What "PTS platform" and "Java platform" mean in the description of a private server, which chronicles exist as which builds, how to tell one from the other in the game, and why even a PTS build of Interlude is not the official game.
Today we will talk about what PTS and Java are at all as applied to Lineage 2, how they differ and in what they are alike, which chronicles of the game exist on which servers, and who deals with all this.
Looking through the description of some free server, you have surely noticed such lines as "Official PTS platform" or "Java platform", but what does that mean?
PTS means Public Test Server: that is what the developers call the server build which they install before each new chronicle and let players run around on, looking for bugs and so on. That is, for example, in 2006 the current chronicle was C4, people played on servers of that chronicle, and the developers came up with Chronicle 5. Before launching the new chronicle, a test server is put up. Such a server is written in the C++ programming language.
Although the owners of PTS servers declare that they have an "Official PTS platform" and claim that everything works as on the official server, this is far from so. Let's look at it on the example of the Interlude build. The leaked build closest to Interlude is C4; further on there is only the PTS build of Gracia Final. That is, there is no code for the chronicles C5, Interlude, Kamael, Hellbound and Gracia part 1 & 2. How to get a playable Interlude build? You have to either add content to C4 or cut content out of Gracia Final. You will agree that neither will be an "official platform". A lot of time has passed, the developers changed a great deal during it, and nobody knows exactly (in numbers) how things worked precisely on Interlude.
A Java server: from time to time craftsmen appear who rewrite the whole content of the game in another programming language, namely Java, which is where the name "Java server" came from. Although there is an opinion that PTS is the best there can be and Java is rubbish, I would not assert it so categorically. There are quite playable Java builds, and there are crooked PTS builds. The only thing that can be stated unambiguously is that PTS is written in C++ and Java in Java; the rest we will look at below.
A reasonable question arises: where do these PTS builds come from? It is simple: they are leaked from the Koreans. By what means is of no interest to us here; somebody simply gets access to a server and downloads it. Everything would be easy if the builds of all the chronicles had been leaked, but that is far from so. The leaked builds can be counted on the fingers, and many free fingers will remain. Let's go through this question chronicle by chronicle.
Builds by chronicle
- Chronicle C1. Remade from the leaked C4 build; it is not especially popular.
- Chronicle C4. The first PTS build leaked from the Koreans. Servers with this build exist but are not especially popular. It can be said to be the closest to the official game of this chronicle. The basis for remaking into higher chronicles.
- Chronicle C5. There are practically no C5 servers, since it is very hard to separate the content of this transitional chronicle from the content of Interlude: too many changes were introduced during that time. Over all the time information about C5 openings appeared several times, but those were foreign servers, and I had no wish to go and look at what was implemented there and how, all the more so as nobody knows how it all worked in C5.
- Chronicle Interlude. One of the most popular chronicles, and one of the most ambiguous as regards the accuracy of reproduction, since nobody managed to leak this chronicle. The existing working Interlude builds are made either by adding content to the leaked C4 build, or assembled from scratch (either self-written or by tearing out pieces of code), or by sawing extra content out of the leaked Gracia Final build. Or they are Java builds. Despite the wild popularity of this chronicle, there are quite enough flaws in it; players constantly make claims to the admins, and the admins, without thinking long, tear pieces of code out of the leaked Gracia Final and insert them into the Interlude build, breeding errors that are numerous as it is. Their argument is: "we looked through the databases, the skill did not change from C4 to Gracia Final, so it can be inserted into Interlude". Nobody except the developers knows or can state EXACTLY whether something changed or not. Far from all the changes were included in the patch notes, and those that were do not reflect the changes in numbers.
- Chronicle Kamael. The chronicle is not popular because of its transitional status. Nobody remade a PTS server for it; it seems that information about the opening of a server with this chronicle slipped through recently, and most likely that is Java. Chronicle Hellbound: the same as with Kamael.
- Chronicle Gracia Final. The second PTS build leaked from the Koreans after C4. Wildly popular because it got into the public domain at once and now lies on most file sharing sites; there was a time when servers with this leaked build opened every week. It is simply stuffed with a heap of bugs and errors and is unplayable in its virgin form, but that does not prevent most admins from tearing pieces of code out of it and inserting them into Interlude builds, claiming that the change made is "as on the official server, I swear". The working build of this chronicle was made from the leaked one by fixing a multitude of bugs and is now quite on sale.
- Chronicle Gracia Epilogue. Made from the leaked Gracia Final build. Much less popular, but such servers still occur, and quite many of them.
- Chronicle Freya. The first Java build of this chronicle, which I personally tested for a month. A huge number of bugs and non-working content; the verdict was that the build is absolutely unplayable, even after we found and fixed a multitude of bugs. But the admins did not listen and launched the build, after which the server duly closed. I do not know whether this chronicle was later remade from the Gracia PTS, since with the release of High Five everybody forgot about Freya; I think not, and it has remained in its Java version.
- Chronicle High Five. The third PTS build leaked from the Koreans, which would have made it possible to polish Freya to a decent state, but nobody took that up, since High Five itself became quite popular, and a multitude of servers started opening precisely on this chronicle.
- Chronicle GoD. The fourth leaked PTS build, but since it turned out to be quite a different game, bearing little resemblance to that same Interlude, we will not consider it here.
How to tell a PTS server from a Java server
How to tell a PTS server from a Java server? A lot has been written on this on various forums; shots were mentioned, and the order of messages in the system chat, and the "ran and sat down" test, and commands with a dot at the beginning, but all of that is inconclusive, all the more so as Java developers read all this and fix it. At the moment I have two ways of checking. The first is not accurate enough: it is the AI of mobs, which is absent on Java servers. That is, I know how this or that mob behaves on a PTS server, and I compare its behaviour on the build being tested. If it is the same, most likely it is PTS; if different, most likely it is Java. One more sign determined by mobs is their respawn. On most Java servers a mob respawns exactly on the spot where it stood before. Java developers try to do something about it, but the most they have achieved is that after respawning the mob moves a couple of steps aside. And this concerns all mobs, even chests, and it is very funny to watch a chest respawn and slide aside.
The second way is more accurate, and it concerns pets. Everyone of course remembers that during raids on a boss, if the raid boss aggroes on a warlock's cat, the cat starts running away from that boss chaotically, rushing around the summoner. That is a PTS server; on Java the cat will stand still and take damage. But this can be checked without a raid boss too. Put one window at a teleport point, and with a second window teleport to the same place with a summoner with a summoned cat. On a PTS server the cat will appear at the teleport point first, practically instantly, since all the manipulations with pets happen on the server side, and only then, after some time, will the summoner be drawn. On a Java server the cat and the summoner will be drawn simultaneously after some time, since the pets are controlled not by the server but by the client.
PTS builds of Interlude are not flawless either
And in conclusion a few words about the PTS builds of Interlude. Not everything is as smooth on them as one would like, far from everything. Because nobody knows exactly which content was in the C5 and Interlude chronicles, the developers of these builds either could not implement something fully, or could, but implemented it not the way it should be.
I will give a few examples, very obvious ones, which most of you have run into, and more than once. The first example is the raid boss Benom. Earlier nobody could implement it on Interlude PTS at all. Now it is being added, but nowhere does it work the way it worked on the official server.
One more obvious flaw is the location Frozen Labyrinth. Read what I wrote in the description of that location; I wrote a great deal there, and there is no point in duplicating it here.
And I will mention one more point: the teleport from the outer gatekeeper in the catacombs to the rift, that is, the fact that any player at any time, regardless of whether it is the week of struggle or the week of victory and of whether they are registered for the catacombs or not, could teleport to the rift for ordinary adena. When this teleport appeared and in which chronicles it was removed, and whether it was removed at all, nobody knows, and on many present-day builds there is no such possibility.
And the last thing. Even if a server states plainly that it runs such-and-such a purchased PTS build, that still means nothing. The admins may buy a build, install it, and then stop paying for the upgrades, and after the date when they gave up the support it will no longer be that build but another server. And it is good if they did not get in there themselves: many admins, after giving up the support, start editing the content on their own, and not always successfully, introducing more and more changes at the requests and demands of players. Up to a point this justifies itself, but there is a certain point of no return after which players get disappointed in the server and start to leave.
You do not have to look far for examples; here are just some of the changes that admins make themselves: switching off experience in a party if the players' levels differ by 20 or more (in fact that was done only in the Kamael chronicle), changing how augmentation skills are obtained from different kinds of life stones, changing how skills obtained from augmentation work, changing how some basic skills work depending on where and on whom they are used, setting PvP zones on some bosses and much more; you have surely run into this yourselves.