Let's talk - Private servers 2020

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Originally Posted by Dizzy© It's 2022 let's bump this and start the conversations. A lot has happend since 2020. What are your thoughts on the current servers and their state? what do you like? what do you hate?

tbh most critical issues that make any server fail down in 1month max

1-Server team won't engage with his player base ideas/suggestions

2- server CEO his only one-track mind to collect back the money that's is gone in VPS~gaurd~Domain

3- they don't care about ads and reach the REAL Silkroad audience by spending money on social media campaign

WE NEED A HERO TO START A LEGACY SERVER WITH SMART DEV'S :awesome:

I will call the truth hammer here for you guys.

What SRO needs its a freaking remake,probably in unreal engine with new systems that work better than the actual ones.I don't believe that is that hard since there are people with talent that CAN make this possible,its just very little reward vs risk of losing lots of time and nowone believes in sro but old players.

Now,a few ideas that would make sro better would be :

-instead of sp make the system of skills self increasing (aka cabal) , keep the points animacion but increase the skill level with a small bar showing progress if the player uses the skill with will create a new hype and interest/meaning to the skills, me personaly I would add a small popup window once the skill hits a certain level that would give the player the option to add mag. damage or phy. damage or cc or something else

-completely revamp/rebalance the damage system ,certain stats have literally little to none impact in the game,create better counters to defenses and better counters to high damage classes (aka warrior,rogue)

-Write a HP bar and MANA bar with NUMBERS VISIBLE TO ALL especially in pvp

-better exp rewards in certain quest and mobs so grinds its a choice not a obligacion ,ex. if you are the quest type player you can complete your max level by doing quests (revamp quests so it doesn't feel like a dumb grab 300 items from mobs slug fest) ,if you are a "bot" player then just leave bot day and night and level that way with no problem,if you are a player that does not love to quest or grind than you can get the option to max level by trading,guardin or thiefing (how ? idk, create npc traders hunters and make it possible) , you don't like neither of the above and you want something fresh ? fine,you can buy exp chest witch has a 50% chance to level you up but 50% chance to level you down,your still not satisfied by playing luck ? well then I will create mini games,like finding a wish lamp on the whole sro map that will grand you +1 +2 +3 levels up and my brain still has more options but I will stop here for now.

What have I acomplished with the ideas above its already a fresh new servers with "BRAND" new ideas that would have tons of succes in my opinion.So yeah,I don't want to brag,but the so called "improvements" that the actual servers are coming up with are just straight same old crap with a bit of sugar on top,thats why players are not sticking up with them.

You can tell me I am wrong and I might be,but if I had the knowledge to implement atleast half of what I think,I believe it could make a difference.

Cheers

This is no longer a sticky thread?

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Originally Posted by Judgelemental This is no longer a sticky thread?

It never was

did you actually stop and think before writing ?

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Originally Posted by speedtouch1980 I will call the truth hammer here for you guys. What SRO needs its a freaking remake,probably in unreal engine with new systems that work better than the actual ones.I don't believe that is that hard since there are people with talent that CAN make this possible,its just very little reward vs risk of losing lots of time and nowone believes in sro but old players. Now,a few ideas that would make sro better would be : -instead of sp make the system of skills self increasing (aka cabal) , keep the points animacion but increase the skill level with a small bar showing progress if the player uses the skill with will create a new hype and interest/meaning to the skills, me personaly I would add a small popup window once the skill hits a certain level that would give the player the option to add mag. damage or phy. damage or cc or something else -completely revamp/rebalance the damage system ,certain stats have literally little to none impact in the game,create better counters to defenses and better counters to high damage classes (aka warrior,rogue) -Write a HP bar and MANA bar with NUMBERS VISIBLE TO ALL especially in pvp -better exp rewards in certain quest and mobs so grinds its a choice not a obligacion ,ex. if you are the quest type player you can complete your max level by doing quests (revamp quests so it doesn't feel like a dumb grab 300 items from mobs slug fest) ,if you are a "bot" player then just leave bot day and night and level that way with no problem,if you are a player that does not love to quest or grind than you can get the option to max level by trading,guardin or thiefing (how ? idk, create npc traders hunters and make it possible) , you don't like neither of the above and you want something fresh ? fine,you can buy exp chest witch has a 50% chance to level you up but 50% chance to level you down,your still not satisfied by playing luck ? well then I will create mini games,like finding a wish lamp on the whole sro map that will grand you +1 +2 +3 levels up and my brain still has more options but I will stop here for now. What have I acomplished with the ideas above its already a fresh new servers with "BRAND" new ideas that would have tons of succes in my opinion.So yeah,I don't want to brag,but the so called "improvements" that the actual servers are coming up with are just straight same old crap with a bit of sugar on top,thats why players are not sticking up with them. You can tell me I am wrong and I might be,but if I had the knowledge to implement atleast half of what I think,I believe it could make a difference. Cheers

Why ? Do you think I shit it from my head?

Why can't people play a server liked they used to do in isro? x1-2 rates, and spend months on the same server, instead of just rushing full sox and if something happens quit for another server. Progress pays off and it feels good.

Suns need to be something excepcional, when everyone is full sun +12 100% its just boring. Remember in isro everyone had tier 3 or whatever was the best item and tried to make it +7 FB and upgrade if they were really rich or lucky. It was extremely hard to find people full sun, those immortal creatures.

The mindset changed from a long time ago, everyone will always be looking for a new competition and all of these stuff, it is what it is at this point to be honest.

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Originally Posted by miquel011 Why can't people play a server liked they used to do in isro? x1-2 rates, and spend months on the same server, instead of just rushing full sox and if something happens quit for another server. Progress pays off and it feels good. Suns need to be something excepcional, when everyone is full sun +12 100% its just boring. Remember in isro everyone had tier 3 or whatever was the best item and tried to make it +7 FB and upgrade if they were really rich or lucky. It was extremely hard to find people full sun, those immortal creatures.

I think you're naming one of Silkroads main problems: The playerbase itself.
Everyone is just looking for the rush and then leaves as soon as they realize (for the 1000th time) that there is no real end-game content. On the other hand players are not disposed to invest some time into this game any longer, compare it for example to games like Lineage 2 which came out almost the same time as Silkroad. Playerbase is completely fine that no one has hit maximum level even 1 year after a private server came out, because they understood how the game works that they're playing. Silkroad community didn't understand how Silkroad works after 17 years.

Many of Silkroads concepts are outdated, do only work with the right amount of player base (e. g. job system) or they're just freaking bad (PvP potion wars). What Silkroad really needs is that the scene comes with fresh ideas and someone who dares to dump old shit concepts and replace them with new ones. By that I mean that you gotta touch fundamental aspects of Silkroad, for example change the combat system and make it more skill based, player driven economy and adjust the jobbing system to actually have an impact on economy and not transferring useless shit items to gain a useless currency (gold). Add things like territory fights for guilds/unions, add new skills/classes/races and by that I mean some really NEW stuff and not some copy&paste recoloured wind force shit mastery. Probably try to add professions as blacksmith, potion maker, armor maker and what not.

Yes, this means that we won't have the Silkroad which we used to know and love, but it's so damn overdue to take this step as the past has shown that the way we did for the last decade didn't work and the cycle always repeats. Servers open, getting flooded by players, rush to maximum and then they quit and server dies. Again and again. Maybe it's time to try something else, but since this community does not work together as other communitys (like Lineage 2, Skyrim, Gothic) we will never achieve something great and this game will slowly die.

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Originally Posted by IceMilk I think you're naming one of Silkroads main problems: The playerbase itself. Everyone is just looking for the rush and then leaves as soon as they realize (for the 1000th time) that there is no real end-game content. On the other hand players are not disposed to invest some time into this game any longer, compare it for example to games like Lineage 2 which came out almost the same time as Silkroad. Playerbase is completely fine that no one has hit maximum level even 1 year after a private server came out, because they understood how the game works that they're playing. Silkroad community didn't understand how Silkroad works after 17 years. Many of Silkroads concepts are outdated, do only work with the right amount of player base (e. g. job system) or they're just freaking bad (PvP potion wars). What Silkroad really needs is that the scene comes with fresh ideas and someone who dares to dump old shit concepts and replace them with new ones. By that I mean that you gotta touch fundamental aspects of Silkroad, for example change the combat system and make it more skill based, player driven economy and adjust the jobbing system to actually have an impact on economy and not transferring useless shit items to gain a useless currency (gold). Add things like territory fights for guilds/unions, add new skills/classes/races and by that I mean some really NEW stuff and not some copy&paste recoloured wind force shit mastery. Probably try to add professions as blacksmith, potion maker, armor maker and what not. Yes, this means that we won't have the Silkroad which we used to know and love, but it's so damn overdue to take this step as the past has shown that the way we did for the last decade didn't work and the cycle always repeats. Servers open, getting flooded by players, rush to maximum and then they quit and server dies. Again and again. Maybe it's time to try something else, but since this community does not work together as other communitys (like Lineage 2, Skyrim, Gothic) we will never achieve something great and this game will slowly die.

Im playing a server that shares the concept that i was discussing. To be honest, finally found my home

I'm totally agree with you but there's some points I want to discuss from my point of view and my opinion nothing more .

I'll start from The lack of communication , 80% from the devs right now copying and pasting ideas and no one listing to players ideas or opinions like making voting or somthin this not happening ofc. and if it's happening so it happens with a very poor way or not the complete opinion/idea , i want to just put an example of a large company that they can only take the devs ideas like Riot Games Riot always taking care of players opinion and always updating using players ideas if any of private servers management used their minds with a 3% it will be good but ofc. this will not happen they always think they are right anyway its only my opinion like i said .

- Pay2win this an important point cuz you will not open a private server and pay dollars monthly for entertainment it's a business like it or not and i must gain profit but this system not stable in all servers ofc. but 90% of servers you can make whatever you need and buy whatever you need FREE but it only takes more time but donations its the easy way only , ofc. donations important like i said i must make profit and to make the server alive and stable .

Any other point that you wrote i agree with you ofc.

Btw. any server even if it doesn't have events or this days new stuff like MaxiGuard stuff can gain any number or players and donations and gain profit easily all of that with a good marketing plan and advertisements this will make any server gain players in my opinion from what i saw until now.

I would like to state my opinion too. Thus let's revive this quite interesting thread.

I have very "high" requirements for an acceptable private server to play on. Personally, I'm avoiding reward-for-kill-feature servers and those with massive Pay2Win. I'm aware that these things vary from player to player. Everyone has different preferences. My favorite activities in SRO are PTPVP and PT hunting (both team-based activities within a PT).

I realized to not understanding psro playerbase. What I understood is that players go crazy for "hyped" servers that usually have very bad server concepts. They are hyped for the beginning but after 2-3 weeks they realise that these servers are totally Pay2Win and that they don't have a chance to catch up. I simply could tell them in advance by reading the advertisement thread.

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On one hand they complain about Pay2Win, on the other hand they don't value the donation-free servers. So I can't understand...

Players only seem have "fun" when they can "dominate". Usually equipment or item mall advantage is needed in order to be "good". They enjoy dominating and humiliating other players...

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When others are able to catch up, it usually gets boring for them and they quit the game. Maybe that also explains the non-stop server hopping because they always hope to be dominant in the next servers to come.
It can't be helped and I gave up on most of the psro community/players.

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Many of my points I already tried to describe my topic about "[Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]."

Reward-for-kill-design:

One of the biggest issues in server design is reward-for-kill-concept - which is completely wrong and unhealthy. The idea behind it is to reward players for their personal kills, team performance and roles of support classes are neglected. Unfortunately, almost all servers are reward-for-kill (just search in any random thread for the key word "kill" -- it's shocking. It's causing heavy catching up problem (caused due to reward-for-kill and end gear that in majority of servers is too hard to get). This problem applies to many ingame systems:

• Capture the Flag (sometimes even present in Battle Arena...)
• Battle Royale or Zoo Survival Arena
• open-world uniques
• job-based servers
• gaining of end-game gear based on killing/pvp encounters

It narrows build variety to a small amount of classes only and makes strong players just stronger. Newcomers, casuals and players that joined server at a later date after opening have almost no chance to compete.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying "don't do kills". Killing is still a part to win matches but it's not killing only. Supporting will become as much important and the overall team play. There are already nice systems that reward the whole PT - these just need to be improved. In specific I'm talking about Battle Arena, Survival Arena and all the different dungeons.

"Hard" and "difficult" rates to make it "long-term":

I never understand why people want end gear or items to be "hard to gain"? (low stone drop rates, low item drop rates, low success chances for magic pop or loot boxes, etc...) To have a few players with huge equipment advantage? I often experienced that monkey players need equipment advantage to win in pvp. It's totally wrong. If players can get gear quite easily they are more motivated and in PvP skill and luck gets more decisive.

It looks like "long term" is understood as delayed (as much as possible) gain of levels and equipment. Delaying the time when people get basic equipment (with FB stats) and start playing (pt)pvp. It doesn't have anything to do with keeping the game fun and fair past that point.

Many players don't play the game just for fun anymore. Every activity needs a good reward -- otherwise players somehow will not play it. I'm myself mainly play PT activities for fun - to improve handling of my char and my team-play.

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Overedited servers:

Another thing I don't like is when server owners completely change the game (flashy wings, tons of sox types with strange names, new masteries etc.). For me, that's not Silkroad anymore. Silkroad itself offers nice features (Battle Arena, Survival Arena, dungeons) which are there already and just need to be improved a little.

Often changes in gameplay happen way too often that you as a player can't rely on anything. If "bot" is required to farm items or to play the game, something is seriously wrong with the server concept.

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Silk as main currency:

Often server advertising threads claim that ingame gold for example will have it's value and is the only currency. In fact, if items are exchangeable, silk (or real money) will become the main currency. Especially during the beginning of a server's life cycle the donating seems endless. Big-wallet-guys try to spend tons of silk on the "best" items to be the "strongest" very quickly. In combination with the reward-for-kill-features this will make sure that mainly the "strongest" (big-wallet-guys) will stay on top...

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Servers try to lure players with "free silk", event prices, even real cash as rewards that in most cases only the strong players (donater whales) are able to gain. It's a common and most likely intended problem in donation-based servers even though the main post tries to lure you with statements such as "with only a few hours of daily gameplay you could get all the resources you need".

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just gimme a simple server without overedited shit and solid playerbase with low xp/gold/sox drop rate and im fine tbh

I'm not here to make ads, but literally most comments are talking about a server where admins do care about suggestions / Low rates / Long term? This is exactly what we made in SROTIMES, 2 months + online with 80% of the same player count we started with. Low rates, D11, 2 months and people playing with normal/nova items still. Weekly updates.

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Originally Posted by Hypnos¥ I'm not here to make ads, but literally most comments are talking about a server where admins do care about suggestions / Low rates / Long term? This is exactly what we made in SROTIMES, 2 months + online with 80% of the same player count we started with. Low rates, D11, 2 months and people playing with normal/nova items still. Weekly updates.

2 months, 13 pages of pt matching, but all bots hahaha