So i've decided to write few impressions of this server. I was really enjoing to play this server for almost 2 weeks of beta test and more than 1 month since its release. But i can see no more how admin fulfills any silly whim of this bunch of dumbasses who want game to be completely casual so they can make no efforts at all, no, even don't think at all. In other words, admin doesn't see where QoL changes end and changes which make it easy as F begin. Some of these changes admin put on poll where casual morons rule, some don't put. Maybe i even wouldn't be so dissatisfied if all these decisions he was taking by himself (perhaps because he looks more experienced).
So, more about these changes. 1) Buffing all the food twice and making it worth 5% will is definitely QoL change because it makes food really useful but making it twice effective again was silly. Now barley bibimbap restores HP like ambrosia and you need just 1 thing to recover yourself, lol wtf. There's no need now in korean meal, there's no need in adding new tiers of food. Food should be useful but no so easily achievable. It costs pennies to craft.
2) Adding crazy lord's seals to drop from constantinople mobs. Some kind of very insignificant change BUT. They drop in big amounts in Marksburg castle. I was doing it and completed 4 floors and part of 5th solo and got 100 or 200 of them (without even getting it to JP), can't remember well. Your guild doesn't run marksburg? It's YOUR problem that you all join one guild. Key costs silly 100 points and you can run it every day. But no, you don't want to think at all, you want to create problems out of air. And admin as an obedient slave fulfills this whim too and changes drop table.
3) Anti-bot flyers (bats, raptors, etc) now have cut wings. Insignificant change too but. This thing again. Ranged mercs? Magic mercs? Finally, magic? (It's what about killing them.) Maybe change your damn equipment so mercs won't die from one hit? NO. As i said, these casual morons don't want to think. They take shit mercs, don't upgrade them (and main is 30 lvls above mercs), they want just click-click-click. If some mob doesn't die from just clicking, they go whine in discord and admin do what they say.
These were small things, couldn't remember them all and i could live with them. Was actually living. But now will be crap which is the reason why i leave this server. I don't know is it implemented atm or is on the way to be implemented, just i know that admin is serious about this. I got depressed since i knew about this change, since friday, i wasn't playing, pointless.
4) New mercs' level now will be scaling to main's level (maximum to lvl 100). Maybe it was i who gave an initial push to this idea. If it's so, i blame myself hundreds, no, thousand times, but nonetheless it won't cancel other silly changes and some freak would come to this idea soon or later. But i was suggesting the addition of lvl 120 summon stones which can be traded for 5 normal summon stones, just i remember i saw these on some other AO server. Very soon i thought it's a very raw idea, lvl 120 is too high, amount of 5 is too small because e.g. witch quest is very short etc etc BUT. I hoped that admin could get something really good out of this idea, i was dreaming about some lively market of marble stones, novices could be doing these recruitment quests and selling stones to high-levels, making money this way, and high-levels could have more time experimenting with various pvp builds. Admin didn't consider important to say back at the moment there are no 120lvl summon marbles at all in this AO version and started to experiment with leveled summons, and we got what we got.
We got that casuals barely reached lvl 90 (with their mains only, ofc) and declared THEY WANT TO EXPERIMENT WITH BUILDS, lol wtf (x2). Yeah, i understand, you have sooooo much mercs to choose from on lvl 90 (sarcasm). But more important, leveling 1 merc from lvl 1 to lvl 100 costs silly 40m gold. It's not really a sum on lvl 105+ when you can get it just from fights. Level 90 is still a tutorial zone, exp table will scale greatly since lvl 96, but lvls are still achievable. In short, they, with their tutorial zone levels, want everything right here and right now, and admin is... well, you know, not against it. And there are daily quests on lvl 102 that give good portion of exp but casuals definitely won't care. Why you need to do some SiLlY quests if you can just use marble stone and get 100 lvl merc, which is ready to fight? I don't even say you need to do something with retirement system, it's in danger when you can just book your main to lvl 100 and pop out these mercs.
Looks like i'm out of my passion and i forgot what else i wanted to say. So i'll repeat, i'm glad i found this server, that was a great time. To be honest, never played so long (6 weeks) during one session any single or multi player game, usually it's 2 weeks and i abandon game for months or years. I understand very clearly that server can't satisfy everyone. And this contradiction. Admin says he won't add WoL because it'll break food craft but change №1 does this as well. He says you can't get things in one pop (can't remember the phrase verbatim) on this server but adds these silly 100 lvl mercs.
Anyway I heartily wish a prosperity to this server, i hope it will find its fanbase, maybe it already exists but small one, so i wish it to be bigger. My opinion, best AO private server since OGrealms' death.
Sincerely, Doppelganger/ToddHoward/Accopmu.