Gepard Shield's Impact

[速い]

Now I know this is going to be a controversial topic but I'm going to go ahead and address this and see how you guys feel about it

 

Gepard Shield got introduced what, almost 2-3 years ago? From then until now the server's dwindled in terms of its player base and in general how active the remaining number of players are. I'd just like to come out and say that cheating was an issue for a very long time on the server without it really being addressed and this isn't me pinning the blame on the staff, there just wasn't a solution at the time as strong as Gepard and the staff here were required to manually ban players through the submission of reports and as such weren't able to keep up because of how many people were starting to become reliant on cheating.

Years went by and almost everyone that was active cheated in one way or another and the introduction of Gepard was so sudden that many of the players that had become reliant on using 3rd party stuff had started to leave or found themselves not being able to keep up. A large number of the player base also live outside of the states and have high ping which meant that using things such as no delay, breakneck, ahk were able to keep up with the fast paced pvp. This meant that both players with low ping and high ping were able to play against one another in a competitive manner and on a level playing field. At this current point in time events such as BR, GvG, PvP Ladder, Battlegrounds and Forsaken Field being almost completely inactive even with the remaining number of players left in the server, majority don't participate and I feel it's for the same reasons I've outlined above.

The question I leave you with is would you rather Gepard Shield stay or do you think it would prove beneficial for it to be removed and see the server be a lot more active again in general?

[Halion]

Gepard should be removed, this has become a farm server and pvp isn't fun anymore.

[Ableton]

While it is so true that high ping players (including me with 200+ ping, 30 hops, what can you ask for? Lol.) are of disadvantaged when it comes to super fast paced pvp like fRO, i still find Gepard shield beneficial to our server.

It's just that we prolly would have to tickle our wallets a bit to invest on legal stuff, such as macro keyboards or mice to be able to keep up. That's the only way to be "talented". Lulz.

Sure it's still some form of "cheating" but not to the extent that it will badly mess the server. Let's admit it or not, server is "cleaner" post gepard. Not saying that it is cheat free, but just a bit cleaner than pre gepard.

[Corrupt]

I'm a veteran player that has recently started to play again. From what I see now, there are definitely a lot less people playing compared a couple years ago. There are barely any players participating in any events, with the exception being WoE. However, even with WoE being the most popular event, only 3-4 guilds actively compete to fight the castles. But half the time there is no competition, which makes the game very boring. I'm confident to say that most players solely play this game for PvP. If the server continues to have a declining playerbase, PvP would be very boring or nonexistent, thus causing more players to leave.

With all that being said, I completely agree that a massive part of this server's playerbase is from places outside the U.S. This puts those players at a massive disadvantage and destroys any enjoyment they may have from playing the game. Disabling Gepard would most likely bring back players who suffer from ping issues. 

 

[Brianology]

I personally agree with disabling Gepard Shield for many reasons. Firstly, in terms of player base what he said was right I mean like before Gepard there were way more guilds and players, looking back 6-8 years from when Gepard was introduced there was a higher player base except for maybe when the server very first came out. Even in 2015-2017 after the peak of our servers player base there were way more players compared to post-gepard which is surely not a coincidence. During those times in every PK area there was 10+ people, parties of 7+ vs 7+,  WoE was active with 2-3 big guilds and 1-2 small guilds, and our prized area FORSAKEN CITY FIELD 01 had PvP everyday with individual duels. People went there to socialize, watch people duel, there was trash talk, and everything you can ask for in a private RO server. After Gepard there was a noticeable and blatant decline of players not just in these areas but on the server as a whole. People quit, went inactive, and I don't blame them because they stood no chance vs low ping players like myself and a few others, as a large number of the player base live outside of North America. Secondly, what he said about cheating being an issue for a very long time without it really being addressed is 100% true. Players weren't really banned and if they were it was a few blatant cheaters and after a while people stopped getting banned because players didn't care about making a report just to ban an individual player. Most of the server that became reliant on cheating had high ping and this isn't me saying that high ping players are bad, its just that it's very hard to play as a 200 ping player vs a 20 ping player. If both players are equally skilled then the lower ping player wins off of the factor of low ping which then makes it unfair. People also didn't report each other because there was no reason to be a hypocrite about cheating. If the players ( CUSTOMERS BTW ) don't mind not having Gepard then why not?

When Gepard got introduced, many players quit and slowly became inactive. They were reliant on 3rd party stuff. They couldn't adapt, and I don't blame them if they had high ping with our server having some super high rate items with high rate rates. Before Gepard third party programs allowed both players to PvP with each other on an closely equal enough level. Nowadays, low ping players have such an advantage on high ping players and as our server is dominated by high ping players and very few low ping players this creates imbalance and if this server didn't have some unbalanced items that are abused by dogshit players it'd be clear who would win. With all the events mainly BR and GvG being completely inactive this means free rewards and these just aren't any "rewards", these are some of our most expensive items like BR emps and GvG emps. Mainly BR emps that were meant to be only for the strongest and most deserved are now just being handed out for free, which also ties in to another very important controversial topic on our server, the Market. 

I don't even have to explain, if all the members from one guild get all the expensive items and don't need to buy anything and just sell what do you think will happen? In the end, I don't think players attend these events because there aren't enough players that have the incentive to log on. Sure you can say that if everyone logged on and prepared more then there would be competition, but it's really not enjoyable when there are items that 1 shot you or brainless players that only know one type of gear stay clicking their mouse as fast as possible. Pre Gepard people would try to win those events even if it was them alone vs a full party. Some players don't have funds for a macro keyboard or mouse which is basically required to stand a chance especially if you're a high ping player. (I don't macro btw) I know the GM's are trying to balance the server and I don't mean any disrespect at all but I can only imagine that it's not enjoyable with the state of the server it is in for high ping / new gear players.

About lag, after Gepard I've had way more crashes I think i've had more crashes throughout a year then in like 5 years total before Gepard. I don't know if its linked to Gepard but ever since I haven't felt the same consistency in latency and with third party programs like wtfast and pingzapper they are still super buggy and always comes across some sort of error from the programs. Regardless, it will change the server and players will come back. There will be more more participants in our events that are currently not even played guaranteed.

With some of the classes that are gonna be nerfed still on live client there really is no counter play at all. Without Gepard there won't be one guild dominating every event and actually a chance in events even with lower numbers, just like during the old days when we had the peak of our players. This is coming from somebody that is a top PvPer and has 10 ping. There were groups of players that were less than 10 that could take on 2 full WoE guilds. Now its just brainless classes that spam one macro button and whoever has more members pretty much decides who wins. Before when smaller numbers actually had a chance to win there was an incentive to log on, and now if you are outnumbered by 3 people its an automatic loss. In the end, if this suggestion doesn't change anything then it'll be the same old repetitive, 1 guild winning everything and all the lesser geared players / high ping players that try to fight back just get raped. Even with legendary gear you could take on a fully geared player before. The decision of leaving Gepard as it is or disabling it will pretty much make everybody see what the server is focused on, lets see if getting more active players that PvP more is important or letting the same guild dominate over and over without wanting a change :'). This server has become 1 guild with a few players that I genuinely think that are good and the others spamming a mouse button on an op class or not fair class at all SPECIFICALLY redux clown dominating the whole scene while there are 2-3 other small guilds that only log on for WoE, and most of the time during WoE there isn't even competition which disables the purpose of other events and just gives the dominating guild free shit and boosted egos. It's pretty disgusting to see such a great PvP server infested with WoE warriors and party warriors that only PvP while having devo 24/7 or buffs now and then talk shit from the shadows of their alt novice but are completely awful and don't have any idea of what this server used to be, they are the same people that don't ever enter any PK area and when they do its with 5+ members LOL

Thanks to the ones that actually come to PK areas alone, and try to fight. But the people that don't ever enter any PK area, you're terrible, absolutely oblivious to how bad you are and you really shouldn't talk shit ever. It's kinda embarrassing that I can list names off the top of my head and you know who you are, so don't talk shit okay? And I know some of you that are reading feel some typa way about what I just said, I don't care. What are you gonna do? Try and kill me even with your party 2vs7 and still lose? Without Gepard these people might actually try and PvP at PK areas instead of logging in 10 minutes before WoE, and then talk shit because they just have more players on, and the ugly truth is that this server with some really enjoyable PvP has become just that. Come to PK areas and stop talking trash so it can be like the old days when we had the peak of our players. I've been playing for a long time and I promise you people tried to PvP even if they had no gears and the people that socialize at city would be in field sitting and talking. I just want it to be like the old days when everything was much more simpler and enjoyable, okay? :")

Disabling Gepard would bring back a lot of players, while also giving less geared players a chance to survive even with ping disadvantage. Nowadays if you aren't up to par with the gear most top PvPers have you just instantly lose, but before you could stand a chance even on legendary items. If most of the players that play for the PvP don't have anybody to PvP with, what will happen? It'll be the slow death of such a great PvP server. It gets really boring dueling the same person every single day that you end up dueling one your friends and don't even get to play against other people alongside your friends. That is all that happens in every PK area for the day, every single day.

 

 

 

Edited March 15, 2019 by Brianology

[duhrrel]

I'd like to keep the fun going for the next 10 years. Really hoping Gepard will be disabled. less maintenance, too. Lol 

[GotK]

So disable Gepard so everyone can just cheat and have pally bots and dumb stuff happen? How is that even fun?

[速い]

46 minutes ago, GotK said:

So disable Gepard so everyone can just cheat and have pally bots and dumb stuff happen? How is that even fun?

I don't know about you and how you like enjoying the server itself but I'd rather that than the current state of the game where the remaining number of players don't participate in any sort of pvp and only log on for WoE. There's a reason a good reason why a significant amount of people ended up leaving the server after Gepard was implemented, it just wasn't enjoyable anymore or just not worth the time to adapt and learn to play without 3rd party stuff after having relied on it for so many years and if this changed I'm positive a lot would return to the server and I've even talked to a number of individuals who no longer play that feel the same way.

 

The fact of the matter is that for the longest time there wasn't a solution such as Gepard, and because of it almost everyone adopted cheating in some capacity to get by and enjoy the game again and the reliance on using 3rd party tools increased to the point where it was the norm. The sudden introduction of Gepard to the server had players needing to either adapt and play legit again, use macros or just leave. I can tell you right now a lot have left in the past due to the fact that the ping difference is huge and macros just don't cut it whereas previously they would've used something like nodelay or breakneck to get past the inconsistent spam due to the ping and the huge advantage low ping players had over them.

[Mint]

I'm all up for having Gepard removed, PvP in the server has declined and is continuing to decline in correlation with activity so the purpose of Gepard is dwindling anyway. ?

[Genesis]

Gepard Shield isn't going to be removed.