Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
As long as Steven knows, he isn't alone
Now maybe the community will belive an L2 vet when we recognize L2 aspects that are a part of Ashes? When all is said and done you will want to be in the guild that has L2 players or that is ran by L2 players (not some WoW zerg).
Haven't heard anything new regarding the guild I met in BDO recently either. I'm not really worried too much though as there is still a lot of time before even first Alpha.
@GOAT @WinterAssassin I've started getting back into the Ashes discord recently so I'll keep an eye out there for some old L2 players.
Main fun was raiding, stealing raids from the main Invi groups, harassing in Olympiad and stealing the hero positions from the Russians. And training people at Hellbound in the Green Spot or at Chimeras. Generally, being a major nuisance to the people that deserved it
I can confirm Steve is an enormous fan of L2. He talks about it very, very highly
Lineage II was the first MMO I ever played. I came from years of being a top level Unreal Tournament player. 1999 version of course. A friend of mine who to this day is still on my facebook told me to try out Lineage II. I don't even remember where I met him. I think in a TeamSpeak server while playing TacOps or CS or UT. So he got me into the Korean Beta of Lineage 2. We even had an addon we installed that allowed us to turn on a mode that when we typed in chat it would do it's best to convert the chat text to korean characters. So i would have sporatic conversations with Koreans which was really mad fun. I wish that had more of that type of thing today.
I think actually I played the Thai beta after that. Then of course the U.S. Beta. Wow I remember logging into that day one in the Dark Elf area ( i loved the dark elves! ) ..
ooohh.. goosebumps!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LkjgNVGbUY
I couldn't even kill those starter mobs because ever time i que'd up a spell the mob was already dead before I could cast it.
I also remember quests like "Go south and find this guy.. just ya know go past that tower over there you'll find him!" LOL The quests were definitely not done during closed beta or even open Beta. In fact I'd probably say the game was definitely released before it was really ready.
If i walked from one side of the map to the other I had to restart the game usually because as we all know Lineage 2's engine definitely had a memory leak. I just remember killing skeletons over and over in the School of the Dark Arts. Avoiding the trains of mobs that Koreans would try to mob tag and drop in my lap! HAHA..
Man .. too funny. Running from those trains when they did successfully drop them on me. I remember creating macros to steal souls and put them in my shards.
I would have macros that would be like this..
Use SoulShot Cast Twister.. walk back 2 steps.. use soul soulShot/cast twister.. walk back 2 steps .. use SoulShot/cast Twister.. use quest item to gather soul.
LOL.. I would just click that macro and take a sip of my coca cola and watch for sins that would try to gank me !
I remember running with Blue Dragons doing Castle Sieges that made my machine was to cry and run home to mommy..
I remember grinding DRakes for days on end then going back into town full of items and gold.. and buying my next amazing armor!
However.. the same friend (who actually because a Lineage 2 GM and moved to California to work for NCSOft) told me about World of Warcraft. So I tried WoW and that was it.. I never looked back. Still.. I have so many fond memories of Lineage II. The grinding .. hours upon hours.. trying to raise my baby dragon up. Then years later when a new generation of little MMO'ers were hatched and they started playing their first MMO WoW during Cata and talking about the grind that was Vanilla wow. Oh the amusement that gleamed in my eye like a hidden untold secret.. Ohh.. my little nooblets.. how little you know. Of days gone by and endless campaigns in the forgotten temple and the enchanted forest. Of vicious battles raging against a tireless swarm of kill ants in the ANts nest.. of Dragons soaring through the skys and hideous chained mobs on crosses lingering through Dragon valley. Of wildly massive leeches out of Dune's great deserts themselves rearing up to eat me whole..
oh my friends.. the days long gone of those tireless battles for our lives.. and glint of gleaming gold....
I will never forget Lineage II my first and one of my favorite MMO's.
The Spell Howlers remember...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unYKqbwdK3M
~ Rhapsody ~
I first played Lineage 2 in the Korean Beta. A friend of mine told me of Lineage 2. Being a long time Dungeons and Dragons player from way back when the game sounded very interesting. I had been playing 8 hours a day in Unreal tournament pretty much for 3 years straight and was a very high level player in many clans and on many ladders. I decided a change was in order.
So i jumped into the Korean beta.. this of course back when getting into a non English language beta was no where near as easy as it is today. Luckily he pointed me to the right site and I was able to fill out the Korean form and get an account and jump in.
The cool part was that we installed an addon to the Lineage 2 UI that allowed what we typed in chat to be converted into Korean characters. This was like a button you pushed to toggle chat into korean. It wasn't anywhere near perfect but it allowed me to have small conversations with Korean players which back then you can imagine was pretty cool.
I jumped into the Dark Elf starter zone..
first.. goosebumps.. dark elves you know you LOVE THem! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LkjgNVGbUY
I created my wizard.. and dropped bombs on the helpless mobs in the starter zone. Quests were not like they are today. A quest in Lineage II korean beta went like this..
Quest Giver: "Hey you. You need to find this guy. He's somewhere south. Go past this tower and look for him. Good luck."
LOL!!!
The quests were definitely not done in the Korean beta or the Thai beta or even on release. The game definitely was not finished but man I was just in heaven. The massive world the creatures of it.. the spells .. the death the carnage. This was the type of game i'd waited my whole life for!!!
After the Korean beta I played the Thai beta. Then I got into the US Closed Beta. By this time my friend and I knew the starter quests so well we began helping over players in the night elf zone. Soon my friend was offered a job at NC Soft as a GM. He flew out to California and started working for them. The US Beta day was was a night mare. I made my usual Dark Elf Wizard -> Moghedien. She dropped bomb after bomb on helpless IMPS but.. the spells never were cast.. as each time I started casting the poor little imp was destroyed by the legions of Assassins that seemed to sprout out of the very air.
Finally I moved on and up.. and found my way into the School of the Dark Arts. Oh YES!.. Skeletons Galore. Even in the korean beta I had weaved my way through these dark halls avoiding the massive train of Skele's that Koreans would mob tag and try to drop in my lap. Oh I learned about controlling rooms for grinding very very early on.
I spelled out in gold on the floor this ROOM IS MINE!! You enter.. you die. Of course the Koreans .. they didn't know wtf i was ssaying.. they kept dropping wave upon wave of skeles in my lap until I fell to the ground dead.. cursing them for their persistance.. but that was the Korean beta... Now I was in the U.S. Open beta.. and these little nooblets had no idea what was coming. I had been trained by legions of Koreans and Thai players. I was hardened and ready to Gank!
I made my macros.. dragged out my combat window.. so I could detect any pvp nearby .. and waited
LOL then the sin popped out 2 shot me and I ran home and cried to momma!! LOL Being a wizard in Lineage 2 took a player of great courage and even greater commitment.
Glass cannon?!?! Hah.. i was cannon made of broken crackers.. ready to crumble if you blew too hard at me.
I remember countless campaigns at the abandoned camp. I remember fighting leeches right from the deserts of Dune!
I remember wave up wave of vicious ants coming out of the ground in the ants nest.. assaulting me and my friend as I launched twister after twister into their ranks..
I remember trips through the enchanted valley.. fleeing from assassins at every turn.. i remember days upon days spent in Dragon Valley cursed creatures on CRosses lashing out at me.. but still i survived.. i remember swimming under bridges leaving my gear underwater so that my Fighter Amethyst could login and pick it up...
I remember treks from one side of the game world to the other the Game lagging to all laggy hell as we know the L2 engine had a serious memory leak.
Fast travel ?!?!? PFFF give me a speed potion and i was ready to go baby.. 15 minutes runs pffff... try 20 minutes w/o the speed pot.. maybe 13 with
I remember creating macros to gather souls in my crystals for quests...
the macro would go something like..
Take soulshot -> Cast Twister -> move back 2 steps -> Take soulshot -> Cast twister -> move back 2 steps -> use Quest item to capture soul.
All done while i drank my coca cola and watched for the inevitable Sin to jump out of the shadows and gank me into oblivion.
My baby dragon following me.. my wolf at my side.. only to die and die again...
Then upon leaving Lineage 2 to try a new game my friend told me about.. something called World of warcraft..
I played it.. jumped off a cliff with my night elf shot an arrow into a bear and i knew my days of Lineage 2 were over.
The new MMO wave of youngsters had appeared.. during the lich king.. claiming Vanilla wow to be the grindiest mmo ever!
but i knew the truth of it all.. I had dared the Ants nest.. the Dragon's Valley.. The Lair of Antheras.. I knew the truth.. my eyes glittered with the light of a thousand battles won and lost.. the knowledge hidden within..
WoW vanilla a grind.. with a chuckle i cast my frostbolt.. blinked behind my enemey dropped some dynamite nova'd.. blinked.. ice veins.. prepare to be shattered.. as he fell dead with a laugh i said....
"you know nothing my little nooblet.. for I had conquered Lineage II " !!
~ Rhapsody ~
more goosebumps... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unYKqbwdK3M&t=141s
~ Rhapsody ~
Sorry guys, I am also from l2 I can't play without pvp!!! Sieges and Caravans - not counting It's battleground zones with there rulles at all.