Good vs Evil - a Lineage 2 Private Server
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Good vs Evil - a Lineage 2 Private Server
Brief design outline
Background
What is a private server?
A private server is an individually run service that uses server emulation to mimic the
operations of an Official Corporate owned game server. Server size can range from just a few
players to thousands, rivaling their official counterparts. In most cases administrators have full
control over every aspect of the game mechanics. The only limit to such modifications is the
original art from the game cannot be changed.
What is Lineage 2?
Lineage 2(L2) is a Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game(MMORPG), created
by NCSoft. At this time L2 is the second most popular MMORPG, second only to World of
Warcraft. The gameplay in L2 is focused primarily around fighting monsters and completing
quests in order to gain experience to allow the player's character to grow.
What is Good vs Evil?
Good vs Evil(GvE) is a total gameplay conversion for Lineage 2, in the form of a private
server. Since GvE's creation in 2006, it has become one of the most unique and popular private
L2 servers available. GvE peaked at 9000 players and since has maintained a steady community
of 3000 active players. It created and utilizes a server type now known as a faction server. This
means that the players are separated into two opposing factions that battle for control over
territories.The Goal of Good vs Evil
L2 servers in existence when GvE was created primarily utilized the same gameplay that
is present on the Official servers. There was no variety, no reason to select one server over
another based on features and gameplay. The overall goal of GvE was to break the norm, create
something different, something that players could be excited to play.
It was discovered that a vast number of players enjoyed the PvP (player vs player)
element of normal Lineage 2 servers. So I set out to exploit that interest, to combine the best of
both worlds. A game that the player could spend time playing and progressing their character
based on rewards almost solely obtainable through PvP.
GvE would have completely redesigned game mechanics that were centered around PvP.
Instead of progressing through the means of experience and levels, the player progressed through
the wealth and gear obtained with the help of their faction on the battlefield. In game,
everything having to do with the Good faction is green, and everything having to do with the
Evil faction is red.
The Player Objectives
The overall goal for players of GvE is to work together with their faction to control all of
the 37 cities and fortresses of Aden(the L2 world). Once their faction has taken control of all of
the capturable areas they will gain access to an NPC (non-player character) that will give great
rewards to further advance their character.
While working together with their faction to control the world. They must also advance
their character to become stronger. Instead of getting experience from killing monsters like in
most traditional MMORPGs, the advancement in GvE is based on defeating other players.
Rewards come in the form of money to buy new gear or enchantment to deal more damage on
their current weapons.(Rewards will be explained in detail later.)
Faction Main Base/Fortress
A player's faction fortress has everything the player needs to survive. Should the player
die, they will be returned to their fortress. Both faction fortresses have an array of shops and
Healers to support them between fights. A gatekeeper is located at the center of each base to
allow players to teleport to areas their factions posses. Clan managers exist to allow players to
create and manage extended group of players allowing them to create a unique identity on the
battlefield. Players can return to their faction base at any time, by simply using a custom item.The Factions Concept
Lineage 2 contains a collection of 6 player races; Humans, Orcs, Elfs, Dark Elfs, Dwarfs,
and the Kameal. GvE separates these races into two primary factions, Good and Evil. Both
factions have their own primary fortress from which to regroup and launch attacks. Players from
one faction cannot trade, party, heal, or help the other faction in any way.
The Good Faction: Humans, Elfs, Female Dwarfs, Male Kameal
The Evil Faction: Dark Elfs, Orcs, Male Dwarfs, Female Kameal
The races of Humans, Elves and Dark Elves, Orcs were separated intentionally based on
their alignment within the story line of the Lineage 2 universe. Thus the struggle between the
light and dark begins.
When GvE was fist created there was only 5 races for the players to chose from. It was
decided to split the Dwarf alignment by gender, as both male and females possessed the same
classes and abilities.
The Kameal were added to the game in late 2007, and provided a new selectable player
class. Because of the lack of player interest in the Dwarf race. The Kameal classes were
inspected and they were split by gender to the factions that could most benefit their play style.
Male Kameal were mostly defensive players while Female Kameal were offensive.
Differences Between the Factions
The Good faction contains the most classes that can best fight defensively. They can
take massive amounts of damage, and deal moderate damage. They are weak in the use magic
spells, but excel in defensive spells that support their allies. The Good faction is much faster and
have a greater ability to evade attacks. Members of the Good faction are better suited to fight as
a group, supporting one another and coordinating attacks.
The Good faction's main fortress is separated from the rest of the world by an ocean. It is
a small green island that among other things, contains a small town surrounded with guards.
Here the faction can form attacks, and use their gatekeeper to access points in towns on the
mainland.
The Evil faction contains classes that dish out major damage quickly, but they are very
weak defensively. Their magic is very powerful, but they lack healing powers. Evil can attack
much faster than the Good faction, but they have lower running speeds and evasion. Though
powerful in groups, the players of the Evil faction excel in solo attacks and use guerilla tactics to
catch the other faction off guard.
The Evil faction's fortress is a giant stone city, surrounded by dense forest. Their main
city is guarded by few guards, but they are very powerful. Here the faction can form attacks, and
use their gatekeeper to access points in towns on the mainland.Capturable Areas (Towns and Fortresses)
Towns and Fortresses contain a spawn point, guards, and a town lord. They can range
from a small village, to a large urban city, to varying sizes of castles.
The spawn point is protected by special spawn guards that cannot be killed. A player of
the faction that owns the area can teleport to the spawn point via their Gatekeeper located in their
main fortress. This allows the owning faction to quickly defend an area should it come under
attack.
Normal town guards are located at key points of the city. Should one of these guards be
killed by the other faction, it has a 1 in 3 chance of raising the alarm and sending an
announcement to all those on the owning faction. This allows the attackers to have a chance at
infiltrating the area unnoticed, but also might warn players on the opposing faction.
The Town Lord is the key to the city, literally. Should this NPC be destroyed the entire
town, its spawnpoint, and guards will come under the control of the new owning faction. This
gives both the defending an attacking players a common point of interest and conflict. If the
Lord is attacked, it will immediately warn all members of its faction to come to its aid.
Player Rewards
In order to encourage conflict between the factions 5 different rewards were put in place:
1. Players gain gold when killing a player of the opposite faction. The victim's bounty is
directly proportional to the number of players they have killed in their lifetime. This
encouraged players to get kill streaks, and rewarded players for killing a player of high
skill.
2. Depending on the type of weapon the player was using, after killing a number of players
of the opposing faction their weapon would become enchanted. Each enchantment
further increased the power of the weapon and gives it a distinct glow. This encouraged
players to use different weapons to "level them up". Players could have pride over the
look of their weapon, as players that were more skilled often had a bright red weapon.
3. At random, players will also obtain an armor enchantment when they have killed a player
of the opposite faction. This enchantment is usable on a piece of armor of their choice,
and increases the stats of that item. Thus further increasing their sustainability in combat.
4. After obtaining a certain amount of kills (currently 6000), three special items would drop
at random to allow access to greater special grade items.
5. If a faction manages to capture a town, all of the players of that faction within the
immediate area will gain 5 gold pieces, this encourages team work between players that
don't know each other and gives an incentive for capturing areas.Event Systems
There are two different automatic event systems in place. A capture the flag style event,
and a Raid Boss event. Rewards from these events allow the players to gain access to special
items in their faction fortress.
The capture the flag event is triggered daily at 5 PM EST and lasts 30 minutes. Players
that want to participate teleport into an arena style area. The two factions fight over the control
of a single flag that spawns at one of three locations. The winning faction receives a number of
tokens that can be traded for a number of different weapon enhancements.
The raid boss event is triggered whenever a faction takes control of all the capturable
areas. The players of the winning faction have the option to enter a dungeon to take on a large
raid boss. The rewards for killing the raid boss includes gold and the ability to access item shops
that the other faction can't
Achievement System
In an effort to allow the players to progress towards a set of multiple goals and keep them
interested, nine achievements were added. The challenges are oriented to urge players to
experience parts of Good vs Evil that weren't originally taken advantage of.
There are three sets of three achievements, making a total of nine. Once a set's criteria is
completed, the player has an option to select one of twelve additional player bonuses such as
increased speed, defense, and attack.
To add an additional element of pride to completing the achievements, an asterisk is
placed next to the players name for every set of achievements they complete.
Special Items
There are a few special items in the game that can only be obtained by finding a
randomly placed NPC in the world. This ensures the items remain rare and also encourage
exploration and capturing more areas to explore more parts of the world.
HUD/Faction Status
Information is displayed to the player in separate windows that are scripted in HTML.
This proved to be a very effective way of displaying information for the players to see while not
being intrusive. Main information windows include lists that include the top 40 players, faction
status, and CTF event status.
Top 40 List
Displayed the top players, encourages player competition an recognition for skilled
players. This is also uploaded to the server web site once a day, so that it may be viewed out of
game.Faction Status
The faction status is a progress bar that displayed the percent of the world both factions
own. There is also a list of capturable areas color coded to show who owns the area. This is a
valuable tool for the players to decide what areas are important to conquer.
CTF Event Status
Displays if an event is underway, who won the last event, how much time is left, and the
current score.
Power Balancing
Due to the unequal powers of classes on both factions a lot of effort was forth to balance
the factions so they were equally viable in combat. Every skill for each player class had to be
tested and adjusted to reflect their faction strengths and weaknesses in order to have a fair fight
between such different play styles. The balance is ever changing as different classes come into
favor with players. This system requires constant maintenance.
Overview/Conclusion
Good vs Evil has completed everything that was set out for it. It is one of a kind and
continues to be the most unique L2 private server online. It has attracted a good number of
dedicated players and invented a whole new game using Lineage 2. It stands out from the
ordinary private servers and continues to grow through new additions and evolves regularly.You can also read
