[REVIEW] ArdentRO

Started by Fox, Sep 25, 2006, 04:43 PM

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Fox

ArdentRO
75x/75x/75x

Score: 74/100


Server
Stability (10/10): There haven't been any crashes that I know of at all. It's an eAthena server based on trunk, so whatever strengths or faults that a basic eAthena server has, ArdentRO has it too.

Availability (9/10): Though the server has had no real downtime, the frequent reboots to modify the server is somewhat annoying. Also, when the server does reboot, there is always a small rollback (signifying that the server was stopped out of order), and it takes a bit to start back up (about a minute or so).

Community
Friendliness (9/10): All the members of the community are very friendly, willing to help with quests, lend items, share knowlege, and generally sit around and chat. The only reservation I have with this is that the community is way too small for my tastes, but it's slowly growing.

Eventfulness (9/10): There have been a few events since I started playing at ArdentRO, but sadly, I've missed all of them because of previous engagements (ie, work, school, friends). However, the community loves the events hosted, and there are several per week open to everyone.


Game Master
Friendliness (9/10): The game masters are just as friendly as everyone else because they are part of the community, but they also have the same fault of being extremely limited in number. Delilah gets along well with every member of the community.

Availability (9/10): While there isn't always a friendly yellow-tagged member of the staff in-game, they do always hang around in IRC and on their regular characters, so it's not hard to get in touch with them if you need to. It may take a little bit for a response from them, but it's very far from impossible.

Helpfulness (10/10): Every member of the staff is willing to help someone in need, and some (Badger, namely), sit around while working on new things waiting for any questions you might have. There have been some instances where a GM would not know the exact answer to a question, but would always be as helpful as possible.


Game Play
Economy (2/10): ArdentRO's economy practically doesn't exist! There haven't been any player shops put up that I've seen, and no one really sells or trades things. Everyone hunts their own items, and it's not too difficult to do that, but zeny is practically worthless, save for stocking up on potions or gems.

Guild Competition (4/10): Because of the small size of the community, only a few guilds with a moderate amount of members exist, and hence, there really isn't much competition.

Class Balance (3/10): With all the custom items available to the players, there really is no easy way to tell if the classes are balanced or not. Instant cast is easily reached when you take into consideration that there are headgears for upper, middle, and lower head that each give +8 dex, and attack speed is fairly high when there are also headgears that give 8 agi (upper, mid, and lower) along with an attack speed boost. This really needs some work, in my opinion.


All in all, ArdentRO is a budding server that has the potential to do so much more. The staff is talented, the community is friendly, there's no lag at all, and there are no "donation" items that put people who have money on a tier above everyone else. The only real thing that ArdentRO needs is a bit more public notice to give the community a jumpstart in numbers. I recommend ArdentRO to anyone who wants a nice friendly server to join, and I plan to stay for a while to come.