Lineage 2: Leilo Answers some Questions

Ophelea: What is the name of the land where Lineage II takes place? What size is it? And does it have geographic differences throughout?

Leilo: Lineage II takes place in the lands of Aden and Elmore and both contain many unique geographic area. Combined they're about the size of New York City, with more lands to be added down the road.

Ophelea: Can you describe character creation? What options do we have? And do they change with character advancement?

Leilo: The character creation process will allow the player to choose their character's race, class, gender, hair (style and color), and face. These do not change during the course of playing.

Ophelea: It's been noted that characters of different races start in different villages. What type of travel system is there so that I, as a Dark Elf, can meet up with my friend the Orc? Do you use a portal system or will there be a lot of running?

Leilo: For travel between most villages, the character can either run the entire distance, use a Gatekeeper, or take a ship. The Dwarf village, however, can only be reached by Gatekeepers.

Ophelea: What is a basic starter quest like? Does it teach you the interface or the history of the game? And can a character of one race complete the starter quest of another?

Leilo: The basic starter quest depends on the race of the player character and is tied in to the game tutorial. One of the earliest quests is just to collect the teeth of some of the weaker monsters to provide the player with an introduction to combat.

Ophelea: Is experience only gained through battle? Or are there passive skills that allow for experience? (crafting, etc)

Leilo: Primarily, experience is gained in battle, though some quests reward the character with Experience and Skill points as well.

Ophelea: Are there tie/save points for death? Where do you return to when you die? And once you begin losing items, can you retrieve them?

Leilo: If a character is killed, he or she respawns in the nearest village. Lost items drop to the ground upon death, but may quickly disappear from the world. A hunting partner may pick up dropped items, but depending on the distance between where the character dies and where they respawn, it may be unlikely that the character can return quickly enough to pick up a dropped item.

Ophelea: What benefits are there in grouping?

Leilo: One of the biggest benefits in grouping is the addition of various of skills from the different characters in the group and, of course, battle efficiency. This is especially true with Boss Monsters, where an early character wouldn't stand a chance without some friendly backup.

Ophelea: What gameplay elements have been developed for solo play?

Leilo: One of our biggest challenges was balancing the game for both solo-play and groups. The design was for both, so no elements are group or solo specific.

Ophelea: How do you manage character inventory? Does the character have a large personal inventory? Is there storage available? or will secondary characters need to be created as "mules"?

Leilo: The inventory system is based on the amount of weight a character can carry (beyond that limit, the character is immobilized). The amount of weight also affects the character's ability to regenerate hit points and mana points: overweight characters may regenerate these at a slower rate over time, or not at all. In addition, storage is available in the Warehouses in the Villages.

Ophelea: What types of items are there in-game? (ex. trophies from creatures, jewelry, pets, anything non-standard)

Leilo: Many unique items are to be found in Lineage 2. In addition to weapons and armor, there are special amulets, unique enchantments scrolls and recipes, and Dragon Eggs, just to name a few that will be available at launch.

Ophelea: Can you ID the properties of an item? or is this a skill that is developed over time?
Leilo:Item properties are visible by single-left-clicking an item in a character or store inventory. There is no required skill to view item properties.

Ophelea: Any crafting of any kind? We've read about production of resources through castle ownership...
Leilo: That's true. Aside from the crafting done by Dwarves in Lineage II, castle owners can create a machine for crafting unique items in their castles.

Ophelea: What kind of loot do monsters drop?

Leilo: Monsters randomly drop almost every item (weapons, armor, magic books), except for those which are very rare.

As always, we're amazed at what, given a little time, effort, and copious amounts of truth serum, Ophelea can pull out of Leilo when she really needs to. A hearty thank you goes out to Leilo for being a good sport and supplying us for our much-needed fix of new L2 information.