I've been playing Lineage II since C1 I started in this 1x server. Ever since then a lot has changed and I'm not talking about the game client only but about myself. I have moved to other servers and I have experienced Low rate, mid rate and high rate and the one I like the most without any doubt is Mid rate it has the best of the other two experiences.
The best mid-rate server I have ever played is Sieghart in Lineage II Teh Game. That server no longer exists because Lineage II Teh Game have been through a lot of changes and it doesn't have a Mid-rate server anymore, it only has the original Bartz low rate server and the high rate Aria server.
Without any doubt Sieghart taught me a lot it gave me more experience that all the other servers together, It was there where I first raided an Epic Boss, the first time I played olympiads and the first time I became hero. It was also the very first time I enjoyed being in a clan and playing with friends. Sadly the guys from Teh Game closed the server because they did a really bad update and they had no way to roll the server back to what it was before that shameful decision (that is my guess) but it doesn't change the fact that on it's peak that was without a doubt the best Mid-rate server ever made.
After Sieghart closed I moved on to Phoenix and I have to admit that I had a really good experience there although I think I ended up hating Greek people because they where so cocky and arrogant and in the top of that they were cheaters and made almost any kind of dirty tricks to prove that there was no one better than them... off course a lot of them where just bad players, curse them! but anyways, I had a good time playing in Phoenix. Sadly it was also wiped because the GMs did a poor job when it came to balance the server they did a lame job with landing rates and made sloppy work when it came to fix those faults also I think they wiped out the server because a lot of newbie guys where crying because they had no way to reach the level old players had attained, in the end I think it was all for nothing.
Now they opened Aria which is not a bad server just it doesn't have what I find fun about a server it is totally PvP driven and I don't like PvP that much, so I decided to leave.
Ever since I have been looking around the web trying to find a good Mid-rate server as close to Sieghart as possible but to no avail, nowadays It seems like any noob can create a Lineage II server and thus you see some things around that ¬.¬ there are no words to describe such failed servers.
There are guys around the web trying to create Mid-rate servers that are more like High-rate servers others trying to create Mid-rate servers with crafting which is a feature for low-rate servers. OMG What are they thinking? I can't believe they really think they will succeed with those crappy servers. And last but not least people who tries to force server balance with stupid mods like making Epic bosses accessible only through castles (yeah, like that is going to work -.- It's like they have never played in other servers before). I say, that is why your servers are boiling with peaks of 11 players on-line! Good job ¬.¬
Okay, so here is what I think a good Mid-rate server should have. If this description resembles Sieghart it is because that was a really good Mid-rate server. So here it goes:
- First of all the rates. It is MID-RATE, that means above 30x and under 100x. Please don't make me loose my time going in your "mid-rate" server site to see that it is a 1000x server THAT IS NOT MID-RATE BY GOD'S SAKE!!!!
- Crafting: We DON'T want to craft that is for low rates! We just want to buy our equipment from the NPC Shop as we level up. It is okay to make high level equipment and S/As hard to obtain but PLEASE, PLEASE don't make us craft it totally sucks!
- Adena and XP balance: Please don't make me reach level 61 with D grade equipment that is something I hate about official L2, It totally sucks! Please, please, just take a character and level it up and adjust the adena drop rate or prices in the NPC shop accordingly. (I guess there are a lot of GMs who level up by command and don't even bother on testing the drop rates or adjusting the prices).
- NPC Buffers: This is not so hard I don't know why so many servers fail with this. It is a Mid-rate server there should be a NPC buffer in towns we don't want to log 5 accounts just to level up and there are no big clans with a lot of support characters in Mid-rate servers. And please, by god's sake don't go over to the other end, please don't put Songs, Dances or Third class buffs in NPC buffers is mid-rate not high rate. If the server is starting it is okay but as the server grow up those buffs should be removed from NPC buffers. Is a mid-rate not high rate PvP server.
- Farming zones: Please don't fuck everything up modding the mobs to drop special items to buy things from the NPC Shop it totally sucks! Don't restrict farming areas, some of us who have experience in the game have special areas to level up our characters depending on the class and we DON'T want to be restricted by noobs like you that think that all areas are provided equal.
- Custom Currency: In a Mid-rate server it should be a custom currency with an appropriate exchange rate to Adena. Medals worked really well in Sieghart and obtaining them through events was a really cool feature. It was also a nice feature to make champions drop some of this custom currency but only on high levels (80 and above) to avoid low level bot characters farming for a lot of them.
- High level equipment and S/As: Please, we don't want to level up a crystal to put acumen on our Sword of Miracles which we will be using for only an hour while we level up to 76. In a mid-rate servers weapons should be sold with S/A on them up to a certain grade after which you have to get it in the retail way (leveling up a crystal). In a Freya server for example I think you should be able to buy S/A weapons on the NPC Shop up to S grade, maybe S80.
- Please avoid custom weapons and armors we don't want to play low rate but that doesn't mean we want to play a totally customized game, we don't want titanium or crystal or triumph sets, we are okay with the sets NCSoft made.
- Features page: Please when making the server website add a feature page in which I can see what kind of game-play should I expect from the server. I care more about NPC Shop and Buffers and custom farming areas that the physical setting of the machine that runs the server.
- Events: Please add events to the server. Good events, like those in Lineage II The Game, TvT, CTF, KoH, FOS not crappy events like races and chest events (those are good for a GM event not for automated events). Events are crucial in this kind of servers because we want to PvP from time to time.
- Please don't customize Sub class and Noblesse quests. If you think your server doesn't have the population to allow players to do subclass quest then make it free. As for noblesse please don't customize this quest this quests are one of the things that I appreciate from low-rate and retail.
This is is for now. If I think of something else I will add it here. As I go around the web searching for a good Mid-rate server I will post my findings here (only the ones I make from now on). You never know what else can you find around and I would like to make fun of fail servers.
