My suggestions to improve the server's appeal to casual players

[Charlie Loves U 31]

TLDR AT THE BOTTOM




As a player who still wants to see the server do well, I am going to leave the few suggestions I have in a more visible/structured way. I want to note I am putting these out there because suggestions are welcome and I feel without noticeable changes the server player population will literally never improve. 

 

I'll start with my mindset so you have an idea of where I am coming from. An MMO rpg is driven by its COMMUNITY primarily. You jump into an online world and escape reality. In order for that to exist it must feel real. It needs a reason to interact with others, and most important it must have others to interact with in the first place. Ragnarok, above anything else, is still an MMO and still needs a player base to function. Especially at lower rates where the game becomes essentially unplayable when there is no economy or players to buy/sell to.  (which sadly, is the current state of the server whether anyone will face that fact or not. ) Every server needs casual players. Casual players make up the MAJORITY of a playerbase. The hardcore, die hards, purists, whatever you wanna call us, we only make up a small portion of the existing player base. This exists for ANY MMO rpg as if everyone was like this, then no one is like this. 

 

As such, it is very important to find a way to appeal to casual player base to attain long lasting players. TitanRO has never had problems getting new players to come in and try the server. Hell many I did meet along the way loved the server, but simply couldn't keep up. I have heard too many times something along the lines of "well that is just how RO is, we're not changing it". This is the fundamental problem with the mindset of the server right now. To the point where changing anything different from the original RO is blasphemy and just cannot be bent on. The game hasn't been in a state like this probably since the very beginning of RO. For the majority of players, there has always been some form of convenience on official servers through the cash shop. (and no, I'm not implying Titan should get a cash shop). The game is not usually this TEDIOUS. I won't even call it difficult. Tedious. It is a chore for casual players who simply want to get into the game and play. 

 

The way I see it is, people with limited time want to spend that time having as much fun as possible. With basically zero convenience features (with the exception of rodex) everything must be done by hand. This is great in theory and on paper for people want the OG ragnarok feel. It feels like an official server without all the garbage. Thats great until you realize it means there is a lot more just boring/tedious things to do that a casual player with limited time just will not want to deal with. Or rather, even if they are willing to deal with it, will probably get quickly bored as they will spend a lot of what little time they doing tedious things rather than just grinding/playing. Now that my mindset is out there, I'll go over the biggest suggestions I feel would impact long term server health while not completely sacrificing the identity of the server. Remember, I am of the belief, that some small sacrifices must be made so there is a greater appeal and a chance for the server to grow. 



 

1.) Tool Dealer next to every Kafra in the game that holds most of the major items you can buy from npc and/or frequently used items.

Pretty straight forward here. You put an npc tool dealer next to every kafra that has the majority of NPC purchaseable goods that are frequently bought. All the potions, conc/awake/berserk, holy water, green pots, blue gems, yellow gems, red gems etc. (yes I know yellow gems are not technically npc but we all know you can just convert blue > yellow so save people the time and adjust the price for yellow accordingly). The point here is to just save people time. Also, zero idea why empty bottles were removed from the server NPC when the holy water sells for 10z? Zero profit to be made by NPCing holy water with your time spent. It wasn't an issue and could literally never be an issue. Empty bottles should be available from npc and this type of specific npc as well. 

 

2.) Weapon/Supply shops for classes in prontera so pront can become a one stop shop for people. 

You see this on a lot of other private servers, and its good idea I feel. Can have a bullet/cartridge NPC for gunslingers, a arrow/quiver npc for hunters, and maybe a generalist weapon npc and a generalist armor npc. This is so you don't have to go to specific towns to get your basic gear. Doesn't have to include literally everything, but a few of these (specifically for ammo based classes) can be very helpful. I feel it is helpful to include most elements in the ammo npcs if they are made as well. The key is to balance it by making sure the prices are always high enough to make it worth arrow crafting to save money still. Can include most elements except maybe immaterial/holy quivers which are usually very difficult to acquire/craft anyway. Arrow crafting will still be relevant, but players who want to save the time can use them. It also is a great zeny sink for the server.

 

3.) @Go town warps enabled and/or Airship Rep type npc next to every kafra. Or have Kafra have every town available to warp to that is released.

 

I talked to this with Saegys and crew last night on my stream, but @go is not bad. Sure it can make a player who isn't purist feel dirty, but in practice it doesn't do anything besides save a little time. You aren't getting ANY in game advantage other than maybe saving some butterfly wings/zeny which are so small of a cost they should not be considered. @go can save so much time without having to walk to a kafra and helps you get straight into playing the game. The faster you can get where you want the go the faster you can play. The more time you spend playing the more fun you have. Alternatively you can just have every kafra have an airship type rep (the one in yuno) npc next to them where you can warp to any town in the game (even the one in yuno doesn't have all towns) for a zeny cost with maybe the airshp cities (hugel/einbroch/lighthalzen) having an extra cost that factors in what would be the cost of the airship. You can even not have an npc at all and just enable a warp to any town from any kafra anywhere.  Either way, the point is that the server should be looking to save players times where it can. And this is admittedly smaller, but feels really good on saving time. If you are spending the majority of your time playing the game and not getting from place to place, you will be having more fun. 

 

4.) SP Consumables available through Tool Dealer (especially the suggested one)

 

This is more controversial as there are in game trade offs here, but the rewards out weight the downsides in my honest opinion. SP Recovery is essential for any and all classes. This means that with SP Recovery purchaseable from NPC at a reasonable to higher cost, the server has a great zeny sink and players get to spend more time using their abilities at said cost. As long as the cost is high enough to warrant thought in buying the SP Recovery, it should be fine and balanced. Granted, that is hard to find that number, but in my experience you can simply price it around what players would buy the sp items from players. maybe a bit higher as to not sully the player to player sp market. around 1500 for a grape juice maybe would be a good spot. Again, this one is more debateable but I've always been of the belief that its more fun to use your abilities and not be limited by literally having to sit down at times, and its also a good as a zeny sink long term. Straight up as well, besides the few guilds that have a ranked alchemist, grinding your own blue potions is not a viable option and with the rates as low as they are grinding sp items is usually not feasible either. couple that with a low pop and no one to buy sp items from anyway most of the time and you got a recipe for a rough time. 

 

5.) Novice Packages for New Characters

 

On other servers they give you packages that help you get started as a new player easily and quickly and get right into playing the game. You can have the novice academy give these out or maybe just have every player get one on creation. The way they do it is they have packages that include other packages. With the package contained inside another unable to be opened until a certain level requirement and including better and better stuff. Here are some examples of what you can include

 

Novice (level 1) 
-------------------------------------------------
Rental Halter Lead(Lasts 5 hours then disappears)
Equippable Experience Ring(buffs exp rate by 20%, last 5 hours)
AGI/Bless Scrolls(give you level 10 agi/bless one time) maybe 5 of each. (character bound, sells to npc for 0)

Intermediate (level 40)
-------------------------------------------------

75 Orange Potions (character bound, sell to npc for 0)
40 Blue Potions (same as orange potions)
AGI/Bless Scrolls x 5 (same)
Novice Fly Wings x 70 (same)
Novice Butterfly Wings x 10 (same)

 

and so on and so forth. You can include things like Battle Manuals or Bubble gum if you are willing to include those, but in my personal opinion, agi/bless and the halter lead/experience ring helps a player get going right away and speeds up the "getting around" process. I do like the idea of progressing and getting more packages to open as you level. Its an incentive and makes the player feel like they are progressing. On other servers they have a cash shop they include bubble gum/battle manuals along the way, but those are not necessary. But packages to help new characters would be a welcome addition.

 

 

6.) Improvements to Daily Login Rewards

 

I also talked about this on my stream, but the rewards for daily login on here are simply not enticing enough for a player to feel like they missed out. And while its nice to see the system in place, with no improvements to the rewards it simply will not server its purpose. On other servers they make the daily rewards IP bound meaning you can't get them on multiple accounts but only one.  And with their progression system you want to get them on the same account instead of just logging into any old accounts. (it progresses based on the account not your IP despite being IP restricted.) so you always get it on the same account every day. They put a rule in place that those who try to circumvent the system and get more than one daily reward will be punished. I understand the player pop on titan is low and banning/punishing a player is a slippery slope, but I don't forsee abuse being as big of an issue as you think it is. There are also some restrictions that will help abuse anyway. The key I noticed is to make the items account bound. With no ability to put them in guild storage, or vend them or trade them to other players. Or even drop them. Here are examples of enticing rewards I think that would be fun. Keep in mind the idea here is to make the rewards progressively better. 

 

BASE LOGIN = Every day get one Titan Coin. (10 Titan Coins = 1 Titan Token exchangeable at NPC)

Bonus Rewards progressing each day 

Day 1 = 5 Blessing or AGI Scrolls
Day 2 = 5 Titan Coins (in addition to the daily one)
Day 3 = 25 Dead Branches
Day 4 = Yggdrasil Berry
Day 5 = Mini Battle Manual (lasts 30 minutes, increase exp by 25%)
Day 6 = Stat Food Box (gives 1 random +10 stat food when opened)
Day 7 = Bloody Branch
Day 8 = Kafra Card (opens storage from anywhere, only way to obtain one)
Day 9 = Mini Bubble Gum (lasts 30 minutes, increases drop rate by 25%)
Day 10 = Ori or Elu box (gives 5 Ori or Elu randomly)
Day 11 = 10 Blessing or AGI Scrolls
Day 12 = 1 Titan Token (in addition to daily)
Day 13 = 50 Dead Branches
Day 14 = 3 Yggdrasil Berries
Day 15 = Battle Manual (lasts 30 minutes, increases exp by 50%)
Day 16 = Stat Food Box
Day 17 = Bloody Branch x 2
Day 18 = Kafra Card x 2
Day 19 = Bubble Gum (lasts 30 minutes, increases drop rate by 50%)
Day 20 = Ori or Elu Box (gives 5 ori or elu randomly)
Day 21 =24 Hour Rental Halter Lead
Day 22= 24 Hour Beelzebub Wing (infinite Fly wing use, weights 1)
Day 23= 2 Titan Tokens (in addition to daily)
Day 24= HE Battle Manual (+100% exp, lasts 15 minutes)
Day 25= HE Bubble Gum (+75% drop rate, lasts 15 minutes) (side note, chose 75% as to not increase mvp card drop rate. 100% would effectively double chance at mvp card)
Day 26 = 3 Titan Tokens
Day 27 = Stat Food Box x 2
Day 28 = Bloody Branch x 3
Day 29 = Old Card Album
Day 30 = Special Costume Box (contains the most popular carefully selected costumes that are EXCLUSIVE to this box, rewards loyalty to the server)
Day 31 = Titan Mystery Box (contains a random item(from dailies), with very small chance to include a rare exclusive item like a permanent halter lead or 1 gym pass )
Day 32 = Golden Thief Bug Card (just kidding, wanted to check if you were paying attention ;])


Resets after 31


I understand gum/manuals are frowned upon on here, but without a cash shop and only available through daily login, this really gives you a reason to login and makes it feel special. Think about it, You get your rare item that you can only get because you were loyal to the server and you gotta use it carefully because you cannot acquire another for at least another week or so. I also made it noticeable to nerf the gum/manuals as opposed to official servers since the rates are already higher on Titan. 

 

 

7.) Implement Halter leads in some capacity.

If you haven't already seen by my suggestion, Halter leads are good for the game I feel. they give every class the ability to get around quicker which simply feels good. Some will say it takes away from Peco classes, but I feel that's not really the case. Peco classes can attack and use abilities while mounted and halter leads have cooldowns upon mountin/dismounting in addition to not being able to attack/use abilities. In my suggestions I have Halter leads available only through novice package at level 1 (and only lasting 5 hours) and through daily login rewards with a permanent one only attainable by luck in the final day of loyalty.  Halter leads are fun though and I don't think they break the game, they just speed up the ability to zoom around. 

 

8.) AGI Up NPC in front of Criartura Academy

Small quality of life here, just an npc you can click on that gives you agi up in izlude to help novices do their quests faster. The first time you do the academy you will definitely do it slower and its easy to lose your agi (many of the npcs already give you agi) while trying to read the guide.  this will help new players get through the tutorial much faster.

 

 

 

 

TLDR = Tool Dealer npc next to every kafra that includes most frequently bought items, weapon/ammo supply shop npcs in pront for one stop shop, @go enabled and/or enable warp to anywhere from any kafra or implement npc that does same thing, SP consumables purchaseable from npc, novice packages for new players/characters, vast improvements to daily login rewards, implement halter leads in some way, agi up npc to help novices in criartura academy. 
 

Edited October 6, 2018 by Trojal
removed specific server references

[Trojal 94]

Regarding point #5, we're going to add a level-up box similar to how its described in jRO on this thread: https://forums.warpportal.com/index.php?/topic/222588-jro-level-up-box/

I think it sounds similar to the one you described.

[Charlie Loves U 31]

1 hour ago, Trojal said:

Regarding point #5, we're going to add a level-up box similar to how its described in jRO on this thread: https://forums.warpportal.com/index.php?/topic/222588-jro-level-up-box/

I think it sounds similar to the one you described.

that is indeed very similar. the headgear is actually a welcome addition. other servers have a similar one that they make cash shop exclusive for some reason and  does basically all the same things that one does. (except I think it also makes novice potions give you sp recovery as well, might be something you guys can look into).  Halter lead is also in that package (just called a riding bridle instead, literally the same thing though)

Obviously the jRO would have to be adjusted for this server as that is set for 3rd classes (free morpheus set would be monkaS) but good to know you've looked into it. Novice packages help a ton for getting going. look forward to seeing them hit the server. 

 

Edited October 6, 2018 by Charlie Loves U
removed specific server references

[Stephcake 25]

Thanks for writing up the suggestions!

[SabatonCBA 9]

I agree for all except the 6th proposal, good post

[Stephcake 25]

A bunch of these have now been addressed through the hub area; the level up box is still in the works.