- Jul 5, 2004
- 126
- 5
- 95
For any prospective players I'll keep my review short and sweet.
Server population - hyperinflated due to the majority of players having 1-2 accounts afk fishing/mining. The official limit of simultaneously online accounts is 2 per player which brings me onto my next point.
Bots - although the official limit is 2 clients running at once, there seems to be ways around this (most likely running virtual machines) and it's common knowledge that there are those who do this. Not only does this hyperinflate the population further but gives an unfair advantage to those who break the 2 client rule.
The unfair advantage comes from materials gained through fishing and mining. There are craftable items in the game which require ores of a higher purity, thus these are always in demand and so can be sold on the market easily. Fishing yields gems and other crafting materials, these also can be sold on the market.
Also gives rise to real money trading within the server.
Most people fish in sequestered Guild Territories and so it isn't an obvious to know exactly how many there are.
As for mining, it isn't uncommon to see the Chinese playerbase running several miners at once per character.
Although being a cause of discontent for the players, it appears that no action is taken against the exploiters.
Perhaps this is due to lack of time of the few staff, technicalities of not being able to pinpoint the perpetrators which the wealth is funneled, or ignorance.
Either way I think commonsense would prevail as to whom the exploiters are and in my opinion action should be taken on a guilty by association bases if it can not be proved unequivocally who they are due to masking of IP/MAC address etc.
General gameplay - game seems to run primarily bug free, from my own experience at least. There are of course some nuances but these for the most part are trivial issues. Heroes are enabled on this server and for the most part work fine with minor AI issues.
Having heroes enabled does allow much more versatility to solo gameplay and although this can be a benefit, it does give rise to solo play and reluctance to group with others.
Maps are standard with a few additions. Which is certainly enough. Same goes for items, nothing too out of the ordinary to confuse new players.
Bosses in my opinion should give a global announcement maybe 30-60 minutes before spawning as they are camped. Although there is a boss spawn timer XL sheet that a member shared in the Discord server, I think it'd be better to have an ingame announcement to give the opportunity to the server as a whole.
Cash shop - cash shop exists and isn't overpowered with players occasionally selling gamegold/cash shop items for ingame gold so it really is available to all. Personally I feel the prices are a little high especially for a private server.
Community - the community is okay on this server, people are sociable enough and the Discord server is fairly active. It is as to be expected. The wealth is unfairly balanced but this is often the case with any kind of game server where real money trading and bots persist.
Overall there is nothing remarkable about this server and for me personally, bots and the impact they have on the economy and the unfair advantage they give to a select few is what really brings down my overall rating.
I don't suspect there is much that can be done about that besides manually policing, checking and taking action based on sound judgement.
Changes could be made in some areas to encourage and incentivise group play for general grinding. Increasing player cohesion is always a benefit for servers.
Server population - hyperinflated due to the majority of players having 1-2 accounts afk fishing/mining. The official limit of simultaneously online accounts is 2 per player which brings me onto my next point.
Bots - although the official limit is 2 clients running at once, there seems to be ways around this (most likely running virtual machines) and it's common knowledge that there are those who do this. Not only does this hyperinflate the population further but gives an unfair advantage to those who break the 2 client rule.
The unfair advantage comes from materials gained through fishing and mining. There are craftable items in the game which require ores of a higher purity, thus these are always in demand and so can be sold on the market easily. Fishing yields gems and other crafting materials, these also can be sold on the market.
Also gives rise to real money trading within the server.
Most people fish in sequestered Guild Territories and so it isn't an obvious to know exactly how many there are.
As for mining, it isn't uncommon to see the Chinese playerbase running several miners at once per character.
Although being a cause of discontent for the players, it appears that no action is taken against the exploiters.
Perhaps this is due to lack of time of the few staff, technicalities of not being able to pinpoint the perpetrators which the wealth is funneled, or ignorance.
Either way I think commonsense would prevail as to whom the exploiters are and in my opinion action should be taken on a guilty by association bases if it can not be proved unequivocally who they are due to masking of IP/MAC address etc.
General gameplay - game seems to run primarily bug free, from my own experience at least. There are of course some nuances but these for the most part are trivial issues. Heroes are enabled on this server and for the most part work fine with minor AI issues.
Having heroes enabled does allow much more versatility to solo gameplay and although this can be a benefit, it does give rise to solo play and reluctance to group with others.
Maps are standard with a few additions. Which is certainly enough. Same goes for items, nothing too out of the ordinary to confuse new players.
Bosses in my opinion should give a global announcement maybe 30-60 minutes before spawning as they are camped. Although there is a boss spawn timer XL sheet that a member shared in the Discord server, I think it'd be better to have an ingame announcement to give the opportunity to the server as a whole.
Cash shop - cash shop exists and isn't overpowered with players occasionally selling gamegold/cash shop items for ingame gold so it really is available to all. Personally I feel the prices are a little high especially for a private server.
Community - the community is okay on this server, people are sociable enough and the Discord server is fairly active. It is as to be expected. The wealth is unfairly balanced but this is often the case with any kind of game server where real money trading and bots persist.
Overall there is nothing remarkable about this server and for me personally, bots and the impact they have on the economy and the unfair advantage they give to a select few is what really brings down my overall rating.
I don't suspect there is much that can be done about that besides manually policing, checking and taking action based on sound judgement.
Changes could be made in some areas to encourage and incentivise group play for general grinding. Increasing player cohesion is always a benefit for servers.
