Lineage 1 Server Opens Tomorrow

[Rhalle]

I meant to post this a little sooner, but at least there's still some time left. Masochists among Kodexers might have played Lineage 2 before-- but here's your chance to play Lineage 1 (and get started on a server along with everyone else)! Lineage 1 is an old-fashioned tiles-and-sprites MMO ARPG. It has got an anime thing going on, but it's more like Ultima Online + Diablo with an item/enchanting system stolen from Nethack. Fair warning: this isn't a story-driven game, Kodex. It's all about grinding, items and PvP.

It came out in 1998, and for a time was the most popular MMO in the world with millions of Korean subs. In my opinion it's an important game in the history of the genre, and it did lots of things before games like WoW did.

Personally I love how many of the game systems work, and even if you hate the gameplay it's worth a look. Hopefully you can tolerate some of the technical issues (foremost of which is incredibly choppy-- choppiness that can hurt your brian-- sprite animation at lower levels). It gets better, I promise.

Anyway, here's the site:

http://legendsofaden.com/forum/index.php

Here's the forum post containing a link to the client and a connector you will need to use:

http://legendsofaden.com/forum/index.php?topic=73.0

Here are the two remaining resource sites in English for Lineage 1:

http://www.linlib.com/ (You can browse this site for all the info you need about Classes/Monsters/Drops/Spells/Locations/Etc)

http://www.lineagedb.com/ (This site has been up probably for a decade and much of its information is outdated)

To be honest, I'm not as happy with how this server has shaped-up as I thought I would be; but because of the closing of other popular servers, "Legends of Aden" looks like it will have the biggest population of any L1 server in a long time, come Monday. This server will have some fairly significant modifications and customs that make it different from vanilla Lineage 1. This server is also an ethical server; it is free and does not take 'donations'; there is no pay to win of any kind.

Population at LOA should be anywhere from 50-100 players at any given time. Having a healthy population is what makes the L1 experience of trolling, dick-waving and generally terrible human behavior complete-- and perhaps one of the last, best MMO experiences out there.

If you are intested in checking L1 out and have any questions about anything, feel free to post them or PM me.

 

[Cadmus]

50-100 seems small. Does it work in L1? I'm sure in L2 it would have made for a shit experience.

 

[Veelq]

In Lineage 2 50-100 ppl online is basically a singleplayer experience

 

[Rhalle]

50-100 seems small. Does it work in L1? I'm sure in L2 it would have made for a shit experience.

50 people, almost all of whom are old(fag) pros, are plenty for a good L1 experience. Even 25 is okay if you're interested in playing it like a stripped-down SP grinder-- and frankly that's a number typical for most L1 PSs.

100 on a good L1 PS is really great; that's when clan PvP and castle sieges really work. The most popular L1 PS, "Lineage 1.5" is a 'donation' server--crazy people spend lots of money there to p2w on a highly modified L1 client. The population there can be in the hundreds. But the best L1 servers are ethical and free. And tbh 100 is probably wishful thinking for this particular PS having surveyed the state of things last night. It hasn't shaped up quite the way I'd hoped and some other factors may hurt it. I think it will still be good. Whatever happens it's probably worth a look.

Anyway, a few things:

* If you download the client, simply extract all the files somewhere; download the connector package and extract all that stuff inside the Lineage 3.0 folder in the client stuff and overwrite if prompted.

Use the Login.exe to start it.

Once at the Log/Pass page simply put in the Log/Pass you want, and that creates your account.

The server is up ATM actually it is down!, but it's still beta settings. At 5PM CST it will go live. I suspect an initial population of 30-40 people that might reach 100 in the next week or two. We shall see.

* The game's max resolution is 800 x 600. The best way to view it-- unless you have an old CRT you can use-- is to make sure your graphics card retains original aspect ratio and you don't stretch the game to fit widescreen resolutions. It looks incredibly shit when stretched that much.
Many people run it windowed (and the client supports this easily-- see below), but fullscreen with original aspect ratio and black bars on the sides is the best way to view it, imo. You have to set it to do this with your GPU settings; you can't set aspect ratio in the client.

Windowed/Fullscreen Mode/Resolution can be cycled-through once in-game by alt + enter.

* If you try to type and korean moon runes come out, shift + space will put you back on earth.

Just typing makes you speak locally

"&" before what you type lets you use global chat

"playername allows you to whisper someone

there is a "warp to" system that is accessed by typing -warp

certain common places in the game can be accessed this way in lieu of a teleport or blessed teleport scroll

typing -warp 5 will take you to the town of Oren, for instance. -warp without a number will bring up a small menu.

That's enough for now. I may post some screens of the game in a bit, since this is a lot of text.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

It's still the most popular MMO in South Korea.

 

[Ranselknulf]

50 - 100?

I'm pretty sure there are private servers with larger populations than that.

 

[Rhalle]

It's still the most popular MMO in South Korea.

I knew Korean Live still existed-- although it's a lot different from what it once was (and Japanese Live is pretty popular too), but have never been there; I didn't know it was still the most popular there.

I think around the year 2000 Lineage had something like 3M subs, which made it world's most popular for a bit.

50 - 100?

I'm pretty sure there are private servers with larger populations than that.

There's at least 1 English L1 PS that has hundreds online currently. It's also been modified to unrecognizability and is a horrible shitshow where people with more money than brains spend lots to be 'the best'. I'm not completely happy with Legends of Aden-- XP and drop rates are far from optimal for this sort of server, and the GMs are new to L1 PS game-- but it's at least ethical.

The best L1 PSs are run by people who love the game and host the server as a hobby and aren't trying to get paid, like this one. (The guy who hosted the best two L1 PSs ever-- truly great online gaming experiences-- is actually sort of advising the GMs of Legends of Aden and is active with them. The main guys are new to it; it's their server; I get that, but they don't understand how pro he is and that they probably should be listening to him a little more than they appear to be currently.) Anyway, this sort of server is where the real L1 old-schoolers and pros go, and when you get a good L1 PS like that, with 100 old pros on it, you get one of the best online MMO experiences ever.

Still hope to post some screens in this thread, but it looks like I may have to wait until Live.

Edit:

My character standing in the starter town. Couple hours after launch we have a steady 60+ people online.

Not sure why I can't seem to take more screenshots.

Anyway, if you're curious it's up and running! Come check it out.

cntrl + h is also useful once you get in-game. I'll post a few more SS sometime soon.

 

[Rhalle]

A few more screens. I'll do some action shots with more monsters and players later.

I know Kodex loves sprites and tiles! Come check it out.

 

[DefJam101]

How is the power curve in L1 compared to L2? Lineage 2 had a fucking ginormous power curve which was and still is a completely stupid idea in any PvP-focused MMO.

If it's anything like that I dunno if I'll be able to stomach it esp. coming fresh out of Shadowbane, where you can stomp all over fully geared level 75 characters on a half-geared level 50.

 

[subotaiy]

It sure looks nice, but I bet requires days/weeks of grinding.

 

[Rhalle]

How is the power curve in L1 compared to L2? Lineage 2 had a fucking ginormous power curve which was and still is a completely stupid idea in any PvP-focused MMO.

If it's anything like that I dunno if I'll be able to stomach it esp. coming fresh out of Shadowbane, where you can stomp all over fully geared level 75 characters on a half-geared level 50.

It's definitely about level + gear, favoring level-- but of course, generally speaking, if you are higher-leveled you will have spent more time so have more gear anyway. Anything more than 5 levels or so and the lower level person will virtually always lose.

It sure looks nice, but I bet requires days/weeks of grinding.

It looks better in screenshots than it does actually playing it. Issues with screen resolution and aspect ratio and stretching are a central to that problem. (Like I said I think it looks best with black bars on the side instead of stretching it; windowed is OK but I prefer not to do that). The game came out in 1998, and I don't know for sure, but I want to say that it may have been built on or on an engine similar to that of an arcade game. For a very long time the max resolution of the game was 640 x 480, which was low even for 1998. In the last several years it got an upgrade to 800 x 600, which they got essentially by pulling the camera back and including more pixels. But the locations and monsters indeed look great. Maybe the best-looking sprites-and tiles, ever?

A problem that also existed in 1998 in that vein: the character sprites are synced with every frame ; this makes for unacceptably choppy movement. It used to give me motion sickness, if I hadn't played for a long time and come back to it. A few things make this better: 1. you get used to it and don't see it anymore; using movement speed increase buffs, which are a big part of the game; character sprites made later in the games history reduce this issue drastically because they are coded differently. When I played the game in 1998 it almost made me quit it. I can't imagine how it must be for someone in 2014.

Anyway, it is indeed Korean grinder (with a little more complexity than just left-click). There is no "winning the game'. The world has a story (which probably makes little sense now that so much has happened in the gameworld in 16 years) and there are big quest chains for every class for level milestones and other things; but endgame is about more levels and building crazier gear to solo bosses and PvP and guild vs. guild castle seiges. The game is also basically one big chat room of stupidity and silliness. It's often quite Kodexian in that regard. It's like, say, BG or PS:T with the dialogue box in the lower central space replaced with a global chat. There are surely 12 year olds playing as well as many oldfags.

At lvl 50 you begin to be able to add +1 to any stat every time you level up. Also, one of the main mechanics is that leveling-up allows you to use different polymorphs. Polymorphs stop most mobs from being aggressive and they increase your attack and movement speeds. At 52 your polymorph abilities really increase in their effectiveness and this is a very important level.

In retail for most of its history it would take literally a year or more to reach lvl 50, and a couple years or more to reach 52. Different private servers have different rates. On this server, with a fair bit of playtime it will take probably a week or two to reach lvl 52. Within a few months on this server the most dedicated players will be level 70+, which would have taken close to a decade of playing on live servers. So, yeah, it's a Korean grinder.