it, and I dont really see a solution here. The only idea I have is greatly boosting party daily rewards with items like 10x Elcyum Powder and dragon weapon materials level 4-5, but it would need to be versions of items not sellable to grocery but to players only - this makes sure the adena is not generated by the system, but transferred from top players to low players, where both sides gain. Top players get the materials they need while lowbies get 20kk worth in adena per daily. EDIT: Looking at the state of Core, which we want to help now, they could even get a 'Dragon Claw Fragment' per daily, so lets say 3 per day, of which you would need 1000 for a single Claw - again, helping both top players and lowbies.
I mentioned raising the adena rewards but thats def. a no go, as bots will become even more of a problem than they already are. instead of doing that, they could adjust the drop rates for low/entry level instances (kartias, teredors, fortunas, spezions, istinas, group instances) so that they'd drop things like crafting packs, elemental stones (etc) at a decent amount, not just from the bosses, but also mobs (if present). (as an example, how many Kartias are done each day and how many of those players that do it avoid "trash" mobs since they arent worth the shots? Add usefull drops to them, make them worth it) That would mean people could gear up by grouping up (even if just a random pug) by putting in some time and effort and it would make it a bit hard for bots. And nerf Herpha's EXP rewards. While the rewards she hands out are nice (because they are free) they are also garbage because they barely make a difference (stat wise) and the exp she gives boosts the players levels by too much that they quickly pull ahead (way ahead) of their equipment.
The exp/ gear (or adena) ratio is a big problem, I remember having r95 set (almost) ready before hitting 95, now exp is so fast you hit 95 in s80 paulinas or no-attribute +0 r-grades. But idk how to balance it since there are 2 groups- one veteran that has the gear/ knowledge and just want to exp toon on new server/ new class/ box ASAP (the majority who play L2 I think) and other group start from 0... can't make both groups happy. If you buff low lvl quests/ zones it's mainly the overgeared vets who will farm it (like now 85 zone ppl farm in +10 gear with 101 lvl box) I think there is only 1 game as old as L2 that somehow solved this... The space spreadsheet simulator.
I'm against the idea of giving away full gear with full attributes, even if it comes with a timer. You're killing crafting even more and promote laziness. I'm also against the idea of giving further drops to easy instances like Kartia. You're going to promote solo/duo groups even more. This is an instance were its main point is the xp, don't make it more popular than the other instances that are barely visited, and also don't go against the idea of gearing up before xp. You can also get attribute stones or enchants from it already, if you're lucky. Nerfing adena was a good step, as the focus shouldn't be hoarding adena but getting items, on your own or group or clan. For this they have to slightly make crafting or spoiling more useful, or just slightly increase drop of parts. I'm killing hundreds of mobs only to get one immortal ring gem or something like that. If I want to craft that item I have to farm for probably 2 weeks and the item you're crafting is obsolete, it has no use to you anymore. Crafting in the past also took a lot of time but spoil and drop chance of parts were more present and reliable. Btw, if someone is hardcore enough, you can use mentor diplomas and get free immortal. Safe enchant it and element it and, tbh, it can carry you up to 99. A few years ago a lot more people were using immortal, even at 95+, as they were saving up for a decent weapon. And we still managed to do instances quite fine in that gear. Nerfing xp is whatever but it has pluses and minuses. It will make you stay more on lower levels to farm stuff but on the other hand there is nothing much to farm for your own benefit. Two problems, one is that drops are almost non existent at lower levels (85+) and that the content is somewhat obsolete, as the game seems to start at 100+. You're going to promote more emptiness, to be more disappointed with drops and adena, by removing that xp, and your 30 days paulina will fade long before you reach some meaningful content. A new player will definitely give up. The main idea is nice, giving parts drop, crafting packs, stones and so on to relevant instances. As I restarted recently, the main problem I see is not the problem of not having enough adena to buy something like apo/tw, but making it on my own, even if it takes time. A few years ago I crafted my own tw set parts, but now, it's not reasonable at all to do that. The idea to get enough adena to buy those sets is wrong from the start. Someone has to create those items, as craft of drops. Their prices is also totally irrelevant, as players set up those prices and not the game.
Its quite easy: If R grade and R95 were to be considered low tier equipment by the game (as they are by the players), and the game would provide them in high enough numbers (high enough, not to make mobs be piñatas) then the value of those items would drop down due to more offer than demand. Couple that with options like adding an option to trade equipment for other equipment same level (how mammon used to work with weapons?) and suddenly weapon prices stabilize. (instead of having shooters being almost half the price of other weapons of same grade, for example) Add plenty elemental stones drops so, not only casual/low level players get to have plenty access to elemented gear and weapons (pretty much essential "upgrade"), the prices of that equipment also drops a bit. (due to cheaper costs of putting element on it). Can full geared people still farm them better than newbies? Sure. But if prices go down, will it be worth it for them? Yeah, kartia was a mistake :< Im also against full gear rewards (either free or with easy quests) as that means bots will have easy access to those and because the game isnt like that, you get players used to free stuff and then they reach a point they actually have to work for stuff and they disappear. PS: You're always gonna have people soloing or duoing stuff for the biggest proffit. You cannot nerf the game with those people in mind as you'll end up with what we have presently. For example, the guy "soloing" tezza with 3 parties (iirc). And again, make those drops plentifull, remove them from the NPC buy list and suddenly those players will start to question if they are worth it. Another thing is, if a server has low population, drops need to be raised to compensate. Say there are just a few players farming low level content? Anyone that joins will see high prices just because there isnt enough equipment available. The fact that some enchanters (if not all) use low level equipment to find the "good wave" so they can enchant their high level stuff doesnt help this one bit.
Good to know at least one person didn't give up on the game We love you but what can you do as EU community manager? Spam the korean forum? lol waste of time and resources. Better keep s80 which already has some atributes and spend diplomas on 500k shots or something. Shadow wep is cheap and ok for some classes and you can start work on TW. 99 lvl? Yea this r grade with half attribute will work for low lvl instances and <99 hunting grounds (for 99 need gear and/or decent party). And it will work mainly because there will be 1 stacked character doing 30x the dps of rest of the pt and carry you. And as you mentioned game starts at 100 (101). Where you get 2 shot by everything without decent gear.
Depends, as not everyone jumps into this 30 days marathon, to get gear before paulina expires, or have time to play every day to farm a decent amount of adena in this short period of time. For those that plan ahead and know what to expect from the game, as they know the game beforehand, getting r-grade shots is the right way but it's not for everyone. I don't think you will survive in normal instances like fortuna, in paulina s80 with only like 50 element defense, unless they nerfed the instance even further since last time I went there a few years ago. I remember people in plain immortal dying in teredor instance, while people making it +3 and element it had other story to tell, same in fortuna, istina, octavis and so on. What else is there to do till you get your r99, which seems the gear you're aiming for after s80? Die over and over and get carried? Not to mention, some players even look strange at you for having s80 in K85. I only mentioned one alternative, not that is the way to play the game. As you see, some players are coming back and their story starts with, my set expired. I restarted the game recently and even if I had some knowledge from years ago, I still took the free immortal set, skipping jewelry and weapon for shots. It is for 'just in case' scenario, as I'm not active every day and I want to play at my own pace, not to be constrained by that 30 days timer, but I still plan to get a weapon by then. There was no shadow weapon a few years ago, at least not this type of shadow weapons. There aren't many info about them, I only know that you can't put SA or trade, so I'll pass buying one for now.
imo it's not worth to make tw full attribute, can save/ sell crystals to make +4 r95 instead. On other hand blue save cards are much cheaper so it's easier to make it +8, which is better than r95 +4 for sure. Depends on classes (healer/ iss can get away in s80 till 99, ranged need weapon but not armor etc.) and if people have brain. Standing in poison zone on teredor and having semi-afk heal and an iss dead half way to rb zone because he got lost is fail even if all have good gear. It's true nowdays it's a case of "carry me senpai" and people often get invited just to fulfill the "7 people in party" requirement. Having TW and a +4 300 atri wepon would not change much in k95 or baylor thou. You would do 200% more dmg compared to s80 but what's the difference if stacked titan snorts both rb's in 15 seconds.
Finally someone said it. + there are no new players, or just a few of them but not 6 online at the same time, to do dailies with + all of you are forgetting what NCWest CO, NCSOF CO daughter, said "Western players pay attention to narratives and their experience within the game ... but don't necessarily spend a lot of time trying to understand the saga and legend behind it. Americans also like being heroes and are more likely to play solo". Western player are all the ppl to the west of Korea just to be crystal clear on this one. Eg. we have a game designed for asian players, a 2003 videogame, with almost to 0 adena drops in lowbies areas (85 to 99), which starts, for real, at lvl 101 when every player doesn't have the gear they need. The solution to every problem is in the problem itself. Idk NCSoft, Innova are just corps which have to make profit. That's ok. The game is actually chained to the l2 store button and there isn't a single way to get rid of it. The only solution for both players and the corp is to lower the l2 store prices. Every solution the players will find will hit the 101 wall. No l2 store no gear quit Every solution the corp will find will have something to do with the l2 store button. Now ok i'm lvl 99 with an iss box. What i can do so that I can join a cp and go to atelia? Grab the gear. How can i grab the gear? Do you see that l2 store button? Hit it. I can't afford to spend that much. This is the only, real, problem.
You're right, at some point you're going to find huge discrepancies within the game. They developed on top of older content, on and on for so long, and things got messy. They need to play their own game to see where the problem is. I think for them the most essential thing in this game is changing your gear appearance, as that's the most common thing that drops. If that's not a sign of being out of touch with your own game, I don't know what it is. I was thinking of TW because I can mail it and use it on other characters. The game is kinda pushing you to have alts, to farm certain things to make some adena to start. TW armor is indeed not really necessary on some classes but at least a decent r-grade weapon is still nice to have.
Best example of how ******ed can a business get. Like, "Oh man, we have this great game that those fools dont understand.. They dont even play it the right way! But lets release it there, without making the necessary changes so the game can find success there! Fools money is still money!" Releasing a product (any product) without studying the market and making the necessary changes for that product to sell there, is a good way to make your brand lose value. A quick search about NCSoft shows that very easily. Biggest BS that people still repeat up to this day, hoping it makes it a truth. This game was designed to waste your time. From farming exp, sp and adena to get better equipment and consumables to farm more exp, sp and more adena, so you'd get killed and lose exp and have to farm it again or die by mobs and lose equipment that you'd have to waste time farming to get back. This game was masterfully designed to make you waste time, because you (the player) paid for that time. It changed "now" to the l2store. Its not worse, its a case of "same -_-, different smell. (Fun fact. Nobody, but the wierdo's, like grinding. One of the reasons it doesnt affect Asian (Sth Koreans in this case) players that much is that they have servers full of people that play in the same'ish timezone and speak the same language) That is no solution as the producer (NCSoft) doesnt feel that it has to do that at all. For them, this is a way to get as much money as possible. When the money stops, they pull the plug and move on to a new shiny thing that will bring them more money. When that new thing stops bringing them money, they pull the plug and move on to the next shiny thing. Who is to blame? The corporation for exploiting or the consumer for being spineless? For there to be changes, they cant be attempts to change the game or else they'll get rejected on the spot. For there to be changes, they cant take too much development power (number of devs or/and time) or else the'll get rejected on the spot. Thats why i mainly sugested modifying stuff, and not creating new things. Just like the need for players to fish, asking NCSoft to remove that quest will most likely get ignored. If one could ask them to "modify" a fishing rod, as a shadow rod (timed item, not like the shadow weapons we have now) that players without premium could buy from an NPC, therefore allowing them to complete the quest and having another adena sink (NCSoft sure likes those adena sinks), the chances would probably be slightly higher. This isnt about changing the game. That is simply not possible.
On this I have to agree. I joined the ship in the open beta ncwest servers 14 years ago. Just ask to yourself. Why all the people that played at that time altought they all grew up, they have a wife and a kid they can afford every 50ish videogame are returning to ncwest or coming in here? Because they enjoyed to waste their time with friends. At that time when someone managed to get a manticore set there were whole 2 days long rave parties irl. This is the first point. No connection between the videogame and the real life. No connection at all between clan and rl friends. Someone, don't remember who or where, said nowadays the only connection is between a video game and a credit card. You are forgetting one thing. Innova isn't a consumer nor ncsoft. Innova is in between beeing just a publisher. If ncsoft pulls the plug off we will go elsewhere, ncsoft will continue to do emo games like mxm. What will innova do? I want to give a little advice to CM Fragola, since she has always been kind to all of us. Make a toon lvl 1 and day by day play with the real players, even 2 minutes per day, print a screenshots of what the say in global chat, clan chat, whisper. She will find the real problem. It has never been the l2 store but the values someone decided to put in it.
