History of private servers

[snowblind]

I'm relatively new to the scene, having played officials for too long.. so I never got to know any of the big servers of the past.

I've seen videos with massive WoEs on chronosRO, visionRO etc.. It seems like alot of players quit after 2009-2010.

But were there any outstanding servers which lasted for a long time and had a lot of players? Was there ever a successful midrate server, or was it all lowrates? I guess WoonRO was among the longest-lasting midrates, but it never got really huge..

Would be nice if we could make a list of the greatest servers with some details like
- date of opening and closing
- player count
- rates
- max level
- reason for closing

Nowadays if a new server claims to have 1000+ players, it's either fake or closes after a few months, or both. Was it always like that?

[Yuzo]

BlackoutRO
- Super High Rate
- 500b/120j
- 450 max stat
- 100% common drop / 30% rare drop / 10% card drops
2006-2015

Between 2009-2011 constantly hit its 2k capacity almost every woe, with 1400+ being unique players according to @who4 (online players without vendors).

In its final year, 2015, it still peaked at 100-150 unique players each day, despite not being updated for two and a half years. Server still ran bugged eathena, download links didn't work, didn't function on windows 8.

Server closed due to, as you may have guessed already, not being updated and being buggy as f**k. The server owner logged in like once a year and didn't respond to messages from staff.

Best woe out of any server I played on. Played all those woe servers like vision, extreme, chronos, etc. Those who had prejudice towards it cause it was a SHR missed out on a great experience. You can still find woe videos on youtube. This is the guild I used to play on: https://vimeo.com/16559733

[meaman654]

BlackoutRO
- Super High Rate
- 500b/120j
- 450 max stat
- 100% common drop / 30% rare drop / 10% card drops
2006-2015

Between 2009-2011 constantly hit its 2k capacity almost every woe, with 1400+ being unique players according to @who4 (online players without vendors).

In its final year, 2015, it still peaked at 100-150 unique players each day, despite not being updated for two and a half years. Server still ran bugged eathena, download links didn't work, didn't function on windows 8.

Server closed due to, as you may have guessed already, not being updated and being buggy as f**k. The server owner logged in like once a year and didn't respond to messages from staff.

Best woe out of any server I played on. Played all those woe servers like vision, extreme, chronos, etc. Those who had prejudice towards it cause it was a SHR missed out on a great experience. You can still find woe videos on youtube. This is the guild I used to play on: https://vimeo.com/16559733

I was about to write Blackout RO  . WoE there was great. I played in RIP and also in Revolution. I miss the days when all castles were open for war.

[snowblind]

Thanks guys. Are there no other memorable servers or is this forum just a ghost town now?

[Yuzo]

Thanks guys. Are there no other memorable servers or is this forum just a ghost town now?

Ghost town, definitely. Most people just like to read the drama, rather than partake.


Some servers I know of which I either know a little about or have just seen around with high player counts. Maybe this will get a conversation rolling and people can fill information in on these.


EssenceRO - 200? - 2016
170/??
Midrate (150x maybe? Forgot).
PK on mvp maps.
Closed February this year.


QualityRO -
TalonRO - 2007 - present
EternityRO -
ForsakenRO -
DreamerRO -
DivinityRO -
AnimaRO -
RebirthRO - 2008(?) - present
AeRO -
heRO -
SolaceRO -
LimitRO

[Bug]

Ethereal Revenge
PK server
200x/200x/47x (MVP-drops: default)
200/99

Don't know when it originally started but it was shut down in 2008 and made a glorious but short-lived comeback in 2009.
Easily my favorite, most memorable server.

• Listing
• Random WoE Video
• Long Lost Friends > Ethereal-Revenge (pg.4)

SolaceRO (The recent, pinoy one)
July 4, 2015 - March 5, 2016
1x/1x/1x
99/70

Balanced and setup beautifully, but the staff couldn't handle the community.

• Facebook

Now watch the tumbleweeds go by.

[heRO-GM]

heRO -

HeRO opened on october 15th 2005, and it's still open.

[helimar]

Daredevil RO

Opened on the 1st of January 2009 (though there was an earlier version released in 2007) and closed some time around June of 2015 (aka one of the most devastating moments of my life )

Its description:

Items obtained via Voting
Balanced SHR + Incorporated MR.
Third Jobs 500/150 (500 max stats)
Ancient Jobs 120/70 (99 max stats)
Gameguard to ensure fair gameplay.
A sanctuary for HEADGEAR Lovers out there!
Active, Intense Battleground, WoE and PvP.
Ancient WoE/PvP/BG only for Transcendant Jobs!
Custom Instances and Equipment Awakening.
We're all but official. That's what sets us apart.
Free-spirited, adventurous, a Daredevil.

Player count was around 700+ during its peak, but didn't even reach 30 during its last months (it was fun having few people though cos everyone knew everyone and were friends with each other).

The reason why it closed was funny . The owner hired a GM around April/May of 2015. This newbie GM was pretty fun and friendly actually (he even made me a helper), but got pissed off for some reason (we were guessing he was having a conflict with the owner about money ). So what he did was he erased everything just a few weeks after he became a GM. Luckily the owner had a backup, but it was useless because almost everyone transferred to another server (which was actually owned by two former Daredevil RO players and GMs who also had conflicts with the owner ).

Still can't get over its demise .

[Minabe]

Doing Tripper's job.

[Xarale]

Thanks guys. Are there no other memorable servers or is this forum just a ghost town now?

Definitely much less activity these days compared to older days.

As for memorable servers, I'd say most of the bigger ones have already been mentioned.  Two servers that were personally memorable to me (and haven't been mentioned already on this thread) were;

FeelRO (2008 - 2009)
50x/50x/25x
Population reached 2000 during peak times/WoE.
Server later died out after the admin team apparently ran off with the donation money and left the server to rot.

LuminaRO (2010 - 20??)
75x rates, I think?
It was running pretty strong until they opened a high rate server.  I'm not sure what happened after this, or when exactly it died out.

Nowadays if a new server claims to have 1000+ players, it's either fake or closes after a few months, or both. Was it always like that?

It's definitely more common these days to see admins faking their server population in an attempt to draw players in, but it has happened in the past too.  Still, there are a few servers out there that legitimately have an active population of over 1000, or at least close to it.  Some of these legit populated servers have been mentioned in this thread already.

[snowblind]

I've been scouting around for stories and videos, but it's kind of difficult to get a good picture when all the juicy forums are down. Just enough to make me nostalgic and sad. D=

Well Atlantis RO has been on for more than 10 years, though it has suffered some setbacks through the years (there has been resets, though not sure how many). It still seems to be thriving (with 766 players on according to cp, not sure how many venders or if the count is real lol).

Spanish server? Looks like they just got renewal. Localized servers are always a bit off the radar, but there seem to be quite a few that are still thriving, especially in Asia, so that should give us some hope..

FeelRO (2008 - 2009)
50x/50x/25x
Population reached 2000 during peak times/WoE.
Server later died out after the admin team apparently ran off with the donation money and left the server to rot.

Wow, can't believe I've never heard about it. Looks epic, and I thought 99/70 midrates were always just a niche.

It's definitely more common these days to see admins faking their server population in an attempt to draw players in, but it has happened in the past too. Still, there are a few servers out there that legitimately have an active population of over 1000, or at least close to it.  Some of these legit populated servers have been mentioned in this thread already.

Yup, looks like it's mostly renewal servers that are both stable and international. Not so much for pre-re. TalonRO stands out, but I don't recommend playing there.. I also doubt they would be popular at all if they had just launched today with the same server settings.

I guess it's not surprising. Players want new content after all. Renewal brings content, and so does tons of customs like highrates have. Maybe classic pre-re servers are forever doomed before even opening. They attract players who are wearing nostalgia goggles and don't like custom content, but then they get bored because the content remains the same as 8 years ago -> server closes. It's about time we learn from this.

[metro]

This topic is enlightening


LimitRO - 2009.05.22 to present.

[dentistman22]

This might be a little off topic, but i'll tell a little story about this server that i played once before. It's a local server in my country, perhaps the biggest one at that time.

I don't know when it actually opened, but i started playing it in around 2008. I don't really know the number of people online because I didn't understand all the command yet. It was my first ever private server, and it's actually the server that brought me into official (yes, I played a private server before going to official).
The peak might be around 500-600 people online at woe time, not counting the vendings of course.
Rates was 4000x, 4% card, 1% mvp card, don't quite remember the other drop rates. It's a pre-re server with 2nd trans class with max level of 250/90.
Reasons for closing... The server is still open actually, but pretty much dead, leaving only 10-20 people online at max (never got in anymore, so don't know the exact number). The reason is corrupt GM. Infact, extremely corrupt. The donations are f*cked up, leaving f2p players pretty much useless. Here's why.
First, every item obtainable without donations are only official items (not including buying from donators). The donation items (wings and custom headgear) all have 1 slot each (top, middle, bottom), with total effect of all stat +25 and either resist or increase damage gear.
Not enough? Well, how about a 2 slotted headgear obtainable through donations?
Still not enough? How about a weapon card that gives +80 all stats (of course obtainable through donation)?
Still not? Let's see.. Armors that resist either physical / magical attack 100% (1 armor for physical and 1 armor for magical), and the fact that most mvp cards (the good ones) are only tradable through GM and you need to pay for every trade.
And the worst? Donate enough amount, and you can get the best weapon in the game! The angra manyu! (yes, the GM only weapon). Donate even more, and you can get the best shield in the game! The ahura mazda!


Well, and that's pretty much why i left the server long ago.
And yes, the server is still running, but the only players are those who are either a donator or those who don't understand yet. But yeah, still amazing that the server is still up to this point.

(P.S. Sorry for bad English)

[DroppedPJK]

LMAO

Over ten years ago there was a server called NamelessRO. Man I wish I enjoyed that server longer.

[cute_fenrir]

Xilero PK 2006 - 2008
255/70
3500++ players when WOE (without autotrade coz in that time there is no autotrade commands )
i miss it so much, no one able to make a server like that, its balance, all jobs can pvp, no imba items (in that time tho)
whoever played xilero PK in those time of year, i bet u r missing it rite now
PK raid