I’ve been casually playing the game on and off since launch. Returning now since there’s a new server up. Trying to decide if it’s a good fit for me, but I already feel like I’m a couple months late to the party.
It looks like Funcom has tried to push people to the new server with the daily login rewards and the server exclusive armor quests for all the dungeons on the new server that isn’t there on the old one. There’s also the idea that with a new server there won’t be nearly the same issues as far as the inflated economy, duped items, multiboxing loot rights, unbalanced PVP with the haves and have nots, and lots of other things.
Everything about the new server looks great as far as I’m concerned except for the fact that the whole thing is like a test server that will get wiped when the year is over.
I know that FC has said that keeping it going isn’t off the table, but why would I bother if I actually do intend to stay longer and finally get a toon to 220 and see all the game has to offer. I’m more than willing to start over with nothing on the new server if it’s there for the long haul.
As this point I’m thinking I will work on something that I have on the normal server. I don’t see the incentive for me to play the new one. Being a couple months behind on the new server will make me feel like I’m playing catch up the whole time.
The leaves me wondering if the intention is to give the current long time players a new playground or if it’s to bring new/returning players in? My feeling is that the intention was to get people to subscribe but with the temporary nature of the server those who subscribe and play the new server will feel like it’s wasted time when it’s over. Not really an issue for the folks who have multiple 220’s on RK5 to go back to, but it will be for those who will be going back to toons that are worse off than the ones they lose. Which in turn might have them leave a lot sooner than they otherwise would.
The current lvl cap is lvl 125. That shouldn’t take too long to reach tbh…
And about the server wipe. I look at it like this: worst case scenario they wipe everything. But at least then I would’ve had a blast ingame for 1 year. Maybe RK20 would be just as much fun?
Oh… RK2019 is just a paid Froob server. There are still the haves, and have nots, thanks to multiboxers.
The Econ is still rather screwed up. There is no market place, and people for some reason think 105 CoH weapons are worth 5+ mill. Shop prices are through the roof , and there isn’t really a great way to make credits at such low lvls. That is of course, you run 6 accounts at once and run MPs to farm all of the good items and sell them to other MBers with lots of creds…
RK2019 is a joke, and is seriously not worth your time, FC has screwed it up by keeping it from for so long, and ruining the experience. I would fully recommend waiting until at least SL is released, and by then things will still be pretty bad Econ wise, not as bad as the main server, but not far off. The days of 1-5 mill being good amounts of creds are very long dead.
Step 1. Get Clicksaver or Mishbuddy
Step 2. Google “master blitz list v2” and scroll down to shopfood section
Step 3. Profit.
Org m8 had already made 150m+ at lvl 45 cap. That is a bit of an extreme example ofc. But farming a decent amount of credits isn’t really that difficult…
If you don’t wanna blitz missions, you can also farm bloaters/bodyguards in foremans for shopfood.
Or invest a bit of IP in pharma tech and farm monster parts for blood plasma. You only need 500 pharma tech for ql 200 monster parts.
So there’s plenty of good ways to make enough credits to fund a well equipped toon.
I never said it was “difficult” I said there wasn’t a great way… farming for days on end or going to extreme lengths time wise to acquire virtual game currency has always been a “reality” in any online game…
The lvl cap just hit 125, and most characters without tens of millions will not be getting by even at the current lvl cap given the cost of implants, and what other seem to want from every day items. The Econ is broken. I remember the days, before there was a lvl cap, in true original AO fashion, when all rollable nanos were 200k, and imps (lvl 200) would sell for 1 mill a set. Because they are stupidly common items at those lvls.
So again, the only folks who are easily racking in the creds are those who MB, and can easily deal with end game mobs and content. 125 characters would struggle getting those 200 monster parts without a very high amount of credit investment, or 6 MP slaves on follow. The Econ on the new server is trash. Selling anything is a horrendous chore, and there is very little actual activity on the market because of that. The people managing to get items of interest are almost entirely of the MB group, who sell loot rights, and other items to others who are running 5+ accounts. There is clearly a haves, and have nots problem with AO, and it’s worse than it ever has been in the game
This wasn’t meant as a bash on the economy. Most of the same issues were there in 2002/2003 as far as things costing too much. I looked up the specifics on my beginnings of AO. I started in Oct 2002 and hit level 100 around 2 1/2 months later. Click saver for the next nano, making blood plasma, looting and shop feeding everything made it so I had millions by that point. MB wasn’t a thing really but the desirable items were always going to the same small groups of people. Every unique outdoor boss on the 18 timer had it’s spawn timer down to the second and was camped by the same group every day. Wasn’t really an issue then.
Like I mentioned, my biggest issue with arriving late to the party will be the fact that in order to do things right by me I will always be behind. I will roll all the nanos. I will upgrade implants along the way. I will take the time to roll those level locked mission items, stat buffing items. I will take a month to get to 100(much easier now with all the dungeon content). At that point I’m still 50 or 75 levels behind the cap. I’ll burn out chasing that curve if it’s a rushed thing.
For me, I’d be completely willing to take my time and start again if this new server wasn’t a temporary thing. The uncertainty of having a better toon on RK19 than on live just up and vanish makes me wonder if rolling a new toon on live is the better option for me.
I think FC succeeded in bringing many people back temporarily. It was a blast seeing LFT full up on RK2019 for subway & TOTW. But those players rushed on ahead and now LFT is a ghost town for levels 15 to 50. I’ve stopped leveling the toons I have there & gone back to RK5. It’s much easier to make creds there as GMI is up and running and that is more fun then grinding creds on 2019.
I rolled a new froob mp yesterday on Rk5 and Arete was surprisingly very busy.
100% doubt the server will close after 1 year. Remember how the Froob program was only supposed to last a year? Here we are 10+ years later…
Play RK19 if you want. Lots of us are and we enjoy it. The terminally pessimistic ones were already miserable before RK19 anyways, so it wouldn’t matter what FC did to begin with.
Im also a returning player (9 years) and decided to start again one month ago.
I would say that if you are not competetive or have way too much time you will always be “behind”.
But here you actually wont be behind that much, the levelcap is still 125 and will be 150 at the end of the month.
Thats still a level you can reach fairly quickly and easily.
I would even argue that its a little easier since there are more items in circulation (without costing 300m) and people got the most important buffs (making twinking easier).
in the end its up to you but im having alot of fun on rk2019
And I’m saying there is plenty of good ways to make credits in AO. Just because you haven’t bothered to find a single way to make money doesn’t mean that there isn’t one.
No you don’t need to multibox 6 accounts.
No you don’t need to play 10 hours a day.
No the economy on the new server isn’t “trash”, it’s dictated by supply and demand. Exactly as a healthy economy should be.
And really, is 1m credits for a ql 200 implant really that bad when you’re lvl 125? Blitz 2 missions and you have that. Or sell 10-12 monster parts. Or do a single mission and sell all the junk you find and you can afford it. Even at lvl 50 with an avarage toon you can easily make 1m in 1h by just killing floaters and bloaters and selling all the junk they drop.
Ofcourse people who are multiboxing 6 accounts will have more options to get credits than someone who only plays 1 account. But the multiboxers will also have to farm 6x times more than a regular player.
I wouldn’t mind if we 200 imps were going for 1 mill each… they aren’t, they are being “sold” for MUCH higher prices than that… I am starting to think you are not really based in reality here.
I do have creds, around 6mill now, and believe me you are not making 1 mill an hour… I run a trader main, and craft plasmas and rings. A full bag of 80-120 plasmas sell to the trader shop (with 500 cl) for around 400k. So about 3 bags will net 1 mill. And people for some reason think a we 105 CoH weapon is worth 5-6 mill… where on the main server those are trash, and most people would simply hand them out free or sell for a couple 100k. Imps are insanely expensive at the moment. That might get better once lvls get up there, but that’s not the case now.
I had fun with RK2019, up to the lvl 60 cap. Everything since has been an absolute chore. With lots of people leaving, and what looks to be just the MBers remaining, there is 0 chance I have interest in grinding out these levels, dragging on, hitting these huge walls in terms of expected costs. Folks can charge whatever they like, but the only ones affording this junk are those who grind day in day out, or who MB and are selling the high prices items amongst them selves. There has been a clear line of haves, and have nots drawn into the server. I am waiting for SL before I go any further. SL will at least provide a decent lvling experience while I grind out lvls and creds. The froob server has run its course for us “filthy casuals”, those who refuse invest the time or $ into being “good” for two weeks at a time
200 implants are not a problem anymore just find a cool TSkiller than can clean them and make them lvl up. You’ll just have to find some good ql implants on mobs and you will have your set.
Moreover now a lot of people started to farm clean implants ql 200 and price are dropping hard, price of them should be between 500k and 1m currently.
I actually agree with you, credits can be hard to obtain when you are not a hardcore twinker and can take down bosses who give really expensive loot.
But you also kind-of solved your own problem, you said ql200 imps sell for much more than 1m per piece (although i saw alot of offerings for 1m pp) so why don you make a character to blitz and sell them?
or if you dont feel like leveling a new character and are already 125, blitz a set of ql 187 ones, of you find a tradeskiller who can bump them they will be ql 190~ and you got an almost perfect set for “free” (just your time) no one will kill you for not having ql 200 imps.
You could also try and calm missions in the ql 140 range for a chance of finding a GA, or blitz ql 150/200 ncus who sell for around 1m/2m or nanos etc.
the choices are limited when it comes to money for a regular player on RK alone and its mostly blitzing but i think you can survive pretty well even without alot of money, no one has to have perfect equipt, for me its enough if someone just keeps its a bit up to date
There was a great chance here to make the game great again, people came back and played, the “classic” server was very poorly made with minimum effort to make some cash for funcom, thats all.
It was still a couple good months of fun but as we level the problems become more apparent, the economy is still broken, multiboxers are rampaging around, im sure theres dupers and other exploiters already at work behind the scenes, and every good idea that could be used in this new server was not made.
Why not scale back Trash king and tarasque to the classic stats? even keeping the latest patches they could at least scale the content a bit for froobs… GMI was a must and could have made this server an enjoyable experience while mitigating the economy problems but no… its not working and not expected to come until its expansion… the schedule was predetermined and as we have seen the input was ignored and they just keep their timeline . The inflated shop prices as well were introduced to reduce the credits on the bursting economy on old server and are a pain for new player/froobs, that could have been tweaked… but no.
As I see it they just roll the expansions exactly like they did before, just with timers… there was no effort at all to make the classic fresh progression smoother… all I see is a cash grab… and that is what threw funcom into the pit… when they cared about their games they had success … now its just downhill and using every trick in the book to last a bit longer… this server was the last chance… hope you enjoy the little profit you made!
See you when AO 2 is launched by some company not related to funcom. (prolly never)
Credit farming would be much better if we actually had a GMI to sell stuff on.As it is now I don’t want to stand in ICC for 5 hours spamming channels of my stuff for sale
I moved on to another game for the reasons the OP stated.
RK2019 is temporary.
No point for returning/new players to play it.
So it’s just a thing for bored existing players, not for new or returning players. We have no uber toons on the “main” server to fall back to when RK2019 is shut down.
Obviously, I wish it otherwise, else I wouldn’t be posting here, since I’ve been having lots of fun returning to FF14.
But I like the old school stuff lots, but not if my characters are going to get wiped eventually.
I’ve had nothing but fun on new server. Easier to find teams for leveling toons, plenty of ways to make the credits needed to gear a toon as you level. Sure if you want the best gear available you will need more credits. Get a team and run team missions, farm mobs for trash to sell. Even my gimpy undergeared fixer can blitz a mission for whatever nanos I need, or even just blitz find person missions on max credits.
For returning players or new, it’s alot easier to accomplish this stuff than it is on old server. The people that don’t like it can simply stay on old server and forget 2019 exists.
Skimmed through the OP and didnt read any of the comments just to make this short and sweet.
OP said he has been an on and off player since launch and never has had a 220. You sound extremely casual to the point where you wont benefit (by entertainment or otherwise) from rk2019. Also, you aren’t in any better situation if you play the normal server. The population is extremely low and finding people to do content with is hair pulling. You are damned if you do and damned if you dont. Take pleasure in whatever it is you decide.