Much ado has been presented about Ragnarok Online changing to not have monthly subscriptions. Well it is true, and here is a bit of information to help clarify what to expect from the changes.
We will be switching from a Premium/Free server scenario with required monthly subscription for Premium access, to a “VIP” account system with benefits to game play, but where you can access any account and characters freely without any payment requirement. The VIP Account system can be added to an account for 30 days (or 90 and 180 days respectfully) and has the same price as the current subscription model had. We will transfer remaining daily/hourly subscription into the new VIP account status when we make this change.
The VIP account tag will be added via purchase via WP energy onto a specific game account (much like a subscription). Login to the WarpPortal and “Power-Up” the desired account
30 day Premium 700WP
90 day Premium 1900WP
180 day Premium 3350WP
This new method is ideal for returning veteran players as they certainly will be able to play with friends and such without a subscription barring access to their characters, we look forward to how this will change WoE and what not. Of course returning and new players may still need to make a WarpPortal account and bind/register Ragnarok Accounts to it, possibly update passwords on the Veteran Ragnarok Accounts.
All servers will inherit the same refine system that our current Premium servers now enjoy. (Elu = safe to +4, e.Elu = high rate and then HD are protection with normal elu rate). All Kafra shop items will be added to all servers, at the lowest currently available price. This means rental items will be seen on Ymir, cheaper stuff in general will be seen on Valkyrie. Further prices will be updated to all match Ymir, with rental items entering into the shop on all servers.
Please keep in mind the below restrictions are what is planned, and in testing, that does not mean they are 100% set in stone.
| Premium Account | Free Acct | |
| Experience | 150% | 100% |
| Drop Rate | 150% | 100% |
| Storage | 600 | 300 |
| Penalty on Death | 1% | 3% |
| Access to Special NPCs | All + special | Normal |
| Access to Special Areas | All + special | Normal |
There will be one other update regarding Yggdrasil, it will parallel Valkyrie server in how many default characters a non-VIP account create (3), both Valkyrie and Yggdrasil are considered “Open” servers, while Ymir will be a “VIP” server. Below greater detail on the create character details can be found. If you wish to transfer off of Yggdrasil to Ymir, for Free before this change please do so.
On all servers, any character can be played. So if you currently have 7 characters created, all 7 can be accessed, regardless of your VIP status. This will also be true for newly created characters, no matter what all, potential, 9 characters slots can be played if there is a character in them.
However, the ability to CREATE characters is tied to your VIP status, and which server you are logging in on VIP vs Open server.
On Open servers you can create 3 characters by default, the remaining 6 Character slots can have characters created in them if the account is currently a VIP account.
On our VIP server (Ymir) default creation number of characters to create is 0, and a VIP account will allow character creation in all 9 slots.
It is highly likely that in the future we will have promotions and events that will bypass the 0 creation restriction on the Open server.
It is intended to have the F2P change occur by April 6, but all known bugs need to be worked out before such a large change occurs, this will very likely meld into the Brasilis launch as well.
We will certainly have a discussion and answer questions about this when the forums return soon.
Edit 3/23/2011: The above was updated to clarify a few points and use the more proper VIP vs Premium language, hopefully this makes it more clear for everyone. We are still testing and discussing the finer points of the update. There seem to be 2 sticky points in Ymir storage and Valkyrie multi-clienting, we are aware of the points on both sides of the discussion and your civility is appreciated thus far.
Edit 3/31/2011 : Removed the Multi-client restriction. VIP or not multiple clients may be logged in at once from 1 computer. The solution we were testing didn’t fully meet our requirements, since it didn’t meet the requirements and that the community has certain feelings about it, we decided to remove it.
Ymir is intended to have 600 storage by default (non-VIP) and may be 600 with VIP as well. We are working on a better storage expansion beyond 600, but it is not ready and it is better overall to have Ymir keep the 600.
**************************************************************************
Questions received from Facebook and this blog, and answers.
- Q. How will upgrades work on all servers?
A. All servers will be equal, premium status will not change this.
Safe upgrade with normal Ore from 0 -> safe (+4 on armor +7, +6 +5 +4 on weapons respectively)
Enriched Ore gives higher than normal upgrade rates when going from safe and higher, but a risk of breaking is still possible. -
Q. Kafra shop prices?
A. All servers will use the current CHEAPEST price, which should be the Ymir prices on items. Rental items will be available on all servers. - Q. What about if I’m a returning player, what happens?
A. Returning players can login and access the game account and all characters that exist on the account, with no restriction on server, or premium status. This is the big benefit of this for our veteran players, that all old accounts become valid accounts for login. -
Q. Storage on Ymir will shrink from 600 to 300! But what happens then?
A. No items will be deleted or made unavailable, they will be in a “remove only” state so you can take items out but not put them in if you are over the default storage amount. Aside from making the account “Premium” you could login another account and use its storage to extend what you have. -
Q. Is it really wise to have a system for so long and then take it away.
A. Change is touchy, but the intention of the old seperation between Premium/Free SERVERS was the same as what we have with this update, except we remove the tie to server and instead make it unique to accounts.
If you have always preferred to play by ‘subscription” you can continue doing that, but instead of being a “for access subscription” it is a for added benefit Premium package. On ymir if you have an active premium on your account your game play should be precisely the same as now from the exp/drop storage etc. But there will now be more NPCs and maps being added that you get better access too. This should be a win scenario for veterans. -
Q. Multi-client restriction?
A. Current design: Yes, you can have as many premium accounts logged in on one PC as you wish, but only 1 non-Premium account can be logged in from that PC at a time. -
Q. But I have more accounts than that on Valkyrie, how will I play?
A. This is an unfortunate issue that came about due to no way to limit the amount of clients opening on Valkyrie when we opened. Players were used to having tons of accounts with 1-2 characters apeice instead of fewer accounts filled with characters. That was not a design intention, one that is possible to correct now.
With that said, this part of the update is the one that is most likely to be reviewed to be changed (possibly more non-prem logins) in some form or removed all together. -
Q. If multi-client limiter is put in, will it be tied to gateway?
A. As much as we want to see our gateway become more fun and useful and adopted further by our community, at this time we are not planning on directly tying game login to it, by extension of that it will not be a part of any client restrictions.
The limitation of how many Premium vs non-Premium accounts that can be opened, will need to be completely controlled via the client/server architecture, thus be transparent to the players.
There is some other news that we want to share regarding this update.
- All regular servers will launch from one client. No more having to use different launchers to get to your desired server (Sakray is not a regular server).
- Yggdrasil will shift to be like Valkyrie, with 3 character slots open for creation rather than 0 like Ymir.
- We will be offering Free Yggdrasil -> Ymir server transfers, without restrictions, starting 3/21 until we make this system change around April 6th.
As soon as the form is finished being created it will be announced on the patch notices, websites etc to get in your transfer request now. - If you opt to stay on Yggdrasil (which is a fine choice) you will still be able to play on the server, you will likely be the new upper class characters on that server when we begin having new users play there.
I think strage space isn’t big trouble for many people as long as we can vend items with at least 2merchants.
WOE guild masters with no premium acces would be forced to vend treasure items for whole week alone…
You guys never think of your costumers, you wait until they complain so much and act like your trying to fix it. End result? It gets even worse! Thanks so much!
While it is comforting to see that the game continues to grow and is actively supported, I am concerned about the multiclienting issue since many other people besides myself made multiple accounts in order to have merchants vend items, and as items sold out, we could keep a watch on the merchant while playing with our favourite major character. Over time, some people played with their merchant support chars (such as myself) either out of boredom or curiousity or the desire to have an alchemist to make potions. I am sure that at that point, quite a few players bought kafra shop points (such as myself) for these characters just to have a more fulfilling time playing these chars. It would be undesirable to punish those players who have purchased kafra shop points to have fun playing different characters on alternate accounts. Since we were legally allowed to have up to three separate accounts per email address, many players created three acounts and put one major character per account (e.g. main char plus two merchant support chars).
Please don’t punish those who used alternate char accounts for the purpose of having merchants that we could keep an eye on as they sold items, or needed to be moved to a new location if one opened up. I liked to watch my merchants sell items, or would even chat thru them despite being logged onto my favourite main char on another window. This aspect of play added a new dimension to the game for me as I liked seeing people come and go in the game. Is there really something wrong with logging in several chars at different locations so that there are more opportunities to be sort of an armchair traveler watching the world go by and chatting occasionally?
In my case, while my priest Wise Fabre was and is dear to me, I liked playing other chars, so eventually, I started playing other job classes on the alternate accounts. As the alternate chars started to grow up due to casual play, I eventually purchased kafra shop items for those chars as well. Removing the ability to have multiclient would basically strand these chars for me and punish my expenditures of kafra shop points for them.
I could go on for quite a while about some of the restrictions, but seriously, the lack of multiple client support for free players is ridiculous and COMPLETELY self-defeating.
There are many problems with the limited client situation, and it solves nothing. All it will do is anger many of the players, and likely cause the game to bleed off a large number of users. Saying that it is designed that way to prevent bots is foolish, because it won’t do any bit of good when they use custom clients to connect to the server. And regular players will have to seek out hacked versions of the client so they can play the game like they used to. This is a terrible, undesirable situation, and it is also greatly troubling that Gravity didn’t even think about the problem before they decided on this course of action.
There are two things at work here, and other solutions would work better:
1) Players with Multiple Accounts
Players like having multiple accounts online at a time so that they could control multiple characters at the same time. The fact that this actually works fairly well right now (I have a few griefs, but that’s a different topic altogether) is great and adds a lot to the game, in my opinion. It’s very handy being two (or more) people simultaneously. Now, while having multiple accounts up does use up more bandwidth from Gravity, which really isn’t much of an issue since this is a low bandwidth game, it does a few positive things for Gravity:
o It gives players something that they OBVIOUSLY enjoy and doesn’t require ANY work from Gravity at all… except a little extra bandwidth. How often is that a bad thing?
o Since the players have more than a single account, they have to get multiples of those account-bound kafra items, which means more money for Gravity. I mean, come on! This is a no-brainer! I have done this many times myself for my multiple accounts.
o Speaking of money, and not-thinking-it-through: If people CANNOT play on multiple accounts simultaneously UNLESS they pay, then how will any new players know how cool it is to have multiple accounts at once and therefore WANT to pay? All they can do is wonder, or just pay up to even try it, which likely won’t happen very often.
o The servers seem more active than they really are. If you everybody is dual clienting and there are 500 people on, then your servers look like there are 1000 people on. This is a draw for more players, because look, we have 1000 people logged in right now!
2) Bots. People worry so much about bots because they are “running rampant” all over Valkyrie… well, yeah, because there is no downside to it. So adding these restrictions bring to mind that maybe that’s what it’s all about. Really? This is like having a spider on your hand and you decide the best way to get rid of it is to cut your arm off, when you could just flick it away. And there’s no guarantee that the spider will care and not just crawl onto your foot.
Is the problem on Gravity’s end how hard it is to find bots? Or that they just don’t care? Or, what? It’s even fairly simple to fix… I bet just a single person on Gravity’s end could manage it just fine. How? Well, how about:
o Add a new option in the game for players to use. Let’s say the command is /isabot. You use it and add a name after it (/isabot “John the Bot”). I know sometimes they teleport instantly when you see them, and that’s unfortunate, but letting players designate that they think someone is botting makes it easy to limit down to people to check on (though it’d be a huge list at first on Valkyrie!) Then keep track of how many unique Warp Portal accounts (not RO accounts) are complaining about that person. If they hit 5 (or 10 or 20 or whatever number makes sense), then a simple captcha of a sort can be sent to that bot. Try 3 – 5 times with a minute or so inbetween each to give a real person a chance to answer. If the captcha is suspect or fails, then a real person could teleport (please tell me GMs can teleport to other players!) to them and try to talk to them. It wouldn’t be hard to get a real person to respond at that point. If they still don’t, ignore you and just continue doing their botting thing (a regular player might be in the bathroom, but they wouldn’t be going around killing stuff if they were AFK!), ban ‘em. In fact, keep track on their WP account and if they get a certain number, ban their entire WP account and disallow any new accounts from their email address.
o The spam bots… seriously… how can they be allowed to do that? The SERVER should just check to see how much someone is talking. NOBODY says 10 messages a second for many hours straight. Most people don’t say 10 messages in a minute, but we do on occasion and I guarantee you that they aren’t the same 1 or 2 messages over and over. Again, a flag goes up, same banning rules as any other bot if they don’t respond.
I agree with Zolaerla in regards to the problem with bots.
Wasn’t there a silencing system where if you spammed you get silenced for a period of time? Why not implement that to reduce the spam bots?
Also implement an in-game reporting system for the bots. It’ll make both the players and your lives easier especially increasing game quality.
You’ll have happier players willing to invest time and money.
By the way this is my sole gripe in terms of having F2P servers. As much as I love F2P, it doesn’t mean the quality of the game should be left to be spoiled by the likes of bots.
So, please take these suggestions into consideration if you truly want to do something about the botting/spamming problems.
I have no idea what any of this multi-client stuff is, but I will totally shell out money for premium services once this new system goes up. I never would have considered premium services when they meant starting up on a new server and having to continue paying monthly fees to even access my account. But paying like 5 or 7 dollars to level faster and get more loot for a few months? That’s much more reasonable. I’ll probably only do it when I fall behind my friends, or when I really want to find some stupid card, or just on a whim. This sounds pretty cool!
I could care less about any of this. All I want is the game to go free. Gravity stop making me wait and make this game free like it should have been years ago.
This is ridiculous?
Getting rid of multi clienting for non paying members?
Most of which dont spend money on paying for subscription because they would rather pay for Kafra points to make the characters more fun to play. I believe that you have just shot your self in the foot and just watched it bleed to death.
If you restrict multi clienting for me or other players on free servers, one word, you are crappy. Don’t make things worse, I play this game because its free, now its gonna change. thanks to you, cannot multi clienting. And some of us are not bots. I much more prefer if you deal with spammers first rather than this whole new system that i don’t know and a stranger to now. I’m still blurry. Does it means that we have to pay for multi clienting? Not all of us are rich.
Is it possible to get a transfer from Valkyrie to Ymir in the future? For players like myself who have played since the 03 release, but returned to the game to end up playing on the Valkyrie server.
Yes we have just announced the re-introduction of the server transfers! Check the playragnarok.com site for details.
How come i cant register?my first time here help me ouit pls