I've unintentionally become a Conquer private server critic, after trying to satisfy myself with a decent private server to stay on, only to fail one after another. Some of you may have seen a character or forum member called AisanAssassin - that's me. But I come here again to reveal my studies and share my reports. This is my 2nd post, and some of you may have seen my other post months ago about unbalanced private servers.
Now... What do "I" criticize of a private server? This is personal of me, and you fellow elitepvpers are free to agree/disagree -
#1 Reason to come to private servers - Escape bulkers. Yep, when TQ got money-hungry, they ditched us hardcore dedicated players and only cared for the moneybag players. Real CO's logo changed to "Free to play, PAY TO WIN!". So, I resorted to private servers, only to see this nightmare haunt me once more. A donations page on their personal server website allows moneybag players to reach extremely unfair advantages, which sucks for the hardcore dedicated players. Bulkers are now "donators" now. It sucks. End of story.
Did any private server owner think of alternatives to help pay for the server uptime, rather than letting players feel bulker-hell again?
You could let players pay for little things for SMALL advantages over SMALL amounts of times - increased personal rates (10% more exp, gold, cps, chances for mets/dbs, - idea from HellmouthCO, very clever), 20% more stam (that's JUST 1 more fb/ss added onto Heaven's Blessing's 50%), 15 second reviving, 2x the effects of Luckytime, a temporary cool-looking halo, and other little stuff that doesn't ruin the PvE or PvP system for normal, free players but could be little tweaks that moneybag players can want and enjoy. Also, those can last weekly/monthly, meaning... (You can figure out the advantages that help the costs that keep your server running.)
And other stuff not ingame like buying more accounts after a limit of 5, name changing, instant merchant or item unlock, or even give small shortcuts (buy a whole set of level 15 elite gears of a class, or buy level 100, still makes the player work themself till level 130, and their gears until Super +12, 2 soc, -7, enchants) But donations for bogus items, unreachable levels, crazy reborns? That's an automatic quit for me.
#2 - What ruins a private server... the BALANCE.
"Oh look mane! We have new item ONLY for Trojans cause Warrior shield gay! Look! New weapon with 48375894321 attack, huh, what's a new armor? Oh, me no make new level 185 whip, me want to see gay club/blade or sword/blade Trojans. Ahh see this +20 SDG/SDG -10 +5000 HP GoldCup for only donators! Try new skill, it make 658373 damage to everything in screen, only for Fire, oh, who care if archer get no new skill!" You get the point.
I don't mind +15s... if they weren't so overpowered and were actually calculated to be balanced and not scribbled "+25000".
Why make a new item ONLY for a class that's already beast? OR yet, why make level 185 weapons, and not make 185 necklaces, headgears, armors, boots, etc. to balance out the insane attack? OR why only make a level 185 blade/club/sword, and not a scepter, whip, or the 2Hs?
Does any 5095+ server care about the Fan/Tower power differences?
Wahhh, I believe adding items into the game is awesome to enhance gameplay, make the server more unique, and fix balances (like the Warrior class needing more defence, boots' dodge needing to be reduced, etc.). But I believe adding only certain or extreme(ly unbalanced) is simply wrong...
#3 Lack of... Motivation. Ahh, finally got maxed out on the server. No quests are on the server give me a good challenge, reward, or even fun. Don't need cps for my maxed out gears. No mobs can beat me (even at level 100...). All I do is sit in PKA bored with my friends and hope an unlucky noob comes by. Shoot, that server must have no flavor or anything uniquely fun to it. I also have to ask -
"Yes, we have level 200 on our server! We want you to be there monotonously in that dull Labrynth or Winezone for weeks! We want you to get bored on the server cause it's the only place to level and it's the only monsters to level on! It appears to be the only way to keep you on the server, and it's an awesome way to make you quit!" Ummm. Okay. Have you owners tried to level there yourselves until the max level? You can see why people complain and get bored on your server. Add more maps, more (different) monsters each level, hmm, maybe leveling could be interesting. I'm fighting level 144 dragons, that can actually hit over 100 on me! I would be entertained by that if every 3 levels had a different mob/map. Even TQ thought monsters changing every 5 levels would be cool, after you fight Sandmonsters, you move onto Hillmonsters, then to BI, not too repetitive/boring/monotonous now, eh?
Now when you do reach that insane level with your insane gears, what do you do now? PKA. No one's there? Your goals are already met on the server. It's time to get bored now. Me, I would bring out the lost maps and features out of CO to challenge players. Remember that old Blue Mouse quest? Change up the rewards for something useful for a maxed player, place monsters with 20k attack in the mines, boss monsters in scattered levels that rape maxed players, and challenge the dang player for some awesome rewards. Or the snake quest where on Real CO you potted your balls off? Change the rewards and stats of that boss and you got a challenge. A maxed Trojan thinks he's gonna twirl his clubs and dance through the gardens with snakes, but only to be attacked by a barraged of 1k magic hits. Then he goes to the boss, which has 65k hp, 30-40k attack whichcan be ranged and multi-hit, 40k defense, and 80% magic defense, 85 dodge, and 75% damage reduction. Holy crap, but it's heck worth it for X amount of cps, a GoldCup, and a crapload of fun!
The Ancient Devil quest "was" fun. I'd make it fun again, too bad private server owners are lazy, uncreative, or just want to focus on the PKA or donations. Those class bosses COULD force your character (archer, warrior, or even water) to use your skills. Maybe the only way to kill the Fire Taoist boss is to use Bombscroll, Fixed Fire Meteor, and FireCircle, Nado hits nothing. The Trojan Boss of the Ancient devil quest could probably only have 20k hp, 70k defense, and it could demand pure Trojans with CruelShade or awesome people with fixed penetration to take it down. Then the Ancient Devil himself has insane stats, insane multi-hit/ranged attacks, and the skill reflect.
GAHHHH, there's so many things that Conquer already has! Sure people can add new quests and maps, but there's already awesome quests in CO that could be tweaked for more awesomeness! Sky Pass, Dis City, and so much more! The Adventure Zones look empty - not anymore with insane monsters and NPCs for tons of quests in that place! Also, this gives reasons and challenges players to stay on the server. It also enhances your server and you can put "REFINED/RENOVATED CLASSIC CO QUESTS" as a juicy description on your elitepvper or xtremetop100 advertisement.
That basically sums up my private server reviews. Hmm.... If I could code like the beasts I know in elitepvpers (cough cough, such as pro4never or InfamousNoone) I sure would wanna make an amazing, thrilling and extremely unique server. I imagine a server where there are no complaints about donations, unbalance, or boringness and where players keep finding reasons on the server to be entertained so they'd never want to quit. A server where each class, even the archers or warriors, find complete balance and place in PvE and PvP. Ahh, but there's always gonna be complaints and nothing's perfect. I'm a smart creative kid, but I don't think coding in C# is for me. I'm probably gonna quit CO forever for stealing so many hours of my life anyways... >.<
