Unique Servers Leading to Success
 

Is there any real concrete reason why a server with all new "non-graal" images would be successful.

I'm talking about new body's, heads, GUI images, sounds, etc. I realize a new player entering the server would have to download all the new content, but that doesn't seem like a decent reason to lead to failure.

I want to continue on my server Age Online (You can find game play video in the Player World forums) But I don't want to be putting man hours in something that will not be able to go on the classic list.

Thoughts?


On a side note: Who is an active global staff member I can contact?

the only server to come out after the pay-to-develop model which has actually stayed is zodiac, so based on that i'd say no.

Yeah but the only server also to not give up based on OBS mode and other trial restrictions is Zodiac also. Classic stood a real chance until they decided to stop developing for players because of hatred towards Eurocenter... Once everyone compelted all the quests, the only thing left to do was Idle, Events, and TCG.. and events and idle based dooms any server.. They did it to themselves.

It COMPLETELY depends on the willingness of the staff to push on with development tho and the quality of the content. There is NOTHING set in stone that says any server will fail. Sorry I guess I read your sentence and thought ,hmm, it should read "probably not" rather then "no".

which is pretty hilarious considering Yen pretty much pulled the gameplay together in less than a month and was able to make use of the little amount of assets we had at the time.

leaving me under the impression that the best way to success is to develop the core gameplay of a server in the less than a month and have it be fun.

using new body sprites and all that has never turned out well either unless you have development brute force behind you. it's much better to develop a server using the head/bodies everyone is already familiar with than re-inventing the wheel on something that people probably won't like.

When you say much better, do you mean much easier?

And when you mean development brute force, can you go into more detail?

Do you mean a wide range of customization, or pleasing the art appeal of the player, or what?

He means people who can actually pull together a development team that can actually accomplish all these extravagant design goals and such people conjure up for servers. They want totally new(and amazing) graphics, they want custom sprites and animation, they want a huge overworld... none of that is a very realistic goal for a Graal server. Unless you actually have the development force already for all of that, you've dug your grave before you even started.

Well on the graphic subject, can the graal client pretty much take any size/detailed sprite/image I throw at it?

Yes because people who've been playing Graal will be able to easily upload their 'look' that they developed on different servers.

Basically what Dusty said but the fact is, it's possible to get a set of new body sprites and what not made and animated but the people involved or going to be burned out afterwards which is going really impair your development if you can't get people to substitute in. Back to my other point about core gameplay, if your core gameplay sucks your custom sprites aren't going to make up for it.

But, WHAT IF someone had amazing sprites/images along with amazing game play. Could the graal client handle top notch graphics?

Yes.

As long as you don't go above 2048x2048 images, yes.

Good to hear, but I hope you know I am not talking about pixel art.

I just found this image off of google as an example. But the client would handle this, perhaps even images bigger/moreDetailed than this completely fine no matter how many images are being displayed at once?

I'm sorry to ask so many questions, I'm just trying to get a grasp on what it can handle.

having 21489019289048124 24-bit pngs could be a bit resource-intense... as long as you keep it comprimated, like maplestory, of some sorts, then yes

Maplestory has great graphics don't get me wrong, but I don't find the player or weapon sprites "clean" as in you can see the little pixel edges on them.

thats what i meant, those pixel edges are made on purpose, because the files are 8bit pngs... and not 24 bit, that saves loaaaads of resources

if you are into antialiased stuff, you better make something with flash

Do you mind me asking what you mean by "resources"?

I think Zodiac is different from the majority of other player worlds in that it is frequently updated with meaningful content. Era has similar luxuries. Perhaps the key is to have a simplistic system which doesn't limit development?

Yeah. I have noticed that if you update (even little updates) but more frequently. People will login to see what is new. If you uploaded new content every few days people would always be curious and want to see.. That might be overkill but yeah.

the problem is, its just the old players, that come and see whats new... its something im dealing with right now in game psychology, overcontentation

I wish they would do something to reach out and bring in more new players. Perhaps putting the graal client for download on the windows 8 app store, the Mac app store, Steam, etc.

If they put the player world list on facebook, that'd be fantastic.

It seems like on all the servers, everyone has 500+ hours. No one new comes in, and the old leave.

Another thought:
If there was advertisements for PC graal on the Iphone servers, kids (seems like that's who mostly play the iphone server) would wanna check it out.