freya [L2J] L2Nexus (Changed Server-Host)

[vampir]

I like it so far, i am just afraid it will be too complex. I can see you will make a lot of possibilities to rise stats, some combinations may give a lot better results than others and maybe players are not going to like it. You see, everybody that still plays l2 can see straight line to make character better(better gear grade, adding SA, adding augmentation, adding Elements) and you want to make a tree of character evolution from it. It's great that you are doing that, it's amazing but you see, there is one problem in that. Players are going to be confused, too many things that he doesnt know in single moment, he will have a lot of choises to make character better(it is easy for you, you are creating the server). You are expecting he is going to spend a lot of time just on thinking which way to choose and not just to play.

Let me give you an example - player is farming adena from few hours and finally he went to town. He can see a lot of things he is able to buy, but he doesnt know any of it. Find the way to make it clear what will be result of his choise, if it wont be simple, player will get confused.

 

If you have already resolved that problem, thats good for you :) hf

[Guest Elfocrash]

I like it so far, i am just afraid it will be too complex. I can see you will make a lot of possibilities to rise stats, some combinations may give a lot better results than others and maybe players are not going to like it. You see, everybody that still plays l2 can see straight line to make character better(better gear grade, adding SA, adding augmentation, adding Elements) and you want to make a tree of character evolution from it. It's great that you are doing that, it's amazing but you see, there is one problem in that. Players are going to be confused, too many things that he doesnt know in single moment, he will have a lot of choises to make character better(it is easy for you, you are creating the server). You are expecting he is going to spend a lot of time just on thinking which way to choose and not just to play.

Let me give you an example - player is farming adena from few hours and finally he went to town. He can see a lot of things he is able to buy, but he doesnt know any of it. Find the way to make it clear what will be result of his choise, if it wont be simple, player will get confused.

 

If you have already resolved that problem, thats good for you :) hf

 

I was about to comment and then i saw that comment and i though, well that's it.

Had the same issue while designing the gameplay of my own server.

Make it custom but keep it simple. Don't be a developer. Be a player first. What will a player that joins now do?

Show them the route. Don't try to make them think (or at least too much). they wanna see new things but not new tacts of how to play.

 

[ranzor]

@Elfocrash @vampir

 

 

The first few items to get are pretty straight forward, also we tried to make sure that you have the option and are not obligated to go into extremes, like I did with the duals. It's the same with the edited classes, a spellhowler is still a spellhowler, a necro is still a necro, an archer is still an archer, the basics haven't changed, but were enhanced in one way or another. If you were familiar with a class on retail (talking about chronicles before GoD), then you are pretty much good to go.

Expect changes, but mostly quality of life changes. The things that we added(or even removed in some cases) didn't make any of the most used classes more complicated or all too different. I am 100% certain that there will be difficulties some players will have to fight with more or less in the beginning, but I'm positive about the lurning curve. Most of the classes play by themselves, you use skills you always used and stuff happens, the changes we made to them were to enhance the existing mechanics.

While the server definitely requires advanced knowledge about L2's combat system, you can always find comfort in the popular PvP classes if you are feeling too insecure about your capabilities. And for the needy players, who are eager to experiment around with new stuff, there are completely reworked classes, such as Doomcryers, Elven Elders, Shilien Elders and the other least played ones.

You guys have a really good point about "cooking and eating your own food", as far as this player-developer relation is concerned. I was having lots of fun while creating everything and I always tried to change things while keeping the 2 most important things in the back of my head. Efficiency and fun. But the later can be biased by the fact that this changes with every person we look at. I hope to resolve this during the public tests with the players and hit the golden middle way that provides satisfaction for as many as possible.

 

I would love to have a deeper discussion with you guys about L2 and PvP in general, if you are interested! In case you are, send me a message with your skype name, that would be nice! Exchanging ideas, views, we might both find it profitable for later work!

[vampir]

Most important is to dont throw players at the deep waters without preparation. It's not true players wont like new stuff just because they are really complex, it just depends how informations about it will be given.

 

When i started to make really customized server, i was really amazed how awesome it is - the story line, many changes, events that could surprise you. I thought, i will make short movies in game and write down what i have done. I was really pissed off, when i found out everybody was just skipping that part. Giving all the informations at once, wasnt good idea.

 

Now i am thinking, it can be done in a lot better way. Start with what player knows, give him a direction and help him when he is confused. When new guy is starting to play on the server, he doesnt need to see all the weapons, belts and skills that he will be able to buy in 2 weeks. If player will click open Skills window just after creating new character and see 50 skills that he doesnt know he will be like "What the -beep-?!" - preparing bar will take him 1 hour and he wants to play...

He doesnt need to know Spoiler can summon army of the dead that kills you in 1 second until he sees it(also he will be glad to have some infos, maybe something like: "Yeah we know that skill is OP, but you have got something even better - on Level 85 you will be able to summon Sauron and crush that Spoiler". I think that would be cool.

 

Simple choices(Super Vesper Sword will give you more p Atk, but Ultra Dynasty Sword have faster Atk Spd), informed player that feels he didnt forget about anything(like message just after getting level 86: if you want to get more efficent stun skill - Maluk leaders in LOA are dropping the spell book), help when he is confused(when he notices CP bar is freaking not moving after getting hit from other player, inform him what is going on).

[malecki7]

Ty. Now all is clean

[ranzor]

Most important is to dont throw players at the deep waters without preparation.

 

The beginning of the server will appear to be pretty simple, but just when you reminded me of how important it is to eliminate possible unwanted side-effects, I discovered something that needs to be fixed right away, as it makes skipping a really important procedure on the server possible.

 

Now i am thinking, it can be done in a lot better way. Start with what player knows, give him a direction and help him when he is confused. When new guy is starting to play on the server, he doesnt need to see all the weapons, belts and skills that he will be able to buy in 2 weeks. If player will click open Skills window just after creating new character and see 50 skills that he doesnt know he will be like "What the -beep-?!" - preparing bar will take him 1 hour and he wants to play...

 

If anything, the players will complain about the lack of active skills in the window. About 99% of the self buffs and toggle skills that had negative effects or didn't confront the player with a choice (the ones which they would have used anyway), were moved to the passive skills tab, low level skills were also removed. The player now only has skills in his Alt+K, which he can and is supposed to use. As time goes by, I'll make sure that the player won't feel like there is anything missing from his character, but it's an immense work to go through everything without feedback from many different sources.

 

Simple choices(Super Vesper Sword will give you more p Atk, but Ultra Dynasty Sword have faster Atk Spd), informed player that feels he didnt forget about anything(like message just after getting level 86: if you want to get more efficent stun skill - Maluk leaders in LOA are dropping the spell book), help when he is confused(when he notices CP bar is freaking not moving after getting hit from other player, inform him what is going on).

 

While you are completely right about informing the player about everything special going on, the players also should show the will of looking around, the will to learn and to understand. If you present them anything in an understandable way, they shouldn't look away and then expect scripts to pop-up into their faces, telling them everything step by step.

I represent the opinion, that this is exactly what people mean when they are talking about "the old times". They want to explore again, to be the firsts to find out about something on the server. Lineage 2 back in the day was far less user-friendly, just think about the only way of finding a new zone to level at was porting around, to every town while each teleporter had a complete new list of possible locations. The only way to find out about the drops and spoils list was to either randomly spoil stuff or to rely on fan-made databases on the internet. And now? All you have to do is Shift+click.

Unfortunately, server creators slowly started making it more comfortable for players, creating farming zones and setting new locations directly at the entrance, increasing buff timers to infinite and slowly making players get used to it and now even demand it. Lineage 2 has such a beautiful environment, but everything that players seem to see lately is the teleport htmls and the system message window. This makes me a bit sad, but what else can one do if this is what the majority demands. It's hard to break out of habits and change the system around alone.

[malecki7]

up

[Ilusioner]

looks awsome, any website? or date for PTS open?

[ranzor]

we still have plenty of things to do on the server! I hope we don't make you guys all crazy while waiting.

There is no ETA yet, as we wouldn't like to promise something we cannot keep and as every day passes by, we keep finding stuff we would like to polish or even rework before we give our blessings on it. We will try hard to open something like a test phase as soon as we can to find and fix bugs we may have missed, cannot promise anything like that before the beginning of the next month.

 

Hello Illusioner,

 

thank you for stopping by!

 

As stated in the quotation, we wouldn't like to publish an ETA yet, however, I can give you guys a short report as where the server stands now and what we are working on.

Since skills and items were heavily altered, we would like to provide the players with as much and as accurate information as we can. hNoke recently brought out a new skill info window that appears when you:

1. target yourself

2. hold down ctrl

3. left-click one of your skills on your Quickbar OR in your skills window(alt+k)

Here are a few screenshots of what it looks like:

Shining Edge

Curse of Life Flow

Curse of Life Flow proc

 

While editing the remaining classes (female soulhound(caster), trickster, judicator and the 2 dwarves) I am constantly farming on the server, using really basic gear to test how progression feels, to ensure that the players constantly have the feeling of their characters growing stronger and to also make sure that there are no big gaps where farming feels senseless and the next set goal is too far away. While doing this, shop prices are being changed accordingly to further support a smooth feel of gameplay.

 

Unique weapons are constantly being made(clickable) This weapon has a rarity of 4 and is not fully edited yet.

Our uniques are divided into categories that are defined by rarity.

= OBTAINABLE FROM DROPS =

======================================================================

Rarity meter: determines how 'hard to obtain' the weapon should be

*1* - quite common, not more expensive than apropriate icarus/vesper weapon

*2* - more expensive than icarus/vesper

*3* - rare

*4* - extremelly rare

Rarity often defines the power of a unique item, accordingly: Hardness can be determined by either drop chance, difficulty of monster/raid boss or both.

 

As said in one of my previous posts, there are currently 4 zones (+1 limited time zone) set up on the server. 2 of which can be found directly next to each other and have about the same drops, but monsters, difficulty and drop chances/amounts vary.

 

1. Hyena Zone(plains of the lizardmen) - The drops here are fully saturated (in other words: done). There is a great number of healing plants and mushrooms that when killed, heal the player back, making it the best possible and most forgiving zone for new players.

 

2. Training Grounds(sel mahum training grounds) - Similar to the Hyena Zone, the drops in terms of items are about the same. This zone has been made for players with enchanted gear(but still Tier 1) and stronger AOE abilities, recommended for progressing to Tier 2 items after players had acquired strong Tier 1 equipment.

 

3. Hunters Valley(hunters valley) - While the previous 2 zones have a greater monster density, monsters in this zone are standing solo, providing enough challenge for players who seek to try out multiple Tier 2 items to work on their specialized PvP equipment. Lowest rarity Uniques(1-2) can be found in this zone. There are several healing plants placed in this zone to assist the player with a quicker regeneration.

 

4. DVC (dragon valley cave) - The zone is filled with really challenging monsters, they not only hit you, but cast strong debuffs, offensive skills and have a great set of defensive or other strong mechanics that makes fighting each one of them a unique experience for parties. Rarity 3 uniques can be found here.

 

+1. Giant's Cave - Limited time zone, opens only at certain times, either automatically or manually opened by one of the gamemasters. This zone is - how I like to call it - a progression zone. Players complete tasks and get rewards for it. Each reward is included in the next reward's price and this goes on until the player reaches the end of the zone. Then, he is able to exchange the final reward for special consumables and other useful items.

 

There is one more Limited time zone planned(Hellbound), but that will most likely be delayed as it needs a lot more work and has no place in the current gameplay yet.

 

Summary of what is left to be done:

- 5 classes

- adding drops to 2 zones and working out the shop lists and prices

- further customization of the DVC zone

- constantly creating more unique weapons

- adding back drops to the limited time zone (Giants Cave)

- re-visiting everything once again to make a polished gameplay

 

What to expect in the future:

- constant content updates

- paying focused attention to balance issues

- at least 4 new epic armors that open up whole new build paths for classes

- working out 2-slot accessories that are heavily class-specific

- ...

 

We aren't too far away from going into an open test phase, shouldn't last longer than a month. We are really thankful for the attention of the eager players we managed to get.

 

Keep spreading the word, call your friends, keep posting comments and questions about the server!

[Tectonic]

Nice features..im waiting with my friends!

[hNoke]

work's progressing pretty well.

 

just bumping

[GsL]

Cool Unique features

 

 

Gracia pride style

[Ilusioner]

thanks for informations, i m really waiting for it :D :D :D

[Egypt]

any news

[Stewie]

any news

 

Will turn to a project for sale, as L2Reunion... i bet.