aeRO: the New Review

[orix1357]

Okay, first of all, aeRO (or Alternative Entertainment) is a Variable Rate Server with an average population of 400-500 on its most active servers Mayaan and Turbo-PVP. The other servers have a medium to low average population: Keenan with 200-300 ave. and Old School with a population cap of about 150. Nocturna falls behind at below 50 average.

aeRO has custom items and card effects (most custom cards are made to compensate the abundance of gods in the server. It's currently updated up to Satan Morroc, but the spawning of Satan Morroc is disabled as the Diablos set is obatinable only through donation. Features include a custom quest which unlocks a new town and another quest which allows Level 255 characters to level up to 265. Slot Enchant and Mercenary System disabled.

Server info:
Mayaan -> high-rate, donation server, level caps 255/80.
Keenan -> high-rate, non-donation server, level caps 255/80.
Nocturna -> low-rate, donation server, level caps uncertain.
Turbo-PVP -> super high-rate, PK-enabled, level caps 999/70.
Old School -> low-rate, no transcendence, level caps 99/50.

[My reviews will be based on the previous one made here: http://www.ratemyserver.net/forum/index.php/topic,7498.0.html. My rating will be preceded with the old rating given on that review.]

Stability: 8/10 -> 9/10

aeRO has very few lag spikes on all servers despite the low ping I had (about 250-350 ping) and the only part of aeRO which has some lag issues is WoE. Aside from that, gameplay is smooth if you have the specs to back you up for those graphic effects in-game.

Availability: 8/10 -> 9/10

Except for some fits of the server rejecting your log-in or some random server disconnections, everything is still smooth here.

Friendliness: 7/10 -> 5/10

Actually, this is one issue aeRO has. In-game, you will most likely see no one willing to help newbies when it comes to unusual features like location of NPCs or such, but I didn't say there are none. There are some players helpful enough to get you into the flow of the game. But don't go into PVP too early though. Because of the Point system added to PVP (every kill by a player gives him/her points which he/she can use to exchange for a small variety of items), PVP has become more hostile than it was on commercial servers.

Events: 7/10 -> 6/10

Pretty much so-so. At times, events are made after each WoE session, whose themes range from hide-and-seek, Q&A and others. I think only one or two of the GMs actually hold events. Prizes are event hats and overupgraded items of the winner's choice. Giving out these kinds of items arose issues of item duplication, one which Bean and Kinko, the admins of aeRo, is addressing.

GM Friendliness: 6/10 -> depends (about 3/10 for Enforcers and 7/10 for Community GMs)

Not all GMs are friendly, but at least they got their job sorted out. I won't give out names of those GMs, but let's just say that the GM Team is divided into Enforcers and Community GMs. Community GMs are most likely to be seen by the players when events are held and in forums, where hs/she addresses concerns by players. Enforcers are the lesser friendly among the GMs; their main task is to snuff out illegal acts reported by players and/or caught in the act personally. Because of the manner of their banning (ban, review evidence, review decisions), many players are "scared" of them, especially those whose "attitude" is reflected by their posts in forums.

GM Availability: 4/10 -> 9/10

I've understood that GMs aren't really supposed to show themselves 24/7. Yeah, they're working in an international server where Filipinos like me and Brazilians are the majority of the population (which lie on different time zones) so it's fine that they don't appear regularly. At least there's one GM active in the forums almost every time.

GM Helpfulness: 7/10 -> depends (about 5/10 for Enforcers and 8/10 for Community GMs)

<look at my post on GM Friendliness> It reflects there how much the GM Team acts in a player-to-GM manner. Community GMs are more helpful, and Enforcers are most likely to divert you to their more friendly counterparts for questions.

Economy: 9.5/10 -> 3/10

One of the worst, honestly. Because of the rampant item duplication (of event hats, gods and almost anything which costs more than a billion zeny), and incessant botting all around famous "hot spots" (Hidden Dungeon Level 3 for Yggdrasil Berries, e.g.), economy has been fluctuating despite the remarks of players that it's still stable. The good thing though is that it's relatively easy to obtain money from items because it's a high-rate server. (Be careful of being accused as a bot, though.)

Guild Competition: 8/10 -> 5/10

So-so. There are a handful of strong guilds around, flanked by less stronger guilds whose focus are either on WoE, War over Rune, King of the Hill or a mix of those. Guild competition is relatively quiet in-game nowadays* compared to the situation in the forums, where members of guilds throw accusations of E-call spam abuse, autoberry, WPE and other dirty tricks.

*Back then, guildmasters do get involved in illegal acts. I'm not sure if it's still around, but the issue at times breaks apart whole guilds in the process.

Class Balance: 9/10 -> 2/10

Unfortunately, the update in which Turbo-PVP is going to have the mechanics of many of the skills altered for balance isn't up yet. As for Mayaan, there is still the imbalance on Professors, whose easily-achievable no-cast status plus Double Casting leaves the other classes scorched. Unfortunately, the GMs trust the players saying that it's easy to counter Professors by using items x and y and the mechanics stayed almost like the original. Also, the fact that Gunslingers and Ninja are relatively weak in commercial servers doesn't change here.

I should say they can actually do something to balance out the classes, but they were too complacent of the current situation.

Total:
Minimum: 56/100
Maximum: 63/100

Current Status: Server Forums and Server itself is inaccessible.
Posted on: July 26, 2009, 09:41:42 amUpdate: aeRO is officially closed. Rechecked site and forums and they now redirect to some server services.

[lThorl]

Hello, This was the first server i ever played, Back in the day's when they had primal witch is one of the other servers they had witch was a low rate server 5/5/2 i believe, The server was awesome but poorly maintained, I started as a swordsmen there and became a rather adversary paladin.

Then they closed the server do not ask me why i don't know, I started on one of there other servers Maayan found it amusing for some time about 2 years, Then all of a sudden they started to nerf things that made no sense to nerf, Players and friends of mine where being terminated slowly by GM's banning there accounts for reason they did not bother to explain, Even so this server i have to admit when maayan was still young and alive i honestly had more fun then any other server, AeROGaming.net i give you a rating of 10/10 Good job old buddy Admin kinko, And GM Bean for your wonderful server that leaves memories in my head.

But you can't say you did not see that hack coming after all those years of corrupt GM's!