KokoRO, a great server no one knows about

Started by Miss Lily, Jan 15, 2022, 09:04 PM

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Miss Lily

I keep seeing a number of reviews comparing 1x servers, but no one mentions KokoRO, which is a shame.  It predates all of them, but there is never any drama associated with it so no one talks about it.  I created a forum account just to post a review for this server.

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If there is a shortcoming for KokoRO, this is it.  They don't advertise.  At all.  As in zero, none, nada, zilch.  I inquired as to why they don't, and their response was they would prefer to prioritize features over marketing.  While I can respect that, some amount of advertisement would go a long way to improving the population.
1/10 /...

Community
Its really small, but everyone is super friendly and knowledgeable.  I only wish it was bigger.
5/10 /sob

Custom
There are effectively no custom changes.  They disabled Icewall/Reflect on high end MVP maps and implemented same-sex marriage, but both of these are official (at least in renewal).
10/10 /ok

Database
Their database is the best prenewal database (https://cp.kokotewa.com/resources/database) out there.  If you're not already using it, I strongly recommend you check it out - they even included a toggle to include future/unavailable content so it can be used for other servers.  Its the most transparent, and comprehensive, database out there.  My only complaint is that some of the features are hidden away in otherwise non-intuitive tooltips, which took some getting used to.  In general, if you want more information on something (be it which NPC crafts it, player craft success rates, or monster skill info), you can mouse over it or click on it and tada - more information!
11/10 /no1

Donations
They don't accept any.  The server is purely F2P and there is no way to financially support the server.  I was concerned about the server longevity at first, given that they're paying out of pocket, but this is my second year playing here and I've been very happy so far.
10/10 /ok

Events
KokoRO doesn't have events, they focus on permanent features.  This is a miss for players who want the occasional spice to their experience, but its fair to future players.  Anyone who joins today has access to the same content as early adopters (there aren't any missed exclusive items or exp/items events).  This is perfect for me, but I understand its not for everyone.
?/10 /hmm

Mechanics
100% authentic.  This phrase gets used a lot, which dilutes its meaning, so let me go one step further - the KokoRO public test environment is used by eA/Herc developers to improve the accuracy of their respective emulators.  No complaints here.
10/10 /ok

Stability
The server is incredibly stable, almost to a frightening degree. Maintenance is usually < 5 minutes.
10/10 /ok

Staff
There aren't many staff members (2). They're active in Discord and will happily answer questions.  They're always calm, even when presented with opinions they disagree with.  If you scroll back far enough into the Discord history, you can even read conversations between them and Lord J and Savyon (yes, THAT Lord J and Savyon).
10/10 /ok

Ralgondo

It's a good server. This day in age, it doesn't appeal to the private server crowd who are used to many quality of life benefits (autoloot, autotrade, etc). But for those who enjoy a more traditional, slower paced grind, It's a great server. It's worth mentioning (if OP didn't already) that the server is not your usual eAthena / rAthena / whatever emulation. You can read about that in detail on the site for anyone who is curious. The guy who runs it is a real savant / RO enthusiast. But like you mentioned, population is low, I've seen many people come and go but there does seem to be a small loyal group. Hopefully more people come aboard who want to stick around.

Khinaya

I can confirm it's a great server as well~

To the readers~ If you are new or returning and want to try out the server and need something snatched or brewed, feel free to message Libra/Lavia/Celine on the Koko Discord server.  /ok

Hope you enjoy your stay! Have a nice day.  /lv

Oathkeeper

Can't really comment on the server, but I will say their database is one of the cleanest I've seen and it really is a clean UI for the information provided. The admins I'm sure enjoy their project, but they honestly have a database and control panel that rivals FluxCP that has become mostly the standard (I'd honestly license it if it were available haha).

Mune

I have been a member of the kokoRo community for just over a year now and I must say that I have rarely seen people who put so much heart and soul into a project as our two admins do.
Every little problem is tackled, and for as long as it takes.

As the OP already mentioned, kokoRO has an incredibly clean database. Improvements are always being made here, which also have an effect on the flow of the game.
The server certainly owes this in part to its community. We have some very affine people in the area of programming, who are also always involved in processes.

To stay with the community: As Ralgando already mentioned, we have a very small and hard core. 1 rate and no cosmetic/skill adjustments only appeal to a small group of enthusiasts. We also don't have any events.
Accordingly, it can be difficult to get a certain item.
Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and farm yourself.
Nevertheless, it is one of the friendliest and most helpful communities I have experienced to date.
From helping out newcomers to "can you come online quickly and craft 500 blue pots for me?"

If you really want to play Ragnarok like we did in our youth, then this is the only server that really reflects that experience.

Khinaya

Quote from: Mune on Jan 19, 2022, 11:47 AM

From helping out newcomers to "can you come online quickly and craft 500 blue pots for me?"


Potions made from a certified mad alchemist that enjoys brewing. either a mad scientist or a mad fool?  /hmm both! both works  /no1 either way, he's right  /ok

Godrix

I have wanted to play KoKo RO as my main game since it released but the character cell movement in the game which they say is the official authentic movement is unlike any other private server i have ever played and i can not get use to it no matter how long i tried. The character starts going to a cell and will lock onto it like the monks snap skill and it has a huge delay till it moves again unless you click a new cell before it gets to it but the character can only move a distance of like 6 cells so you can't click a cell far away like other private servers, you can hold down the movement button and continuously move but it will stop from time to time,  can't heal bomb as an aco when you hold down the mouse movement button so it's pointless unless you plan to walk without attacking mobs.

I checked my ping to the server a long time ago and i had like 20 ping and i talked to the admin when the server opened and after we talked and i streamed myself playing the game on discord he said they use the official movement which most private servers don't use ( all i have played for like 18 years off and on is a different movement style) and they had/have no plans to change it to what most servers use as it prevents exploits, makes it very very very hard as a aco who is use to most other server movement to heal bomb and run as your character will go to a cell and get killed before you can move again.

If they changed the movement to match other servers i would happily join

Khinaya

Quote from: Godrix on Feb 09, 2022, 08:09 PM

I checked my ping to the server a long time ago and i had like 20 ping and i talked to the admin when the server opened and after we talked and i streamed myself playing the game on discord he said they use the official movement which most private servers don't use ( all i have played for like 18 years off and on is a different movement style) and they had/have no plans to change it to what most servers use as it prevents exploits, makes it very very very hard as a aco who is use to most other server movement to heal bomb and run as your character will go to a cell and get killed before you can move again.

If they changed the movement to match other servers i would happily join

Hi Godrix.

The server improved a lot performance wise. As someone that has an absurd high latency(talking 160~230ms on average) I can play super smooth compared to before the .Grf reduction maintenance.

Maybe this is the change you've been waiting for? Feel free to give Koko a try again! Have a nice day.


Reehux

Hi Miss Lily,

if you think the server is great but lack advertisement and player base, why don't you help it?
even the RMS reviews are pretty much lacking, I'm strongly agrees with admins telling players to help
their servers by voting and reviewing, it's win-win solution for both admins and players, nobody gets hurt.

another way to advertise is by making videos and share it, because someone (Godrix) says in one of the replies,
character movement is a bit different and everyone wants to see it, I personally wants to see how the server going
before decides to move in.

You know there are many low rate servers with their own taste, some even dare to destroy balance because the admins listened to
evil minions who wants their favorite class modified, like a brewer alchemist capable of deal AoE damage better than a battle-oriented builds of other classes, which is saddening but that's the reality.

I read on site's FAQ that kokoRO does not ban multiclienting, is it true?

no offense but, imbalance between classes, multiclienting, and admins who listened to evil minions should close their server forever.

Mune

May i ask what you don't like about multiclients when you say servers that support them should be closed?

Especially here you have the problem that you have a very small server and can't always find the right party, and if you don't want to change the classic structure, you can't implement buffers and co.

So yeah, I think multiclients are pretty fine and I dont see the issue, but looking forward to your answer.

ac195

This is very commonly an important thing for classic and lower rate servers because then people will just have slaves to progress them and it incentivizes solo play over group play. True it may be hard to find a group, but theres also kill turn ins for solo play too... So it's just hard to see what multiclient can bring other than just a buff slave.

aerisdies

#11
I want to try this but why the heck my DL speeds for both the data.GRF and latest.zip only goes around 35~60Kbps only?! :(
PH country here @ 200Mbps with properly configured Asus AX55 router.

Is there any other mirror out there like in Mediafire or anything?

Edit:
great support from Koko.
currently resolving this one.

Oathkeeper

After reviewing what Koko has done and talking to him, I can say with confidence that if you are looking at an original Aegis built server that does things pretty much by the book, KokoRO is it. I say this purely as a fan of RO (not as a server owner), Koko (the person) is what I would consider THE industry expert when it comes to RO's official-like programming and backend infrastructure. Furthermore, he is passionate about what he does and loves discussing the technical aspects of the server. Only for lack of time do I have too little time to actually play KokoRO seriously, but what I can say is that the devotion made by Koko is superb and I admire it and what he's built over time. Aegis is a much harder server to program for given its source code is raw, unlike a more refined version like Athena or Hercules. This obviously makes the server more true to form, but also much harder to develop on, yet Koko has spent a lot of time getting to know how the code works and again, if you are looking for a devoted owner/GM, this server has that offering.

If you are looking for a pure vanilla RO server (with a few very minor improvements only Koko could really know how to do), then KokoRO is a great server to check out.

Neffletics

Koko is a wonderful person. You're in good hands if you're playing on this server. He's extremely knowledgeable and skilled in all aspects of the game, both technical and gameplay.
solacero rip

Playtester

Can confirm, Koko is an amazing person.

This review actually made me finally give that server a try. But the lack of other players, no player stores (meaning you will need to hunt stuff yourself) and 1x rates (+ no cash shop or subscription bonuses, so it's basically harder than official servers) just make it too brutal for me personally. I needed an hour just to get out of novice grounds because it requires you to reach job level 10 (I'm sure that's official for some servers, but it's really brutal, I'd rather explore the world than being stuck in novice grounds forever).

But the amounts of work and analysis that Koko put into this is amazing. If you are not convinced because of the cheap looking website, just read his dev blog (it's linked on the website).

I will say this: When you have a group of friends and you want to experience fully vanilla RO just together as group without being bothered by bad players (or bad server owner), then it's definitely the best pick I see.

Unlike easy to use emulators like rAthena and Herc where you could just say "If you play alone anyway, just make an offline server", this kind of fully official server is very hard to set up, so playing on KokoRO is definitely a better option for the fully official experience that will save you a lot of trouble.

Ralgondo

Quote from: Playtester on Mar 24, 2022, 06:43 PM
I needed an hour just to get out of novice grounds because it requires you to reach job level 10 (I'm sure that's official for some servers, but it's really brutal, I'd rather explore the world than being stuck in novice grounds forever).

Just in regards to that part, you can make like 1500-1700 "novice red potions" there, once you make those, and talked to all the NPCs, you just kill a few spores and you'll hit job 10 fast. After that just do the personality quest and you get a nice little starter weapon too for your class.

As for farming everything yourself, yea it's tough. I'd say that's the case about 95% of the time, but we mostly use the discord market channel for trades. Koko has mentioned creating something like @autotrade but it sounds like it would be quite an undertaking.

Playtester

QuoteJust in regards to that part, you can make like 1500-1700 "novice red potions" there, once you make those, and talked to all the NPCs, you just kill a few spores and you'll hit job 10 fast. After that just do the personality quest and you get a nice little starter weapon too for your class.
Yeah, the lack of Novice Potions wasn't the problem but killing a single spore with 1 STR build also took a minute each. And you really needed to spam so potions so you don't accidentally die.
And you only get a nice weapon for your class if the test result is the class you want to be.

OrcLordDaddy

#17
So far I like it on KokoRO, what I dislike though is:

Overcomplicated Airship Ticket system that changes and overcomplicates something that really didn't need to be changed.

Training Grounds Personality Quiz NPC dialog is horrible. Another unneeded change. It would have sufficed to just add that "Novice Adventurer's Suit [1]" to all item rewards rather than changing EVERYTHING and adding personal opinion dialog that does not fit the game.

Same for the NPC that tells you about jobs, they added a "Special Classes" option which all reads like some kid wrote it with their own opinion about the classes, calling them Special Classes over Expanded Classes and stuff like "I can't see that class to be in a guild or in parties".

The Alchemist Novice Potion NPC is OP imo, it makes the start way too easy if at Job 10 you can go back in, get ~2500 Novice Potions and then start playing the game. Those will last up until Base ~40, it's like super unneeded easy mode.

Skill descriptions look like someone didn't even bother.

Multi-Clienting is enabled.


The biggest negative point is:

There is no Offline Vending.
Though I personally dislike custom changes, this is one of the very few changes (next to same sex marriage) that for me is a must mandatory feature for every server.

This is probably also a big turn off for many players? Which could hinder proper activity on the server and the population rising.
Discord is not enough for vending and empty cities do deliver the feeling of a ghost town dead server.

---

Other than that, trans classes and lategame maps are already available, this makes the entire experience rather kind of lame imo.
Though the server seems to be online since 2019?, it does make sense that it would have progressed up until Einbroch by now, but I personally am missing the episodic releases of new maps, the item drops changes and all of that.
It does make it slightly faster to reach 99/50 when you can go to Rachel Siromas for example, but that kind of just feels wrong.

---

I hope the server improves on at least some of those things, as so far I do enjoy playing on it a lot.

Playtester

QuoteOvercomplicated Airship Ticket system that changes and overcomplicates something that really didn't need to be changed.
Why is it overcomplicated? The only change I've seen is that you can directly jump from the global airship to the regional airship by using the south exit instead of the north exit. That's a simplification if you ask me.

QuoteTraining Grounds Personality Quiz NPC dialog is horrible. Another unneeded change. It would have sufficed to just add that "Novice Adventurer's Suit [1]" to all item rewards rather than changing EVERYTHING and adding personal opinion dialog that does not fit the game.

Same for the NPC that tells you about jobs, they added a "Special Classes" option which all reads like some kid wrote it with their own opinion about the classes, calling them Special Classes over Expanded Classes and stuff like "I can't see that class to be in a guild or in parties".
Dunno, maybe it's because I'm not native English, but I thought Koko improved all the NPC dialogues quite significantly.

In fact, I find it incredible how much effort he put into those. Just the Novice grounds feel a lot more professional than even the official servers. The instructors for example warp you correctly to the next person and actually force you to understand the system before proceeding the dialogue.

For me that's actually KokoRO's strongest point other than it being very close to official servers.

QuoteThe Alchemist Novice Potion NPC is OP imo, it makes the start way too easy if at Job 10 you can go back in, get ~2500 Novice Potions and then start playing the game. Those will last up until Base ~40, it's like super unneeded easy mode.
This is just to prevent people from creating throwaway accounts to farm Novice Potions. The wait time to get these potions should be about similar to rushing through the Novice Grounds on other servers.

QuoteSkill descriptions look like someone didn't even bother.
They definitely could be improved, but iRO's aren't better. Most private servers have more details in the skill descriptions, though, I agree with that.

QuoteMulti-Clienting is enabled.
Koko explained this with it being pretty much impossible to fully prevent multi-clienting anyway. People who really want to do it will also find a way.

The main reason I hate multi-clienting is because it makes it hard to find a party and attracts min-maxers. But luckily on KokoRO, just asking on Discord usually finds me some people who are willing to party with me all the time. I'm only playing an FS Acolyte on that server, no other character at all, and still I always found people to play with every day I looked for them.

Don't like multi-clienting? Well, just don't do it.

QuoteThere is no Offline Vending.
Though I personally dislike custom changes, this is one of the very few changes (next to same sex marriage) that for me is a must mandatory feature for every server.

This is probably also a big turn off for many players? Which could hinder proper activity on the server and the population rising.
Discord is not enough for vending and empty cities do deliver the feeling of a ghost town dead server.
Yeah I agree with that. I know offline vending is very hard to implement on this kind of server build, but if there is even the slightest chance it could work, in my opinion, adding this should be Koko's #1 priority.

Discord is pretty good for vending though, since people are very active there. Of course there aren't many players, so it's very unlikely someone will have any super rare item you want. It might not even exist on the whole server.

The biggest problem is that the towns feel empty, I agree with that part. Also just browsing shops is fun.

QuoteOther than that, trans classes and lategame maps are already available, this makes the entire experience rather kind of lame imo.
Though the server seems to be online since 2019?, it does make sense that it would have progressed up until Einbroch by now, but I personally am missing the episodic releases of new maps, the item drops changes and all of that.
It does make it slightly faster to reach 99/50 when you can go to Rachel Siromas for example, but that kind of just feels wrong.
I might be wrong, but I don't think KokoRO is an episodic server at all. It is 11.3 an always will be 11.3 afaik.

---------------------------

For me the two most negative things about KokoRO are actually:

- Party item share only works in melee range; this is similar to official servers but I prefer the map-wide share from private servers a lot more as it's 100% fair; luckily so far I could trust everybody I partied with to equally share the loot at the end, but it could lead to conflict is any super rare is ever to drop

- No exp balance / events; episode 11.3 has in my opinion severe balance problems, Wolves and Anubis being the worst offenders; many regions and monsters are just not worth it unless you want a particular drop; on previous close-to-official pre-renewal servers I played on there were at least regional exp events that boosted unpopular regions or monsters for a week; this allowed parties a change of scenery and it made the servers also feel more populated as people would frequently meet on those event maps; unfortunately Koko is not a fan of any events at all, so you only chance to explore the world is to find like-minded people who would tag along on your journey even though the rewards suck


Overall KokoRO is still an amazing server. Basically "Like official 11.3, but more polished".

Inspector Clouseau

There are a number of ways to handle the novice potions issue. The most streamlined way would just be making them undroppable, untradeable, and unable to put in storage. Why the admins chose to make it possible to take thousands with you and completely trivialize the early levels is baffling. It rather ruins the 1x experience, in my opinion.

I also don't agree that it is impossible to curtail multi-clienting, and the argument of, "If you don't like it, just don't do it" is an old, tired, and bad one.

Playtester

Quote from: Inspector Clouseau on Apr 21, 2022, 02:40 PM
There are a number of ways to handle the novice potions issue. The most streamlined way would just be making them undroppable, untradeable, and unable to put in storage. Why the admins chose to make it possible to take thousands with you and completely trivialize the early levels is baffling. It rather ruins the 1x experience, in my opinion.
Well the potions were tradable on official servers and Koko didn't want to change it. He is actually fairly strict on keeping things as official as possible.

QuoteI also don't agree that it is impossible to curtail multi-clienting, and the argument of, "If you don't like it, just don't do it" is an old, tired, and bad one.
Why is it a bad one in this context? In my opinion choice is almost always better than no choice.

Inspector Clouseau

If choice is as big a factor as you say, then you are likewise free to choose a server that allows multi-clienting rather than one that doesn't.

The fact is that multi-clienting is a playstyle that offers massive advantages to the ones practicing it at the expense of community well-being. It's not a simple as, "If you don't like it, don't do it" because if your preference is to not multi-client while most other people do, you fall behind economically and competitively. Not everyone agrees with multi-clienting or even likes it, so it only makes sense that we wind up with different servers with different rules.

But that said, it is a lie that it is impossible to prevent multi-clienting. Of course there will always be those who try, but you can make the process far more difficult, and eventually they will be caught.

Playtester

I agree with what you said, but my point was that on a server where there's no competition in the first place, it doesn't matter. And it's up to the players if they want to exploit the mechanics to the max or just play for fun.

OldPoring

Server on the Aegis platform? Where is the link to the server itself? Couldn't find koko

Playtester

Quote from: OldPoring on May 06, 2022, 04:51 PM
Server on the Aegis platform? Where is the link to the server itself? Couldn't find koko
It's no longer available for now.

It's a bad time to look for a private server.