Why is DreamerRO still alive?

Started by Canadic, Sep 19, 2020, 11:34 AM

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Canadic

I've been a player of this server since 2011. I've taken a few breaks here and there but overall I have about 6 years playing DreamerRO. In this review I will try to cover what makes DreamerRO unique, and why it has been able to be the #1 High Rate since 2008, and#2 All server listing in the history of Ratemyserver.

Personal Server Rating: 87/100  /no1

Rates
The rates are 8k/8k/3k with normal cards having a 10% drop rate and MvP have 3% card drop rate. It is a high rate and they have an NPC where you turn a 1/1 novice into 500/120 with the class of your choice and all skills already leveled up. This is pretty neat, as leveling is not what this server prides itself in.. more on that below.

Stability  9.5/10
As mentioned above, the server has been online since 2008 and they have not had a wipe. It's up 24/7 and has a pretty good DDoS protection. Its been months or years since the last time a DDoS took the server down as far as I know. The server is hosted in America and my connection (from Canada) is pretty smooth most days. There are days is not as smooth but that's the case with every other game I play.

Staff  7.5/10
The staff in the server could be better. They have pretty good developers, a solid GM team and a group of dozens of support players that help out with forum and in-game requests. They also have a neat support ticket system, which I personally consider it to be the best way to reach the admin directly.  There are times where you use @request in-game and you get no answer.. but I guess that's normal at least in the servers i've played. The admin really is the glue that keeps this server together. I'm aware the admin of this server is in the Ratemyserver Hall of Shame for a corrupt case in 2010.. but instead of him closing the server/changing name .. he pulled through and kept working hard to make DreamerRO corruption free and still alive. This would of been a death sentence to most servers.. I've personally offered him 500$ Canadian Dollars for a rare MvP card via support ticket (just to see if he would budge) but he turned every time i tried. I've conviced other friends to do the same and got the same response. That gave me piece of mind that he's learned his lesson.

Community  7/10
I would say the community in this server will 100% depend about your attitude and how you surround yourself with. Like every other server, DreamerRO also suffers from toxic and annoying players.. but the majority are quiet players going around their day who will stop and answer questions when they can. There are also social players who mostly just chill in different towns with their own group of friends. Caspen, the main city, is where you may find some more open players who will socialize outside of their group/guild. It's not hard to be part of any group or guild anyways.. if your attitude is friendly you can just walk into any city and start a convo. I obviously don't have stats so this is purely from what I've experienced.. Maybe 90% "Can" speak English, 20% or so English being their main language. I would say maybe half or more of the server is from South East Asia and maybe 10-15% Spanish speakers. The forums are extremely busy and social and full of thousands of guides and valuable information. Their wiki is also populated heavily with player provided job builds, so that makes it easy to share and obtain knowledge between the community.


The Hero Quest 9/10
This is probably DreamerRO's most iconic feature. I've seen dozens of servers/people trying to buy this Hero Quest from rAthena/hercules.. but I believe this is an extensive and proprietary quest for this server. No other server in the world has "THIS" Hero Quest. So what is the Hero Quest and why is it special? Well, you start off collecting quest items and slaying a mean Dragon (Draconuns) in order to become a Hero (basically accepted into Hero Academy). Then you have to grind in different features to earn Hero Experience and increase your rank. Each Hero Rank unlocks stronger glorified equipment (armor, shoes, muffler etc). Once you reach the last rank, you unlock Elite Weapons and Elite Gloves.. which maximize a job's performance. There are 2 weapons, typically one defensive and one offensive. Aside from unlocking equipment as you go, being a Hero also grants access into custom dungeons and instances. They do offer a Spirit of Heroism item which skips and completes the entire Hero Quest (for those that have no time to grind/play)

Hero Divisions 9/10
When you reach the max Hero Rank, you are placed in 1 of 4 Hero Divisions (Alpha, Beta, Delta or Zeta). Divisions are teams filled randomly with all the Heroes in the server. These teams are "re-rolled/re-formed" once a month to ensure active players are reshuffled into divisions. The goal of these divisions is to compete in Division Events as teams.. These events are Save the Princess, where the divisions defeat waves of monsters and fierce raid MvPs to reach the last floor and save the princess. Another division event is Clash of Divisions, which is basically like team deathmatch, except you only get points by sacrificing the skull of your enemy in a centrally located monument. This Hero Quest and Hero Division system is completely unique to DreamerRO and I have not found any other server with anything similar.

Seasonal Events 10/10
This is probably one of DreamerRO's top reasons why it is still alive, relevant and why so many of its members (like me) have played for so many years. Every 2-3 months there is some sort of seasonal event. They are all different themed and have a different mission. Like the recent Covid19 Event consisted in wearing a doctor coat/headgears/mask and cleansing different midgard cities of germs-like monsters. These monsters dropped ingredients to make vaccines and supplies (like toilet paper) that were then delivered to a Doctor NPC who rewarded you with dozens of new items and direct currencies such as DreamerRO tokens, Zeny and Battle Badges. There is also Christmas Event, Valentines, Easter and the upcoming Halloween Event which runs around October. These events bring veterans back into the server to get the new seasonal headgears, and it truly allows newbies to catch up with veterans in a matter of weeks (because it is so profitable and the headgear rewards are end-game).

Battlegrounds 9.5/10
Uhhh one of my favorite features in any Ragnarok server. DreamerRO got this right and it is better than any other server i've played. They have BG 2.0 which consists of 9 different BG modes (team death match, capture the flag, conquest, rush, etc). They also have the guild system, which allows guild skills to be used in WoE, like recall. There is a lot of rewards for going into BG, you can literally earn 99% of all end-game items via Battlegrounds and Batttle badges have a direct conversion to donation tokens, zeny and other currencies. They have a custom Battleground Ranks system, which is similar to League of Legends ranking system. They have badges you can flash with a command for all ranks (silver, bronze, gold, legend etc), titles to show off your rank to everyone and even voice taunts you can use with a command to taunt all enemies in the map. I've never seen this in any server before. They also host monthly Battleground Events to unlock limited time sets... during these events its not rate to see 50vs50 in Battlegrounds. This means that you can really do 50vs50 WoE multiple times in an hour, it's pretty awesome.

Mining & Forging 10/10
I've seen this feature in a lot of server.. but again, DreamerRO outdid the competition with their system. Inn other servers, you mostly mine useless stuff.. like rough oridecon, gold, gemstones, stones blah blah blah. DreamerRO actually came up with mining actual minerals (aluminum, copper, silver, etc) These minerals are then used in the custom forging system, which transforms these minerals into end-game equipment and headgears. Some of the forging items require more than just mining minerals to bee forged, some need items (such as blueprints) that are dropped in other features such as Battlegrounds and Instance Dungeons.

War of Emperium 7/10
The WoE in DreamerRO is pretty good too.. they have 3 WoE Schedules which offer a different experience each day. There is a limit of 1-2 castles open per WoE session, which forces guilds to fight each other in order to earn the profitable treasures. I've seen screenshots and GMs broadcasts that there are sometimes 100-150 players in just 1 castle. Just today there were 125 at one point.. mostly a war between 2 big guilds and some smaller ones that rush in or take the other castle.

Job Class Balance 9/10
I'll be the first to admit I was not a fan of 3rd job skills..because they were broken and op. DreamerRO has basically re-balanced maybe 90% of all skills on the server (2nd, trans, 3rds even 1st job skills). Think about it, on a server with lvl of 500 and stats of 500.. the official formulas wouldn't work.. They have recalibrated and reverted things from renewal such as the def formula, thanatos/icepick effect, matk formula and others. Ultimately we are at a point where most of the classes are perfectly balanced and can do well against any other job when played properly and well equipped.  Aside from rebalancing skills, they also rebalanced all the official cards to increase their bonus to fit a high rate.. for example: Mantis card gives 15 STR instead of 3 STR, Fabre card gives 10,000 HP instead of 100...etc. This is something most high rate servers don't bother doing and I can't understand why.. maybe just lazy.

Donation Balance 10/10
While Donation systems can destroy servers, again, DreamerRO got this one right. They cater to those who have no time to play but got money to get ahead, but also to those that have no money to donate but a lot of time to play. They have a DreamerRO market that sells virtually every equipment, cards and headgear to get ahead. This market uses DreamerRO Tokens as currency, which you can get by donating. They have an NPC that exchanges other in-game currencies such as Battle Badges, Zeny and WoE Tokens for DreamerRO Tokens. You also earn DreamerRO tokens by winning automated events, which run every 30 minutes-1 hour. Basically players can donate to get ahead, or play their favorite feature (PvM or PvP) to get any and all items in the game. There are 100% no donator exclusive item.

Instance Dungeons 8/10
DreamerRO has most of the official renewal instances implemented in a way that are challenging for a high rate server. They took the time to implement them one by one, ensuring the rewards are worth doing the instance for. They also implemented their own custom instances, such as the Elite Dungeon..which is one of my favorites.

Achievement System  8/10
This is another one of those features that DreamerRO did better than other servers. While most servers have the official achievement system, these achievements wouldn't be challenging or make sense for a high rate server. There are dozens of custom achievements that are meant to start easy, guiding players through the various custom features of DreamerRO.. and gradually becoming harder as they go. The achievements are all incredibly profitable and worth doing.

Other worthy features:

  • iOS & Android Mobile Client
  • Daily Quests
  • Monster Hunting Missions
  • Casino Games
  • Skin/Nickname Colors
  • Thousands of custom items
  • Custom Pet System
  • Active Forums
  • Resourceful Wiki

I know this was too long to read, but there is still so much more I can write about DreamerRO. Its really a server that has constantly improved and has made it a point to make this server as unique and different as possible, while still maintaining the essence of RO.

My one suggestion would be to not be discouraged by this server's age (12 years), it's history, it's rates or anything that may be holding you back from trying or re-trying this server. As it is quite easy to catch up with veterans.

Remember how clueless you were when you first played RO? You may feel this way in DreamerRO at first, but look at you now.. you made it! You can make it in DreamerRO too.

Don't take it just from me, take it from the over 2,100 Ratemyserver reviews this server has acquired over its 12 year history.
https://ratemyserver.net/index.php?page=serverstat&serid=8633&url_sname=DreamerRO%20Renewal-ish&itv=999

jacobo_bobo

This is a solid review about a server I love. It felt you were honest, but also objective.

You forgot to discuss PvP, which is not as active right now. It seems they are pushing Battlegrounds over PvP recently, which personally, I enjoy more anyways.

I think by now the majority of high rate players have tried DreamerRO during its 12 year history.. The thing is, so much has changed in even just the last 2 years alone.. that even if you played it before, you're still missing out on the new stuff and all the tweaks they have done recently.

The server has had its ups and downs many times in its history, even just this year started with 450~ online but now every day is 700-800 online and almost 1,000 during WoE! Most servers just die down whenever their population dwindles, but DreamerRO always comes back stronger than ever and revives their population.

The Halloween Event just started yesterday and as the original poster said, it is a great opportunity for newbies to catch up with vets. To give a little example: 1 US Dollar worth of donation can be obtained through this event in a matter of 30 minutes or so. That's honestly higher pay than a lot of 3rd world countries.. and you're having fun at the same time!