NCsoft dumps the hound at the helm!

Fracas: I can't stand these whiners!  Every time I log in it's like one constructive post for every ten flamers!  I've had it!  Gimme a raise or I quit!

NC: lol

Fracas: dang...well, I guess I can get an IT job somewhere...cya later....

NC: Good, one step closer to shutting down Lineage without a hassle.

I am not really surprised by this to be honest. The relocation perhaps, but not the reshuffling behind the scenes. The whole Ep 6 - U push to test appears to my eyes to be a total fiasco. The dump of the LOA ruleset and reversion to a poorly managed Korean mirror is the real shocker to me. I don't give a damn how wonderful the new content might turn out to be (hard to tell since much of it is broken or for lvl52+ chars which doesn't describe me), I came back to Lineage specifically because of the LOA ruleset rollout to Ken. I played Ken for years, got sick of the constant Korean server nerfs and had no interest in starting over from scratch on LOA. Several people did start over from scratch, and they're the ones really getting abused by this lovely series of events.

I'm sure a couple of high profile people will jump in and trumpet how wonderful and necessary the new changes are, but it doesn't apply to me. I don't have any 52+ characters or a gargantuan warchest of items and adena to fall back on and keep the game fun for me, I have zero lvl 50 characters. My best single drop ever is a red dragon scale from a salamander for god's sake. Without the LOA drop tables even that won't happen again. Call me crazy, but I actually like being able to make adena playing in the style and time investment I play now and be able to buy new weapons / armor (lin toys) often. I don't need or want the game to be harder or require a greater time investment from me for the same reward.

My conjecture is that the sudden departure of Fracas is the result of being way overworked (as many developers are these days) and pressure from the top to just be another Korean mirror. Or maybe, he just didn't want to move across the country for a job...been there, done that too. Good luck to you Fracas, whatever the real story might be, I just hope it isn't used as yet another excuse to give US Lineage users the shaft.

I hope the move to Seattle will not delay the release of new content for Lineage 1 further more. Seeing Fracas leaving the Lineage Team doesn't feel good. I wish Fracas all the good things for the future. Young Taek Bae was in the Tabularasa production team before - another face who has never been into Lineage. I wonder if there is anyone left who knows details about Lineage?

Things keep changing - that's the only universal constant. Let's see what these changes  will bring to Lineage. Maybe we'll finally get a all new Mac Client now or maybe none at all. There is potential - let's hope it will be revealed. 

I have a slightly different view. I don't want to see the new content anywhere near the live servers until:
1) It works. All of it.
2) A complete list of changes is documented. I don't mean "Here are the new drop tables" are anything like that, But this running around on test in the dark about what may or may not have changed approach is bunk. I shouldn't have to read threads on forums posted by players that detail the changes as they are found, ask pledge mates what's new, or run around on test for days on end to figure it out for myself.
3) It is balanced appropriate to the US player base, pvp and pve servers alike.
4) The forums on lineage.com are fixed. If they can't fix a bloody bulletin board, I have little faith that they can come close to point 1.

The 3rd point will be tough. It needs to be balanced such that BOTH high level (52+) and low level (49 and lower) players can coexist peacefully on low population servers and find the game enjoyable. Make the bosses hard as hell. No worries. Make the high level content really really challenging. No worries. I want it to be fun if/when I ever have a high level character.

Don't force me to always hunt in a party though. That's not cool. There aren't enough players on our servers to support that, and I have limited windows to play in. It would be wonderful if our servers had 5k+ players online everytime I login, but I'm a realist, If I could pick up a group quick that might be ok some of the time. I don't want that forced on me though. I like to pop on briefly for a quick solo hunt now and then. If I want to sit around for 2 hours trying to pick up a group for a single hunt I might as well play WOW. Thats all the high end content on WOW is and its why its not my cup of tea. And finally, fix the damn boards on lineage.com so I can vent somewhere other than here! I'm sure it will be ignored but at least it makes me feel better :)

Sure I want it all and I want it now. Its also crystal clear that Lineage US is understaffed and having its own set of internal issues. I would love to see lots of new content and events that are carefully thought out before it gets dumped on the live servers and we have to live the consequences, but I'm a consummate dreamer.

I dont know... I guess I'll be the party pooper in all this, but honestly I don't see much good coming out of this, or lineage actually getting back on its "knees" even. The fact Fracas didnt even come to tell us that he's gone personally makes me think he got fired, but who knows, maybe just thinking too deeply into it.

 Remember aswell... NC has been giving us post's like "The game isnt dead, far from it", "blah blah blah is gonna happen", "things will get better", NC telling us they want to catch up in content to the korean servers.... lol thats jokes... Capt told us this, he up an left... fired maybe, Fracas/Crickette told us this, they're both gone, now lyzira is telling us the same stuff pretty much:

"The team is very excited about the opportunity to continue to work on Lineage and evolve the game from where it currently is. Our goals are not only to maintain the Lineage service, but heighten the experience and grow the game in the future in many ways. One of the first steps we are taking is moving forward with new content updates as you have seen, and we will continue to do so until we have closed the gap of time between Korean release and our own releases."

 Cool... if only these kinda posts came TRUE... we've had lots of them in the past 3-4 years, and guess what, in those 3-4 years the game has just dropped and dropped in users, the game has taken longer and longer between CONTENT updates, which as far as I am concerned is one of the most important things if you dont want your user base to get bored out of their mind in an MMO.

Lineage is honestly at a point where it's looking for a miracle to happen... will it? Um... lol, I've been enough of a party pooper, gl.

Captain did not get fired, he took a job elsewhere to head the Warhammer 40K mmo.  That project he may or may not have gotten fired from, because he has since been rehired by NC as the Head of Live Games Manager at NCsoft Europe or some crap like that.  It was on NC's main site.

good riddance. What has fracas did in the last year? made like 2 posts on message boards, put in that untested update that brought the loss of regen when underweight, dual-pink that most people don't want/like and... thats it. In a full year. Maybe we'll be lucky and get someone who will actually do their job to replace him.

www.pyroamos.com - check it out ^^

The new guy has three times the dedicated staff Fracas had. He should get things done a LOT faster. For most of the time Fracas was in the lead there was a community coordinator that handled 139 different games and nobody dedicated to help with translations.

He was on an island asked to work miracles in the name of greater profits.

This move may turn out to be great, but it has me very nervous for the timebeing.  

Hi folks, I wanted to comment on a few issues that have been mentioned here.

 1)  The move to Seattle - This will not be happening before the new content goes to live.  We will be making the move over the course of the next few months and hope to have this completed by the end of the year.  The new content will be here much much sooner than that.

2) We don't talk about personnel issues, so I cannot comment any further on that.  Speculation is generally not something to rely on.

3)  We absolutely are NOT trying to make our servers a mirror of Korean servers.  There are changes that need to be made in order for us to progress forward.   We are planning ahead and you should think of the changes that you don't like as growing pains.  Yong Taek and the production team know how much our servers need elements of the LoA ruleset since we are a different gaming community than other territories.  These changes are not intended to nerf you or worsen your gameplay.  They are to allow room for better changes to come along.

-Lineage Community Team-

Once again we are left in the hands of people that know nothing about the game or what we want and are eager to make their own mark...getting tired of it really

I can't say I'm suprised. I wouldn't have a job if it took me 1/10 this time to get something done.

I can say WELCOME TO WASHINGTON !! 4.5 hour drive for me to get too Seattle, but if thier staying there I may drop in sometime. Seattle really only get the rain during the winters. (for the most part) But it will defantly be differant from Texas.

I am with the others here who hope like hell, this don't mean starting from scratch. Lets get these balls rolling. (forward).

BTW anyone else having a hell of time reaching teh Lineage boards today?

Never waste a day "learn something new"

heh i have grandparents in washington, used to visit them alot. Beautiful area, very green. It does rain alot... I shuoldn't say rain, cause its not really rain, its more like mist, hehe.

www.pyroamos.com - check it out ^^

Seattle west side of state gets rain alot, Middle of the state actuauly has deserts east side of the state where I live, Four seasons.

Never waste a day "learn something new"

Maybe we can have a meet and great in Seattle at some point if some of you are interested :)

 Are those of you who couldn't reach the boards still having troubles?  We did some maintenance to the boards about three hours ago but it is long since over. 

-Lineage Community Team-

Grrr the Lineage boards are realy ticking me off. Oh well I'll check later tonight.

Never waste a day "learn something new"

I am back up with the message boards.

www.lineagedb.com

Hmm, well i would like to say as a de in lineage i like how we take more damage, its like that in most games that you are a rogue/assassin class. But as of now we really can't solo high xp places anymore that knights can, i would like to see this change.Or have de do a few more damage a hit , which i know would make every other class moan a bit. i like the changes that korea lineage is bringing now, i had a friend come over and he never liked lineage, is now interested in it.

About mirroring, now that i think of it, if you take out loa ruleset and all the stuff it added, wouldn't alot of bugs go away, i know epi 6 on test has alot of bugs atm, but isn't that cause the patches we used to fix bugs for loa ruleset, might be causing conflicts with korean's files. Maybe this change is for the better of lineage.

 And lyzira i would love for yall to have a meet and greet sometime me and a friend planned on coming the next time yall had one. Maybe we can discuss lineage a bit more. And maybe can get someone in working for nc that knows a bit about lineage >.> cough cough..

www.ZwarlordZ.blogspot.com

Bottom line to me I really don't give a hoot who helms the L1 team so long as

1) Content are developed promptly, published to PLAYING and PAYING customers who are dedicated to the game and want no excuses. I don't see how Korean servers can have content way ahead of us by a millennium and we are still debating on whether Fracas got the boot or not.

2) Periodic engagements from NC Lineage Community Team to update us - Silence is never always golden when the same game in different countries are enjoying greater attention. Fundamental customer service I don't see practice at all.

3) L1 is still alive because of players that are passionate about the game. This is not the only game in the worl and if only NC sees this passion they will probably realize how much they will start to lose if every single player up roots and leave. No players = No game = No revenue = No jobs so which genius at NC do we need to fire in order to make the monthly payments worth the while for us to play the game we love?