The second Siege War has concluded. Following concerns over the rigid dynamics of the first siege, an update added new gates to the castles. However, this backfired, favoring larger factions and leading to a '3-castle sweep' across most servers. On the Heine server, the deletion of the top-ranked character has sparked major controversy, while reports of frequent game crashes and issues with subscription authentication continue to mount.

■ The Era of 3-Castle Monopolies! Is Another Patch Needed?

In Lineage Classic, the Siege War is the biggest event on the server and a critical point that impacts the in-game economy, drawing intense focus from both players and the developer. Reflecting this, immediately after the first siege, an update added one gate to each castle and fortress.

The intent behind adding gates is simple. Since the structure of a siege inherently favors the defenders, the goal was to diversify entry points, forcing the defense to spread their forces thin and thereby encouraging more active offensive-defensive shifts.

However, once implemented, the result was that smaller factions bore the brunt of the risk associated with spreading their forces. Larger factions could distribute their troops across multiple gates with relatively little impact on their defensive integrity. In contrast, smaller factions, even when they managed to capture a castle, could not defend against enemies pouring in from multiple paths, ultimately leaving their gates open and losing the tower.

Because the power balance on most servers is not a perfect 5:5 split, the result across the board was a uniform '3-castle sweep.' Current server leaders and streamers do not expect a rollback; instead, they predict that further patches will likely add even more gates to make perfect defense impossible, even for the largest factions.

■ Deletion of Server's Top Character: Frustration Over 'Cube'-Centric Operations

A major incident occurred on the Heine server: the deletion of the top-ranked 'Boss' (Knight) and 'Fairy' characters. On Monday the 29th, streamer 'Hye-seo' announced on her YouTube community that she had received the top-ranked Knight character 'Boss' and the Fairy character 'Fairy'. She explained that the original owner did not want the account to fall into the hands of an enemy faction and cause harm to remaining guild members, and that she herself could not afford the maintenance costs for such high-end characters. Thus, she decided to host a broadcast to delete the accounts in a way that would bring closure to everyone.

A few hours later, Hye-seo posted an update: 'Seven days is too long, and people's minds might change. Also, to dispel doubts that I might not actually go through with it, I will lower the level and delete them immediately.'

During the nearly four-hour live stream that followed, various topics were discussed, but they all centered on one point: the current state of Lineage Classic is far from what players expected, and the model of selling skills and items through 'Cubes' is neither understandable nor tolerable. The broadcast concluded with the level 29 character disappearing after a 10-second countdown.

Questions have consistently been raised regarding the practice of using 'Cubes' as a primary source for key crafting materials for rare items and boss-dropped skills. However, the recent deletion of the server's top-ranked character has highlighted a shift in the gravity of player dissatisfaction. Some streamers have dismissed the current system, stating, 'We understand the intention to provide a path through cash, as tying boss skills and rare gear materials too tightly makes it impossible for a fallen faction to make a comeback. But the current Cube system is excessive and far removed from the 'classic' experience we were looking to relive.

■ Recent Surge in Crashes and Authentication Issues: Causes and Solutions?

Recently, there have been growing complaints about frequent game crashes in Lineage Classic, alongside reports that subscription cancellations and authentication requests are malfunctioning.

Regarding the crashes, the game simply exits with a message stating, 'Disconnected from the server,' without any warning. Players report that these unexplained crashes occur regardless of time or situation—whether standing in town, hunting, or in the middle of combat. While a simple restart resolves the issue, it is a major inconvenience for players who leave their characters running, such as when using ATS (Auto-Targeting System).

At the same time, there are claims that recent subscription cancellation and authentication prompts are interfering with gameplay. Following the announcement of changes to subscription packages last week, regular subscribers were asked to agree to automatic payments for the new plans. Since then, users have reported that their subscriptions are being canceled or that the authentication process is not working smoothly.

In these cases, it is reported that the game displays a message saying, 'Game terminated by the operator,' followed by temporary account protection and a request for identity verification. Some users have reported that even after attempting verification, it fails, eventually exhausting the daily limit of 8 attempts and resulting in a 24-hour access ban.

While there is speculation that this failure to resolve temporary protection is a 'system bug,' or that it targets 'abnormal users like multi-account holders or those using others' names,' or even that 'workshops are using macros to report innocent players as messengers,' nothing has been confirmed. However, as these crashes and access issues directly hinder gameplay, players are calling for a swift investigation and official announcement.