Return to morroc: A server worth waiting for and looking into.

[kiryutokogami]

I am writing this review as a veteran ro player and has dipped into a lot of private servers. This review is purely based on my personal experience with the game.

Its a heavily customized server that i think none has ever seen before. All the old jobs are gone, including the old thief, assassin and rogue. While these 3 are still in the game, theyve been reworked to the point that its a new experience playing them.

There a lot of new classes introduced and all are very unique.

The whole map, mobs, item drops, exp etc. Has been overhauled and no amount of knowledge you have from previous iterations of the game can help you be a veteran in this server.

I will start with the bad first.

The negative experiences i have had with this game so far stemmed from what make this server interesting. Because of the complete overhaul of the entire game, everything is new, from the mob location to mob drops to the rate of item drop to the exp you gain from each mob. There is a wiki for the game but the wiki is completely lackluster which make it insanely difficult to research what monsters drop what items and the drop rate of said items. You have to ask discord or main chat to get answers.

Another negative is the class balance. While every class is different and unique and this server has enough variety of classes that you will 100% find something that suits your playstyle, the balance between each classes are vastly different. Some classes are clear outliers when it comes to dps output, ease of play, survivability, easy to gear etc.

I also feel like because of the complete overhaul of monster behavior and maps, the density of mobs and the number of mob spawns on each map is lackluster and definitely need an improvement. One example of this is lets say you are hunting for a specific item, lets call it item X. Item X only drops from mob Y. Mob Y only spawns on Map Z. There are times where there are only 2 or 3 Mob Ys on Map Z at any given time which makes it insanely frustrating to hunt that said item even with a 1% drop chance. What makes it even worse is that fly wing and teleport has a cooldown which makes looking for the certain mob even harder. If at a given time, there are 3 people looking for that item, then you will be in for an incredibly bad experience since theres not enough mob to go for the 3 of you.

This also applies when just leveling in general, if there are 2 parties going on the same map, the mob density is so atrociously small that there wont be enough for the 2 parties and those 2 parties will have to compete with each other.

These issues so far contributes the most as to why most people quit without even touching the real end game.

While I know these issues exist, fixing it though would be another problem. Since every mob by itself is already deadly enough to take on 1v1 if youre using a weaker unbalanced class and increasing the density would just make it impossible to solo for majority of the underpowered classes.



Now on to the positive things.

One is that no matter how long you played other RO versions, you will definitely have a new game experience when you start on this server. The game feels like a completely new game even for an RO veteran.

Another positive is the MVP cards got completely overhauled and were balanced in such a way that they are not insanely overpowered but at the same time, they give higher benefits that non mvp cards. This means that people who monopolized mvps, will not be insanely far ahead of you when it comes to power.

A positive thing also, While the number of unique classes that are underpowered are more than the classes that have steady progression, each classes are unique and will provide different experience which is good if you like to try out different jobs.

Donations in game are purely cosmetic and the costumes are so bland that you literally dont lose anything even if you play the game completely free. This is the literal definition of non pay to win server as even aesthetically, a donator has 0 advantage to a free 2 play player.

While I havent tried most MVP bosses, from my time playing, most end game farming spots are completely soloable, which means you dont need to have a good group to do end game content and can pretty much play solo. This is a huge positive as all private servers that ive played with group based end game content, tend to have a single group of people that monopolizes the content and leave all the new players fend for themselves. RO is not a very popular game and with tons of servers out there, the divded playerbase, a end game group content is just not possible anymore without having close friends or clique.

The absolute best thing for me, is that the server only has 1 GM and admin. That means potential for corrupt GM giving items to their friends to monopolize things on the server is close to none existent.

These are my experience from the limited time I have so far on the server.


While there are negative things, i believe a server that did a massive overhaul on literally the whole game like this one, will never be perfect at launch. I see the GM trying his best to balance the classes and the effort is there to make each unique class feel good playing from the beginning to end game. Hopefully he will have ideas on how to get there. As of the current iteration of the game, some class have insanely awful time on early levels while some have awful time in later levels. But with what im seeing on Admin's effort on making each class journey experience more streamline and smooth, i think it wont take long for the owner to make improvements.


Overall though, the experience I have on this server is pretty fun. It is a new server so I already expected everything wont be perfect. I see the owner working hard and for me, thats what matters the most. A game as big as this will definitely require tremendous effort to make everything smooth and playable.


This server is definitely worth trying if youre looking to play ragnarok online and at the same time, want that new game feeling where you have to rediscover everything.

Also I cannot express how impressed i am in regards to the donation system of this server, by far the most free to play oriented server i have ever played on. I usually spend a few hundred dollars when I start new on a server just to get a headstart, but on this server, while you can sell the costumes you get from donating, the costumes you get from grinding looks just as good, if not better than what is being offered on the donation shop, so theres not really a demand for them.

[Playtester]

has enough variety of classes that you will 100% find something that suits your playstyle

I don't think the server has any class that suits the full support playstyle.

[Suspension]

These issues so far contributes the most as to why most people quit without even touching the real end game.

I'd argue the main reason people quit without touching the real end game is that, well, as you said it's a completely new game, and not RO anymore.

[kiryutokogami]

I don't think the server has any class that suits the full support playstyle.

While indeed it doesnt have a dedicated full support class, there are some builds out there or cards that can give you heal / potion pitcher combine with a class that can cast safety wall or pneuma, it can be a support class. Not full support but can play as support. Although most end game content really dont need support as the mechanics are all doable solo. It can help make thing easier though.

I think not having a support class by design is good as the end game content are all designed to be doable without having to rely on others.

[kiryutokogami]

I'd argue the main reason people quit without touching the real end game is that, well, as you said it's a completely new game, and not RO anymore.

Well that true for people who join the server with the expectation of they are going to play just another ro private server. A lot play RO for nostalgia and to relive the glory days of RO.

But if you read infos before you join a server, you know it is a completely new game on the RO engine. Even with that in mind, with the way how classes are balanced right now, some are underpowered to the point that progression seemed non existent for some classes. I think that what made the game unappealing to some.

Good example of this is the job judge. At lvl 25, theres a quest where you need to spend close to 50k to get a new weapon that will give you power spike. 50k is not easy for new player here. The selling amount of items are changed as well.

Some classes, you have to stop your leveling progression when you hit 20-30 and dedicate time to farming your gears just to have a comfortable experience leveling up. Most games you usually grind to max level before you start hunting for gears for optimization.

Im not sure if thats intended by the owner, if it is, then I guess in a way, its another route to your journey, but definitely not everyone's cup of tea.

[ADM Ornstein]

Hey there! Thanks for your review! I'm glad to see honest opinions here every time, positive or negative.

I'm glad you're enjoying your stay here. despite all the issues while working on the server, I work hard to make it as good as possible and it's rewarding to see it going so well

I'm sure some issues with balancing are very clear and are being worked on. Return to Morroc is a server that aims to fully remake a very flawed gem, so it's bound to find some hitches along the road.

It's very important to join the server with an open mind, knowing that it's a new experience. It may be hard to get used to, but the pacing really is something I focused on. You're bound to progress at a slow and steady pace, but you'll get all your gear slots filled over time, can farm for anything you wish and progress. While it does have a learning curve, the server gives you all the tools to find your way.

Taking the time to answer 2 key points raised:

*-Judge is considered an "Expert Job", which is not recommended for first time characters. Judge specifically has a very unique weapon progression so it requires specific resources to grow. Do keep in mind you can use the default weapons with no problem well into late game, but it really pushes a bit for new players, and that's by design.

*- The "Support thing" is a bit more complex. One of the things I worked hard is for the game to be 100% soloable, from start to finish. With this I had made a few decisions with regards to supports:

-Support is no longer a job, but a gameplay style. You can make supports with the available tools, and it's not just "big heals and shields". We have skills that decrease enemy defense, party buffs, management of resources and so on, all spread around all classes so people HAVE the choice of how they want to build a supportive playstyle (as a personal example, I like to play Jester support due to it's massive SP pool size, which allows it to heal, hide and do a lot of stuff with little to no cost to it's uptime).

In more details, Support jobs creates 2 situations in any MMO like this:

1- The content of the game is designed around having a support for balance/challenge. This makes the game unplayable without one later on, creating situations of "LFP -> Priest/FS" where they are mandatory to try the content. They are so strong and useful that playing without them is impossible.

2-The content does not require a full support, so the job dies a premature death. People will get tired of it, or not needing them, will kick them from parties due to "leeching EXP" (A mistake some people already make by not partying with Kingslayers who are "supportive bruisers" since they improve party performance by indirect contributions, not raw DPS).


If the second situation happens, you can either leave the full support dead and abandoned, or buff it...which then causes the issue number 1 where content will require them, or else, the buffs will be useless.

While this system can work for some MMOs, PRM's idea of being accessible to everyone, regardless of time/schedule/hardcore/casual, makes it not possible.

Hope this helped bring some light to the issues. Feel free to hit me on Discord for new stuff.

And as for new content/progression, I do have plans to drop a large patch every month with new items, content, dungeons, builds and stuff. Return to Morroc is not going anywhere

Regards,

Ornstein

[Playtester]

Just to clarify, I personally always have only been playing full support jobs in every MMORPG. I like the fact that I'm absolutely required for parties and I don't need any ability to play solo because playing alone is boring anyway (my mindset is if you want to play solo just play an offline RPG).

I understand Return of Morroc went for the more modern "Any class can solo" style that already Guild Wars 2 advertised itself with. That's a design choice and I'm not criticizing that.

But saying that the server has "a class for everyone" is simply not true. It's a server for people who like to solo play. And that's the reason why I decided not to play on it.

[Buckyx]

It was interesting but I did not really enjoy autoattacking everything and using skills was not much faster. I guess classic RO is only RO I can play.

[ADM Ornstein]

Just to clarify, I personally always have only been playing full support jobs in every MMORPG. I like the fact that I'm absolutely required for parties and I don't need any ability to play solo because playing alone is boring anyway (my mindset is if you want to play solo just play an offline RPG).

I understand Return of Morroc went for the more modern "Any class can solo" style that already Guild Wars 2 advertised itself with. That's a design choice and I'm not criticizing that.

But saying that the server has "a class for everyone" is simply not true. It's a server for people who like to solo play. And that's the reason why I decided not to play on it.

Oh yeah, it's absolutely solo friendly. But parties have a much smoother ride.

The idea REALLY is that supports you can just dual client into don't exist, so yes, no full support jobs of any kind for the reasons mentioned.

But it's not a "server for people who like to solo play" when 70% of the player base are running parties 

[ADM Ornstein]

It was interesting but I did not really enjoy autoattacking everything and using skills was not much faster. I guess classic RO is only RO I can play.

The server is mostly balanced around the concept of picking the job you like. Auto Attack jobs (Legend, bird build Night Raven) will have the raw dps advantage while being squishy and lacking options.

Too bad you didn't enjoy it, there's a taste for everyone around RMS, so hopefully you can find something you like, or give us another chance in the future.