This thread has quite a strong character and looking to say something, very well built out of the other advertisments i've seen. Good work, now onto my thoughts.
I've chosen to post here, because i see this server has some potential. This story will be anyway my opinion and preferance, so yea try to criticize the right way.
In the SRO scene there are oldschool servers and the other ones can be "newschool" i guess. To me oldschool is boring and dead, well SRO community is small and extraordinary. Holding my negativity back here.
Oldschool means u play and do same things over and over again. Doesn't that sound abit funny to players playing for 7+ years?
Oh yea, lets clear one thing out, theres cant be such a thing as ''stealing an idea from x server''. The idea of first creating a pserver is a steal anyway if you consider isro. Sure 1on1 copying some other server is fishy, ofc.
Some of these thoughts Senorus might already use one way or another, i will still cover them tho.
Anyway my view on the road to a successful server:
1) Be as original and different as possible. Your own server uniques, custom skills(be it pve only skills or even pvp if you can balance it out). Servers that used this nicely i find were Venture,Eltsur & Salvation(Last one being a legit server, no bots allowed. I wont write whole page here about that server. Maybe googling would help on info.)
Myth Online also tried to create a different mastery for chinise for an example, but didn't quite finish it.
There was one server that made their own instances, like on 30-41, 41-60 etc.
Be creative. ive even had an idea of underwater combat in SRO, lol.
These ideas might sound hard, some impossible to accomplish, im just talking on the view of how would a server attract players, differ from the other crowd of copypaste CHN only oldschool cap servers.
Right now its like lets open an oldschool server, leech some money and close it. Then give it some time Version 2 coming out in 2 weeks, same fate really.
Sure the money is good. However, dont you want to feel that you have accomplished something that left a mark? *Yap. yap*
2) Events would also be a big part of a successful server. The kind of events that give some communication between GMs and the players. Those automated bot events dont really get anybody's spirits up, they can occasionally occur, but not be primary.
Pvp events, GM murdering(This should be made intresting as in GM uses powerful skills that aoe many players and is immune to freeze ofc, with him frozen 24/7 it wouldnt be much of a battle) and other shenenigans. Its about it being FUN, lets make Botroad something else.
2.1) Could add like randomly spawning treasure boxes that drop silk items, scrolls(int,str etc), special mounts. Use your creativity here, maybe they would even spawn an elite mob, unique. Their spawns can be fixed too, hidden in certain hard to reach spots. Would be nice if the spawn rotation would like change every week.
3) Strong and variable endgame content. Unkillable superboss? Challenging FGW? New dangerous trade routes? Special Job skills?
What i mean on variable is different endgame activities, different ways to strive toward good gear.
One thing i hate about servers is coining everything. The coin of misery drops inside a maze that can be done by a mazerunner in 45min, GL to amateurs. Is instance grinding(FGW or custom instance, bosses) dropping endgame gear somehow too short work or boring? You can have many different instances giving different sets, even solo ones. You can have bosses with high magic defence so wizards wont get everything. I hope that atleast FGWs like Shipwreck would be utilised. A new area with some space and mobs isn't really something big. Its only cool for maybe like 10min.
4) Why is the server 95 cap? On this note i would suggest the last 5 levels, like 91-95 to be kinda like extra, they dont give stat points. They could unlock upgraded skills, for an example some skill gets 5% stun rate etc. Many stuff to consider here.
This idea was once used by one pserver, pure thievery.
Those levels wouldnt be reachable by grinding, u get exp. However the threshold is too big, u would need to complete special quests for leveling up, which should be quite challenging maybe the late levels even hard without a party, the quests can also have special rewards like titles , maybe even silk items. These levels shouldnt have a great impact on the PvP aspect.
5) Auction house on the website, sorry if you already have this planned. There you can access your ingame storage and put your gear up on the website for selling or ask to buy something.
6) Best suggestion would probably be a nice system where players could post suggestions and see what the GMs think of them. So a forum or somekinda ticket system.
My horrible boring wall of text is at an end.
Out of ideas for now.
Best of Luck to your server!