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

[Felione]

You have a biased opinion on this subject matter, as you defend orn any chance you can.

You can perfectly make a "full support" healer in PRM as it gear tied and not job related as everyone can heal

This is not the same as a "priest" class which focuses primarily on healing, buffing, and quite possibly, some defensive skills to support a group. A healer can be any class, buffed with int, but what's the point of it? what would be the direction of such a class? there is none.

the truth is PRM was designed to offer a casual experience with hardcore challenges.

This makes no sense at all. So, it's a CASUAL experience, with hardcore in mind? or do you mean, it's FORCED to be hardcore at some point? because from my previous experience, and some time during the exp event, it's still just a hardcore experience. If you are new, you will be mauled by every mob without any understanding, and as you progress, the enemies just continue to blast your hp bar with some of the most overpowered skills per mob I have ever experienced. Just having 2 mobs on you is a definite death if you're not well versed in this game, or established the primary train of thought, which is the skill que - attack/skill/take massive damage/heal/hopetogodnotanothermobapproachesoryou'redead. All of this was also experienced at LOW levels. I can only imagine how obnoxious and just plain grindy the game becomes after 100. Fortunately for me, I've already made better choices.

Casual also refers to warpers, accessibility, and shortcuts. One thing this server does wrong, is place a cooldown on teleport/fly wing.  What is the reasoning behind this? this is another obnoxious change that is UNREASONABLE and NOT CASUAL. Being FORCED to walk along the maps is just an unnecessary thing. It provides zero content. Flywing/teleport is random, so it still takes time to go across a map. Why was this such a terrible thing? and how is this casual to you?

The optics of convenience, which is a primary substitute for "casual" is missing. The exp values also don't help your casual experience, as trying any of the classes, would require you to grind through the boredom of the early game, so you have to invest more boring hours if you decide you made a mistake. The wiki is also not very informative. It quite literally uses basic words like "go here (no other details like coordinates)" There are no proper skill descriptions for damage, so you have to guess "okay, this might be good, I hope, please, I don't want to do this again, oh god please.."

most stuff are soloeable until very late game where making a party/having friends is the recommended way to progress.

No, no, no, no, no. What you meant to write was: "Most stuff are soloable, but late game, you're FORCED to party, or struggle even more than you already have, unless you picked the correct job." This is very important. I understand there is an endgame that should require parties, but don't try to sugar coat it. Less sugar for you, because it seems it's all you've been giving him, and all he's been doing is mocking the discord for players who are NOT in the know, and who WANT to enjoy the server, but can't due to an obscene amount of inconvenience and unnecessary struggle to search for information regarding the simplest of the tasks. It's a disorganized mess, with little to get you by, or offers any solid and definitive information that would help you make a choice.

Novaro, was casual. Muhro, is casual, and I know this because I played there, and I will not attempt to flag them as something more or less. Return to Morroc is actually MORE inconvenient than the official iro server, which I recently went back to as well, just to check what is happening. That tells you something. A private server that is actually MORE inconvenient than an official server. That is the status of RTM, and needs to be known. The word casual needs to be replaced with heavily determined.

For the record, I am speaking for the lazy players, which there is a massive abundance of, and they're just ridiculed by this emotionally compromised admin. This is a server for him, and I guess the few he talks to personally, because apparently, if he can do it, knowing everything he knows, having created the product and improperly formed a wiki of it, then everyone should be able to do it, for hours and days, however long the task may take without proper knowledge of it.

I've honestly never found a wiki as useless as RTM. I had to ask the players ingame for proper instructions and direction, otherwise I would be lost and waste time, assuming where things are, or should be. The only saving grace is the community is actually helpful, but it's a community he doesn't deserve for all the ridiculing he does.

Once again, please comprehensively look at your server, and consider what a new player would think, not your experienced tone.

Thank you for reading.

[ADM Ornstein]

You have a biased opinion on this subject matter, as you defend orn any chance you can.

This is not the same as a "priest" class which focuses primarily on healing, buffing, and quite possibly, some defensive skills to support a group. A healer can be any class, buffed with int, but what's the point of it? what would be the direction of such a class? there is none.

This makes no sense at all. So, it's a CASUAL experience, with hardcore in mind? or do you mean, it's FORCED to be hardcore at some point? because from my previous experience, and some time during the exp event, it's still just a hardcore experience. If you are new, you will be mauled by every mob without any understanding, and as you progress, the enemies just continue to blast your hp bar with some of the most overpowered skills per mob I have ever experienced. Just having 2 mobs on you is a definite death if you're not well versed in this game, or established the primary train of thought, which is the skill que - attack/skill/take massive damage/heal/hopetogodnotanothermobapproachesoryou'redead. All of this was also experienced at LOW levels. I can only imagine how obnoxious and just plain grindy the game becomes after 100. Fortunately for me, I've already made better choices.

Casual also refers to warpers, accessibility, and shortcuts. One thing this server does wrong, is place a cooldown on teleport/fly wing.  What is the reasoning behind this? this is another obnoxious change that is UNREASONABLE and NOT CASUAL. Being FORCED to walk along the maps is just an unnecessary thing. It provides zero content. Flywing/teleport is random, so it still takes time to go across a map. Why was this such a terrible thing? and how is this casual to you?

The optics of convenience, which is a primary substitute for "casual" is missing. The exp values also don't help your casual experience, as trying any of the classes, would require you to grind through the boredom of the early game, so you have to invest more boring hours if you decide you made a mistake. The wiki is also not very informative. It quite literally uses basic words like "go here (no other details like coordinates)" There are no proper skill descriptions for damage, so you have to guess "okay, this might be good, I hope, please, I don't want to do this again, oh god please.."

No, no, no, no, no. What you meant to write was: "Most stuff are soloable, but late game, you're FORCED to party, or struggle even more than you already have, unless you picked the correct job." This is very important. I understand there is an endgame that should require parties, but don't try to sugar coat it. Less sugar for you, because it seems it's all you've been giving him, and all he's been doing is mocking the discord for players who are NOT in the know, and who WANT to enjoy the server, but can't due to an obscene amount of inconvenience and unnecessary struggle to search for information regarding the simplest of the tasks. It's a disorganized mess, with little to get you by, or offers any solid and definitive information that would help you make a choice.

Novaro, was casual. Muhro, is casual, and I know this because I played there, and I will not attempt to flag them as something more or less. Return to Morroc is actually MORE inconvenient than the official iro server, which I recently went back to as well, just to check what is happening. That tells you something. A private server that is actually MORE inconvenient than an official server. That is the status of RTM, and needs to be known. The word casual needs to be replaced with heavily determined.

For the record, I am speaking for the lazy players, which there is a massive abundance of, and they're just ridiculed by this emotionally compromised admin. This is a server for him, and I guess the few he talks to personally, because apparently, if he can do it, knowing everything he knows, having created the product and improperly formed a wiki of it, then everyone should be able to do it, for hours and days, however long the task may take without proper knowledge of it.

I've honestly never found a wiki as useless as RTM. I had to ask the players ingame for proper instructions and direction, otherwise I would be lost and waste time, assuming where things are, or should be. The only saving grace is the community is actually helpful, but it's a community he doesn't deserve for all the ridiculing he does.

Once again, please comprehensively look at your server, and consider what a new player would think, not your experienced tone.

Thank you for reading.

Hey there. I believe your message does warrant a proper answer.

Regarding the Support job:

There is a full support job in the works, the Standard-Bearer, which will issue buffs in an area according to orders he shouts. While initially support jobs were not planned, I do understand the popular demand for it.

I did talk about support role in Return to Morroc today in discord, here is the full message:


While PRM doesn't have a full support class, the idea is that everyone shares the role of support of the party.

Since everyone has heals, and most jobs have 1+ party buffs, the party itself is  a support job.

You can specialize in support with specific items sets, like improving healing done, sp efficiency, heal cooldown and others, this will naturally drive your dps down, but it'll push you to supportive roles.

The best jobs to play a support build are:

Kingslayer - as it has tank skills and builds. it also has ways to tank damage for the party.
Dracomancer - as it has many, specific buffs that can be used for each case
Illusionist - it has ways to turn healing power into damage, and access to potion pitching
Jester - It has a massive SP pool, so they can spam healing and supportive skills, they also have their own support skill.
Blast Juggler - Can throw potions and food, can manage the area.

But any job can work with it, to some extent.

This design for supports was actually considered in a way where -healing- is not what a support is, but a support should make difficult places viable and easier to manage.

Regarding the "Casual Time, Hardcore Gameplay":

It's very important to know that the server is a hardcore gameplay experience, with casual time investment for progression. Return to Morroc was designed from the start to be played since level 1, not at max level. It really is about the journey (which shows as there is no content being added for max level for a while, and the latest dungeon added is for Lv100~110).

Return to Morroc was built for people who like challenging games and new ideas, but have strict time available due to real life or other stuff. The casual time idea comes from this, as you can drop cards at 1%, do quests in a single sitting, but game sessions will be intense and more hardcore. Its why you can get a character with all slots of gear filled at Lv30, can get to lv 100 in a single week and so on. Return to Morroc is a low rate at heart, so yes, the progression is as it should be for what it is.

Return to Morroc is not a server where you can turn off your brain and farm, it's focused on the journey and progression, that's why you'll find monsters hitting you much harder.

As a side note, the monster-IA, while very aggressive, is fair most times(save RO jank). You won't be randomly one shot or killed instantly.The cheap one shots were removed from the game (the ones that exist do have clear tells or patterns to be identified and avoided). The game EXPECTS you to respect monsters, use hiding/line of sight to negate skills and move around. Healing is essential part of it and the sped up natural regenerations are also part of it.

Yes, you will be one shot constantly if you run very low vit, ignore the monster skills and eat hits for no reason. It was 100% designed that way (and no, it's not for everyone, but for those who like it, it's good.)
The game actually requires you to build defenses as well as offenses, which is not the RO meta.

The lack of Fly Wing/Teleport (or cooldown on them) is because fly-winging is a free safety button with no take over. there is no reason to interact with any map with those fully available. The game was once again balanced around it by providing agi up to everyone, increasing base move speed AND providing plenty of move speed items.


Regarding the "Can't solo late game":

Currently, EVERYTHING in the game has been solo'd by every job. There are plenty of videos on discord of players running the entire content on any job. While balance is not perfect, yes, every job can solo anything in the game...IF you respect the content and properly gear for it.

You can make parties to tackle harder content earlier or undergeared (and its actually recommended), or you can eventually reach +9 endgame gear and solo the highest dungeons, so everyone can play as they wish, eventually.

Server is always advertised as having a "soft cap" of Lv130, with Lv131-150 providing minor stats and hp/sp, and post game (131+) is a much harder curve of power and requires proper, specific gearing to fight monsters, this curve is 100% expected and well known from the players.

So yes, you can solo the entire game. While developing the server I myself solo'd the entire game. And that's before all the current buffs and items added, along with progression changes. (Except for Rachel Nightmare dungeon...that one was not made to be solo-able easily, and few players even try, even with videos showing all jobs solo there so far.)


Regarding the amount of information on the wiki:

This was voted by players during the beta period. the amount of information available on the wiki is exactly what was requested:

-Basic job skill tree and concept.
-Most items that exist, with proper indication of the REGION/DUNGEON they can be found, with no specifics.
-Game mechanics and gameplay/formula changes.

The idea was to provide and incentivate exploration of the maps of RO, many people usually go: Mi Gao/Geographers/Peach Trees/Anolians/Salamanders on every server, on a fixed route. The idea of PRM was to not hand-hold and give you all the information, it was to provide you the tools so the community can build around it.

It's why now you have guides for the 90 HATred quests, a market website, player-made job guides, and a full database with drop rates. Not to mention Sense ingame shows you all mob drops, did you know that?



So yes, the server is not for everyone (I believe no server is), its for people who wanna have meaningful farming sessions without spending 4h farming for a 0.05% card drop, or breaking all items while refining. Its about exploring a familiar world in a new way. It's by no means perfect, but it's what it is.

As a final note. I'm still emotionally compromised. PRM is my dream project and I consider the server my home. I will continue being blunt and honest, even if sometimes aggressive, because that's what I am very clear about, there is no PR team, no marketing speech, there is a player making cool stuff for players.

Thanks for your time. if you took the time to write all that, its basic courtesy that I take the time to answer properly.

[Smug Kot]

This is not the same as a "priest" class which focuses primarily on healing, buffing, and quite possibly, some defensive skills to support a group. A healer can be any class, buffed with int, but what's the point of it? what would be the direction of such a class? there is none.

There's Kingslayer buffs and barriers, Legend safety wall, Juggler chemical protection & Slims, etc.

So, it's a CASUAL experience, with hardcore in mind? or do you mean, it's FORCED to be hardcore at some point?

Yup  , custom rates are very generous but mobs are not your braindead and even unfair ones from vanilla. You approach each mobs like a small puzzle to solve, that is the "hardcore" challenge Ornstein is offering to you.

"Most stuff are soloable, but late game, you're FORCED to party, or struggle even more than you already have, unless you picked the correct job." This is very important.

More likely the correct gear, there's job that have an easier time in Rachel SS but that's it. People have already done Jorm (Final boss from the server) with "bad" jobs as you said with no "problems" at all.

lazy players, which there is a massive abundance of, and they're just ridiculed by this emotionally compromised admin.

So you want everything served in a silver plate? There's a lot information in the wiki and discord, but people choose to no read or research, you have no idea the amount of players to just jump asking for "best job" and guides with speech-to-text about how to breath

I've honestly never found a wiki as useless as RTM. I had to ask the players ingame for proper instructions and direction, otherwise I would be lost and waste time, assuming where things are, or should be. The only saving grace is the community is actually helpful, but it's a community he doesn't deserve for all the ridiculing he does.

The wiki is far from being useless, but it follows a no hand-holding policy, specially made to bully lazy players as you say

Casual also refers to warpers, accessibility, and shortcuts. One thing this server does wrong, is place a cooldown on teleport/fly wing.  What is the reasoning behind this? this is another obnoxious change that is UNREASONABLE and NOT CASUAL. Being FORCED to walk along the maps is just an unnecessary thing. It provides zero content. Flywing/teleport is random, so it still takes time to go across a map. Why was this such a terrible thing? and how is this casual to you?

The optics of convenience, which is a primary substitute for "casual" is missing. The exp values also don't help your casual experience, as trying any of the classes, would require you to grind through the boredom of the early game, so you have to invest more boring hours if you decide you made a mistake. The wiki is also not very informative. It quite literally uses basic words like "go here (no other details like coordinates)" There are no proper skill descriptions for damage, so you have to guess "okay, this might be good, I hope, please, I don't want to do this again, oh god please.."

This is not casual, is just straight up laziness. You are playing a total new experience yet you want to spoil all the exploration (most of it is already spoiled anyway if you just...search).

Early game is very fast paced, it would take you one hour to reach level 50 and even more, and then slowly goes down to a more traditional ro grind as you reach over level 100. Skills tell clearly what them does, dunno what are you talking about here and if you are worried about doing a wrong build, you are free to reset.

Dunno why are you cherry picking, and also cherry picking wrongly, while ignoring how refining doesn't break your gear, cards having 1% drop rate and mvp 3%, all mvps being soloeable, also removing your card doesn't break your gear either, etc. That's sound very casual, having in mind there's zero p2w involved unlike other servers.

The only saving grace is the community is actually helpful, but it's a community he doesn't deserve for all the ridiculing he does.

Funny thing how is the contrary of that, Hall of shame has been a complete success at making players behave and scare RMT away, the whole "If you will not be a model, you shall be an example" has worked pretty well for now.

[Felione]

Hey there. I believe your message does warrant a proper answer. (short quote to save space)

I had a whole wall, but decided to make it short for you. Your wiki decision is an unfortunate situation which will bite you again. Your knight in shining armor, unfortunately, decided to state that your server is a casual experience. Not sure why you even posted, showing it's not a casual experience at all, but thank you, I hope others read that and understand what they're getting into it, instead of reading false statements and considering them.

Everything I experienced didn't need an explanation as to why, because I knew why, I just gave it another chance, and unfortunately, it's still the same case for me. if you're not inclined to make your server a newbie friendly place, then that's really on you. I'm just here to let you know your problems, and how they will effect people who want to "try". If this doesn't concern you, I guess people should be allowed to know that, so that they don't have to experience it like I did, and waste their time. Very important subject matter here, wasting time.

As for your usual antics, I found it cute how quickly you went to your discord and showed your loyal followers the harsh news, and immediately reached for that validation. It's cute.

?

See, you look at things through one angle, I look at things as a whole. You have a trivial time frame of things because you think people magically know everything, and it just takes 1 hour. Very displaced opinion, and just completely inconsiderate. Very narrowminded response, full of assumptions and just not worth reading the whole way. I'm sorry. Careful with your words, sweety, your server owner doesn't like when people throw walls of strong opinions which you brought forward. Not very helpful.

[Metan]

Man, you're making a mountain out of a molehill. Even if we accept he's a bootlicker (I don't know nor care whether he is one indeed; it's for the sake of my argument), it doesn't transform him into an ambassador or anything like that. Way more often than not, people who fall into that label have little to no direct contact with the person they adore, like a man who praises the mighty volcano, towering from the far horizon; it's an archetype as old as time. Which means that when he says it's a casual server or whatever else he claims, and it turns out that his claims are not founded in reality (again, I don't care whether that's true), it's not a PR disaster, it doesn't mean he's part of some RtM internet defense force, it just means that as a player he's wrong. Not every server admin is Lord J. When you lash out like that, your points, some of which may have held some validity after some consideration, lose meaning.

[Develon]

As this is a few months old thread, I skipped most of it so forgive me if i'll bring redundant points.
I am xTinker on discord and currently playing the server.

Anyone, mainly Ornstein, 100% knows I like to voice my opinions even when not requested... 

Honestly, the biggest issue with the server was that it was released with the motto "we value your time" and that it was meant to be "casual".
Which was simply not the case for a long time. I'd argue the "value your time" is somewhat true nowadays, being "casual"... hell no.

For starters there was way less information than nowadays regarding classes, you'd be going in blind and having to level a character to level 90~100 to finally reach it if you were from an Assassin/Rogue tree to even find out if you'd like your specialization.
Nowadays, you  have a lot of information, even starter guides for most classes, you can just ask people how things play out before even trying it or use the mythical search function.

Regarding drops it was mostly an issue at the start, a lot of equipment were MVP only, nowadays most MVP's have relics (imagine a Bloody Branch but it only spawns the specific MVP), and most MVP only equipments were added to mobs in said dungeon.

About class balance, honestly, even the original Ragnarok suffers from this issue, lets not go there too deep.
Lets just say each patch has its own meta classes, be it from Shadowgear reworks, skill rebalance, new gears..., etc.
This happens even on official or any game with constant patches, people generally shuffle to the current best thing.

Regarding mob balance...
I'm not even going to talk about Jorm Layer or Rachel Nightmare, as tldr. Only meta can do them efficiently.
Regarding everywhere else, if you gear for it, generally speaking every class can do all content.


---- somewhat offtopic, I guess?
Regarding Support classes on the server as someone who used to play Priest a lot. It has already been mentioned 'any' class can do it since we aren't locked to certain classes for "Heal".

But I personally, use Kingslayer and i'd argue can has access to a lot of supportive skills.
Access to Land Protector, Devotion, Auto Guard, Defender, Angelus, Auto Regen, Kyrie, damage amplifier(sneak attack or Bishop's Tax), among other things i'm sure i'm forgetting.
High base hp pool so you can even play it as a supportive tank.


Edit1:
Had not noticed Metan was one of the people replying in here, IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME DOOD

[Smug Kot]

See, you look at things through one angle, I look at things as a whole. You have a trivial time frame of things because you think people magically know everything, and it just takes 1 hour. Very displaced opinion, and just completely inconsiderate. Very narrowminded response, full of assumptions and just not worth reading the whole way. I'm sorry. Careful with your words, sweety, your server owner doesn't like when people throw walls of strong opinions which you brought forward. Not very helpful.

oh the irony...Answering all your cherry picking, by the way, that has been discussed countless times is narrowminded? As I said you have a weird interpretation of casual and no-newbie friendly to straight up laziness. Why mobs being challenging and having to do exploration makes the game hardcore but breaking your gear in regular ro no

Man, you're making a mountain out of a molehill. Even if we accept he's a bootlicker (I don't know nor care whether he is one indeed; it's for the sake of my argument), it doesn't transform him into an ambassador or anything like that. Way more often than not, people who fall into that label have little to no direct contact with the person they adore, like a man who praises the mighty volcano, towering from the far horizon; it's an archetype as old as time. Which means that when he says it's a casual server or whatever else he claims, and it turns out that his claims are not founded in reality (again, I don't care whether that's true), it's not a PR disaster, it doesn't mean he's part of some RtM internet defense force, it just means that as a player he's wrong. Not every server admin is Lord J. When you lash out like that, your points, some of which may have held some validity after some consideration, lose meaning.

I love how this devolved into "we are a cult" joke 

[Metan]

I love how this devolved into "we are a cult" joke 

Basically, lol. There has been indeed countless servers where admins were in cahoots with influential players, but that doesn't mean every server falls to such level, nor that every player is in it.

Edit1:
Had not noticed Metan was one of the people replying in here, IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME DOOD

Holy s***, what's up! I tried to poke you on Discord soon after I read your post, but I couldn't find you. I might have deleted you by accident D: my bad!