Lineage 2 NA Gracia Part 2 PTS Notes

It's been confirmed! Lineage 2 NA will get the Gracia Part 2 PTS on October 28. In support, they've also provided Patch Notes! No more mistranslations here anymore! This is what we get for Gracia Part 2!

Hunting Grounds

Kamaloka - Labyrinth of the Abyss

1. The instant zone hunting ground "Kamaloka - Labyrinth of the Abyss" has been added.
2. To enter Kamaloka - Labyrinth of the Abyss, you must meet the following requirements:

• Entry NPC = Guard Captain
• Group = 2-9 member party
• Type of Instance = Beathrough Type Raid Boss Battle
• Duration of Instant Zone = 45 Minutes
• Entry Restriction = Each PC can only enter once per day
• Instant Zone Reset = Zone resets after 5 minutes if no PC’s are inside

3. Entry NPC locations and required levels for Kamaloka – Labyrinth of the Abyss:

• Gludio / Captain Bathis (levels 24-34)
• Dion / Captain Lucas (levels 34-44)
• Heine / Captain Gosta (levels 44-54)
• Oren / Captain Mouen (levels 54-64)
• Schuttgart / Captain Vishotsky (levels 64-74)
• Rune / Captain Mathias (levels 73-85)
  

Pailaka

1. The instant zone hunting ground "Pailaka" has been added.
2. Only characters who are in the process of a Pailaka-related quest and who meet the entry level requirements for the corresponding instant zone can enter.

|| Classification || Level || Required Quest || Time Limit ||

|| Pailaka – Forgotten Temple|| 36-42 || Pailaka – Song of Ice and Fire||60 mins. ||
|| Pailaka – Devil’s Isle|| 61-67 || Pailaka – Devil’s Legacy|| 90 mins. ||
|| Pailaka – Varka Silenos|| 73-77 || Pailaka – Injured Dragon|| 90 mins. ||

Kratei’s Cube

1. The competition-type PvP hunting ground "Kratei's Cube" has been added.
2. You can teleport to the entrance of Kratei's Cube through the NPC Paddies on Fantasy Isle.
3. Characters level 70 and above can register individually through the Kratei's Cube Entrance Manager.
4. There are 3 Kratei's Cube arenas set up by level range. Each arena can hold a maximum of 25 characters at a time. The level ranges are as follows:

• Level 70-75
• Level 76-79
• Level 80+
  

5. Characters who are chaotic, in possession of a cursed sword or currently in a party may not participate.

Kratei’s Cube Rules

1. A Kratei's Cube match begins every 30 minutes from the top of the hour, and lasts for 20 minutes.
2. Once you have requested entry into Kratei's Cube (through the Entrance Manager), you will be moved into a waiting room 3 minutes before the match begins.
3. You can receive Kill Points through PvP and PvE inside Kratei's Cube. Even if a character is killed, there is no death penalty.
4. A character who is killed during a match is moved to the waiting room and can re-enter through the Kratei's Cube Match Manager.
5. Registration ends 3 minutes before each match.

Rewards

1. At the end of a Kratei's Cube match, you will receive Experience, SP and Fantasy Isle coins.
2. The exact amount of your reward depends on the match results, the number of participants, individual ranking and cumulative result values.
3. You are ineligible to receive any reward if you score less than 10 Kill Points.
4. Fantasy Isle coins can be exchanged for various items through NPC Paddies of Fantasy Isle.

Leaving During a Match

You will be removed from the registration list and/or will be ineligible for any rewards for the following reasons:
1. If you request to participate in a match, enter the waiting room, and then cancel the match through the Kratei's Cube Match Manager and leave.
2. If you use a Scroll of Escape for a village, castle, hideout or fortress during a match.
3. If you die during a match and do not return through the Entrance Manager (meaning that you do not complete the match).

New Quests

Pailaka – Song of Ice and Fire

• Level 36-42
• One-time quest
• You must infiltrate "Pailaka - Forgotten Temple," find the cracks in the Sprite energy that are developing inside the temple, and repair them.
• Starting city: Gludin
• Contact NPC: Inspector Adler
  

Pailaka – Devil’s Legacy

• Level 61-67
• One-time quest
• You must infiltrate "Pailaka - Devil's Isle" and defeat the dark power that has engulfed the island.
• Starting city: Giran
• Contact NPC: Devil's Isle Survivor
  

Pailaka – Injured Dragon

• Level 73-77
• One-time quest
• You must infiltrate "Pailaka - Varka Silenos," find the Soul of Fire trapped in darkness inside the barracks and free it to return to the world of fire.
• Starting city: Goddard
• Contact NPC: Ketra Orc Shaman
  

Items

When armor is over-enchanted to +4 or higher, each item will give the character a bonus to HP.

Item Enchant Window

The interface for Item Enchantment has been made more intuitive.

Vitality

• A new instant item, "Vitality Replenishing Herb," has been added.
• It gives you a 5 minute boost to your Vitality Level while hunting. During this 5 minutes, you gain the normal experience for killing a monster (regardless of your current Vitality level). However, also gain points in Vitality, allowing you to increase your Vitality level.
• Vitality no longer decreases while hunting monsters for characters below level 9 who have the "Lucky" skill.

Mini-Game Addition

• A simple and enjoyable mini-game has been added.
• It can be accessed using the "/minigame" command or by clicking the "Mini-Game" icon in the Action Window.
• The game requires you to create an icon chain of 3 in a row, either horizontally or vertically.

Changes to Existing Skills

• Once the "Invincible" skill effect is applied, it cannot be re-applied for a certain amount of time. Related skills include: Celestial Shield, Flames of Invincibility, Sonic Barrier, Force Barrier, Servitor Barrier, Sublime Self-Sacrifice
• The bug concerning HP/MP not being fully restored when a character is revived through the "Salvation" skill has been fixed.

Other Changes

• An "Adventurers' Guide" NPC has been added to Hunters Village.
• An "Underground Coliseum Helper" NPC has been added to the Underground Coliseum.
• A bot reporting button has been added to the Actions window.
• The Personal Teleport icon has been added to the Action Window under "Basic Actions." This button is not functional yet. But once it is, we will give you more information regarding its use.

Miscellaneous Fixes

• The weight of common items has been reduced by 2/3.
• The name of the "Double Cutter" skill, which can be used with the Demonic Sword Zariche, has been changed to: Power Slash - Inflicts a powerful slashing attack with the cursed sword.
• The bug affecting the "Morning Star" item appearing twice in the shop sales list has been fixed.
• The bug preventing changing a sealed Foundation or Masterwork Majestic Circlet Robe item into heavy armor has been fixed.
• The bug preventing some dualswords from being normally refined has been fixed.
• The bug concerning the Wolf Summoning Bracelet's total magic power not displaying properly has been fixed.
• The bug concerning some Dynasty Armor shoulder decorations not equipping properly has been fixed.
• While an item is being enchanted, it can no longer be dropped.
• The incorrect effect explanations for some Dynasty armor sets have been fixed.
• The following effects of the Dynasty Platinum - Force Master set item have been changed: Existing: Str +1, Dex +1, Con -2 / New: Str +2, Con -2
• Demon's Gloves and Boots are now sold by vendor NPC’s.
• The bug concerning ‘Chance’ augments triggering when an incorrect skill type is used has been fixed.

Honestly, I don't know how they will implement the bot reporting button, as this maybe abused by players who just want to hassle their clan enemies, but we'll see soon (if this gets implemented in L2 SEA as well!).

If you'd like to read the reactions of the players in L2 NA, click here.

Technorati Tags: Gracia, Lineage 2, Gracia Part 2, Patch Notes

Gracia Update Review

After a week or so of absence, I'm back in Ether. Below is my review for Gracia.

Returning to Gracia as a Newbie

In order to fully experience Gracia for what it is--a more newbie friendly update--I decided to make an alternative character in Blackbird. Take note, I named him Alcarcalimo as well--that means you can have the same name from Aria as long as no one else is using it in Blackbird as well.

I expected that like in the NA servers, all new characters would be getting the 4 Vitality points right away, but unfortunately it's not the same here. It's okay anyway as you will read in a couple of paragraphs after this one.

Lineage 2's Vitality points Rock!

As you can see from the screenshot above, I was able to level up from 1 to 6 just by killing one Gremlin. Yes folks, it's THAT easy! I was also able to add more vitality points up to 4 as I went along and completed the non-violent tasks. Her's a tip for newbies: don't grind! Just kill the required number of mobs and you'll do fine. You'll be wasting precious Vitality points if you do.

After approximately 8 hours of playing, I am now on Level 18--and that's with large intemittent spaces of not playing. Which means that if you do take rest periods, your Vitality points will shoot up eventually. The problem is, that some players burn all their Vitality points away by just grinding. I would suggest that you do quests and take some rest periodically.

Vitality point system vs. PTP scheme

Unfortunately, resting would be a problem if you have a timer ticking. Yep, the Pay to Play scheme is going against the idea of resting for vitality points. This is fine if you only bought a loadtime for one day, but there are a lot of players who buy the 30-day gametime load (like me).

Now, we're torn if we'll let our characters rest while their Vitality points rise. Possible solutions? Get an alt character or do some Raid Boss hunting. However, that will require getting some high levelled weapons and armor--and it's easier now!

A whole new world...for cheapskates

One of the gripes of many Lineage 2 players is the fact that weapons and armors are extremely expensive. Usually they resort to buying from RMT sellers or create bots to farm out mats and sell them for high prices to obtain one piece of armor. Now, with the reduced prices, more players will be able to get up until B-grade level weapons and armors.

How this will affect the in-game economy is still to be seen, but at least the standard rates are low. The only way for a player to sell the same weapon or armor is by selling it a lower price. Good for players, maybe bad for sellers.

Kudos to NCSoft and AMDG for the Gracia update as it seems to be a resounding success! The only thing we have to wait for now is Part 2 and the final part of Gracia to be updated as well.

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Technorati Tags: Gracia, Lineage 2 SEA, Lineage 2, AMDG, Alcarcalimo, NCSoft

NCSoft's saving grace

It's been reported in Businesswire that NCSoft gained a profit this second quarter 2008: $78.6 M to be exact. Compared to the same quarter last year, it's 7% better this time around.

The reason, according to NCSoft are the massive closures of Lineage 2 private servers and the Gracia update.Here's a breakdown of game title and sales:

1. Lineage 2: $33.6 M
2. Lineage: $27.2 M
3. City of Heroes/Villains: $5.5 M
4. Guild Wars: $4.9 M
5. Tabula Rasa: $1.9 M

Considering that Lineage 2 is supposed to be an "aging" game, it's still kicking butt out there.

With Aion coming out late this year, they may even be able to make more profit. I hope that this will mean more content created for Lineage 2.

Source

Technorati Tags: NCSoft, Lineage 2, Lineage 2 SEA, Aion

Lineage 2 SEA is a year old

Yep, according to HGM Gilrain, it's Lineage 2 SEA's first birthday. Congratulations to AMDG, iPlay Asia & Trade, Cubetech, and NCSoft for bringing to us such a grand game.

There's been a lot of challenges (crit errors, bots, RMT), we've a lost a lot of people (both on the players and management side), but we're all still here. I hope that we can continue to expand and grow in population.

To celebrate this event, below is the first sighted Lineage 2 ad. Please remember to pause the mp3 player on the right bar.

Thanks to the guys at Lineage 2 Fansite!

Cheers!

Technorati Tags: Lineage 2 SEA, Lineage 2, AMDG, iPlayAsia, Cubetech

Gracia Update: Details on the Exp and Vitality System

Since the Gracia Teaser site was up last July 7, there's been a steady buzz of excitement among gamers regarding the new update to Lineage 2. Most notable among the changes welcomed by most players is the Levelling part of the game.

Lineage 2 has always been touted as a hardcore grinding game. This has been its strength and weakness at the same time. Strength because only the hardcore players will be able to appreciate the constant fighting, while leaving those who aren't so hardcore biting the dust. This resulted into a situation where there were a lot of mid to high level characters and not much new ones. With the changes in the exp and addition of the Vitality system, newbies (like me) will have a chance to catch up with the rest of the population in L2.

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.

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.

So for those who are thinking of Lineage 2, please wait until Gracia update.

Source

Technorati Tags: Gracia, Lineage 2, Lineage 2 SEA, NCSoft, Gracia

Will This Enable Voice Chat in Lineage 2 SEA?

In the old forums, I remember someone asking for a survey whether they wanted to have voice chat in-game. Of course, a lot of people agreed to it and even suggested Ventrillo or Teamspeak. However, nothing came of it and it died a natural death.

Now with news on the partnering of NCSoft and Vivox (one of the world's best providers of voice chat for online games like World of Warcraft, and Second Life), looks like that reality may come in the near future.

Through this partnership, the NCsoft player community will enjoy market-leading voice chat from Vivox. Players will have the ability to communicate with scalable, full featured voice within and across NCsoft games via an NCsoft branded game communication portal. Vivox will also deliver advanced features such as voice fonts, voice mail and in-and-out of game communication via regular phones and text messages.

However, the question will be, is that, will this be implemented in Lineage 2 SEA or will it be included in future NCSoft games like Aion? I'm hoping that it will come here soon, but most likely, they'll try it out at the NA and Korea servers first. It'll be up to AMDG and iPlayAsia to push the envelope and request that we be included as soon as possible.
Technorati Tags: Lineage 2 SEA, Lineage 2, Vivox, Ventrillo, Teamspeak, Aion, AMDG, iPlayAsia

New Kamael Patch Notes

For those who, like me, opened up the Lineage 2 SEA Launcher and was surprised that it was downloading a patch and wondering what was being downloaded to your favorite game, fret no more! Iplayasia and AMDG just provided us with a Patch note here.

Here's the details. Warning: this deals more with the Kamael than any race:

1. Decrease the penalty of the skill Magic Recovery against the Guilted Body skill of the Kamael, from 30% to 5%.

2. Kamael HP recovery increased from 700HP to 900HP.

2. Essential Spellbooks, Amulet, Blueprint and Battle Manual for level 40-74 can now be bought through every starting villages Gorcery.

4. Level Requirements added to the spellbooks item description.

5. Skill, Item Re-use Time are now announced through the System Message Window.

6. Problem Fixed for the skill Mysterious Cube.

7. Hellbounds NPC Girone, Buron and Bernarde now explains detailed information about Hellbound.

8. Fixed the number of ingredients (Compound Braid, Asofe) needed for the follwowing Equipments:

• Draconic Bow
• Sealed Draconic Leather Helmet

9. Clan Hall Authority problems fixed.

10. Clan reputation is now consumed normally when building the Order of Knights.

11. Number of crystal increased when crystalizing Icarus Weapons.

12. Castle Circlet is now non-exchangeable/dropable.

13. Agathion's special skill fixed.

14. The effect of clan death fortune, residence death fortune and apella set
effect has been changed to lessen the chance to lose exp points and
death penalty from pk/monster deaths.

15. Non-sellable items are now not visible when you are selling your stuffs.

16. Dark Water Dragon minion Shade does not respawn when killed.

17. Attacking Shade will agro Dark Water Dragon.

18. If Core's minions move out the boss zone they will return to original spot where they came from.

I'm not sure how this will affect the game, but it sure will make the Kamael's life a bit easier. Will there be any patches specific for the other races?

Technorati Tags: Lineage 2 SEA, Lineage 2, Patch Notes, Kamael, AMDG, iPlayAsia

Here's where it starts

Hi, thanks for coming in.

This is my first post on my Lineage 2 character's journey to becoming a Spectral Dancer. The Dark Elf, Alcarcalimo. His name is the elf's translation for alcar "glory, splendour, brillance"and calima "bright". Although I will have to admit that a Dark Elf with a name that signifies bright light can be confusing.

Here's a picture of him at Level 10:

Why Lineage 2? It's got great graphics, well thought of background story, and the details are just so crazy. I'm falling in love with it. I would've gladly taken this on during its Closed Beta (CB) or Open Beta Phase (OP), but was just so busy at work.

Why am I creating this character so near the new Lineage 2 SEA launch of Kamael? I just decided to join the game again after a long hiatus because of pending day jobs. Besides, I have no plans of going Kamael on anyone yet and I just love Dark Elves more.

Why a Spectral Dancer (SD)? Well, I've always wanted to be support rather than a Damage Dealer (DD), besides, players would gladly accept supports rather than DDs (there's quite a number of them running around I heard).

I'm expecting quite a lot once the Kamael updates come in. Hopefully there's going to be a system that will deal with botting, gankers, and Real Money Trading (RMT) in-game. I know it's next to impossible, but Asian Media Development Group (AMDG) and NCSoft has to take this seriously....arrrghhh I'll take up that issue on another post.

Anyways hope you can join me online one day and let's form a party. Just whisper "Alcarcalimo" in the Aria Server.

Technorati Tags: Lineage 2 SEA, Lineage 2, Alcarcalimo