idRO server merger

[unawakaned]

Why the hell they thinkin ?
And at same time they also open PVP server :(

[The Jesus]

You're assuming we know what you're talking about. Enlighten me.

[Dante]

idRO, Indonesian RO, is going to have a server merging next week after a weekly maintenance. The announcement itself just went out earlier today, so it means the servers will be merged altogether just one week after its anouncement.

We currently have 5 servers. Chaos, Loki, Freya are commercial servers. We have Sakray as well, as server test with 3x exp/3x drop rate. And on top of that, recently FnC [Fun and Chat] server went out.

In FnC server, you don't need to pay for monthly bill [about 7 USD], but the system is made to be so heavily-dependant on Kafra shop. These are the features I can recall:
1. the exp rate is doubled.
2. the kafra shop sells almost everything. Equipment, Cards, Pots, you mention it. Consider something RWC-like in one REAL server.
3. All teleport means will be removed. Fly wings, but wings, creamy card. No, you can't teleport at all.
4. Increased death penalty to 5% instead of 1%
5. If you're dead, there's a chance you'll drop your equipment. Funny thing is, equipments bought from Kafra Shop ain't affected. They will not drop on death, instead they'll be just pun into your inventory upon your death.
6. You can use Urgent Call anytime, anywhere.
7. Changes in drop rate for OBBs, Gift Boxes, OPBs, OCAs. Not sure what this point really means. FYI these items are also sold by Kafra shop.
8. Safe levels for upgrading is removed. It means you have chance breaking your equipment to +1. However, you still have safe levels if you use enriched elus/oris. lol.
9. Everything you sell to kafra mall NPC worths only 10 zenny.
10. Items bought from Kafra Shop is permanent.
11. There'll be no WoE for now, until further announcement.
12. The hack reports for this server will not be processed at all.

See? It's ridicilous to see how it is going. It's all about money they made from Kafra Shop. They even give limited edition of Osiris Cards [150 of them], as reward for 50 quickest Healing Box [Kafra Shop item] buyers in each particular time, divided into 3 seperate days and hours. Healing Box's price is 2000 coins. FYI, for 1 USD, you get about ~2300 coins. Since this event was a huge success, they started to promote something else with bonus tag, which is needless to ask, gets more and more expensive.

Something unique for you iRO guys as well, we have the Golden Emperium event in idRO. The rule is simple, you have to defend one of forts numbered 3, any place is fine by 8 consecutive WoE period. By doing so, you'll be rewarded with real money equals to ~450 USD, ~320 USD, or ~225 USD depends on whether the GE has been won in the same castle in the previous season or not. For instance, guild A wins GE season 1 in Valkryie3, they'll earn 450 USD, and for season 2, prize for V3 will be dropped to 225 USD. If nobody was able to win it, the prize will rise up again in season 3, to 320 USD, and so on. Max is 450 USD, min is 225 USD.

The rules and notices about idRO server merging was identical with those from bRO merging's. Chaos has ~900 users, Loki ~1000 users, Freya ~600 users, all in normal hours. Most of them, let's say 70~80% are bots. Yes, idRO is heavily botted. Perhaps 90% or more of the whole population earns their 99 from bots. You'll get nearly nothing by levelling manually but being KS'ed by bots. Hi-end places like biolab rarely get ANY visitors, and I mean it.

It's just, unlike bRO, for idRO, it's kinda unfair since we have the GE event. Since the period count resets to zero upon server merging, you can imagine how pissed off the guilds who are on their way of achieving GE prize money, especially those nearly getting it [succeeded in defending it for 6 or 7 consecutive period or so] will be. All efforts they put will be just gone in vain. That's just unfair. Dude, RO has changed alot from what it initially was. I started to hate this game.

PvP server was no new stuff for you guys, I think. It's a PK server, with the same rules as FnC server we already had. Yes, all about using daddy's money [we aren't quite used to use credit cards here] on Kafra Shop.

That's all I'd say for know. Should you have any question, feel free to ask, and pardon my bad English and typo :p

[Ichigo]

Something unique for you iRO guys as well, we have the Golden Emperium event in idRO. The rule is simple, you have to defend one of forts numbered 3, any place is fine by 8 consecutive WoE period. By doing so, you'll be rewarded with real money equals to ~450 USD, ~320 USD, or ~225 USD depends on whether the GE has been won in the same castle in the previous season or not. For instance, guild A wins GE season 1 in Valkryie3, they'll earn 450 USD, and for season 2, prize for V3 will be dropped to 225 USD. If nobody was able to win it, the prize will rise up again in season 3, to 320 USD, and so on. Max is 450 USD, min is 225 USD.

The rules and notices about idRO server merging was identical with those from bRO merging's. Chaos has ~900 users, Loki ~1000 users, Freya ~600 users, all in normal hours. Most of them, let's say 70~80% are bots. Yes, idRO is heavily botted. Perhaps 90% or more of the whole population earns their 99 from bots. You'll get nearly nothing by levelling manually but being KS'ed by bots. Hi-end places like biolab rarely get ANY visitors, and I mean it.


The future looks grim for iRO?

[Dante]

I can't say for sure, but I guess you can't just pretend as if it will never reach iRO. By this term I'm not saying that you guys will definitely experience this sooner or later, just be prepared just in case it really happens to iRO :p

If iRO's developer thinks about other blockbuster games like WoW or Halo 3 [which I read from somebody's post on 11.2 Veins discussion thread], the contrary action was taken by idRO's. It appears very much like they are sacrificing RO for their new game, RF Online. They tried releasing Seal Online about 2 years ago, well it DID absorb considerable amount of RO player at that time, but it was far from satisfactory. SO players keep decreasing, till the developer decided to put them free of monthly charge, and putting item mall instead. RF Online, from it's initial release use the same format as well. Free forever, but buy everything from item mall forever in return for that.

Why did I write 'sacrifice'? Since everything they did just indicates that. First of all, periods required for GE was actually just 5, but then in about mid 2007 they raised it up to 8 without any increase in prize money to compensate that.

Second, we still haven't got 11.1 Rachel yet. 10.4 Hugel was divided into two seperate updates, 10.4 Gunslinger and 10.5 Ninja. Even after doing so, they still haven't completed the Auction and Mailing system! 10.5 Ninja was implemented in about Apr 2007, today's October already and still no news on Rachel.

and now, the last, they ultimately put all the serves in one server, Thor server. It sounds to me like we're being forced to go six-feet under in massive cemetary. By doing so, they'll surely cut the risk of spending money on GE prize by 2/3. Haha I guess we are BEING KILLED down here.

[Nikki Slash]

I feel sorry for you. Really. bRO is bad, but yours seems worse. And it isn't LUG who's in charge o.O

Until now, the bRO merge did no good in my opinion. It's crowded (some may se this as a pro - I see it as a con), lagged (I go play something else during WoE hours)... And, on top of that, there were many hacks these days because of fake mails, asking you to go to the official site fo name change (the name change service was already over). Of course, the link on the mail is fake, but many people got hacked this way x_x

Now, we have a 2x event, it's LUG's way to 'apologize' for their mistakes. I wonder if I could afford to pay jRO or euRO =P

[Dante]

The developer is Lyto. Yes, different from pRO and bRO [LUG, rite?].

Actually, to be honest, server merging like this isn't for the first time in idRO. Actually back then we had 4 commercial servers: Chaos, Loki, Iris, Fenrir. Chaos and Loki both have strong basis, thus being stable server, while Fenrir is released quite shortly after Iris, so population in Iris drops severely, and eventually Fenrir's drops as well. If you roam around our trading capital, Morroc [yes, Morroc, not Prontera] in Iris back then, you'll hardly find somebody, while in Chaos/Loki, it was full of vending bots and several reputable guilds hanging down there.

That is why, Iris and Fenrir was merged into Freya. At that time the majority of Iris and Fenrir user agreed, since it was a good idea to solve both server's underpopulation. Immediately after the merging, Freya was quite crowded, and the WoE is very entertaining, since people tends to fight in the name of their ex server. But then, as time goes on, the population decreased slowly but sure, and now, it even drops below Chaos and Loki, the servers that are never merged at all.