Hey guys, I'd like to start by thanking everyone who took the time out of their day to come and help L2P. As most of you know, we had an Open Beta session for about an hour or so yesterday.

The point of the test was to stress test the server. Unfortunately with the Beta testers, they're not as committed as we had hoped they would be, and we end up with max 20 testers at our session. While we wait for the client which will log 2k players, we needed some way to see how the server would handle a lot of people. As expected, there was a lot of lag, and it was very hard to play properly. A lot of people were disappointed but you shouldn't be. We haven't had that many people log into our server till yesterday, and by having that many people log we managed to spot bugs that were causing the lag and CPU spikes. What we did notice though is that the login server was very robust, and we didn't have any problems with that. We'll be working mainly on the server core to optimise it's performance.


The max people we had online yesterday was about 150 people. The test was very helpful, and we took note of a lot of bugs. For the supporters who didn't get a chance to come, there's a small video of the open beta that you can watch to give you an idea of how busy it was.


If anyone has screens of the open beta that they'd like to show off, post it in this topic and if i think it's a good screen I'll put it in the first post. Thank you again for all who came, and I think its safe to say that we may do this again ^_^.

Alright guys I've made a flash guide which should make connecting to L2P much simpler. I've also added an L2 Official video at the start if you haven't seen it already. I used this originally for the Beta testers and have modified it slightly for you guys.

Please read through all the steps when connecting to the server.

Link removed until needed.

I will add the hosts file you need closer to the time of open beta. Remember to check the countdown, Click Here. If you need help with anything else or think that something is missing from the guide let me know.

*Note*
Beta testers, you will need this new file too.

Well,

I think its about time to bring the community to action. So Friday we will have a small open beta (1-2 hours max) for the entire community. During that time, you will be able to create an account automatically during login process, and you will be able to test it our server with the beta testers. During this time, please know you will exspect down time, and you will have to be in mIRC. (Host file and details will be given over mIRC). We would like to see a small detail on the server stability with people with no restrictions. This does NOT mean we are Phase 4, and this does NOT mean we are now in the Open Beta Stage, we simply want to give each person in the community a 1 day trail.

We would like to thank everyone who is going to show, and hope you are excited about this event as much as I am.

**Addition by Kenpachi**
To log all you will need is the Hellbound client (fully updated with the retail update) and the hostfile that we will supply you with. Make sure you get those clients ready! Also, make sure you are in IRC at #l2-paradise for the test.

The beta will be at 12 GMT -5
Countdown Clock

Hey guys, It's been a while since my last news post, and I apologise to those who have been waiting patiently. For donators, there's a bonus for you guys this week, as i have made a beta video. It's sort of like a fraps of the beta session, so you will see the bugs that we found and work on, and how the server is looking. Hope you enjoy it! Go have a look at the donator forum to find it.

Work has been progressing as it always has, and we've made quite a few big steps towards open beta. Ken has been optimizing the core of the server, making sure that we have as little CPU consumption as possible. What used to be 2% CPU when the beta is in full swing has now become 0%, which we are very happy about. We will soon be doing stress tests too. Ken has been programming a client which will log 2000 players into the server to see how the server handles that many players.



In terms of game mechanics, we have been perfecting the AI system too. Simple AI for all mobs are now in place. i.e. if you attack them, it attacks back, when not attacking or being attacked, it walks around, etc. You know how it goes. We have moved on to more complex code and AI. We recently put in place the aggro system, where everyone who hits the mob generates a certain amount of hate. Hitting and using skills will all raise the hate level slowly. Using the hate skill will raise your hate level increases by alot (if it lands), and if you are getting healed, the healer will gain hate depending on how much he healed you for. We are working on the system and perfecting it, but when it's done, it will be an improvement on all L2J and L2Off servers.

As for Kamael, i have been working on the server files, and recently i added all the Kamael weapons and armour. Donators you can see a little preview of that at the end of the video. As for non-donators, you can have a screen instead . The next thing ill be working on is adding all the new quest items, and everything else thats not a weapon or armour, (all 2800 new items). Most of this stuff you wont see till you get level 80, but I'm still adding them now so the GM chars can parade them around .


We came across a funny bug too, where a few players managed to get their speed incredibly high. They respawned and found that every time they were hit, their speed increased by 80. Soon, they were running marathons to Giran and back in a matter of seconds. devOlution and Bryan had fun with that bug. It's fixed now though, (unfortunately?).

Now that it's the summer holidays, and exams are over, things should progress much faster. You might have felt a slowdown in the last few weeks, that's because i was deep in exams and couldn't concentrate on the server for a while. I'm back in full strength now though, and we are fixing a lot more bugs per day than before. Yesterday alone, Ken fixed 12 major bugs that the beta testers found. Expect to hear more from us!

I hope the donators enjoy the video, let me know what you think of the intro!

Some of you may have noticed that donations were down for a little while. It was to do with an incompatibility with the script and the new version of vBulletin that was installed. It's now back, so if you want to support L2P, and reap the benefits, go ahead and donate!


A small reminder of what you will be getting as a donator:

• Priority access to upcoming Beta stages!
• A special collectors item ingame when we launch.*
• A special user badge on the forums.
• Bold username on the forums.
• Boost to avatar size limit.
• Upload music to your profile page!
  
• Private forum for supporters only.
• A larger inbox PM allocation

Also, some upcoming Beta privileges!

• Exclusive donator-only videos of beta
• Bloopers/Deleted Scenes from L2P Podcasts
• Baby video of Kenpachi! =o

All donations go towards keeping the box we're running the server on up so Ken can continue coding and get this server done asap!

Thanks for supporting us guys, we really appreciate it.