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Lost Pages of Taborea: Reminiscing on holiday events
There's been a lot of event play-time in Runes of Magic lately. The pumpkin festival carried on for a lot longer than was originally anticipated and transitioned into a short -- and smaller -- autumn banquet. Now, Christmas is right around the corner. I've been drooling over the Christmas trees that are already for sale in the cash shop. RoM has seen a full year's cycle of events come and go twice now, and we are approaching the third Christmas. Now that long-term players have seen all the offerings, I wanted to peer into the place these holidays have in the world of Taborea and see how they add to our virtual lives. In this article, I want to share how I look forward to events and explore some of the great reasons to have them. 'Tis the season, and all that jazz. Let's take some time to look back and reminisce on RoM's holiday events and why we take part in them.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Seeking out the roleplay
Runes of Magic is funny with its seemingly high emphasis on chasing carrots, but it also contains some horizontal gameplay features. Gear is so highly customizable and the higher-level dungeons require you to invest a lot of time upgrading. Running dungeons is easily a full-time gig that I'm finding out firsthand. I've been leveling a new character strictly for dungeons, but it takes up all of my game time. I've cut out crafting completely and I outright ignore my house, yet I'm still falling behind my guildmates. But for those who actively seek it out, there are plenty of features to aid the other pursuit known as roleplaying. The horizontal aspects of RoM have a lot to do with why I love the game so much. Of course, they are ripe for the roleplaying crowd, but roleplayers aren't limited to only those areas. I think there are both areas good for roleplaying and areas that aren't so clear but lend themselves well to roleplaying. It's about how you roleplay with RoM's features, not which features are best for roleplaying. This week, I want to take a look at a few ways you can seek out roleplaying, with an emphasis on the uninitiated. I finish with a sappy message about roleplaying and instant gratification. Pros can very well find some ideas past the break as well.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Level 62 growing pains
Halloween has stubbornly refused to leave the land of Candara and is relentlessly holding monster parades around the clock. While it may be boring some, other persistent folk are probably stock-piling enough candy to make it all the way to next Halloween. So while we conveniently ignore the Pumpkin Prince, I want look ahead to the coming new zone. I've been steadily finding great content on the Runes of Magic forum, and the new level-cap increase is a hot subject right now. When chapter 3 rolled out, we knew we'd be seeing the maximum level raised to 60, but this new one wasn't expected, especially not so soon. This new level cap will take us into Limo Desert and to level 62. That means at least one new dungeon, new quests and most likely new armor. There's more than a few in the Runes of Magic community, including CM Swag, who have voiced their opinions both for and against another raise in levels so soon. Let's take a look at the situation that this presents, and I'll give my opinion on the new level cap.%Gallery-108554%
Runes of Magic shows off new Limo Desert trailer
Frogster Interactive and Runewaker Entertainment are certainly doing a good job keeping the new content flowing into Runes of Magic. As we heard recently, patch 3.0.6., titled The Treasures of the Desert, will open up the Limo Desert and offer a variety of new things for players to check out, including new areas, a new instance, and new monsters to battle -- and of course, new loot, we're sure. That sounds pretty cool to us. For those who may have wanted to see some of the new areas, mobs, and even the new bosses in action, you're in luck. Frogster and Runewaker have sent over a video that shows off some of the areas in the Limo Desert -- an area which features a heavy dose of Egyptian influence. We're also treated to a peek at the dungeon, where players will face off against Angerfang and his minions. The shiny new trailer lies just behind the break for those who want to take a peek before the patch hits Runes of Magic on the 30th of November.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Save those pennies
Seeing players farm high-level dungeons can be a constant reminder that your gear sucks. If you really want to get into running instances and being the baddest of the bad, it's easy to feel pressured into spending money. Spending money isn't inherently bad. It's what makes the world go round. But it may behoove you to spend your hard earned dollars judiciously. I want instant gratification as much as the next bloke, but it isn't going to happen for me. I have bills and a limited income stream. I have to budget time and money. Everyone will have to do it someday, no matter what his or her income potential is. Runes of Magic offers periodic sales that the savvy gamer can take advantage of. This guide offers advice, reminders and tips for getting the most out of your money. Players play differently and want different things from RoM. I'm looking at these money-saving ideas with the basics in mind, but you should be able to easily adjust how and what you want to spend money on -- based on your personal income and game preferences.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Sandbox or themepark
Lately I've had some great conversations over on the Runes of Magic forum that have me thinking about what type of MMO Runewaker has created. Every MMO eventually gets stamped as either sandbox or themepark, depending on whether it has an open-ended environment or is filled with directed activities. RoM is packed with minigames, quests, dungeons, housing, pets and guild content. RoM's minigame, Malatina's Course of Terror, can be taken at any level and yields the same possible rewards to all players. Yet the devs are constantly adding quests, dungeons, and other high-level content, all of which requires a player to level in order to take part. What kind of MMO is RoM? Do these terms shape your opinions of what you want to see added in the game? And does any of this matter?
Lost Pages of Taborea: Spam heal is the enemy of strategy
Last week, I spoke a bit about whether Runes of Magic was too easy or not. In that article I harken back to the mana strike that players held to remove part of a patch that added a percentage-to-cost modifier on all spells for all classes. This week I wanted to flit around the same subjects, but from the viewpoint of healing and strategy. I want my readers to be well-versed in RoM 101. Just like I set out to do with my community guide for new and old players, I want to educate players today on the fine art of button-mashing. Let's start by covering what spam healing -- or spamming any skill -- is, and why it's not always fun. I'll put this into the context of dungeon-running, cover some fun strategy that results from not being able to spam heal, and give my opinion on how well (or not-so-well) all this works in RoM.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Is Runes of Magic too easy?
It seems things are never quiet in regard to Runes of Magic these days. If it isn't holiday events or new world bosses, it's large-scale balancing issues. Players may still be plugging away at title achievements this Halloween, but the event has been going long enough for people to settle into a daily routine and get back to everyday affairs. In other words: it's something to do, but the shiny is starting to wear off. I took advantage of this lull and decided to do a Q&A on the overall difficulty of RoM. It's not a huge issue; it's more like a constant issue that creeps into other discussions on class balance or the memento system. And after the attempted change to a percentage-based mana cost, it's definitely worth consideration. Is RoM too easy? The question seems like it'd be a quick one-line answer, but there are many ways to view it that would yield different outcomes. What are players' goals? How can a change to one system affect the whole game? How will future updates affect any changes made today? Is there an answer to whether RoM is too easy or not? Well. Let's find out.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Guide to Pumpkin Festival
Runes of Magic has been around long enough now that holiday events are making a second round. In the wake of the Juice Festival's first appearance, the Pumpkin Festival is one of the events getting a second go. Legend tells us that before humans rediscovered the continent of Candara, the land of Kolydia was ruled by tyranny. On a cold winter's night, unknown assassins wearing masks succeeded in eliminating the unsavory rulers and the hoi polloi rejoiced. The people started celebrating that day by wearing masks which became rumored to bring good luck. Unknown years and another continent later, humans made do the best they could on the underdeveloped land. The tale is said that a farmer carved out a pumpkin and put a candle in it. After seeing this, the Eye of Wisdom thought it would be a great idea to mark the day for rest and celebration before Winter. The mask wearing was added to this, kids added costumes and trick-or-treating, thus the Pumpkin Festival was born. I don't have a photographic memory nor did I painstakingly write down all event-minutea from last year, but this year's festivities look to offer more activities. On top of that, there are plenty of costumes, holiday furniture and even holiday mounts to obtain or buy. The only problem is the absence of any source to help you traverse the ins and outs of what you can do and what you can win. Until now. Click past the break for help making your way through this year's Pumpkin Festival.
New content update adds epic battle to Runes of Magic
Looking for a challenge to tear up in Runes of Magic? Well, if you think you have what it takes, Runewaker Entertainment and Frogster Interactive have a brand new epic battle for you -- the world boss Amboriar! The new patch, 3.0.5, The Guardian's Awakening, throws open the doors on this new fight for Runes of Magic players, as well as offering new difficulty modes to Raksha Temple for level 58+ players that will scale all the way up to 125% at the diamond level. (We're going to bet there are some equally epic loots to match!) Along with the new boss battle and more difficult dungeon, this patch also kicks off the Pumpkin Festival, Runes of Magic's Halloween event. Players can pick up quests to protect a pair of pumpkins, smite stinky vegetables, and generally have all manner of silly holiday-themed fun. If you're curious about what this update has to offer, check out the five new screenshots and video of Amboriar below, then pop over to the Runes of Magic site for the full patch notes. %Gallery-88042%
Lost Pages of Taborea: Siege war top 50
One of the fascinating aspects of an MMO is its ability to spark creativity. With so much to do in these large virtual worlds, it's almost inevitable that players will create wikis, fan sites, addons and anything else they can dream up. Runes of Magic is no different, and its siege war has given way to the creation of Siege War Top 50. The fan-made website aggregates siege war scores from all guilds on North American servers and spits it out in various lists. It has been consistently popular on the RoM forums for many weeks now and is a testament to how popular siege war is. Let's take a look at this site and see what makes it tick. Along the way, I share commentary about the site and siege war in general, and you'll get to see which guilds are in the top bracket out of all the North American servers.
One Shots: A look around
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of an active MMO account, must be in want of a female character's butt to watch. I know from my own unscientific polls that a great many of us play in third-person, moving on from mob to mob or location to location -- and looking at a lot of butt in the process. I certainly don't look up half as often as I probably should since I'm often time-crunched. That's why today we're glad to hear from Awenspiration on the Osha server in Runes of Magic. He not only sent in this great screenshot of a fun free-to-play game we haven't seen on One Shots recently, but also reminds us to take a moment and enjoy the view from another angle. He writes: "Awenspiration's having a fun time hunting chicken feathers in Ystra Labyrinth. The lighting and ceiling are quite impressive. There's such a great art display in this game if you just look up. Oh and Awen's a Mage, so it's fried chicken for supper!" One Shots relies on reader submissions to keep going. If you haven't sent in a screenshot recently -- or even if you have -- we'd love to see some from you. Just email your image in to us here at oneshots@massively.com. Include your name (alias is OK), the name of the game, and a note about what we're seeing in the image. Other details like guild, server, or anything of that nature are also always welcome. We'll post it up here for everyone to enjoy and give you the credit for sending in the image! %Gallery-85937%
Lost Pages of Taborea: Armor customizing and coloring
Quite frankly, I don't know why I waited so long to do an article about customizing and coloring armor in Runes of Magic. Indeed, it's one of my absolute favorite aspects of RoM. But thanks to Rubi's coverage of Guild Wars 2 and the recent ArenaNet posts, I've been spurred on to do this article. The GW2 news of late is, of course, all about how ArenaNet plans on implementing armor customization through the use of Transmutation stones you will be able to buy from a cash shop. After reading over Rubi's coverage, I felt that GW2 was heading in a very similar direction to the one taken by RoM. I find this to be very cool! So for anyone who didn't know this flexible system was in the game or that it was so flexible, I present a guide on customizing your RoM character any way you see fit. I've also included a short video tutorial to help illustrate how customizing works.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Resource acquisition
Way back when Runes of Magic was still young and learning to fly, there was only one way to obtain resources: Find a resource node and click it. Come to think of it, I've always chopped wood and gathered herbs, but what's the proper verb for obtaining ore in MMOs? In any case, the tried and true method of clicking on resource nodes has always worked for RoM. It's just that recipes take a lot of resources, which used to mean a lot of gathering. Seriously. A lot. I've written about the state of RoM's crafting system before, but many updates have come along since then. While the large amount of resources needed to craft items hasn't changed, the many different ways of obtaining those resources have. In this article I cover all the new ways you can get your grubby little mitts on a crafter's best friend.
Lost Pages of Taborea: The Runes of Magic Database
A long long time ago, I wrote about community resources for Runes of Magic. In that article is a handy resource that gathers collected data from RoM called the buffed database. Key personnel from buffed.de started a new venture called Playata to provide content services to game publishers. The point of this boring news snippet is that Playata, in conjunction with Frogster, has created the official RoM database. This shiny new official site could be viewed as getbuffed 2.0. The official version is streamlined, runs better, and has a few nice extras that the original never had. This week I put together a guide explaining what the database is, what you can do with it, and some of the extra fun stuff it offers.
Lost Pages of Taborea: What's in a server?
Welcome back to another week of Lost Pages of Taborea. I'm switching gears and answering some reader mail. I'll answer the question to the best of my abilities, and then I want to expand the topic to cover server density and personality. Roger Ringo has returned to Reni from a hiatus which prompted the following question. Roger Ringo asks: I was wondering if you could give me a rundown on the population and community of the servers you have played on. I would really appreciate it. This is a great question about server populations. How populated are the Runes of Magic servers? For that matter, how do we go about finding the number of people on any MMO's server? It never seems to be a cut-and-dried answer with one almighty server-status site to feed us the numbers. A lot of our own perceptions can sway answers to these questions too. What days and times a person logs in, his playstyle, and what he pays more attention to in-game can all affect an opinion of whether a server is a ghost town or a small but happy community. Do my conclusions match with yours? Find out after the break!
Lost Pages of Taborea: Low-level PvP alt
I've been spending some time making a home for myself on Artemis. Yes, I've moved away from the PvP server, and I haven't regretted it. I've never really participated in open PvP, so it's not really a surprise. I've said before that I only started on a PvP server to have that extra option available to me and to have an added dose of excitement. Well, your unofficial ambassador to Taborea may be changing his tune. After I made the switch to PvE, I wasn't sure what to do. I already had a high-level character. I didn't feel ready to put my main to rest. It's been my dedicated character for over a year, and it does give me the advantage of accessing high-level content. With the limited time I have for Runes of Magic right now, let alone other MMOs, I was tentative about making an alt. I took the plunge, made an alt, and haven't looked back. Oddly enough -- or maybe not -- I'm enjoying PvP more on a PvE server. I've found that I like alt life, and it has me thinking creatively about what to do with each character. I've spoken about PvP culture; I've mentioned my idea for improving battlefields; and last week I spoke about siege badges that can help you in battlefields. This week, I want to cover building a low-level PvP alt. There's a lot to be done in prepping a low-level PvP alt, so let's get busy.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Badge of honor
I've been spending a lot of time lately in Runes of Magic's battlefields and arena. There are a number of these instanced PvP areas and this crafter has been enjoying most of them. The battlefields, arena, and guild siege system all have tasty incentives in the form of points or badges. Basically operating as a form of currency, these PvP rewards can all be spent on a variety of items. If you thought gear grinding or buying purified fusion stones was the only way to improve your character, then think again. If you thought spending diamonds or exorbitant amounts of gold was the only way to improve your pet, then think again. If you thought Kipos had one ugly mug... well, you'd be right. In this article I take a look at a couple alternative forms of currency you can get your hands on and what you can do with them.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Fun with housing
I've briefly mentioned housing in previous articles, but I haven't done any in-depth looks into it. Plus, with the addition of new house contracts, the housekeeper system, and some creative ideas I've discovered, I thought it was about time to give housing some exposure. For the uninitiated, Runes of Magic's housing is a feature that lets you have an instanced area for yourself to store items, earn bonuses, and decorate to your heart's content. I've seen some players refer to RoM's housing as Everquest II lite. Apart from a handful of boss furniture-recipes, you don't craft the majority of furniture. You can buy furniture from NPCs or select from a wide range of choices in the cash shop. Once inside your house, you'll have access to the housing interface. Your items of choice can be moved into the furniture slots and then placed anywhere you want. You can get a more detailed how-to guide on housing from the Runes of Magic Wiki. In this article, I want to take a look at some creative things you can do with furniture and housing.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Mana strike
When In the Depths of the Forest went live in Runes of Magic there were cheers heard across Taborea, but players soon protested. Along with all of the new content, Runkewaker also added a nerf in the form of increased mana costs for many of the skills in RoM. On top of the existing base mana costs for skills, a percentage modifier was added that significantly increased the cost to use skills as you leveled up. Many players were unhappy with the skills being balanced in this way and went as far as staging cross-server in-game strikes in Varanas' Central Plaza until something was done. Only a few days after the patch went live, a new hotfix was applied to RoM which removed the balancing act completely. Tony Tang, the Vice President of Business Development at Runewaker, issued a statement to announce the removal of the balance, but he also clarified that the company was confident a change would need to be made to address the issue of the game becoming less challenging. In this week's article I want to take a closer look at why many players were upset and point out why I think the balance may be for the better.
