Question bout the game population

Airspell

How is the population of SOTNW ? I checked out their site and it seems they are merging servers already.  The game got old fast considering successful games add servers not cancel them. 

jmerriex

 

Originally posted by Airspell


How is the population of SOTNW ? I checked out their site and it seems they are merging servers already.  The game got old fast considering successful games add servers not cancel them. 

Well, when we launched we purchased servers that were much better than the game required.  That left us with worlds that were just WAY too large.  We started noticing the world PvP being effected and so we made the decision to merge our NA PvP worlds.

 

While on the surface this looks like a bad change in reality this was a good thing.  There will be more action happening on the merged world and that's always good.  We are growing steadily with thousands of new accounts being created daily.

We are planning on launching in several other markets and are going to re-purpose the servers for that. 

trancejeremy

I would say it's actually pretty crowded on the server I play (Orpesia).  A lot of maps are completely crowded in both channels (it really needs 3).  Some of it is bots, but a lot are also players.

OTOH, some of the PvP tournaments I've been to are sparsely attended - only 3 or 4 players on two occasions (out of the six I've been to). 

 

jmerriex

Originally posted by trancejeremy


I would say it's actually pretty crowded on the server I play (Orpesia).  A lot of maps are completely crowded in both channels (it really needs 3).  Some of it is bots, but a lot are also players.
OTOH, some of the PvP tournaments I've been to are sparsely attended - only 3 or 4 players on two occasions (out of the six I've been to). 
 

I have been thinking about that as well.  I think we will be revamping the PvP tournaments to award an entry prize.  The players are on, just most of them don't feel they will be compensated for their time and I definately understand that.

Winterfresh

OP, why not try Granado Espada, which is the Southeast Asian version? It's also free, but they get new content quicker, and IMO, it's more fun.

trancejeremy

Originally posted by Winterfresh


OP, why not try Granado Espada, which is the Southeast Asian version? It's also free, but they get new content quicker, and IMO, it's more fun.

I think the US version has double the exp rate, for one.   At least up to level 84, you can gain a level at least every other day just by playing 3-4 hours, probably closer to 4 levels every 5 days (since I think I've been playing since early January and am now 84).

And based on from what I've read, there also seems to be less inflation and less cash shop pimping from the company that runs it.

 

jmerriex

Originally posted by trancejeremy


 
Originally posted by Winterfresh


OP, why not try Granado Espada, which is the Southeast Asian version? It's also free, but they get new content quicker, and IMO, it's more fun.

 

I think the US version has double the exp rate, for one.   At least up to level 84, you can gain a level at least every other day just by playing 3-4 hours, probably closer to 4 levels every 5 days (since I think I've been playing since early January and am now 84).

And based on from what I've read, there also seems to be less inflation and less cash shop pimping from the company that runs it.

 

There are truths and semi-truths here.  The basic fact is that Sword and sGE are almost identical.  The biggest differences are:

The number of bots. sGE has a large number of them, while our game wasn't hit as hard as they were.  We both work equally as hard to stop them and imcGAMES supports both of our efforts in doing so.

The number of spammers in sGE the announcement system is filled to the brim with bots spamming vis selling sites.  That doesn't occur in Sword at all.

The Economy.  In Sword we tightly control the economy and the money vis farmers put into the economy to ensure that it doesn't get inflated like in other versions.  An example of this is that in sGE a 92U item sells for 50-60M vis.  In Sword they sell for about 6-10M.

The latency is a biggie for a lot of players.  If you are closer to SIngapore accessing their servers would be MUCH better for you than Sword.  But for our NA/EU audience the Sword servers are closer and have fewer hops.  We are also planning on moving our EU Worlds to Europe so that players there can connect to them better.

Progression is another biggie. sGE started a year before we did and their players have progessed farther than ours.  So they get new content faster because their player base has had more time to get there.  We have done many different things to help our player base catch up and will continue to do that so that we can release content faster.

Overall though the 2 versions are identical.  The biggest choice any player needs to make is which is closer.

Winterfresh

Originally posted by trancejeremy


 
Originally posted by Winterfresh


OP, why not try Granado Espada, which is the Southeast Asian version? It's also free, but they get new content quicker, and IMO, it's more fun.

 

I think the US version has double the exp rate, for one.   At least up to level 84, you can gain a level at least every other day just by playing 3-4 hours, probably closer to 4 levels every 5 days (since I think I've been playing since early January and am now 84).

And based on from what I've read, there also seems to be less inflation and less cash shop pimping from the company that runs it.

 

Everything you've said is true, but sGE has a much faster monster spawn rate, so while you gain more XP per kill in SOTNW, you're never competing with anyone else for monsters to kill (which tends to happen in the newbie areas) and you gain XP just as fast, provided you can keep up with the higher amount of monsters.

 

As for inflation, it's a moot point because you get a lot more money in sGE.  So if something sells for 1000 Vis in sGE and 500 Vis in SOTNW,

it'll pretty much come out even.

The cash shop is cheaper in sGE because - if nothing else - a US dollar (or Canadian, since they're equivalent nowadays) is worth a lot more than a SIngapore dollar.  It's a bit confusing, though, because you have to buy "G points" - think Xbox Live Marketplace points - in order to shop at the cash shop (I think it's called "Gold" in SOTNW).  While both shops have items the other doesn't have, sGE certainly has more.

I think the community in SOTNW is a bit better than sGE though, because there are less kids (and less players too!) And it helps that you'd probably be playing around the same time as everyone else online.

trancejeremy

Originally posted by jmerriex


 
Overall though the 2 versions are identical.  The biggest choice any player needs to make is which is closer.

Yeah, but the funny thing is, SOTNW has terrible, terrible lag at times.  I've played several MMORPGs on overseas servers and none of them had lag like SOTNW does. 

I don't think it's K2 servers that are at fault, but the connections in their area.  Doing a trace route there is usually a big gum up right before their servers (Savvis in LA). This was supposedly fixed a while ago, but seems to be back.

jmerriex

 

Originally posted by Winterfresh


 
Originally posted by trancejeremy


 
Originally posted by Winterfresh


OP, why not try Granado Espada, which is the Southeast Asian version? It's also free, but they get new content quicker, and IMO, it's more fun.

 

I think the US version has double the exp rate, for one.   At least up to level 84, you can gain a level at least every other day just by playing 3-4 hours, probably closer to 4 levels every 5 days (since I think I've been playing since early January and am now 84).

And based on from what I've read, there also seems to be less inflation and less cash shop pimping from the company that runs it.

 

 

Everything you've said is true, but sGE has a much faster monster spawn rate, so while you gain more XP per kill in SOTNW, you're never competing with anyone else for monsters to kill (which tends to happen in the newbie areas) and you gain XP just as fast, provided you can keep up with the higher amount of monsters.

 

As for inflation, it's a moot point because you get a lot more money in sGE.  So if something sells for 1000 Vis in sGE and 500 Vis in SOTNW,

it'll pretty much come out even.

The cash shop is cheaper in sGE because - if nothing else - a US dollar (or Canadian, since they're equivalent nowadays) is worth a lot more than a SIngapore dollar.  It's a bit confusing, though, because you have to buy "G points" - think Xbox Live Marketplace points - in order to shop at the cash shop (I think it's called "Gold" in SOTNW).  While both shops have items the other doesn't have, sGE certainly has more.

I think the community in SOTNW is a bit better than sGE though, because there are less kids (and less players too!) And it helps that you'd probably be playing around the same time as everyone else online.

sGE's cash shop is NOT cheaper than ours.  We have intentionally prices things at the same US$ value regardless of the difference in G-Points and Gold. 

 Buying a Lucifer Wing in sGE costs the same amount as buying one in Sword.

Sword and sGE have the same population.  This has been confirmed by IAH and imcGAMES combined.

There is not a spawn rate difference.  The spawn rate is set and controlled by imcGAMES and we both are set to the same one.

Also, I am slightly curious about your statements of "making" more vis.  Vis enters the economy in several ways and they are the same for both games.  I am assuming you are speaking of selling items on the Market Manager (which would be a true statement) but to a new user using the standard methods of making vis the economy's inflation hurts.

jmerriex

Originally posted by trancejeremy


 
Originally posted by jmerriex


 
Overall though the 2 versions are identical.  The biggest choice any player needs to make is which is closer.

 

Yeah, but the funny thing is, SOTNW has terrible, terrible lag at times.  I've played several MMORPGs on overseas servers and none of them had lag like SOTNW does. 

I don't think it's K2 servers that are at fault, but the connections in their area.  Doing a trace route there is usually a big gum up right before their servers (Savvis in LA). This was supposedly fixed a while ago, but seems to be back.

This weekend Savvis had the first of a long line of maintenances on their LA backbone.  There is still a known issue in Germany though (not Savvis) that we are trying to rectify but it is difficult. 

We are still planning a move of Illier to Europe this year.

Gameloading

Originally posted by jmerriex


 
Originally posted by Winterfresh


 
Originally posted by trancejeremy


 
Originally posted by Winterfresh


OP, why not try Granado Espada, which is the Southeast Asian version? It's also free, but they get new content quicker, and IMO, it's more fun.

 

I think the US version has double the exp rate, for one.   At least up to level 84, you can gain a level at least every other day just by playing 3-4 hours, probably closer to 4 levels every 5 days (since I think I've been playing since early January and am now 84).

And based on from what I've read, there also seems to be less inflation and less cash shop pimping from the company that runs it.

 

 

Everything you've said is true, but sGE has a much faster monster spawn rate, so while you gain more XP per kill in SOTNW, you're never competing with anyone else for monsters to kill (which tends to happen in the newbie areas) and you gain XP just as fast, provided you can keep up with the higher amount of monsters.

 

As for inflation, it's a moot point because you get a lot more money in sGE.  So if something sells for 1000 Vis in sGE and 500 Vis in SOTNW,

it'll pretty much come out even.

The cash shop is cheaper in sGE because - if nothing else - a US dollar (or Canadian, since they're equivalent nowadays) is worth a lot more than a SIngapore dollar.  It's a bit confusing, though, because you have to buy "G points" - think Xbox Live Marketplace points - in order to shop at the cash shop (I think it's called "Gold" in SOTNW).  While both shops have items the other doesn't have, sGE certainly has more.

I think the community in SOTNW is a bit better than sGE though, because there are less kids (and less players too!) And it helps that you'd probably be playing around the same time as everyone else online.

sGE's cash shop is NOT cheaper than ours.  We have intentionally prices things at the same US$ value regardless of the difference in G-Points and Gold. 

 Buying a Lucifer Wing in sGE costs the same amount as buying one in Sword.

Sword and sGE have the same population.  This has been confirmed by IAH and imcGAMES combined.

There is not a spawn rate difference.  The spawn rate is set and controlled by imcGAMES and we both are set to the same one.

Also, I am slightly curious about your statements of "making" more vis.  Vis enters the economy in several ways and they are the same for both games.  I am assuming you are speaking of selling items on the Market Manager (which would be a true statement) but to a new user using the standard methods of making vis the economy's inflation hurts.

Hey Neume, how's it going?

How can Sword and sGE have the same population? Sword is currently running 3 servers, SGE is running 5 servers. Are the sGE servers just all empty?

jmerriex

 

Originally posted by Gameloading


 
Originally posted by jmerriex


 
Originally posted by Winterfresh


 
Originally posted by trancejeremy


 
Originally posted by Winterfresh


OP, why not try Granado Espada, which is the Southeast Asian version? It's also free, but they get new content quicker, and IMO, it's more fun.

 

I think the US version has double the exp rate, for one.   At least up to level 84, you can gain a level at least every other day just by playing 3-4 hours, probably closer to 4 levels every 5 days (since I think I've been playing since early January and am now 84).

And based on from what I've read, there also seems to be less inflation and less cash shop pimping from the company that runs it.

 

 

Everything you've said is true, but sGE has a much faster monster spawn rate, so while you gain more XP per kill in SOTNW, you're never competing with anyone else for monsters to kill (which tends to happen in the newbie areas) and you gain XP just as fast, provided you can keep up with the higher amount of monsters.

 

As for inflation, it's a moot point because you get a lot more money in sGE.  So if something sells for 1000 Vis in sGE and 500 Vis in SOTNW,

it'll pretty much come out even.

The cash shop is cheaper in sGE because - if nothing else - a US dollar (or Canadian, since they're equivalent nowadays) is worth a lot more than a SIngapore dollar.  It's a bit confusing, though, because you have to buy "G points" - think Xbox Live Marketplace points - in order to shop at the cash shop (I think it's called "Gold" in SOTNW).  While both shops have items the other doesn't have, sGE certainly has more.

I think the community in SOTNW is a bit better than sGE though, because there are less kids (and less players too!) And it helps that you'd probably be playing around the same time as everyone else online.

sGE's cash shop is NOT cheaper than ours.  We have intentionally prices things at the same US$ value regardless of the difference in G-Points and Gold. 

 Buying a Lucifer Wing in sGE costs the same amount as buying one in Sword.

Sword and sGE have the same population.  This has been confirmed by IAH and imcGAMES combined.

There is not a spawn rate difference.  The spawn rate is set and controlled by imcGAMES and we both are set to the same one.

Also, I am slightly curious about your statements of "making" more vis.  Vis enters the economy in several ways and they are the same for both games.  I am assuming you are speaking of selling items on the Market Manager (which would be a true statement) but to a new user using the standard methods of making vis the economy's inflation hurts.

 

Hey Neume, how's it going?

How can Sword and sGE have the same population? Sword is currently running 3 servers, SGE is running 5 servers. Are the sGE servers just all empty?

 

I am only repeating what has been said to us on numerous occasions.  I think one big difference between us and sGE is their population is much higher in level while ours is much more spread out.  So in the low level areas it feels like no one is home but once you begin to advance there are people everywhere. 

So while we may have fewer servers we don't have a large congregation of players at the top fighting for space (ok we do just not as much).  I think them have 5 servers also allowed for new players to enter their game on fresh servers (something we are already planning for 2009).

Also our servers were designed to take more weight than other games so we are more interested in keeping our population closer together.  Hence the server merge.

P.S. You should come back and start posting on our forums again, we miss you.  I know the reason why you left, but that reason is no longer with the company .

Pyrostasis

Originally posted by jmerriex
sGE's cash shop is NOT cheaper than ours.  We have intentionally prices things at the same US$ value regardless of the difference in G-Points and Gold.
There is not a spawn rate difference.  The spawn rate is set and controlled by imcGAMES and we both are set to the same one.

Ok neume I do have to fight you on this, because its not true. Lets start with the cash shop price comparison.

This website is the main seller now for GE. On that site you can clearly see that 18,000 gpoints sells for 24.90 Singapore Dollars.

Go to this converter for S$ to U.S. $ that converter shows that 18,000 Gpoints run you approximately 18.39cents or 987.79 Gpoints per u.s. dollar.

Thats their third tier of gpoints. Lets compare yours.

3,500 gold for 30.00 u.s. or 116.67 gold per dollar roughly.

Now we go to Singapores cash website and we see that 3 vet scrolls cost 11,880 Gpoints for a U.S. Cash value of $12.03

We go to your website (which sadly requires you to log in so I cant directly link to it) and it shows your current cost of 3 vet scrolls as 2500 gold or $21.42

Well...gee golly that looks like almost double to me.

Lets look at forgotten dungeon passes.

5 Forgotten dungeon passes in Singapore = 6,600 Gpoints for a dollar value of  $6.68

5 Forgotten dungeon passes in SOTNW = 750 gold for a dollar value of 6.43. Looks like you guys are fairly competitive here, so grats.

After looking at other consumables it looks like your more or less right in line with SGE (although your stance and exp book values are at 20% of SGE's making their dollar value... well 5x more efficient)

So your cash shop is nice in some areas... but important character development areas your still gouging your customers at 2x the cost of your  competition and on top of that your stance and exp book values are shadows in comparison.

So... saying your the same price... isnt a whole truth is it?

Spawn rates. I and many others brought this to your attention many many times and it fell on deaf ears. Rion dungeon is a FRACTION of the spawn rate of the sGE version.

I brought this up in a thread. Imac2much verified. You asked for clarification, I REVERIFIED... you stopped responding.

Granted, I havent played since the new expansion, but as of January, there were several places that the SGE version was superior in spawn.'

So...Doesnt look like your giving your customers the full truth there Mister Neume.

I wont even bother debating your three servers host the same number of people as the sGE version that has twice your servers and more channels... I think most people can figure that out on their own and we will go ahead and leave the rampant bot train videos that are abundant even now after the supposed bot patch off the post too... No need to make K2 look completely inept.

trancejeremy

SOTN Gold is actually pretty much $10 = 1000 gold (it gets cheaper if you buy it in bulk, but that's the basic price)

Unfortunately, they haven't updated the SOTN website in ages, and the cash shop prices are woefully out of date

Vet Scrolls cost 575 gold each, or 1475 for 3.  Which puts a scroll at about $5 each.

Expert scrolls are 625 or 1575 for 3, which is about $6 each

You're right about the F.A passes, they are 750 for 5.  Personally I think these are weaselly myself because they are not available in smaller time blocks, only 24 hours. It essentially either tells you to AFK/Bot, or play yourself for an healthy amount of time to get your money's worth.

I don't even have a life, and I only have spare to to play 4-5 hours a day (which is probably a few hours too much, but yeesh, 24 hour timed items, bad)

Other gold prices:

Mercenary Warrant - 2100, Quarter Slot - 100, Warp Slot - 475 (maxed these out when they cost vis), Mysterious Powder - 25, Upgrade Accelerator - 50

 

 

Also, I dunno when it was the last time you played, but Rion Dungeon is pretty much insane in terms of spawn rate. Monsters appear about as fast as you can kill them

 

Pyrostasis

I was pretty sure the website was out dated, thats more or less expected from K2.

I was happy though to see they finally woke the hell up and lowered most of their prices.

Its a shame it took them till January to do it... otherwise they probably would still have more of us vets like myself. (Veteran players, not 100+ players.)

Many of the issues that are now fixed are what drove me and hundreds if not thousands away. Waiting till Jan update while your player base gets more and more jaded just wasnt real bright in my opinion.

Pyrostasis

How did they handle the whole server merge thing? Im redownloading it now to screw around for a few weeks til AoC comes out.

jmerriex

 

Originally posted by Pyrostasis


How did they handle the whole server merge thing? Im redownloading it now to screw around for a few weeks til AoC comes out.

In general Pyro, I will stick to my non-comment on your statements.  But again here you are not "right on the money".  While I may have stopped responding it was only because I did not have new news to give.

 In the end with MD we were able to fix many of the spawn issues that had been cataloged.

As for populations, I was briefed for 2 whole days this week by HanbitSoft and imcGAMES and I WILL confirm once again, sGE and Sword are running the exact same numbers.  Both games are doing well and both are growing in size.

SO, cling to your conspiracy theories but the truth is out there :P.

The cash shop website is being updated at the moment (I have a GM working on croping pictures for the new page).  We hope to have it up by the 14th of this month.  Later this summer we will be getting whole new website and have a fully function cash shop online where you can buy cash shop items or "gift" them to friends and more.

*EDIT: I can't spell today, leave me alone I just got off an 11 hour flight from Korea :P*

Pyrostasis

Truth is out there... I agree... sadly, its more or less been proven in the past that your not the one that has the truth.

I took a look at SOTNW over the weekend, they seem to have fixed the spawn and cash shop issues... so Ill give them props to that.

I didnt see any bots in Rion... but then again I didnt see anyone in Rion

Im just not interested in a grinder atm, Im more interested in a game with content.

But I think SOTNW has finally come to a point where its worth playing if your into grind oriented asian games.

So Ill ease up on my anti-sotnw marketing spree

Your still on my shit list for the way you handled the first 6 - 8 months of the game, but it seems you guys finally fixed most of the glaring issues with the game.

jmerriex

Originally posted by Pyrostasis


Truth is out there... I agree... sadly, its more or less been proven in the past that your not the one that has the truth.
I took a look at SOTNW over the weekend, they seem to have fixed the spawn and cash shop issues... so Ill give them props to that.
I didnt see any bots in Rion... but then again I didnt see anyone in Rion
Im just not interested in a grinder atm, Im more interested in a game with content.
But I think SOTNW has finally come to a point where its worth playing if your into grind oriented asian games.
So Ill ease up on my anti-sotnw marketing spree
Your still on my shit list for the way you handled the first 6 - 8 months of the game, but it seems you guys finally fixed most of the glaring issues with the game.

I will be the first person to openly admit the first 6 months of the game's launch was mis-handled by people who did not have the best of ideas.  Those people are gone and I have finally been given the authority to make decisions on the game not them.

As you, yourself have seen, we are working to make things better, we are planning for the long haul and we are communicating much better with our community on our website and abroad (i.e. here, gamefaqs, mmosite and several other websites).  That will continue as we progress on our "Road to El Dorado" (the 3.0 expansion).

I want people to know this game is here and will be here .

Pyrostasis

Well thats mainly what I thought was going on. Some corporate asshat that apparently had no clue about what the hell was going on or how to run a business much less a game.

Glad to see they finally let someone with an IQ over 60 have the reins.