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Lost Pages of Taborea: Lions and tigers and bears, oh... mounts!
Summer is starting to wane, and the cold winds will soon be blustering through the city streets. Kids with chattering teeth and blue fingers will be sitting in front of stoves or fireplaces, rolling their eyes as grandpa proclaims that he had to walk to and from school barefoot through snow uphill both ways. While our grandfathers fantasize about the pride of hardships, we can slip off to the computer and live in our fantasy worlds that provide mounts to make traveling a bit more fun. Runes of Magic has a wide variety of mounts that can run, hover and float over water. Some of these mounts are more rare than others, like those seen only on holidays or during special fundraisers, while some are two-seaters. From the sleek and vicious to the large and powerful to the just plain wacky, RoM has a mount for all occasions. In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, I go over the mounts that are available, their rarity, their speed, and some ways to give your preferred mount a boost.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Customization in Guild Wars 2 and Runes of Magic
It took me a little while, but you should know by now that I was going to do a Guild Wars 2 comparison. It's a little later than I previously said I'd write it, but there's no time like the present, right? Runes of Magic has been chugging along for over two years now, while GW2 is -- sort of -- just around the corner, and Guild Wars is the veteran of the bunch at six years of age. What do these MMOs have in common that would provoke me to attempt a comparison? I'll give you a hint: It has nothing to do with jumping. What they do share is character customization, which, really, many MMOs have. It's a pretty standard feature. In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how RoM could have taken some customization cues from GW, while GW2 might be taking some from RoM -- sort of like a movie based off a show based off a movie.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Runes of Magic's potential for EVE combat
I've been thinking a lot lately on other ways that Runes of Magic reminds me of EVE Online. Not that any systems are exactly the same, but they have certain similarities. Wurm Online and Minecraft are arguably different in how they function, but they both scratch the same creative itch. RoM's gear-modification system lends itself to EVE-esque combat. Keep in mind we're not talking about how the mechanics or guts of the games are similar or different; we're talking about how the same itch is being scratched. In the case of RoM's PvP being like EVE, it's more like tickling the itch with a feather, which makes you want to scratch it even more. I want to scratch that itch with a Brillo pad by exploring how RoM's open-world PvP could function more like EVE's, thanks to the arcane transmutor. Let's start with how I think battlefields differ from open-world PvP.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Answering email
Today's email comes to us from Jack Readman. Dear Jeremy: As the subject suggests, I am curious about Runes of Magic. I have given it several tries before and can say I enjoyed it, but I always left it after a while due to distractions. Currently I'm playing RIFT and enjoying the endgame raiding and to a lesser extent the 5-mans. So I do like my PvE content. What does RoM have to offer in this regard? I love The housing thing and other diversions like that. What else is there? Tell me what is great about RoM and what gives it its flavor? How dependent do you have to be on the cash shop? Thanks for writing, Jack. I'm sure many players have very similar questions when approaching Runes of Magic for the first time. I've tried to formulate a response akin to how I'd explain RoM to my friends -- if they'd actually want to listen to me for as long as this article is. I can only offer my opinions, but ultimately what you think of RoM is up to you. I play RIFT, but I haven't gotten beyond level 20. I'm also not really into endgame in RoM yet, although I think I'm fairly familiar with the MMO as a whole. Keep in mind certain features will net you different answers depending on how a player approaches MMOs in general. I can tell you right off the bat that the majority of RoM's dungeons are six-man or twelve-man, but for the rest of my verbose answers, you'll have to click past the break.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Faction flags
I love taking screenshots. There, I said it. Give me endless zones with nooks and crannies to explore around every corner and I'll take screenshots of them. I'm currently sitting at 11.2 Gigs -- just for Runes of Magic. Buildings, landscapes, caves, outfits, weapons, mounts; You name it, and I've probably taken a screenshot of it. Oddly enough, it's the action shots I usually don't try to capture. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy capturing a good light show as my guild face-plants a boss, but the majority of my screenshots folder is overwhelmingly filled with persistent-world shots devoid of player characters. Many of the factions in RoM have unique architecture and flags signifying their peoples. I've dug through the beast I call a screenshot folder and put together a visual trip through the many different ways factions choose to advertise. Did I say there were many? There are. I didn't include every last faction-flag I could find, but I've chosen from some of the more common ones -- and some of my favorites. As you'll see, there are some really great designs that help immerse you in RoM. I love these little attentions to detail that show the effort developers put into designing a world.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Chapter 3 character background tie-ins
The lore in Runes of Magic can sometimes be frustrating. There's an incomplete -- and vague -- history that sparks questions of who did what and when. Sometimes, there are references to reoccurring incidents without anyone knowing anything of who was involved or when it happened. As new chapters are released, some of those questions are answered and story-holes are filled, but new questions get added as well. We are veering off the beaten track in this week's Lost Pages of Taborea to dive into some lore. There's a growing amount of story for lore-hungry players to discuss and I wanted to revisit some Chapter 3 lore that helps us to understand a little more about the history and present-day in the world of Taborea. The following article is written for those players who may already know about the game's lore, but want to know even more. Given the overall amount of story and the way it's spread out through levels, zones and time-frames, I almost didn't feel the need to put any spoiler warnings on this post. Instead, I left out details learned from going inside the various dungeons.
Lost Pages of Taborea: What could have been
We always face changes in our favorite MMOs. A new patch comes along and changes multi-click gathering to single-click, a cool pet system gets added or our main class gets nerfed. Sometimes changes happen before the game ever sees them, though. Runes of Magic had some different features planned that were never implemented. Tile-dungeons, a streaming client and party-spells are a few of these features left on the cutting-room floor. In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, I want to insert a titular line and look at what could have been.
Lost Pages of Taborea: A history of Diamonds
It's been a long time since we've heard anything about Diamonds being reinstituted into Runes of Magic's auction house. Since that fateful day they were removed, a lot of new players have joined, veterans have left and some things that should not have been forgotten... were lost. Having Diamonds in the auction house is an important feature that was planned from the get-go. It allows for seamless trading and player-controlled price fluctuations that keep all items obtainable for everyone. It's about having the freedom to play multiple ways. Options are more numerous than simply paying and having everything opened up or not paying and being stuck. With RoM's cash-shop items being integrated into the title's gameplay, there's a grayscale that lets players have many more options in how they want to play. It's not an overly complex issue, but one worth looking back on. Getting Diamonds back in the auction house isn't a lost cause, but the issue has dragged on to the point that long time players may have given up all hope. This edition of Lost Pages of Taborea is all about looking back at the beginning and bringing players up to speed on diamonds in (or not-in) the auction house.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Comparing EVE's PLEX and PvP to RoM's
I was prepping for a Guild Wars 2 comparison with Runes of Magic, but in light of the current buzz in the air, I'm moving my EVE Online comparison up. A couple of interesting blocks fell into place this week that fit well with a look at how EVE and RoM allow money to circulate through the economies, and how PvP works in conjunction with it. While there's no contest as to which MMO has the more robust economy, there are still similarities that fit the pay-to-progress comment Mr. Simon Ludgate made in a recent Gamasutra article. Swarming around the above topics is the question of how much it costs to stay competitive in RoM, which I've also been working on. What does Gamasutra's article have to do with RoM, how much does it cost to be competitive and how are economies similar in these two MMOs? You can also read my memorandum to all EVE PvPers. Set your jump-point past the break to see.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Improving versatility in RoM's content
I'm bouncing off last week's Lost Pages of Taborea to elaborate on why Runes of Magic's content is lackluster, especially in light of the ability to over-gear but also to come up with some ideas to keep it from becoming meaningless and boring. It's not absolutely necessary, but it will help if you've read last week's article. RoM's gear-system ensures that you get a lot of variety in choosing what kind of character to make and how you want to play it, but there's a threshold at which the only way to allow for even more diversity among class builds is to offset the linear difficulty of new content by replacing your stats with more powerful versions of themselves, adding refinements and tiering, upgrades that just up your sheer power. Players get funneled into more restrictive builds as they gain levels. The downfall is in the content itself because it becomes super-easy-mode killing after over-gearing. It's turning on a cheat code. Any need -- or desire -- to manage blood bars or skill rotations gets thrown out with the trash. It's a foreseeable issue in just about any game across any platform or genre in which you would allow the players to gain extra amounts of power. But is there a way to allow for it and keep in some challenge and variety? Some solutions might be to slow down the pace of combat, stretch the utility of player bars, make content more dynamic, or throw in some sandbox behavior.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Content needs to meet the versatility of gear-upgrading
Last week I compared looting and class-bending in Runes of Magic with similar features found in RIFT. RoM's system of gear customization was a part of that article. This week, I want to talk business. Don't worry, I'm not a business major about to sling pie charts at you or talk about quarterly earnings. I want to talk a bit about business, specifically about how it might relate to decisions developers make concerning what kind of balance to put into an MMO. RoM's gear system is extremely flexible on the outside, but inside there are some restrictions. Some of these restrictions are imposed by the game, but some are imposed by players. In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, let's take a look at how the flexibility and choice of RoM's gear system -- and other systems -- are in opposition to the game's content and some desires players have.
One Shots: On a grand scale
Runes of Magic columnist Jeremy Stratton shared a truly impressive image with us for today's One Shots: This screenshot is from inside the main hall of Obsidian Stronghold and has been my current wallpaper for a while now. I love the grand feel to it, and there are so many cool details in the flags, emblems, and wall dressings. There are many NPC factions in Runes of Magic, and they all have great standards (flags), but the Order of the Dark Glory's standard is my favorite. Keep your eyes on One Shots all week to see what the Massively staff loves playing and showing off. Next week's theme is all about gear. It'll be your chance to show off your most epic armor and weapons and tell us all about how you acquired them! The week after that is pet week, and we can't wait to see your awesome pet companions and hear all about them. Just send a screenshot to oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a paragraph or two telling us about what we're seeing! %Gallery-112285%
Lost Pages of Taborea: Comparing RIFT's looting and multi-class systems to Runes of Magic's
Sometimes I feel like I'm playing the best MMO that no one's ever heard of. Lately, all I see are new games on the horizon that promise new flexible class systems, better functionality in old standard mechanics, improved pet systems, and so on. Every time I read these press releases, announcements, or blogs, I lean back, tilt my head a bit and say, "Interesting. But Runes of Magic already does that." It's why I have a lot of faith -- even if I disagree from time to time -- in Runewaker. The company has made all these great systems that are exactly what newer games are promising, and players are stoked about it. It really has me wanting to embark on a series comparing systems between RoM and other MMOs. RIFT has bulk-looting and class combining that I want to compare with similar features in RoM for this week's Lost Pages of Taborea. I'm tired of feeling like I'm playing an MMO no one's heard of, even if it isn't true -- RoM is very popular and it keeps growing at a fast pace. But dagnabbit, sometimes I want to tell everyone RoM did it before the other guy gets all the credit. Let's look at RoM's dual-class and pet systems to compare looting and multi-classes between these two games.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Is the guild lock-out good or bad?
I want to talk about Runes of Magic's lock-out that prevents anyone from forming a guild or inviting players to a guild between set hours each night. The lock-out takes place between the hours of 7 and 11 p.m. EDT every night. That's a four-hour window each evening that is within the only hours some people can play. It prevents players from forming or getting into guilds, which are standard features expected of MMOs these days. Forming communities and playing with others is one of the biggest reasons to play an MMO. This week on Lost Pages of Taborea, I want to discuss the allure of this feature, why I think it's bad that players have to work around it, the pros and cons of why it's in RoM, and why it's not being discussed.
E3 2011: A look at Runes of Magic's upcoming Redhill Mountains
Runes of Magic is on the floor at E3, and the team behind the game is showing off the goods for the upcoming Lands of Despair expansion. GDC saw a preview of the earliest zone for the new chapter, but E3 is focusing on the new Redhill Mountain zones, spanning from level 65 to 68. Players will be tossed into the center of a war between the Fireboot Dwarves and the rhino-like Kaylo race. And at the center of everything sits the dungeon of Sardo Castle, a font of undead and villainy. The centerpiece of the Redhill Mountains is the Battlefield of Steel, where the Dwarves and Kaylo take part in an ongoing war of aggression that's stretched out for 10 long years. Players will be tasked with investigating both sides of the issue and uncovering the sinister motives behind the conflict, with the true villain waiting at the heart of the Sardo Castle instance. Runes of Magic fans should take a look at the special preview gallery below, showing off the zone and instance in elaborate detail. Massively's on the ground in Los Angeles during the week of June 6-9, bringing you all the best news from E3 2011. Whether you're dying to know more about Star Wars: The Old Republic, RIFT, or any MMO in between, you can bet we'll have it covered! %Gallery-125722%
Lost Pages of Taborea: How will Chapter 4's content affect PUGs, gear, and the economy?
In nine agonizing days, the lands will despair as Chapter 4 hits Runes of Magic with all the force of a horde of zombies unleashed upon the TED conference. There'll be zombies, there'll be Dwarves, and oh yeah, there'll be world battlefields. I'm not sure what that last one will entail, but it sounds cool, doesn't it? There's going to be some changes a comin' in RoM when the level cap is raised and new loot is dispersed among high-level players. MMOs can develop ecosystems that only the most in-tune players will be intimately familiar with. While you might be new to the game and happy enough to just quest or dabble in the many features RoM has to offer, there's a posh, red, velvety lounge filled with high-rollers keeping tabs on how new items and stats will trickle down to affect the game. A new level cap means new armor, which means current top gear will be obsolete for said high rollers. Welfare epics will be unleashed on the market, prices will change, and the race for better gear will commence. This week on Lost Pages of Taborea, I want to look at how new content and items will affect the game. How will all the new items affect the economy? How will new dungeons affect pick-up-groups? And will we ever see a Screaming Gargoyle as a pet?
Rumor: TERA Korean servers merging [Updated]
Bluehole Studio's TERA action MMORPG is gearing up for its second round of Korean server merges since launch according to a blurb at MMO Culture. The fantasy title, which is currently being prepared for a North American release by En Masse Entertainment, is scheduled to trim its list of 35 shards to 15 this week. Despite more upbeat news of fresh content in the offing, the merges come amid reports of lower-than-expected financial performance according to publisher NHN Korea. TERA launched in Korea last February and is gearing up for a Japanese beta on July 1st. No North American or European beta dates have been announced. [Update]: TERA's main Korean website does provide both official confirmation of server merges as well as time projections.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Tinkering with standard classes and my Priest/Rogue
Aside from some ancillary problems, one of the things I love so much about Runes of Magic is that it gives me ability to augment weapons and equipment via the arcane transmutor. When that is coupled with a dual-class system, players are given a lot of room to bend traditional classes to their wills. I've been running a Priest/Rogue for a while now and loving it. The selection of offensive spells, the Rogue's skills, and the weapons I can wield have me wanting to push the boundaries of typical class specifications. I'm building a hammer-wielding Priest that's specced much like I'd spec a Mage, but the class can also pump out adequate melee damage. In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, I want to give you a run-down of the gear, weapons, and stats I'm choosing. It should serve as a good guide to some unique possibilities for classes in RoM.
Bounty Bay Online announces new expansion
All those in favor of a new Bounty Bay expansion say yarrrrr! This July, "unknown worlds, grandiose ships, and challenging new adventures" await fans of Frogster's pirate-themed free-to-play title. The last expansion, Atlantis, focused heavily on land engagements, and the as-yet-unnamed July patch will sweep players back out to sea courtesy of three new ships as well as the chance to challenge the encroaching Spanish Armada. Player captains will receive three new ammo types, which incapacitate enemy vessels, deliver huge amounts of damage, or debuff enemy cannon accuracy. The new expansion also brings the Ship Improvement System, which will allow for ship customization via special items. Bounty Bay Online takes players on a journey through the Age of Discovery and immerses them in 15th and 17th century naval combat. Check out the official site for more info.
TERA fly-through video shows off southern Shara
It's been a while since we've seen a proper TERA fly-through video and even longer (maybe ever) since we've seen one that features frosty, forbidden landscapes piled high with ice and snow. Enter a new clip from Frogster (TERA's European publisher) that we recently sighted on YouTube. The trailer runs north of two minutes and whisks us through the wilds of southern Shara on a whirlwind journey from icy snowscapes to sprawling cities then onward through psychedelic forests and quaint fantasy villages. Despite the scenic splendor that takes up most of the screen time, TERA's unique combat mechanics aren't completely ignored. A brief and violent action montage punctuates the clip and serves to whet our appetites for more from the world of Arborea. Feast your eyes after the cut.
