BalanceRO (Mid Rate - 99/70) - The Top is at Your Reach - LAUNCH 9th September

[BalanceRO]

Hello Ragnarok Community! We are very excited to present you with our new mid-rate server, and to kindly invite you to try out, what we believe to be, one of the best mid-rate servers right now. A balanced server, with experienced and friendly GM's to help you during your journey through Midgard.

Firstly, we would like to introduce ourselves. We are, currently, a team of 5 Portuguese Ragnarok enthusiasts. All of us have around 10 years of experience with RO, and played together for most of the time, on and off. We always talked about having a server, and now we've decided it was the time to do it. We feel that the current offer of servers is on an all-time low, mid-rate wise, therefore we decided to step in.

As players, we have an exact idea of what makes our beloved game so good, but also what makes it unbalanced and even unpleasant in some situations. Therefore, after a lot (really, a lot...) of discussion, we gathered up some unique and some improved features to make each and every player have the best possible experience while playing Ragnarok. Our main goal with these features is to offer players the choice on how they want to play the game. Again, as players, we know the importance of the accessibility to the strongest equips in games and that they shouldn't be reserved for donors. We know how hard it is to get MVP's as a solo player, against guilds of 30 members. Our goal is, no matter the route you choose, you will always have the opportunity to play at the top level.

Without further ado, here are our server features! Keep in mind that all these features can be changed/tuned. We want to make the server as balanced as we can, and player feedback is of extreme importance for that. Therefore, if you have any thoughts or ideas, they are most welcome!

We are believers that players must be able to play on the highest level, and for that, sometimes, you must rely on luck. We want to minimize that, and we know how important is that last refine, so we developed an unique refining system, supported with PvM and Mining System. We created 2 custom items, "Safe Oridecon" and "Safe Elunium", that are dropped at 0,01% by EVERY mob (MVP and non-MVP), and can also be mined using the Mining System (0,01% for Safe Oridecon or Safe Elunium (depending on the hammer) if Hammer is refined to +1. Increases 0,01% drop chance per refine level up to +5, for a drop chance of 0,05%. When the hammer is equipped you can use Mining Skill, which can be found on your skill tree). This items will allow you to attempt a refine at any of your equips past safe level, without the danger of breaking it. The success rate will be the same probability as the normal refine with Oridecon or Elunium for the level of the specific equip (it's displayed on the refining menu, before the player proceeds), but the chance of breaking will be 0%. If the attempt fails, you will have the same probability as the success rate for that specific item, to get a downwards refine.

Example: You are trying to refine an item from +6 to +7, with a success probability of 30% using a Safe Material. You have 1 of the 2 outcomes. 1st, success, you refine to +7, or 2, you fail the refine and your item won't break. But now, in the 1st outcome, where your refine fails, you will have a chance (30%, same as the success rate) of the item to go down to +5. Notice, and this is important, that this effect will only trigger IF the refine fails. This means that you won't have the probability of your refine going upward or downward simultaneously.

Our thinking behind this is that someone might get, for example, Nydhorgg's Shadow Garb, and get it all the way up to +10, using only Safe Elunium, past the safe level. This would be hard, but still very possible. Our idea with this is to give incentives to people to refine using Enriched Materials or Normal Materials WITH the possibility of breaking the items, on lower levels (because using a Safe Material, there is a high probability that the item goes downward if you fail the attempt) and using Safe Materials on higher levels, because here the success chance is smaller, consequently, the downward refine will also have a smaller probability.

With this we kind of "punish" players that use Safe Material at a low refine level and "punish less" players that use it at a high refine level. This is compared to the previous refining system we presented, because overall, it's still easier than in a normal refining system to get high refined items.

Also, just to clarify, Safe Materials need to be used in the specific NPC for it (you can find it at Invek, in the Refining House). You can't use Safe Materials on Blacksmith nor Whitesmith.

Donations items should be available to everyone. Even though they are chosen by the server admins, they are usually the strongest items. We are not a Pay-2-Win at all, and our objective with this server is not profit. Obviously we will always appreciate donates that help us paying the server costs. Our profit will be invested in you. Therefore, you can choose how to acquire the strongest items in-game. You can donate and help us paying the costs of the server, or you can do quests. There is a quest for EVERY donation item, from the weakest to the strongest. These quests are not easy, not because we don't want you to do them, but because we believe it's essential that they are hard to stimulate that old RO feeling that we feel it's been missing, of guild gathering up to kill an hard MVP, and long hunting parties. Also, they can't be that fast, we don't want you to run out of things to do! Again, these quests obviously can be changed/tuned, depending on player feedback. Also, donation items can be obtained through Battlegrounds, which we will present further ahead.

In line with the previous point, some of these quests require MVP drops, the harder ones, many MVP drops. Therefore, a big guild, or a few big guilds, could potentially monopolize the MVP's. We don't want that. We want MVP's to be fought over, we want guilds to join to kill hard MVP's in one take, but we also want that solo players to thrive, or at least to have a chance. Therefore, we developed a Warping System, where MVP maps are available to warp, but only up to a limited amount per day. We made computations for each MVP, and decided the number of free warps accordingly to the specific respawn time of each map. For example, you'll have 2 free warps to Abbey Lvl 3, and have your chance at hunting Bee, who has a long respawn time. For MVP's like GTB, who have a shorter respawn time, you will have 5 free warps. After you use all the warps for a specific map, that map will be blocked for you in the warper, but you can still access it by making your way through the dungeons/fields. A tomb system will also be implemented, to increase competition, and avoid this monopolization that may occur.
We hope that this system brings back the guild hunting and some strategy while maintaining the balance and competition in MvP hunting. Again, this is a unique feature, therefore player feedback is critical to make it work.

We designed an unique novice ground, to give you an amazing start for an amazing server. This is just our way to thank you for choosing us, and smoothen up the first steps in the game, where even the small amounts of zeny count. These novice grounds are quest based. You will be asked to choose what class you want your char to become, in the novice grounds. Then, you will be given a quest, where you have to kill the monster that represents your class (ex: choose Swordsman, kill Ygnizem Cenia). These custom mobs, have Bio Lab sprites, but Poring attributes, therefore they are killable at Base Level 1. They will drop items, in a certain probability, to your specific class. These items can be armors or weapons, to help you in the early stages of the game. These items are all sold at 1 zeny and have 1 weight. They are not slotted. This is done so that players can't abuse this feature to farm either zeny or equips.
After killing the required monsters for the quest, you will be Job Level 10, receive a Field Manual, and you will be warped to the Job Changer.

Ragnarok is more than just grind and fighting. It is also fun with your friends, getting to know people, chatting and trading. Prontera is great, but it may get a little old, so we decided to implement a custom town, Invek (@go 0). We want you to feel at home and comfortable in this new environment. You can find all the core NPC's at Invek. Also, there is a Mall, with basic equips, and also the Refinery, where you can use your hard-earned Safe Oridecon
/Elunium.

(Invek is not designed by us, all credits go to Uziel. Thank you for your contribution to the Ragnarok Community!)

Events are a great way for players interact in a fun and relaxed way with GM's. We are eager to meet you, therefore we won't have automated events, because those tend to get boring and ignore the magic that events should have. We will have events where we can all interact and have fun together, events hosted by GM's. We are not sure regarding all the types, but we can already advance things like "Server vs GM", "Novice Royal Rumble" and "Boss Summon".
We have more ideas, but what we really want is your feedback regarding what events you want us to do, and how can we improve!
We will also manage the event timing very carefully to make sure that players of all time zones are capable to attend.

BG is becoming, more and more, one of the core sources of activity of the server, if not the core. We are all familiar with some players that AFK just to get badges, or join in the end of the match to collect the badges. We don't agree with that attitudes, it's harmful to the players that do want to play BG. Therefore, we are implementing a harsh AFK system. Also, we are giving players incentives to play, and play to win. In the tables below, you can find the variation of badges you can get on the different types of BG. You are reward based on your performance, in a way. You will get more badges if you play longer, this meaning that if you join in the end just to collect badges, you will receive less badges. Also, players have incentives to want to win, as you will receive substantially more badges if you win. We hope this changes bring back the heart of BG. Again, we expect feedback and reports on what players might be doing that can be unhealthy for BG competition.
Happy Hours will be implemented, there will be 3 Happy Hours per day (24H), every 7 hours. We are doing this so that players from all time zones have a chance to play in Happy Hours. These hours may also be changed/tuned, depending on player feedback.
The rewards are the common BG sets and consumables, whoever, we are also implementing a way of getting donation items through BG. Again, we believe that players should be able to get donation items, no matter what their play style is. Therefore, players will be able to acquire a Donation Box, for 1500 badges, where you get a random headgear that is only available through quest/donation.
At last, we don't want players waiting for the carnage to begin. Players will be able to acquire Free BG sets. These sets, after activation, last for 14 days, and can only be used inside Battlegrounds. Players can start fighting in BG after they are done with leveling. Keep in mind that these items can only be used inside BG.

We developed this system based on kRO, but the server side code was fully developed by us. Before we get into an in-depth explanation, we kindly ask you to watch this demonstration video we made for you guys:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF3YlEZ_F6c

Opposed to the "normal" system of equip swap, where you have to press key by key the equips you want to swap, this new systems offers you the possibility to create a predefined set that is activated (swapped) by pressing the key which you assigned to it (as a regular skill) and swaps all your equips (or the ones you choose too, if you don't assign any to swap, it will maintain the one you have equipped). Obviously, you don't have to use it, given that the "normal" system is still available and with the same functionality as before.

To assign your double-set, you must have one set equipped and equip the other on the Change system (as shown on the video, notice that it will stay on your inventory, as it is not really equipped) by dragging the equipment to their positions. Then, just go to your Skill Tree →  Etc. and you will find the Equipment Change skill there. You will acquire this skill when you finish your quest on the Novice Grounds, so make sure you do it. You can also do it manually. After the swap, if you wish to get back to your initial set, all you have to is press the skill again, and it will change back to the equips that were actually equipped on the first place. Equips that are assigned to swap (not equipped) will appear in a different way on your inventory (as shown on video). Again, you can still use the "normal" system changing one by one, it won't affect the functionality of this feature.

As a last point, and this is where we need your feedback, obviously this feature needs to have some type of balancing. In the video you can see a casting time for the Equipment Change to happen (just like a skill), but we will make it instant, because otherwise it won't be as useful, if at all. However, we will most certainly add a cooldown to this skill, we are just not sure on its time-out. Keep in mind that this cooldown won't affect your ability to change your equips by any other route  (manually in inventory or by assigning to keys one by one).

We need to tune Homunculus, due to the existence of Safe Materials, which are dropped by all monsters. Therefore, to prevent abuse of AFK farming these materials, Homunculus will have an AFK system (10/15 seconds), where you won't be able to either autoloot or get experience. Also, regarding this topic, Homunculus AI's are allowed, as long as it doesn't make the player auto-walk, or auto-feed. You may choose the AI you like more, as long as it meets these criteria. @hominfo, @homstats and @homtalk will be available.

Now, in a different matter, we are aware of the interaction between BG set and Homunculus. For those of you who don't, BG set reduces demi-human damage, but increases by 3 times the damage taken from monsters. Guess what, Homunculus is a monster. We are increasing the Intimacy gain rate, so getting the, so called, "Perfect" Hom will be easier. And thinking on the long-run, close to every Creator will have the "Perfect" Hom, making it overpowered against people using BG set. Therefore, we are opting not by the common route, where you turn Homunculus into a Human, but we are tuning the BG items so that Homunculus doesn't do 3 times the damage (this won't affect other monsters damage, only Homunculus). We understand that this implies more work to do, but we believe it's the best option, opposing to a general solution for a specific problem.

Before getting into this discussion, if you are not fully aware of how TaeKwon Class works, please, be sure to read this guide (read only the Ranker TaeKwon part, that's all you need for this post):http://write.ratemyserver.net/ragnoark-online-character-guides/taekwon-ranker-guide/

So, if a TaeKwon is on the TaeKwon Ranking (Top 10, type /taekwon in-game to check your rank position), they will get really strong bonuses, like triple HP and SP and the ability of spamming infinite combos (if properly used). While this is not a problem itself for the Class balancing, thinking on the longevity of the server, it is a problem.

Players that start grinding missions since the beginning of the server will have hundreds, if not thousands, of missions completed in a few months. The problem with this is that someone that joins the server a few months or even years later, will never have the chance to catch-up, therefore, will never be able to play TaeKwon in the class full potential.

We don't want this to happen, so we are implementing a monthly TaeKwon ranking clearance. What will happen is that the number of missions completed will be deleted monthly, and return to 0 to ALL TaeKwon chars. This will open the possibility of someone that joined the server later, to compete with someone that joined the server in the beginning.

This may be counter-intuitive, if we think about community management, but our focus is on making our server as balanced as we can, and this is a critical step for that matter. We really hope to have your understanding on this one.

Hourly Reward NPC - We implement an Hourly Reward NPC. It is located in Invek. All you have to do is keep an eye on time, and collect your Hourly Ticket. This ticket can be traded by +10 Foods. Each Food costs 1 Hourly Ticket. You may store your tickets to use later.

Rates: 50x/50x/50x (including healing items, equips, etc. / Card = 0.50%)
            MVP drop rate: 50x (except equips (5x) and cards (1x))

Commands available: @go, @storage, @gstorage, @autoloot, @alootid, @showexp, @noks, @refresh, @rates, @mi, @iteminfo, @whereis, @time, @whereis, @whosell, @commands, @autotrade, @joinbg, @joinevent

NPC's available: Quest Shop; Hourly Reward; Job Master; Kafra; Warper; Healer & Buffer; Tool Dealer; PvP Warper; Rental Services; Stylist; GM Support Assistant; Mall (basic equips); Mining; Command Settings; Smith NPC's; BG Warper

Last discussion: We are a very motivated and dedicated team, determined to do this the biggest mid-rate of the past few years, and hopefully, for many following years. We have tons of ideas regarding class-balancing. Those take some type developing, so they will not be ready on launch. Also, they need to be discussed with players, we can't stress this enough, your feedback is of extreme importance, this server is for all of you. One of the potential nerfs that may happen, is an increase on the Asura Strike cooldown.
We are aware of other type of problems that may occur like inflation. We already have measures to counteract that and we are committed to pay close attention to the server economy, so that new players are not hurt by rising prices. We know how important it is and we will act on that matter.

If you want to keep yourself updated on news about our server, please, check our forum and join us in:

http://forum.balance-ro.com/index.php?/topic/3-detailed-server-information/

BalanceRO GM Team