Gaming: Ragnarok EXP Mods Drought
Ever wondered why Ragnarok Online suddenly stepped on the breaks when it came to EXP modifiers? When I was still at netGames, I kept asking myself the same thing. Why did Level-up do multiple EXP mods and suddenly take it all out. For the players, it’s like an alcoholic suddenly going cold turkey. When I eventually got in Level-up, I took it upon myself to investigate. Read on for a Ragnarok Online EXP Mod History Lesson.
CONSERVATIVE ERA
At first, EXP mods were really rare! The first time the pRO community ever got a taste of EXP mods was when there was a 1 week rollback. As compensation, Level-up gave us 1 whole week of 3x EXP. I was actually one of the few people who was happy then because I was actually not that active during the rollback week. After that, EXP mods would only come in really famous holidays like Christmas or during Episode Launches (new patches). 3x was really rare back then and if ever there was an EXP mod, it would only be 2x.
OMG ERA
I would like to call the next phase the “OMG” era. Suddenly Level-up does a 180 degree turn and goes full blast on EXP mods. We would see 2x - 3x EXP every other week, and players started to play more. Gamers made multiple characters or re-made their existing ones so that they could make the perfect build. Bots also ran wild and this is the first time I think that the population of bots sky rocketed. A few months down the road, we see the infamous WTF EXP month. It started with a 5x week, followed by a 4x EXP week, then a 3x, and finally a 2x EXP, 2x Drop week. The fact of the matter is that players got used to having EXP modifiers.
WTF ERA
Coming from the OMG Era, we now go to the WTF era. Why WTF? Well… at this point it time, Level-up did the unthinkable. EXP mods suddenly became rare. For the first time in years, pRO suddenly reverted to no EXP mods at all for several months. Players complained, and who could blame them? They were used to the high EXP mods and suddenly it was taken away. WHy? The story goes that several countries complained to Gravity that pRO kept doing EXP mods while they couldn’t. Gravity then decided to put a stop to the EXP mods in an effort to restore what they call “Game Balance”. I’m pretty sure that a lot of players started quitting at this point, coupled with the disaster which is Donita and Ligaya and summer time.
I honestly didn’t like too much EXP mods back then, especially the 5x, because it rendered the efforts of beta players like me useless. Imagine… manual levelling at 1x EXP. At level 98, that’s less than 1% per hour. Like what I said in my earlier post, Cest’ la vie. Some people say that we should continue giving EXP mods like there was no tomorrow because the game is already 4 years old and it’s already at it’s twilight. I agree that the game is old, but when we discuss the factors why the community is smaller now compared to before, I’d have to disagree with the age reason. The EXP bonanaza era of having multiple 3x-5x EXP modifiers shortened the lifespan of the game. Suddenly people have no more reason to continue playing except siege because they were all level 99 already (d’oh). What’s done is done. All we can do now is to move forward.
One of the things that I fought for with Gravity is to give occassional EXP modifiers to pRO and not just when there are holidays or we are launching an episode. They’ve been more agreeable as of late, and I’m sure you guys have noticed that we usually have an EXP mod week at least once a month. Imagine… that should be 1 EXP mod every quarter if we had Gravity do it their way (LOL). The process for EXP now is that I have to personally e-mail Gravity with a request followed by a justification/reason. Gravity and I then debate endlessly until we reach a compromise. This takes a lot of time and it usually gives me a headache because it’s so friggin hard arguing with Gravity engineers. It’s not as easy as pressing a button anymore.
That’s it for now. To end, let me share with everyone a cool RO video my brother found on youtube. Enjoy!
April 9th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
let say less mod exp but more in game events ^_^ like uhmm what was done during the Hugel launch, or even a mod exp per occasion :D Christmas or somewhat, and especially now during vacation where most students are free to play since there’s no school to get busy with :P
April 9th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
No wonder. Maybe that is why Field Manual can be a good alternative solution when there is no EXP mod.
April 9th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Haha! I remember the very first 3x mod exp. The servers then were Chaos and Loki, and I started playing at Loki. When I heard that there would be 3x, I then focused my attention at Chaos to have my thief turn into an assassin! Never looked back ever since, Chaos na palagi hehe!
April 9th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Sorry double post, pero I wanted to make pahabol! I remember that after that rollback, the game got a bug, and every merchant/smith’s cart inventory was doubled! Because of that, my good friend Azuren got his fire stiletto multiplied! (Elemental stilettos then were worth a fortune!)
Ahh, the good old beta days *reminisce*
:)
April 9th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
i remember that WTF exp month… thats when i rejoined pRO after getting hacked 4-5 months prior and quit. got me back right on track…
OT:
imho… field manual gets a boost sale during exp mods…
April 9th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Tanong lang po dudes, anong month po yung sa OMG Era na tuloy-tuloy yung exp mods?
April 10th, 2007 at 6:43 am
@Praetor
If my memory serves me right that was around the holidays. before the Gambling patch. I still remember this path where in you could have a lot of money basta may tiyaga ka lang mamulot sa mga gambling spots.
Exp mods are also a good way for people na nasa higher levels na, in which they need the assistance kse mahirap na magpalavel and mas lugi pa ang mamatay kaysa sa magpalevel. hehehehe
I think mas kailangan ngayon ng in game events like a GM seige, where in a GM attacks a town head on with high powered MVPs, tapos may friendly fire. hehehehe (LU can announce it 2 weeks in advanced para di umangal yung mga merchants na nagbebenta)
and I’m way off topic nanaman (gomen chief)
April 10th, 2007 at 9:02 am
It Started during the heritage patch with the purpose of the players to immediately level during their transcendent stages and to encourage players to rebirth their characters. And it ended when Lighthalzen patch goes live on commercial servers. Back then I could not shake the feeling that the exp mod will end since it really is too much exp mod during the heritage and einbroch episodes and I was also beginning to believe that it was because of this that the maps in Urdr (we were x10 back then) has gone unstable due to overpopulation. So I guess I didn’t mind it would end for now just to get rid of the downed maps of our server…
April 10th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Players became to dependent on those exp mods… :(
April 10th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Ibig sabihin po b wala x mod nga
April 10th, 2007 at 9:32 am
“Suddenly Level-up does a 360 degree turn and goes full blast on EXP mods.”
w00t kuya wrong grammar ata kayo hahaha dapat Level-up doea a 180 degree turn hinde 360 degree turn. edi parang umikot ka lang! di ba? hahaha!
sorry, hahaha grammar possesive talaga ako. hahaha. :D
April 10th, 2007 at 9:44 am
I think Exp mods shouldn’t be given freely. Maganda kung laging may pakontest kung saan all players in all servers get to do a quest in order to get the mod xp. The yellow bandana and ribbon was great! Except for the botters who created harvesters to get the items needed. bakit di na lang create ang LU ng isa pang ganoon. But with bot safety measures para masiguradong madami talagang totoong players ang maglalaro.
Ex.
1. ) The items to collect would be given by an npc. But to get to the NPC you need to fight aggre monsters. And to fight them dapat at least first jobber ka na. And this npc should be asking random questions easily answered by manual players pero gugulo sa programming ng bots.
Example ng questions: What first job has the skill to steal?
How much is an empty bottle?
2.)The headgir or whatever to be created by these collected items should have corresponding xps.
2x xp= 8,000 headgirs (in all servers)
3x xp= 12,000 headgirs(in all servers)
4x xp= 20,000 headgirs (in all servers)
5x xp= 40,000 headgirs (in allservers)
3) There should also be a time frame of 2 weeks to 1 month.
4) The collection of items though is repeatable. But you need to go back to the NPC. Kasi once you get the items on the first time, warp ka pabalik save point mo.
Now that quest/pakontest would be exciting di ba?
April 10th, 2007 at 9:52 am
@jerjer
Ampf oo nga noh. Thanks for pointing that out. Lemme edit. XD
@Artemis
I agree with you on that one. That’s why we made the People Power event. Hopefully we can have more in the future :-)
April 10th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Dapat po hindi sinasama ang Thor sa nireregulate ng Gravity kasi nung time na sangkatutak ang mod EXP eh wala pa namang Thor. Tapos bagong server lang siya at walang bot.
April 10th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Pede po ba i-post dito yung shedule ng exp mods? para lang po makapaghanda kami para sa puyatan….hehehehe \m/(o.O)\m/
April 10th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
the most WTF era for me is during the heritage patch of pRO, it was the moment when Urdr was in constant x10 exp for i think 5 months, since halos lahat nag pa transcend kaya naisipan lagyan ng x10 pero nakalimutan ibalik sa x3, then i think napansin nila 5 months later di tinanggal ung x10 exp mod then suddenly…..
*boom* x1 exp mod for Urdr and everybody got haywire! since Urdr servers default exp mod is x3 (due to PK, -10% exp duh) but they still insisted it was x1 for this week.
i hope dumami mga exp mod sa thor kasi palapit na RPC eh, kulang na kulang parin ung mga transcend class lalo na “profs”, “biochems”, “clown/gyspsy” and “champs”.
April 10th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
hey OT… where is the ragnarok installer torrent?!!
April 10th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
EXP mods are kewl for me.
EXP mods provide the opportunity for people to experiment to discuss developments and research. And to some extent it encourages people with build frustrations to start over.
How many High Priests out there who went for 99vit? @_@
And lets face it Transcendents are insanely excruciating to level. And there are competition based deadlines. Unless you want to spend a full year before you can truly enjoy your characters potential. Optimized wise.
The issue is not to flood so much of it that it gets taken for granted. But people love exp mods!!
April 11th, 2007 at 12:06 am
tell gravity its summer and its a gift or a grad gift for the students who study and play RO at the same time.. haha lol..
April 11th, 2007 at 7:41 am
wauks,
its summer and vacation for all students .. its time for LUG give us some modifier experience and when ba mawawalan ng load ang RO me possibilty ba bro wauks?
jean