As per today's (Thu 20/09/2007) update, Aeonsoft apparently changed the FlyFF servers to all-PvM, and set aside a new server for PvP (a la version 9). After going through the forums with a finely-toothed comb, I have come to the conclusion that the developers (i.e. Aeonsoft, not Gala-Net) suck.

Apparently they can't mix PvM and PvP like previously (each server had 4 clusters, one of which was PvP). Also, from the clues I put together, the new monster speedup and terrain/obstacle avoidance is the direct reason why they nerfed skills which affected monster speed (sneaker, ice missile, etc). According to the poor GMs who are easy targets for angry players (everyone likes to shoot the messenger) they were told that due to new code they can't mix PvM and PvP anymore (no reason was given for the speed/skill changes but it stands to reason that they were done for the same reason).

Now... programming is hard. Writing a decent game engine is pretty darn complicated. However, FlyFF already had most of the infrastructure in place during v7 though. After the v9 debacle and subsequent fixes, the only changes that stay are mostly bad: pets still suck, speed/skill changes suck, and the dying/exp thing sucked.

Changing the graphics engine would be one of the hardest things to do properly. However, changing how damage is dealt should be pretty damn trivial. See, when you need to draw an object on-screen, there are gazillions of considerations: from the camera angle, is the line of sight obstructed? Partially or wholly? Lighting effects? Frames of animation? Clipping? ... and drawing stuff in 3D uses up loads of power, tons of computations a second. There's a reason your graphic cards are so freaking expensive, require their own actual processor and memory, and get driver updates every other minute (exaggeration). Contrast that with a damage calculation algorithm: base damage * modifiers. Heck, it can even be a single line of code (for simple games).

I'm no hardcore programmer, but even I can see the flaws in Aeonsoft's flimsy excuses. Merely wanting to change, for the sake of change, is not a valid response either. Come to think of it, does anyone else realise there's a spate of grindfest, crap no-story Korean MMOs lately? It's like a whole class of Korean developers recently graduated from MMO school, and now they're all churning cookie-cutter crap grindfests.

I can point to text-based "games" interfaced using TELNET (for God's sake!) that have WAY BETTER content than most of these graphical travesties. For example, Imperian (one of the Iron Realms MUDs), or Materia Magica (use of ANSI colour makes this one look really nice). Player-run factions, player-submitted (and accepted) equipment/skills/events, and THOUSANDS of quests -- don't take my word for it, google up MM's quests, there are several fan pages containing scads of information. And all of this WITHOUT a fancy interface.

These graphical MMORPGs look great, but content-wise they're like stuck in an early-90's 8/16-bit mindset. I feel nothing but derision and contempt for the current crop of Korean grindfests. Why the hell is everybody so freaking preoccupied with "shiny". Hollywood already proved to us time and again, a crap movie with a million-dollar special effects budget is STILL a crap movie. Polish up a turd, and it will still be a turd. Grindfest MMO designers = FAIL.

...on a lighter note, the free-for-all PK'ing has been removed from FlyFF (well, contained to one server only now, i.e. Demian), so it's safe to play again :PIf anyone is still interested in checking FlyFF out, you can find my guild (the Sisters of Shadow) on the server Mushpoie, and we usually log into cluster number 2.