After taking a few years' hiatus from RO I joined my friends on this small private server around mid-December of 2008.
DeviousRO is advertised as an 8/8/5 rate server, though in truth it would almost be entirely true to label it a 16/16/5 server. All players are handed field manuals to double exp from the moment accounts are made (more accounts can be made for more field manuals, though they are restricted to the account), and can be furthermore easily won from numerous events. As much as I disliked that function, on to more pressing matters.
SERVER RELATED ISSUES
Overall a good server with a rather low, but skilled population that was slowly rising at one point. The server, albeit low population, brings togethers players from all across the world, which is always a plus in creating a diverse and enjoyable community.
The stability and availability of the server are top notch, in the entire time of play there was not one 'server offline' time (to my notice, at least), only a few minor server restarts for the needed maintenance. It was up, running, and flowing just fine.
Guild competition, a problem on most low population servers, is generally lacking. At WoE's prime, there are 4-6 primary WoE guilds (were, rather), with only three of which (two, now), potentially capable of defending a castle and/or breaking a castle. The class balance on Devious RO maintains a fairly equal playing field. Many classes were played, albeit not many due to the low population, but there was not so much an abundance of one compared to another. Overall balanced and a non-issue.
Started off as a very nonexistent economy with incredibly fluctuating prices for normally-sought out goods, within the month the server economy has structured itself to include most cards and equipment of interest; however, economy growth has nearly ceased to expand to a diversity of items being sold in shops, and especially is the case of the prices remaining at a rate which inclines the owner of vending items to simply hoard items than to sell them for little or no no profit.
Events are many, but this is an example of quantity versus quality - automated scripts to play games based on luck that award players with items that range from OCA's and field manuals to OBB's. Not to mention MvP events in which GM's asked for MvP drops on their legits when it was obvious that the only people capable of killing said MvPs are guildies. Will post once I have found the /savechat. Seems I wasn't bright enough to save that chat, so onward!
GM RELATED ISSUES
Little or no competence/interest in searching/punishing botters/macro'd alchs/autofeeders/etc. Those caught (many of which by players flywinging around prt_maze and obscure places in cities) were simply 'warned' and let off the hook with a slap on the wrist.
The GM intent on this server is at the most questionable. GM's all play on legit characters, the identities of which are known by the entire server population. Though at first they ruled out that GM legits would be unable to WoE with the server population, this was changed later and they joined OUR guild. For a week we tried to deal with them (and I say deal because it was very unenjoyable to play with them in our midst, I mean, can you say backseat driving), and eventually we were irked enough that they were booted from our guild, and they immediately joined with another guild on the server. I would like to say that was the end of our problems, but the story doesn't end just there.
Saturday, January 31st, 2009 was the last WoE that we as a guild had planned to attend. (We had for the most part quit already. The day before, our guildmaster refused to even log on to the server knowing that everytime he logged on he going to be/was harassed with 'what are you still doing here if you quit", "i thought you guys emoquit", etc, the like, from the GM, mind you) We had been angered endlessly by the server team's incompetence and unorthodox methods in dealing with matters regarding bots/macros/gamefixes, and their unwillingness to punish server rule breakers thoroughly 'because they worried for the server's population'. I missed the first hour and 15 minutes of this WoE, and when I had finally arrived home and logged on, I saw none of my guildmembers logged on. None. I found out later that the GMs had jailed my guildmembers within minutes into WoE starting, because they 'felt' that we had allied ourselves with another guild - There was no such evidence. None. I will EAT.MY SHOES. If any unfabricated evidence shows up that proves this. Main damage dealers in our guild (though few), were completely FFA, killing members of all guilds, and the second they touched members of the guild in which GM legits were a part of, they were immediately jailed on unfound accusations. I logged on and immediately private messaged the GM telling him he was wrong, to even ask the players in the guild he assumed that we allied with whether or not there was any form of negotation (During our entire stay on this server the guild we were allegedly allied with and our guild had constantly butted heads and formed a rivalry in itself, so it can almost assumed that they would not accept our help even if we offered it). "STFU", "GTFO", you name it, and wham! My 98/68 creator was banned from the server immediately. Lovely. I'm not going to pretend I was speaking nicely, but I have enough pride in my guild and guildmembers to say that unfound accusations and punishments thrown at us are not something I accept lightly.
Screenshots are attached to my 2nd post (the 4th in this thread)
