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Runes of Magic patches in 'Storming of the Acropolis'
Today brings patch 2.1.2 to Runes of Magic, which is also being called Storming of the Acropolis. The biggest addition is of course a new dungeon in the form of the Naga Acropolis, which is crawling with elite henchmen. This is a particularly hard challenge meant for grouped players who'll eventually earn the chance to defeat King Sharleedah -- we've no doubt the king drops phat loots. Also coming with this patch are the Halloween Pumpkin Festival, some elite skills for the Elf classes, minor UI tweaks, a land expansion for the Aotulia Volcano zone and some bug fixing. You couldn't ask for much more in a free content patch. We're sure the Runes of Magic community is already enjoying themselves with all the shiny new content. It's also good to see the Elves being fleshed out some more mechanically, as any new race added to an MMO often times needs some tuning before it falls in line with the previous races.
New Runes of Magic area "Autolia Volcano" to melt faces this month
Runewalker Entertainment and Frogster Interactive have put word out that a new area is coming to Runes of Magic at the end of September. The "Autolia Volcano" is actually part of the Chapter II: The Elven Prophecy expansion that was just released under a week ago, and will be another high-level region for players to progress after the Savage Lands on their journey to the new level cap of 55. And yes, the graphic above does appear to have a spelling error (it's spelled "Volcano" every time in the news article). The Naga race call the volcano home, so be prepared to engage these scaly foes if you choose to visit. Right at the foot of the volcano is the sprawling Naga city -- perhaps not the smartest place to build, but it doesn't sound like they had much choice after getting their scaly tails kicked in the Great War.Ahead of the zone being released, there are a couple of ways you can get a small taste of what's coming. An article on the Runes of Magic website has two pages worth of detailed lore about the area, its points of interest and its inhabitants to read through. For those who aren't into the whole reading thing, we've got a trailer just past the break that you can watch instead.
'Secret of the Goblin Mine' update to hit Runes of Magic next week
Frogster has dropped some information about the next update for Runes of Magic. The best part about the news? You won't even have to wait a whole week until the patch is released. The update is titled Secret of the Goblin Mine and is focused around a new solo adventure mini-game called -- you guessed it -- the Goblin Mine. Inside there are three tasks to complete with a time limit of 30 minutes. Players will be dressed up as goblins for the duration of the mini-game. The area will only be accessible once a day (and dying will forfeit the chance to beat it) but the victorious should be well-rewarded:Those who succeed, receive rare armor recipes and handcrafted objects from the treasure chests at the end of the dungeon. There are also two new titles to reward particularly diligent Goblin hunters, one of which being 'Goblin Hero.'The update will also bring an epic weapon quest series and the plant cultivating system we first heard of a few months ago. There's a preview video for the Goblin Mine available on the RoM official site, to whet your appetite before the patch goes live on the 28th of July.
Plants mean power in Runes of Magic
Free-to-play MMO Runes of Magic is prompting players to get green-fingered with their brand new plant system. While currently being tested, it is due to be implemented in an upcoming patch. Basically, players will be able to plant seeds in colourful pots (no boring visit to the garden centre required). Seeds can be purchased from the Item Shop or found left behind after slaughtering your foes, we assume some enemies must be stashing seeds in their pockets which fall out when they expire.The plants must be watered regularly -- they will shrivel up and die if you forget -- and can take up to a week to grow. You can fertilise them with magical runes which will help determine what the plant will yield. This can be anything from more seeds and runes to the rarest of crafting items.It's certainly an interesting mechanic and the range of plants and pots seems quite impressive, as does the detail involved. We're sure Runes of Magic fans will be pleased with this new system. Plus, we think the plants work really well as their secondary purpose: ornamental objects.
Runes of Magic to release new one-on-one arena
Frogster announced in a press release today that a new 1-on-1 arena system will be introduced at the beginning of March for Runes of Magic, which is currently in open beta. This arena will give players the opportunity to compete for an exclusive mount at the end of each month. Once the free-to-play MMO is launched on March 19th, Frogster plans to expand upon the arena system, offering even more rewards.The arena will function as a tool to teach players more about character control, equipment PvP skills, dual-class utilization and more. Arena points will be earned through these battles with ranked tournaments rewarding winners at the end of each month. You can read more on this arena system from the press release just after the jump below.
Player review of Runes of Magic open beta looks promising
You may not have heard, but Runewalker's Runes of Magic is a free-to-play/free-to-download fantasy MMORPG that features a large world, avatar appearance customization, dual-class specialization, interesting combat mechanics, player housing, crafting, high-end PvE raiding, and even PvP. If that seems like a little bit of everything from some of the more popular fantasy MMO titles like World of Warcraft, Everquest 2, Lord of the Rings Online, and Age of Conan, that's because it is.According to a player's review of open beta, RoM has taken some of the best elements from these aforementioned games and tried to blend them into a fun and cohesive experience. It also seems to have taken not-so-good elements like daily quests, no career respecialization, and gear dependency. Many people think free-to-play games must be shallow, but it took the reviewer three days to pick a class combination that would suit their play style. That seems pretty deep to me. Perhaps the best consideration a gamer can make is that free-to-play in this case also means free-to-try. How many times have gamers been burned by paying for a product that ultimately didn't live up to their expectations or tastes? What do you have to lose by giving Runes of Magic a shot?
