mouRO

[Ayu]

I like to write LONG LONG reviews, so if you only want the score and not the details, the total score is a 81 and just stop reading the rest.


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I heard of mouRO for a long time and I always wanted to try it out. So while I got time now, I thought that it's a good time to give it a go. So far I played for 1 day up to lv 7x, and this is my review for the server so far based on what I have experienced up to this point. Note that I also tend to be pretty harsh in scores, so better to read the words in details rather than look at the numbers...

The owner certainly gave long of heart and time to customize the server to this degree, so it's only fair if I write as much as I can to be as detailed as possible too.


Stability/Availability: 8/10:

There wasn't any downtime or lag, but the glaringly annoying problem for me is really bad position lag. I play on another server as my main server and I really don't get even half as much problem. Though mouRO provided a quick access to use @refresh as one of the 9 levels of basic skill (basic skill isn't just passive "ok permits" in mouRO, but highly active skills like any other skills, often serving as important shortcuts), it's still quite a pain. Good for them to try to minimize the problem, but even with basic skill hotkeyed, being stunlocked by monsters and "magically" you cannot strike back is really annoying (and then you realize cause the monster is actually on the other side of the map.) It's far from unplayable, but it's certainly an annoyance.

Looking at forums to lurk, there wasn't any major long periods of downtime either through mouRO's long history. So overall, small complaints with the pos lag but it's just fine and not a huge concern.


Community: 9/10

Population count isn't any stellar number, but I still ran into few people. A HP nearby helped me out when my friend and I who joined together are wondering about where some of the custom NPCs that aren't mentioned by the NPC Guide are. Even with just 7 people online, there was a champion asking for party and claim to not mind low levels via Main, and someone else did reply. For just 7 people online, that's really as good as you can ask for.

There seems to be a Karma system so disputes are handled without GMs (as you may have known: mouRO is quite a famous server for "no GM" slogan) ingame, but I have yet to encounter it or see it in action, so I can't comment on it.

The forum is still kept pretty tidy and incheck. Although there is a few heated discussions about balance of some things I don't know about ("ethereal weapons"), players are mostly respectful. Bit of rougher words and edgy, but again it's hardly a big deal.

Hidden concerns: as much as mouRO clearly states to try to be a party oriented server and the few players there want to help the server grow, older forum threads still show potential sign of concerns if mouRO is as party friendly as it seems to be in my first day of playing. There was a thread where the community identify the problem where even with "deleveling" custom function and a super wide party range of levels apart so there's no excuse for older players to party with new players, there is still little reason to party with new players. Either the new player hasn't adapted to mouRO's massive amount of changes yet in a party and dies... or they are just bad players and still die! Those who are familiar with RO won't see this as a problem because that's just how all RO server runs. In a typical low rate server, you really have to solo until you class change to 2nd class before you have some sort of hope of a party and got some zeny to afford basic gears. We are used to this. However, much of mouRO's mechanics are changed so that soloing is extremely inefficient, and you miss out a lot of mouRO's custom boosts for party (such as the "class bonuses" that powers up your entire party if a particular class is in the party). Also, if you still need to solo up to a certain point, then how is it really that different from other servers at the heart of it? I think mouRO players do realize that this is potentially hurting their selling point of "nothing like any other RO server," and it's very encouraging to see the community working together to try to find a solution to this problem regarding a reason/incentive to party with lower level players.

However, it seems like they haven't found a good solution to this yet, and I'm certainly still solo grinding to try to gear myself on an acceptable level. I personally don't mind it and can withstand this, but some people out there will certainly find this to be the same cake only with a new topping.


Eventfulness: 7/10

mouRO has no GMs, but there seems to be a lot of automated things going on. There seems to be treasure hunts, kafra voting, some sort of mvp-related arena/battling (I don't know the details to that one as I'm in no position to fight a mvp atm) and so on. I don't know what the prizes/rewards are, but at least there's things going on. However, either it's cause the population is too small to give a darn because the older players have all done it already or something, but no one seems to go and try to complete these automated events. No GMs do have its drawback. I can certainly imagine automated events to be dull after you've done it couple of times. And given the low population, I don't think there's any player initiated events of any sort at the moment, be it ingame or on forums.

But hey, mouRO clearly labeled why they choose to have no GMs and will stick with it. I think that they know what this downside is, but believe that the pros of no GM far outweigh the cons of no GM in their particular case.


Game Master: 8.5/10

"Wait didn't you just say mouRO has no GM? Why a GM score?"

I think that there is no *in-game GM* but server owner still serves as a GM-like person deciding on updates, balances and other server changes. Thus, there is no GM but you can sort of still give a GM scores if that make sense to you. Because of this, "GM" is rated by forum activities and how the owner interacts with the community instead. Seems like the 2 hottest issues of mouRO atm is related to something called "Ethereal weapons" (no idea what it is, but safe to say some pretty high end level worthy gears probably) and 3rd classes. The good thing is that the server owner seems to be posting in good manner to talk with the community about these weapons, but the sad part is that some of the community keeps saying the balances are going in the wrong direction again (over-nerfing, apparently) as if these balance changes are made in good intention, but always miss the mark.

The other issue for 3rd classes is that some players wish to see it incorporated in true mouRO fashion (aka, changing it until it works for mouRO just like every other classes) and believes that the server owner is working on "petty issues" that pales in comparison to the importance of 3rd classes. Another word, it's your usual accusation of bad priority list in servers with GMs. I don't know if these problems are as "petty" as claimed, but the issue is there.

On to the very good stuff: server admin made compromises and promises for improving some balance issues and woe changes, including taking some suggestions in the forums. This was promises around a week ago, and July 6th update- it's there already. Fast working pace and keeping promises to players, fulfilling them so quickly is certainly a good sign.

Economy: 3/10 OR "who cares!"

"I put the blade on 9.999.999 just so [some player] can't buy it to close all the shops down!" (someone said that in forums, and I did find the shop with such blade on sale, lol)

When it comes to economy, mouRO is closer to high rate by far. You have a mall with all cards on sale and reasonable equipment for use. Cards are far from pricy. The mvp cards seem to be capped at around 3m in cost. Ingredients to brew/forge/cook are all there on NPC sale. Zeny can be bit hard to come by in beginning while you get used to mouRO's revised mechanics, but in the grand scheme of things... you don't need shops/vend since most things are given to you by NPC.

The things that aren't in the mall, still got little reason to sell them because refine doesn't destroy the equip permanently. With de-carder available as well, I really don't see a reason to sell/buy a piece of equipment at all. As long as you have one copy of that item, you'll *eventually* get it to a good refine and don't need to buy more, unless you want multiple copies for different card combo. Because of how drops work "randomly" with monsters, these rare equips aren't actually too 'rare' either it seems. The supply seems certainly much higher than the demand, so purpose of zeny is not very high in the long run...

I don't think the problem is related to low population though. The role/purpose of zeny is quite fuzzy and seems weak to me in mouRO. Mall prices are horribly low, zeny sink seems to be missing in the server completely (as you don't even have the refine-break mechanic to force players to spend zeny to buy tons of copies of the same stuff to refine.) Thus, zeny's always abundant regardless of population... just little reason to spend once you got past a certain point. So, if economy matters to you, mouRO has a very weak aspect of it

Strange thing is: why do mouRO players even care about not having an economy? Why do they even *need* one? Players in the forum are certainly upset that they have a reputation of bad economy one way or another and force themselves to vend to look like some sort of economy. But really, when your server direction is "no pointless grind, just enjoy the battle and gameplay and all," why worry about zeny? Isn't zeny something to "grind" for, and "grinding" is something we want to apparently avoid? I dunno if I'm missing something like an incredibly high fee to fix "broken" (not destroyed) equipment as a result of failed high refinement, but I thought blacksmith can fix anything that's broken as a skill anyway? so *shrug* maybe I'm missing something but I really really don't see the point of zeny in mouRO, or if it matters at all rather it exists or not.


Flip side of the coin: as long as the mall exist, there is no such thing as "rarity" and economy lose all meaning. Yet if you purge the mall, then the "grind" returns because people will need to fight a lot to get a rare item, and grinding is something mouRO tries to avoid like a plague (supposedly, according to server info)... you can't have it all. Pick one, or the other. If you want an economy, then what we have right now only deserves a 3/10. If you don't want one, then hey you can't rate what the server doesn't even care about, hm?


"Easiness to Join": 9/10

mouRO's list of astounding changes compare to usual RO deserve its own section in rating. How easy is it for a new player to adapt and join?

Seems like it's just something recent within the past few months out of mouRO's long lifespan, but client is fully edited to show skill descriptions according to mouRO's changes. All items got a easy to see "small circle" at the end of their name if the effect is changed from original RO. They have a pretty lengthy and expansive 5 floor training ground to guide players through all the changes, yet you aren't just sitting there clicking endless chatbox to read the changes. By the time I was done the tutorial, I was actually lv 50 lol... cute. High amount of healing items dropped by monsters keep you from relying on Healer and her costly fees (costly only in terms of new players... new players don't have 5 digit of zeny to throw around every time). Really just play reasonably and zeny is not a problem. Ingame explanations are pretty detailed, and most changes are all noted and extended info are in the forums if the tutorial did not teach you about it.

Just get through the staggering and mind horrifying changelog on their main site, don't be terrified by it, and it's smooth sailing.

The small downside is that I played a rogue here, and one feature is monster skills are able to be plagiarized. While I'm eager to try it out, I'm also noticed that some monster attacks are also modified pretty dramatically (such as earthquake), but the monster-side of the changes are not noted or written anywhere. I wouldn't have known that those skills are changed at all if I wasn't a rogue and noticed something is "funny" when I use the monster attacks, then decided to dig *really deep* in mouRO forum to finally find an old relevant thread about the issue.

Modified Gameplay: 7/10

mouRO prides enough in its extensive changes in monsters, skills and so on. I can certainly keeping an open mind about all the changes which are a great breath of fresh air, fun to try and all. On the player side of things, I look forward to all the changes, and for now nothing drastically gamebreaking imbalance or anything... all classes seem to have its share of difficulty in fighting the monsters. Mobbing seems do-able as there's a guide on it, though I can never pull off your traditional sense of mobbing in RO... that's probably just my fault. Player side of things, I'm pretty happy with.

Monster side of things however... to keep things dynamic and not static, mouRO monsters can level up and boost stats by command on whim on your difficulty adjustment. Each map got "stock mobs" where those monsters are natural to the map, along with other mobs that appear randomly. The only rule governing these random mob is related to the element of the stock mobs. Monsters also drop random healing items, and random equipment on top of items related to their usual drops. The really prevent things from getting dull, even the moves and attacks are randomized (though strength and power of the skill are governed by difficulty... the lv 10 poring won't ever EQ you.) Exp-wise, you can level everywhere because you can adjust difficulty (which will also adjust your exp gain) and so on. Sounds all good and stuff?

Problem is: soooo what's the difference between any mobs except for picking out element/race...? Their drops are randomized. Their skills are randomized so it's not like I'll survive one place any better than another technically. Their exp are essentially all the same cause I can adjust it until I am satisfied. I only leave a map when the map forces me to (when you stay too long in a map, respawn goes slower and slower.) Right now, I only go to places for the sake of picking a suitable element/race that fits the gears I have. Dungeons are only different from one another for the sake of element. Sadly, plenty of dungeons got the same element, so there's still no reason to go to certain dungeons. Because monsters are so dynamic that they become static. It's like I am fighting the same thing, only now different element/sprite, then spin the wheel of luck to see what moves do they have this time.

The one thing that's certain about mobs is their normal drops. You can pick monsters to fight depending on their normal drops to make some zeny for the mall. Oh hey look, monster with good etc drop normally? Hillwinds. Wait, didn't I just grind on hillwinds on other servers too? Why did I end up grinding on hillwinds here as well? Should I ever leave hill wind? Not really, adjust their level so their exp raises with me. They will *eventually* drop other items too so I can stay here until I can MVP (already got the neo valk shield out of these suckers.) Because the only thing that gives incentive to where you go is their original drops, you are most likely stuck at places where you grinded in normal servers too such as sky petite for its gokurin NPC price, hillwinds for zeny, moscovia also for their etc drops, geffenia for gold/silver rings (though this one i haven't been there myself), venatu for high NPC crest piece prices... etc etc etc. Then, go to the mall and equip yourself equipments that are good against that particular element to handle the stock mobs plus the random mobs which will be similar element/race. So now you just geared yourself to do even better at this particular map... and now you got even less reasons to leave the map. The grind cycle continues.

It's strange but all these randomization to avoid mobs being static... to me the mobs got static because of all the randomization. Hope it makes sense to you? I'll prefer it if there's some sort of guidelines or "stock attacks" on the stock mobs so there's still some sort of characteristics to each mob to make them slightly different from one another...

4:33 AM now, so maybe I worded this really really badly. If it's confusing, tell me and I'll try to explain this a little better.


TOTAL: 51.5/70 => 74/100 if you insist on where's the use of your zeny and where are them vending merchants...

OR

48.5/60 => 81/100 if you ignore the economy factor, and I personally think the economy issue is really ignorable. No servers will shrivel and die just cause there's no vendors, if the other aspects of the server can justify for it. I certainly believe that mouRO got the potential to justify the zeny thing. Giving up and not even trying out mouRO because of lack of vendors is a silly reason. My personal beef is still mainly with the "they-are-really-all-the-same" monsters though... to me, by far this is the biggest drag.



I can't really comment on class balance, or guild competition yet as I never tried it myself. These things are farrrr into the future.


I'll certainly stick to mouRO to casually play it, and we'll see how things changes once I find more about it by playing it.

[Skotlex]

Thanks for the review. For the sake of completeness I'll try to expand on a few questions which were left open.

Solo Levelling: There is a Hunter system meant for people who are soloing. The more monsters you kill (without getting yourself killed), the higher the bonus goes, this bonus helps with exp and drop rates. Between this, and getting a clone and a pet to help you out, I am not sure what more can be done to help more soloing (without it becoming better than having a small party, at least).

The Zeny sink: Making money isn't hard, burning it off isn't, neither. I mean, most of the old players sink their money in attempting to refine something to +15. The success rate is so slow, and the materials expensive enough, that they lost count of the millions spent in getting their gears to max refine. I personally leave my gears at around +10, but hey, that's their choice.

Mob differences: Actually, mobs can be quite different from each other, it's not just the normal look/skills. For example, a mob's "build" is preserved, so it certainly makes a difference if a mob is more heavily invested in AGI than VIT, or DEX and STR. Also, the build specialization determines what random skills they can get (e.g.: A mob's build has to be focused on STR or AGI in order to gain access to Assassin Skills, DEX or AGI for Hunter skills, and so on). Also the element of the mob restricts the skills they can get (eg: you won't see fire-elemental monsters using water-elemental skills).

Ultimately, I just like the roulette of visiting different maps to see different monster sprites and enjoy different BGMs :B I know this bugs people who are "practical" because they no longer see any reason to change maps... (I saw it more as a freedom to ROAM and discover more maps, instead =P)

I wonder about the position lag... there's no reason why MouRO should have it any worse than any other eA based server :[ Maybe it's a side effect of monsters having many more skills available (and hence, a lot more of knocking back going on).

[Loki]

Decent

[Ayu]

Bump due to a question related to this review... was there a reason why my review for mouRO in the website got deleted when the review had a link to this more detailed review here as the text portion of it?