r/RagnarokOnline

I was hopeful that RO3 could be what we have been asking for years - a faithful recreation of RO1 with modern mechanics and visuals, no pay to win, no mobile cash grab, etc

Jumped into one of the private servers that popped up recently with high expectations and I’m disappointed to see what it actually is.

Now, the game’s visual is BEAUTIFUL, it’s truly amazing to see the cities, dungeons, mobs, etc that we spent so much time playing being recreated with modern graphics - they have done an excellent job there.

But in my opinion, this is all it has to offer to RO1 fans. It’s a completely different game. Graphics are beautiful but it lacks the game feels “dead”, it lacks the depth that the original game had. It seems like it was built with auto play in mind. Mobs respawn in a fixed position, don’t roam the map freely, are passive, leveling is quest driven (and quests basically are automatic too, you just watch along), no party exp sharing… I could go on and on. It has a lot of problems that just kills the joy of playing the game.

But what if it could be different? How would you want it to be? What would make you play?

With the client files leaked, I started reverse engineering my own emulator - but I see no point in recreating and emulating RO3 as is.

I thought about creating the version of the game that I wish Gravity had built:
- no auto play / auto quests / auto pot
- leveling based on grinding mobs, not quests
- no fixed mobs respawns
- party oriented play
- job progression similar to RO1 (no to becoming 3rd job by level 70)
- … a lot of other things…

What else? What are the things you wished was true in RO3? Would you play this version of the game?

There’s a lot of work to be done, but I’ve made some considerable progress and already. If there’s enough interest from the community, we could have a closed alpha test server within a couple of months or so.

But I don’t want to build something that is not what RO1 fans wanted or expected so your thoughts, opinions and involvement are very welcome :)

Hey everyone,

Me and my brother have played Ragnarok for years now and we are looking for a Renewal server in the with real active players and minimal cash shop impact. If you play on one like that, please share.

We aren’t completely opposed to a pre-renewal so if you are playing in a good server, feel free to share that too :)

Thank you!

Hi Guys; over a month ago, I made a post here on reddit defending RO Zero as a game. All the good I saw in it, etc. I'm here to revisit the things I wrote about it and just airing out how I am currently feeling about the game. You can view it HERE.

I'm going to go with the positives first; because I still thing RO:Zero; by design; is a great game.

I have been enjoying the game by a mile. There hasn't really been another game I've felt this much mental investment on for a long time. It's been 2 moths in and I can feel how engaged I am with problem solving my leveling strategy and resources.

Affixes are still what makes this game really fun. The (not perfect; but not too terrible) 2nd Job Balance has been enjoyable; ie: Rogue Vanilla and Rogue ZERO for example. I still don't really believe that "Paying for the game with real money via the Cash Shop items will WIN you the game" - (RMT does not fall under this category). Auto farming which I know many have mixed feelings about; is still a feature in the game I consider necessary/part of the game; otherwise; we'd need to be manually grinding to farm and level (which not everyone really has the time for.)

With the (somewhat) good points raised; here are the things I am legitmimately worried about. I'm not here to bash or hate how terribnle the game is; but just bringing up because I want to know what everyone else thinks.

1. Real-money/Monthly Upkeep. I don't consider the game as "PAY to WIN" - because a lot of what the cash shop provides are "small cheats" and conveniences to someone who can afford them. But for the things that are NECESSARY and GAME CHANGING to be in the cash shop with a maintenance is worry. Not a deal-breaker to me personaally; but how it affects the long-term health and how the game will be able to retain its' players is a different story. I'm talking Kafra Bells, 10%/10% XP and Drop Rate buffs, Zelstar Resets. These are things that require average/moderate spending players the need to maintain. Overall- along with the sub; I would say an average person may *need* to subscribe to 30-40 USD a month to maintain the game healthily. This may not be sustainable for the majority of the population.

2. Factoring in the amount of real-money needed to maintain playing the game with the "bare minimum" convenience will translate to a decline in population. It's relatively normal for games to decline in population; but with the patch from yesterday (level 70 level cap), I can say that I AM worried. The difficulty scaling is significantly higher. 10% EXP loss on death at level 60+ is much different that what it was at level 50+ with Nordfeld. And with leveling/grinding being such a factor in the game to progress; stat resets, skill resets, life insurance start becoming necessities instead of just "premium items for convenience." How much more when we have a level cap of 80, 90, 99, and 110? How many more resets, life insurance, overupped gear do we need to maintain to play the game sustainably? Are we going from 30-40 USD a month to 60-70 USD? This needs to be acknowledged as early as now. At a certain point; the monthly maintenance becomes more and more unsustainable for many.

3. When the population DOES decline; where is this going to lead to? We know that Odin had a population problem with bots and real players. We know we had an issue with bots over-farming and RMT. All of these all results in the lose of population and active players. In time; higher level content which need groups will be difficult to run. WoE will be a competition of 2 to 3 main guilds for the main castles instead of a healthy pool of guilds. Economy will be slow; with only a small pool of players buying and selling supplies within each other.

So to conclude;

I love the game. I am enjoying the game. However; I am worried with how and where the game is going -especially looking at the next 6, 12, and 18 month cycle. How far will the disparity be between 1. Free to Play Players, 2. Mid-spending Players, and 3. Completel Whales who can go for 100-150 USD a month minimum upkeep.

It would be a blessing if we still have many active players before the year ends when the level cap is at 90. I foresee LOKI server becoming more and more barren as time passes and ODIN server still being crowded; but only keeping those who can sustain the 50-70 USD a month upkeep.