Monthly Archives: February 2009

Galaxy Online Approaching

Galaxy Online, first self-designed by IGG, is a strategic online game combining a powerful battle system and abundant battle expressive force. Galaxy Online is the newest and best strategic game to be released in some time. Some players have said that it is comparable to Ogame, but we feel that Galaxy Online has a better strategic style and more satisfying gameplay. Today, IGG was very happy to give all players a brief introduction about this fast approaching game.

Galaxy Online is set across the vast universe, and players from different forces can PK freely. Battles rage constantly and in this galactic sphere, the law of the jungle rules. Players must promote their strength ceaselessly to maintain their position, and only the bravest and wisest commander can be the King! Players may like the many thoughtful design elements in the game, such as smart client, convenient galaxy trustee system, individual and intelligent Plug-ins system, all of which let players experience wonderful feelings whilst playing the game!

Galaxy Online tries to offer a free development space for players so that they can design their own warships, arrange battle teams and recast planets according to their wishes in the interplanetary world. The game not only pays attention to battle but also tests players’ strategic design ability. Players need to build a home galaxy as a base, and they need to form a fleet to crusade and occupy more galaxies to expand their strength. Galaxy Online provides players with battle scenes with great expressive force and amazing scale, and is one of the best strategic net games around for players who like strategy and challenge. It is a world filled with legends and a universe fighting for survival.

The Galaxy Online forum has opened now, where players can find related materials, newbie guides and communicate and discuss every aspect with others.

7Million: Portuguese and Spanish websites available

Deep Silver, the games label of Koch Media, a leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products, today announced that the official teaser website for 7Million is also available in the languages Spanish and Portuguese as of now. Spanish and Portuguese speaking people can now enter Paradise City at www.7million.com without any language barriers.



There they can find all the information about the game, interesting facts about the factions and characters as well as screenshots and the first video. In the English speaking forum people can chat and ask for help if needed. News will constantly be updated to the website to keep all daredevil tricksters and shrewd thieves up-to-date on their next great coup.

WAR: new classes and new event!

Mythic has announced some interesting events for Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning:

Today we issued a Call to Arms to all players of WAR with the announcement of the first live expansion for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Call to Arms will introduce an incredible array of new content to the game, including two highly anticipated new careers – the head bashin’ Orc Choppa and the oath-sworn Dwarf Slayer – and a new dungeon zone called Land of the Dead, set in the desert realm of the Tomb Kings.

The Call to Arms live expansion, set to roll out for free over the next few months, will also include three in-game live events, a new RvR Scenario, added functionality to the Realm Wars section of the WAR website, the opening of the official WAR Forums, and a new free trial version of the game.

Call to Arms Live Expansion Schedule

  • Call to Arms: Bitter Rivals Live Event (March): Successful completion of the live event allows head start access to the new Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer careers. The event will also introduces a new Chaos-themed RvR Scenario, Twisting Tower.
  • The Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer answer the Call to Arms and join WAR! (March)
  • Call to Arms: Beyond the Sands Live Event (April): The promise of great riches and powerful weapons comes from the south.
  • Call to Arms: Rise of the Tomb Kings Live Event (May): The race between Order and Destruction begins to unlock the Land of the Dead for their Realm.
  • Land of the Dead Opens (June): The deserts of Nehekhara open to players with the addition of a new RvR-gated dungeon zone. To gain access to the Land of the Dead, opposing Realms must battle for control of the zone to access dozens of new Public Quests, instanced lairs, and a massive new Tomb Kings dungeon to plunder in search of the Casket of Souls.

More details on these and other new features soon to invade the Age of Reckoning will be revealed as the launch of Call to Arms grows near.

Runes of Magic Preview: One Character Two Classes

By Gabriele Giorgi, Onrpg writer

Taborea, a realm filled with magic, is looking for heroes. Although this world has a long history, adventurers have begun to appear only a couple of months ago… when Frogster opened his servers for the Open Beta of Runes of Magic. The game is due to be released in March, and all the players taking part in the Beta will retain their character at launch, giving them a considerable head start. But let’s have a look at the features (some of them quite innovative) of this new Free to Play MMORPG.

One character, two classes

Probably the most important feature introduced by RoM is the dual-class system. This is not something completely new for MMORPGs (think about Guild Wars), but here it’s quite peculiar.
Every character starts with one of the six available classes (knight, warrior, scout, rogue, priest, wizard… all pretty standard and self-explanatory) and, as soon as he reaches level 10, you can choose another one. From that moment on, you will be able to set one of them as primary and the other as secondary… but this is not something to be taken lightly. The primary class determines what armour you can wear and what weapons you can wield, and some skills can only be used if a class is set to primary. Last but not least, the level of the secondary class cannot exceed the level of the primary. As a result, when you’ve just acquired your new class and you ‘switch’, for example, from a knight 10/wizard 1 clad in full plate mail, you will find you are now a meagre wizard1/knight1, with just a few hit points and practically naked, since your new primary class cannot wear that kind of armour and, on the character screen, it will be highlighted in red.

Of course the developers thought about this ‘little problem’ and, as soon as you’ve obtained your second class, you will be given a convenient teleport skill allowing you to go back to the low-level areas in but a click. There a whole new set of quests will appear, helping you to level up your character once again, in order to put him up to date with the previous class.

Leveling to 10/10 takes around four hours of gameplay. If you are not satisfied with your combination, you have to start anew with and try a different character. Indeed the drawback of this system is that you cannot change a class once you’ve chosen it. On the other hand, you’ve got 36 possible combinations (including solo characters and the fact that, for example, a warrior/rogue is not the same as a rogue/warrior).

Take me home

If you feel ready to explore Taborea, just speak with the various NPCs in the starting area and beyond. The first quests will explain all the major features of the game, like the dual-class system, crafting, housing, PvP and so on. The real missions will involve killing mobs, gathering certain items, exploring sites and finding people. Some particularly dangerous tasks and mobs will require, of course, to team up with other players. On the other hand there are some quests where all you have to do is literally just cross the road. Anyway in the quest log all the important information are highlighted andthere you will also find the option to set a way-point or auto-move toward a certain NPC, much like it happens with the map.

In fact, the world map will be a very useful tool. Not only it shows you all the available quest givers in the region, but you can also click on the marker of one of them (or any other spot, for that matter), select the option ‘move to’ and your character will go there on his own. Of course you need to watch out if you are crossing dangerous areas, and the scrolling might not be very smooth when the character changes direction, but all in all you will not bother to keep an eye on the screen all the time while you are just delivering a quest. The radar map in the game interface also helps you track the mobs needed for your current quests.

Speaking of the environment, the maps are nicely drawn, but the graphics in the game are quite big and made of polygons, with a style somewhere in between WoW and manga. Visually the game resembles a sort of fairytale, at a cost of looking a bit naïve as well.

It’s a kind of magic

Runes of Magic would not be true to its name without some mechanics involving this kind of magic. From enchanter NPCs you can acquire power stones, and mobs will drop different runestones. One of the game feature, the arcane transmutor, will help you make the most out of them. You can convert power stones in mana stones and, once you are satisfied with them, you can merge them with your items. You can also combine runes to create different kinds or more powerful ones: many items have one or more slot where you can place the runes, bestowing them even more powers. Much like the Horadrim cube of good old Diablo 2, this is a feature left to the player to peruse and investigate. The only problem is that the transmutor has limited charges, and you will need to replenish them with diamonds or tokens (see below).

Combined with a sound crafting system, this gives you plenty of opportunities to customise all of your gear, armour, weapons and trinkets alike.

Another interesting magic system is the transporter: you will use ink to ‘write down’ a location in your book to teleport there with a recall rune at a later time. Since there are 49 available slots, this gives plenty of possibilities for quick traveling.

Diamonds are a player’s best friends

We mentioned that RoM is a Free to Play MMORPG and you can play it with no restrictions whatsoever. On the other hand, of course, many optional features will require ‘diamonds’, a currency you can buy on the Runes of Magic official website for real money.

For instance, the inventory space is quite limited, but you can rent additional slots with diamonds. In game terms this means you will be able to carry more items and loot when you are out adventuring, and you won’t need to go back to town so frequently to empty your pack. But this is just an example: the item shop is full of objects that will help you level up, advance your crafting skills, recharge your transmutor, move faster (mounts)… even look better, since you will need to spend a small amount of diamonds to change the colour of your outfit.

The item shop accepts also another form of currency called Bierdine tokens: this money can be acquired through daily quests (maximum 10 per day for a total of 100 tokens). Only some of the items in the item shop can be bought with Bierdine tokens, but they involve some of the key elements of the game like arcane transmutor charges or the marking ink and runes to use the transporter.

So it’s important to notice that the game is entirely playable without any real money. If and how much to spend it will be completely up to you.

Conclusions

Runes of Magic is going to provide a fun game with the usual features of most MMORPGs plus some nice innovative additions. It will be a Free to Play game, and you can choose whether to spend or not any money to take advantage of the various additional features. Since it is now in Open Beta and the characters created during this phase will remain after the official launch, this is a perfect time to try it out and even get a head start.

Pros

– Dual class system allows a great deal of customisation and replayability

– Crafting and runes will help you create your own special equipment

– Useful map with auto-movement and trackers

Cons

– Once chosen, none of your two classes can be changed

– Graphics noticeably made with polygons and a bit childish

– Some of the delivery quests are really menial

Requiem: Bloodymare video

Requiem: Bloodymare is a massively multiplayer online game for mature audiences that will immerse you into a dark world of bloodshed devastated by generations of scientific and magical abuse. Watch this great video now!

Conquer Online: Lantern Festival Quest Coming Feb 7th

This Feb 9th is the 15th day of the first lunar calendar, and this marks a special day in this Chinese calendar, called the Lantern Festival. The Lantern Festival marks the end of the Chinese New Year festivities and the full moon on this day represents the union within families.

For this traditional festival, the TQ team has prepared a Lantern Festival Special Quest from which players can experience vivid Chinese culture. Perhaps even learn something.

Duration: Feb 7th – Feb 9th
Requirement: All the players

It is a thousand-year long tradition for Chinese folks to hang lanterns with various styles and play riddles under the light cast by these elaborate handcrafts. During the event, players will find lots of Festival Lanterns in many areas of the game. Answer the riddles hidden in the lanterns, then you will have a chance to win a Meteor, a Gourd (use it to transform) or experience worth 1/30 of an EXP Ball.

Also, players can light up or put out the lanterns to win the traditional Lantern Festival dessert – the Sweet Dumpling. By consuming the Sweet Dumpling, you can get Heaven Blessing for 2 hours, Attack Pot (20m), Defense Pot (20m), or experience worth 1/6 of an EXP Ball

Zu Online: New Items Introduction

The Zu Online team from IGG is happy to announce the release of some new items in the Zu Item Mall, including Training Helper-7 Days, Refining Helper-7 Days, Training Helper-30 Days, and Refining Helper-30 Days for all players. Here’s a brief introduction to these items:

Reward One (30 Days) Introduction
Players can right-click the Helper to claim their rewards after they purchase it from the Item Mall. They can use only one Helper each day and they must claim their rewards each day.

Item Introduction: The Helper will not disappear after being used and it takes 5 second to cool down. It will exist for 29 days in your bag and each slot can only hold one Helper.)

Right click the Training Helper-30 Days each time to obtain following items: Thunder Casket Package*1, Rain Item Package*1, Wind Item Package*1 and 20,000 Bone.

Right click the Refining Helper-30 Days each time to obtain following items: Lightning Casket Package*1, Cloud Item Package*1, Fog Item Package*1 and 20,000 Bone.



Reward Two (7 Days) Introduction
Players can right-click the Helper to claim their rewards after they purchase it from the Item Mall. They can use only one Helper per day and they must claim their rewards each day.

Item Introduction: The Helper will not disappear after being used and it takes 5 second to cool down. It will exist for 6 days in your bag and each slot can only hold one Helper.)

Right click the Training Helper-7 Days each time to obtain following items: Thunder Casket Package*1, Rain Item Package*1, Wind Item Package*1 and 20,000 Bone.

Right click the Refining Helper-7 Days each time to obtain following items: Lightning Casket Package*1, Cloud Item Package*1, Fog Item Package*1 and 20,000 Bone.

Myth War II Online: Armor of Dream Introduction #1

In Myth War II Online, most players are willing to endure certain hardships in order to possess one piece of Armor of Dream. Gear like this gives the owner the confidence of never being overpowered in battle, as it possesses diversified attributes and overwhelming defensive power, as well as the power of ancient deities channeled into the wearer. On our recommendation list, these three gear pieces have been chosen first to start our Armor of Dream revelation trip.

Helmet
Diadem of Serenity: Badra

Once a tribute from High Elflord Pasolini to Paladin, God of Strength, Paladin then gave it to his servant, Badra, to honor his supreme loyalty. The Diadem of Serenity is made of stones from the Dark Portal with Pasolini’s lavish praise on Paladin inscribed. This helmet weights 2 tons, and can only can be worn by the strongest warriors like Badra. It is immune to all element magic.
Gear up: Defense +1500 and gains of 40 points resistances to two random schools of magic.

Breastplate
Heavenly Armor: Roda

Boasting flawless defense and made by Roda, God of Forging, 1000 spirit stones were used to craft this Heavenly Armor. Roda spent his whole life creating this one piece of body armor that represents an unbeatable force and exceptionable defense. Its wearers will be immune to all physical and magic attack. Roda regarded it as one of his best works and had this gear named after him.
Gear up: Defense +3000, gains of 125 dodge ratings and granting a resistance to one random school of magic and physical attack.

Boots
High Elflord’s Enchant Boots

These boots belonged to High Elflord Pasolini and were tailormade by the best shoemaker in the Elf race. Nether Dragon beard and monster hide were collected and sewn together to help boost agility for its wearer and many times, Pasolini killed his opponents by giving them no chance of striking back. Later, a fallen elf stole these boots before a war broke out. Pasolini was killed by rebel forces in the war and now this pair of boots is the only piece of Armor of Dream without a name.

Gear up: Agility +350

12 Sky 2: new contest

Have you ever dreamed of being a glorious war hero? How about a merciless master of the dark and forbidden arts?

Today MAYN Interactive Pte Ltd., European publisher for the critically acclaimed Massively Multiplayer Online Role Play Game (MMORPG) “TwelveSky 2”, has announced the launch of a fantastic new contest, “SHOW US YOUR VOICE – be heard”!

The “SHOW US YOUR VOICE – be heard” video competition allows everyone to freely participate in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where nine (9) Grand Prize winners will have their very own voice embodied as renowned Non Playable Characters (NPCs) within the game world of “TwelveSky 2 Europe”. In addition, twenty-one (21) Second Prize winners will receive a specially designated Cape and guaranteed Closed Beta access.

Participants are to act out one or several in-game characters with pre-drafted scripts and submit their videos to MAYN via the official website www.12sky2.com. Props are encouraged! Once uploaded and approved, competitors will be able to get their family, friends, and other members of the community to vote on their performance!
Think you have what it takes to be famous? Show us your voice!