Eltsur Development Thread

[Valtaur]

Hi there,


As you all know private servers are not what they used to be anymore, even the teams that declare themselves as the most professionals fail to execute a stable launch, can't protect themselves against DDoS attacks/exploits and their servers usually go offline when their wallet has been refilled. Happily there are still some decent people left in the Silkroad community, and we can present you our newest project: Eltsur.


What is Eltsur?

Eltsur will be a 85 cap server running on the vsro files, we are using 3 years worth of experience to create the perfect silkroad server, while there have been hundreds of servers before us, none of them brought honour to their advertising threads or their promises; Happily this is not a bad thing, we were able to learn from their mistakes, and launch the perfect server at once.


How can we do this?

Well the answer is simple, we fix everything that's wrong with silkroad and other pservers, including (but not limited to)

-Balanced XP/SP rates (there is no point in running a high rate server if it's going to be empty in a month)
-Balanced skills (EU and CH)
-Economical viability (How many promising servers didn't fail because of inflation or a bug related to gold?)
-Cash shop (what's the point of a free to play game if you need premium+ to compete?)
-Competent team (We have experts in any area of hosting and development, even the best developer can not run a server without experienced system administrators, and the other way around)
-Support (Every member in our team is completely fluent in English)


So, why isn't endgame content on the list?

We have added literally hundreds of new features in relation to endgame content on Eltsur, we will be releasing more information about these while we are polishing them, notably:

-Balanced reborn system: Prolonging longetivity while assuring total balance, great incentives to use the system while not interfering with ingame balance.

-Custom triggers/instances: There are only two people in the silkroad scene that know how to use these, they are incredibly powerful and can change the way silkroad is played. We have added new instances for every level range (from starting level to cap), this will not only make leveling more fun, but it will add a completely new experience to the endgame.

-Set system, we have dozens of new sets, each with their own respective attributes, and you can only get them from their respective locations (most notably the end bosses of the new instances).

-Custom uniques: we have changed the uniques to make them more appealing to players, there will also be special mobs, that drop unique items, such as extremely high-end trade transports, adding yet another layer of fun to the trade system.

-Soft cap: You can not reach the maximum cap by grinding, only by doing a special quest line.

-Reworked quest system: New and actually useful quests

-Custom grind spots

-New skills: You will be able to specialize in certain skills after you have reached the cap, these are extremely powerful (but only usable on monsters, not on players or transports)

-Reworked magic pop, job temple (job dungeon + preventing spawn killing) and a new powerup system in the latter


-And much much more to come


So this was the early information, these are all the features that we have currently implemented, we will keep adding more until we feel confident in our server, for the latest news you are free to follow our development diary on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eltsur/730655870302215

[Tasdik]

Looks promising.

Don't **** it up.

Also, if you need help with build balancing, I'm your man.

[sibiumarius]

Looks good , also you should make the rates 5-10x maximum , also ban multiclient , also buff the low lvl trading/thiefing/hunting ...

[XMoshe]

My main question would be... You speak about these features as if you're already done with them. Is this true? Because if you're still working on them I doubt we'll ever see it leave the idea table.

I'd love to see what you added to make rebirthing worth while if you plan on keeping the balance.

[Valtaur]

Looks promising.

Don't **** it up.

Also, if you need help with build balancing, I'm your man.

That's why we're here

Looks good , also you should make the rates 5-10x maximum , also ban multiclient , also buff the low lvl trading/thiefing/hunting ...

That's what we're planning I appreciate the suggestions, we want to make a game people actually want to play, so keep going

My main question would be... You speak about these features as if you're already done with them. Is this true? Because if you're still working on them I doubt we'll ever see it leave the idea table.

I'd love to see what you added to make rebirthing worth while if you plan on keeping the balance.

Yes, all the features are fully functional (and tested) except for the rebirth system (will be done after the last instance), and we are still in progress of adding 2-3 new instances (the low level ones are already fully functional)

We have been working on this server for the past few months, but only decided to start giving out information when it was close to being finished, so we don't give false hope

This being said, final development and testing should be done in a few weeks (we will not give out a date unless it's 100% functional)

[sibiumarius]

Looks promising.

Don't **** it up.

Also, if you need help with build balancing, I'm your man.

That's why we're here

Looks good , also you should make the rates 5-10x maximum , also ban multiclient , also buff the low lvl trading/thiefing/hunting ...

That's what we're planning I appreciate the suggestions, we want to make a game people actually want to play, so keep going

My main question would be... You speak about these features as if you're already done with them. Is this true? Because if you're still working on them I doubt we'll ever see it leave the idea table.

I'd love to see what you added to make rebirthing worth while if you plan on keeping the balance.

Yes, all the features are fully functional (and tested) except for the rebirth system (will be done after the last instance), and we are still in progress of adding 2-3 new instances (the low level ones are already fully functional)

We have been working on this server for the past few months, but only decided to start giving out information when it was close to being finished, so we don't give false hope

This being said, final development and testing should be done in a few weeks (we will not give out a date unless it's 100% functional)

+1 to that

[omier]

Please, don't just raise the exp rates, edit the exp requirements manually so the curve isn't so steep. I've never seen any pserver do this and this is what I hate about SRO. It's not hard to do. And raising the overall exp rates but also increasing the exp requirements will allow you to raise the sp rates independently.

[Wednesday]

Botting allowed?

[Aventus]

Have you thought about doing a closed beta to get feedback early on. The thing I've noticed over time is problems start to come out of the woodwork soon after launch, you could easily avoid those issues by having a small closed beta with a smaller group (~30 people) to test the pvp balance and pve changes

[Valtaur]

Have you thought about doing a closed beta to get feedback early on. The thing I've noticed over time is problems start to come out of the woodwork soon after launch, you could easily avoid those issues by having a small closed beta with a smaller group (~30 people) to test the pvp balance and pve changes

This is a really great idea, we have already tested the skill balances and the basic features, however we could always do a small beta test to adress any issues we might have missed, unfortunately this also raises some new questions (who will be allowed to play, compensation, et cetera)

Botting allowed?

We want to run a longterm server with active jobbing, as we have seen in the past not allowing bots will make the server unviable:

-There is a huge technical aspect behind blocking bots, simply banning them on sight is not a solution, making a system that will block 100% of the bots without any false-positives is surely feasable, but would take a lot of our precious time

-It is impossible to have more than 200-300 online players without allowing bots

This means we had to choose the lesser of two evils; botting will be allowed so we can assure fun gameplay (by having a huge amount of players), while we have everything in place to prevent bots from affecting the actual gameplay (of both legit players and others):

-Goldbots are completely useless
-New quest system and instances to make the game fun for both legit players and botters
-Soft cap, you will not be able to reach the final cap by simply botting, you will need to go through the complete quest line
-New item sets (+instances), you can not bot instances, you will need to actually play the game for these items.
-Custom grind spots: especially made for legit grinding parties (useless for bots)
-Some other minor changes to make playing as a legit more rewarding (the new job temple, etc...)

Please, don't just raise the exp rates, edit the exp requirements manually so the curve isn't so steep. I've never seen any pserver do this and this is what I hate about SRO. It's not hard to do. And raising the overall exp rates but also increasing the exp requirements will allow you to raise the sp rates independently.

We have completely adjusted the XP requirements, this combined with the new quest system and the instances will make sure this game is not too hard, or too easy

[Aventus]

I think the compensation is taking some of the suggestions, I think people would rather have a great server than get some extra silk or a pet. You could just put a beta registration on your website and the registration will close in like ~2 hours . Just my .02

[ltsune]

I think the compensation is taking some of the suggestions, I think people would rather have a great server than get some extra silk or a pet. You could just put a beta registration on your website and the registration will close in like ~2 hours . Just my .02

Yeah. No compensation would be needed. Just tell people that there are xx amounts of spots, and those who get there first, will be allowed to register first. If 1 guy is creating 40 accounts, this can easily be detected (same IP, nearly same username etc.).

Anyway, this server seems interesting. I'll be following this thread. PLEASE keep answering the questions just as you do right now. This is what customer support is all about, and I'm glad to see that you're actually taking it serious!

[Valtaur]

I think the compensation is taking some of the suggestions, I think people would rather have a great server than get some extra silk or a pet. You could just put a beta registration on your website and the registration will close in like ~2 hours . Just my .02

Yeah. No compensation would be needed. Just tell people that there are xx amounts of spots, and those who get there first, will be allowed to register first. If 1 guy is creating 40 accounts, this can easily be detected (same IP, nearly same username etc.).

Anyway, this server seems interesting. I'll be following this thread. PLEASE keep answering the questions just as you do right now. This is what customer support is all about, and I'm glad to see that you're actually taking it serious!

Thanks for the interest!

We have added the closed beta idea to our list, I will keep you updated once I get more information

Now it's time to gather ideas for our last feature, the reborn system, and we would like find some fresh ideas for this system, players need to have incentives to use it, without disrupting the balance

[omier]

Well I've never liked the rebirth system so I don't have any ideas about it.

[XesoS]

here we go again .

[_Dutchy_]

An other server to play for a week. then get overrun by bots and quit

[sibiumarius]

An other server to play for a week. then get overrun by bots and quit

+1 to that but if they do the server low xp rates like 5x maximum, it will last more then 1 week

[Vaya]

if it's high exp rate it might be fun for a week, if it's very low exp with botting allowed, i won't even join

[ltsune]

Well I've never liked the rebirth system so I don't have any ideas about it.

Same here - I've never liked it.
Most serves give you extra stat points, which makes things too uneven after just a few weeks due to bots rebirthing 100x times. And even if you set a low limit on the amount of times you can rebirth, it will eventually be increased over time once people start complaining that they can only rebirth x amount of times.

In my opinion, the rebirth system is doomed to kill a server eventually.
I know that sounded sort of harsh, but I just don't see how it could be used without creating too much inequality.

But actually, now that I think about it, a way to use the Rebirth system might be to give away unique items. I'm not talking about OP weapons, but rather cosmetic products or pets. The only problem is that people might not want to spend time leveling up again for so little reward. That being said, I still think the Rebirth system should be used to give items instead of stat points.

[Valtaur]

An other server to play for a week. then get overrun by bots and quit

if it's high exp rate it might be fun for a week, if it's very low exp with botting allowed, i won't even join

So you'd rather play on a random vanilla high rate server than on a server that's specifically designed to:

-Prevent negative effects of botting (including goldbots, how can it be overrun by bots if there aren't any goldbots?)

-Be a long term server (low xp rates, goldsinks, rebirth, sets, etc)

-Be fun for legit players (thanks to the new quests, soft cap, instances)

and that's ran by a team of actual developers and system administrators?

Well I've never liked the rebirth system so I don't have any ideas about it.

Same here - I've never liked it.
Most serves give you extra stat points, which makes things too uneven after just a few weeks due to bots rebirthing 100x times. And even if you set a low limit on the amount of times you can rebirth, it will eventually be increased over time once people start complaining that they can only rebirth x amount of times.

In my opinion, the rebirth system is doomed to kill a server eventually.
I know that sounded sort of harsh, but I just don't see how it could be used without creating too much inequality.

But actually, now that I think about it, a way to use the Rebirth system might be to give away unique items. I'm not talking about OP weapons, but rather cosmetic products or pets. The only problem is that people might not want to spend time leveling up again for so little reward. That being said, I still think the Rebirth system should be used to give items instead of stat points.

You seem to have misunderstood my point, you don't like the rebirth system because it kills gameplay and balance in the end, our version of the rebirth system will be specifically designed to make sure that doesn't happen


I can understand why people are sceptical about new servers, but we are actively trying to make sure it doesn't fail, hence we try to give the community as much influence in the design choices as possible

About the rebirth system: we were never planning on giving stat points, we are thinking of purely cosmetical incentives that do not interfere with the balance, and also note that it's not possible to bot the rebirth system, as you will not be able to cap without going through the quest line

[ltsune]

About the rebirth system: we were never planning on giving stat points, we are thinking of purely cosmetical incentives that do not interfere with the balance, and also note that it's not possible to bot the rebirth system, as you will not be able to cap without going through the quest line

This was exactly the sort of answer I was hoping to get! Sounds quite good in my ears - I'm glad that you've already considered the points I made.

[Tasdik]

For the record, Ltsune and Valtaur are either the same person, or gay lovers.

The way they type is too similar to be a coincidence.

Anyhow, if I find some free time ( like tomorrow night when the server is under inspection, ha) I'll brainstorm some ideas about the rebirth system.

Or maybe I'll just go watch porn.

We shall see.

Also, as far as build balancing goes, do you have any info on that? I'd love to dive penis first into it.

[Valtaur]

For the record, Ltsune and Valtaur are either the same person, or gay lovers.

The way they type is too similar to be a coincidence.

Anyhow, if I find some free time ( like tomorrow night when the server is under inspection, ha) I'll brainstorm some ideas about the rebirth system.

Or maybe I'll just go watch porn.

We shall see.

Also, as far as build balancing goes, do you have any info on that? I'd love to dive penis first into it.

That would be a very weird monologue

[ltsune]

Very weird indeed. Typical Tasdik

[Vaya]

An other server to play for a week. then get overrun by bots and quit

if it's high exp rate it might be fun for a week, if it's very low exp with botting allowed, i won't even join

So you'd rather play on a random vanilla high rate server than on a server that's specifically designed to:

-Prevent negative effects of botting (including goldbots, how can it be overrun by bots if there aren't any goldbots?)

-Be a long term server (low xp rates, goldsinks, rebirth, sets, etc)

-Be fun for legit players (thanks to the new quests, soft cap, instances)

and that's ran by a team of actual developers and system administrators?

no sugarcoating please, botting allowed on low rates servers means botters get everything first, they cap and monopolize endgame uniques and rewards, and botters themselves won't even enjoy it, they'll just 24/7 cap, come to do put all their botting result into their sets, pvp and be drama queens in globals, then get bored and quit.
you may not agree and start telling me how your server is going to be different, heard that before. MANY times, only server that was a bit different was overlimit, it had no working bots and was very popular still, survived for over a year then shut down by its owner not due to lack of activity, unless if you want your server dead in a month, try something different, with no bots, nor rates for hardcore players only, make it fun for the lazy ones too.
will just wait and see your final server features.

[deathtoall]

This^^^^ Bot to highest level, quest to cap, rebirth and do it all over again. I for one actually like lvling up without botting. I agree with Vaya 100 times over

[Wednesday]

no sugarcoating please, botting allowed on low rates servers means botters get everything first, they cap and monopolize endgame uniques and rewards, and botters themselves won't even enjoy it, they'll just 24/7 cap, come to do put all their botting result into their sets, pvp and be drama queens in globals, then get bored and quit.
you may not agree and start telling me how your server is going to be different, heard that before. MANY times, only server that was a bit different was overlimit, it had no working bots and was very popular still, survived for over a year then shut down by its owner not due to lack of activity, unless if you want your server dead in a month, try something different, with no bots, nor rates for hardcore players only, make it fun for the lazy ones too.
will just wait and see your final server features.

Amen. Also first Myth survived for a long time without working bots. Salvation had working bots, but because of the community we had an awesome legit server.

[omier]

The way I did the lvling in my server (that never opened) was that I changed the quest rewards to give just enough exp to lvl you up and kept the exp rates at default. That way you only need to do quests to lvl up and that kinda hinders botting. The only problem with that is that the quests get kinda boring and long towards the higher lvls, but it's still better than having to just grind with those ridiculous low exp quests. Also raised the exp that NPC thieves and hunters give so jobbing is more useful for lvling too. And obviously the SP given should be raised aswell.

[Atibu]

////////

[Tasdik]

Venture never started correctly for me.

Shame, really. I could've made you rich.

But yeah, I'd like a 100% legit server with 500+ members more than anyone else. But it's not going to happen.

Move on, I have.