3rd May 2005

Lineage HoC : 3rd May 2005

Brekkee: We'll be starting shortly, please feel free to begin sending your questions in to [QT]Phineus

Brekkee: Good evening and welcome to another great Stratics House of Commons chat, tonight our guests are the developers of Lineage! The topic tonight is general discussion so all questions are welcome.
Brekkee: Please send your questions to [QT]Phineus - to do so type /query NICK and type in the window that pops up. Questions sent to me or the developers will not make it into the lineup. Full logs of the chat will be up on http://www.stratics.com shortly after the chat.
Brekkee: We'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions.

Kyzah: Hi everyone, Kyzah here, Content Writer/Editor for Lineage I in the US; great to see everyone this evening, thanks for coming out! :)

Scout: Hi, all. I'm the L1 Publish Coordinator. Welcome!

Mistryl: Hi everyone! I'm Mistryl, Community Coordinator for Lineage.

GMSylvia: Hi all I'm the Head GM for Lineage 1 :)

CaptSturm: Hiya, I'm CaptSturm. I'm the Live Process Manager for NC North America.

Brekkee: *Gippal* Hi! This is Gippal, an admin of LineageDB! anyways I was just going to ask about the possibility of a server merge? I have heard all about it but I never can get any info, do you have any?
Scout: We're still contemplating the server merge. We were very interested to see how the one in Hong Kong works out actually. We don't have definite plans yet, but we are still discussing it heavily.

Brekkee: *Rooey* Roumer has it our dragons are finally coming back... and they're bringing a friend with them... Can you tell us anything about this yet?
Scout: Sorry - I can't really comment on that yet. Stay tuned! :)

Brekkee: *lordbane* on LOa server have you decided about upping the brings drop raye insc and allowing silver to drop outside of mineral caves?
Scout: I'm still evaluating the effects of both of those changes, but it looks promising.

Brekkee: *Gippal* Another question ^_^! I have heard about the pre release plans of Episode 4.. Pirate Island and all.. Is this true?
Scout: Now you know we won't talk about things like that! :)

Brekkee: *Rooey* Capt, are you still alive? Did Scout eat you? What have you been doing? Where have you been hiding?
CaptSturm: Still around--I work with Scout on a daily basis. I oversee all the North America titles now, so I'm spread thin. :)CaptSturm: We just published the Issue 3 for Lineage, we launched GuildWars last week, we have a major update to City of Heroes tomorrow that includes PvP arenas...
CaptSturm: A new update for Lineage 2 is right around the corner for Chronicle 3
CaptSturm: AND other stuff I can't publicly comment on. :)CaptSturm: So, yeah, still around and staying busy.

Brekkee: Please send in your questions to [QT]Phineus by typing /msg [QT]Phineus

Brekkee: *Rooey* Scouts events over the past few months have been Legendary... The test server fun was fantastic... We appreciate the effort, but I *have* to ask... What's she got up her sleeves next? :)Scout: Well, keeping up the Legendary status is very trying. :) We do intend on doing an event soon if things stay steady for awhile. And we're working on some variations regarding events, so we'll just have to see what happens.

Brekkee: *Rooey* Kyzah, have you been keeping busy in your new role? What have you been doing? We miss you!
Kyzah: Quite! In addition to the daily/weekly news announcements, publish notes, etc., I‚ve been working with Mistryl on more community-related updates, such as the player stories, fan art, Q&A sessions, and working on the game content web updates as well.
Kyzah: I still peek in on the boards from time to time, though! ;)
Brekkee: *Rooey* Is DarkWing still with us, or did he get mawled by an Ogre?
CaptSturm: DarkWing is no longer with NC, the QA role is currently being wrangled at the QA Manager's direction.

Brekkee: *Gippal* Once again- I heard about the Posieidon hitting level 80 level cap and plans of rasing it.. Yay or Nay?
CaptSturm: I know there's a lot of interest in the next episode and plans that have been discussed in other territories. We could speculate on what the dev team has planned, but its honestly just to early for us to speak to that. At this early stage, there's much that may change or being removed and we really don't want to set false expectations. So, yeah, I expect it to be cool--but I'll need the content to be a bit further along before commiting to what
CaptSturm: includes

Brekkee: *Rooey* Mistryl, This is your first ever Lineage 1 HoC? Come on... give us something to gossip about... What's it like working with these... umm loonies?
Mistryl: This is my first HoC for Lineage! I'm having an absolute blast working on the Lineage team and with the community. I really enjoy it. :)
Brekkee: *Rooey* What's happening with Diad Fortress... Did we just forget about this one after testing, or are you still tweaking it for
Scout: No, it hasn't been forgotten about. However, it's much more sensitive making changes on live and must be considered more carefully. But we're still aware that changes could be made to improve things, and we'd like to see the Fortress taken at some point!

Brekkee: *Rooey* GMSylvia, It's great to see you "out and about" tonight. What have you been upto recently? How are you keeping busy?
GMSylvia: Well I just finished a Q&A session which Mistryl just posted to the site and as always am working very hard on player issues. :)
Brekkee: Please send in your questions to [QT]Phineus by typing /msg [QT]Phineus

Brekkee: *lordbane* will there be news of any kind of event soon?
Scout: Well, we're still kicking around ideas. So now's the time to post your awesome ideas on the boards!!

Brekkee: *Rooey* Which one of you guys has the highest level character now? Do all of you still play outside of work, or are you all sick to the teeth of Lineage by the time you get home? :)CaptSturm: I think I have the highest level...
CaptSturm: on the internal test server! :)CaptSturm: On live, I have a few in the 40s, highest is 48.
Mistryl: I play outside of work. :) But I definitely don't have the highest level!
Scout: I won't say what level my characters are - it's just embarassing. But I spend a great deal of time dying... and loving it!
GMSylvia: I play outside when I can....at an undisclosed level!
Kyzah: My highest on live is still in the 50 range, the next one down is 49; still levelling! :)
Brekkee: *Rooey* How successful do you think the test server is? Should more of us be playing it?
Scout: I do think the test server is very successful. And valuable. Obviously, the more people that player are more likely to find issues. And the players certainly do more things than we can think of to test. Of course we could always use more testers. Without testers, L1 would be much worse off.

Brekkee: *Rooey* Who would win in a fight? Mistryl or Scout?... ok and in-game?
Kyzah: Hmmm, Dragon vs. Vampire... hard to tell!
Mistryl: Scout. I think she's a vampire and she's trying to get me to join her legion of the undead.
CaptSturm: In game, Mistryl for sure. Out of game, Scout--because she'd fight dirty. Seen her do it.
Scout: I think Mistryl - she's scrappy and could chase me down. (Yea, that's right, I'd be running!)

Brekkee: That will wrap it up for tonight. I‚d like to thank the folks from Lineage for coming!
Brekkee: The log for tonight‚s chat will be up shortly on http://www.stratics.com. Thank you all for joining us! You can join #Lineage to chat more about the game.
Mistryl: Thanks for coming everyone!
CaptSturm: Thanks for everyone that joined us tonight--we really appreciate our Lineage fans!
Kyzah: Great to see you all as always! Catch you in-game!! :)Scout: Thanks everyone! These are always enjoyable.
GMSylvia: Thank you all!

12th January 2005

Lineage HoC : 12th January 2005

Kyzah: Hi everyone -- Kyzah here, Community Coordinator for Lineage I US -- great to see you all, hope you had a wonderful holiday and are having a great new year! :)
Scout: Hi, all. I'm the Publish Coordinator for Lineage 1. Glad to see you all again!
captsturm: Hello All! I'm CaptSturm, the NC Live Process Manager. Glad you stopped by!

Brannoc: *Vinnee* Hi Id like to ask whether theres any progress on server mergers?
Scout: We are still discussing the possibility of a server merger. However, we don't have any definite plans yet, and are still kicking around various ideas.
captsturm: I'd add that we're taking the time to consider the FULL ramifications and we're discussing the details right down to dog names. We want to do it right or not at all. We've been reading the concerns posted on the forums and will take all of your concerns into consideration for any plans.
Kyzah: Yes, thank you everyone for your constructive discussions on this topic in the forums, they're most helpful. :)

Brannoc: *SunnyD* We in the Lineage Community have noticed numerous D/C's, lag spikes, etc. in recent weeks has NCAustin pinpointed the cause for these problems and are you anywhere near fixing them?
Scout: The network issues we've experience lately are due to a myriad of reasons. Our networking team is very aware of the impacts of such issues, and are constantly making changes to resolve them.

Brannoc: *Lealan* when will trade chat on loa be implemented?
Scout: Trade chat is linked to global chat. Therefore, it falls under the same umbrella as global chat, and the reasons we it hasn't been implemented.
Scout: With vendors and trade zones, it isn't as vital as it may have once been.

Brannoc: *Rooey* What's the *real* deal with the two month drop event? I remember capt' hinting you guys might pull that off at some point... how'd you get away with it?
Scout: We didn't get away with anything. We extended the event because it was well received and helped the players a great deal without harming the economy.

captsturm: It is sometimes funny to see various conspiracy theories--are motives are really pretty simple, we want you to keep playing and we want you guys to have fun. Nothing to do with any other games launching, or martian invasions. It was a subtle event and fun to run for a long period. Woot scout for insisting.

Brannoc: *Wae* When will the LoA guide and on-line guide be updated?
Kyzah: The LoA Change List in the forums is generally updated after the changes are made live to the server; the online guide will be updated as soon as possible, staffing and scheduling permitting.

Brannoc: *Fry* could you please go into more detail about how the poly events will work in general and the one this weekend in specific?
Scout: Polymorph events open up higher level polymorphs so that they can be used by anyone no matter what level. The upcoming event opens up the level 60 polymorphs (the Silver trio). The event will run Thursday 10AM - Tuesday 10AM.

Brannoc: *Rooey* Episode 3 is looming... Any great sneaky plans for the LoA fans out there that might differ from the Korean "build" ?
Scout: At this time, we're still testing and evaluating Ep 3. It's way too early to determine if we want to make any LoA specific changes. I anticipate that decision will come much later after we've processed Ep 3 fully.

Brannoc: *Rooey* Can anything be done about exp loss at siege on the non-pvp server? even if it's only a short-term change it might liven the scene up for a while?
captsturm: While I'm not sure that is possible with current coding, I'd agree that it is a fine suggestion. I'll talk to scout and we'll monkey around on an internal test server and see what can be done
captsturm: If it is impossible, we'll run it past dev to see their impression or concerns about a possible server specific flag

Brannoc: *Chia* are my event scrolls going to disappear along with the coins, or will we be allowed to keep these?
Scout: Yes. All special event items will be removed during the maintenance tomorrow. BTW, the event scrolls shouldn't be confused with the normal, everyday scrolls that you may have had prior to the event, which will not be touched. In case you're still curious, I did post a complete list of event items on the boards.

Brannoc: *Sharpie* is there a date yet for pub 3 on us live servers?
Kyzah: Not at this time, no.

Brannoc: *Xero* why are necromancer caps so rare? I've spent ages trying to get one from high level and had no luck.
captsturm: That's a simple designer issue--the intention is that there are some items in the world that are very rare and hard to come by.
captsturm: Its a hard thing to balance, too many and every other item becomes obsolete, too little and, well, there's too few.
captsturm: There's a ton of variable in setting something like the drop rate of an item, such as merchant sellback value, risk to get, number in world, etc.

Brannoc: *Rooey* When are we going to see fixes for the hyperlink issues on the mac client that shipped with Episode 2?
Scout: We've communicated this issue to the Korean development team, as well as other Mac related issues. Now that they have survived their Episode 3 release, we'll re-address open issues to get them resolved as soon as possible.

Brannoc: *Rooey* Well.. the "other" newer 3d MMORPG is out now and the masses have fled... well some of them... We know NC korea has commited to several more episodes still but just how far does this take us? Should we start to seek counciling now?
captsturm: Well, our numbers actually went up a bit after the release of that "other" game--but the real answer to the question your asking is this:
captsturm: Seoul is creating more and more content with no signs of slowing down--we're just as commited in the US to continue proving update to Lineage.
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captsturm: While its true that Lineage 1 isn't posting the numbers of Lineage 2 or City of Heroes, the fans that we do have aren't ditching us, and we've always stated emphatically that we'll not abandon our players.
captsturm: That's something that I take great pride in, and that makes me so happy to be a part of this company. I've seen other games fold up, leaving signicant communites in the lurch. On a personal note, Lineage 1 is still one of my all time favorite games and I play often.
captsturm: So, don't write us off yet. I know people have been saying "L1 is dying" for as long as I've been here. Our numbers are as solid as ever--I don't mean that cocky, we better be working everyday to get you players good, quality content. But just don't let the nay-sayers fool you either.

Brannoc: *Ashtray-* will the lag be fixed in time for the poly event so i won't just be dying in style?
Scout: As with any network, there are some things that are out of our control. However, our networking team has done a number of hardware and software upgrades lately to improve our end of things. They're working very hard to ensure our service is as stable as possible. And we very much appreciate your patience and understanding!
Brannoc: *Vinnee* Are LOA's Essence of Nobility ever to be introduced to Ken and Dep servers ?
Stygia (JavaHoC@84.12.52.7) has joined the channel
captsturm: Not as a permanent addition--our mandate is currently to keep the ken/dep servers mirrored. This does allow us to get the content quickly, but reduces the ability to do drastic changes to the gameplay of those servers.

Brannoc: And lastly... *Vinnee* GREAT HOC CHAT ~~ THANKS TO YOU GUYS FOR WORKING OVERTIME TONIGHT ~~ GREAT JOB!! (and) *Vinnee* One more from me (hope you have more now ^^),, please pass on our thanks for the recent events ^^
Kyzah: You're most welcome! Kudos to Scout on the events!!! :)
captsturm: My pleasure. And, I need to give "mad props" to Scout for some fantastic events--good stuff.
Scout: Well, thank you. We hope everyone enjoys the events, and we'll try to do more!
Brannoc: And that's it folks, thanks for joining us tonight and be sure to come back next time! The logs will be up on www.stratics.com shortly.
Scout: Thanks everyone! It was great fun. Hope to see you all next time!
Kyzah: Wonderful to see everyone, as always -- take care, see you in-game and on the boards! :)
captsturm: Thanks all, g'nite!

14th September 2004

Lineage HoC : 14th September 2004

Brannoc: Welcome to another great House of Commons chat with the developers of Lineage! The topic will be general discussion so any questions about the game are welcome.

Brannoc: So without further ado we'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions - and remember that's Lineage 1, not Lineage 2, so keep the questions focused.

Kyzah: Hi everyone, Kyzah here, Community Coordinator for Lineage I US -- great to see everyone this afternoon/evening! :)
Scout: Hi all. I'm Scout, the Publish Coordinator for L1.
captsturm: Hi all, I'm CaptSturm, NC's Live Process Manager--I work with the US NC titles and ongoing content delivery/publishes. Good to see you all here.

Brannoc: *Rooella* Can you confirm that a possible client fix for both the Auto-Loot and the text-link allignment has been recieved from Seoul?
Scout: Yes, they have been received. Obviously we need to do some testing on that and other things we received, but we will have the changes out as soon as possible.

Brannoc: *BlackHawk* Will we ever see any ports of Lineage for say Xbox or Playstation 2?
captsturm: I wouldn't say never about anything, but that's not something I'm aware at this point. The focus is on the PC versions and Mac for the US at this time.

Brannoc: *Rooella* What improvements can we expect to see over the next month?
Scout: We are looking at a number of improvements and additions from feedback we've received from players, as well as our own little plans, and in constant communication with Korea. I don't have any solid details to reveal just yet, but we are looking to make some improvements that hopefully everyone will enjoy.
captsturm: Scout and I have been working to bring a new elf quest and items to LoA as an ongoing effort to add class specific quests. This work continues, but we're making good progress.
Scout: We are looking at a server merge. Obviously it will take some planning, and we want to make it as easy as possible on the players.
captsturm: To be more accureate, we're looking at what options we do have--a server "merge" not being reasonably possible.
Brannoc: (quick clarify) *Chewable* ken server users are getting lower and lower, will there be a servers merge with one of the other server?
captsturm: One alternative would be to allow server transfers, but would require significant limitations. In short, we're more in the very early evaluation stage and no firm decisions (or even planning) has taken place.
captsturm: It's all casual conversations at this point..."Hey, what if" type of things

Brannoc: *Rooella* What info can you give on Episode 3?
Scout: At this time, we have very little information on Episode 3, so we'd rather not even speculate as things most likely will change by the time it's released.

Brannoc: *Rooella* Will we ever see a Non-PVP LoA server?
captsturm: I've talked about this with Scout a bit and we'd prefer to work out a different solution that allows us to keep all of the population available on a single server.
captsturm: We've added the Turtle Island non-pvp map as an option, but that's obviously limited.
captsturm: It does demonstrate how we can have zones available on a single server, even for higher levels.
captsturm: So, we'd like to go the route of making some existing maps non-pvp, perhaps the Ivory Tower. In contrast to this, we could make more maps full combat zones like Forgotten Island currently is.
captsturm: I like sieges. I like PvP. I even like the excitement of a possible PK. I don't like unregulated full-blown nonconcensual preying on of other players.

Brannoc: *BlackHawk* Do yall have any other projects in the works besides the Lineage series?
captsturm: Scout and Kyzah are assigned to Lineage 1. I am responsible for the Publish Process for all North American titles--City of Heroes, Lineage 1, and Lineage 2...and whatever else comes along. :^)

Brannoc: *Rooella* On the Korean website is some information about the Lineage World Tornament... What's that all about?
captsturm: There are a few Lineage related services that are avaiable in Korea, one of which is the Lineage Tournament server. It basically allows you (as I understand it) to play your character on one server, then enter a "temporary" server to battle other players from other servers.
captsturm: Nothing that happens on the tournament server affects your "normal" play character. It is like an "instant action" mode.

Brannoc: *Platinumjunkie* What is your official stance on Adena/items duping?
captsturm: Banning of account and related accounts first offense.

Brannoc: *kyoshiro* When is the next event scheduled for?
Scout: Well, we don't schedule events, we deliver them as publish content allows. being in the middle of new content currently, all we can really say is "not quite yet." I'd love to do one fairly soon, but we're at the mercy of the new content at this time.
Brannoc: Please remember to send questions only to [QT]Gowel OR [QT]PhroG and not to myself or the developers.

Brannoc: *tavell* Alot has happened recently in the world of MMORPGs, with the cancellation of Dragon Empires and the announcement of Star Trek: Online. How does this change, if at all, the market for you and the Lineage line of games?
captsturm: Development of MMORPGs has always been very dynamic, with new titles and cancellations on what seems to be a monthly or even weekly basis.
captsturm: In the end, it should affect what we're doing and that should be to deliver compelling, solid content no matter what the other guys are doing.
captsturm: The market place is still growing and we've got a solid line-up already. L2 is the best of the combat orient mmps around and is absolutely fantastic in the graphics area. Lineage 1 is still doing gang-busters world wide (and will long be one of my absolute favorites). And City of Heroes continues to amaze the community.

Brannoc: *kyoshiro* Is the lin fiction coming to the website anytime soon?
captsturm: I've had intentions of getting some fiction updates rolling for a long while, and it has a bad habit of getting pushed out.
captsturm: I'm a big fan of the fiction of the Lineage world and my passion is writing (i'm finishing up my first novel and if ya'll could all buy a copy or two I'd appreciate it^^).
captsturm: So, sorry for the delay and it is still something we want to do.
Kyzah: In the meantime, you can always check out the wonderful fan fiction on our site under the Player Stories section -- our latest round of Player Story Submissions is also open until the 20th of this month, so feel free to send in your own take on the Lineage fiction, we'd love to see it. :)

Brannoc: *Rooella* Are you addressing the pet control issues?
Scout: At this time, we're not aware of any overwhelming issues with pet control. However, we
continue to look at all reports of imbalance in the game.

Brannoc: *xg* Is any of the Lineage team located in austin?
captsturm: None of the core development team is located in Austin. We have the Live Team, which includes Scout, Kyzah, DarkWing (QA Lead) and GMRock, as well as many other support staff.

Brannoc: *Rooella* What *did* happen to GMLena, GMScorth and GMVisigoth? Kyzah already told us they weren't made into pies...
captsturm: Still with the company, all promoted--one is a Billing Lead, another manages the knowledge base, another is the hardware lab lead.

Brannoc: *Rooella* or How are you planning on improving customer opinion of support going forward?
captsturm: So, that's a tought question.
captsturm: Let me start by saying our GMs get hammered unfairly for many things.
captsturm: "Monitors don't answer my whispers"
captsturm: Well, that's not why they're there. We have a support email. Just like you don't expect the janitor at the burger joint to fix your car, you can't expect monitors to do something other than what they're tasked to do.
captsturm: "I reported a guy 5 times for cheating"
captsturm: We can't ban people for be reported--we need to catch 'em. (When we do, we will ban them.)
captsturm: "My friend said they did..."
captsturm: I've seen the logs on a few of these, the friends tell a different story than what the full version of the chat log/player log indicates.
captsturm: They also get hammered for game design elements, even though GMs don't design or program.
captsturm: So, specific areas where you personally aren't getting helped can be sent on to Rock if the CS rep isn't helping properly.

Brannoc: *Rooella* Do ya'll enjoy your jobs?
captsturm: Best and worst job I've ever had. Wouldn't do anything else if I could though.
Scout: I love my job! Everyday I learn something new and exciting about Lineage. Plus I get to turn a few more of Capt's hair gray. :)
Kyzah: Wait -- don't you get paid for a job?? CAPT!!!!!!

Brannoc: *Taera* Novel? Where? We want details!
Kyzah: Capt, are you sure you didn't mean navel?
captsturm: hehe
captsturm: Its a sci-fi, political thriller, romance and action story that anyone can read--I give it 5 stars.
Kyzah: InconTHEEvable!

Brannoc: *Rooella* Why? Why? Why? *stomps feet*
Kyzah: Chicken thigh.
Scout: Because the chicken thigh said so.

Brannoc: And that's it for this one folks! Thanks for coming and please be sure to join us next time around - the logs will be posted shortly at http://www.stratics.com
Kyzah: Thanks for coming out tonight everyone, great to see you as always! :)
captsturm: Thanks for staying and playing folks. Bring your friends. Tell your family. See ya at level 70! (wait for me^^)
Scout: Thanks everyone!