TalonRO

[Amellyn]

Hello,

I've started playing on TalonRO probably only 5 or 6 days ago, this is not really a "bad" server but I want to share my personal experience on it since I've noticed that somehow the reviews are always kind of bashed.

Before starting, know that I'm an old RO player who was just looking for a simple server to have fun. I'm mostly a priestess and what I like to do in the game is explore the maps while helping the adventurers out there, so I'm not what you can call a power-leveler and the diversity and activity of the population is what I'm looking for first. I've picked TalonRO because I've heard good things about it and also because it's at the top on ratemyserver.net. I'm also not a native english speaker so I already apologize for that.


STABILITY : (so-so)
It's so-so, at least it seems so for an European player like me. So far it seems good when the players count is low, but as soon as it gets populated you can easily notice lags spike or have your click once in a while not responding up to 1sec. I do not know where the server is located so it's probably better for people near it, but I can't tell.


COMMUNITY : (so-so again)
- Concerning people,
Here is the thing :
I've noticed a large amount of alchemists afk-farming in several maps, so out of curiosity I've tried to ask my (newbie) question which was something along the lines : "Aren't alchemists afk-pet farming against the rules?", and I got a "LOL" reply. After that, after a bit of time I've asked if there was a channel specifically for questions where you don't get laughed at and got again another "LOL".
Though it triggered some activity in the main chat, only 1 player actually PM'd me and answered my questions. So unfortunately, I can't really say that people are helpful around, at least as far as the main channel is concerned. Of course you will still meet nice people eventually (I did), but to get a better experience I had to mute the main channel usually filled with silly sex jokes more than anything so you can draw your own conclusions about it.

- Concerning the gameplay,
I think it's a you like or don't type of gameplay. The general consensus seems to have people leeching off high characters, mostly high priests or anything with auto-cast, leveling in places like the Prison or Abbey. I went around and visited other places like the Kokomo beach, Clock Tower, Turtle Dungeon... They are all most of the time empty.
I've also took a walk with my priestess and went looking around most of the maps, you barely see anyone. For a 8x low-ish server, it surprised me. But then I've also seen that most players are just on their alt, so out of the high population (around 1000~) I think that you probably have around 500-600 real players, but that's just my assumption.

Economy : (Talon Coins and Kaho hat)
The combination of those is why I'm leaving the server, let me explain :

First of all, the Kaho hat seems to be customed to give +20 int/dex/another stat I've forgotten (unless that was a lie), so you can draw your conclusions from there.

As for the economy, I took my time to look at all the shops in all cities. The overall prices seem to be 300k up to 1M for conventional gear, and an average of 2M up to 100M for costumes and the rest. Considering how much bragging there was on the main channel, I know that the old players are the ones farming around 1M to 10M a day, so the economy is mainly directed by them, which probably explains the prices.

But here is the thing: By voting or completing quests you can get Copper points, and 50 of them gives you a Talon coin which can be exchanged for, as far as I've seen, almost everything important in the game. Just have a look at their official reward list and you'll understand what I mean by that.
So basically you can probably just sit, vote allday until you get a proper gear (probably the auto-cast one), and then level up to your max level and start grinding for millions for.. what? Who knows? This sound boring to me, and this is why I've decided this was not the server for me.
Everything seems to be about the end-game, nobody cares about what is before and there are barely any people leveling outside the places I've mentioned earlier. And for a 8x server that sounds silly to me.

Management: (can't really tell)
I saw the GM connect for the events, but can't really say anything about anything else. You will have to read another review or see by yourself.


Anyway, again, this is my personal experience with the server. You can probably find your own paradise over there, I'm just leaving this review for people like me who are not really looking for that kind of server activity on a supposed low-ish rate.

[Boreas]

STABILITY:(so-so)
It's so-so, at least it seems so for an European player like me. So far it seems good when the players count is low, but as soon as it gets populated you can easily notice lags spike or have your click once in a while not responding up to 1sec. I do not know where the server is located so it's probably better for people near it, but I can't tell.

The server is located in Los Angeles, USA. Depends on the country you connect from of course, but it's entirely possible that the routing between you and the server is not the best during peak hours of your local area for example. I am having a really high ping during early evening when lots of people use the internet in my region. Not much we can do about that unfortunately. :<

COMMUNITY : (so-so again)
- Concerning people,
Here is the thing :
I've noticed a large amount of alchemists afk-farming in several maps, so out of curiosity I've tried to ask my (newbie) question which was something along the lines : "Aren't alchemists afk-pet farming against the rules?", and I got a "LOL" reply. After that, after a bit of time I've asked if there was a channel specifically for questions where you don't get laughed at and got again another "LOL".
Though it triggered some activity in the main chat, only 1 player actually PM'd me and answered my questions. So unfortunately, I can't really say that people are helpful around, at least as far as the main channel is concerned. Of course you will still meet nice people eventually (I did), but to get a better experience I had to mute the main channel usually filled with silly sex jokes more than anything so you can draw your own conclusions about it.

We have very strict rules when it comes to !main, but we can't monitor it 24/7 of course. However, if you notice that people misbehave on our global chat channels then just drop us a report. I am sorry that you had such a bad experience, because usually people are quite friendly on TalonRO and like to help new players. As for Alchemists, they get an afk exp penalty, which means that they get less and less exp over time as long as they stay afk. Because of that we do not forbid afk leveling via Homunculi.

- Concerning the gameplay,
I think it's a you like or don't type of gameplay. The general consensus seems to have people leeching off high characters, mostly high priests or anything with auto-cast, leveling in places like the Prison or Abbey. I went around and visited other places like the Kokomo beach, Clock Tower, Turtle Dungeon... They are all most of the time empty.
I've also took a walk with my priestess and went looking around most of the maps, you barely see anyone. For a 8x low-ish server, it surprised me. But then I've also seen that most players are just on their alt, so out of the high population (around 1000~) I think that you probably have around 500-600 real players, but that's just my assumption.

Not much to add here, except that the majority on TalonRO does not multi client. During our peaks we always have around 1000 real players online. Our gameplay is very special tho and not everyone's cup of tea, I do agree there.

This sound boring to me, and this is why I've decided this was not the server for me.
Everything seems to be about the end-game, nobody cares about what is before and there are barely any people leveling outside the places I've mentioned earlier. And for a 8x server that sounds silly to me.

Yeah, again, you either love or hate it I guess. Haha Sad that you did not give us a chance.


I thank you for your honest review, it's refreshing to actually not read one of these "hate-reviews". Good luck finding a server that is more to your liking!

[blame20]

TalonRO is an "Okay" server.  New players come = old players leave.  This might explain the consistent number of  population. And it is just okay.

[LezzieLez]

TalonRO is an "Okay" server.  New players come = old players leave.  This might explain the consistent number of  population. And it is just okay.

Yeah, I do agree on that. I think TalonRO has managed to stay on top because of the new or casual player base reinforcing each other in the beginning. This explains the consistent turnover rate that they use to leverage the server among other low rate servers. People have rated TalonRO early enough to need Copper Coins and are excited then slowly tapers off to not needing to vote and being disinterested and jumping ship.

Secondly I think the server will decline over time because it hasn't been updated in awhile. Pretty soon the update threshold from kRO that other servers welcome which TalonRO negates will widen which will result in TalonRO becoming obsolete. TalonRO reaches a plateau because it sets a cap on updates and that's fine for players that like a casual feel, but it will decline in general popularity if it continues to alienate itself among other servers.

[Boreas]

Our playerbase has been constant over the past years, despite other servers pushing renewal updates. I think we will do fine.

[condoms]

lol this server is laggy AF, especially when there is summer race and woe. not to forget those random lagspikes

[Boreas]

lol this server is laggy AF, especially when there is summer race and woe. not to forget those random lagspikes

Depends on your location.