Review of Return to Morroc (Sadly, more bad than good)

[2k2]

Like Minatoaquades said, server owners of these type of servers are more ego than anything else.

Many times these servers look super good on paper and you get super hyped but sadly almost everytime it's a big disappointment due to admin listening to circlejerks only, admins ignoring actual true feedback with proof, admins refusing to address emergent bugs/exploits, admins not keeping up with their word after something unique happens because of outcry of salty members of the community, or admins being straight out idiots not doing the math or testing stuff oftentimes resulting in release of broken numbers that the may or may not try to address it in the future, possibly creating the biggest shoot in the foot of creating super unique items.

Big example of such things was Asgard Legends: Insomnia (admin) gathered feedback here on rms for years, with the idea of a very promising server. It actually delivered a good and unique server (for its time, back in late 2018) and the opening was very successfully, for a period. Gameplay-wise the server was amazing. The mix/shake of episodes and content availability made it very unique, balance was very good too, as he managed to make every class useful in a party setup (other than non-AoE-DDs just acting as mobbers) and most able to straight solo content.

Few days in and problems started to surface, mostly oversight or lack of a beta test: the numbers on the chance of getting multimod items was too big, making people who played early on accumulate way too many massively overpowered gears. OCA content table was not balanced for the server and had card drops from unavailable episodes, which a group managed to get a Salamander Card (which was fine for the admin, just like people got their hands on multimod godly items), players from one specific guild kept crying to the admin about it and he decided to manually remove the card from them because of this guild. The group who got the Salamander Card and many more players who witnessed the results quit the server after it. It was the first big drama on Discord.

As the server that had an opening of almost 500 players, kept quickly losing players by the day, this same guild kept pushing the admin to make changes to benefit them or undermine other groups, with Insomnia most of the times listening to them.

Second big drama was when I and some other players reported (with lots of evidences) that the rank 1 monster killcount character, which was a rogue, was botting for about 18h/day. He was one of the leaders of this guild that had their claws on the admin. Despite the mass reports and evidences, Insomnia refused to ban said player and then he botted 24/7 afterwards. Another big batch of players left after this.

At this point, the server was already small (~90 avg throughout the day).

Third big drama was the Bio3 MVP exploit (another big oversight by the admin), who got reported too late to address, refused to ban the said exploiters and remove the items, which made the server become a joke at this point. There was so many Bio3 MVP drops that people where mass selling Combat Knife, Dragon Slayer, Ice Pick for 1z on autotrades. Thing is, people had been reporting the two guys that exploited this since th very beginning of the server, as they were causing lots of problems, fights, breaking rules and BMing in MVP competition. After the bug exploit fix, they left the server making a huge drop party where they dropped hundreds of each Bio3 MVP drops. These items never again had any value in this server anymore.

Fourth big drama shortly after this, was when I dropped a Deviling Card and linked it on global chat. I'm not a MVP/Miniboss/Porings camper at all, I just have massive luck and got the card in one kill while I was traversing Yuno fields. Insomnia himself said and confirmed multiple times months before the server release and many times after it was already online that the MVP and Miniboss Card balance was 100% done and would never change (he changed some of the card effects without changing its intention, mostly buffing useless ones), but, as always, the ones people kept asking for his confirmations were Deviling, Golden Thief Bug and Ghostring Card, which none of them had any change in numbers other than removing the Reduced HP Regen on GR and allowing Positive (Supportive) Buffs work through GTB's effect. Deviling was the way it is officially. After I dropped my card, the server (that was already a very small community or ~50 autotrades and ~40 playing characters) most of the players tried to buy it from me, some with insulting offers, many with RMT offers, and some with decent offers, but didn't matter as I had no intentions to ever sell it. Some of the players got upset (guess? They were from the guild manipulating the admin) I didn't sell them and started to harass me throughout the game, in everything I'd try to do, whether it was MVP, leveling, grinding, questing etc. They'd take turns into getting in my way doing things and show up with 12+ players (on a server or ~40), even more when they saw I started camping some specific MVPs. Insomnia knew, saw, read through discord, read the reports and all and still refused to do a thing. The players were openly mocking and admitting what they were doing and their intentions on Discord, yet the admin didn't do anything.

Last drama around the time I quit the server was when that rogue botter that got mass reported weeks ago, showed on discord and in-game the gears he acquired through botting: so many multimod (remember early on when monsters had massive chance to drop items with 3-4 mods?) with %neutral resistance, %demihuman resistance etc that he was able to reach 100% resistance in said stats, turning his character 100% immune in PvP or basically immortal for PvE and MVP. People feared and warned Insomnia about the creation of super unique items, even more when we noticed there were botters farming gears 24/7, but since he ignored it all, the problem surfaced. Imagine tanking MVPs with a 1/1 Novice. Or soloing a guild with a Lv40 thief wielding an Ice Pick. Yeah, that was what the server became, since he didn't ban the botter, didn't delete the items and didn't listen to the feedback of people playing his server.

He'd always says that he's going to "stick to his vision" (although he'd always cave in to the outcry of that specific guild) but ended up dooming the server for good.

I heard though that the server had a surge of players as soon as COVID started and gained some traction to the point of reaching ~200 total concurrent.

Legitimately a super good server that was ruined by the admin's arrogance and refusal to act quickly on problems.

Edit for TL;DR: Avoid such server when the admin shows narcissistic behavior. Give it a few years, and if the server is alive and in a good state, maybe they made something right. Don't waste your time on new servers or servers where the admin is a psycho.

[admornstein]

Like Minatoaquades said, server owners of these type of servers are more ego than anything else.

Many times these servers look super good on paper and you get super hyped but sadly almost everytime it's a big disappointment due to admin listening to circlejerks only, admins ignoring actual true feedback with proof, admins refusing to address emergent bugs/exploits, admins not keeping up with their word after something unique happens because of outcry of salty members of the community, or admins being straight out idiots not doing the math or testing stuff oftentimes resulting in release of broken numbers that the may or may not try to address it in the future, possibly creating the biggest shoot in the foot of creating super unique items.

Big example of such things was Asgard Legends: Insomnia (admin) gathered feedback here on rms for years, with the idea of a very promising server. It actually delivered a good and unique server (for its time, back in late 2018) and the opening was very successfully, for a period. Gameplay-wise the server was amazing. The mix/shake of episodes and content availability made it very unique, balance was very good too, as he managed to make every class useful in a party setup (other than non-AoE-DDs just acting as mobbers) and most able to straight solo content.

Few days in and problems started to surface, mostly oversight or lack of a beta test: the numbers on the chance of getting multimod items was too big, making people who played early on accumulate way too many massively overpowered gears. OCA content table was not balanced for the server and had card drops from unavailable episodes, which a group managed to get a Salamander Card (which was fine for the admin, just like people got their hands on multimod godly items), players from one specific guild kept crying to the admin about it and he decided to manually remove the card from them because of this guild. The group who got the Salamander Card and many more players who witnessed the results quit the server after it. It was the first big drama on Discord.

As the server that had an opening of almost 500 players, kept quickly losing players by the day, this same guild kept pushing the admin to make changes to benefit them or undermine other groups, with Insomnia most of the times listening to them.

Second big drama was when I and some other players reported (with lots of evidences) that the rank 1 monster killcount character, which was a rogue, was botting for about 18h/day. He was one of the leaders of this guild that had their claws on the admin. Despite the mass reports and evidences, Insomnia refused to ban said player and then he botted 24/7 afterwards. Another big batch of players left after this.

At this point, the server was already small (~90 avg throughout the day).

Third big drama was the Bio3 MVP exploit (another big oversight by the admin), who got reported too late to address, refused to ban the said exploiters and remove the items, which made the server become a joke at this point. There was so many Bio3 MVP drops that people where mass selling Combat Knife, Dragon Slayer, Ice Pick for 1z on autotrades. Thing is, people had been reporting the two guys that exploited this since th very beginning of the server, as they were causing lots of problems, fights, breaking rules and BMing in MVP competition. After the bug exploit fix, they left the server making a huge drop party where they dropped hundreds of each Bio3 MVP drops. These items never again had any value in this server anymore.

Fourth big drama shortly after this, was when I dropped a Deviling Card and linked it on global chat. I'm not a MVP/Miniboss/Porings camper at all, I just have massive luck and got the card in one kill while I was traversing Yuno fields. Insomnia himself said and confirmed multiple times months before the server release and many times after it was already online that the MVP and Miniboss Card balance was 100% done and would never change (he changed some of the card effects without changing its intention, mostly buffing useless ones), but, as always, the ones people kept asking for his confirmations were Deviling, Golden Thief Bug and Ghostring Card, which none of them had any change in numbers other than removing the Reduced HP Regen on GR and allowing Positive (Supportive) Buffs work through GTB's effect. Deviling was the way it is officially. After I dropped my card, the server (that was already a very small community or ~50 autotrades and ~40 playing characters) most of the players tried to buy it from me, some with insulting offers, many with RMT offers, and some with decent offers, but didn't matter as I had no intentions to ever sell it. Some of the players got upset (guess? They were from the guild manipulating the admin) I didn't sell them and started to harass me throughout the game, in everything I'd try to do, whether it was MVP, leveling, grinding, questing etc. They'd take turns into getting in my way doing things and show up with 12+ players (on a server or ~40), even more when they saw I started camping some specific MVPs. Insomnia knew, saw, read through discord, read the reports and all and still refused to do a thing. The players were openly mocking and admitting what they were doing and their intentions on Discord, yet the admin didn't do anything.

Last drama around the time I quit the server was when that rogue botter that got mass reported weeks ago, showed on discord and in-game the gears he acquired through botting: so many multimod (remember early on when monsters had massive chance to drop items with 3-4 mods?) with %neutral resistance, %demihuman resistance etc that he was able to reach 100% resistance in said stats, turning his character 100% immune in PvP or basically immortal for PvE and MVP. People feared and warned Insomnia about the creation of super unique items, even more when we noticed there were botters farming gears 24/7, but since he ignored it all, the problem surfaced. Imagine tanking MVPs with a 1/1 Novice. Or soloing a guild with a Lv40 thief wielding an Ice Pick. Yeah, that was what the server became, since he didn't ban the botter, didn't delete the items and didn't listen to the feedback of people playing his server.

He'd always says that he's going to "stick to his vision" (although he'd always cave in to the outcry of that specific guild) but ended up dooming the server for good.

I heard though that the server had a surge of players as soon as COVID started and gained some traction to the point of reaching ~200 total concurrent.

Legitimately a super good server that was ruined by the admin's arrogance and refusal to act quickly on problems.

Edit for TL;DR: Avoid such server when the admin shows narcissistic behavior. Give it a few years, and if the server is alive and in a good state, maybe they made something right. Don't waste your time on new servers or servers where the admin is a psycho.

While I know this happens, may I ask, have you given PRM a try or going by what the person said?

minatoaques is a known troll that rages over everything and blatantly lies. While PRM is not perfect, its getting better everyday.

No game breaking bug exists currently, all jobs can play on all content to varied degrees of success (in fact, I posted a video today of the "community voted weakest job" running multiple endgame dungeons solo, without macros or multiple equip swaps.)

So yes, the server is not perfect. But work is done constantly (for an admin that doesn't work but pushes patches weekly and added a new GvG, new dungeon and new job in a single month, I'm sure I'm all talk eh?) and I stand by my statement: you can play the entire game with any job.

No game will ever be 100% balanced, thats utopic, but salt is very clear on the troll posts. The current bugs that do exist are at most typos on an npc here and there, or a costume disabled (you can actually check our PUBLIC bug report list on discord.)

All of the data mentioned and provided is public to anyone on discord. You can see for yourself or trust a person who has been drowning in salt since our launch.

Claiming an admin "is all talk and no work" when we have weekly patches with fixes and content is a sick joke that I will continue laughing at when I come back here. This poster is clearly on a crusade to tarnish our server with lies and deceit.

[admornstein]

I just got reports that Minato is the guy who worked with Lai in the past.

Suddenly it all makes sense. What a joke.

[Minatoaquades]

Known troll? Lol who is spreading lies now. Funny admin. Cant dispute my claims properly and resulted to try and attack my character instead.

First of all, never played ragna0, second i never worked with any private servers, third, you banned the wrong person on discord i am not minato on discord lol.

But this just further proves how egotistic you are thinking im just a troll just because i complain about how poor your work or lack of work is on the server.

You posted a video about unchained assassin clearing end game content? Wow must be so legit that you literally have to purposely hide your gears and not show any stats nor skills in the video. Because we all know you definitely did not clear the end game content without impossible to get gears / edited gears / all max upgraded gears with multiple mvp cards   

I have to agree with you though that in your perspective, you can clear any end game content solo, but i dont think normal players have access to gm commands and can generate max gears by the typing commands.

I challenge you to post every job clearing end game content solo and show gears that are achievable by a normal player who plays maybe 6 or 7 hours a day. See how good your class balance system is.


I would not call you an all talk no work admin without any basis, and you clearly wouldnt feel so insecure about it, if you know your actions are opposite of the fact.


Blindly accusing people and trying to make them look less credible only shows how true the statements are.


If I were in your position, and im not an egotistic person, i would simply dispute these claims by proving the statement wrong and post video proofs. (Eg: classes are balance - post a vid of all the classes with attainable stats and gears clearing end game 140-150 content with ease)


Remember what you said about why you are senselessly destroying viable builds on other classes instead of making adjustments to the game content itself? (Its more work to buff monsters so ill just kill builds with nerfs instead)

Thats not really going to work on a game lol. An owner who takes the easy way out with disregard of player enjoyment just to make things easier for him is never going to output a great game.


But who cares right? Whats important is you are releasing 3 more new jobs hurray! Who cares if more than half of the current jobs arent viable to solo end game, after all, it takes less work to release new jobs instead of fixing the existing classes.   

[Minatoaquades]

Claiming an admin "is all talk and no work" when we have weekly patches with fixes and content is a sick joke that I will continue laughing at when I come back here. This poster is clearly on a crusade to tarnish our server with lies and deceit.

Btw you should also search the meaning of patches and fixes. There are no weekly fixes and patches, only weekly changes. Some good changes most are changes for the worse.


Example, the issue of not all jobs being viable end game, then finally, Sinners and illusionists have found builds that let them feel like Legends, NR, GK. After a week, you "FIXED" those classes by making them not viable again    i consider that dumb decision rather than fixing to be honest.


Theres a reason why my friends who does end game content in that game all do it in a party and have to wait for each other in order to run the end game dungeons, its because they cant solo it. These people are in the game since beta btw. They still havent lost hope and still playing thats why i know whats happening 

[2k2]

While I know this happens, may I ask, have you given PRM a try or going by what the person said?

I was talking more in general about those bold highly customized projects where server administration is more or like the same, as I tried some of them and they were all the same regarding the server admin and all ended having the same problems on ended the same way. Haven't played PRM yet (although been wanting to for a couple months now, just have zero time for games in the last 6 months) so all I can say is about my general experience with this kind of server without addressing directly to your server.

Hopefully your server is the exception of this rule, because the community would benefit a lot having an stable overhauled RO.

[tellowflash]

Hi @admornstein, I am writing this to you since someone told me I'm getting accused of something I haven't done. I am the "Minato" you banned on your discord writing to you, the guy's name is "Minatoaquades" and you just assumed I'm him, why? you can have the admin here on forums check for IPs used to login on this account and that one and I assure you that it won't match. Please don't spread lies that I'm that dude.

Please don't badmouth me just because that dude is also named "Minato", we're not the same person. I won't care about the ban you did on my discord on your discord group since I don't play your server anyway (less than 30minutes), but please don't stick me on your issue, I did not copyright the name Minato, and there are thousands more that is named "Minato". Thank you.

Note: Please stop assuming I'm that dude while I barely played your server for less than an hour, and coincidentally was also on your discord. I can also message you my username on your game and check the ip if you know that dude's username on your server and to cross-check the IP. PLEASE don't mention me on this mess and don't mention anything about my past servers since it won't help your cause on this.

[Leonheart]

That is true on most cases not on this server lol.


The owner kept on tooting his own horn on how he thinks he has done wonderful job on the server despite balance still practically non existent. Its one thing to work on things and improve it and its another thing to keep on destroying classes without improving other aspects.

Hes basically all talk, no work. He keeps saying that he wants ALL CONTENT on RTM to be soloable by everyone, he wants every mob to be "souls like" which means mechanic heavy and fun experience to fight.

What we actually get is only 3 or 4 classes can solo end game dungeons 2 of those requires ultra expensive gears, we have mobs that are basically just pure stat sticks no mechanics.

Some of the classes are still broken up to this day, but hey! Who cares? 3 more new classes are coming so amazing job for the owner! He is so amazing he considers releasing new classes should be prioritized than balancing the existing ones!

I also like the fact that he kept on insisting how some classes are in a goodspot but without proofs lol.

Kinda like a salesman saying check out this bmx bike it runs faster than a ferrari but you just need to trust me on that one.


I did give it a chance, sadly, with the way things are going, The server will never achieve the good vision the owner has all because he doesnt want to put in the work to achieve it.

He definitely will become a good politician in some third world country though, with all his promises for a great future and zero work.

well im not against you on that case, but like i said, I fully understand that the moment I jump into fully customized server, I will face a risk of uncertainty. Because this is RO and not RO on the same time it very difficult to have the same perception even between player base. What you think best is based on your vision, not the owner's vision. I will not blame you for leaving the server and maybe hundreds of players. He still the owner of the server and the one making the decision. I believe based on my years exp, even tho he does change anything you are asked for, another player will make this kind of post from a different perspective.
The problem of RO PS right now is, the "stable version" is boring and will likely to lose player base, in the other side, fully customized server is, well - full of controversy. The game is too old and will be difficult for everyone.

I also cant blame the owner to make the server as what he dreams of. It's like producing a music with new genre. Some people will love it, some people will not. Maybe it's only the ego of the songwriter, let it be. Just skip the song and listen to another song.

I love some servers, I hate some, I mad and leave many time. But I always understand that no point to complaint on fully customized server. I will honestly rate the RTM as decent based on my perception of how this server should be. I only play there 2 months tho, left last month coz of time management forcing me to.

Good luck for everyone.
Cheers.

[deadcore who]

Hi @admornstein, I am writing this to you since someone told me I'm getting accused of something I haven't done. I am the "Minato" you banned on your discord writing to you, the guy's name is "Minatoaquades" and you just assumed I'm him, why? you can have the admin here on forums check for IPs used to login on this account and that one and I assure you that it won't match. Please don't spread lies that I'm that dude.

Please don't badmouth me just because that dude is also named "Minato", we're not the same person. I won't care about the ban you did on my discord on your discord group since I don't play your server anyway (less than 30minutes), but please don't stick me on your issue, I did not copyright the name Minato, and there are thousands more that is named "Minato". Thank you.

Note: Please stop assuming I'm that dude while I barely played your server for less than an hour, and coincidentally was also on your discord. I can also message you my username on your game and check the ip if you know that dude's username on your server and to cross-check the IP. PLEASE don't mention me on this mess and don't mention anything about my past servers since it won't help your cause on this.

Unfortunately this is now standard behavior for RTM owner after the disastrous 1.1 patch when he learnt first hand that if he f*** his own passion project up with an untested and unpolished patch (great ideas, just untested, broken and buggy code and numbers) people will rage. I think 1.1 patch release and the ensuing backlash broke his mind, he's been lashing out blindly non-stop and picking/accepting fights with just about anybody. After which he gets criticized or flamed for good reasons or for nonsensical ones, then he bans the people he picked a fight with. Never forget when he banned a prominent community member for RMT then reversed the ban ~2 days later without any apology. Or him flipping out over an artist missing a deadline and firing them. You can find all this information on RTM Discord, and it's actually yikes tbh.

Despite all that, RTM is still an excellent server to play so long as you know to avoid interacting with the server owner aside from reading patch notes to prepare for the worst (like when it's time to sell all your gear because the owner is killing your class). He's on a pretty wild power trip and it doesn't look like it's ending any time soon, based on his responses here and his posts on Discord.

[chimaeragryph]

untested

Blatantly false. It was tested extensively but the problem existed on the live server while it did not exist on the test server.

Never forget when he banned a prominent community member for RMT then reversed the ban ~2 days later without any apology.

100% lie.

Or him flipping out over an artist missing a deadline and firing them.

You and I have a different definition of "flipping out", I think.


If you're going to criticize at least pick things to criticize that are true.

[Slap]

Funny how the ones defending the server are the same kissasses in his discord channel.



Anyways. A lot of people quit because of these non-stop weekly changes. Even the new people coming in are so confused as to what class to pick. They choose one job then some skill or stat gets nerfed or changed onto something. It's a weekly thing now it's making people actually quit.



People who play nonstop with no life are the ones killing this server, that's all i see this is. Goodbye PRM, it was nice when there was 600 people playing including vendors, now it's what? 350 including vendors? 

[deadcore who]

Blatantly false. It was tested extensively but the problem existed on the live server while it did not exist on the test server.


100% lie.





You and I have a different definition of "flipping out", I think.


If you're going to criticize at least pick things to criticize that are true.

1. Love how you skipped the many messages all over Discord where the server owner himself specifically mentions he has no time to test all the classes, made a mistake, had to revert the changes. His own words. Nice cherry picking there.

2. Ah yes, the official apology that's started from "Don't question me I did my research and I'm right anyway" to "Opps, I received undeniable evidence that I f*** up, not gonna say sorry tho here's your unban". Post the rest of the post, you coward.

3. Artists work for months to deliver commissions sometimes, and this was afaik the one and only missed deadline by Ayami. If that doesn't count as a flip out I don't know what does. For more context, read the conversation where some players provided coding advice for rAthena which led to the server owner admitting that "he hates working with other people".

To everyone else, this is a great example of what the RTM Discord is like btw. Fanboy asskissing fanaticals going all "Server Owner should ignore everyone else (but me) and just do what he wants (So long as he doesn't nerf my class)" while the rest of us are resigned over it all and just focusing on playing the game as best as we can. That and a lot of people are taking indefinite breaks until the drama dies down.

When all is said and done, the server's fun. Design is creative, unique and fun. People SHOULD try the server. BUT.

Server owner's not in a good place mentally as is evident in all of his online interactions. He's also lacking quite a bit of fundamental social skills / emotional maturity and the ability to lead and manage a team. Not a good look for the server, but you can always choose to ignore Discord and just play the game.

[Smug Kot]

"wow sure that is a lot of bashing to the server..." you guys can stick to those mass produced vanilla ro server and lmao renewal 

Server is great and invite everyone to give it a try~ 

[Felione]

I just got reports that Minato is the guy who worked with Lai in the past.

Suddenly it all makes sense. What a joke.

This troll made good points throughout the read that I would agree with. I started your server in it's early open stages, and it was quite disappointing to play something that I thought I would like to play. I was offered trivial ideas and builds that I disliked overall, and I was informed that healing is not an option, at all.

The server played like a 1x server, but you were forced to farm each mob individually, or die trying. I understand your server was meant to be a custom experience, but the fundamentals of an MMO are slightly missing here. If I recall, this was supposed to be a solo experience, when in fact, you are punished for party play, making it significantly longer to do anything. So in essence, it's a tedious solo experience, where specific classes can do specific content.

I tried about four class types before I moved on from your server, and it wasn't because a troll told me things are unbalanced, it's because I experienced it, and I refused to play the class everyone else was playing, in order to actually experience the game. A friend attempted to keep me around, by helping me level through content, but even that was a limited experience, and I didn't want to burden him with it.

If you say changes have been made, then my return should be a pleasant one? is that something you can promise me? or will I face the same tedium I did before I left? where my decisions are NOT my own, but a GUIDE I need to follow or never really get ahead?

And for the record, someone's past history, whether they worked with Hitler or not, doesn't make their points void. I would discontinue such a thought process, because it serves no value in a conversation. What's most important is you prove their claims to be wrong, or you improve off of their claims.

I know this was long, but thank you for reading.