Keep in mind that I am still new in this server, only played for 3-4 weeks. So take my review with a pinch of salt. All of my review is valid at the time I write this review.
To Moderator/Admins: Is it allowed if I mention other server names for the sake of comparing? I also obfuscated all of them. If you still found that it's offending, feel free to edit my post accordingly.
Let's start about me first. I have owned a private server (but closed due to financial issues), and I also have some knowledge about eathena and some of its third party side project like 3ceam and ream...
I know this server from the usual new server listing in RMS. When opening their website, the first thing that struck me is: "Woah, their website design is good." Well, maybe because I like green :p
Their forum (based on SMF) also has a good design, although their CP is the same old fluxCP design (when I asks them, they says that it was because some sort of copyright problem? Dunno exactly why). The website design alone and the "renewal mechanics" tag are convincing me enough to download their small 70MBish setup. They also host a big-sized RagRE setup in their websites in case you experienced an error often.
Customization
Well I didn't expect that their small-sized setup could pack a monstrous amount of customization (exaggerated :p)... To start with, when you log in, you will be presented with a custom map populated with around 200-300 different monster sprites... Seems like all of them is a custom monster. Furthermore, GM said that all of them are catchable by using Pokeball, so we can treat all of them as pets... I have experienced the same Pokeball system in Ess*nc*RO, but never to these amount of monster... But here is the glitch: all of them behave exactly like a poring, and I can't use a pokeball in there (like some sort of item restriction)...
When I ask GM about this, she says that all of the monster is only for demonstration, blaming "new server testing syndrome" as a scapegoat. But the good thing is, in some weeks they have a plan to move all of that monster (except one) to a respective "Zoo Area" so it can be catchable. The main reason they do this is because they want to make some of the cool monster sprite as a custom MVP. They afraid if I can catch all of them now, it would be not fair to other new players if my pet suddenly becomes much stronger when their plan is finally implemented. Fine then, so I must wait...
Upon entering their custom main town, they display 3771 custom items (as they says on their websites), spread evenly to around 30ish NPCs. When I read their websites before playing, I'm afraid that it will be donation items. But Thank God, turns out that all of them are obtainable by quests. The bad thing is, as the time I write this review, most of the items that I think were cool are not obtainable. I only can preview and drooling my saliva over it. When I ask GM about it, she says that they're lacking an "imagination creativity teams" right now. They need some good ideas about the final item effects (most of them are allstat+5, LOL) and the quest requirement of those items...
Again, they're blaming "new server testing syndrome" (this is their own term LOL) as a scapegoat here. When I ask GM about the probability of insanely godly effects in one of their cool-looking items, she says that she would not do that stupid thing in this balanced midrate server. I also agree that custom items only need so-so effects in lowrate/midrate server. The "coolness/fashion factor" alone is enough for me to buy them.
Furthermore, you could also disguise your head, middle and lower equipment to looks like another equipment (like Ess*nc*RO)... For example, you can wear a Valkyrie Helm / other helms but it will looks like you're wearing a Hat, while of course still under the effects of Valkyrie Helm / other helms, disguising your true self as a pro player to another players... Or say that you like the effect of Poo Poo Hat while PvPing, but it looks horrible... You can disguise so no matter what helm you use, it will always looks like a Valkyrie Helm...
Other servers that I play, especially high-rate, are focusing on PvP (like BG, WoE) as their main activity. But in this new midrate server, I think automated events are their main activity. For example, to get all of their custom items (including Pokeball), you need some amount of FreizRO envelope (they call it like that)... It's not a donation item, but could be obtained if you join their bunch of events. Let me list some of those custom events: Doom Arena, Terrorist Invasion, Poring Catcher, Last Man Standing and Dice Event. Five of them is hourly events, but it's distributed evenly along one hours timeframe to make sure that it doesn't collide each other's schedules.
I can't comment anything about economics yet, because it's too early to make a judgement on a new server...
Mechanics
Most servers out there either only has:
* Classic mechanics with 2nd job (eathena), or
* Complete 3rd jobs with classic mechanics (3ceam), or
* Partial 3rd jobs support with renewal mechanics (ream)
Only few servers, including FreizRO, manages to combine the stability of eathena, complete 3rd jobs of 3ceam, and renewal mechanics of ream... A renewal mechanic server I played before FreizRO are sometimes crashing, and needs to wait few hours before admins realized it and restart the server... I never experience this in FreizRO (but again, maybe this is because this server is new?) and other eAthena-based server...
Compared with iRO and kRO (I have ID in iRO), I think some renewal mechanics is missing, but maybe it's the missing features itself in eathena/3ceam/ream... For example, experience weighting based on level difference is not implemented.... But other crucial renewal mechanics is already implemented in FreizRO, bug-free. Here is some mechanics that I have already tested (I'm not sure about other mechanics such as hit/flee, because renewal has too many changes):
* Renewal atk/matk/def/mdef calculation
* Renewal stat allocation
* Reins of Mount system
* +20 refine system with correct bonus, too
* Bio Lab 4F
* Malaya city and fields (I think this is fairly new patch, from kRO August 31, 2011). So it means FreizRO are using the newest client compared with other private server I know.
Reliability
This is my main concern whenever I started to play in a new server. I tends to be a bad guy first and testing them before I decided to play in there. I can bot in iRO official server, but I can't bot in FreizRO because they have some kinds of protection (Maybe harmony, dunno. If FreizRO GM is reading this, I'm so sorry LOL)... Many private servers fail because of poor implementation of antibot system. But FreizRO seems to have a solid protection here. They also encrypt their GRF so I can't see the contents of their data (like sprites, etc.)
Then I tried networking test. Ping is good from my location (around 40ms without loss) but it looks like I am playing from a localhost. Well, maybe because not many players played in there. The real ordeal begans if your server has 800++ players.... When I stopped playing to do another real life thing, instead of logout, I leave the character idling in towns, even when I sleeping overnight... Because of this, I'm impressed that in one week straight, I never experienced any temporary lag or disconnect (so it means the server never crash)... Well sometimes two or three times, the GM announced that they will go down for 1-3 minutes because of some mechanics changes and bug fixes (but I always online when they announced this)...
Because I'm curious why their network is good, I tried to tracerouting their server... Well, turns out that they have a server using Level 3 as their network (biggest Tier-1 USA network carrier, just search it in Wikipedia)...
All the point below this is purely my opinions:
I think they are paying too much for this kind of network provider, so I'm afraid that this server can stop or expire anytime, leaving all of my hard work to the dust... My "suspicious meter" was raised furthermore because this server still doesn't accept any kinds of donations... Could they afford it? Previously my server is also down because of finance issue, so I ask a GM why she doesn't accept a donation... She answer that it's purely for her gaming hobbies, so she still doesn't think about donations. Well, later she said that she'll implements donations after all custom features implemented properly. When I ask how long, she only mumbles something like "in some months"...
After this answer, I ask about a possibility whether she will feel bored and decided to stop this server before that "some months".... She only laughs and said that she already paid the server for two years ahead, so the worst possible thing is that there will be no GM (FreizRO has 2-3 other GMs)... I am speechless... That two years server contract with that kind of Tier-1 networks must be worth some thousand dollars! Either she is a rich/generous person, or she simply lies to me...
Community
The community of this server is horrible, seriously. Previously I played in server with 800++ players. Now that it comes down to 20-30 players daily, I feel very lonely, not to mention that many of them doesn't want to chat with me.... When I ask GM why this server looks like a grave, she simply says that it's still a new server and they don't have any experience about how to promote a server (What kind of answer is that? Not professional)... Instead, she asks me to spread the words to my friends... That's why I registering in RMS and posting a review in this forum. Please join this server guys! Play with me because the more the merrier. This server needs more player to really shine :p
