Gracia Changes Lots of Things for Lineage II

Lineage 2 players are in for some big changes with the new content add-on, Gracia. NC Soft has produced an article outlining some of the changes for both experienced and new players. See what they have to say:

New update, Gracia - Part 1, completely changes the way Lineage II is played

Thursday 14th August/...NCsoft® Europe, the world's leading publisher and developer of online computer games, today announced major changes in its massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, Lineage® II. In a 'free to subscriber' update from The Chaotic Throne® series called Gracia™ - Part 1, players will find advancing in the game to be dramatically faster. This, plus a host of other changes to enhance the player experience, makes this update much more accessible to newer players than before.

The increase in leveling speed is due in part to a new Vitality system, which rewards the player with an experience bonus for time either spent away from the game or in safe zones. New characters will start out with maximum Vitality, so they can begin improving their character's advancement within minutes. An increase in rewards for accomplishing quests, battling boss creatures, as well as greater accessibility of items also enable players to increase their character's level more quickly.

"Gracia represents a huge change to Lineage II," said Tim Tan, NCsoft's North American producer. "The increase in leveling speed allows players to create new characters and advance nearly twice as fast as before. This will allow players to experience the meat of Lineage II quickly, giving them the ability to visit new and exciting areas and cool high-level content much quicker than before. While this game is still a hardcore game, these changes with Gracia - Part 1 make the game much more accessible to new players. I hope gamers will take another look at what Lineage II has to offer."

Continuing the storyline and changes brought with the earlier expansions, this first of three updates involving the land of Gracia, introduces a new terror with the strange dream-like inter-dimensional world of Kamaloka. Adventurers of varying levels can easily travel to Kamaloka and face a series of incredibly potent creatures that are tailored to the experience of the players.

The expansion also offers a selection of new and improved skills, many new items, and improvements to the Cruma Tower, as well as other hunting zones.

Lineage II is known as the gaming market's premier player-versus-player (PvP) online role-playing game, with a customer reach of more than 19 million players worldwide.

The Lineage II:The Chaotic Throne - Gracia retail box is scheduled for release from 19th September 2008.

These changes bring a mixed bag of reactions. What's yours?

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Yep, that last part about the number of subscribers that the game has had worldwide always goes oh so unnoticed. =(

Wikipedia says otherwise:

It has become very popular since its October 1, 2003 launch in South Korea, reporting 610,918 unique users during the month of March 2007.

Slightly outdated but relevant. I doubt L2 grew 18 million new users in more than a year. I take it that the press release is counting every single connection and unit sold to date.

Not quite. The game has extended to pretty much all of Asia and it is a REAL big hit over there. While the numbers might be exaggerated, even when that is subtracted it is still a lot.

I have nothing against Lineage as an MMO, it's just the over-the-top press releases.

I would add "wildly" next to "exaggerated".

LOL...well yeah. I don't even read the numbers.

I don't see why you have such a mistrust in its press, Sigoya.

In Asia Lineage II is a lot, lot bigger, I believe you can buy L2 time by the hour over there.

Indeed. While here in the West WoW is a big hit amongst gamers, in Asia L2 is a big hit on the whole.