As I'm sure you all know, the server hasn't been looking so great lately. Our numbers have dwindled down to less than 30. This obviously makes everything in the game substantially more difficult, if not impossible. As such, we are left with only one choice and it's an unfortunate one. We will be wiping the server.
None of the staff are overly excited about this, but it is literally the only option that we have to make any sort of real impact on the life of the server. On September 29, the server will go down to apply a number of patches and prepare for the re-launch of KOTastic. It will be down for 1 week, and on October 6, it will re-launch. When you first log in, the server will be completely fresh, everyone back to level 1 with no items. At this point, some of you might be asking how starting everyone at level 1 is going to fix anything at all, which is a fair question. The rates for numerous aspects of the game are going to be radically changed. XP rates will be far easier, resulting in approximately 3 weeks to reach the maximum level for casual XP. The drop rates on a number of items, mostly high class items, will be increased along with the drop rate for Blessed Upgrade Scrolls. The rates at the anvil will stay roughly the same however, so that the server does not become flooded with +8 high class items within the first month. That would be a disservice to everyone, in our opinion. When the server relaunches, it will also include the ever-promised-but-never-delivered Bifrost and BDW. Most of the bugs appear to be out of BDW and Bifrost seems to be working perfect, so we feel as if they are finally ready to be launched. Concerning the purchased KC and donations, as a compensatory measure, we will be refunding 20% of all purchased KC. To break that down, that means if you purchased 1000 KC total, from the time that the server launched until right now, you will receive 200 KC back. This is unfortunate for the players, we understand, but refunding all of the KC would flood the server with very, very cheap scrolls and other PUS items at a very early point in the game, which we don't think would be a very good idea. [Ignore this bit. Read below]
Changes are going to be made behind-the-scenes as well. Twostars has elected to step down. He'll still be around to help me out with any annoying development problems, but he will not, under any circumstances, be helping deal with the community. I will be stepping out of the public light as well, and focus completely on development and keeping the server running smoothly. That leaves an obvious lack of GMs in-game. To counteract that, we will be taking applications from select members to help out with GM'ing the server. More information on that will be posted on the forum shortly. In addition to the recruitment of new GMs, GM's will also be given names, such as "GM_01" or, "GM_02". This will be done to provide anonymity to the GMs and make everything more professional. GMs in-game will be available to answer small questions or help with minor annoyances. However, if more serious help is required, the player will be required to use our support ticket system, which will be enabled during the downtime. GMs will also be taking a far more active role in-game, by having a minimum of three GM events per week. These events can range from a simple Find the GM event to a traditional boss event to whatever the GM feels like doing. Another change being made behind-the-scenes is that we will no longer be unbanning people randomly. That only serves to make the staff look incompetent, which obviously isn't the goal. We fell into this trap last time mostly by my doing. While I have played KO for more than 7 years, this was my first time running an actual private server for other people, and as such, I was unaccustomed to the community aspect of things. Now that I have some experience under my belt, that will change. First of all, a proper rules page is going to be put up and it will detail the most commonly broken rules and their punishments. For more serious infractions, it will come down to a staff decision as to what the proper punishment shall be. The page detailing these rules will be available at the end of this post, as well as a link inside My KOL on the panel itself.
We understand that many of these changes are rather drastic to the overall climate of the server, but we really do not want this server to die off. We have had a lot of fun being server owners and would not want it to end quite so soon. We hope that with all of these changes, we can attract new and old players alike. Hopefully, despite our missteps in-game, we have proven that our server, from a technical standpoint, is as stable as ever which will renew the faith of those that decided to look elsewhere after our initial launch, way back in July.
We hope to see you all back on October 6!
Panel: KO Tastic! | Index
Forum: KO Tastic!
Edit: Thanks to Vincent's excellent idea, we will be changing our method of refunding the KC. You will still not get it in one lump sum, however, you will receive 20% of your total purchased KC each week for 5 weeks. I understand this isn't the ideal for everyone, but hopefully you fall into the minority, because the alternatives to this are either our original plan, or we refund all of the KC in one lump sum and watch the PUS systematically destroy the economy. Hopefully, by refunding 20% of the total purchased KC each week for five weeks, everyone will be happier.
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