Ragnarok : Welcome to 2013!

Greetings Ragnarok Fans!

2013 has launched and we’ve not yet put up a kind of all encompassing “Here is what is going on post”, yet. I do apologize for that, things have been hectic with making our 2013 schedules and getting all our updates lined up.

This year is going to be very hectic for our Ragnarok Team here, not only with our continued support for multi-monthly quests and events, but also with a large list of updates planned this year for both our Renewal and Classic servers.

Near the end of 2012 we did our 3 way merger of the Renewal servers, that went about as smoothly as can be expected, we also updated the way God items are used to keep scamming and RMT at bay. The usual amount of confusion was had with that update but I think the guild leaders know what to expect now. Please don’t worry about how many times you can get the 1 month “ephemeral God item” currently a limit has not been established, so just keep getting them when you are allowed to God item owners.
The WoE scene is MUCH busier that it has been in many years, so much so that we have needed to increase the server cap to well beyond spec to try and cut down player load latency. Every week we try to diagnose and tweak a bit more, but it isn’t fixed yet, please do understand that it is a work in progress. It may come down to there is an inefficiency in the client or other software that is “capping” the performance beyond what we can immediately fix, but we are working on it from every angle.

With all those ‘meh’ tidings already talked about, we can now talk about what is in the future for RO this year in general, and what to expect in the more immediate term.
– Kagerou and Oboro Ninja update is coming to Renewal on February 5th, that will add some very interesting game play options for all you enjoyers of the obscure.
– Late February or Early March we should be updating our software and game systems to the latest “skill bug fixed version”, this version is a collection of small fixes over the last year that addresses many skill issues we’ve had reported. Once this update is done we will certainly monitor any change in game performance, especially regarding WoE.
– We will be having high level Eden Group quests and Item updates within the first few months, these are relatively small content updates but it will help smooth out gear and leveling tiers.
– 14.2 is planned to launch in the first half of this year!
– For the remainder of the year we have several large content updates of new dungeons, new Quest system and starting player help systems and tentatively the 14.3 update, and this is all just for Renewal.

On Classic server we also have a pretty aggressive plans too!
– Thanatos dungeon and the opening of ALL the hugel and Yuno outdoor maps will occur on February 5th.
– Battle Grounds is in need of being reworked to keep exploitative point acquisition from happening. We know many players want BG already, but we want to put it in 1 time and make it right rather than have to redo it later. We are begining the rebuild of that system in February with the hope of launching it in February.
– Post BG we will make the Seal quest available, probably at the 50 seal quest requirement, but we need to redo the gear gifting of the seals to be more in-line with where the server is at. Otherwise I suppose everyone will just make a lot of assassins :).
– Overall plan is to have Arunafeltz in-game by April-ish.
– WoE 2 will be next on the update list.

on top of these direct Ragnarok service updates we are ramping up for our RO2 launch now, I can’t give a launch date right now, but it is near enough that it is starting to occupy my time in planning out its launch necessities. This is one of a few reasons why I am a ghost on the forums, I am doing the things that make schedules happen rather than the more public things like being in-game and on forums, but rest assured we are all working hard to keep things going in the good direction.

We also have Ragnarok Valkyrie : Uprising the mobile game coming out soon, you can sign up for the launch and get some RO swag too! This game is fully networked to play in a persistent world it isn’t the RO world, but you will definitely see the resemblance, and if you like the chibi art style you will be right at home!

This year has more Ragnarok stuff happening than any year in my memory, so please grace us with your support and have a great time everyone!

Jason “Heimdallr”
Ragnarok Online Producer