iRO annouces f2p server

[bleu]

They christen it Valkyrie Server. Its free-to-play with lower drops and lower experience and some changes in game mechanics. The concept of Gravity introducing free to play servers is not new, kRO's f2p server have about 5000 strong players, while RussianRO has converted its entire servers to free-to-play.

What will this mean to private servers?
It used to be simple. Playing on official means u get the standard experience and drop rate of X1. And you will need to pay a monthly subscription to play. And on private servers, it's free-to-play, the rates are higher (low-medium-high-superhigh), some degree of customised changes, some re-balancing act and the concept of donation.

Fast forward to the current environment. Gravity introduces free-to-play servers. As for rates, most of the time, the rate should be the standard f2p rate which should be slightly less than the official rate. But Gravity has been known to announce X1.5/ X2 rates (a bit too often if I may add, its like every other week there is a X1.5/X2 enhance experience week). So this actually closes the gap between Gravity's "REAL rate" and those offerred by low rate private servers.

Custom changes and re-balancing, well what can I say, everyone have their own interpretation of what is balance and what is not. So, I believe this part - custom changes and re-balancing is the true differentiator. Who can better balance a game? Who can create better customs which players are looking for - it could be headgears, quests, storyline, maps/monsters/dungeons and concepts such as PK server (btw.. Gravity kRO until recently had a PK server). pRO has eliminated the need for Teleportation 1 and 2 for Acolyte. With Warp lvl1, an Acolyte can automatically teleport to save point, teleport to a random location on the map and also memo one warp. iRO has introduced the Repeatable Experience Quest which are now on eAthena (a break with tradition of emulating kRO, since the Repeatable Experience Quest was not introduced on kRO). And you get all these nice headgears from every servers with are unique. The most famous being the headgear from bRO (I forgotten the name, its a purple hood with red glowing eyes).

Donations - it varies from server to server even on officials. Servers like euRO are kinda "old school", they don't even have a neutralizer or gym pass being offered for sale. Some servers are much more innovative or if I may say into the MONEY - pRO announces WOE 2.0 kits - a Barricade kit and Guardian Stone kits (got everything u need to fix up those barricades/guardian stones without having to worry about excessive weight). I would consider jRO the heaven of Kafra Mall - they are the most innovative. They even have Convex Mirror - when used, tells you is there an MVP on your map and if there isnt one, when is it's next spawn. Similar on private servers, you have those servers which reward donations with Old Purple Box and those who give you Godly Weapons/Gears/MVP cards for some money. BTW, you could rent some nice gears for a short period of time from jRO/kRO (i think is one week). Like you want a Refined Pole Axe. And on pRO, you could buy certain MVP cards using your Kafra Cash Points. I believe most people don't understand that official player do not necessary buy Kafra Cash Points, you do get some Free Points which comes with paying monthly subscriptions. But there is a growing trend to level using Battle Manuals (double experience) and hunt items using Bubblegum (double drops)

The differences between official servers and private servers, seems to be blurring as of late.

I did not touch on management style; errr... everyone believe they are managing their server professionally. So not going to debate that. jRO=zero Bot. iRO WTF... pRO aka Bot Paradise. Contents and updates, well each server is different. I was surprised that tRO (Thailand) is ahead of iRO with the recent introduction of Battleground

[Pandora]

Wasn't the Baphomet server the new F2P server from Gravity announced a few months back? With 0.5x rates and some items lowered or unobtainable (added to kafra shop instead).

Nice insightful post however on how official/private servers are managed. While it's true that the line is blurring a little, I think those who enjoy private servers are not too likely to go back to official, even if it's free (but 2x the work unless you buy from kafra shop..). I think some private servers are better maintained than some official ones (pRO for example). Many private servers release content faster than iRO, since we're based on kRO and I don't just mean the stuff from eAthena, lots of servers code stuff themselves.

[Anti-Static Foam Cleaner]

Baphomet is the korean f2p with 5k players he mentioned.

For me there is really no competition between f2p and private servers though. pservs (almost)always up the rates, f2p lowers them. pservs' donation items are very limited, f2p will be all about Kafra Shop. Then there's botting, iRO's plague since forever, and updates(iRO always being behind, though they might actually catch up someday with eA's crew being as decimated as it is).

If anything, I foresee more people leaving to pservers after this gets introduced. On the f2p the Kafra Shop imbalance will be all that clearer.

[bleu]

During the 1st quarter of 2008, Gravity from kRO passed more automous power to iRO with regards to game content. In the past, most of the official servers are pretty much the same. But in recent months, each official server are changing bit by bit to cater to the needs of their own player base. One of the very first act that iRO did when they got their new found powers were to change the Kiel Hyrie Quest (hope I spelled it rite). In the past, iRO had no powers to change stuffs eventhough its a good suggestion from players. Similar autonomy are given to other official servers worldwide.

I would have to agree in general, iRO is a bit behind most private servers. But it has recently promised faster updates. Patch 11.3 Nameless Island surprised everyone. Even Doddler himself was surprised, when iRO introduced WOE Second Edition together with Patch 11.3 (about 6 months-1year ahead of scheduled). iRO is about to get episode 12 soo. When this happens, I would say that iRO would have caught up with most private servers. I am not aware of any private servers with a fully implemented episode 13 yet (although I could be wrong).

Actually kRO have two freeservers. Baphomet was the first one. And the second is Doppelganger. Their combined population is about 5,000 players. Baphomet is also the larger of the two.

I do see your point about rates. But if all players ever wanted were rates, then everyone should be playing superhigh rates. So, being X1 X0.5 X2 X5  (trying to focus more on the low rate servers for comparison), it's not really a real competitive advantage. Players do buy Kafra Shop Items to boost their rates with Battle Manuals. It works wonders during a X2 event. Pop a battle manual it will be a X400% experience. Get a group of 11 members in your party add another - do some tapping, another 275%, play a mental sensing bard/dancer - another 180%, ... many more ways to get more experience (of course some are pretty complicated as compared to a low rate server (PS) say X5 - which is so much easier). But remember, 3rd class. When it comes, it will change the experience table. So, it will no longer be very hard to level up anymore. It's a bit crazy rite now... alot of grinding if you ever play a X1 server.

Valkyrie could actually be the answer for iRO's bot problems. Most bots spammers which can be seen in town selling zenies are using trial accounts. So, if all trial accounts are moved to Valkyrie server, that should solve those type of botters. But players botting for items or levels, that one... err.. its not at an epidemic level yet. I believe it could be controlled.

Those old servers Iris-Loki and Chaos, they are now known as Premium severs. The players that premium servers attracts should be different from Valkyrie.

Premiun servers should be attracting these players
hard-core, playing many hours
seasoned/experienced
competitive
have the bucks to pay
Looking for the lastest updates

Valkyrie sever should be attracting another player set
casual, just want some entertainment- a bit of exploring, a bit of chatting etc..
new to Ragnarok
less competitive (it does not matter, if all your friends a 99 Trans class and u are just a lvl80 non Trans)..he/she is content
Not willing to invest money into the game
Wanna test the game out first (if I like it then, I might go Premium for higher experience etc...)

Now, look at the type of players which Valkyrie server is targeting. And then, look at your player base. How different or similar are they? The only segment of players which are not targeted by iRO atm are players who are competitive, experienced but not willing to pay. No competitive player would seriously consider to play on Valkyrie with its 0.75X rates.

During the launch of Valkyrie, no Kafra Mall. But it will not take long before Kafra Cash Points starts to creep in. After all, thats where Gravity makes money.

[Pandora]

I never understood why iRO took so long in the first place to update to stuff kRO makes. They only needs to translate from Korean to English, the code, graphics are done and sometimes needs touch up, but that's about it.

eAthena not only have to translate, they have to code the stuff and they released a lot of stuff faster than iRO.

[watdapak]

if im not mistaken Valkyrie is the first F2P server. Valkyrie is here in philippines and we had 8k population.

[bleu]

I did not want to be a pain... but this topic is very interesting to me. The more I read about it the more interested I became.

Valkyrie pRO was not the first free-2-play.
The first was China RO

"Some may have heard about the “Valkyrie Project”. Here’s what’s real;

3 months ago, our CEO tasked our department to look into the idea of RO going free to play. Upon much deliberation, late nights at the office and trying to pull out our hairs; Wauks then started research on the how the other countries with Ragnarok were doing.  I already heard about “something strange and peculiar” in RO China. True enough, Waukeen came back to me and found out the China had all F2P servers - with a twist."
http://gmtristan.com/ragnarok-to-go-free-to-play/

It doesn't really matter which server was the first to implement f2p, but wat do matter is that its on iRO, which is a predominantly English speaking community catering to North America and other English speaking countries, which represents the third largest revenue contributor after Japan and Korea. And it does not look like Gravity will stop there.

Gravity calls their Kafra Cash Shop the Micro-transaction model. And how do they define free-2-play?
Ragnarok Online without paying subscription fees or buying playing time and to purchase in-game items pursuant to our micro-transaction model.

[Pandora]

In that same announcement you linked it says:

"# Boss and MVP monsters DO NOT drop boss cards
# Slotted items, weapons and gear are also NOT dropped
# You can buy these and other items at the ITEM MALL"

Talk about greedy... yeah it's the "same RO feel" except if you actually wanna use a card pay for a slotted gear, and if you have no money good luck fighting MVP carded rich people!

And to top it off some maps are PK so the well geared people can have fun slaughtering you!

[Anti-Static Foam Cleaner]

Hahaha MVP cards to be bought in shops? And slotted gear? Hahahahahahahahahahaha

[bleu]

that Valkyrie gmtristan its pRO (Phillipines). It's not the same as the iRO Valkyrie server.
pRO... what can I say... LOL

But the rate of pRO Valkyrie is x 1.5 (experience) and X1 (drop).
for iRO during the launch its 0.75 (experience) and (0.5 drop)

There are many other differences including those highlighted by Pandora althought some might have changed. That link is about one year old.

EDIT
Valkyrie iRO is now a x1 Rate server. Premium servers are X1.25 (which is a real hassel to convert)
There could be more changes, coz they talk about requiring a few weeks to access and fine-stune stuffs.

[~~T~~]

Can you at least change job without paying?

[C_Spellman]

I never understood why iRO took so long in the first place to update to stuff kRO makes. They only needs to translate from Korean to English, the code, graphics are done and sometimes needs touch up, but that's about it.

eAthena not only have to translate, they have to code the stuff and they released a lot of stuff faster than iRO.

ok i made an account just to point at this <.<, first of all you seem to ignore how things work on iRO, iRO and kRO are run by different companies which mean iRO has to buy(legaly) updates from kRO, pirate.cough..cough. i mean private servers dont, get your facts before you complain.


this goes for the rest, iro Valk server has normal rates(1x1x1), what they did was raise the premium server rates(1.25x1.25x1.25), and slotted gears and mvp cards are obteined normally <.< and yes you can change job without paying, yeah there are some changes kafra warps are more expensive, flywigns and bwings too, succes rates for upgrades are different and kafra shop gears are more expensive but they have the prices the had before, they made them cheaper for p2p servers,all of this is for iRO only.

[Pandora]

Even if they have to pay, that's not an excuse to why their update are so long, it's not like they don't make a ton of money with all the people playing on the iro servers, so they could buy the updates faster for their players.

As for the slotted gear and mvp card that you have to buy, we were talking about the valkyrie philipinos server.

[Nell]

I have a fellow RO-aholic telling me that there is no safe refine limits on the F2P Valkyrie server.   Anyone heard anything about this?

[DeePee]

So did anyone else get some person from Gravity promoting this server on their forums?