I keep forgetting I'm registered here and every now and then I come take a peek to see what's new in the CABAL section, and imagine my surprise when I come across this post.
It's very refreshing to see a seemingly more dedicated and mature approach towards a server for this game. It reminds me of other private server communities out there that function a lot differently than CABAL's, and it gives me hope that maybe this community isn't quite dead yet. Now if only *someone* would grace us with another server files leak... that'd be the kicker.
A few comments on your project, for the sake of feedback, if you're interested:
- Partially maxing out your first character seems to me like a bit of a double-edged feature. On the one hand, it's useful and time-saving for players who want to get started on endgame content right away (or be available for it in case a party is looking for people).
But on the other hand, if your goal was to encourage players to experience the base game (including progression and quests) just like in official servers, only with increased rates and other features typical of p-servers, this might discourage players from doing so, especially those players who generally only stick to a single character class for serious play.
- Automatic dual transcender, much in the same vein, definitely banishes the painfully tedious skilling aspect of the game to the Shadow Realm, but skill rank progression can feel rewarding to players (especially if, once again, your goal is to promote vanilla style of playing).
It's true that unlike level grinding, where you're also technically farming for drops (with or without a luck set), you can't really do much else while skilling, especially at dummies. However, you could always take a third way out and find a fun and inventive use for skill EXP potions that players would have to farm (in maps and/or dungeons) and could then use to progress skill ranks without having to skill manually at all. Kinda like a happy medium.
It's apparently somewhat common for p-servers out there to have honour potion drops to this end, so I'm thinking liberal use of EXP, skill EXP, etc. potion drops could be an interesting venue to speed up progression without making it instant or near instant. It also feels rather rewarding /when they're actually useful and necessary/, in my opinion.
- Old buff animations and monster pet drops are real deal makers to me, to be honest. I know the old buffs annoyed a lot of people but I've always found them endearing. I remember back when I started playing at MMOParadox's first iteration they had those buff animations too and it was worth it, I think. If it becomes too laggy during War because of them, I suppose something could be done about it later on.
Drawing inspiration from Ragnarok Online p-servers, I think it'd be cool to expand the droppable monster pet selection and include boss pets dropped from said bosses with a really low chance (like an astral bike, for example). They could perhaps also be purchasable via donations for those who don't want to farm them. Since all pets are equivalent gameplay-wise as far as I know, this wouldn't be pay2win. But I realize that can take quite a bit of work adding all those pets (and I don't know if you're limited by item caps or something), so I understand if it's a no-go.
- Appearance changing cash items purchasable with weekly free eCoins is IMO a very good and generous call because that's one of those comfort features that require real money in official servers which I like being available through other means in p-servers.
- I was never too fond of having to hunt down Transcender skill books in Porta Inferno, but if that's a fundamental feature for your server then I understand.
- I don't know how you configured DP saving in your server but I would recommend being a bit more generous than vanilla with regards to DP saving time so that players don't have to worry about losing their DP if they don't run a dungeon in time.
- Another recommendation: if you happen to have post-EP8 buffs which have no series type (strengthen X) at all, I'd suggest adding a type to them for balancing purposes (keeping in mind the default maximum stackable value is 3 same-type buffs at CR20, including no type).
- A minor suggestion: I don't know how you configured your language folder either, but if crafted equipments are showing up with "of X" prefixes rather than suffixes, I'd suggest either switching them to suffixes or eliminating the "of " part so they don't look as weird. I know it's such a minor thing but it's just one of those pet peeves of mine lmao.
And that's about it for now, I think. I have to say that adding back old dungeons was a really good call (I for one miss those D.T. dungeons nobody else liked!) and all those comfort features and tweaks you implemented feel fun but not overpowered. Really good ideas!
Hope to see this server launching and sticking around in the future! Lord knows this game's p-server community is in dire need of some serious changes, and something revitalizing, for a change. Best of luck to you and your players!
retro Cabal
!
