Upcoming 5.2 classic server project

I got some updates. Been working on the source mostly fixing bugs and thought about how to realize certain things. Here is what I am content with for now. Upcoming beta runs will show if this approach is valid and sustainable.

Key features

• Server will start on Epic 5.2: Dragonic Age
• Final version will be Epic 7.2: Obsession
• Hosted in EU, France
• Custom source built client and server for 5.2, future upgrades will run on builds respective to their version
• Fixed a plethora of bugs, exploits and some memory leaks
• The server in its entirety (Client, Website) will be English only¹
• No cash shop, donations available²
• Low Rate server: 0.8x EXP, 1x QUEST³, Taming based on Epic 6.1

¹: Both the client and the upcoming website will only be available in english. I thought about going through the stress of adding multi language support but ultimately decided against. Doing so would increase development time exponentially while also splitting the player base. Using different languages ingame is allowed but for the sake of everyone involved I highly encourage using english in both trade and public chats.

²: As stated earlier, this is a non-profit project and thus there won't be a cash shop available. I strongly believe this game is more fun in the long run if everything is obtainable ingame or through trading with other players. I will however accept voluntary donations in order to fund ingame events or ongoing server costs. It is important to note that donating won't give any advantages ingame, ever.

Gameplay changes
I aim for a retail like experience but decided to make some slight changes here and there. These include but are not limited to:

• Mutliclient (2x at a time) is functional and allowed
• Therefore creation, leveling and use of buff slaves is a legit playstyle
• Updated lootpet logic: Your little critters are faster, more efficient and (hopefully) don't get stuck as easily
• Some item stack sizes have changed. Overall weight however is left untouched
• Creature card drops will continue following the rules of Epic 5.X / 6.X in future updates¹
• The experience gain of some quest chains is significantly lower while itemized rewards are higher²
• Added additional items to the drop table, the drop rate of existing items is untouched and in line with the respective Epic³

¹: While updating to newer patches the game will naturally receive some gameplay changes as intended by the original developers. At some point in the past GalaLab changed the behaviour of pet card drops and effectively killed of its deterministic nature. This will be adjusted in future patches and the old reliable farming will remain the best method to obtain specific pet cards. Once we update to Epic 7.X players will be able to find creature cards from other monsters at a much lower rate.

In addition, specific dungeons are more likely to drop creature cards of higher rarity.

• Relics of Arid Moonlight: Normal Rarity Cards
• Lost Mines: Basic Rarity Cards
• Crystal Valley: Basic Rarity Cards
• Palmir Plateau: Basic Rarity Cards, Rare Rarity Cards
• The Sanctuary: Rare Rarity Cards & Special Rarity Cards
• Temple of the Ancients, Lost Souls and the Exile: Rare Rarity Cards, Special Rarity Cards & Unique Rarity Cards

Due to the amount of grinding needed, and the fact that I don't know what to do with the Ursa Cavern yet, The Mystic Koala will be available as an ultra rare drop from open world bosses and elites, starting from level 120+.
While the above gives players an opportunity to find exciting drops in form of creature cards while playing in dungeons it is highly recommended to farm open world monsters for these drops instead.

²: The exact values will be available when the server goes online but don't expect jumping a massive amount of levels while doing the Witch quest series on this server. As stated earlier I'd prefer players to group up for Crystal Valley instead. However, these quests will reward some nice items instead. More on that later!

³: Some cash shop items are added to the drop tables. These include both consumables such as Fragments, Pieces, GMFB, SS and anything enchanting related. Some start dropping as early as Trainee Island, others are only to be found in dungeons and / or open world elites. These drops will be considerably rare (plenty enough to not feel bad about using them, rare enough to not have 100% uptime without player trading) and I'm excited to see how players will integrate these into the economy.

The fabled T-Protect Mirror won't be available on this server, ever. Higher rarity parts are an important part of character progression and are to be earned, not brute forced. Sorry!

Balance changes

• Classes are left untouched
• Success of enchanting rates are slightly higher than retail to compensate the availability of cs items. +20 will be still considerable hard to achieve.
• Hidden Village buffs have had their duration increased (60 minutes) and can be applied to pets. This is experimental for beta and might not make it into the live version of the server.

Planned events for launch

• Tamed pet of choice (up to Rare) for the first three players of each class to hit level 150.
• Tamed pet of choice (up to Special) for the first three players of each class to hit level 155.
• Tamed pet of choice (up to Unique) for the first three players of each class to hit level 160.

More to come in the following weeks. I also thought about beta testing in advance and the ETA for that is first week of August. Stay tuned folks!

if you not gonna do something about class balance you most likely wont see a single knight player and MAYBE no soldier plus it will be 80% assassins with octo buff soloing everything. Plus allowing for slaves you wont see any healer players probably so it will end up just like any other server

Quote:

Originally Posted by redsoul010 if you not gonna do something about class balance you most likely wont see a single knight player and MAYBE no soldier plus it will be 80% assassins with octo buff soloing everything. Plus allowing for slaves you wont see any healer players probably so it will end up just like any other server

That's a risk I'm willing to take. Nerfing the uptime of the Octo buff might be one thing but nerfing classes goes too far away from the retail experience I'm trying to recreate. If I were to nerf Sin then people would just play the next best thing. I want players to enjoy the good old days with both ups and downs and if playing Sin is your thing then what the heck, enjoy yourself!

If people want to ditch healers for staged BP's then that is fine aswell.

the next best thing wont be as broken as assassin with full attack speed gear thats for sure. People would probably play healers/tanks until dura gear is released and you wont see them anymore since an assassin + BP can do the job

Sounds lovely, good luck. Are you planning on setting a Discord server for this project?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scar5 Sounds lovely, good luck. Are you planning on setting a Discord server for this project?

Yes. Roughly a week or two before the first beta hits.

-

That is some pretty nice feedback and input right there, thank you for that! You raised some valid concerns that I didn't think of yet and I'll make sure to consider adjusting some of that.

The main focus for now will be completing the works on 5.2 and going live. I plan to leave the server on this version for quite some time, as it probably suffers the least from the problems mentioned above, and will gather community feedback before updating to 6.1. Most of the concerns above can be figured out together before the problematic patches get applied. We'll see how 5.2 goes and go from there.

bla bla blaaaa pfff...

is your server hardcore? i mean exactly like original?

suggestions:
-keep server original (NO custom at all) and dont CHANGE anything. (example: new players start from trainee island just like original not in horizon like the rest of the private servers that ruin he fun of beginners experience, etc)
-dont give hidden village access right away. make it that it is enabled once you complete all trainee island quests as a reward. include it as a quest reward once you complete the last trainee quest that requires you to teleport from trainee island to the cities. otherwise, if the players receive the pass from the very start, they will just ignore the trainee island quests and teleport.
-ALL rates x1. ALLLL (even drops) just like original. ive heard about this 1-3 items/hr argument with x1 but from by experience at domination with x5 drops, this is nonsense. just 30 mins of dungeon running with full 8/8 party with random item distribution grants you +90% of bag wt% full of gear, weapons and armor. a proper MMORPG is with 1x droprate. items that drop should be valuable, you are waiting for a drop that is an upgrade for you and you are happy when you finally get. not every single monster in the game has to drop a bunch of weapons, armor and few pet cards for you as if you killed a player in warzone that drops all of his inventory. thats not how item drops in MMOs work. on domination right now i have enough gear in the my inventory and bag to gear up ALL players in the server of all ranks. also enough skill cards and pet cards to give every player in the server a pet.
-no custom party exp bonus.
-all language support (start with AR/EN/RU)
-dont put custom npcs that sell consumables (ss, gp, luck potions, GMFB, etc) or enhancement items (cubes and protects). rather, add enchancement items to the ursa shop to encourage people to enter the ursa dungeon.
-no constant OP server buffs. especially at the beginning. players dont need server buffs at lvl 1 to fight lvl 1 monsters.
-if you want to include cash shop items in the server, have people do something in the game to earn them, like winning a dungeon siege the players of the winning guild who participated in the siege recieve a victory box that gives a random item (x3 ss, or x1 GP, or 3x luck potion, or x5 e-repairs/protects, etc.) also successfully completing ursa caverns before time runs out also gives players a victory box. or you can do occasional events that last a few days where people can earcn these items.
-NPC selling decoration items.
-no dungeon teleporter, just like original
-nerf octa buff
-dont neglegt sieges please. it is the best feature of this game, particulary older epics. make them rewarding. example: guild that controls a dungeon recieves +5% all stat buff and 10% exp bonus upon entering that dungeon. (in addition to the victory box i suggested up when you win the siege.)
-make player shops open in flea market only. it is how we played it in original. makes game also more realistic, distributes the players around the world and reduces lag horizon. also makes horizon look good and not like a fish market.
-also, instead of adding custom npc selling cash shop items. hide and distribute these items as quest rewards all over the world, especially the quests that require you to kill dungeon bosses. also the repeatable quest master in the cities.
-avoid any custom feature, item, addition that gives bonuses to rates. example: a custom server pass that gives +10% increase to players\donaters etc.
-otherwise, keep the game normal and original without custom changes or easy features that make the server end in a week or two.
-advertise HEAVILY for the server. we need alot of players.

I am currently playing domination, but it keeps changing for the worse as time goes by and makes alot of changes away from the original epics, it added guild buffs and hiden dungeon tickets. if you implement your server properly, hardcore and as close to original as possible, while avoiding the mistakes domination did, im ready to start new here and invest for months and months.

.................................................. .................................................. .......................................
i just read in your update up that the client will be english only.
well, i thought it was going to be a great server. its features are better than domination and closer to original.
thanks, was a good idea and all the best

Quote:

Originally Posted by ancient2020 well, i thought it was going to be a great server. its features are better than domination and closer to original. thanks, was a good idea and all the best

English really is my best bet here, both going forward and for the players. A mix of english, russian and arabic in world chat just doesn't make for a good experience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ancient2020 is your server hardcore? i mean exactly like original? suggestions: -keep server original (NO custom at all) and dont CHANGE anything. (example: new players start from trainee island just like original not in horizon like the rest of the private servers that ruin he fun of beginners experience, etc) -dont give hidden village access right away. make it that it is enabled once you complete all trainee island quests as a reward. include it as a quest reward once you complete the last trainee quest that requires you to teleport from trainee island to the cities. otherwise, if the players receive the pass from the very start, they will just ignore the trainee island quests and teleport. -ALL rates x1. ALLLL (even drops) just like original. ive heard about this 1-3 items/hr argument with x1 but from by experience at domination with x5 drops, this is nonsense. just 30 mins of dungeon running with full 8/8 party with random item distribution grants you +90% of bag wt% full of gear, weapons and armor. a proper MMORPG is with 1x droprate. items that drop should be valuable, you are waiting for a drop that is an upgrade for you and you are happy when you finally get. not every single monster in the game has to drop a bunch of weapons, armor and few pet cards for you as if you killed a player in warzone that drops all of his inventory. thats not how item drops in MMOs work. on domination right now i have enough gear in the my inventory and bag to gear up ALL players in the server of all ranks. also enough skill cards and pet cards to give every player in the server a pet. -no custom party exp bonus. -all language support (start with AR/EN/RU) -dont put custom npcs that sell consumables (ss, gp, luck potions, GMFB, etc) or enhancement items (cubes and protects). rather, add enchancement items to the ursa shop to encourage people to enter the ursa dungeon. -no constant OP server buffs. especially at the beginning. players dont need server buffs at lvl 1 to fight lvl 1 monsters. -if you want to include cash shop items in the server, have people do something in the game to earn them, like winning a dungeon siege the players of the winning guild who participated in the siege recieve a victory box that gives a random item (x3 ss, or x1 GP, or 3x luck potion, or x5 e-repairs/protects, etc.) also successfully completing ursa caverns before time runs out also gives players a victory box. or you can do occasional events that last a few days where people can earcn these items. -NPC selling decoration items. -no dungeon teleporter, just like original -nerf octa buff -dont neglegt sieges please. it is the best feature of this game, particulary older epics. make them rewarding. example: guild that controls a dungeon recieves +5% all stat buff and 10% exp bonus upon entering that dungeon. (in addition to the victory box i suggested up when you win the siege.) -make player shops open in flea market only. it is how we played it in original. makes game also more realistic, distributes the players around the world and reduces lag horizon. also makes horizon look good and not like a fish market. -also, instead of adding custom npc selling cash shop items. hide and distribute these items as quest rewards all over the world, especially the quests that require you to kill dungeon bosses. also the repeatable quest master in the cities. -avoid any custom feature, item, addition that gives bonuses to rates. example: a custom server pass that gives +10% increase to players\donaters etc. -otherwise, keep the game normal and original without custom changes or easy features that make the server end in a week or two. -advertise HEAVILY for the server. we need alot of players. I am currently playing domination, but it keeps changing for the worse as time goes by and makes alot of changes away from the original epics, it added guild buffs and hiden dungeon tickets. if you implement your server properly, hardcore and as close to original as possible, while avoiding the mistakes domination did, im ready to start new here and invest for months and months. .................................................. .................................................. ....................................... i just read in your update up that the client will be english only. well, i thought it was going to be a great server. its features are better than domination and closer to original. thanks, was a good idea and all the best

Never seen noob like you. You have full warehouse of useless r3 dura items. Noone is going to take that even for free. Go hit r5 or r6 first then talk about x5 drop rate. It takes ages to get d3 item with proper dura that is worth upgrading. I think u don't understand that most of dura is just useless trash. And if u upgrade ANY dura items just because it's d2 or d3 then ur even bigger noob. And about getting fat with r3 items - it was normal even on official at that rank. Btw u kept popping ss/gp like candies and ur parties constantly get wiped, you don't even bother to use selfbuffs on champion or to use any of ur abilites. It took you 5h to go from 50 to 60 with growth pots XD Why would anyone listen to your advices while you have completely no idea how to play this game?

You really want this server to be empty, huh?

x1 drop rate and no cash shop items at npc is an easy way to have empty server with 5-10 people online at time. Forcing people to doing stupid shit like ursa also won't help. Drop has to be higher than on official. At least x3

Well, the best way is to start a poll and let people vote if they want x1, x3 or x5 drop rate. Go for the one that has most votes, simple. On discord by verified accounts ofc to avoid people who create multiple accounts for voting

I like the idea of a epic 5.2 server very much. But I can`t understand why you would evolve it to 7.2. Maybe you can start two servers (one "real classic server" stuck with 5.2 and one "evolving server" from 5.2 to 7.2), if it`s possible.

I start playing rappelz with late epic 3 till epic 7.1 (with a really short restart at epic 8.2).

The main reasons why I quit rappelz are the following (maybe not the correct chronologic order).

• Pet cards can drop from any mob. I like it when only blue pixies can drop empty blue pixie cards. I loved the times where a mass of players hunting low level blue pixies, yetis and orks right over the bridges in laksy :).
• The non unique pet skills with epic 5.1 (e.g. I loved shamic warrior buff from an orc and so on).
• The bear dungeon and the koala as pet. Imho it just doesn`t fit to rappelz.
• Dura/ethereal equipment: The start of random gambling (like the good description in [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...])
• The pet staging system. This was the point were the pets are no companions anymore and just get things (to combine). I still kept my first pantera even if I had "better" pets (first orc, than hawk, than kenta, then cerb).
• T-pro --> supports the "pet are just things" point

tl;dr: My whish or advice is to keep it vanilla like you can (and don`t evolve it to 7.2 please) and don`t exaggerate with hv/npc buffs (maybe just lv5 buffs).
I don`t think you will see just a few classes (assassin). All classes have its value and charm. I don`t know when some people played the game. But I can`t remember when blue pixies can replace a priest/bishop in a dungeon party :D. If you have 1x rates it takes time to see the first evo3 blue pixies ;).
CS items (like ss or gmfb) shouldn`t be availabe by a npc shop. They should be in the drop table of all mobs. I think a good rate would be 2-3x chance of an empty pet card (orc rarity).

I would join if the server will stuck at epic 5.2.
Anyway I wish you good luck.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kennenmajster Never seen noob like you. You have full warehouse of useless r3 dura items. Noone is going to take that even for free. Go hit r5 or r6 first then talk about x5 drop rate. It takes ages to get d3 item with proper dura that is worth upgrading. I think u don't understand that most of dura is just useless trash. And if u upgrade ANY dura items just because it's d2 or d3 then ur even bigger noob. And about getting fat with r3 items - it was normal even on official at that rank. Btw u kept popping ss/gp like candies and ur parties constantly get wiped, you don't even bother to use selfbuffs on champion or to use any of ur abilites. It took you 5h to go from 50 to 60 with growth pots XD Why would anyone listen to your advices while you have completely no idea how to play this game? You really want this server to be empty, huh? x1 drop rate and no cash shop items at npc is an easy way to have empty server with 5-10 people online at time. Forcing people to doing stupid shit like ursa also won't help. Drop has to be higher than on official. At least x3 Well, the best way is to start a poll and let people vote if they want x1, x3 or x5 drop rate. Go for the one that has most votes, simple. On discord by verified accounts ofc to avoid people who create multiple accounts for voting

he's right at one point-the development team after wipe did more mistakes and repeated same ones once again.
mistakes that were repeated like:
1. turned server even more pay to win(changed tpros price from 4K to 9K in gen point shop only after midnight that way giving donaters a huge hours gap to buy gen points 5000boxes per 500cs points and after the midnights patch turned it 2500boxes per 500points so the tpro price rised 4times).
2. changed trading card's exchange rates only 3weeks after the postwipe that way leaving the newer players at a huge disadvantage and thats how until changes were done gumgun got his staged kenta, ifrit and genie-because of 1:1 exchange rate card to scroll.
two balance breaking things that were changed without notifying players on classes:
3. made energy bomb to have 100% crit chance completely destroying an actual balance for pvp and allowing complete oneshoting.
4. increased cooldown to 75s from 15secs on distortion of rage regarding the fact most asssasins weren't competent enough to utilize it since most can't pull even with cloak of shadow.
5. made petrify on druid to work as in e9.x that completely changed the meaning of a support based class.
6. gave rebirth scrolls to player Remix after distortion of rage nerf or added to the cash shop for a very short ammount of time yet they agreed in writing we will never see it there so he rebirthed to the shadow hunters afterwards.
7. let moderator stay into the discord after he decided to trash talk and insult towards drow after he decided to quit because of team's misscommunication and personal action taking without notifying the main fix3r dev, how ever, ocean himself the next day crawled back at drow begging to come back and left speechless for drow's request.
I could mention more things but i guess it's just pointless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marschall83 I like the idea of a epic 5.2 server very much. But I can`t understand why you would evolve it to 7.2. Maybe you can start two servers (one "real classic server" stuck with 5.2 and one "evolving server" from 5.2 to 7.2), if it`s possible. I start playing rappelz with late epic 3 till epic 7.1 (with a really short restart at epic 8.2). The main reasons why I quit rappelz are the following (maybe not the correct chronologic order). Pet cards can drop from any mob. I like it when only blue pixies can drop empty blue pixie cards. I loved the times where a mass of players hunting low level blue pixies, yetis and orks right over the bridges in laksy :). The non unique pet skills with epic 5.1 (e.g. I loved shamic warrior buff from an orc and so on). The bear dungeon and the koala as pet. Imho it just doesn`t fit to rappelz. Dura/ethereal equipment: The start of random gambling (like the good description in [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]) The pet staging system. This was the point were the pets are no companions anymore and just get things (to combine). I still kept my first pantera even if I had "better" pets (first orc, than hawk, than kenta, then cerb). T-pro --> supports the "pet are just things" point tl;dr: My whish or advice is to keep it vanilla like you can (and don`t evolve it to 7.2 please) and don`t exaggerate with hv/npc buffs (maybe just lv5 buffs). I don`t think you will see just a few classes (assassin). All classes have its value and charm. I don`t know when some people played the game. But I can`t remember when blue pixies can replace a priest/bishop in a dungeon party :D. If you have 1x rates it takes time to see the first evo3 blue pixies ;). CS items (like ss or gmfb) shouldn`t be availabe by a npc shop. They should be in the drop table of all mobs. I think a good rate would be 2-3x chance of an empty pet card (orc rarity). I would join if the server will stuck at epic 5.2. Anyway I wish you good luck.

just looked at your signature and remembered who you been. a champ/berseker from constellation right :D ?
well ya know, some old players like mazzacre, pisna or takewa are still playing this game. for pisna we eventually cross paths for some reason. guess why few old folks are still around is just nostalgy for rappelz and nothing more.
i think pisna and takewa are on space server. because the last time i have seen pisna's around was chet's epic 4 server. couple others are in domination including one semperfi member. unfortunately most of us had quit long ago. though i invited fromadistance to play rz pro 8.1 but due to studies he quit guess, busy with his university sessions before summer starts.
from convos with specific forum users on discord i got to know that shinycharizard-slowking from winter guild, tortus server at some point is still around this game but i dont know where he plays. at least what i was told. i think there are few more players around that we happened to meet 5-6 or 7 years ago on a private servers or on official.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HanYanRou ... just looked at your signature and remembered who you been. a champ/berseker from constellation right :D ? ...

Nope, my guild History was

• Templer with the legendary Sturmhaube (one of the highest and best Knights), Adempta (priest)
• SIG (Rubinho, maja1)
• OneSky with famous players like Snaythe, Flari, Rainnman (most famous tamer in this Server), murdha
• and many more good people I forgot their names :(