I have decided to write a review for the server I have been playing for the past month and a half, Escape RO. It is a generally new server, which opened mid-September. I did start the advertisement thread for it, but I am not the server owner one of the GMs there asked me to post it for him (I'm his good friend).
It is a 500/120 which from what I found out was more than just any old generic high rate.
Server Rating
Stability [8]
The server occasionally lags, though I myself have never experienced lag since I have a really good connection and computer, but a few of the Asian based players have received it every so often. I saw the owner once talking about how the host has a lack of support for its customers. I guess this is one thing it could improve on.
Availability [10]
Well the server hasn't gone down for 11 days now (checked with @uptime) and the last time it went down was for a 30 minute maintenance. I can only recall one crash in my one-two months here and that was quickly fixed in under an hour.
Game Master Rating
Friendliness [10]
The Game Masters here are more than willing to help and never tell anyone they're too annoying or anything rude like that. None of them are lazy and always try to help.
Availability: [6]
There are only ever one or two GMs online max during the day. I think they need to consider hiring one or two more to assist their needs.
Helpfulness: [10]
Always willing to help and they know their stuff.
Community Rating
Friendliness [10]
Everyone here is so friendly and extremely helpful. Because it is just a small community everyone knows everyone. The people are so great to talk to and are always willing to help you out.
Eventfulness [10]
Since Battlegrounds is one of the mainstays here, people are always trying to rally the troops to get a game of BG started. MvPing is always encouraged and events are held regularly. One thing I like is there are automated events which run at set times during the day. They drop Escape Cards which can be exchanged for customs and consumables.
Game-Play Rating
Economy [?]
There isn't really much of an economy yet, since everyone here so far seems to hunt everything for themselves.
Guild Competition [?]
There aren't enough people here yet to be able to comment on this. Though from experiencing games of BG (Battlegrounds), I can tell woe here will be pretty awesome.
Class Balance [7]
The GMs are promising manual edits of skills so that classes can evenly compete. Right now, classes such as Sniper and Lord Knight are really terrible and could use a buff.
Additional Notes:
When you first start you receive a starter package. It is a basic woe set and all you need to do is hunt a few cards and you can pretty much woe or bg straight away. The customs here are balanced and those who have them have minimum advantage over those who don't.
There are custom edits on important cards to high rate servers such as Ghostring (level 1 ghost blocks 50% neutral [floating]) and Golden Thief Bug (60% [floating] magic block) to even up the balance, so that someone who may have tons of items and cards won't be able to dominate unless they are really good.
When I was first invited here I reluctantly agreed, thinking it would be another generic high rate. What I discovered is that I haven't played a single high rate like this ever. To me, this is a really personal opinion, but the only servers I have played better than this (so far) have all been 99/70 servers. That is a pretty big statement considering 500/120s are usually low standard/highly customised servers.
Uh yeah so thanks.
