All though the server owner is very active on the forums, I do not think I have ever seen him in game. I have seen some impostors (People that think having the name Skotiex or Skot|ex is cute), but never the real deal. Because he is never in game, he himself does not have an impression on how the server is. Often he relies on the feedback from the servers players on the forums. Which obviously can be a bad thing because not all people that play MouRO post on the forums giving feedback. So he can potentially only be getting the views of one person/group.
I try to play, but I do not have a lot of time in my hands as I am doing a master's degree (which will be completed by the end of the month). Plus, whenever I play, I prefer people not knowing who I am (which is pretty easy to do since the people who once knew me are not frequently online and the fact that I have 17 characters to pick from). So unless I hop in with my actual alchemist Skotlex, you are unlikely to know who I am :B BUT, I'll grant you that I still should be playing more. I wish I could at least get time to play on weekends. :/
MouRO's economy is terrible. This is in part due to the server having shops that sell all cards and all accessories. On top of that, any item is droppable by any monster at a small chance so there really are not too many items that can be considered as rare.
Perhaps, but if some cards were obnoxiously hard to get, people would not let me nerf them the way they are now, and the few people who would have them would have quite an advantage over others. Something which was planned from the very beginning was that I didn't want to let a few "lucky players" get a power-edge over the rest because they know how to grind/farm better. Which is why the random drop system was added, to level the playing ground some more.
People still seem to spend their cash around buying refine materials, as most advanced players won't stop at being happy with a +10/+12 gear, and instead prefer to spend millions upon millions getting lucky to +15. They are somewhat bored.. and that extra +3 refine level is not a big-huge-deal of a difference anyway... (I mean, any decent j140 Whitesmith can get you +12 items without much pain).
Of course, if you notice, nothing that I said regards economy. That economy was hurt was a side-effect of other motivations behind these decisions. Even though it's hard to argue there can ever be an economy unless there are more players!
In the event there is an active WoE on MouRO you have to deal with people who are notorious exploiters:
-People that use macro programs along with Winsock Packet Editor to automate the refining process. With which they achieved +15 items with.
-People who go even further than the above and use WPE to send data to the server that lets them do/use things they normally can not.
If they're not using WPE/Macro Programs, then people are exploiting bugs that they neglect to ever inform the developer about or any one else for that matter.
Point one is most likely bored people who had too much time in their hands anyway.
Point 2 is concerning. It should not matter that people use WPE and such stuff, the server should never trust the client data, and it should make sure the players can't do anything just because they sent a packet to request.
Of course, yelling "exploit!" without any further data just makes it much harder to get an idea of what is going on. Sort of finding a needle in the haystack. In the end, these people are only hurting the server and encouraging others to leave when their bug-exploiting goes unreported and is abused openly in the eyes of other players. >.<
Can't do much here other than try to guilt people into believing that they are ruining the server by playing dirty.
1) Star Gladiators here are essentially the Assassins normal servers have. Very high damage capabilities, with insanely high attack speed. Warmth and both automated and manual Kicks allow Gladiators to deal damage faster than any other class in the game. With the correct attack element, and the right cards, this class has no equal.
As others said, this is Jacob. Ironically enough, he is still calling for damage improvements on TK, claiming their damage output to be terrible and subpar to other DPS characters. I know he has a reputation for being a lethal player, and SG skills have gone through various anti-spamming revisions before. It's hard to know whether further action should be taken or not, since... as others have said, he has far more deadly characters. Jacob just equips himself very, very, very well for pvp, it seems.
2) Creators here are god like tanks and can dish out some very heavy damage early on. Plants are way too good, especially in PvP/WoE (Only because you're allowed to use so many of them) and Acid Demo is almost always a for sure 9999.
I should further do something about plants in pvp/woe. The re-use delay of 5 secs is certainly not enough when you can plant them all over the place. I should reduce their duration in PvP/WoE to one minute or two at max so you actually use them in battle and not as a pre-cast *writes in his todo*. About plants in pvm... I wonder how strong they are. Macros has complained before that in high level dungeons, his plants can get raped quite rapidly, so they are hardly of use. Yet, at low level they seem to be much better for... taking/dishing damage? I could always change the level scale formula so plants are much weaker early on (eg: 25% of the master's level rather than 50% improved by int), and if the problem are the random skills, they could get reduced usage rates.
That likely belongs more to the general suggestion threads than here, though, as I don't keep check often of this subforum.
Its balance is geared for casual play in almost every way. Which is too bad, because your typical hardcore player server with some of Mou's mechanics would be incredible.
I've heard that before. Unfortunately there is not the population or the time to keep up a second server, and no one else has actually stepped up to try to take care of one (I can help with the code as long as you don't expect me to be a babysitter).
There is no WoE/Any other form of guild competition, and getting to max level can be pretty fast with the right party so there's really not much to keep you playing here (Unless you're just bored of normal RO. xP).
I keep wanting to lower the base rates, because people should never get to max level (this is how it was a long time ago! the first player to reach L150 took months upon months to get there!), but I am kinda worried on just how much people would complain if I do that. Not to mention the cries of foul over the existing characters since I refuse to do a wipe, ever.
Thanks for the review, it was an interesting/insightful read.
