Pure-RO, Home At Last.

[Necro]

  Hey everybody Corey here, or as people online know me Necro or GM Oasis from VeeRO. I'll try making this review as in-depth as I care to, and try not to ramble. This is my second time writing a review for this server because my first attempt was lost because I'm an idiot.
I will be completely honest and highlight the servers features as well it's flaws and my own thoughts and memories.

  I joined iRO around the time Trans class was released and some of my fondest memories are of me and my friends partying in Byalan and discovering Nifleheim for the first time. Unfortunately I had to leave because I couldn't afford the monthly fees anymore and, still craving RO found my way to private servers. It was neat for a while, but there was no challenge and trying to find a party or a guild who felt like more than a business partnership was nonexistent. Eventually I stopped playing altogether because it stopped feeling like RO to me. I know you might be wondering why I'm going on about this, and tl;dr and whatnot. I want to express why Pure-RO is so refreshing and how it feels like home after only a week. Just bear with me. So without further ado, the review!

Community Rating

  The first thing I noticed when I signed in was the population. Most servers who boast 200+ players are typically filled with a ton of vendors selling trash and players with multiple clients sitting in Pront. There were certainly a lot of vendors, but it wasn't as many as I expected to see and it wasn't full of people selling apples for 1,000,000,000. Oh, and about players using multiple clients, of course they dual client, I do it myself, but it isn't like some places I've seen with 8 players running 10 clients. The players are all friendly and helpful and again, they form parties! Now, I'm not saying that there are no a******, every server has them. At least this server only has one or two, and they aren't even good trolls at that.

Server Rating

  Now, about the server itself, I noticed it lags at about the same time every day. It isn't enough to cause a problem, but it is irritating. The Admin is in contact with the server host resolving the issue, and I have to admit that I didn't lag at all today so maybe the issue is resolved. Other than that I have no complaints about stability. There is also a scheduled maintenance so you don't have to worry about a GM popping in and saying "Sign out we're doing stuff."

GM Rating

  This was my biggest concern as I played. The Gms are certainly active, I've seen them online at least once a day since I've been here. Unfortunately they haven't done much to help from what I've seen. Granted, I didn't ask for help,  but the other reviews on Pure-RO seem to have the same complaint. However, Helios (The Admin) just hired a new GM (Lilac) and she's easily the nicest and most helpful GM I've met in a long time. I can't give her enough credit. I'm not trying to say that the other Gms are trash and should be shunned, they just haven't impressed me yet.

Gameplay Rating

  I saved this for last because I wanted to end on a strong positive note. The first day I played, I was in a party making friends. The server strongly emphasizes partying without resorting to that lame bonus exp. per member gag. It doesn't force you to form parties, but it certainly compliments it. The guilds are another huge factor that made me call Pure-RO home so quickly. I grew up playing iRO with a guild who cared more about having fun and camaraderie so it's a big deal to me. (Wolves of Geffen, once a wolf always a wolf.) On my second day, I was picked up by the guild Reverence and they made me feel right at home. I've only been in the guild a few days, but it feels like we're old friends already. I've heard similar stories from other players in different guilds so hopefully it's a theme on this server.

  In conclusion, Pure-RO is an excellent server with a wonderful player base. There are a few kinks, but the staff is doing a good job fixing the issues and I feel comfortable invite anyone to at least pop their head in and see if they agree with me.

  Oh, and if you do decide to stop by, don't be afraid to give me a shout on my Priest NecroCorey. I'd love to hang out and make a few new friends!

[Soulman]

Having some sort of quantitative rating would be much appreciated, and would certainly complement our perception of the review.

[sheena]

The server crashes most of the time. 

[silent]

The server crashes most of the time. 

There's been a considerable amount of up-time, to say it crashes "most of the time" is a ridiculous exaggeration. As a lot of servers I've seen, PureRO are simply having some client and host teething issues. Given how young it is, it still promises a bright future.

[Bue]

Lets not get carry away here.

The server had a great opening, but the follow up is where it counts.

Now, your review is bias on two accounts:
1. compensating rather than talking about the issues sincerely.
2. emphasis on qualities that don't seem to exist for everyone.

Regardless, I'm glad at least someone is having fun somewhere in RO.

(I also did my fair share of snooping around, but I would be very happy if you provide some real inside information.)

[sheena]

The GMs are really cooperative while others are causing sprite errors to those who did not patch properly. It is a pretty decent server IMHO but they need to work on stability.

[Triper]

Having some sort of quantitative rating would be much appreciated, and would certainly complement our perception of the review.

Users don't really need to post a classification to review. If I say good, it's good, you do the rest of the interpretation. If I say bad, you will see it as bad or read the rest and do your own interpretation.

I know that numbers and ranges facilitate things to be understood, at some context, but if someone do a proper review without using that, it should be enough to people understand his point of view. I'm sure nobody will just go with the numbers when it's about to join a server if you're reading reviews ...[OK, there are people that will do that -_- but still...].

[Playtester]

2. emphasis on qualities that don't seem to exist for everyone.

Err, that's pretty much how you do reviews, though. If something is perfect for you, you give it a perfect score, even if others might not consider it perfect at all. A review always reflects the personal impression of the reviewer and not the overall opinion of the players.

Imo, the only thing the review is missing is that it doesn't even point out what makes the server special, instead it talks about the things I would personally rather criticize, but that's fine.


I think the server is doing fairly well. Special about it is that it tries to stay much closer to official servers than any other servers. So for people like me who hate stuff like dungeon warpers, healers and custom spawn modifications, it is really awesome.

You could have criticized that the GMs aren't really available much, but that issue was solved already, the new GM is extremely active.

The only issues left for the server is the lag and the crashes.

The lag is however not really caused by the server. The host is very expensive, has all the protections you can imagine and certainly can hold a lot more players that there are now. The lag comes from routing issues a certain company currently has and this affects not only this host but many hosts (you can see people complaining about lag lately on other servers too). Not really sure what the admin can do much in that case. Sure he could switch to a cheaper host in hope that routing is better for most, but...
I personally hardly have issues with lag, though. Even if I have lag I just do something else for an hour and when I come back everything is fine again.

The late crashes are probably caused by some source code updates that make certain actions crash the server. The admin is however knowledgable and can figure out any issue within a day and fix it. The only concern I have is that if the admin is sleeping everybody has to wait until he wakes up because he restarts the server. =3
Anyway I'd say this is the price when you always want everything up-to-date with all the recent fixes on the emulators included. I think it will improve automatically. The less there is left to fix the less is the risk that you add a way to crash the server.

The staff also compensates players that had problems.

Other than these two issues the server is really good. The staff is great and now also available all the time. The community is really good and also WoE competitive (despite WoE not being there yet, I'm know many of the guild want to participate in it seriously). Some of the automatic events are really fun and there also other events like the deepest cave event right now. Economy is also great, there are so many useful items you can buy through vending all the time and it's all based on Zeny so you don't need any donation or event credits to trade at all, which is a big plus for me too.

There is a fair amount of other good low rate servers opening or open already, however, they all have more customs than PureRO and that's what makes it the server of choice for me.

[Bue]

Ahhh. I didn't word that correctly since it was around 6am and I just did another coding spree.

It doesn't force you to form parties, but it certainly compliments it.

Says that it compliment forming parties, but doesn't tell you how. >>

Perhaps ...

2. emphasis on qualities that don't exist.

And thanks for the information. O:

[Elementals]

This server intrigues me.
In one hand I want to "experience" that feel which only low rates can offer again.
Taking an airship to travel to the upper continent, doing the job quests, forming parties with people,etc.
On the other hand though, not sure if I'm up to the grind of low rates these days, feels like too much compromise : (

[Playtester]

Well on low rates the way is the goal, isn't it? If you have fun every time you play it doesn't really matter what level you are or what equips you have. And RO can actually be fun on lower levels too.

Besides, even on 8x rates the real hardcore grinders will be max level in a week. =p

[Bue]

Well on low rates the way is the goal, isn't it? If you have fun every time you play it doesn't really matter what level you are or what equips you have. And RO can actually be fun on lower levels too.

Besides, even on 8x rates the real hardcore grinders will be max level in a week. =p

Leveling is about the journey and the destination.

On 'close to official' (barebones athena), neither the journey nor the destination is worth it; since its already been played out.

I won't go off on a tangent, but certainty you know what I mean?

[Elementals]

Well on low rates the way is the goal, isn't it? If you have fun every time you play it doesn't really matter what level you are or what equips you have. And RO can actually be fun on lower levels too.

Besides, even on 8x rates the real hardcore grinders will be max level in a week. =p

Thing is, since I've already been through that in a 3x, I think I just had fleeting nostalgia lol,
Not really up to start from 0 again in such environment these days.
I'll let the past stay in the past 

[sheena]

There are warpers so its not really close to official on the part which sure made quest a lot easier.

[Triper]

There are warpers so its not really close to official on the part which sure made quest a lot easier.

Psst, oficials have them too[or had, dunno nowadays] =P In the past they were VIP exclusives or to the ones who would buy Blue Giant Butterfly Wings[or whatever they were called] and I think someone told here that jRO had them too.

While they are a bad thing because of the Warp Skill and some money profit ways to acos on a fresh server, they also make the walking boring work tons of time easier for who just wants to go there and done. They also incentive the usage of less double accounts even if most of the time people will do them anyway because of the buffs >_>

[sheena]

Only for premium not as an NPC warp. They even have warps for intercontinental maps. Definitely not your classic feel but I'm ok with it.

[RMS Shin]

Hello

I would like to put this server back into the public's eye.


I've been playing on this server now for almost a month and I find it to be an excellent server. The population is currently low but it is holding strong.

If anyone is interested in giving this server a try, it's definitely a place where you'll call home just like Corey has.