The mystery event has been revealed after fans collected all of the hidden puzzle pieces, and it looks like Eva's Inferno kicks off today and runs through Sept. 8. It's up to the players to rescue Aden from the heat wave caused by Gran Kain, the god of destruction. You have to defeat monsters to collect Seeds of Fire, which summon Spirits of Fire that can only be defeated with your bare firsts. Once enough spirits have been defeated, blessing rewards of bonus experience will be bestowed upon players. Extra rewards may also be obtained by speaking to Jack Sage at certain stages of the event.

Also, Community Manager Lyzira recently answered a bunch of questions submitted by players to give them a peek at what goes on behind the scenes of Lineage II. You can read the full Q&A below.

When a new update is on the horizon, will this website offer up the translations of what is being considered for live play? At the moment, we are getting this information from other players who can translate the Korean on other websites. It would be nice to have it here, as well, updated as the new skills/options are made and altered.

When an update comes out in another territory, our players may quickly translate the update information for their friends. Our updates are not always identical to the updates that occur in other territories. For this reason, we do not post our patch notes on the same day as other territories’ updates go live, and we encourage our players to look to us for the most up-to-date information that applies to the NCsoft West live service. Information about our updates comes out as quickly as possible. We are aware, though, that some players may have an idea of what is coming before it reaches our servers. This is just the nature of being a global game in a society with access to instant-information via the internet.

If you could have the ability to use any skill from the game in real life, what would it be and why?

Summon Merrow the Unicorn, of course! Who wouldn’t want to summon a unicorn IRL? I also love the pretty blue color of Merrow, so I would choose him over the other unicorns.

Do you read all the posts on the forum or just some? What do you feel when you read them? Do you have favorite\unloved posters yet? Could you name them?

I read all of the posts on the forum. It sometimes takes me awhile to read them all if it is a particularly busy week, but I believe that everything our players have to say is important. I am always happy when I read posts from players who are debating the game or talking about their classes because I love seeing people who are passionate about Lineage II. It does make me sad to see posters who are upset about something in the game because I want to do everything in my power to resolve the issue, which isn’t always possible. I definitely do not love seeing posts from adena sellers, so I make sure that they are banned as quickly as possible!

Can you describe what you guys are doing every day work wise?

Since each position is different, I’ll describe what I do on a day-to-day basis. When I get to the office in the morning, the first thing I do is start wading through emails that I received over the night. After that, I try to jump right in to the forums and catch up on everything there. After addressing any major issues that might have appeared, I dive into the rest of my day. My workday changes every single day. Sometimes I have to go to or lead meetings or plan events. I receive emails, private messages, and support tickets from players that I need to read and reply to. I also address fansite requests and work on updating the website. Things can quickly change on the fly around here, so I have to be ready to address any issue that might appear.

What kind of ideas or plans do you have to improve the forums and/or website? Do you have any long-term or short-term goals on this front?

In the short term, I want to work to eliminate bugs within the forums and correct outdated information that might exist on the website. After these and other existing issues have been resolved, I work on improving both the website and the forums by enhancing the functionality and appeal of the forums and adding content to the website. I would love to hear suggestions from players about both of these things, so if you haven’t already, please stop by the Site Forum Issues section of the forums and post a message about what you’d like to see or pages you’d like us to improve.

Do you have any plans for x2 experience rate weekends to make the game more casual for players?

We have heard your feedback on events, and we know that players would like to see increased experience and vitality events in the future. I think that you’ll like the events we have planned, even if they aren’t simply “double experience” events.

How long have you been involved in the gaming industry?

I have been involved in the gaming industry for a few years. Most of that time, I have worked at NCsoft. Prior to working in the gaming industry, I was simply an enthusiastic MMO player and worked on fansites for the games that I loved.

Why the name Lyzira? Where’d it come from?

I was watching Planet of the Apes one day, which has a character named “Zira” who is an outspoken scientist. I liked the sound of the name, but since this name was too short and clearly had been used by dozens of people prior to me, I decided to add a couple more letters until I found a combination that didn’t produce many Google search results. At that point, I knew I had a unique name.

What do you think about forum trolling?

Quite simply, it is against the forum rules! Trolling is counterproductive and doesn’t make the forums a very nice place to be.

When are the GMs going to patrol a few areas (30 minutes, 1 hour/day) and ban all the bot trains they see? At the moment, GMs seem to wait for us to report, then we get the standard reply that they need definite proof!

Lineage II is a very large game, and we have quite a few servers, so we are currently working to add more patrols to all servers. While we do patrol the servers as much as we can, player reports are very effective and helpful when it comes to the elimination of bad users from our game. This does not mean that we only wait for reports to come in as we are always proactively working to keep these bad users out of the game. Please report suspicious activity to our support team right away.

What’s your opinion on bots that don’t get punished even if we petition or send a bot report?

Sometimes investigations can take some time, but these users do not escape punishment for long and they will eventually be taken care of. My opinion is simply that they have not been banned yet and it is only a matter of time.

Do you have any plans for improving the vitality system to lvl 8 (500%) or lvl 10 (600%), as a way to make the grinding easier for real players?

Vitality is a great addition to the game, and one that we know players enjoy. There are changes coming to the vitality system in our upcoming update to look forward to and we will be keeping vitality in mind while planning future events and contests. We always appreciate your feedback!

Why isn’t the “report a bot” button working as well as the user base had hoped? Is there a behind-the-scenes problem or something else going on that is keeping this functionality from being fully utilized?

I realize that players might have had a certain expectation about the bot button and the way that it would work. Players might get frustrated that they don’t see immediate results when they push the button. However, the button has had a positive effect on the game. Reporting a bot with the button is a very effective step toward removing a bot from the game. Please use it on bots when you see them as the results from use of the button are very helpful. If the way that the button works needs be updated, we will update it, but such updates will happen behind the scenes.

As we found out, you have been CM for Lineage. Do you feel we are the same type of crowd?

The two communities have some commonalities and include some similar personalities, but you are definitely not the same. All communities are a little bit different, and each one wants different things out of a game.

What do you think of this community of constant complainers and constant doomsayers?

I like this community, and I hope the people in it are growing to like me, too. Some people are generally less happy than others, but it is my hope that we can work on changing that. I know that in any community, some people will only make posts when they have a complaint. However, complaints are often constructive feedback that can make forums, the community, and the game better. Posters who complain have their hearts in the right place. Their posts show that they are passionate about the game that they play.

Do you think that the bot report button is an effective tool for players to use?

I absolutely do. I know from firsthand experience working with the GMs that the bot report button is an effective and useful tool. Please continue to use it. Even though you might not get an immediate result, it is definitely doing its job.

What are the hours for developers and staff at NCsoft West? Do you have a 2nd or 3rd shift?

Each position is different and has different hours. Some support teams are available 24 hours a day, and some folks are tasked to watch the servers around the clock, seven days a week. We also have many positions that work during the regular business hours of 9 – 6 in their time zone.

In your opinion, who is the most useful poster : Bel, Spudnik, or SneezingTiger?

They're all great posters! SneezingTiger does have the cutest avatar though with the rawr-ing kitty!

Why is the website so slowly updated? The community has screamed about this and by the time it was updated, it was already outdated (i.e., skills were never corectly updated). The website is a game’s front window. Providing outdated information is not the best advertisement.

Getting the skills updated is something that we are working on. We know that the current skill listing is out of date, and we have plans to get the list updated. However, we don’t want to update the skills again only to have the listing become quickly outdated by the next expansion. We are working toward a solution that will allow us to make future updates in a timely manner. I will inform the community when we have made this next update.

Are we going to get more vitality-replenishing events? ^^ (mmm...love the lollipops.)

Yes!

Why are some of the Korean events and services not reproduced over here? The code exists already.

Our game is not identical to Lineage II in Korea. Sometimes, we have events that they have not had, and sometimes they have events that we have not had. Simply having the code for a given service, event, or item does not mean that service, event, or item is compatible with our version of the game. We may be saving these things for later, making changes to them for our servers, or still be considering whether we want to use them or not.

What about fansite relationships? What do you, as CM team, think about all contests and events we all (as fansites) plan to provide fun around the Lineage II universe?

I absolutely support fansites and will offer my assistance and support as I can for Lineage II fansites. If you have exciting news or a contest coming up, please be sure to post it in our Fan Site News forum. If you aren’t already listed on our web page, please visit this page to submit your fansite to us. Some of the folks who run our fansites have introduced themselves to me already, while I have yet to meet others. Don’t be shy! Say hello to me in a Private Message sometime.

Is it?
Dwarf Fighter ---> Scavenger ----> Bounty Hunter
Human Fighter--->Rogue---------> Treasure Hunter
Or is was it supposed to be?
Dwarf Fighter ----> Scavenger----> Treasure Hunter
Human Fighter ---->Rogue---------> Bounty Hunter
It just seems like that was one of those tiny bits that we’ve misplaced all these years that needs to be corrected.

In our game, it is the first. While I’ve seen discussion on the boards of why people feel that it should be one way or the other, renaming classes would likely cause more harm than good due to confusion. I think it is safe to say that both of these classes are interested in valuables.

Why is it that during some hours it is cheaper to port with Gatekeepers than other times? Any particular reason? Seems a bit unfair in my opinion, due to the fact that there is a lot of European/World players on U.S. servers that do not benefit from it because it’s in the middle of the night for us.

The Gatekeepers offer discounts during the night when their business is the slowest. I’m afraid isn’t possible for us to find a time that fits with the schedule of every player. While we understand that players from the U.S. sometimes play on the servers in the E.U and vice versa, they may not experience the most optimal play experience as a result. Gatekeeper discounts are not meant to be available to all players 24 hours a day—or they wouldn’t be considered discounts.

Why does it seem that the first line of in-game support personnel has no clue about anything concerning the game? What I mean is that four out of five times you get a automated message saying, “Please consult the L2 community websites and NCsoft support forums for your answer.”

While you might not have had your question answered by following the suggestions from the initial automatic response, many players do find those suggestions helpful. Much of the information that players ask about is available on our website, in our support knowledge base, or on the forums. Sometimes new players or even long-time players may not be aware that the answers they seek are already available. In order to assist as many customers as possible as rapidly as we can, we have these quick responses available for a player to consider while she or he waits for the next available GM to respond to a question. If your question is still not answered by support (and it is an answer that we are able to provide), try rephrasing the question and asking again, as it is possible that your question was not completely understood. As always, you can contact me via private message with a ticket number if you have had difficulty with the support process or are “stuck” on an issue.

Why is there not any information about what’s going to be changed over the maintenance on Tuesdays on the webpage? And why does it often take until after the maintenance to read about that there is going to be maintenance today either in the Lineage II forum—News & Announcements or on the webpage News—Server maintenance—Current status?

Some weeks, such as this week, we don’t make any changes to the game. When we haven’t made any changes in a given week, we won’t have anything to post. All servers still need to come down every week for regular maintenance, which includes things like implementing paid account services and special item distribution. Other times, we may update something internal, which we would not divulge. Regular maintenance always happens at the same time every week, and we do our best to give you as much advance notice about unplanned maintenance as possible.

Is there someone in the developer team that is working on the issue with the interface resetting itself every time you restart your client and not saving the in-game window positions?

We have this issue documented and reported to the appropriate teams. As soon as we have an update to this issue, I will let you know.