What's Modern?

[Seich]

I've been moving around the modern servers for almost 2 years now. I've been almost always, whenever I've talked about one of the modern servers I've worked on, been described as an Era/AnyOtherModernServerName clone. I recently started thinking about what modern servers have been doing wrong. So, I want to ask the general public: What would take for a new modern server not to be considered a clone of some previous modern server? From my experience with Noctorious, people seem to like the basic era remake ._. I wanted to have a strong and important economic system in Noctorious but, this was quickly dumped as players didn't really like the idea and would usually go with something along the lines of "why don't you do this like Era's <something>?". Are this people what a friend of mine once defined as an "era reject looking for a new era where he can be something" or is this a more general opinion of what people consider an ideal modern server? Is era already perfect and thus, any other modern server will automatically be disposed of? Opinions will allow current and future modern servers to improve.

My opinion about the matter is that, no one really knows what they want. As what we have defined as "modern" is basically based around Era. It can be frustrating to fight against the fact that you will most likely, be compared with Era anytime you mention anything about a modern server. I can't really think of a way to move forward and create something based upon this idea of what modern is. Does it mean that era should be the only modern server? I really think that the staff team at Noctorious actually achieved something even though, it was never completed as originally intended. I think that at least the server was made with a very high quality standard having a general look and feel that was overall way better than many other modern servers.

So what do you think? I apologize if it seems a little messy ._. since, I just wrote it as it came out of my mind.

[salesman]

To me modern means that the theme/period in time in which the server takes place is, well, modern. I've worked on an RTS server and a matches server which both had a modern theme, but I wouldn't consider anything like Era.

If you try to make a modern RPG, you're always going to be compared with Era.

[DustyPorViva]

Modern is having blurry textured sidewalks and chalk-drawn street lane lines.

[oo_jazz_oo]

From the name, one would expect 'Modern' to mean...present day. Now.

So, you would think a 'Modern Server' would include houses...cars...cities, banks, stores, jobs, etc.

But so far, just about every 'Modern Server' has been a "Take this gun and go shoot someone" server.
So, now the term modern is basically 'gun server'. There are alot of things you can do with a modern theme.

But people always seem to go back to the one thing that links to Era. Guns.

Guns guns guns guns guns. They make up 70+% of a modern server.
Every aspect...gameplay - Shoot people to get kills.
Events - shoot people to win.
Gangs - shoot other gangs.
Even certain jobs...bounty hunters. You shoot people.

And for those people who dont wanna run around shooting people, who try to do other jobs, talk with people, do w/e they want. Get shot.

I'm done with this right now, because i have to go do something.

But the point im making...modern servers are always seen as era clones, because...thats really what they are. If you base your server around guns and shooting people, and then just randomly throw in some small jobs here and there.

Thats era.

[Nataxo]

kind of "real life" styled, in the sense of having cars, buildings, guns etc but it can be a totally different story.

[Switch]

Originally Posted by Nataxo

kind of "real life" styled, in the sense of having cars, buildings, guns etc but it can be a totally different story.

You realize in real life people don't walk around with guns shooting people all day without consequences?

[Luda]

Originally Posted by Switch

You realize in real life people don't walk around with guns shooting people all day without consequences?

Welcome to Rio de Janerio: Graal

[Pimmeh]

Originally Posted by Luda

Welcome to Rio de Janerio: Graal

Haha, that'd be an awesome idea XD

[Geno]

in relation to graal, guns instead of swords.

[Galdor]

It's our beloved zelda like graphics but with guns, cars and gangs I think it should be banned its just horrible to see.

[Deas_Voice]

Originally Posted by salesman

If you try to make a modern RPG, you're always going to be compared with Era.

how can u not make a server without "roleplay"?
oh and, when someone say RPG, i think magic, swords, races ect

[salesman]

Originally Posted by Deas_Voice

how can u not make a server without "roleplay"?

be creative? There's more than just "roleplay", and Graal's engine is more than capable of handling them.

[Soala]

Originally Posted by Deas_Voice

how can u not make a server without "roleplay"?
oh and, when someone say RPG, i think magic, swords, races ect

Yeah, everyone think about magic and sword stuff by hearing "RPG"
But it's more than that.

Oh please, SIMS.

[Old_Days]

Well to be honest people like to put out more then they like to put in, meaning that they will be the quickest to judge you, rather than help you think of new ideas. No matter what we do with a modern server, take Noctorious for example, its not going to please everyone.

[Crono]

The only modern non-era clone that I have ever been aware of was Bravo Evolved.

[Elk]

Originally Posted by DustyPorViva

Modern is having blurry textured sidewalks and chalk-drawn street lane lines.

this

[Hatred89]

Originally Posted by Galdor

It's our beloved zelda like graphics but with guns, cars and gangs I think it should be banned its just horrible to see.

Just because you dislike the idea and game play doesn't make it bad that is just your take on the topic. Era and Zone ignoring the fact if they are good servers or not has kept a good percentage of the graal population and I know a lot of people wouldn't play graal if there was no gun themed servers. It's helped keep graal alive for so long.

Any server that has guns is going to be compared to Era. Zone is futuristic and Ol'West was in the past and yet they both are still compared. Even if you change the entire thing and make it different if you are still shooting guns to kill another player for the pk part or raiding even if the systems are different they will be compared.

[Crono]

Originally Posted by Hatred89

It's helped keep graal alive for so long.

lol, no. Although I do admit that Zone had a reasonable playercount, 1/3 of them were trials.

[Galdor]

Originally Posted by Hatred89

Just because you dislike the idea and game play doesn't make it bad.

I dislike the idea of zelda like graphics with guns and gangs, I have no problem with shooting games.

[Hatred89]

Originally Posted by Crono

lol, no. Although I do admit that Zone had a reasonable playercount, 1/3 of them were trials.

Era has roughly maybe 1/5 of graals player count give or take? You can't say it hasn't helped and I mean since its been up its brought quite a bit of money in. I bought my account to play it and so did many of others so its held its own and more.

Originally Posted by Galdor

I dislike the idea of zelda like graphics with guns and gangs, I have no problem with shooting games.

Well what makes you dislike that idea? Its similar to gta in a different perspective. I mean the people who work on these servers most often then not are not professional gats. So making a custom body and people liking it is quite difficult. So I don't know how you would stray away from that because its the body that makes it feel like Zelda right?

I am guessing you might of played the older Zelda games so you seeing the guns on these bodys might bother you and make it seem like its not right but thats just because thats what you played before but hey I could be wrong =0.

[DustyPorViva]

Originally Posted by Galdor

I dislike the idea of zelda like graphics with guns and gangs, I have no problem with shooting games.

Only zelda-like things in Era are the bodies. So your whole opinion would be changed if they used Zone bodies?

[Galdor]

Originally Posted by DustyPorViva

Only zelda-like things in Era are the bodies. So your whole opinion would be changed if they used Zone bodies?

the further away from zelda it stays the better it is. but then again I wouldn't play it just because of graphical changes as the game itself inst very fun.

[Hatred89]

I don't see how the it would better the modern servers if they stayed away from using graal bodies because that is really the only thing left that is like Zelda is it not? Also I could argue that why not just play Zelda instead of playing a rip off? (I know graal is online) That lil comment was simply just to say that classic servers would be better off straying from Zelda. (Just tossing your argument back at you)

[Crono]

Originally Posted by Hatred89

Era has roughly maybe 1/5 of graals player count give or take? You can't say it hasn't helped and I mean since its been up its brought quite a bit of money in. I bought my account to play it and so did many of others so its held its own and more.

Era was also down for a few years between ~2004 and 2006 yet Graal didn't really feel empty because of it. The overall playercount seemed to stay the same.

Almost any server with a reasonable playercount has "brought quite a bit of money in". How many people on Era have Classic accounts? How many are trials?

[Hatred89]

Well the trial thing has changed since the payment system has changed. Yeah, I forgot about it being down but that was before when Zone was active and newer and GK still being more active. Now all the servers have been dying and to lose Era now could be terrible.

[Lonewolf2004]

All graal needs to do is rework their business model the people who run it are either stupid or stupid...

I posted this somewhere else before and it makes a lot of sense.

Hmm... well my opinion with this whole subject is a few things that were already discussed and I have some disagreements and agreements. Graal is a good game always has been from day one.

I have a 3 theory's on the subject though.

1. I agree that stefan and unixmad need to see it for its true potential before someone American comes around changes a few sprites and coding and steal the whole Idea what it seems to me is that they leave it sitting here like big corporate business's do for rebates

If you don't know how that works its like this. Manufacturing companies overcharge retailers lets say like Bestbuy for a computer now Bestbuy sells this computer for the recommended price to make a profit but include the rebate what the big company does is hold the rebate money when people send them in (If they do) and lets them sit in the bank to make interest money. This is my first idea on what they are doing as Ive seen no advertisements or anything just word of mouth on forums for graal I bet they are just using it as retirement plans and haven't spent a cent of it and have regular day jobs.


My 2nd Theory is that they actually don't need to make a lot of money off of players because they make so much off of server hosting which is why most servers never get off the hosting tab in the first place if you have ever been on RC Which most of us have then you see that there are lot's of servers just sitting with no one to do anything but they still get paid. This makes it able for them to raise prices of the player subscription because they make enough to host the servers regularly and lets face it I myself have graal hosting files found from various sites and a weak computer can host about 300 players on one server (This was for testing reason's long ago) But these people actually pay around 100$ A year for something that can be done with a simple computer and a internet connection


My 3rd Theory they just don't know what they are doing and need to hire consultants why? well here's some examples.


Most of our player base is old and have old emails when we signed up yet were unable to change our passwords in a simple fashion to something we can remember instead of having to remember (qRIAOSSf). we have to go through this whole process of going to old emails and looking for information we needed long ago to get our password off that 2002 Email.

They don't advertise at all these people aren't trying to make money the online advertisement industry is BOOMING right now and they don't take advantage of it at all. You never go to google and see a Graal ad and don't say because its outdated because that's not true their are plenty of stupid games that don't deserved to be advertised yet get advertised you can simply look at runescape and see the people over their are about money they have banners,ads hell even been mentioned in magazines but look at Graal it just sits their with its updates toward the community which it already has.

Prices aren't user friendly They only have options to pay out big or no go. This isn't what brings new players in it's what drives them away I remember when you could get an account for 20 bucks and that was it no im spending around 40$ that's insane you want to be able to reach the common man and the rich man not just one. You need 5$ 10$ 15$ 20$ plans to even make money as of right now.

They leave dead servers up where no one wants to even play them at all but a few people and keep some of the good ones AWAY from the community. I mean comon folks who plays Atlantis,Delteria,Valkoria? Comon folks one wasn't even going to make it, One was cool at first when you could run around as blue and green wolfs and dare I say it one was okay when clash was around but that's all over now we want something new or at least give us the choice of voting every 2 months of which server we want to see put on to the list and stop trying to make the decisions for us. If it this is truly a Game where we the people create it then why cant WE the people do just that? I find it almost irritating when I can't play a hosted server but I can play things like Graal kingdoms. This is needs to be changed keep your gold out of ours we should be able to play the servers that actually might be good and interesting then be forced to pay more money which is exactly what their trying to do but at the same time Scaring off new customers and
losing more and more of the old ones do they not see right now the way they market their are games 100x better then graal?


They need to just let every server be playable with the option of some servers not allowing players on (Dev servers or servers in DEV) and worry about accounts no more of this "Gold" bull**** its simply killing the game...If they were to do this more and more people would come thus boosting overall dev teams in the graal population in whole. Also the trial is just bull**** give the people a ban on trading and what ever else needs to be done to keep them from transferring items and what not and all it a day.

I just can't seem to understand why graal is ran like a concentration camp...


Laverick

[LoneAngelIbesu]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf2004

I mean comon folks who plays ... Valkoria? ... [It] as okay when clash was around but that's all over now...

All credibility... lost.

[DustyPorViva]

Originally Posted by Galdor

the further away from zelda it stays the better it is. but then again I wouldn't play it just because of graphical changes as the game itself inst very fun.

That's pretty simple view of Graal. Graal started off as a Zelda clone but it has evolved so much from that over the years. Hell, even at the peak of cloning Zelda, it didn't play much like a Zelda game at all.

[Lonewolf2004]

Originally Posted by LoneAngelIbesu

All credibility... lost.

I mean it has the best LAT job graal has ever seen but when you log on here's what happens

Theirs 5 or 9 staff
People Yell at you and shoo you away
Nothing to do but Roleplay
Everybody doesn't wanna talk to you unless you were their before or have a vagina.

When clash was manager you could go their and actually have fun with the following

Role-playing

Leveling up your role-playing avatar

Great guild wars which actually allowed you to decide the outcome through pvping

Best Mobs/Fighting system in graal history and has not been beaten yet.


That's just one of the huge draw backs of graal how were going the opposite of making graal a better place.

All of my inconsiderate low blows aside though...

Graal owners need to step their game up or start licensing some server files off for a couple thousand and go with a bang and watch other people make millions off the product they barley made donkey piss with.

[Crono]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf2004

When clash was manager you could go their and actually have fun with the following

Clash was holding the development of the server back. At one point the playercount had reached almost none, much like Classic before it went off the Classic list, but the moment Clash was removed it increased and development picked back up again.

[xnervNATx]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf2004

When clash was manager.

wait...r u serious?

[Lonewolf2004]

Serious as a heart attack...

Player count was at a 80-100 daily.

Never seen val have that high of a count ever...

It just showed back up outta nowhere and owned.

After the battling system and what not was removed the server just died and now has like a said before a 30 player count mostly staff who jail you because your nickname and what not and a buncha of egotistical bastards who don't understand that there wasting their time with so much to work with.

Infact if I could compare anything to graal it would have to be val.

So much work done but not enough ways to actually make something of it.

[Hatred89]

How did this thread get to talking about Val when it is meant to be talking about modern servers. Let's get back on topic or make a new thread talking about Val?

[DustyPorViva]

Originally Posted by Hatred89

How did this thread get to talking about Val when it is meant to be talking about modern servers. Let's get back on topic or make a new thread talking about Val?

What is there to talk about? You copy Era's tileset, create a 'city', fill it with trash and let player's pick it up, make sure there is a bridge and your GUI is grey, and thrown in guns and gangs.

[Hatred89]

Thread closed?

[DustyPorViva]

Originally Posted by Hatred89

Thread closed?

Why? Nothing wrong with leaving a thread open if the original topic was addressed, even if people are discussing something else.