Silkroad Online
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.
- For other uses, see Silk Road (disambiguation).
| Silkroad Online | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | JOYMAX Co., Ltd. |
| Publisher(s) | JOYMAX Co., Ltd. |
| Designer(s) | JOYMAX Co., Ltd. |
| Latest version |  ?
 ? |
| Release date(s) | 2005 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | MMO |
| Rating(s) | None |
| Platform(s) | Windows 98/ME/2K/XP |
| System requirements | Intel Pentium 3 800 MHz CPU, 256 MB RAM, 3D speed over GeForce2 graphics, DirectX 9.0b Compatibility sound, 1.5 GB free hard disk space and an Internet connection |
| Input | Keyboard, Mouse |
Silkroad Online (also known as SRO or Silk) is a free massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by the South Korean company Joymax, and was released from open beta testing on 21 February 2006. Much of the background of the game is based on the historical Silk Road.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Silkroad is based on the history of trading in China along the Silk Road, a historical network of trade routes in Southern Asia. The game attempts to reproduce the Silk Road in a much smaller scale, looking realistic and at the same time incorporating fantasy elements such as the use of special magical skills and abilities. One of the game's most noted features is allowing players to choose three different job roles after their character achieves level 20.
While the current version of International Silkroad Online is limited to the Chinese race, the Korean version of Silkroad Online has released both Chinese and European races, classes, and world map. Different races will also have access to different character abilities, such as the Islamic lamp elves, however, the power of the Greek gods will not be available to the Europeans. [1]
[edit] Gameplay
After registering a login name and password on the game Website, the player logins to the game through the client, then creates a new character. To set up the new character, the player selects a username, or in-game name, a "figure," or a character with a small backstory, and their character's height and volume, which will not be relevant to gameplay and will alter only their character's appearance. Then, two other fields are chosen (which do alter gameplay): the starting clothing type (armor, protector, or garment), and starting weapon (sword, blade, spear, glaive or bow). However, both aspects can be changed during gameplay.
[edit] Gaining experience
Similar to most MMORPGs, characters increase their skills and levels by gaining experience points through combat or quests. In combat, the amount of points gained is determined by the difficulty of monster killed. For points gained through quests, the amount of points is proportional to its difficulty. Characters also gain "Job experience points" by successfully completing objectives for a profession, such as a merchant completing a trade run or a hunter killing a thief.
Points are divided into four types; Experience Points (XP), Skill Points (SP), Job Experience points, and Stat points. Experience points are used to increase the character's level, Skill Points are used to raise masteries and skills, and Job Experience points allows the character to level up their Job level, which in future updates will provide bonuses. In addition, the higher the job level, the more damage will be dealt to both player and Non-player character (NPC) enemies of the profession (such as hunter attacking thief).
After leveling up their regular character level, the character receives five Stat points, of which one is automatically applied to Strength and one is applied to Intelligence. The other three points are added at the discretion of the player, and can be distributed between Strength and Intelligence. Strength leads to bulkier yet physically stronger characters, while Intelligence improves the character's abilities with magic and supernatural skills.
[edit] Berserker
Often referred to as bzerk or zerk, berserker mode is a special mode of enhanced speed and attack power. In addition to the four main points (XP, SP, Job Experience, and Stat) gained by killing monsters, a character can also obtain berserker points. However, these points accumulate at a much slower pace, as you do not receive them for each kill. Once a character gains five berserker points (as indicated by the pink dots in the upper left corner around the character's picture) the character has the choice to enable the berserker mode when the character chooses by pressing tab, which is the default activator key. This mode lasts for about a minute, until the berserker points run out (which can be seen by the pink dots in the upper corner disappearing once again). Berserker mode is useful for killing a large or difficult monster faster, killing larger amounts of monsters in a shorter amount of time, fighting a player to kill him faster, or simply to escape or travel someplace else at a faster speed.
[edit] Jobs
Players can pick a job at level 20 in the game: a merchant, a hunter or a thief. Merchants buy goods for normal price in a city and attempt to bring them to another city, where they can be sold for higher prices, thus making profits. Thieves attempt to rob the merchant and steal the goods so that they can sell it to the black market. Merchants may hire player hunters to protect themselves from thieves. Characters can switch freely between jobs and are not locked into any role, however, switching between opposite jobs will result in a loss of some job experience.
Stars represent the value of the goods a merchant carries, with one star being the lowest value and five stars being the highest. NPC thieves are generated to attack all merchants; the higher the value of the goods, the more thieves that are generated. When a merchant's transport is killed, the goods are dropped and a player thief can collect them to sell on the black market. Player thieves are, in theory, only allowed to attack merchants carrying goods of two stars or higher; however, there is a method that thieves use to attack one-star merchants known as "1 Star Popping." It has generated some arguments, and is generally frowned-upon, since it allows a thief to attack a player that deliberately choosing a non-player versus player (PvP) method of gaining slow, but safe money. This has led to an increase of thief players in some, but not all servers, making even 1 star trade sometimes difficult without an escort (usually in busy server hours). However, a soon to be released patch is designed to avoid this exploit.[citation needed]
[edit] Item trading
Players can set up stalls to sell and advertise their items they may have found from killing monsters, trading, or buying. The seller determines the price at which to sell each item, although it is possible for buyers to communicate within the stall window. As NPCs sell a limited selection of items, stalls are a popular way to acquire high level or unusual items, such as those with seals, which are special attributes or stats added to the weapon or the clothing.
[edit] Guilds
At level 20, players can create guilds, which allows its members to chat with each other and participate in guild wars. Guilds can also "level up" with guild points. Guild points are obtained when the members of guild kill monsters and receive Skill Points (1 Skill Point is equal to 1 Guild point). Guild members do not lose their own SP in this fashion. However, members of the guild can donate their Skill Points to the Guild as Guild Points by pushing a heart shaped button next to the 'total guild points display.' These guild members will lose their own SP in this fashion. With money and Guild Points, guilds can grow, allowing access to more options like forming alliances (unions), gaining a guild storage, and being able to attract more members. Guilds can also gain a guild emblem and the ability to buy mercenaries to fight for the guild in a guild war or a job war. The current maximum guild level is 5.
[edit] Pets
The Pet system allows characters to summon animals to aid them on certain tasks. Most pets have to be bought with Silk, or Silkroad's private currency on the Item Mall, however the Grey Wolf can be bought with in-game gold, and will not automatically disappear, unlike pets bought with Silk. Pet Myowon (Monkey) and Pet Seowon (Squirrel) can pick up items dropped by monsters, but must be bought using Silk. Note that these two pets are only rentals, so can only be used for 28 days before they disappear. When the time limit runs out, the pet is automatically removed; there is no chance to remove any items left in the pets' inventory. However, it is possible to revive the pet by prolonging the rental period by another 28 days. They have their own inventory and save time by doing this task automatically. White Wolves and Grey Wolves are combat pets that have their own statistics and gain experience by killing enemies. They gain levels with the player, starting as a small puppy, but at level 40 they turn in to a large wolf.
[edit] Alchemy
Alchemy is made up of items that increase the performances of your items. Press "Y" and a small window will appear with directions.
- Weapon Elixir - increase the weapon's Physical attack, Magic attack and the other statistics. They are also sold for higher prices than the other elixirs.
- Accessory Elixir - Enhances the performance of accessories.
- Shield Elixirs - Upgrades shields for higher block ratio and defense.
- Protector Elixir - Used for the headgear, chest, legs, shoulder and shoe defense.
Note: There is a chance the alchemy may fail. Using lucky powder, which can be purchased at an accessory store, can greatly reduce alchemy's chance of failure. If alchemy fails, it will reset enchantment level to 0. There is also a chance the weapon may break or lose the ability to be repaired.
Having blue items also helps alchemy. Lucky increases the chance of a successful alchemy. Immortal prevents an item from breaking if the alchemy fails. Astral, which can be purchased in the item mall, will prevent an item with enchantment level 4 or more from dropping to enchantment level 0 if alchemy fails.
Warning: Immortal HAS to be greater than Astral on the weapon / item in order for Astral have its effect.
[edit] Boss Monsters (Unique Monsters)
Unique monsters are similar to boss monsters, they only appear after a period of time. They are much stronger than normal monsters; unique monsters usually summon other giant monsters when in combat. One such monster, known as Tiger Girl, appears to be a woman saddled on a Giant White Tiger.
[edit] Items
[edit] Equipment
Equipment is split into four sections, weapons, shields, body protectors, and accessories.
- Weapons: There are five types of weapons. The Blade and sword attack quickly and are one-handed, allowing the character to use a shield for defence. Glaives and spears attack slower, but the attacks are more powerful, dealing more damage, but are two-handed. Bows attack fairly quickly from a distance and deal reasonable damage, and are also two-handed weapon because they also require arrows.
- Shields: Shields can be equipped if the character uses a one-handed weapon, increasing defence and giving the character a chance to block a few blows depending on the block ratio or "BR."
- Body protection: The three classes of body protection are armor (high physical but low magical defence), protector (balanced physical and magical defence), and garment (high magical but low physical defence). Garment class items cannot be worn at the same time as armor or protector class items, but armor and protectors can be combined. In addition, being equipped with any armor will decrease a character's running speed by 20 percent, protector will decrease the running speed by 10 percent, and garment will not decrease running speed at all.
- Accessories: In addition to clothing, characters can also wear accessories such as rings, necklaces, and earrings that can reduce some damage inflicted upon the character.
There are several types of items on Silkroad. Most items are "Normal" as they possess only regular properties. Other items that have special properties, which boost a certain characteristic, are usually called "Blue," due to the item's name shown in blue. There are three more special ranks that equipment and weapons can have: Seal of Star, Seal of Moon and Seal of Sun. Each increases the item's statistics so it is similar to an item of higher level, with Star, Moon and Sun increasing number of levels added respectively. Alchemy is used to add Blue properties to an item.
[edit] Item Mall
The Item Mall allows a character to buy items (with "Silk", game currency bought with real money via Paypal, credit card, or A-Cash) through the official site. Examples include an experience-enhancing scroll, a pet monkey and decorations for a player's stall.
[edit] Masteries and Skills
In Silkroad Online, skills are divided between weapon and elemental masteries. Within each mastery, there are many series of skills that can be learnt.
[edit] Weapon Masteries
- Bicheon Swordmanship is for swords and blades, and increases blocking ratio.
- Heuksal Spearmanship is for spears and glaives, and increases health.
- Pacheon Bowmanship is for bows, and increases hit ratio.
[edit] Elements Masteries
- Fire: Increases damage and has a chance to burn the target, increases the characters physical attack power, and defence from certain attacks.
- Lightning: Has a chance to decrease the enemy's parry ratio, increases the characters moving speed and parry ratio.
- Cold: Increases damage and defense, as well as adding a chance to freeze or frostbite the enemy.
- Force: Skills include healing, resurrection, and removing abnormal (adverse) status effects.
[edit] Game problems and exploits
Like many massively multiplayer games, Silkroad Online has many problems. A major problem is the heavy load on the servers. It can take more than a dozen attempts to successfully login, despite the introduction of new servers. Another major problem is the lag encountered in towns, mainly due to the large number of stalls setup in the towns, especially in Donwhang which can at times be flooded with stalls. However, this problem should be solved or at least decreased by new equipment that should reduce lag. [2]
Random crashes can occur, even as soon as the game has loaded. When the game crashes while a character is in combat, the character usually dies. The engine may also crash when buying or selling items from a stall. If the computer has Ethernet problems, the game may even cause the machine to shut down or reboot. These problems occur not only because of the game, but also because of the protection software, GameGuard, which can be considered a type of rootkit, as it hides its own running process. The frequency of these problems varies from each individual user; some users claim that they have never or rarely experienced these crashes, while others claim to experience them very often.
The official International version of the game is written in a combination of British English and American English (for example, both "defense" and "defence" are used). In addition, there are many basic grammar, spelling (e.g. glavie), and punctuation mistakes. Similarly, many items are translated differently: a player seeking a tiger's molar in some versions will have to seek a tiger grinding tooth in others.
The game also has frame rate problems on low/medium-end computers or with the level of detail maximized. This is especially true in high-polygon areas, such as cities or other crowded battlefields.
There are also serious problems with botters; even though the game uses GameGuard to prevent hacks, bots, mods and cheats, it is still possible to get around it. There have also been many recent cases of people being cheated or hacked of their accounts in the game. Silk Assistants, or player moderators, on their respective servers are working to report to these players to the Game Masters. If confirmed, the users are likely to have the accounts permanently closed. This ensures that gamers will have a good and clean gaming environment to play in. Users can also report botters via the official game Web site.
Using the method explained above, where thieves can attack 1 star traders, the player thieves have developed a way of making the NPC thieves attack people not on jobs, thus killing bystanders for no reason whatsoever. However, the most frequent reason for this is to try and lure the NPC thieves to attack other trader caravans, killing them in the process and making their cargo available for stealing. As mentioned above, a patch will be released soon to address this problem.[citation needed]
Another issue is with the amount of credit card fraud occurring on the servers (commonly referred to as ccf). People who engage in this type of fraud are able to purchase Item Mall items illegally at no cost to them. Many believe this is causing an unfair balance between people who are able to buy an unlimited amount of purchasable items and those who play legitimately. However, Joymax will permanently ban anyone found to be engaging in credit card fraud.
The newest form of exploit that has recently taken center stage in bringing SRO servers to a halt has been "gold duping." Users are able to utilize various in-game exploits to create large amounts of gold from nothing. Most recently a group of individuals used this technique to create enormous amounts of money and began to flood various servers with their gold in an attempt to bring to light how vulnerable SRO has become to hackers. Fortunately, within 12 hours Silkroad identified and patched this vulnerability, as well as rolled back all servers to before the gold was duped. In addition, a bonus Experience Point 30 % increase, chance of item being dropped 100% increase, and amount of gold dropped 50% increase has been implemented for one week to compensate for any losses due to the rollback. The swift action that Silkroad took has garnered praise by some, but questioned by others as other exploits such as CCF and botting still run rampant.
[edit] References
- ^ Fuller, Garrett (2006-06-01). Silk Road Online : Developer Q&A - Silk Road Online for PC at MMORPG.COM. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.
- ^ Silkroad Online (2006-11-06). [Server Inspection] Weekly Server Inspection Notice. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.
