Doddler's RO Journal

SOC wrote on October 6, 2008

The only bad thing about Valkyrie is that it's an imbalanced donation server, eh? Privates are still ftw.

Doddler wrote on October 6, 2008

I was simply going to remove your comment, but instead I'll answer it. The reason why you play on the official RO server instead of a private server is:

1) Private servers are illegal.
2) Private servers use poor approximation of official server mechanics (its developed by people who have never actually played on a REAL RO server).
3) Private servers are plagued by broken and unimplemented content.
4) Official servers has and will continue to maintain character data for as long as RO exists.
5) Official servers have a real and support GM team.
6) Supporting official servers supports the continuation and development of RO.
7) Private servers are illegal.

Some people just don't realize how different real RO servers are from server emulators. An emulator is just that, a piece of software designed to simulate the real thing. But the truth of the fact is, you aren't getting the real deal unless you play on the real RO server.

Knolan wrote on October 6, 2008

Nice post... but I guess I will wait for renewal before thinking of joining.

Although I respect your opinion on PS, I had a terrible experience with iRO many, many years ago (like 3 or 4), the server was full of bots, and reporting then would be useless, on that point most serious PS are away better than iRO (or at least as it use to be, I refused myself to try again after those 6 months with no improvement on anti-bot system).

Do you have any idea of how many players the server has online on avarage?

Thanks in advance.

Hadriel wrote on October 6, 2008

Im currently playing on euRO too but i have to tell you that your points 2,3 and 5 are simply wrong.
Most pservers have a way better support than official has, at least thats the case with euRO. Also i noticed that good pservers are often less buggy than officials are, its just that there are some problems which occur because of problems which reach back to the programming of ro, esp. the server software ( i.g. posibug, bb lines, etc).

i play officials anyways because of reason 4.

Euld wrote on October 6, 2008

"Although I respect your opinion on PS, I had a terrible experience with iRO many, many years ago (like 3 or 4), the server was full of bots, and reporting then would be useless, on that point most serious PS are away better than iRO (or at least as it use to be, I refused myself to try again after those 6 months with no improvement on anti-bot system)."

That was three or four years ago... things have changed. True, the system for reporting bots is the same, but there aren't as many bots as there used to be. I started playing three or four years ago, I remember how bad it was. Yes there are still bots, but think about it, it's a contest between the ingenuity of the GMs and the botters. The GMs could come up with more powerful ways to stop the botters, but if it isn't foolproof, the botters will just get around it eventually. You can't possibly expect all bots to be removed permanently, it won't happen. But I can say that reporting bots does work now. I've reported telebots and they've disappeared, that's how useful reporting them is now. Give iRO another chance... three to four years is a long time.

Hotaka wrote on October 6, 2008

@Doddler

I'm not SOC but I just want to point out how it's ironic that you're a member of (censored) community and have contributed in the past.

stupid pserver n00b wrote on October 6, 2008

Valkyrie Server is definitely appealing.
I told my guild that as soon as iRO launches a f2p server à la kRO Baphomet I'm gonna start a character there no matter what.

I'm kind of a perfectionist and I actually prefer offical servers over anything else, so I do hate the pservers my guild and me have been playing on for the points Doddler mentioned (especially 2, 3 and 6). However, it's not the lack of money that prevented me from playing on an official server for so long, it's those guild mates. I wish they thought the same and would join me on Valkyrie...
It's difficult to get motivation to level a new character on a server where you don't know anyone and aren't sure if you will find nice(!) people that are equally fun to play with, especially if you're not the most sociable person around. It's because of that and the high ping times (connecting from Europe - roughly 250ms for me) I've been hesitating to join.
Yeah, lots of personal complaints. I wonder whether anyone feels the same, though, and has got a similar background.

Anyway, your post has encouraged me to give Valkyrie a try.
Hope to meet you ingame someday and have a little conversation using "funny emotes".

Niektory wrote on October 6, 2008

After years of playing pservers I was really excited when I heard of Valkyrie. My enthusiasm cooled when I saw how bad the connection from Poland is. It's a shame considering I can play on American pservers just fine... I agree with all the Doddler's points, but the lag makes it unplayable.

pservernoob wrote on October 6, 2008

Exalted wrote on October 6, 2008

I'm a pserver player, for a few reasons I don't care to discuss, but even I believe that official servers are likely superior in many ways to most private servers... I love 'em, but come on. A good 80% of them are run by people that know how to change around some .txt files and not much else. I do believe that a well-run private server can actually be superior to the officials in some (maybe even many) aspects, due to the fact that they are NOT limited by the "legal" or "professional" status, as odd as that sounds.

I tried the Valkyrie server, the main issue I noticed was that it seems to lag quite a bit (and I'm in the US?). I don't think I'll end up continuing play there permanently, but it's certainly interesting to see how the general gameplay and community there compares to that of the pserver(s) I usually frequent.

Mi Gaos > Increase Soil wrote on October 6, 2008

This post was not and will never be about pservers vs official servers. Anyone with half a brain can see that pservers are illegal and therefore any argument you can come up with for them is ineffective.

The end.

Lawyer Dog wrote on October 6, 2008

Going to try it out, I've been playing private servers for a while, but the bugs on them and the corrupt gm teams are a pain.

anon wrote on October 6, 2008

well, in the past pservers were ok if you didnt want to pay, but now you dont have excuses its fucking free; and about the donation sistem, all the pservers have it and most of them are unbalanced.

benji wrote on October 6, 2008

i would play valk if i had the free time... it sounds great

cant beleave they didnt solve the botting issue already... thats a shame, probably half of the online players are bots at any given time.

btw pservers runing an emulator are not illegal, or that is what i heard

Wild Wolf wrote on October 6, 2008

I tried the Valkyrie server, but I got sick of it too quickly. It's just too slow for me, which is what I'll never like about official RO servers. I wouldn't mind being able to play on that renewal server with the x10 rates though.

Free Server > "Private" Server wrote on October 6, 2008

Pservers are illegal, Benji, no matter what idiots try to tell you. The eAthena client is not illegal, but stealing Ragnarok Online content from Gravity is.

As for the rates being too low... it's Ragnarok Online. This is the way it was meant to play. If you can't handle it, don't play the game. It's not really that difficult to understand. :)

Rei Lux Lucis wrote on October 7, 2008

Thanks again for the music Doddler! I appreciate it.

And our knight builds are similar too actually.
I'm liking Valk so far, but I don't think GMs are done messing with it yet since a lot of it is still trial and error for now. I personally think it was a bad idea to open WoE up immediately so that the first guilds can gain dominance on the rest of the server, but it doesn't seem to be too negative an impact yet.

Eh, it'll take some getting used to and time, but I'm sure in the end, most people will enjoy this server more then the 'premiums'.

Hollgrehenn wrote on October 7, 2008

i will flat out admit that after 3+ years on a pserver and then trying Valkyrie it is hard not being use to the rates,
i always would tell my friends from iRO Chaos if i could pay for iRO i would and its great that i now have the chance to join the community, i do think the 3% exp loss on death is a little harsh and no safe limit on equipment is also a bummer. but its good that people who really CANT pay now can play this addicting game we all know and love

@Wild Wolf, W__D Sucks!!

eyeless wrote on October 7, 2008

6) Supporting official servers supports the continuation and development of RO.

6. pservers are often ahead of iRO because eA follows kRO. god knows it took iRO forever to get nameless etc.
___________________

Huh? Do you really understand what Doddler is trying to say? If the players stop paying\playing on official servers there will be no updates for Ragnarok Online. Forever. There won' t be "pserver ahead of iRO!!", just "thanks for playing RO, good luck". People pay not only for the "service", but also for the future development of RO.

OBS wrote on October 7, 2008

i realllyy want to play in this server but the lag (300ms ping time for me >_<) are killer

Wild Wolf wrote on October 7, 2008

P.Servers have been around for years and years, and it hasn't hindered the official servers in anyway, people still play them. Although I don't know how they put up with them. I'll get bored and quit after a hour of grinding and only making 1%. It took my friends on iRO 6 months of constant playing to hit level 99 the first time. 6 fucking months. It'll take them even longer to hit 99 again.

Thank god for Renewal though. What was it? Only 4 million experience to hit level 98? Thats awesome. That's like 75% less grinding than normal, maybe even more. But of course thats to adjust to the level 150 max of course. It'll probably take just as much exp as it took to hit level 99 normally to hit level 150. But at least at Level 140+ you'll be able to actually damage Bio Lab 3 mobs.

SOC wrote on October 7, 2008

Whoa whoa whoa, I didn't mean to start a war or anything. I don't hate official servers, they're essential. ^^ The only reason I play on privates over iRO is because I don't have the funds to pay to play, and the one I play one has no donations or other imbalanced crap that screws up the mechanics (balance) of RO, such as iRO did with the Kafra Shop. I only like low rates, preferably 5 or less, anything higher than 6 is too high. Heck, 4 may be too high. But I only like private servers that have no "kafra shop" or "donations" or custom crap that screws up RO's balance. I only play on "official-like" low rates that try to mimic iRO. I basically want a server that was like iRO without the Kafra Shop. All these new imbalanced items ruin the gameplay. But as eyeless wrote, the subscriptions are what is fueling the development of RO. I respect those that play official servers, and there is one thing an official server will always have over a private, which is stability. No GM will ever be as good as iRO's are, and everything you said is pretty much true. It's just that the Kafra Shop is so imbalanced, I don't see how people wanting balance would be happy there. But then again, they are paying for the development of RO, so that's great. I respect official like servers, and I wish more private servers would strive to be as official as possible. All those mid to high rates are just so stupid. And, unfortunately, privates are illegal and that really is terrible. But I understand why and I'm glad there's a lot of flame hearted driven people that play iRO and say "SCREW PRIVATES!" ^^ It's just a shame that iRO is so imbalanced now. :/

You're still my hero doddler, thanks for all your hard work and care into RO! You're a really great person to work as hard as you do and own as much as you can! Go Lord Knights! ^^

Yes, doddler, you are my hero. XD Go doddler! ^^

Red Pen wrote on October 7, 2008

I love all of these Rserver people defending their actions. They will be the first ones to complain when RO finally goes down because none of them want to pay to play the game.

Wild Wolf wrote on October 7, 2008

I think RO should of been a you pay once and you play it as long as you want type of game, and offer expansion packs like Guild Wars. You can spend like 100 dollars a year on Ragnarok Online, and you get minimal content updates. Oh boy, a new city to explore with boring quests that aren't worth my time. Once in awhile you might get a decent new dungeon, but most of them half the classes can't even solo effectively.

The only time RO gets interesting is when it involves new classes and features. Now that Gravity finally has the balls to pull a Street Fighter II Turbo on RO, the game might be more interesting again.

Doddler wrote on October 7, 2008

Actually interesting note that I wanted to bring up while pservers are up in the discussion... If I left all my morals behind, I think I would still chose official servers because for the most part private server players are transients. Most often players who play on pservers you'll see they say don't play on a private server, they play on private servers... as that they move from one server to another. Private servers come and go, and they're a dime a dozen. That may have to do with how insanely easy they are to set up. When I play RO, I find recently that I've been playing with friends I've made in game for years. Its not unusual for players to see others that they have met 3-6 years ago. Valkyrie is especially interesting because we're seeing lots of faces of people who left the game some time ago. iRO and the other RO servers have this kind of permanence that pservers can't achieve.

Additionally, while main servers may be lower rates than private servers, I think that's fine. Playing a Lord Knight can be fun, but getting there can be real hard work. But you know, when I finally become Lord Knight I can be proud of my accomplishment. I have a certain pride in all the characters I make, as they're all characters that I personally have built through my own effort. If someone gave me a character to play, or leveling was inconsequential, I don't think I could be satisfied with playing it.

Of course, I say its hard work, but that doesn't mean its not fun. Some people forget to have fun while playing, which ruins the experience... this journal exists because I enjoy showing people just how much fun you can have in this game.

Baldur = Kunn = House wrote on October 7, 2008

of course my break time is slow :[

also magic > me

Kunn wrote on October 7, 2008

god damn, i won't be able to woe on valk till like 2 weeks from now.

I call for a rematch then Doddler!

Cypher2 wrote on October 7, 2008

I would like to join Valkyrie servers but. I do not want to start from scratch again. if they make the server x-fer a little less limiting i will join until then I'm going to be playing a game with dwindling population on Loki >>

Knolan wrote on October 7, 2008

Yeah, starting again is hard, in the last years I had 2 decent chars on officials and many many in LR pservers (a creator (88), a high priest (lvl 82), a stalker (<3 - lvl 91), a champ (<3³³³ - lvl 87) and a LK (lvl 99)).
One point doddler IS absolutely right is that on pserver you mostly don't have many friends, since it is relatively easy to get gears (like 1~3 days to get a card and a week to get a +7 good item, playing a lot), people mostly rush and you mostly won't level with a party.

So, any idea of server population?

stupid pserver n00b wrote on October 8, 2008

6. pservers are often ahead of iRO because eA follows kRO. god knows it took iRO forever to get nameless etc.

-----------

Yeah, right... You got the maps, you got the spawns.
Then have that NPC on the map south of veins to warp you to nameless without doing any quest.

Okay, They've got it now, but why aren't they as fast at implementing quests and stuff?
Because it's a lot of work nobody really wants to do and since many pservers are high rate and/or got a free dungeon warper, there's no need for those quests anyway.

Also, sensitive mechanics such as monster AI (especially those of MvPs) would never feel right to someone who has been playing on an official server I guess.

God, I just realized how much I hate pservers and my guild for preferring them over an official one.
Yeah, it's the donation stuff that's kinda sucky, but I've accepted it and how could a server like Valk live without it for a longer period of time.

Rune wrote on October 8, 2008

i Tried and only i get lvl 7 novice its buring i tink and too many time expence :P prefer private server

Rune wrote on October 8, 2008

i tried to talk with a gm they never are only events and cash things........ private server is more easy.cheap and fun for people ho work study etc,..and gm always are there to help u.Some people dont play slepp and back to play...like valkyrie users X)we have a live xD

Eschar wrote on October 8, 2008

Pservers act as gathering sespools for flunky players and retards. If you cant handle real RO go back to your shitastic game whos mechanics have been modified by some crybaby who never learned how to play the game in the first place. If you made/play a pserver because you cant afford real RO then you got bigger probelms to deal with than just playing a game. The rest of the problems stem from laziness.

Rune wrote on October 8, 2008

is a game to fun and met people i tink i dont stay all day at home paying a game......... pserver is more easy.... why pserver has more people? there pserver like 5000-10000 people on ,the only diference the monsters give 10 times more exp drop job thats something gravity must see... its a game animation children must game too.....a tink ...in iro drop up 10 i move on .....into iro whiout tinking about.........THATS SOMETHING GRAVIRY MUST SE....its no a game for stay a year lvl up a character 99..... u get leaving.......its bouring.....

Rune wrote on October 8, 2008

rememver one time I play 15 days trial on chaos i meet people but school,other things to do,i play 1 hour a day and only get lvl 22 swordman in pserver i play......I expend 1 hour at day and im lvl 99 paladin and 99 lord knight in only 1 month and enjoyng its more easy and u enjoyng more ............ i make this faster if u dont understand sorry

Exalted wrote on October 8, 2008

Being civil is nice, but some things said here are just not true! Lets take a look.

>>I love all of these Rserver people defending their actions. They will be the first ones to complain when RO finally goes down because none of them want to pay to play the game.<<
This doesn't make any sense! If anything, Pservers will /outlive/ official ones due to the fact that they don't rely on forced income! Official servers close? No skin off pservers, they just won't get any updates and will eventually die due to lack of interest in the game in general.

>>
Pservers act as gathering sespools for flunky players and retards. If you cant handle real RO go back to your shitastic game whos mechanics have been modified by some crybaby who never learned how to play the game in the first place. If you made/play a pserver because you cant afford real RO then you got bigger probelms to deal with than just playing a game. The rest of the problems stem from laziness.<<
I'm afraid I don't understand the blatant hatred. You write off the cost of the game as nothing, then complain that other people choose not to pay it? The modified mechanics are /fun/ to some (maybe even most based on Pserver vs official populations).

To be honest, my biggest deal with Valk (and official servers in general, but Valk FAR moreso) is the EXP loss on death. 1% is kind of bad, but manageable. 3%? Ridiculous. There's no way to enjoy yourself when you're forced to level at low level places with no risk, for fear of dying anywhere else, even in parties, except in certain dungeons.

I don't mean to start anything, just wanted to clear up some apparent misconceptions.

Noldy wrote on October 8, 2008

1) Private servers are illegal.
2) Private servers use poor approximation of official server mechanics (its developed by people who have never actually played on a REAL RO server).
3) Private servers are plagued by broken and unimplemented content.
4) Official servers has and will continue to maintain character data for as long as RO exists.
5) Official servers have a real and support GM team.
6) Supporting official servers supports the continuation and development of RO.
7) Private servers are illegal.

1.If they really were, gravity would do something about it. MapleStory's dev team are sewing the team that made maple private servers possible. I don't see why gravity isn't sewing eA
2.Actually some of them do paly on kRO
3.Not true for all of them. That's just 324234234x rates servers.
4.There are private servers that exist for over 4 years and will exist in the future.
5.Maybe, but they don;t have a bot protection like some of the PServers - having a server that doesn't allow bots seems a better deal that having to go trough SS-ing, zipping and e-mailing to get a bot removed. Also there are servers with REALLY active GM's.
6.That's the only thing I agree on. Still gravity fucked things up with monthly payments + kafra store.

I just love how trickster online was made - you can never make a bot for the game (at least I have never seen one, game guard really does it's job on this one), there are hacks, but those are minor and don't really affect gameplay. Thing is you don't pay monthly - you either gotta be hardass and play alot or pay and get items the easy way - through the game shop. Also a huge amount of events makes it a better game. No PServers either. Noone bothered - there is no monthly payment.

to Exalted - you have never seen a decent pserver, have you? I mean something with rates under 100x.

Light wrote on October 9, 2008

Stop using this as a ranting forums people. Makes people who read and appreciates Doddler's work feel bad. However I would like to add my 2 cents. Private servers exists for a reason, for people who wanted to play the game without the need for monthly subscription. Sure, Valkyrie is up, but still there are Pservers with the mimic standards without major drawbacks like 500sp teleport. Even catching a bot doesn't take weeks while iRO GM's "investigate". Private server or not, Ragnarok Online is still Ragnarok Online. We are all gathered here and reading this because we play the game and/or enjoy playing it. There are always ups and downs to topics like this, lets not focus on the good/bad and boast/exaggerate it.

Exalted wrote on October 9, 2008

@Noldy:
I think you misunderstood my post, I'm a pserver player and don't play above 10x rates at the most, those angry remarks on my post were quotes from other people earlier in the discussion. (I tried to indicate it with >> << but it formatted rather badly.)

Noldy wrote on October 10, 2008

Tehee that last thing was for @Eschar. Exuse me, Exalted.

@Light - yes we are all here because we love doddler's posts on our favorite game! Still though seems, everyone is too used to forums and things usually go that way.

Michael wrote on October 12, 2008

You may also try pRO Valhalla server, another F2P server in the Philippines. 1.5x exp base. No PK areas, small population...The prices of goods are better too..Enriched Elu would only cost us $0.25.. E.Ori for $0.125...

Premium gears are also available..Server is not strict for outsiders.

you may visit:http://ragnarok.ph...

This server is i think better than Valkyrie iRO. 1.5x vs 0.5x. Way better.

Pints wrote on October 13, 2008

I downloaded Valkyrie the second day it opened, with the horrible rates and such, and after a few hours doing the Thief job change quest I logged off and uninstalled it. After reading this and seeing how the rates and population have significantly improved I decided to download it again. Unfortunately it's taking me 6 hours to download this time, when the first time I downloaded it took me less than 2 hours. :|

I still really hate the Kafra Shop items as they let those with money to throw around have a clear advantage over others but I guess you have to pay for a server somehow.

Hopefully you'll see my Hunter in-game. :)

Mast wrote on October 13, 2008

Hi (first, sorry for my english).

I want to join Valkyrie server, so i downloaded it, but the game is VERY laggy in game, like 2 or 3 seconds of ping.
I don't ever lag on private, so if anyone know why it's laggy, can you answer please ?