freya [L2J] L2Nexus (Changed Server-Host)

[ranzor]

Hello Everyone!

 

As promised, I am updating the topic as soon as we started work again! Sorry that we made you guys wait for so long, I will do my best to catch up with the time lost, as I know that you had to sit on your butts patiently for a really long time. :P

I must say that this delay wasn't for nothing, I had a lot of time to re-think a thing or two regarding the current farm and gearing up concepts and I also made a few drafts when class got too boring. I used the time to simply forget about the server for most of the time because I got stuck in many of the ideas and concepts and had a hard time being able to observe and judge it from an objective perspective. Artists call this a "creative block". This simply means that you dove into your own ideas so much that you are having a hard time thinking outside the box and coming up with something new. This break of few weeks has helped me get rid of this negative side-effect and pick up the work with a fresh mind again and to hopefully come up with things that complement the current system.

 

The main issues I was having the most trouble with were:

- ways of acquiring unique weapons (While this may sound easy, the different strength categories of unique weapons make this quite a challenging task. I am trying to find the perfect balance between difficulty of acquisition and how rewarding the category of the weapon is. The way the current system was planned, unique weapons are drop-only for 90% of the time, but this is really unreliable and mostly not fun for the players at all. Especially since the very first category of uniques are supposed to be the easiest to get, the problems I am facing here are:

1. If category 1 uniques are drop only, in the early stages of the server, they are going to be really rare, but over time the market is going to be flooded with them if we don't find a way to allow players to get rid of them in a rewarding way.

2. If category 1 uniques are buyable from the shop, they are going to be easily accessible to anyone, kinda removing the "unique" aspect of it as anyone has access to them. Players will not sell/buy/trade these with other players, economy suffers from this.

 

My thoughts:

Category 1 Uniques should be buyable, as these give the players a taste of what later uniques are capable of in terms of allowing players to work out new builds. Unique weapons(any category) can be destroyed through a unique process that rewards the player with a material of a random amount that is needed for advanced gear. This way we are able to keep the overall count of uniques lower, increase trading between players and make less used uniques still be valuable. Controlling ingame market becomes possible, economy stays strong.

 

While doing some brainstorming and writing drafts, I came up with a few fun and effective ways for the server's economy-worker class, the Warsmith. I don't want to go into details too much, because we want to keep a few secrets to us until the opening, but the Warsmith will play an important role in providing the server's players with various consumables, materials and trading value.

The only reason why I brought it up is because I want to make you guys know that all the wait did not happen for nothing, it was time well-spent and helped funding many of the new ideas around the server.

 

Again, thank you very much for still holding onto the server, it's a decision that you will not regret!

 

 

This looks 1:1 with the server i`m looking for. Amazed with the things you implemented by now and waiting up for the G.O. :-beep- yeah: :gusta: :happyforever:

 

Hello QQnewb!

 

hNoke did the best he could to summarize the server in one post, but listing all the small details and actual thoughts behind every decision would take really, really long! However, matching your expectations with a skin-deep description of the server makes us really happy, as it makes easier to amaze you, once you decide to dive into the details we have to offer. :)

 

 

whel mate , what do you think! May be in the christmass period can you open it? :D We all w8ing about this server!

 

Hey densekserw!

 

We lost a lot of time which we will try to compensate in the upcoming week-long holidays the best we can. Time flies by faster than we'd thought, but after a short conversation with hNoke about the actual opening date, christmas period sounds about right! Again, thank you for giving us the chance to prove ourselves, with the amount of work spent on the server's details, I am really positive that the long wait will pay off!

 

 

Thanks everyone for staying loyal!

Edited October 10, 2013 by ranzor

[ranzor]

To compensate you for the long wait, I'm going to release some of the unique weapons(4 weapons out of 100+) to bump the topic.

 

 

 

Bersersker's Axes(dual swords)

P.atk -30%,

Critical rate -100,

Critical damage -30%;

 

attack count +2, attack angle set to 180 degrees, sets attack speed to 1350;

- adds active skill Extreme Rage - usable when HP is lower than 30%, sets P.atk speed to 1600, speed +10, accuracy -10

***Additional info: these duals bypass the maximum attack speed limit, which is 1250 by default when not wearing this weapon***

 

Utgard Staff(2h mage staff)

Casting speed +15%,

P/M.atk +15%,

Magic skill reuse -10%,

 

20% chance that hittime of Prominence/Hurricane/Hydroblast/Steal Essence is set the lowest possible, sets casting speed to 1500 during this one cast and resets the skill's reuse

***Additional info: lowest possible hittime is defined here by the number that still allows the skill's animation to cast properly, without messing it up like it used to when casting at high speed***

 

Magical Katana(1h-sword)
hard-sets(cannot be decreased or increased by anything) crit rate to 250
adds +20.000 crit damage
+200% critical damage

- adds active skill Change Weapon - changes Magical Katana into Magical Claymore.

***Additional info: While the +20.000 crit damage seems really high, the additive critical damage doesn't have a big impact. The sword itself has really low base P.atk. The fixed critical rate and insane crit damage multipliers allow the player to either focus on high-def builds while still being able to deal damage or to focus on P.atk heavily to bring out the most of the high crit damage multiplier. Bored of the Katana or you are just looking for a 2H-sword to make your build work? Convert it into the Claymore, which has a whole new profile!***

 

Pandemonium Bow(bow)

Patk +10%,

Shoot reuse -17%

 

- adds active skill Blink (150 range); with reuse about 15 seconds

***Additional info: using a certain type of armor which uses the same mechanic as the active skill, but in a passive-trigger way, can make this bow be a really effective weapon for kiting***

 

 

 

Hope you guys are getting excited and curious about what the rest of the 100+ weapons have to offer. Questions are welcome, comment and tell us your opinion, we would like to hear it!

Edited October 10, 2013 by ranzor

[malecki7]

Good Job

 

P.S Add Apella armor with custom stats :)

[madbill]

I really liked your project and i was searching for something like that for a long time..I don't really believe that's your gameplay it's complicated..In lineage II you must be clever to built your set up,not only a chinese farmer..One question from me is about the time..I am from Europe and i think you're Br..Dunno if that gonna change the plot..Did you get this??That's for me.I would be glad if you could tell us what's your time plan.Few weeks or?

[ranzor]

Hello madbill!

 

I really appreciate that you happened to submit your very first post in our topic.

 

We'd like to avoid making as much personal information public as possible. Not because it's a secret, but to simply avoid reflecting personal feelings onto the server, based on our origin or whichever characteristics you would not like about a person.

The server is currently running on a small virtual server hosted in Germany for the test environment and also because jumping head-on into paying for a bigger dedicated server without knowing how popular the server would actually become, would be a reckless move. The delay is actually fine, even from overseas so we would like to keep it until the server's population becomes big enough so we have no other choice but to move. Also for financial reasons.

 

A huge portion of work is going to be done by the end of next week (whole week of holidays, so plenty of time to get things done), I'll be able to give you a more accurate information of the server's test phase opening.

 

If there are any more questions or things you'd like to know about the server, feel free to ask!

Edited October 24, 2013 by ranzor

[madbill]

Hello madbill!

 

I really appreciate that you happened to submit your very first post in our topic.

 

We'd like to avoid making as much personal information public as possible. Not because it's a secret, but to simply avoid reflecting personal feelings onto the server, based on our origin or whichever characteristics you would not like about a person.

The server is currently running on a small virtual server hosted in Germany for the test environment and also because jumping head-on into paying for a bigger dedicated server without knowing how popular the server would actually become, would be a reckless move. The delay is actually fine, even from overseas so we would like to keep it until the server's population becomes big enough so we have no other choice but to move. Also for financial reasons.

 

A huge portion of work is going to be done by the end of next week (whole week of holidays, so plenty of time to get things done), I'll be able to give you a more accurate information of the server's test phase opening.

 

If there are any more questions or things you'd like to know about the server, feel free to ask!

Well it's true that i have another question..Is there an alternative way of farming??i mean dd's can farm easy solo but what with support/semi-support classes?There's always the party solution but what if party isn't enough??Secondly and most importand are you ready for ddos attacks??I'm not a specialist but people are jealous and will try to harm you..That's for now..Thank you for your fast answer

[ranzor]

Is there an alternative way of farming??i mean dd's can farm easy solo but what with support/semi-support classes?There's always the party solution but what if party isn't enough??

 

Due to the reworked skills and skilltrees, you will be able to progress on your own up to a certain point in the game with every single class. If we are talking about a completely solo-play, then I'm afraid, you'll have to find a party if you plan on playing with a bishop. But since there is this party matching NPC, you won't have to type your fingers off in chat, but simply find a party by browsing and clicking. This was done, because we figured that finding a party in L2 isn't hard because there isn't anyone looking for people, but because people are not advertising themselves enough. The NPC makes you do it only once and creates a platform that requires you to only type it in once and be visible for everyone.

 

Another alternative would be the warsmith class, however, as mentioned above, I wouldn't like to go into much detail here, it is meant to be a surprise. All I can say is that spoiling is back into the game, along with spoil-inclusive materials.

 

 

Secondly and most importand are you ready for ddos attacks??I'm not a specialist but people are jealous and will try to harm you.

 

Unfortunately, I can not give you a satisfactory answer to this question. We are aware of constant crusades that happen in order to bring down servers with lower budgets, but there isn't much we can do about this right now. We are trying hard not to make any enemies, staying as neutral and diplomatic as possible and hope that we don't anger anyone by accident. Trying to provide as little reasons for an incoming attack as possible.

 

So far, the following reasons for a vendetta are being strictly avoided:

 

- We won't advertise our server on others' servers

- Not giving out personal information, not giving platform for prejudice and reasons for hatred against us

- Trying to provide our players with a quality work, bad quality servers often are the target of these attacks

- Staying out of the center of attention, no hardcore advertisement. We will still make sure that if you are looking for us, you will find us

- Being open for a discussion and trying the best to keep the playerbase happy, if people are not being heard, they often get frustrated

- Making sure the server is unique enough that there is no direct competition besides using the same chronicle

 

Reasons I can think of, as of why someone would launch an attack:

 

- Despising heavily customized servers

- Having a personal problem with either me or hNoke

 

While there is not much we can do about the first reason, trying the best to avoid the second one.

 

To provide an answer to a possible question about a bot protection:

We do have some ways in mind to make the server a living hell for poorly configured bots, the small percentage that will remain, can be removed manually. These solutions still need to be tested, though.

 

Is there anything else you would like to know?

Edited October 25, 2013 by ranzor

[madbill]

No,you made yourself clear enough..I have some more questions about in game in general but i respect your wish not to reveal more..I like your project and you seem to be cooperative[that's rare with GM's-Owners]..So i guess i'll find you again in game :D.I really can't wait to join your server

[madbill]

Hello again folks...It's not my intention nor to spamm neither to rush you for answers but i saw that you said on a quote that the proper time for grand opening is x-mas[that's on 40 days]..So did anything changed in these 2 weeks that have passed?

[ranzor]

Hello madbill!

 

Christmas time sounds about right, maybe between the 2 holidays (christmas and new year's eve) would be the best time.

 

As for the changes that happened during the last 2 weeks, not as much work was done as I have hoped for, but we definitely made defining steps towards the opening. There isn't all that much left, till we can release a solid and enjoyable state with enough content for players so they don't get bored before we can release new things. Work progression also goes slow because I'm double-checking everything, farming as a normal player with the only advantage that I know where I can find things and what to farm for next. Also having the whole zone for myself is a big advantage, as I don't have to fight for spots but at the same time, I can't party up with anyone.

 

I have just recently finished the second zone on the server, I'm done with setting up mob strength and adding the basic drops. I am now testing the zone, trying to find the good ratio between amount of time spent on farming and the shop prices, so farming feels good and rewarding. It's not as easy, because I also have to keep the trading aspect in mind, we want to have a good economy with multiple ways of being able to get the wanted items. Mostly an economy that relies on people being lazy to go back to weaker zones and farm, so they buy the items from (hopefully new) players instead.

 

Ohh god, with all the detailed and semi-professional answers, I just hope that the players' expectations will not be all that high, so we can keep up with the needs and wishes.

 

Thank you very much for showing this much interest in the server! Don't forget to tell your friends about us and open them up for new things as there will be plenty new to discover.

Edited November 10, 2013 by ranzor

[madbill]

Well friend maybe this time sound good for you but i have to object..First of all we all know that holidays are for spending with your family or enjoing with your friends[especially from cristmas to new year's eve].Unless your target group is students that they are scool-free then i think your time-plan is wrong.Don't worry i already advertise your server to all my friend and i expect them to join me but you know it's not easy to bring them here without knowning the exact timeplan..We don't jump from a server to another..We like stability.

For god sake these are my suggestions i'm not trying to blackmail you neither to make you change your decisions.Friendly always :)

[ranzor]

Don't worry, I did not misunderstand your message!

 

It makes sense to me, unfortunately however, you can never make it right for everyone. I cannot possibly know, which date would be the best for most of you guys.

There are too many people with different schedules and this makes it nearly impossible to find the "golden middle way".

 

Looking at it from your perspective, you would like to spend most of the time between the two holidays with your family, leaving you with a lot less time to play.

The opening is the most important thing for players, as I have noticed. They like that huge race in the beginning, seeing all the players spawn at the same time is what really gets them motivated. This makes people even willing to spend a whole day on the server, just to get that bit of advantage over others. While this is truly a great experience, this should not be the only thing that makes people like a server. A server should last and challenge players again and again, so that the opening period should not be the best time you will ever experience there, but ONE of the best moments.

 

While this may sound a little bit selfish, but I would like to open the server during that time, because that is the time period when I can pay the most attention to the server. I will have about 2 weeks of holidays, starting from 22nd - 23rd of december, making it the best option. A lot can go wrong and we need to be there as much as we can, to react quickly in these situations, this is not possible during school periods.

 

As always, I am really open for a discussion, if there is anything on your mind, please don't hesitate!

Edited November 12, 2013 by ranzor

[madbill]

I get it mate..And maybe you are right..On the g opening you have to focus there.So good luck with your work,whateva :)

Edited November 12, 2013 by madbill

[densekserw]

Some news about the project? I relay want to know what hapen with this project ,my clan w8ing until the grand opening :)

[ranzor]

Hi densekserw!

 

I've really been caught up in details during the last weeks, maybe a bit more than I should be. I am currently revisiting older content, adding and removing things, reworking already existing currencies and replacing them with new ones, setting prices in the shop as I add drops to the monsters, re-editing the monsters' strengths, fixing descriptions, bugs, polishing everything.

There are tons of items in the game that are not obtainable, but existing on the server and I am now working on a good way for them to be acquireable by players. I think I am wasting too much time on details that can be changed/added/fixed later when the server launches, but I do want to get a strong economy running right from the beginning.

At the moment the server is missing content, so I will be focusing more on setting up the DVC zone during the next weeks. DVC is our third zone, focusing on all 3 farm types (AoE, Solo, party). Spawns are kinda set there, we can still rework them if something is not at its place there. Still need to set monster strength and drops. Mob strength won't be an issue ,although we would really like to make that zone special by adding challenging mechanics to the party monsters, so your party has to adapt to new strategies, even change the party setup if they want to kill them effectively. The AOE part of the zone is going to be really fun and unexpected for new players, hordes of enemies there, prepare your warlords and other AOE classes for brutal hacking and slashing times. The solo part of DVC will include strong monsters that are soloable if done well, 2-member-parties will be able to kill those without too much effort tho.

 

It is important that our future players understand that we are able and willing to constantly add new things, work on balance issues and fix things that are not working properly. So if you are not satisfied with something, you can always get in contact with us and we will look at it and work out a proper solution while taking many factors into consideration. However, just like every server, we will also strongly rely on our community to test most of the things for us. Everyone plays differently, some players are better than others, many factors will come into play while balancing or setting up mob strength. If I test the things we have added, I will not get the same results, since I already know where to find everything, what to pay attention to, etc...

 

So this is the state of things right now. So whatever happens, the server is going to open after christmas. I've been thinking about a test phase and wipe and everything. I came to the conclusion that a wipe is not necessary if nothing too serious happens that affects things on a long term. Also opening the server and calling it a "beta" would be a weird thing, we gonna just jump right into it and see what happens.

 

Hope I could give you a satisfactory answer, if there is anything else you would like to know, please don't hesitate!