Much ado has been presented about Ragnarok Online changing to not have monthly subscriptions. Well it is true, and here is a bit of information to help clarify what to expect from the changes.
We will be switching from a Premium/Free server scenario with required monthly subscription for Premium access, to a “VIP” account system with benefits to game play, but where you can access any account and characters freely without any payment requirement. The VIP Account system can be added to an account for 30 days (or 90 and 180 days respectfully) and has the same price as the current subscription model had. We will transfer remaining daily/hourly subscription into the new VIP account status when we make this change.
The VIP account tag will be added via purchase via WP energy onto a specific game account (much like a subscription). Login to the WarpPortal and “Power-Up” the desired account
30 day Premium 700WP
90 day Premium 1900WP
180 day Premium 3350WP
This new method is ideal for returning veteran players as they certainly will be able to play with friends and such without a subscription barring access to their characters, we look forward to how this will change WoE and what not. Of course returning and new players may still need to make a WarpPortal account and bind/register Ragnarok Accounts to it, possibly update passwords on the Veteran Ragnarok Accounts.
All servers will inherit the same refine system that our current Premium servers now enjoy. (Elu = safe to +4, e.Elu = high rate and then HD are protection with normal elu rate). All Kafra shop items will be added to all servers, at the lowest currently available price. This means rental items will be seen on Ymir, cheaper stuff in general will be seen on Valkyrie. Further prices will be updated to all match Ymir, with rental items entering into the shop on all servers.
Please keep in mind the below restrictions are what is planned, and in testing, that does not mean they are 100% set in stone.
| Premium Account | Free Acct | |
| Experience | 150% | 100% |
| Drop Rate | 150% | 100% |
| Storage | 600 | 300 |
| Penalty on Death | 1% | 3% |
| Access to Special NPCs | All + special | Normal |
| Access to Special Areas | All + special | Normal |
There will be one other update regarding Yggdrasil, it will parallel Valkyrie server in how many default characters a non-VIP account create (3), both Valkyrie and Yggdrasil are considered “Open” servers, while Ymir will be a “VIP” server. Below greater detail on the create character details can be found. If you wish to transfer off of Yggdrasil to Ymir, for Free before this change please do so.
On all servers, any character can be played. So if you currently have 7 characters created, all 7 can be accessed, regardless of your VIP status. This will also be true for newly created characters, no matter what all, potential, 9 characters slots can be played if there is a character in them.
However, the ability to CREATE characters is tied to your VIP status, and which server you are logging in on VIP vs Open server.
On Open servers you can create 3 characters by default, the remaining 6 Character slots can have characters created in them if the account is currently a VIP account.
On our VIP server (Ymir) default creation number of characters to create is 0, and a VIP account will allow character creation in all 9 slots.
It is highly likely that in the future we will have promotions and events that will bypass the 0 creation restriction on the Open server.
It is intended to have the F2P change occur by April 6, but all known bugs need to be worked out before such a large change occurs, this will very likely meld into the Brasilis launch as well.
We will certainly have a discussion and answer questions about this when the forums return soon.
Edit 3/23/2011: The above was updated to clarify a few points and use the more proper VIP vs Premium language, hopefully this makes it more clear for everyone. We are still testing and discussing the finer points of the update. There seem to be 2 sticky points in Ymir storage and Valkyrie multi-clienting, we are aware of the points on both sides of the discussion and your civility is appreciated thus far.
Edit 3/31/2011 : Removed the Multi-client restriction. VIP or not multiple clients may be logged in at once from 1 computer. The solution we were testing didn’t fully meet our requirements, since it didn’t meet the requirements and that the community has certain feelings about it, we decided to remove it.
Ymir is intended to have 600 storage by default (non-VIP) and may be 600 with VIP as well. We are working on a better storage expansion beyond 600, but it is not ready and it is better overall to have Ymir keep the 600.
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Questions received from Facebook and this blog, and answers.
- Q. How will upgrades work on all servers?
A. All servers will be equal, premium status will not change this.
Safe upgrade with normal Ore from 0 -> safe (+4 on armor +7, +6 +5 +4 on weapons respectively)
Enriched Ore gives higher than normal upgrade rates when going from safe and higher, but a risk of breaking is still possible. -
Q. Kafra shop prices?
A. All servers will use the current CHEAPEST price, which should be the Ymir prices on items. Rental items will be available on all servers. - Q. What about if I’m a returning player, what happens?
A. Returning players can login and access the game account and all characters that exist on the account, with no restriction on server, or premium status. This is the big benefit of this for our veteran players, that all old accounts become valid accounts for login. -
Q. Storage on Ymir will shrink from 600 to 300! But what happens then?
A. No items will be deleted or made unavailable, they will be in a “remove only” state so you can take items out but not put them in if you are over the default storage amount. Aside from making the account “Premium” you could login another account and use its storage to extend what you have. -
Q. Is it really wise to have a system for so long and then take it away.
A. Change is touchy, but the intention of the old seperation between Premium/Free SERVERS was the same as what we have with this update, except we remove the tie to server and instead make it unique to accounts.
If you have always preferred to play by ‘subscription” you can continue doing that, but instead of being a “for access subscription” it is a for added benefit Premium package. On ymir if you have an active premium on your account your game play should be precisely the same as now from the exp/drop storage etc. But there will now be more NPCs and maps being added that you get better access too. This should be a win scenario for veterans. -
Q. Multi-client restriction?
A. Current design: Yes, you can have as many premium accounts logged in on one PC as you wish, but only 1 non-Premium account can be logged in from that PC at a time. -
Q. But I have more accounts than that on Valkyrie, how will I play?
A. This is an unfortunate issue that came about due to no way to limit the amount of clients opening on Valkyrie when we opened. Players were used to having tons of accounts with 1-2 characters apeice instead of fewer accounts filled with characters. That was not a design intention, one that is possible to correct now.
With that said, this part of the update is the one that is most likely to be reviewed to be changed (possibly more non-prem logins) in some form or removed all together. -
Q. If multi-client limiter is put in, will it be tied to gateway?
A. As much as we want to see our gateway become more fun and useful and adopted further by our community, at this time we are not planning on directly tying game login to it, by extension of that it will not be a part of any client restrictions.
The limitation of how many Premium vs non-Premium accounts that can be opened, will need to be completely controlled via the client/server architecture, thus be transparent to the players.
There is some other news that we want to share regarding this update.
- All regular servers will launch from one client. No more having to use different launchers to get to your desired server (Sakray is not a regular server).
- Yggdrasil will shift to be like Valkyrie, with 3 character slots open for creation rather than 0 like Ymir.
- We will be offering Free Yggdrasil -> Ymir server transfers, without restrictions, starting 3/21 until we make this system change around April 6th.
As soon as the form is finished being created it will be announced on the patch notices, websites etc to get in your transfer request now. - If you opt to stay on Yggdrasil (which is a fine choice) you will still be able to play on the server, you will likely be the new upper class characters on that server when we begin having new users play there.
Um.. This whole RO going free 2 play is frightening. I hope it works out but it just looks.. messy.
Without multi clients it will be problem at many aspects. Brewing and forging will be problem. Even freinds who have priest or other character required will say no if asked quite often.
I think instead of attracting people there will be more people leaving the game.
If they wanted to remove it they should not have implemented in first place.
Once you make of the habit of some good thing and then you restrict that thing to be use make people frustrated and then make them leave totally.
I would say do make restriction on numbers of multiclienting.
Again by restriction of multclienting you are making real player suffer. I dont think that bots will have restriction on multclienting. And people will then use illegal means to do multclienting.
You can see so many bots vendor at city they just login and within milli second their shop is up.
SO MORE SUFFERING TO HONEST AND REAL PLAYER.
Bots will be winners with this.
I would request the management to please see the consequences between bots and real and honest player before implementing this restriction of multiclienting. Please dont make honest and real player suffer and please dont make bots or illegal method to win.
This is NOT Free 2 Play.
bye bye iRO.
So what if there are 3 of us in the same house with 3 computers but have 4 accounts. Does that mean only 1 of us can log on while the others miss out?
Does that mean there will be vitata/creamy cards on valk and yggrasil?
as one of the posters just said, remove the auto trigger npc. they are annoying and buggy (disconnects).
i doubt this f2p will go smoothly. iro screws up on minor changes, i expect this one to really f* up.
@Beata
i know gravestone timers are coming out soon, but i like convex mirrors just for the simple fact it gives me the location of the MVP, since i do hunt them alot it does make it easier using the convex mirrors to hunt them.
So this update is for returning player. One quick question. How do you know that there are tons of players want to come back and play RO? For example you lunch this package and then it turns out that # of player stays the same not increase (because there is no returning player as you expect) What will you do next? Rollback to the same VIP subscription?
We are looking into the storage limits currently, I can’t say if it will change from what is posted above or not yet as there are tests we must run first to see what our technical options are (rather than desired options).
Multi clienting will be on a “by computer” situation, so if you have 20 computers than your house would be able to have 20 clients logged in even if all are non-VIP. Do consider that VIP accounts have no limit on how many can be logged in per computer.
We will have basic premium NPCs in the game, and as time goes more and more will be added as new ones are designed. I do expect those NPCs would be worth the VIP value in itself.
As for what items to enable/disable on the servers we are planning to start with them keeping their current limits on the non-VIP servers, and then look at how the game play changes or needs to change.
The character creation restriction doesn’t make much sense. People will just create more WP accounts to play classes that they want to try/play. You are merely shifting the burden to WP and creating an annoyance for the player base That will continue to do the same thing you are trying to prevent while accomplishing nothing.
While I do understand the multi-client restrictions due to bandwidth concerns, you have not designed the game in a way to make this workable for merchant vendors or those of the forge/brew (ie non-combat) classes. If you wished to correct this issue, I submit two ideas for your consideration. Create an NPC method to vend items, a market as it were, so people could still sell while offline. The benefits of such a system should be obvious. Secondly create a method for leveling a non-combat class, as there currently is not a reliable method. The currently implemented completable quests are too few and are not available for high levels making it impossible to reasonably level a non-combat character without leeching. As it stands, to ask somebody to leech a non-combat character is asking them to take a tremendous burden with no pay off. This is why people will often leech themselves with multiple clients. Your suggested implementations are not even a bandage for the problem. Even multi-client allowance does not really resolve the problem. You are mearly ignoring the problem and creating additional ones rather than fixing it at the heart of the issue. In the end, once again, you create a difficulty for the player base with no real benefit to anybody.
The VIP system is a good idea. It simplifies things and makes things easier all around for everybody to play and enjoy the game in the way they want to enjoy it. The upgrade system change is also a nice bonus that I will certainly not complain about and thank you for.
I suggest we should continue to restrict teleport skill for free server. Otherwise the server will be burned out by botting lol
Sounds like a downgrade for paying people… I dont even pay.
Can we please have more information on what the Premium only NPCs will be?
I think this is both good and bad. I like not having to pay for a super-laggy game, but the penalties are enough to make me reconsider playing at all…
Horrible idea =/, this will encourage people to leave instead of bringing in new players.