[Cancelled] Ragnarok Online Preservation Project

Halca · Apr 08, 2022, 01:40 PM

The project has been cancelled as it is infeasible. It won't be restarted. Thanks to all who contributed while it was briefly around!

yC · Apr 09, 2022, 06:21 AM

Nice to have a place dedicated to some RO history for those that are interested. I think you can find and cover most of the history from bits and pieces scattered out there. PlayTester (our forum user and great contributor in the private RO community) might know some of the mystery if he happens to read this.

Not sure if you really want to collect the history of private servers. There were plenty of them going up and down at any given point in time in the last 15 years.

Playtester · Apr 09, 2022, 06:48 AM

My memory is not that good that I could just out of my head list up interesting things though. xD

I probably could answer questions to certain non-client related topics. But I only started joining the emulator project in 2007, so everything beforehand is only hearsay that I can neither confirm nor deny (like that eAthena was based on jAthena).

I assume you already have all the released that were posted on ASB?

I was actually thinking before of making like some "Fun fact" topic on here where I just say some things I fixed in the past that most people playing on emulated servers probably don't know (especially because most of them are Herc based now). I actually tried that before but only some topics got enough interest.

I don't think many of the topics I tackle are too relevant for ROPP. Recently I released the official status resistance formulas for renewal on these forums and in 2013 I did the same for pre-renewal. Another topic that's always on my mind is how after episode 10 the game got slowly "unbalanced". Or the spawn changes after episode 9. Most of my thoughts usually revolve around "What would the game look like now if the original team never left and the game didn't fall for the power creep problem?", which isn't really related to data preservation.

But yeah as said, if you have any particular questions I could try to reply to them.

Halca · Apr 09, 2022, 09:22 AM

Currently the website is offline and the project is discontinued for the forseeable future. If this changes I'll advise, but due to the current actions being taken it's better to suspend activity. We were doing nothing wrong but simply this is something I don't want to continue in the current climate.

Playtester · Apr 17, 2022, 02:21 PM

So... is there anything you want to know that I can help with?

neethree · Apr 17, 2022, 02:37 PM

Absolutely fantastic idea. Most of the info I know is anecdotal or second-hand from others but I feel it's like that for many people - lots of stories passes person-to-person, so to have a resource where things are all collated and sourced would be fantastic.
I love seeing this old RO stuff so I'll keep an eye on this with high hopes.

Inspector Clouseau · Apr 18, 2022, 06:36 AM

I once had a CD with an old kRO installation in it, which was useful for playing ragnarok private servers on a different computer or reinstalling a fresh copy if I had to.

But I don't know how much that would help, and I think I may have thrown it away by now anyway.

BaphometRag · Apr 19, 2022, 04:49 AM

I have some old RO art books

MaybeImWrong · Apr 19, 2022, 06:51 PM

This is great!!!! Thank you for taking the time to get this going.

OrcLordDaddy · Apr 22, 2022, 08:08 AM

That's a really cool project!

Some suggestions I would make:

Use all skill and monster names from all regions, i.e. it shouldn't just say Professor for example but also Scholar.
Or for monster names, Cathryne Keyron and Kathryne Keyron and Katrinn, and marked on which region which name was used.
For skills, from what I can remember, fRO(euRO) used Highness Heal instead of High Heal.

Also maybe, if possible to dig that deep into the past, it would be super interesing and cool to have all updates Ragnarok has ever had listed for each server.

I.e.

iRO - Episodes 1 to now (Main server)
iRO - Classic Loki (Classic server defunct)

euRO - Episodes 1 to 1x (Burda:ic)

fRO/euRO - Episodes 1x to server termination (WhyBe)

And what I personally would be most interested in:
A page with ALL of the official artwork of Ragnarok Online in lossless .png quality.
Including Startup/Login screen, Loading screens, Class Artworks, etc.

OrcLordDaddy · May 05, 2022, 10:59 AM

RIP this project?

Website is offline.

Halca · May 05, 2022, 12:50 PM

Currently the website is offline and the project is discontinued for the forseeable future. If this changes I'll advise, but due to the current actions being taken it's better to suspend activity. We were doing nothing wrong but simply this is something I don't want to continue in the current climate.

yC · May 05, 2022, 05:22 PM

What happen lately shouldn't affect your project, there are fan sites like rowiki that are legit for players. Pservers that are dead many years ago shouldn't be a concern? Up to you, can continue to connect the dots offline in the meantime.

OrcLordDaddy · May 06, 2022, 01:04 AM

Wouldn't that project qualify as fansite?

Exactly like the iRO Wiki and Database?

I doubt they would do anything if all you do is document the original (official) Ragnarok, which is what this is all about?

Khinaya · May 06, 2022, 04:54 AM

Most of the fansites looks safe for now. The TCRF page remains open until the domain host says so.

The preservation project is fine for the most part and could be seen as a fansite, though it does document the history of private servers which can be perceived as advertisement by a third party that isn't approved by Gravity. I believe if that were to remain hidden then there's no foundation to file a viable lawsuit. In the end it is Halca's choice and we must respect it. Better to be safe than sorry.

Sad though. May it come back at a later date when things aren't as tense.