New Server

[excaliber7388]

Actually, a racing server could be really cool.

[Crono]

Originally Posted by excaliber7388

Actually, a racing server could be really cool.

been thinking about this since 2003 or something =o

and one dedicated to being like world cup soccer from NES :P

[z4nz0k3n]

What, the soccer field from Bro's House (Classic) isn't good enough for you?? =P I wouldn't mind playing on something like that actually. Seems that faster, pick-up-and-play servers are becoming more and more popular now that we have like 15 or so RPGraals to choose from. ^_^

I'm curious to see how a racing server would work, I just can't picture it right now. But then again I never thought about a Zone-like game working on Graal either.

To be honest I would just like to see a server that had a traditional Zelda feel to it, as that's what got me to Graal in the first place. All the servers sway away from that.

[Galdor]

Originally Posted by z4nz0k3n

To be honest I would just like to see a server that had a traditional Zelda feel to it, as that's what got me to Graal in the first place.

yea! same here

[Infernix]

I forgot delteria existed lol.

[excaliber7388]

Really.
Someone could make a Mario Cart like server for Graal.
Until graal 3d is released, it could use the normal graal view, have some nice controls, rpg elements (buying parts, powerups, etc)...this idea could really work

[Tyhm]

I'd be worried about little things. Level links, how fast you can really go across Graal with loadscreens, etc. Then again, with flying technology, anything's possible.

Originally Posted by Yen

Yeah.
You have to either pay your scripter or give your scripter management, or things won't work.

Right, exactly. And it's all fine to say that managers should wise up and be more flexible, give their staffers a say equal to their work in the shared product, as well as share any hypothetical future profits from said work, but they're under no default obligation to - "it's MY server you've poured your sweat and blood into, and if I say it's going to throw nukeshots and lizardswords to people at random, you have to live with it!"
Disenfranchised, that's the word.
So do we by default say they can take their work with them? They have to let the admin keep a copy, but they can open their own server and try to make it work? Then we have two servers branching in two directions - they insist they're irreconcilably different directions, so they should be two vastly different servers, right? But each wants the other to fail so they can swipe their opponent's playerbase...

I think that's the whole problem right there - Graal shares a small pool of players, and everyone competes over the Graalians. Graal really needs to release these customizable frontends, so Delteria can release a Delteria client (which is just a customized Graal) on the Delteria website (which is just a template hosted from graal.net) and start bringing in Delterians (which are just newbies who haven't realized their Delteria account works on all these other servers yet, and for the same price)...then maybe we'll see servers that stand alone, servers that are worth upgrading for "Just for Zone" instead of "Well, I DO get access to all 10 servers for this price..."

[_Z3phyr_]

Originally Posted by Infernix

I forgot delteria existed lol.

You know, if you people would help work for Delteria all of this crap could be fixed sooner.

[Galdor]

Originally Posted by _Z3phyr_

You know, if you people would help work for Delteria all of this crap could be fixed sooner.

uhh delteria is just a classic copy >.> fix classic instead i say.

[_Z3phyr_]

Oops I meant Delteria Dev which will replace Delteria so wait nvm I didn't mess up there

[The Evil Within]

Originally Posted by Tyhm

I think that's the whole problem right there - Graal shares a small pool of players, and everyone competes over the Graalians. Graal really needs to release these customizable frontends, so Delteria can release a Delteria client (which is just a customized Graal) on the Delteria website (which is just a template hosted from graal.net) and start bringing in Delterians (which are just newbies who haven't realized their Delteria account works on all these other servers yet, and for the same price)...then maybe we'll see servers that stand alone, servers that are worth upgrading for "Just for Zone" instead of "Well, I DO get access to all 10 servers for this price..."

That could potentially be a great idea, however, I don't think it would do all too well. Cyberjours barely pays for advertisement for themselves, this would basically have them asking classic servers to pay for their own advertisement. Just putting up a download link on the Delteria website wouldn't help too much, of coarse they have the most active forums of any Graal server, but that's because of players from the passed, and some players from other servers meaning the only people who would see the link on the Delteria website are people who already know about Graal. Not to mention the fact that it could potentially disuade certain players from playing Graal at all, especially using Delteria as an example.

Let's say Delteria payed gamefaq's for advertising space and a bunch of people downloaded the "Delteria Client." I dunno if you've logged on to Delteria lately, but unless you already know what Graal is, it has nothing to offer right now. It's purely a spar/pk server, players log on and start with 10 hearts and a level 2 sword with no quests to do (although I think quests may be reinstated on the server sometime soon, with the possible addition of some new quests for a level 3 sword and an extra heart). This is also ontop of the fact that it averages a playercount of 0 - 10 so there's not even anybody to talk to. If I had never played Graal before and was introduced to the game with Delteria I would probably never play the game again.

However for servers such as Zodiac, Unholy Nation, and Era this idea would be amazing to attract new players, however I doubt they'd be as motivated as Delterians to pay for their own advertisement. I know that there are people on Delteria (myself being one of them) that would shell out a few bucks and pool in with other player/staff to advertise to try and raise the playercount, hell the Dev server for Delteria is hosted by players not management, but there's no need for the servers with better content to do so because they already have a playercount.

I think it would be a good idea for Cyberjours to pay a few bucks to get a banner put somewhere on gamefaq's, especially with the release of the new Zelda game there's gonna be a lot of Zelda fans surfing the gaming sites in the coming months. I would also like to see links from the graalonline website to individual server sites, these things would help the playercount of all servers, and although Cyberjours may claim that they "can't afford advertisement" I really think that they'd pull in more money from new accounts than they would be spending on a few months of advertisement. Even if they only got 20 new p2p subscribers, that's $600 which is more than enough to pay for a couple of months of advertising space, and that's if Graal is still only $30 for an account.

[_Z3phyr_]

Holy Christ, $30???

Mine was $19.

Inflation sucks.

[The Evil Within]

Originally Posted by _Z3phyr_

Holy Christ, $30???

Mine was $19.

Inflation sucks.

I payed $19 for my 6Burning6Church6 and Grease_Man2 account back in 2000/2001...whenever they put in that stupid ghost stuff...But I'm pretty sure I payed $29 for this account right here in 2004.

[Tyhm]

*shrugs* Maybe Delteria was a bad example. So let's call this Hypothetical Server "Hypothetica". Say Billy makes a server and names it Hypothetica. It competes with all the other Graal servers, and he's reduced to pandering to the lowest common denominator, trying to make his server the "coolest" to the existing Graal playerbase - but bear in mind, this is not the same as making a Good server, it just means that on his server everyone can be Vejita with an uzi at first level. Hypothetica fails to evolve, Graal suffers as all servers introduce their own take on the "Vejita has an uzi" technology.
On the other hand, say every server's given the opportunity to court their own playerbase. Billy decides the "Vejita Has An Uzi" cop-out sucks, deletes it, rebuilds his server so it's actually presentable as, I dunno, a MegaMan themed server, and advertises it on BobAndGeorge.com at $20 for a month. All the Megaman fans jump on Hypothetica, which grows AWAY from the standard-issue Classic Clones and flourishes as a game all on its own(A). A few Megaman fans get bored of jumping around and blasting the same 3 robot masters on Hypothetica, which is still on its growth spurt, go back to the server list, and...hey, Zone's got guns too, let's see if that's any good. Thus, while Hypothetica gets first crack at their own players (maybe the first time you play a server's client the serverlist doesn't even come up), eventually everyone profits from the increased playerbase, and all it took was Hypothetica getting the word out on an indy webcomic.

Naturally, this requires a few more steps than this - the website needs to be revamped, Hypothetica needs a smooth website interface, ideally the restrictions on passwording newbies could be relaxed - Newbies can save via password, as long as the password's sufficiently annoying that they'll want to upgrade someday...you know, so we can start calling Graal a shareware game again...

(A) Optionally: In fact, other servers who DON'T consider themselves Megaman Clones join in a partnership with Hypothetica, and cooperatively develop scripts for baddies, music players, rescripted buddy lists, etc: on Hypothetica all the baddies are cyborgs of the baddies on "Wiki-man", on Wiki-man they're all 3D-Gradiented versions of the Classic baddies, etc. But of course, under the current situation nobody wants to SHARE work, as that'll benefit "the competition". Because all the servers are basically the same.

[Crono]

Originally Posted by Galdor

uhh delteria is just a classic copy >.> fix classic instead i say.

not really but i dont expect you to see the difference