Lineage II

Studio

NCsoft

Publisher

NCsoft, 4game (Europe)

Erstveröffent-
lichung

October 1, 2003 ( South Korea ). April 28, 2004 ( North America )

Game mode

Keyboard , mouse

system advantages
preconditions

2.0 GHz Pentium 4 CPU , 512 MB RAM , GeForce FX 5700 or ATI Radeon 9600

Download, CD-ROM

Lineage II is a fantasy - MMORPG . It became very popular after its release on October 1, 2003, and has close to a million subscribers worldwide. It has sold over 18 million times. Since December 22nd, 2015, thanks to a petition, it is again possible to play Chronicle 1 with modern Lineage 2 parts on official servers in Europe by subscription under the name Lineage 2 Classic.

Overview

Lineage II is set in a medieval-style world with several cities and islands. In the game you decide on a character, which you then train, equip, expand and fight in the game world. There are six different races and two genders to choose from: humans, elves, dark elves, dwarves, orcs and the kamael. You decide on one of a total of 31 professions in the course of the game. Depending on the breed, there are different options to choose from from levels 20, 40 and 76. The basic decision for a magician or fighter class is made when creating a character.

PvP

On «Player vs. Player »(« player against player ») is the main focus of Lineage II. Nonetheless, NCsoft has implemented various mechanisms. B. the so-called «Looten» (ie the appropriation of objects that are in the backpack of the killed player) prevent. In the meantime, there is no longer any possibility to loot items from player characters who were killed in normal PvP, i.e. not chaotic characters (player characters who have received karma through killing). Furthermore, every killing of a player has negative effects on the karma of the murderer: With karma you are attacked by city guards and can be killed by other players without them getting karma. In addition: If you attack a player who has karma, you will not be affected by the "flagging" system. This means that the player who has karma cannot defend himself without increasing his karma further.

By dying, «mobkilling» (another word for suicide) and the use of so-called “Fame” points, which can be obtained in sieges and other PvP activities, the karma is reduced again.

The entire PvP is also handled by a "flagging" system: As soon as you attack a person who has no karma, the name of the attacking character turns purple. If the attacked player were to defend himself, the name of the character would also turn purple. If you kill a purple player character, you will not receive any karma. This makes it possible to do PvP outside of the PvP arenas without adding huge amounts of karma. If you kill a player without karma who has no purple name, your name will turn red. You get karma and thereby become, temporarily, a chaotic character.

In addition, there are PvP arenas that can be freely entered by all players. Here players can fight against other players. What is new is that since the Interlude update you can challenge other players to a duel. The losing character does not lose any valuable experience points. It is also possible to invite other groups of players to a group duel.

Olympics

The Olympiad is a kind of permanent PvP event in which every player who is at least level 76 with his main class has completed his last class change (third class) and reaches level 75 with his subclass (which can be obtained through the subclass quest) and has completed a specific quest (Noblesse Quest) with the subclass. A distinction is made between two types of combat: on the one hand, class-based combats (combats in which only players who have the same class, i.e. occupation, meet) and combats without class reference (open combats in which players of different classes meet). On most servers, these take place from 6:00 p.m. - 11:45 p.m. GMT + 1:00 a.m. The player who has the most points in the list - which is divided into classes - at the end of the month becomes a hero and receives exclusive hero weapons, hero skills, books to improve his skills and a glowing aura that everyone can see that the player is a hero. A hero usually has a great reputation on a server.

Heroes are also authorized to use the Herochat. This is visible to all players and is colored blue.

The tactic of "feeding" is often used during the Olympics, which is based on the fact that an entire clan distributes its best equipment to a player who plays a class that does particularly well in the Olympics. In the later course of the Olympics, this player then deliberately loses to his clan members so that they can then receive points from him in the Olympics.

clan

It is possible to found a clan within the game and thus join forces with people. Several clans can then form an alliance and it is also possible to wage wars among rival clans. This is important, for example, to take part in Castle Sieges (castle sieges). There is a so-called clan level, which z. B. can be increased by certain clan quests. The clan level then determines the maximum number of members and, for example, the possibilities to participate in sieges or to form an alliance.

In-game communication

There are several ways of communicating within Lineage II . The most frequently used variant is probably the integrated chat system, which is divided into several channels. Private messages are whispered or discussed in a party using the party channel.

You can also communicate with people on your friends list in your own chat window.

In addition, an in-game MSN is available that can be used to communicate with people outside of the game.

Chronicles

Major updates are released by NCsoft every six months and are referred to as the Chronicle. With each Chronicle, the story continues to develop in the game and new content (including expansions to the world map) is added. During the development of Chronicles 5: Oath of Blood, there were various indications from NCSoft for the cancellation of the planned 12 Chronicles. In November 2006 there were rumors on various forums about a sixth Chronicle, which however turned out to be wrong, as 'Chaotic Throne: Interlude' was officially announced, which will be playable on the official servers from April 2007.

Chronicle 1: Harbingers of War

The first Chronicle appeared in June 2004 and brought with it the sieges of castles. Since then, players / clans can become owners of castles and levy taxes of up to 15% in the region.

Chronicle 2: Age of Splendor

After a clan had conquered a castle in Chronicle 1, it brought them no more than prestige and pride. After Chronicle 2 was published on December 8, 2004, a system was introduced to which the ruling clan assigned the land in the area and made it possible to raise taxes. Furthermore, the map was expanded to include new areas such as the city of "Heine", the "Devastated Castle", the "Tower of Insolence", the "Castle of Innadrill", the "Aden Coliseum", "Alligator Island", the "Fields of." Whisper "," Fields of Silence "and many more added.

Chronicle 3: Rise of Darkness

Chronicle 4: Scions of Destiny

The expansion adds 800 megabytes of new content and features to Lineage II. These include Rune Township and Goddard. Since then, there has also been a new world boss, Valakas, near Goddard. In addition, the Olympics, the fishing system and the third class change quest were added there.

Chronicle 5: Oath of Blood

Oath of Blood adds content to Lineage II. Among other things, the map was enlarged by NCSoft. Furthermore, the maximum level that a player can reach has been increased to Lvl 80.

The Chaotic Throne: Interlude

The name of the new chapter was announced on October 12, 2006. The name "Lineage 2: The Chaotic Throne" refers to the end of the "Chronicle" and the accompanying introduction of the "Throne". It has now been officially confirmed that the public test server will go online in March 2007 and the client will be transferred to the official server in April. Interlude has been playable on the official servers in Korea since December 2006.

Around 60 new skills will be added, 51 of which are intended for level 76+ and 9 of them for level 55+. Furthermore, the functionality of certain skills has been revised and changed.

Features: Interlude will introduce some new features such as: B. the fortresses. Fortresses correspond to castles, but are intended for smaller clans. In addition, a duel system is introduced, which promises exciting "1 on 1" (one against one) competitions as well as group-based fights without losing experience points. Also an expansion of the map, Primeval Island (an island populated by dinosaurs), and a variety of new hair accessories (masks, etc.).

Chaotic Throne 1: The Kamael

The main focus of this update is on a sixth race, called the Kamael. Kamael are able to effectively use the three newly released branches of arms, crossbow , long sword and rapier . Furthermore, they have the passive skills for soul robbery and are able to use the current environment for combat, as well as to set traps.

Chaotic Throne 1.5: Hellbound

The Icarus weapons have been added to this update. In addition, the maximum level for the main class has been increased to 85 and the map has been expanded with a hidden island called Hellbound which is located south of the map. However, subclasses can only reach level 80. By reaching certain levels with the subclasses, new skills can be learned with the mainclass.

Subclass Level 65 - One possible skill can be learned: Ordinary skill (increases attack and defense performance)
Subclass Level 70 - One possible skill can be learned: Ordinary skill (increases attack and defense performance)
Subclass Level 75 - Choose a possible skill: Ordinary second level skill (increases attack and defense power, physical critical hit chance and magical casting speed) OR various special skills which depend on your subclass
Subclass Level 80 - One possible skill can be learned: Transformation ability, which is based on your subclass

The Chaotic Throne 2

This extension was split into 3 smaller extensions, otherwise it would have been too extensive.

Gracia Part 1

The most important change that was introduced with "The Chaotic Throne - Gracia Part 1" is the so-called Vitality System. With its help it is made easier for new players to reach the higher levels. With this, the developers want to counteract the gossip circulating in the MMORPG circles that the game gets boring quickly because it takes too long to reach the higher levels.

In addition, Gracia introduced new transform skills for some classes. As a result, the classes that were actually only suitable for passive play now have the opportunity to actively participate in the game.

Gracia Part 2

With the update Gracia Part 2 some innovations were introduced. So new areas were created, these are: Kamaloka - Labrynth of the Abyss. This is an instanced battlefield that can only be entered once per day by each player. Another new instance is Pailaka. This instance is divided into three different sections, which can be entered with different levels. Pailaka - Forgotten Temple 36-42, Pailaka - Devil's Isle 61-67, Pailaka - Varka Silenos 73-77. The last newly introduced area is called Kratei's Cube and is an open PvP area. You can enter when you reach level 70 and compete against players who are a maximum of five levels higher than you. There are also some new quest series in the respective areas. In addition, the enchant system has been made more intuitive and armor from enchant level +5 now has an HP bonus. The last innovation worth mentioning is a simple mini-game, which was integrated into the main game to keep players busy in waiting times.

Gracia Final

Gracia Epilogue

Freya

High five

Goddess of Destruction

The avatar

Players can create up to seven characters per account. By killing monsters and other enemy characters, the characters get experience points with which they can develop their characters. This applies to both character-specific skills ( skills ) as well as the level.

When creating characters, the player can choose one of six races (human, dwarf, elf, dark elf, orc, kamael), which affects his game. Furthermore, there is a choice between magicians and fighters per race. The dwarves and the Kamael are an exception: the Kamaels only have fighters (but they also have special magic attacks, buffs and skills, so they are a race that masters both), the dwarves are divided into gatherers and smiths.

Freeshards

In the second half of 2004 the code of the official Lineage II server was illegally distributed so that players could now play for free on so-called freeshards by changing or exchanging certain files of the Windows system and the Lineage II installation. These L2 servers are called L2Off servers because they are operated with software stolen from the official server. However, this puts the players in a legal gray area, as this approach is a violation of the EULA . To date, however, there are no known legal sanctions against players worth mentioning.

On November 17, 2006, one of the largest Lineage II freeshards " L2Extreme " was closed by the FBI.
On November 20, 2006, NCSoft released an official press release confirming its stake in the FBI company and confirming its actions. This message was also published on the official Lineage 2 website.
On November 21, 2006, NCSoft sent multiple cease and desist warnings to private servers that were illegally using their source code.

There are several emulations of the Lineage II server that do not require any stolen code. However, some of them require changes to be made to the client, which in turn violates the terms of use. But the operators of these servers are also guilty of a copyright infringement and are therefore punishable.

Botting

As with other MMORPGs, there are various external programs for Lineage II that either support the player or even play for him. Such programs are prohibited on the official servers and players who use bots are regularly banned. One of the most famous bot programs is L2Walker. This can be found in an "in-game" as well as an "out-game" version. In the outgame version it is not even necessary to have a Lineage2 client. The bot supports all imaginable features of the game. This includes, for example, an option for automatic fishing and automatic forging of objects.

swell

↑ NCsoft Investor Relations - page 16: “Top subscription-based MMOGs world-wide” ( PDF format, English, accessed December 30, 2007)
↑ NCsoft.net : Press release (English, accessed December 30, 2007)
↑ Resume Your Journey in Legendary MMORPG Lineage 2 Classic on Dec. 22 (English, accessed December 22, 2015)

Web links

[1] NCsoft Investor Relations - page 16: “Top subscription-based MMOGs world-wide” ( PDF format, English, accessed December 30, 2007)

[2] NCsoft.net : Press release (English, accessed December 30, 2007)

[3] Resume Your Journey in Legendary MMORPG Lineage 2 Classic on Dec. 22 (English, accessed December 22, 2015)