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!