ApexConquer - Low/Medium rate 5017 Server!

[pro4never]

Originally Posted by GameHackerPM

Outstanding~~~!

I think i may start playing CO again! <3

Thanks so much for the kind words Hope to see you in game.


Starting Experience, Mall and More!

-New characters automaticly obtain a monster exterminator quest.
-Completing your first monster exterminator quest will now grant unique starting items.
-Players can now purchase large arrow packs from mall (7500 arrows)
-Players can now purchase lucky time tokens from mall (instant 30 minutes lucky time)
-Reborn items now show their effect when listed in market stalls.
-DB drop notifications are now only sent to your own map - not globally.
-Promotion center is now a non PK map.
-Fixed agro range for AdvZone and WineZone. Monsters will follow properly now.
-Fixed issues with items stacking on ground rarely.
-Significant improvements to server efficiency.

[[X]-Cape]

This thing is getting better and better every day. Keep up the good work ^.^

[pro4never]

A Fresh New Look!

Small update today but wanted to fix a few core issues. Most of the changes are behind the scenes and wont significantly effect gameplay.



-Added 3 new garments to mall. SchoolUniform, Spartan and PoliceSuit. We will continue to add 2-3 new garments ever 2 weeks until we have every garment added (to keep things feeling fresh)
-Improved some of the anti bot protection
-People repeatedly flagged by the anti bot will now be auto banned
-Improved server efficiency
-Fixed numerous bugs

[pro4never]

Bug fixes and tweaks.


-Significantly reduced lag spikes for foreign players.
-Offhand equipment should no longer uneq when relogging.
-Powerleveling has been tweaked. No more plvling to 130 at birdmen.
-Redname players should no longer drop gear on non pk maps.
-Fixed issue with Intensify not being removed on auto attacks.
-Re-enabled blessing NPC.
-Fixed issue where players were buying VIP tokens for silver.
-Added a slightly longer delay between each FB/SS due to player request (May change back...)
-Player login notifications moved to top left.

[Hybris]

Originally Posted by pro4never

Appreciate the feedback.

This is a classic server so CP drops would feel really odd on it. Instead we've raised DB droprates quite high and players can sell them for CP if needed. That being said, CPs have very few uses in this server.

CPs have very few uses on the server but playing on it allowed me to watch it was the main money used for trades.
The thing is, generation of CPs can be done only from selling DBs at NPC market (which is quite unprofitable - NPC buys at 100 CPs, players usually sell at 130 CPs).
The other way to generate CPs is for sure donating, but a lot of players prefer playing like a Free2Play not a Pay2Win : 200 CP per $1.00 donated.

So we can see such issues, players having a lot of stuff to sell, but a lot of players not able to pay for such items because the global amount of CPs is low.
I think economically talking, it's not pretty viable.

So maybe the CP drop is not the solution, maybe increase the possibility of selling other items against CPs (otherwise than with players) ?
Maybe increase the price in CPs of a DB at market (closer to the price we buy them into Shopping Mall) ?

Edit :
Good job on those several updates recently

[pro4never]

Originally Posted by Hybris

CPs have very few uses on the server but playing on it allowed me to watch it was the main money used for trades.
The thing is, generation of CPs can be done only from selling DBs at NPC market (which is quite unprofitable - NPC buys at 100 CPs, players usually sell at 130 CPs).
The other way to generate CPs is for sure donating, but a lot of players prefer playing like a Free2Play not a Pay2Win : 200 CP per $1.00 donated.

So we can see such issues, players having a lot of stuff to sell, but a lot of players not able to pay for such items because the global amount of CPs is low.
I think economically talking, it's not pretty viable.

So maybe the CP drop is not the solution, maybe increase the possibility of selling other items against CPs (otherwise than with players) ?
Maybe increase the price in CPs of a DB at market (closer to the price we buy them into Shopping Mall) ?

Edit :
Good job on those several updates recently

Everyone is of course welcome to their own opinion.

The thing to keep in mind is that when we made the NPC start paying 100 CP instead of 215 CP per DB, we also doubled DB rates.

The CP earned per hour of hunting (from db's, not counting items sold to other players) remains virtually identical to what it was before.

The higher CP cost to buy DBs directly from NPC means that players who donate or otherwise obtain CP are encouraged to buy from players rather than buy from a NPC. This has made our market FAR more active in terms of player trading and made things far more barter based (no one wants to trade their DBs for 100 CP so they either sell them to other players for 120-150 CP each or else they trade DBs for items directly)


Everyone is of course welcome to their opinion and everyone has a different idea of 'balance' but comparing the level of activity in market as well as the prevalence of player trading, it's quite clear to me that making DBs trade to NPCs for less than they cost in shops was the right move for our server to make.


PS: As a side note I would point out that while our server is classic in feel, patch and core gameplay, we are not going to limit ourselves to that. This may upset some players but at we feel many of the changes we have and will continue to make are necessary to ensure that the server is enjoyable in the long term, not just during the first month or so of rushing to max level.

PPS: Many may not believe me but the donations we have received have been overwhelmingly focused on purchasing VIP benefits rather than the CP included in donations.

King of the Hill!
You MUST patch before you can log in.


Added King Of the Hill Event
Trojans will no longer unequip offhand weapon on relog.
PKing players only grants exp if the target was within 10 levels of yourself.
Meteor tears may now be packed in market or by right clicking them if you are VIP.
Removed XP shield from war-trojan rebirth.
Reverted FB/SS speed changes (back to original value).
Fixed UltimatePluto drop rules.
Reborning will now display your lowered gear to other players properly.
JewlerLau will now trade silver + refined tortoise gems for super gems.
GW will now end at 10PM server time on Saturdays.
Fixed ingame clock to show proper server time (EST).
Blocked certain client mods (jump and magictype edits).
Updated client protection.
Buffed bluemouse capture and item reward rates.
Improved server efficiency further.



Below are video guides for each PVP event

[pro4never]

Further Bugfixes!

-Improved screen logic. Players should no longer 'vanish' when jumping off screen
-Improved packet queue to avoid clients closing on their own (test fix)
-Auto attacks are now enabled on King of the Hill
-Flying moon now deals a percentage of your weapon damage (75%)
-Dis city level 3 now rarely drops Penitence Amulets
-Players who are married to deleted characters can now divorce
-PKers now get exp for killing targets within 20 levels of their character rather than 10 levels.
-Many other minor bug fixes and tweaks

[pro4never]

-Added Pirate Garment
-Switched to newer AutoPatcher (less issues)
-Re-organized mall
-Fixed issues with King of the Hill event (revive locations, skill permissions, etc)
-Fixed numerous bugs and client issues


NOTE: Bluemouse is currently disabled. I was in the middle of re-writing the trap system and the server was experiencing some issues so I had to launch patch early. The quest will be re-enabled tomorrow.

[Thorev]

Advertisement thread turned into patch notes thread to constantly bump it up.
Why no spam your own frontpage and forum?

[pro4never]

DragonBulls EVERYWHERE!

To celebrate April Fools day, we've added a holiday drop event. "DragonBulls" will drop at a relatively high rate from all monster types. They look much like dragonballs but don't be too upset when you realize you've been fooled because you can still right click on them to gain some experience and random rewards.

Please note: DragonBulls cannot be traded/stored/dropped to avoid players trying to scam each other with them or abuse the exp rewards.

-DragonBulls added - they will drop from 0:00 1/4/2015 until 23:59 1/4/2015 from all monsters
-Fixed minor issue screening system logic
-Archers may no longer cast fly while shielded
-Taoist invisibility skill now removes buffs from target (stig, shield, accuracy)
-Red and black name players only lose gear if killed by players
-On killing black name players there will be a server message informing you that they have been sent to jail (the rate at which their items drop is also raised)
-Fixed issue where trojans reborning to warriors would keep their offhand weapon equipped even after relogging (same should apply to all class based offhand weapon checks)
-Fixed an issue where very, very rarely players would remain online even after the client had been closed (whoops!)

Originally Posted by Thorev

Advertisement thread turned into patch notes thread to constantly bump it up.
Why no spam your own frontpage and forum?

This is pretty much standard practice for any actively updated pserver - you post your changelog to keep people informed and the advertisement bumped. You're welcome to be as butthurt as you want though

All updates go on our website, facebook and on epvp to keep all players informed of changes

[Hybris]

Originally Posted by pro4never

Everyone is of course welcome to their own opinion.

The thing to keep in mind is that when we made the NPC start paying 100 CP instead of 215 CP per DB, we also doubled DB rates.

The CP earned per hour of hunting (from db's, not counting items sold to other players) remains virtually identical to what it was before.

The higher CP cost to buy DBs directly from NPC means that players who donate or otherwise obtain CP are encouraged to buy from players rather than buy from a NPC. This has made our market FAR more active in terms of player trading and made things far more barter based (no one wants to trade their DBs for 100 CP so they either sell them to other players for 120-150 CP each or else they trade DBs for items directly)


Everyone is of course welcome to their opinion and everyone has a different idea of 'balance' but comparing the level of activity in market as well as the prevalence of player trading, it's quite clear to me that making DBs trade to NPCs for less than they cost in shops was the right move for our server to make.


PS: As a side note I would point out that while our server is classic in feel, patch and core gameplay, we are not going to limit ourselves to that. This may upset some players but at we feel many of the changes we have and will continue to make are necessary to ensure that the server is enjoyable in the long term, not just during the first month or so of rushing to max level.

PPS: Many may not believe me but the donations we have received have been overwhelmingly focused on purchasing VIP benefits rather than the CP included in donations.

I had an idea about this DB/CP effect.
The thing annoying me (it's just my opinion) was that the Market NPC was not being really attractive comparing to the cost of DB from another player.

And furthermore, the fact that selling DBs for the Market NPC was one of the only way to generate CPs.

So to my opinion increasing the attraction to sell DBs to this NPC would increase the global amount of CPs on the server which would also increase global market exchanges (since CP is the main currency for exchanges yet).

So here is the idea :
Each player selling a DB to this market guy, would increase some global DragonBall count. This global DragonBall count may allow other players, to buy DragonBalls from this same NPC at a preferencial price (but only if the NPC still have some). That way, it would allow generation of CPs easely but also preserve concurrency in term of DB price.

Here is a scenario :
- Global DB Count is at 0.
- PlayerA drops a DragonBall
- PlayerA sells his DragonBall to "MarketMerchant"
(Global DB Count goes to 1)

- PlayerB and PlayerC needs a DragonBall
- PlayerB goes to "MarketMerchant" he buys a DB to him
(Global DB Count goes to 0)
- PlayerC goes to "MarketMerchant", he can't buy any DB to him
(Since Global DB Count is at 0)
so he buys one from "ShoppingMall" or directly from another player who wants to sell his DB higher than what the "MarketMerchant" offers.

[pro4never]

What you're describing is the exact reason we added the changes we did.


We don't want players buying DBs from the mall. It should be a sub optimal decision to buy common player hunted items from the mall because it would discourage you from interacting with other players and visiting the market. By making the mall an attractive option you kill off large sections of gameplay for others.

We don't want players generating CP from 'nothing'. Obviously though there must be ways to generate CP and DBs are a great way to do this as after the initial server rush, very few DBs that are found are needed to upgrade quality so allowing players to turn them into currency is 'fine' but making trading to a NPC a valuable option is silly because of the same issue - you destroy the market and create heavy inflation.

If the DB droprate is to be left as high as it is (and it IS quite high, around 1 db per 3k mobs) then the average CP value per DB needs to be lowered or else the entire economy inflated to respond. Personally I'd much rather DBs at a value of 100-150 CP like we're seeing now on the server rather than seeing +1 items selling for like 80 cp each and sockets being 25k CP and that's reflected with how the server and its economy has been tweaked.


TL - DR: We want players trading items to other players, not buying and selling items from NPCs.

PS: Here's a great article on the subject of inconvenience as a feature. By streamlining things like item trading you actually can destroy a large portion of the game for others. It's a great read.

[Hybris]

Originally Posted by pro4never

What you're describing is the exact reason we added the changes we did.

We don't want players buying DBs from the mall. It should be a sub optimal decision to buy common player hunted items from the mall because it would discourage you from interacting with other players and visiting the market. By making the mall an attractive option you kill off large sections of gameplay for others.

In the scenario described above, the mall is the last option (like now).

Originally Posted by pro4never

We don't want players generating CP from 'nothing'. Obviously though there must be ways to generate CP and DBs are a great way to do this as after the initial server rush, very few DBs that are found are needed to upgrade quality so allowing players to turn them into currency is 'fine' but making trading to a NPC a valuable option is silly because of the same issue - you destroy the market and create heavy inflation.

If the DB droprate is to be left as high as it is (and it IS quite high, around 1 db per 3k mobs) then the average CP value per DB needs to be lowered or else the entire economy inflated to respond. Personally I'd much rather DBs at a value of 100-150 CP like we're seeing now on the server rather than seeing +1 items selling for like 80 cp each and sockets being 25k CP and that's reflected with how the server and its economy has been tweaked.


TL - DR: We want players trading items to other players, not buying and selling items from NPCs.

PS: Here's a great article on the subject of inconvenience as a feature. By streamlining things like item trading you actually can destroy a large portion of the game for others. It's a great read.

I like the way you thought the economic part of your server tho, just trying to find a way to generate CPs otherwise than selling DBs to an NPC, maybe add the same option with meteors ?

[pro4never]

Originally Posted by Hybris

I like the way you thought the economic part of your server tho, just trying to find a way to generate CPs otherwise than selling DBs to an NPC, maybe add the same option with meteors ?

The whole point is we do not want CPs being generated.

CPs should be earned by selling items to other players. CPs should NOT be generated by the game itself. Obviously we need some way besides donations for CPs to enter the economy which is why we've left the DB npc in but the entire point of how the economy is set up is so that CPs are generated as rarely as possible from the server and instead the existing CPs are encouraged to change hands (aka player trades)

[killermale123]

In other words, most server has donation point shops. Trinity for example, 1 dollar for 1 point. With this option, only players who donate will get those items in that shop. But this server is not, this server provides everything and anything a donator can get and a free to play player can get. So cps should be hard to obtain, if not whats the point of it being in the donation option when you can easily obtain it.

But feedback is great, and Pro4never is good to interact with.