Ragnagoats - 1/1/1 (An in-depth review)

[Aeroskye]

Background

I have been playing this server for a collective of about 8 months (including both my time on ExcelRO & now RagnaGoats).

The server staff is the same with a few additions and removal of the previous admin. The previous admin was not a technical person nor did he have much in-depth game knowledge owing to which the server was ridden with bugs and issues for which some difficult calls needed to be made hence, the restructuring was done with a clearer vision of the server with a much capable & technically sound staff who know the game inside out.

Basic details:

1. Population lurks around 90~110 most of the day with about ~50 vendors.
2. Population is well split between Europe, NA, SA, and some Asians.
3. WoE is active - Castle cap of 10 people per guild.
4. Server has episodic progression and intends to hit Transcendent classes (Ep. 9) before the end of the year of 2023.
5. Server comes with its own testing realm for builds.
6. No multiclient. You can transfer your gears/zeny between the vendor & your account via mail free of cost.
7. RMS page: https://ratemyserver.net/index.php?page=detailedlistserver&serid=22121&itv=6&url_sname=Ragnagoats
8. Server Website: https://ragnagoats.eu/
9. Discord Link: https://discord.gg/BsKFqVcDjq
10. Max Level 99/50 (2-2 classes)
11. Current patch: Gefenia (As of 15.09.2023)
12. Upcoming patch: Rebirth (Middle of November 2023)

Server Features

1. It's a true 1x server. It's closest to RO as you can get. Minimal customization which is majorly limited to mostly QOL features.

2. There's a concept of Map/Race of the day that gives you +15% exp bonus. It changes every day and is at random, hence, there's definitely some aid to the 1x leveling experience.

3. In skill changes (from what I can recall): BB Gutterlines have been removed, Backstab doesn't turn around the target & brewing QOL feature has been introduced which basically makes brewing a little less time-consuming & less tedious. The chances & materials required still remain the same.

4. Testing Arena : My favourite feature of the server. Admins realize the server has little to no room for errors and that is why there's a parallel test realm where you can test your builds. You can test your DPS, Killspeed, and even has a PvP & GvG test room.

5. Guild tax can go up to 99%.

6. No anti-inflation patch, so it makes it easier for you to start off. (Basically, low-end cards are higher drop rates and are not set at 0.01%. For example, Fabre card is 0.15%).

7. Party tap bonuses. Skills have been tweaked to make tapping easier for all classes. For example, sight taps mobs it touches whether they hide or not. Same with pneuma. Just another QOL feature that makes life for hardcore (less useful party) classes to contribute to the party. Also, eases the pains of leveling.

8. Guild dungeons are accessible to everyone.

9. Slot enchanter exists but is only limited to items that are sold by NPCs. It is expected to be in full effect once Trans hits. This was probably done to act as a zeny sink and also give the community an alternative way to get gears that may not have enough supply in the market.

10. Goat Points: An alternative currency in the game that accumulates as you tap/kill monsters. Basically gathers up as you play. Those can be exchanged for services like Storage capacity enhancement, Name Change, Stylist Coupons, Costume coupons etc.

11. You can convert every hat in the game into a costume of your choice through a costume coupon available via Goatpoints.

12. Many costume hat quests also exist. None of those happen to be those crazy wings and fairy s***. It's mostly official item sprites without the effects like Rideword hat for example. The quest NPCs are spread across the world and you'll come across them randomly during your hunts.

13. Kafra warps you across all cities connected by Kafras (except cities off the port of Alberta). Just another QOL feature that doesn't need you to hop from town to town. For example, you can go to Lutie, directly via warp from any town. You can go from Alde to Comodo directly. The cost is the sum of the Kafra warp cost it'd require you if you were to hop the conventional way.

Game Masters

1. I have personally never seen admin & technical staff this sound and adept with game behavior. They're constantly looking to improve the player experience & go as deep as fixing the attack animations of desync'd mobs which are probably not even noticeable to 99% of the people. Just an example of how deep they're into this, to almost the point of obsession.

2. They also seem very approachable as feedback is taken into consideration very quickly and if found useful implemented just as quickly.

3. The player experience is their top priority and that is also why there have been regular host shifting to ensure nobody has issues in the game.

4. Some regions like SEA were having issues with the connection so a new proxy has been put in for them.

5. Also a big heads up for the Community Manager who is super active on Discord as well as in-game with interesting events from time to time handling all the queries.

Community

1. Community is super friendly and helpful with the main chat being fairly active.

2. There are rare drops announcements that work as a great instigator for the community to interact and even trade. Drops that are 0.05% or lower get announced.

3. You will see a fair bit of parties coming along once you hit 60+ although not every day of the week. Most effective way to level is probably parties though I'd recommend if you do play you want to make some friends who you can duo/trio more regularly.

4. Population is well split between Europe, NA, SA, and some Asians.

5. We have small in-game events like sightseeing, hide and seek, screenshots of the month perpetually on going from time to time.

Economy

1. Considering the low population things can be hard to find. You wouldn't find everything in the market. You will find fair stuff from time to time but you cannot completely rely on just farming raw zeny and gearing yourself up off buying stuff in the market.

2. Prices aren't too obscure. Some days you'll find a 6mil Raydric while other days it'll have 10mil Raydrics, but for the most part, the prices aren't insane. I personally buy a lot of stuff from the market regularly.

3. WoE mats don't sell as much, which is the biggest instigator of the market, but that comes from the low population. As time passes that issue will hopefully resolve itself as more WoE guilds show up.

4. You can connect with top forgers & brewers who provide the server and get your elemental gears.

Events

1. Smaller events like screenshot event, hide and seek, and some other random events are hosted fairly regularly by the Community Manager.

2. Season events like summer events are also available that reward you with temporary exp bonus headgear. Currently the Summer event is on.

3. Events are also well thought out, especially the seasonal ones as I have seen 3 of them happen during my time (Halloween, Easter, Summer). All the 3 have been completely different from each other.

War of Emperium

1. There are currently 2 major guilds.

2. Only 1 castle is open at a time and it's rotated seasonally.

3. The castle cap for each guild is 10. So you cannot have more than 10 members of the same guild participating at the same time in the castle. Also, the castle has just 2 floors including the emp room (recent development). So basically when you enter the castle you land directly on the floor before the emp room. This is for more frequent fighting and making attacks easier in 2 guild scenarios.

4. Items dropped in treasure boxes have been marginally buffed in the real world. So they're easier to get in the real world so that it's not disproportionately benefitting people who play and win WoE.

5. No God items drop.

6. Costumes are turned off in WoE maps.

7. Staff is proactive with feedback received from guilds. Rules are regularly tweaked to suitor the small population.


Donations

1. You can donate but there are no benefits, except you can accumulate goatpoints faster if you donate. You have to do it purely out of your love for the server which shows where the hearts of the GMs are at.

2. Existence of goat points further bolsters the fact that they don't wish to have any services with real money and everybody irrespective of whether they can afford to donate or not have access to those QOL features.


Overall a potentially great server is on its way to slowly building up. The only thing it needs is more people. I understand that will not happen overnight on a server that is 1x. It isn't for everybody but slowly & steadily it's growing and hopefully, it'll continue to do so.


P.S. I'll add to the list if I am missing stuff and edit on features that show up so the post is updated. Also, I'll be adding some screenshots for all to see which I'll collect over the course of the coming few days.

[Aeroskye]

Bumped.

P.S Had loaded the SS incorrectly, but no option to delete response x_x

[Aeroskye]

Here are some screenshots I collated from the community (WoE, Test Room, Random ingame stuff)

[2k2]

No multiclient is such a turn off in a small server like this one; hate this new idea admins think the community likes it lol. The screenshots though actually made me want to try. No costumes and everyone on poo hat/sunglasses/AoA/flu mask etc imo is very nostalgic and classic. The 10 guild cap also looks very healthy for the server size.

[Aeroskye]

Hehehe indeed, you can cover your hats with costumes, but they're turned off in WoE maps.


Also to your point of multiclient, it definitely is a turnoff for a lot, but not for people playing here. Also you eventually get used to the pace. You only feel slow when you're comparing to how your speed was in other servers you played. This server has its own pace you'd progress at. Comparison is the killer of joy .

Also, while multi-client may be a turn-off, RO isn't supposed to be played that way. What multi-client does is get everyone to play solo in a multiplayer game which for me personally is a bigger turn-off.

I had this experience in Origins (which otherwise was a very lovely server) that everybody I knew and more had 5-6 extra clients rolling around. I knew people with 12-15 clients too. In fact, rarely did I see anyone not playing with at least 3 multiclient.

So while it gives a "sense" of a huge population, the game isn't being played how it is meant to be. Solo meta develops. The social aspect of the game for me is lost.

Having said that, to each their own. I hope you like it here if you do try. Goodluck!

[misterj]

man, all those so called classic servers always use trans mechanics... pass lol

[Aeroskye]

man, all those so called classic servers always use trans mechanics... pass lol

https://ragnagoats.eu/?module=about&action=vision

[OrcLordDaddy]

RO isn't supposed to be played that way.

That applies to all of the changes and "QOLs" the server has, but hey pick and choose buffet am I right?

[Playtester]

I personally believe in that in an MMORPG you should always only play one character whose role you take. Even when I still played on the original euRO I only had my Priest and no other character. Not even a vending merchant.

I don't think multi-clienting adds any fun to the game, it makes leveling more effective yes, but it's not more fun to play when you have to switch around various clients, it's just annoying. I'd actually claim almost nobody really truly wants to multi-client.

So not allowing it is actually a benefit to everyone, assuming everybody follows the rules.

I feel like people are way too worried about things that don't really matter that much at all. I always played on large servers because I thought I won't find a party on smaller ones. But then I played on a really small server and I probably had more partying on there than any other server even though there weren't any benefits in doing so. That's simply because everybody just played for fun and not for efficiency so everybody would just party with everyone online.

In the end, a server is the most defined by the people playing on it rather than its settings and rules. (But the settings and rules determine who joins that server, so you basically define what community you want to have by that.)

[Aeroskye]

That applies to all of the changes and "QOLs" the server has, but hey pick and choose buffet am I right?

Nope. One thing doesn't affect the gameplay and meta at all. Other thing completely does. There's a huge difference between a QOL and being able to multiclient.

Multiclienting makes it a different game altogether. A solo assassin cross is not supposed to have priest buffs, link, endow, adrenaline rush, overthrust & Gospel buff on it while it farms. Autoloot makes the game different too. It benefits AOE and ranged classes and makes classes like Rogue a lot subpar that they are intended to be than other classes like farming Knights, Hunters, Wizards, Performers etc.

An example of a QOL change is being able to smash fewer buttons to brew 1000 white pots before WoE. Instead of choosing to do 3 taps per pot, here you need to do 1, hence saving your keyboard. Another is being able to warp further. You pay the same but instead of talking to Kafra twice, you need to do it once.

A world of difference between the two. Blows me that people don't see that, but I guess convenience for over a decade makes it difficult to rationalize that when you're so used to it.

Also, I really like your Orc Lord profile pic.


P.S. Also, I made a server review of a server I liked playing on highlighting its features. Idk why it's becoming an "I don't like this feature" response page. I have highlighted everything about the server crystal clear. The server & player philosophy here may not match your preference for the game, which is fine. If it's not for you, it isn't. We'd love to welcome you folks on here if you do decide to play. Cheers!

[inKontroL]

Hello, I wanted to ask if you know if the Hispanic, Spanish/Latino community plays on this server and if so, what is the name of the guild?

[Aeroskye]

Hello, I wanted to ask if you know if the Hispanic, Spanish/Latino community plays on this server and if so, what is the name of the guild?

Hi, yes there's an entire Brazilian PvM guild of nearly 8-10 active people called "Aqua Dropou". If you hop on discord you'd want to look for them or a guy named Lenii.
There's another guild called "enemy" which have 3-4 people too. You'd want to look for Trust on discord for it.

[misterj]

https://ragnagoats.eu/?module=about&action=vision

yeah that's all well and good but if you have trans bowling bash and trans songs, then it's just a crappy version of trans woe.

[Aeroskye]

yeah that's all well and good but if you have trans bowling bash and trans songs, then it's just a crappy version of trans woe.

I believe its a matter of preference. I did not play RO back when in pure classic days I guess. Having said that, I have never seen anyone complain about the mechanics so far, so I guess all is well.

[misterj]

I believe its a matter of preference. I did not play RO back when in pure classic days I guess. Having said that, I have never seen anyone complain about the mechanics so far, so I guess all is well.

yes, i know. because most of em didnt actually play back then. either way it changes things drastically and negatively to have permanent of every song buff vs only getting to have one at a time.

[Playtester]

Someone should make a Wiki on all changes between classic and pre-renewal so server owners would even know what to change for an authentic experience.

Even I only remember like 10% of the differences anymore.

[2k2]

Someone should make a Wiki on all changes between classic and pre-renewal so server owners would even know what to change for an authentic experience.

Even I only remember like 10% of the differences anymore.

Kokotewa likely is the only person that might have all this information and a way to confirm it. Maybe KokoRO wiki is still up and was updated with all the old official behavior/balance? Would be nice if they showed up here to talk about long-forgotten mechanics.

[Playtester]

Kokotewa likely is the only person that might have all this information and a way to confirm it. Maybe KokoRO wiki is still up and was updated with all the old official behavior/balance? Would be nice if they showed up here to talk about long-forgotten mechanics.

Kokotewa only goes back to episode 11.3. I'm not sure if Koko ever cared about pre-trans.

[misterj]

Kokotewa only goes back to episode 11.3. I'm not sure if Koko ever cared about pre-trans.

it's in the works

[Aeroskye]

Bump: Server got a new patch. Niffleheim is now accessible.

Also adding next patch details on main post.

[Lenii]

What a good sumarized and well done post Aero! One quick adition to the server, is that I know 1x can be hard, specially without multi, but the amount of good people I met in this server that helped me, made this journey unique and arguably the server that I most enjoyed playing even with less than 1 year playing.

My guild is a totally casual, 4fun and PvM guild, mostly made up of friends that started playing RO on this server (just me who played RO for many years) and believe it or not they reached 9x (4~5 months playing), one of them already got 99 before me! 

However, the key point is that not everything is about leveling up as fast as possible. We helped strangers along the way, looked for items together and even laughed, even though we ended up dying for several easy mvps and missing several basic mechanics.

Hope to see you in Prontera!

[yennar]

actually, this is a nice server. it's refreshing to see a good admin team which has a clear vision

[notFeldu]

The review is spot on. Despite of my busy schedule I keep coming back to play this server every few days. People are wonderful and helpful and the staff is probably the best I have come across in my years of playing RO.

Recommended for sure if you love playing low rates.

[Herpderp]

1x card rates?  So effectively 0.5x since cards on official servers are 0.02 due to the drop rate bug?

[Aeroskye]

Yeh I believe cards come around 0.019 so closer to 0.02 the way it gets calc'd.

Some squishy mob cards are higher though since anti-inflation patch was not activated.

[misterj]

Yeh I believe cards come around 0.019 so closer to 0.02 the way it gets calc'd.

it's an off by 1 error in aegis. the way they store drop percentage is with an integer from 1 to 10k in the DB, 1 meaning (ostensibly) .01% drop rate. the random number generator returns [0, 10000). they compare the result with <= (instead of <). 0 AND 1 are <= to 1, so every drop has a .01% chance more than they intended

[Aeroskye]

it's an off by 1 error in aegis. the way they store drop percentage is with an integer from 1 to 10k in the DB, 1 meaning (ostensibly) .01% drop rate. the random number generator returns [0, 10000). they compare the result with <= (instead of <). 0 AND 1 are <= to 1, so every drop has a .01% chance more than they intended

Thank you for this. So, the "=" ends up giving a "successful" result at 2 outputs (i.e 0 & 1) out of 10,000 possibilities (i.e 0  to 9,999).

[Playtester]

It's actually out of 10001 possibilities, so 2/10001 drop rate to be exact.

Well, actually that's still not fully exact, because the way the random function works also has an influence, but that impact is only minimal.

[misterj]

It's actually out of 10001 possibilities, so 2/10001 drop rate to be exact.

how so? n mod 10000 is only gonna return 10000 possible values

[Playtester]

how so? n mod 10000 is only gonna return 10000 possible values

If Aegis used rand()%10000 that would be true, but as far as I remember they used their own rand function which has min and max as parameter so it would return a number between 0 and 10000, and there are 10001 numbers between 0 and 10000.

A long time ago Ultramage tried to explain to me how it really worked and did some complex calculations and then came to a really strange number like 1.75%, I never fully understood that.

(I think it was something like they generate a number from 0 to 32767 and then mod it with 10000, so you actually have 4 chances to get a number from 0 to 2767 and 3 chances to get a number from 2768 to 9999.)

From the code I've seen it just looked like "x+1/10001" drop rate to me though.

I guess we could just test if an item with a drop rate of 99.99% has a chance of not dropping, but sounds painful to test.

[misterj]

If Aegis used rand()%10000 that would be true

the GetServerRandom returns from [0, 20000] and that is later modded against 10000 to return a value [0,10000). 10000 is actually used (in later episodes) to mean failure (and they also  clamping drop rate bonuses from gum/pcbang to 9000)

[Playtester]

the GetServerRandom returns from [0, 20000] and that is later modded against 10000 to return a value [0,10000).

That would mean the drop chance is actually 3/20001 (or 5/20001 if it's <=), doesn't it?

[Aeroskye]

Bump! Gefenia patch is here. It's actually been up for over 2 weeks.

Next patch is Trans Patch, tentatively mid November.

[inKontroL]

Is all this true? What are gms doing playing woes on their own server?


https://tinypic.host/image/PX2yE

https://tinypic.host/image/PX5u5

[Wotan]

- Some GM do play woe yes. (Not a secret)
- The MVP cards you mention have dropped.
- The hated 3rd guild, I am not sure to what it refers to. OP and LFP are the ones with full roster in woe (10 guildies limit in castle), other guilds don't have full roster and show up from times to times only.
- The farming is about what you can expect on x1.

[inKontroL]

We were going to enter a group of players to play woes, but knowing that there are mvps cards involved, we will go to another server, we cannot fight 1x against mvp cards.

[Patashiva]

Is all this true? What are gms doing playing woes on their own server?


https://tinypic.host/image/PX2yE

https://tinypic.host/image/PX5u5

To add to this and to some of what Wotan said above:

• Neither OP nor LFP are elitist from what I can tell and I've had lots of interactions with players from both guilds so I don't know where this person from the screenshot gets that idea from. What may make them seem a little 'above' everyone else is the fact that both of these guilds have been around since Excel days and, as such, have a lot of high-level chars and good gear farmed already. No foul play going on, though.
• I'm pretty sure I know who this third guild that was 'hated by everyone' is. I believe they have declared their intent to leave the server after one of their members got banned for dual clienting.
• LFP does not have a GTB card. The GTB card belongs to a player who is currently not playing WoE/isn't affiliated with any existing WoE guild. OP does have and uses its Orc Hero card, though, as far as I'm aware.
• It's actually not that hard to get into WoE if you know what you're doing. This server doesn't have the inflation patch applied so a lot of useful cards drop at increased rates, making it easier for new people/guilds to jump in. Other than that, yes, it very much is a 1x grind.
• Regarding your comment "what are gms doing playing woe on their own server" - why should gms not be allowed to play on and enjoy their own server? Especially since it's 100% a charity project, it doesn't cost a dime to play there. At least they're open and upfront about it and don't try to hide in the shadows.

[Wotan]

We were going to enter a group of players to play woes, but knowing that there are mvps cards involved, we will go to another server, we cannot fight 1x against mvp cards.

Then you need a server with them disabled completely because in any other server, x1 or not, you will have a few MVP cards around after just a couple of months.

[Aeroskye]

Is all this true? What are gms doing playing woes on their own server?


https://tinypic.host/image/PX2yE

https://tinypic.host/image/PX5u5

Let me guess, it's the BR players that are quitting, right? (for like the 3rd time)

I am guessing he's claiming he stomped the WoE for months? That's absolute BS. I played WoE on the server from September 2022 (not 100% when first woe was) to November and the guild he is claiming who stomped everything did not win a single WoE except 1. Delusion at its best.

After November my guild members (3-4 of them went on long breaks because of winter holidays, I personally went on a mountain expedition). That's when they started "stomping" guilds with their unfinished rosters.

Having said that, from what I hear, some of the people from these folks' guild had come asking for their accounts back from Excel transfer. If the server players were so hateful, why come back looking for your accounts? I can share screenshots of my interaction from one of the members here. These guys just spread misinformation. He clearly did not mention why they quit, because there was a "correction" of exp bug exploit that happened in Excel which they loved 99ing their chars on, and the staff took it away from them. The entire group is shady af. Love how they continue to stay around and spew poison despite this server being so "unfair".

Not to mention, a couple from their community from what I hear were caught using 3rd party programs and breaking rules and got banned. (Not sure if same guild). Then they started drama on discord which happens to be their modus operandi everywhere.

Salty peeps. If you don't like playing here, why stay. Yet they do. Funny ain't it?

Also, the major argument seems to be, that the old guilds are established so only play a new server. That way you'll always be hopping from server to server. If you come to an established server, you'll ofcourse find people who have spent long periods of time there.

Also P.S There's no server where GMs don't play. They just don't tell you. Why would someone start a server that is free to play, put hours of work into it without any monetization benefits and not even play. Here the staff is transparent about it, and people know their ingame chars too.

P.S. WoE rules are tweaked before every season depending on suggestions from existing WoE guilds. If you want to be able to partake in that process get your guild registered and become a WoE representative.

[Aeroskye]

Regarding mvp cards, it has been up for discussion a few times and none of the times have been there an overwhelming favour of banning it from the community in WoE maps.

If it does happen someday, I am sure community/staff decision will be adhered too.

The Orc Hero hasn't been here since forever anyway, it dropped last WoE season only. GTB is not under use.

Not to mention s*** on people for having MvP cards after they spent 8-10 months farming them at 1x rates is ridiculous.

[Playtester]

Then you need a server with them disabled completely because in any other server, x1 or not, you will have a few MVP cards around after just a couple of months.

I always thought putting the rate of MVP cards to 0.01% because "some of them break the game" was stupid, it just delays the inevitable.

I honestly would probably just rebalance them so they don't pose a problem even if they dropped. But I can see that removing the drops completely might probably cause the least drama.

[notFeldu]

Been playing this server for a good while now and the claims are just absurd. BR guild players (not all, but a handful) are sadly often caught resorting to 3rd party cheats like macros and dual clienting and when they get banned they cry about it in discord and claim GMs are against them.

As far as elitism is concerned, I have never experienced it. I am mostly play PvM here. I have interacted with a lot of LFP and OnlyPans and none of them seem to be elitist by any sort. I have partied with LFP members in multiple leveling parties. I have a friend in OnlyPans who helped me start off on the server and still helps me out when I need it.

Idk what this guy is talking about. Also GMs do play the server here, its well known and they're spread across different (often rival guilds). Some WoE & some don't. Every server has GMs playing in it, the only difference is they're not transparent.