What sort of low rate do the majority want?

[Dee Are Kay]

Because 1x drop rate is a joke. It's Gravity's way of making people play for a longer time. (Not to mention those free servers are full of bots and they purposedly made teleporting and such much harder)

I would play 1/1/5, no joke.

Also, by being unfaithful about how long server will last, you're not helping break the vicious circle!

[CrispyKitten]

Don't get me wrong, I'm still hopeful with every new server, but after having played the game for the better part of a decade, I can spot the telltale signs almost a mile away now.  On the rare occassion I don't see the signs, and have reasonable belief that a server will last at least a year, I still don't want to spend a half a week hunting a card.  Especially when you need four of them, plus a ton more stuff for WoE. 

Farming cards for five weeks so I can be at least decently geared for WoE is not going to appease players...especially since, once you get to lvl 99, MVPing and WoEing are about all there's left to do in the game.  =/

[Draygon]

I really like the idea of 3x for drops. Why? - It will guarantee a well balanced economy, probably ever.
There won't be ANY card which is easy to get, it really will depend on luck. That's what RO was about years ago and for me is still, nowadays. Just great! (no sarcasm) 

Your motivations, Poki, are the right ones to catch me as player. No jokes.
I played many servers and to be honest, 2011 is one of the worst RO years, ever. Sadly.
It's true what CrispyKitten is telling us, nearly every server does act like she told. Again, sadly.

I also really like that Poki respects a small community, even if I hope that the population won't be too low.

But, I'm with everyone: most people will be able to grind to lv 99 in 1-2 weeks and that's the only thing i dislike so far.
Reaching lv 99 rebirth should be something special like it was years ago at the official servers, but 1x/1x is really FAR too low for a server that should work.
Even if I personally would like 5x/5x/3x rates, 10x/10x/3x seems fine to me, because it will attract many more people than any lower experience rates. I'm also happy that Poki didn't decide for 20x/20x.

I'm looking forward to your server Poki and I'm really interested in what your server will offer. stealthx said it'll be worth the wait, and from what i have read so far makes me kinda happy.

I said the same thing to Trojal (he managed MANY things wrong with his server and started it waaay to early) before: If your server won't be a good lowrate, no one will.
Oh, how am I able to say that? - The support and the communication Poki offers shows his importance about his server to me. Full stop.

Good luck Poki, good luck stealthx, good luck rest of Poki's team.

And no, this is no advertisment for Poki's server. I'm just missing a really good ragnarok since years. 

[Dee Are Kay]

Don't get me wrong, I'm still hopeful with every new server, but after having played the game for the better part of a decade, I can spot the telltale signs almost a mile away now.  On the rare occassion I don't see the signs, and have reasonable belief that a server will last at least a year, I still don't want to spend a half a week hunting a card.  Especially when you need four of them, plus a ton more stuff for WoE. 

Farming cards for five weeks so I can be at least decently geared for WoE is not going to appease players...especially since, once you get to lvl 99, MVPing and WoEing are about all there's left to do in the game.  =/

You raise some interesting points. Allow me to say, the "end-game" (after reaching 99/70, and maybe be full gear) is what private server owners should focus on these days. Assuming that's granted, do you seriously think official servers are so reliable? I come from euRO (the european one) which only lasted 7 years, some pservers are already catching up to that. I ACTUALLY think, since official servers have financial interest (not too far from donation-based pservers tbh), companies and burocracy behind them, it's PROBABLY more likely than once kRO/iRO/jRO/etc close, there will STILL be private servers around. Why? Because people love RO, and thank god eA is free and open source. On top of that, add the fact that your precious "efforts" (levels, items, characters, whatever) are data on the internet. Wanna know something funny? Once data has been uploaded, its HARD AS HELL to completely remove it from the net, due to the fact that it can be easily stored in multiple copies on pretty much any hard drive in the world. So, if anyone (with a regular money income), who LOVES RO and doesn't just want donation money, is willing to keep his server's data safe, they DO have the means. Why doesn't anyone do it? Does it really have to be me? :p

[CrispyKitten]

1)  I've been trying to say focus on end-game since like page 3 of this thread, when I mentioned modern WoE guilds requiring MVP gear to be competitive.

2)  I don't really care about officials, and I do know that pservers will survive officials, much like how SMB competitions are still popular even today, years after the NES has been decommissioned.

3)  There have been old server whose data has been saved and brought back.  I think the most popular example of this is TalonRO and AnimusRO?  I don't see how that's relevant, since many server owners don't give a damn about saving their data once their server dies though.

I don't mind losing my data, after I achieve my goals and am done with a server of course.  The past is the past, I don't really care about the noob stuff I had on servers back when I was just starting RO.  And the players who were there when I was there don't play RO anymore, let alone the Admins, so this bit of nostalgia is a little hollow.

Regarding point 1, this is why I've been saying things like leveling doesn't matter and MVP cards should be disabled in WoE/BG.  I also have been meaning to push the importance of ensuring an active and fun BG in the server as well, since modern WoE requires BG items.  Many LR servers think BG is just a fun event and that buffing it up is exclusive to MRs and HRs, when it's not.  I'm hoping GMs realize this is not true and capitalize on the fun awesomeness that is BG.  It's second to WoE in terms of fun, on good servers.

[Draygon]

Dear Dee Are Kay,

get together with Poki and create the one and only RO experience for us, with great endgame content (and for real, that's what RO is missing).
Both of you, Poki and you, got really nice approaches! 

I'm sorry for saying that, but that was the thing that popped into my head right now.


Probably neither you nor Poki does want that, but I could imagine that you two could create a very, very, very good server at the end, which no one wants to miss (except the high rate noobs). 

Edit: Come on CrispyKitten, you share my opinion!  (...don't you?)

[CrispyKitten]

I'm not sure.  Do I? D:  I think Dee's remarks about drops are very well-informed, but Poki's attitude about exp rates is more understanding.

[Dee Are Kay]

As I said, being aware of the current situation regarding RO servers and more specifically LRs, I definitely plan to do something about it. I admit getting in touch with RMS was the first step to know more people and possibly somebody I can trust to start this. That said, I am currenctly working on a website, cp, forum, patcher, client/grf, test server, host/domains, in-game scripts/changes and security, alone. I guess being on RMS kinda makes up for PR too. So yeah it's a big mess. I must say though, without unneeded modesty for the case, that I do have the means and knowledge to run a server, and I do have the money to rent a host for an undefinite amount of time (it would be a strictly no-donation server) but I think most importantly, I have the will, passion and love for RO to do it. The only problem is that I can't do EVERYTHING at the same time.
Poki, while seeming a reasonable person, probably has his own team and ideas for their server, which (say, in the case of rates) would differ from mine.
I already mentioned that I'd love to meet someone I can trust to work with, but when it comes to keeping the server alive I only trust myself and my own resources, otherwise I could not claim to be able to do it. My first goal is to catch up that damn euRO and its 7 years life. :3


However this is highly off-topic and I apologize to Poki for filling his thread with my own stuff.
I will probably open my own thread sometime soon.