Atlantica Online: Pros V. Cons

I’ll add more to the list once it comes up / if I’ve forgotten something.
I love the game, so don’t take the Cons as if I’m just a salty player lashing out.

---

Pros:

1.) Bugs / Client / Servers:

• Some bugs aren’t extremely detrimental; can speed up battles by removing the time-consuming animations.
• Some other mechanics are considered broken as players are able to do more damage by exploiting a few combat methods [Vitality / MP Drain / etc].
• Client Patches are usually done weekly, mostly for Server refeshing; but often also small changes like implementing Events and removal of old Event files.

2.) Community:

• A handful of really helpful players in-game depending on certain Guilds & Nation affiliation and certain servers.
• Quite a few guides & references are available online since the game has been around for many years:
  1. Wikia: http://atlantica.wikia.com,
  2. This Site (AKA): http://atlantica-db.com,
  3. Wikidot: http://atlantica-online.wikidot.com,
  4. (Archived) DB: http://web.archive.org/atlantica-db.com

3.) Customer Support:

• It exists?

4.) Developers:

• N/A

5.) Forum:

• N/A at this time.

6.) Gameplay:

• Unique genre of turned-based Tactical RPG in an MMO environment.
• Can be quite fun in situational occurrences or challenging dungeons.
• Some players like the PvP aspect, even though it’s considered broken.
• Among the toughest of MMOs to reach the maximum equipment / end-game gear.
• Many enjoy the Arena of Atlantis system, as it has different mechanics than normal PvP/League systems. Also nice as players can play it at any level.

7.) GMs:

• Try to do what they can with their capability.

8.) Item Mall:

• Has some interesting items to decrease time-consumption in fights.
• Examples below:
  1. Ancient Minotaur Set [all versions],
  2. Neo Aca-II Search Robot License [all versions],
  3. Noble Archangel Set [KR/JP/NA only],
  4. Black & Red Wind [all versions]

9.) Billing System:

• At least has SSL certificates to safely purchase GCoins from the [sign.valofe.com] sub-domain.

Cons:

1.) Bugs / Client / Servers:

• At this time the patches have crippled the game far enough for many boxes / items to not be usable.
• Exploitations rampant all across the Client / AO Platform.
• The Patches that are implemented by VALOFE usually cause more bugs / glitches than it fixes.
• Server configuration issues – not able to handle the current resources in-game:
  1. After every maintenance, if a Nation runs the 3rd floor of Avalon [ND], the server is hit with lag and the lag worsens over time until the next Server Refresh.
  2. Mob spawns / etc when a server has a high population & is normally grinding mobs, requiring more spawning in places like Olympus Tower.

2.) Community:

• A large amount of players that take advantage of exploitations [questionable programs, duping methods, bugs, etc].
• Many players that attempt to sell their accounts even when it’s against the Terms of Service.
• Gold Sellers that constantly spam the servers and sometimes send messages directly through the in-game Mail and/or Whisper.
• Many players and scammers that will try to get good deals out of you (in personal trades), but try to buy things for ½-¼ the ratio/price they are selling items for. You are to be reminded that fellow players are always wanting to fuck you over when it comes to getting what they want; Small exceptions are trust-able guild members and friends, of course.

3.) Customer Support:

• CS Platform is extremely limited and outdated; in the [at.valofe.com] domain.
• Whoever tracks the CS takes forever to respond; anywhere from two weeks to never.
• In order to respond to a previous Ticket, the Customer has to make a new one; then refer to the old Ticket. Also stupid or unnecessarily redundant and just creates more work for the person handling the Tickets.

4.) Developers:

• Communication with them directly is completely non-existent.
• GMs have to submit a “Report” in order to get the Devs review specific Bugs / complaints.
• Tend to implement faulty Patches.

5.) Forum [when it was existent]:

• Was infested with Phishing attempts from Gold Sellers and other anonymous players who want to steal other players’ accounts.
• Didn’t have an approval system to block Spam or Phishing links.
• Didn’t have a Forum Moderator system to manage content of the… you know that Forum that’s supposed to have a few Moderators to handle the issues of Phishing / Spam / and anything similar.

6.) Gameplay:

• Only certain Main Characters and Mercenaries are useful; many are either outdated or nearly useless with the current game’s content.
• A huge variation of Server sustainment issues and bugs that can affect Indis, Guild Dungeon completion, Nation Dungeon completion, etc.
• Many implementations of gear and mounts are varied across all Versions of AO, to include the stats and availability.
• PvP [Leagues] is broken; Defense stats are non-existent.
• Very tough to acquire decent gear for reasonable prices because of the current in-game inflation.

7.) GMs:

• Seem to be fairly inexperienced.
• Judgment of some GMs has resulted in unnecessary mass bans in the past.
• VALOFE doesn’t have very many GMs for all applicable languages.

8.) Item Mall:

• Extremely RNG-based for opening the boxes/cards.
• Very costly for many Licenses.
• Extremely Pay-to-Win nowadays.
• No content preview for many of the IM Boxes/Cards; been working on personally making a list [https://arcanicvoid.comatlantica-online/item-mall/].

9.) Billing System:

• Many of the Credit and Prepaid options for the Billing System either don’t work, or are flawed in some way. The Cherry Credits option, for instance, is an outdated payment option that doesn’t even have Atlantica Online as an option on it’s own site; which probably explains the reason as to why it doesn’t work.

10.) Login Vulnerability [sign.valofe.com] -> [at.valofe.com] sub-domains:

• This is mostly speculation, but it is possible that the communication between [sign.valofe.com] / [at.valofe.com] and/or other locations may be vulnerable to Man-in-the-Middle attacks or Session Hijacking.
  1. The moment someone tries to login (sign.valofe.com), they may receive a message regarding the login information being sent over an unsecured connection (at.valofe.com) if they click “Continue”.
     • Doesn’t mean someone’s session / login information will be hijacked for sure, but there’s a chance of it.
  2. The image further below shows a warning that accepting an unsecured connection (at.valofe.com) could cause login information to be possibly leaked.
  3. Clicking “Cancel” keeps your login closed to only [sign.valofe.com] but you won’t be able to interact with any account purposes on the [at.valofe.com] side.
  4. This basically means GCoins can be purchased without risk to your account, but you will have to click “Continue” in order to proceed into [at.valofe.com] to interact with the domain.
     • NOTE: this is only possible if you get the warning message; if you don’t receive this message upon logging into [sign.valofe.com], then it is likely your browser automatically sent your information over the unsecured connection without warning.