Thank you again for bearing with us trouble the last weeks regarding the Territory War Badge issue. In our last post about this, we advised that players leave their badges on the NPC, in case the solution requires a reset of current badge numbers. We realize that the Territory War NPCs can only hold 90 badges and that some players are coming close to this limit. We hoped to have a solution before it came to this, but we not, nor do we have a precise ETA on a future solution. However we can tell you that when we do get a workable solution, we will inform you of two important things:

1. We will be able to tell you ahead of time if this fix will delete your current badges or not.


2. You will be given ample warning and time before the fix is implemented. This is especially important if the fix must delete your current badges to replace the old ones. By giving you ample warning, you will have time to spend the current badges and not lose them.

That being said, we are withdrawing our suggestion to hold your badges on the Territory War NPCs. You may use your current badges, and any you acquire moving forward, as needed.

When we have a fix, we will post forums, news, and server-wide announcements that will inform players on how that fix will work and when it will happen. Our intent is for players to retain all of their badges (old and new) and to protect the players from further unpleasant surprises.

This teaser video was recently released by NCsoft in Korea, and
gives viewers a look at possible things to come for Lineage II. More information will be released about this game update at G-STAR 2010.

View this video in higher resolution on the Lineage II YouTube channel.

A few paragraphs of new lore were released along with the video, setting the mood of this upcoming game update.

1. An ancient tale

Shilen, the oldest child of titan gods Einhasad and Gran Kain.

As the Goddess of Water, Shilen was born to end this world and create a new and better one. Before she could begin to fulfill her destiny, she was seduced by the God of Destruction, Gran Kain, and became pregnant - thus putting into motion the beginning of her demise. Once Einhasad found out about Shilen and Gran Kain, she stripped Shilen of all powers and banished her from the kingdom.

Having fled from Einhasad and filled her heart with hate, Shilen gave birth to multiple children. Years later, she waged war against the gods and put her children at the forefront. After many climactic days of battle, Shilen's children and influence were finally defeated. Deeply saddened by defeat as well as the death of her children from the war, Shilen created the Underworld so that those who die would not be lost to oblivion but instead come to live under Shilen's regime.

Ruler of the Underworld

Devastated and bitter, Shilen continues her quest to destroy the world that her mother Einhasad created. In defense, Einhasad sought to block all of Shilen's advances to bring upon destruction. Eventually Einhasad resorted to using her power and strength to magically bind Shilen power. In this risky endeavour, Einhasad's and Shilen's powers were bound together, to be forever linked but forever at odds. To this day, the two are at opposition.

While occupied with trying to repress Shilen's power, Einhasad contacts the powerful Emperor Shunaiman and asks him to protet the world from Shilen's army, the Lilim. Through Shunaiman's strength, Einhasad is able to call upon the angel Anakim to be their protector. At last, Einhasad was able to stablize the binding of Shilen through the use of seven magical seals. Since that time, Shunaiman's descendants have been given the task, generation after generation, of controlling the seals that bind her. Alas, the greedy and power-hungry humans have opened the seals...

2. Into the Present

Shilen awakens

Because of the humans, four of the seven seals have been opened. As the fifth seal begins to waver and tremble, Shilen opens her eyes after a long period of dark slumber. She regains consciousness and immediately begins to search for ways to open the remaining seals. But, in order to regain her full power, Shilen must defeat Einhasad. Shilen understands that a great sacrifice must be made before she would be able to challenge her mother.

First, Shilen sacrifices the followers of the Catacombs and Necropolis, and creates the Moon of Shilen to be her eyes so that she could watch over the world as she continues looking for the object of great sacrifice that will help her regain power. Soon after her eyes open, Shilen lets out a breath full of a deep red color, which tarnishes the sky into the color blood, enveloping the world in confusion and terror.

The first people to understand that Shilen is awakening are the Dark Elves, having recognized the signs of Shilen's resurrection in the sacrifice of the Catacombs and Necropolis and in the blood-red sky. The Dark Elves gather in their ancestral village and began to pray for Shilen's arrival. Meanwhile, as the world falls under chaos and fear, the King of Aden Amadeo summons his eminent scholars to investigate Shilen's powers. He builds up an army in preparation against her although he believes that he is no match for a god. Next, Amadeo is visited by the mage Einhovant who tells him that if someone could harness the power of the Giants, who were a strong foe against the war with the gods so long ago, he would be able to delay the apocalypse. He advises Amadeo to go find this power of the Giants, as the prophetic hero would appear soon...

Prepare for the first-ever Double XP and SP Weekend on our Lineage II servers! NCWest is implementing this change as a way to help players reach higher levels so that they may enjoy the ever-expanding end-game content in Lineage II.

The start and finish of the Double XP/SP Weekend will be marked by server maintenance. On Friday, November 5, there will be a short maintenance to start the double XP/SP event, and it will end with the regular maintenance on Tuesday, November 9.

The Double XP Weekend is a server-wide setting and allows players to get twice the experience points and skill points from hunting monsters in the game world. Players of all classes, levels, and account types will be affected by this setting regardless of where they are hunting. Also, the double XP effect stacks with other XP-related items, such as Revita Pops. Quest XP is not affected.

These fun and fruitful weekends will occur again in the future, but the dates are not yet set. Stay tuned for more news moving forward.

Keep checking the website for the Server Maintenance notice that will specify the time of the Friday maintenance. Enjoy the Double XP/SP Weekend!

Server merges can be an exciting yet disruptive experience, and some players might want to move to a different server and explore the possibilities there. To accommodate this, we are bringing free server transfer codes to all active players! Here are the conditions:

• For each Lineage II game account that has been active in the last 12 months, that player will receive one Free Server Transfer Serial Code on their NCsoft Master Account.
  
  • Example: If you have three Lineage II game accounts that are all currently active, you will receive three free server transfer codes.
    
  • Example: If you have two Lineage II game accounts and one has been inactive for over 12 months, you will receive one Free Server Transfer Serial Codes.
    
  • Trial accounts (active or inactive) will not be included.
• The Free Server Transfer Serial Codes have been inserted to your NCsoft Master Account. You will be able to use these codes beginning Tuesday, November 2, 2010, after the regular server maintenance. On January 1, 2011, any unused Free Server Transfer Serial Codes will be removed.
  
• To view and use your free server transfer code(s), log in to your NCsoft Master Account and click on "Use a Serial Code".
  
• Please read the Server Transfer Account Service page for a list of questions and answers regarding what items can and cannot be transferred, all server transfer rules, and for instructions on how to make a server transfer. This account service page will also give instructions on how to purchase a server transfer, if you have used your available free server transfer token(s).

The Paid Server Transfer account service will open on Tuesday, November 2, 2010 as well.

This year's Lineage II Halloween celebration begins tomorrow! After maintenance, all players will receive a special Halloween gift: the Golden Jack O'Lantern mask. Also, the Trick or Treat GM event will begin and run for the next 3 days. Have fun!

First of all, thank you to everyone for patiently bearing with us since the server merge. We have seen an increase in player activity and player enjoyment with the boosted server populations, but we recognize that the merge also caused certain issues that concern both players and staff. We continue to look for solutions to these issues.

As you all know, the new Territory War periods will begin in the next two weeks (different on each server). We have reason to believe that the solution we find for the Territory War badges issue may result in a "reset" of a player's current Territory War status. That means that, if you participate in Territory Wars from here on, there is a possibility that the badges you acquire could be removed when we re-insert your old Territory War badges.

A simple way to prevent players from losing additional badges would be to "turn off" Territory Wars until we find a solution for the pre-merge badges issue. However, this would take away a lot of the other benefits that come from Territory Wars. Therefore, we have decided to let Territory Wars begin and progress as normal so that players can enjoy all of the benefits, including:

• Territory Wards
  
• Fame points
  
• PvP Fun
  
• Cloak quest

While you enjoy Territory Wars, the best way to protect your badges from any kind of deletion is this: do not collect your Territory War badges from the NPC until we implement the solution to the old badge issue.

By leaving the badges on the Territory Wars NPC, there will be a separate automatic record of your badge-count which will not conflict with a re-insertion of your old badges. Our goal is that we will return the exact count of badges to each player in one server maintenance, and afterwards players may collect the badges they left on the Territory Wars NPC. In the end, we do not want anyone to lose any Territory War badges from before or after the merge. This is what we are working towards currently.

LTL PRINTS, the premium wall graphics company, today launched an exclusive collection of NCsoft wall graphics, featuring 'Larger Than Life' artwork and giant character cut-outs from Aion, City of Heroes, Lineage, and Guild Wars II.

http://www.ltlprints.com/guildwars2
http://www.ltlprints.com/coh
http://www.ltlprints.com/lineage
http://www.ltlprints.com/aion

NCsoft premium wall graphics are available in a range of customer-selected sizes (from laptop-size to seven feet tall), are printed with eco-solvent digital inks on a proprietary 'premium self-adhesive repositionable fabric paper' that will stick to almost any surface (walls, windows, even ceilings), and can be removed and re-hung 100 times without leaving a mark or damaging your walls.

Prices start at $14.95 for laptop-sized graphics (NEW!), to LTL PRINTS' signature 7 foot tall 'larger-than-lifesize' wall graphics, for $149.95.

NCsoft and LTL PRINTS were brought together for this project by John Doffing, curator for multiple 'Video Game Art Shows' and a juror for Into The Pixel(http://www.intothepixel.com), the annual global exhibition of video game artwork. "The artwork from these titles is simply astounding, and images that look great within the context of a video game also look pretty slick when they are seven feet tall the wall," according to Doffing. "This launch brings THE ART OF VIDEO GAMES to real-world walls, and NCsoft is a perfect content partner for this large-format new medium."

The Lineage® II servers have merged from eight to two and so fewer Clan Halls are available to players. In a past server merge, some unscrupulous characters raced to make the capped bid amount for an auctionable Clan Hall and win a hall. Once they had the Clan Hall, they resold the hall, effectively scalping Clan Halls to those who are in need of a Clan Hall for competitive gameplay. To avoid a repeat of the same issue, the Lineage II team has decided on using a Clan Hall distribution that more fairly allocates the Clan Halls to eligible participants. Read about the Clan Hall Distribution here.

On October 5, 2010, all of the Lineage II servers will be merged. The eight existing servers will become two servers, one based in North America and one based in Europe.

• Aria, Bartz, Devianne, Phoenix and Sayha will merge and become Chronos (NA).
  
• Franz, Luna and Teon will merge and become Naia (EU).

On October 8, 2010, all of the NCsoft games and community staff members will be in New York to host a Meet & Greet party! This is the same weekend as the New York ComicCon, but it is a separate event at a nearby venue. Come meet other players from your favorite NCsoft games, collect swag, and have fun!

In preparation for upcoming server merges, the Server Transfer paid service will be unavailable beginning September 1, 2010, until further notice.

We will be providing detailed information regarding the server merges shortly.

Today the Lineage II update servers were moved to Dallas as part of our data-center relocation. Because of this move, some users may difficulties connecting to the patcher. This can easily be fixed by following these simple steps:

1. Close the patcher.
2. Click on the Start button in your Windows interface.
3. Click on Run.
4. Inside the text box, type "cmd" and press Enter.
5. Inside the black command prompt box, type "ipconfig /flushdns".
6. After the process is finished, restart your patcher.

By doing this, players should be able to connect to the game with no further problems.

Lineage II Freya has arrived on the live servers, and there is much new content to explore! The Freya Screenshot Contest asks you to travel to the new and re-vamped areas to take screenshots. By winning this contest, you will not only be awarded with some fun and useful in-game items as prizes, but also your winning screenshots will become Official Screenshots, forever immortalized on the Lineage II website! Get your screenshot folder ready, and come explore the new places!

On Tuesday, August 24th, 2010, the live servers of Lineage II will welcome the latest game expansion: Freya! The new Freya client will be available for download on Monday. Log in on Tuesday to experience the exciting new content and take part in the Freya Celebration Event!

With the upcoming launch of Freya on August 24th, 2010, any Account Services purchased between August 17 and August 30 will be processed on August 31.

This means we will not be processing paid services on Freya Launch Day.

That's right, everyone! The era of Freya is almost upon us! On July 29, 2010, the Freya PTS client will be live and players can begin exploring this most exciting of game updates. On the same day, the interactive Freya Preview Site and the Patch Notes will be also be available. Prepare yourselves for an exciting PTS experience with GM activities by reading the Freya PTS Fun schedule! Discuss these upcoming PTS events with your friends on the forums.

Surprise, everyone! The Gift of Vitality event is back for one more week! We heard that players are still craving vitality, so we've bought this event to you a second time. Log in from July 13 to July 20, 2010 to take advantage of this double dose of Vitality Buffs and Newbie Buffs for everyone!

Don't forget, the Nostalgia Contest entry period closes on July 14th! It only takes a few minutes to write a short essay about your early days in Lineage II and send it in with a screenshot of your character. Everyone wins a pariticipation prize of a free vintage Lineage II t-shirt and three classic posters! Read the full details and check out the rest of the prizes here. Send in your entry today, it's easy, fast fun with great rewards!

June has become the "nostalgia" month for Lineage II. There are three ways to celebrate our nostalgic look as you reminisce about your character's early days. The two-week Gift of Vitality event allows players level 76 and above to receive the Newbie Buffs that are tradionally reserved for younger players, and gives all players a daily vitality buff. The week-long Elpies From The Past GM Event lures players to areas of Aden they haven't visited in years where swarms of elpies are dropping a variety of desirable items! Last but not least, the month-long Nostalgia Contest gives players a way to channel their longing for the golden days of yore by writing about their first experience with this game that we love. In return for participating, the contestants will receive vintage Lineage II swag items. All of these events begin June 14th or 15th, so get ready for fun and smiles!

The April Fools Day Event and the follow-up Vesper Weapon Giveaway are both finished and the winners have been awarded their prized Vesper weapons. Check out the winners list, then come to the Official Lineage II Forums to give your feedback!

Next week, there will be a random draw giveaway on each server to award one lucky player each the special April Fool's Day item that produces a random Vesper weapon! This giveaway was created as a remedy to some mishaps that happened during the April Fools Day event. Check the event page for more details about the giveaway, and discuss it with other plays on the forums!

Solve riddles, explore Aden and take beautiful screenshots to participate in this fun contest! There's only one more week to submit entries and become eligible to win some awesome prizes like Revita Pops, an Agathion, and a head accessory. Read more about the contest here!

There's something strange going on in Lineage II today! Log into the game to experience the phenomenon and enjoy Vesper transformations! Read more about this occurrence on its Event page, and discuss it with other players on the Forums!

Please sign up for the Seven Signs Quest before the regular maintenance tomorrow (Tuesday, March 30th at 8am PDT / 10am CDT / 11am EDT / 3pm GMT).

Due to an issue with the Daylight Savings Maintenance on Franz, the SSQ timer was altered. With Tuesday, March 30th maintenance the SSQ will be reset so that the Seal Validation period will be in effect once the maintenance is completed. The winning side will be set to Dawn, as this was the winning side before the Daylight Savings maintenance occurred.

Starting March 17, 2010, at 10am (PDT), the Subclass Separation Account Service will be available for all eligible characters. This service allows a player to remove a subclass from a character and create a brand new character! The new character uses the subclass as it's main class, and the best part is the new character will be the same level as the subclass was on the previous character.

Go to the Subclass Separation Account Service page in the Account Services section for more information! Discuss the new service with other players on the official forums!

This is a friendly reminder that all forms of Real Money Trade are dangerous and immoral offenses. Real Money Trading degrades the gaming experience for legitimate players by giving the offenders unfair advantages. Even worse, it fuels the botting and gold-farming market. Using real money to make in-game purchases from third parties is considered an RMT transaction. These in-game transactions can include the purchase of Adena, power-leveling services, items, characters, and other in-game related services.

In our efforts to crack down on all forms of cheating, we will continue to investigate any and all suspicious situations. Beyond all these reasons, RMT can also endanger the security of your account!

So please remember, Real Money Trading directly supports the botters and cheaters that degrade the game!

Play legit, play safe. Join the discussion on the Message Boards.

It's been quite a while since we've had the pleasure of offering a Free Trial period to new players, and now we've brought it back! Come visit the Free Trial page for more information!

If you're already a seasoned Lineage II player, you can continue to use the Refer-A-Friend program to invite your friends to join you in-game!

Come discover love during our Valentine's Day event, the Lovers' Jubilee, beginning February 9th!

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