Server Critique (needs to be moved to suggestions)

[Morrow]

I'm sorry I couldn't post this in the 'suggestions' sub-forum, but there appears to be a problem with creating a new thread at the moment in that sub-forum.??Whenever I try to it asks me to login.??After I log in, it asks me again to log in.??So I'm assuming it's impossible at the moment.

The purpose of this thread is to present my thoughts on this server as a new player to this server who is a Ragnarok Online (hereafter 'RO') veteran.??I believe I represent a good portion of casual RO players.??As such, these thoughts may be valuable in balancing the server and maintaining players.??I played on this server as 'Morrow,' a ninja, months ago.??I'm returning now only to present my reasons for quitting this server in hopes for a better future for its community and potential community.

I heard about this server's popularity on RateMyServer.net.??After reading numerous positive reviews, I had my heart set on this server.??My prime interest in joining this server was the server customization.??It's absolutely great!??All the custom items, quests, and graphics is very appealing to a veteran like me who has done it all before.??My first impression was that all these customizations will make the tedious level grind in RO much more enjoyable.??I supposed these customizations would counterbalance the monotony of the level grind.??Though to my dismay, all the customized quests/items/graphics are achieved through further monotonous gameplay!??Oh the horror!??The level grind is tedious enough, and added custom grinding just made it worse.??There was no escape from the grind, which I had hoped the customization would allow.??So I just said forget it, and haven't logged into this server since.

Take what you will from this post.??But certainly understand the need for balance.??With only grinding RO becomes just a heirarchy of bored grinders.??We're humans playing a game, not bots at work.??And with this server's stance on botting, it's almost ironic.

Goodbye and I hope well for this server's future.??Maybe I'll be back-I'd really love to be-, but until things change my mind is made concerning this server.

[GM-Ayu]

Thanks for your suggestions Morrow, and it's nice that you had a great time during your short stay in heRO too.


Regarding "grinding problem" GMs purposely choose a variety of different items for custom quests that involve item collection is to encourage people to travel to different dungeons and actually explore the new places. Instead of doing 1 set of training for levels then grind more for the custom quest items, why not simply consider moving to new places to get the items while picking up some exp as well?

heRO certainly does not allow any sort of AFK leveling/hunting, and botting. However, I don't think that a lot of players treat it as double standards. I guess that we do train our heroes to be quite endurable and patient though, and by no means are these bad virtues ;P

Monotonous gameplay is also balanced by the custom periodic events that we hold. We have plenty of novice events for anyone of any levels, while also having events that allow you to use your regular character as well. As far as I know, most servers only have your standard events such as town invasion, item collection, hide and seek and perhaps battling GM clones. We go beyond this standard level with events such as Run Hydro Run, Protect the Merchant, a pure role play Werewolf event. Novice events are not included to standard novice pvp and poring smash, but also extends to Zombie Escape, Monster Tag, and my own (infamous) Flower Maze Most of these events require a bit more than just stay alive and click to attack, as they have other incentives, motives, or fighting impossible odds in rounds of survivors win. All these events differ greatly from your standard monster grinding.


In the future of development, as previewed in our latest advertisement post in Ratemyserver, a few new quests are along the way which should also be what you are hoping for. More custom monsters similar to our MvP Skoll will accompany a new large scale quest in a new mystery realm, and of course there is the greatest project of 2008 for custom quests: to challenge the Pandora's Box (preview picture for this quest is one of our loading screen.) A quest not only challenging from monsters, but also it is going to be an unique approach with a higher emphasis on puzzles and various RO challenges unrelated to monsters!


Do you dare to test your strength as a true Hero and challenge the chaos within...?

[ShadesOfBlue]

yea i was hopeing at some point quests would of been added for exp to go along with maybe the 2 that gravity put in that gave good xp.

[GM-Ayu]

yea i was hopeing at some point quests would of been added for exp to go along with maybe the 2 that gravity put in that gave good xp.

There is at least one that I know of, and it gives more exp than the exp quests from Gravity by far

[GM-Pandora]

I appreciate getting feedback, it's always useful to us to know players like and dislike.

heRO's custom quest could indeed be considered grinding, as they require items, like most of gravity's quest. Do you propose an alternative?

Custom gears are balanced to be proportionate to the effort put in, so we cannot just give them to players. We have a few quest that make your travel (find NPCs) and the Thanatos Tower Quest that does not involve too hard items, simply it encourages partying in the tower (as it requires multiple climb to complete).

If you have suggestion on how else the custom quest could go I'd love to hear them.

[GM-Ayu]

I am guessing quests that do not involve much item collection and rewards quest exp similar to ones gravity start releasing in the Einbroch episode and onward.

Sadly, MMORPG can never really escape the fate of:
1) item collection
2) go from point A to B to C to D and so on
3) escort A from point B to C

sadly RO doesn't even have the last one too...

But from the post, that's what I got out of it- Custom quests that revolve around giving exp similar to the gravity quests.

[Kadar]

I don't think Morrow said anything about EXP as a quest reward. I think he would rather see quests which revolve less around item collection and more around other things. Something like the biolabs entrance quest would be really nice to see. It isn't about item collection and mundane tasks. It actually requires some thinking to complete. I think gravity has seen this need on official servers as it has started releasing more interesting quests that are more storyline and puzzle based than the early quests seen in RO.

[GM-Pandora]

We got Pandora's Box coming, and Muspel which is also something a little different.

[Morrow]

If you have suggestion on how else the custom quest could go I'd love to hear them.

Absolutely.??I'd love to suggest some custom quests and subsequent rewards.

Most of these quests seem reasonable to create in the world of RO.

QUESTS-

1. Puzzle/Investigation:??Player or players investigate the truth about some matter by weighing facts.??Resembles mathematics, riddles, and other logic games.??Resembles Mage job quest, as it is a memory game.??Ex: Investigate townspeople about a murder (Classic Clue board game investigation).??Failure should cause a partial loss of reward, or else this could be exploited.

2. Dexterity:??Player or players go through an area that challenges their knowledge of the game mechanics.??Resembles Swordsman job quest.??Ex: Walking through challenging small cooridors, under obstructions (like trees), through black tiles, or stepping on certain tiles.??All of these are accompanied with the danger of missing your target and failing the quest.??Ex: Dancing quest.??A pattern of tiles are marked and the player must recreate that pattern from memory or fails.

3. Retrieval/Delivery/Infiltration:??Player or players go through an area that challenges their knowledge of that area and character strength in PvE.??Resembles Acolyte job quest.??Ex: Enter Amatsu dungeon and retrieve a cursed scroll deep inside.??This should force players to go into challenging areas that are unpractical for grinding.??There should also be no grinding for the retrival, it should be a pre-defined item sitting in the dungeon.

4. Survival/Defense:??Player or players fortify an area to defend or survive against enemies.??Ex: A castle is being attacked by an onslaught of enemies, a group of players is hired to defend.??Group defense should require character diversity.

5. Stealth:??Player or players observes enemies behavior from behind walls, dodging the enemies by choosing alternate routes.??Enemies should be too strong to tackle head-on, but may be controlled with debuffing skills.??Group stealth should require teamwork like baiting enemies with one player.

6. Probability:??Gambling.??Pretty basic, there already is a little bit of this on the airship.??It should be expanded though, and more prizes should be added.

*. All the above quests can be incorporated together, creating a composite quest.??Ex: Investigate where an item is, retrieve that item, escape from the alerted guards using stealth.


REWARDS-

Exp, zeny, items, cards, equips, elemental equips.??A variety of items and most importantly levels should be added.??Most rewards are aimed towards the highest levels, which doesn't help the characters who need rewards the most - low levels.??High level quests are important though, so there are things to do after the level grind.??Easier quests can give rare equipment that is still weak, like a middle head gear with only a +1 stat.??Like Pandora said, rewards match the quest.

[Aaronock]

I love these ideas a ton, and I mean a ton ton. X_x