Silkroad Online

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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.

Overview

File:Silkroad-online donwhang.jpg

Screenshot picturing one of the game's towns, Donwhang

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. In addition, there are plans to raise the level cap to level 80 in December.

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.

Locations

There are currently three cities in Silkroad Online (International Server), Jangan, Donwhang and Hotan. They are seperated by three sections, China, Western China, and the Oasis Kingdom. Each different section has a different level ranges of monsters.

• China has monsters from level 1 to 20.
• Western China has monsters from level 21 to 30.
• Oasis Kingdom has monsters from level 31 to 80.

Apart from the three cities, there is a special site named Donwhang Cave. It is a cave in which only level 50 and above players can enter. It is located in Western China, and contains monsters from level 60 to 70.

In addition, Europe has been released in the Korean Silkroad Online version, featuring different buildings, weapons, and characters from China. Islam, Europe and West Asia have been released on some of the other Editions apart from the international version.

Cities

There are three cities in Silkroad Online, Jangan, Donwhang and Hotan. Each of the city has NPCs. The NPCs usually sell items, repair items and give you quests. There is a Defence Trader which sells and repair Protectors; a Blacksmith that can repair and sell weapons; a Potion Store that sells herbs potion or pills; and a Grocery Trader that sells Alchemy items, Accessories, Moving Speed Scrolls and Capes.

Unique Monsters

In the game there are unique monsters, they are a lot more powerful than the normal monsters. The spawn in special areas. There are four unique monsters in Silkroad Online.

• Tiger Girl Level 20 boss found in Tiger mountains.
• Ureuchi Level 40 boss found in Tarim Basin.
• Isyutaru Level 60 boss found in Karakoram.
• Lord Yarkhan Level 80 boss found in West Asia, which is released in Ksro. This will be released in ISRO in December.
• Saytan Level 90 boss. It usually appears in West Asia. It is released in Jsro and Ksro.

Only Tiger girl, Ureuchi, and Isyutaru are presently in the international SRO.

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.

There are two leveling methods which are used within the game of Silk Road, first of which is "XP Leveling," which is when a player gains experience faster than skill points. The other is known as "SP Leveling" which is when a player grinds specifically for the purpose of gaining SP at a faster rate than XP.

Berserker

Often referred to as "super" 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Pet Myowon (Monkey), Pet Seowon (Squirrel), and Pet Toto (Rabbit) can be set to pick up items dropped by monsters, and are only available by being bought using Silk. They have their own inventory and save time by doing this task automatically. However, these three pets are only rentals, usable only for 28 days before becoming unusable. When the time limit runs out, the pet is automatically returned to the players' inventory; there is no chance to remove any items left in the pets' inventory. However, it is possible to regain usage of these pets via the Silk item 'Revival clock', which prolongs the rental period by 28 days.

File:Silkroad wolf.png

White Wolf (pet)

White Wolves and Grey Wolves are combat oriented pets, possessing their own statistics and gaining experience from combat. They also have the ability to grow, beginning as a puppy and maturing into a full-grown wolf at level 40. Both Wolves are permanent additions; once bought, either for Silk or for gold respectively, they do not disappear. Wolves can, however, die during combat and that will make them unable to be summoned. They can be revived with the "Grass of Life" herb sold at each city's Stable NPC.

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 Elixir - Upgrades shields for defense.
• Protector Elixir - Used for the headgear, chest, legs, shoulder and shoe defense.

There is a chance the alchemy may fail. Using lucky powder, which can be purchased at an accessory store, reduces 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.

Certain bonuses on items may also help with 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, so long as Immortal is present in equal quantity on the item.

There is also a system to increase stats on equipment. This system works by having the user first gather parts of defeated monsters, which can then be turned into base elements with the aide of Void Rondo potions sold at any accessory store. These base elements can then be joined together with a tablet to create a magical stone, which increases specific statistics. Tablets also have levels, and may only be used on equipment of the same Degree as the tablet's level.

Items

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 defense. 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, requiring arrows for ammunition.
• Shields: Shields can be equipped if the character uses a one-handed weapon, increasing defense 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 defense), protector (balanced physical and magical defense), and garment (high magical but low physical defense). 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 in the sense that they possess only regular properties. These items can also be called "White" items, due to the color of the item's name. Other items that have special properties, which boost a certain characteristic, are usually called "Blue," due to the item's name shown in blue. Note that an item which has bonus equipment levels (e.g. "Copper Bow + 3") can still be a normal item.

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. Seal of Star weapons are the most common of the seal weapons and are equivelent to a weapon 5 levels higher then the original weapon's level. Seal of Moon gives a bonus of 10 levels and Seal of Sun, the rarest of the seals, gives a bonus of 15 levels.

Seal weapons cannot be made, and are only available as a rare drop from monsters, and only if that monster is able to drop the correct level of item (eg: a monster that only drops level 34 weapons will never drop a level 32 Seal weapon). They can only be found on equipment of the same levels as found in the NPC stores.

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An image of 8th degree armor, sword, and shield.

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.

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.

Chinese Weapon Masteries

• Bicheon (Swordmanship) gives special skills for sword and blade, and increases blocking ratio.
• Heuksal (Spearmanship) gives skills for spears and glaives, and increases health.
• Pacheon (Bowmanship) gives skills for bows, and increases hit ratio.

Chinese 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.

File:SRO-2006-10-09 20-14-47- 38ae.JPG

Showing masteries of the elements outside the south gate of Donwhang.

Game problems and exploits

The frequency of these problems vary for each individual user; some users claim that they have never or rarely experienced these crashes, while others claim to experience them very often.

Server capacity limits

Each server has a limit to the amount of players which can be logged in simultaneously. When a specific server has reached the limit, it stops allowing logins until space is cleared. During peak hours, this can lead to numerous attempts at logging in, due to the lack of a login queuing system or other login control features.

Stalls

Closely related to server capacity limits, players are able to set up stalls with items in it and leave those stalls running for indefinite periods of time. Also, some users set up multiple player accounts so they are able to play on one while selling on another. This all leads to less available login slots

Lag

Though recently patched, many players still complain about instances of lag in-game, particularly in towns.

Crashes

Occasionally the game will crash without warning or explanation, possibly endangering characters. It is speculated that a reason for these crashes could be linked to GameGuard, which hides its own running processes akin to types of rootkits.

Language errors

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.

Frame rate issues

Some areas can cause drops in frame rates. It is most noticeable in towns, where there can be hundreds of players on screen at a given time.

Botters

There are serious problems with botters; even though the game uses GameGuard to prevent hacks, bots, modifications and cheats, it is still possible to get around it. In an attempt to combat this issue, a new "Client Altering Preventing Function" was added. Users are encouraged by Joymax for users to report encountered botters via the support page on the game's Web site.

Hacking incidents

There have been cases of users being hacked and losing their accounts in the game. Each server's specific "Silk Assistants," or player moderators, work to report to these incidents to the Game Masters. If confirmed, the offenders are likely to have the accounts permanently closed, as per the Terms of Service agreement. There is a general consensus amongst the playerbase that these hackings are linked to the usage of bots, which could be laced with keyloggers and other computer viruses.

Exploits

One well-known exploit is the ability for Thief and Merchant players to kill other players without repercussion through the job system. Due to NPC Thieves based upon the Thief or Merchants levels being spawned during transit, it is possible for high level NPC Thieves to be spawned in low-level areas, or around a specific target.

The latest form of exploit that has recently taken center stage in bringing SRO servers to a halt has been "gold duping." Users were able to utilize various in-game exploits to create large amounts of gold from nothing. One group of individuals used this technique to create enormous amounts of money, flooding various servers with their gold in an attempt to bring to light how vulnerable SRO has become to hackers. Within 12 hours, Silkroad identified and patched the vulnerability, as well as rolled back all servers to before the gold was duped. Although this action was necessary, it caused an outrage among some players, as all their experience, items and gold gained during that time frame was lost due to the rollback. The swift action that Silkroad took has garnered praise by some, but questioned by others as other exploits such as credit card fraud and botting still run rampant.

Credit card fraud

Another issue is with the amount of credit card fraud occurring on the servers. 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, as this violates the Terms of Service agreement, Joymax will permanently ban anyone found to be engaging in credit card fraud.

External links

• Silkroad Online - International Edition
• Silkroad Online - Japanese Edition
• Silkroad Online - Korean Edition
• Silkroad Online - Taiwanese Edition
• Silkroad Online - Chinese Edition
• Silkroad Online - Vietnamese Edition