Monthly Archives: May 2009

AdventureQuest Interview: Battles in Browsers?

Questions by Mohammed Afzal (MageMoa), Onrpg writer
Answered by Tony Deller, lead developer of AdventureQuest, Artix Entertainment
Adventure quest is a unique browser based RPG which has been created years ago. It is one of the oldest existing browser based RPGs. Adventure quest tells us the story about brave warriors that are trying to save their world and protect innocents (check Adventure quest’s site for the complete story) by fighting hundreds of unique, challenging monsters.
The game offers us many features, stunning turn based combat and thousands of weapons and colorful equipment without having to download anything! We of Onrpg had been given a chance to interview Tony Deller, lead developer of Adventure Quest.
 
Onrpg: Could you introduce yourself, please?
 
I am Tony Deller, creative lead for AdventureQuest for the past 5 years.
 
Onrpg: Adventure Quest is an online single-player browser game. Why is Adventure Quest browser based?
 
Being accessible from a web browser makes AQ available to anyone to play, anytime, from any computer in the world as long as one has access to the internet and, of course, a browser.  So accessibility is the main reason we went with the Flash format.
 
Onrpg: Will there ever be a downloadable version of the game?
 
At several points we considered a downloadable version, but we always come away with the same answer:  A large part of what makes AQ special, even after almost 7 years, is that it updates every single week of the year with new content.  Our other games (DragonFable, MechQuest and AQ Worlds) also update every single week.
 
Onrpg: Are there ways to have contact with other players?
 
We like to call AdventureQuest  a “massively single player game” because, even though players cannot see or chat with each other in-game, their actions can be counted together in wars, polls, votes, and other events and change the course of the game’s content and world in that way.  Players use our moderated, safe message boards to talk about our games.
 
Onrpg: Could you tell us more about the classes of the game?
 
Any player can train any number of classes they want to, and have access to those skills during every battle.  We began with what we saw as one of the most fun classes: DragonSlayer.  We soon added the likes of Paladin, Knight, Mage, Rogue, Wizard, Dracomancer, Berserker, Beast Master, Necromancer, Vampire Slayer, Ninja, Pirate, and others.  Every class has 10+ unlockable skills, unique animations, special items and unique armors/outfits to go with them.
 
Onrpg: What kind of (sub)races are there?
 
Players can become Vampires, Werewolves, and a hybrid called “Werepyres,” and level up their power in those subraces.  We have a unique hybrid subrace coming up called “Dracopyre” – which is part werewolf, part vampire, and part dragon.
AQ Dungeon
AQ Dungeon

Onrpg: Could you describe the combat of the game?
 
Battles are turn-based.  A player can change equipment, including armors and classes, during combat.  All monsters and enemies have at least some basic AI, and many of them have some very special abilities and AI that lead to some surprising effects on Players.  Players, for their part, have access to literally thousands of pieces of equipment: pets, armors, shields, spells, weapons, helms, treasure and magical items, spoof and plain old wacky items, and more.
 
Onrpg: Are there any wars or PvP which allow you to fight with/against your friends?
 
All of our war events involve all players joining forces against armies of bad guys.  All victories and defeats are tallied together.  Some wars involve Players choosing sides.  In the past we’ve had Ninjas vs. Pirates, Werewolves vs. Vampires, DragonSlayers vs. Dracomancer, and Paladins vs. Necromancers.
 
Onrpg: What makes Adventure Quest an appealing game?
 
AQ features a very mixed visual look, combining the work of half a dozen artists over the course of as many years, with an overall anime feel.  The original art was quite primitive, but after the game rose in popularity we wasted no time in finding very talented artists and animators.  So the look of AQ is unique, and always surprising.  It also updates every single week of the year, and features a huge variety of equipment, thousands of unique monsters, and hundreds of quests, wars and events.
 
Onrpg: What are the extra features if you purchase a membership?
 
Our memberships in AQ are a one-time fee—not a subscription.  We call it the “Guardian Upgrade.” For the small fee of $19.95 US, a Player unlocks hundreds of special items (featuring all types of equipment, armors, pets, and spells), and gains access to dozens of Guardian-only areas and quests.  A Guardian, for paying that one single fee, will also get all future Guardian bonuses and perks.
 
Onrpg: Why is there no music ingame?
 
Being a browser-based game, music introduces a larger bandwidth cost.  Aside from that, a majority of Players often play at school or work where sounds coming from your computer are often frowned upon.  We do, however, offer some special items which can play background music in the game when you activate them, and we have sound effects which the Player can turn on or off.
 
Onrpg: Adventure Quest has a wide variety of monsters and spells which are element based. Could  you tell us more about this feature?
 
There are a wide range of damage types in AQ.  They are all a combination of elements (earth, air, fire, water, energy, wind, ice, light and darkness), weapon type (melee, ranged, magic), and effects (poison, paralyze, burn, freeze, etc.).  Every Player armor/ class and monster has different defenses against these attacks, so Players have a choice to use strategy in battles or just brute force.
 
Onrpg: What are the other unique features of Adventure Quest?
 
Aside from weekly updates, a variety of items and enemies that rivals the biggest games ever made, and a robust, though simple, combat system, AQ offers a very safe environment for Gamers of all ages, a supportive community and community staff, a team of developers that listens to what Players like and don’t like – working every day to make the game better, and a very broad mix of parody, puns, satire, and pop culture humor.
 
Onrpg: What can we expect in the future?
 
AQ has gone through many major story arcs in the past 6+ years, and there is much more yet to come.  Every storyline delves into a different and compelling part of the world and introduces interesting characters, items, monsters and events.  A Player can follow the stories closely or just enjoy the gameplay and collecting items and rewards.  
 
Onrpg: Is there anything else you would like to mention?
 
I would like to sign off with a hearty “Battle On!” and invite all of your readers to try playing AQ!
 
Onrpg: Thank you for your time!
Thank you!

Rappelz Review: The Dragonic Age

By Kei Beneza (Dividelife), Onrpg writer
 
Since most f2p games generalize on level grinding, Rappelz wouldn’t disappoint you one bit. The visuals are stunning and would probably be one of the first things to catch your attention. Grinding is what makes this game go since you pretty much have to grind for everything. Now this may seem like a total let down, but do know that a majority of people prefer this style of MMO gaming. The characters all look good (and I’m not referring to the graphics), with their radical hairdo and divine looking armor. Rappelz has been catering its MMO goodness for quite some time now. It would seem that this game is quite popular and it’s not about to die any time soon. So… let us take a closer look shall we?
 

Races and Classes

“Deva Kn–” “Oh don’t worry man… we know :))”
 
Unlike other MMOs, races in the game have a rather ‘pinpointed’ role. Everyone in a particular race starts out with the race’s default class. This is pretty much referred to as the newbie class. Your role in the game can only be defined by which race you choose. It’s not really about a certain race having their own specialty, but rather their own unique features. Deva, for example are the only ones who can have a tanking class while the Asura gets to have rogue-ish abilities like “deep evasion” and offensive damage. It’s a bit messed up although it doesn’t serve as a problem whatsoever. More classes are revealed as you progress throughout the game, giving you more options for your character to mold into.
 
Character customization is rather poor in terms of aesthetics since you don’t get that many options to choose from. The serious lack of clothing is also an issue although their default fashion sense and funky hairstyles look good enough for people to not mind it.
 
There’s also a serious lack of information in the character selection screen which makes it pretty hard to determine your character’s future. The small details on what they specialize on however makes up for it. It may be rather harsh for newbies to not know what they are getting to, although it’s nothing a bit of research wont fix (the class descriptions ARE featured in their website after all). 
 

Oooh! Shiny!

 
Another thing thats quite appealing would be the game’s dazzling skills. I don’t know about you but it IS quite hard for me to resist shiny spells, and this game pretty much shines with a lot of those. The damage display is also rather amusing, especially since it’s quite rare for people to be satisfied with how criticals or damage numbers would come up. Despite the low variety of character aesthetics, seeing them in combat removes makes them rather invigorating. It wont really matter if you look like everyone else, just as long as you hit HARDER(or spark more LOL) than everyone else.
 
Now aside from the sparkling characters, the background isn’t bad at all. Most of the wastelands look scrumptious enough to level on, with monsters that complement the area’s ambiance.
The essence of customization: Lets make our toons strongah!
 
Though leveling may seem fun especially when you get to kill monsters to achieve it, Rappelz also gives you something else to farm for aside from experience points and in-game cash. Job points (JP) can also be acquired by killing these unruly creatures, which are used to buy skills (as well as skill upgrades) throughout the game. What kinda hurts would be the fact that you have to spend JP on levelling your Job level is well, which is quite necessary for your characters to advance. This alone makes it hard to make mistakes when leveling your character, making you plan in advance to whether you’re going to get a skill or increase your job level.
 
One thing that separates a character from the others is his/her gear. Rappelz also has a bunch of upgrades that will help compliment your character’s playstyle. 
 
“Cubes” are used to increase your desired feature. It’s pretty much an item that optimizes your equipment as well as your skills depending on what type of cube your character is using. These cubes can also be combined in order to create better cubes. If you’re worried about not getting one, might I say that you’ll be killing monsters throughout the game so the chances of you getting one is rather high.
 

Character’s best friend?

 
The pet system makes your characters rather competent, letting them adjust to their surroundings as they tame beasts to fit that certain area. Getting a hard hitting pet will greatly compliment your hard hitting warrior, making it faster to kill monsters thus increasing the amount of exp and jp you gain over time.
 
Mounts are attained rather early in this game compared to other MMO. This is a big plus for players since running around with a mount makes it easier for them to reach certain places without having to cry about mobs killing them along the way.     
 

Monstrous Clones

 
If there’s something I would want to rant on, it would probably be the game’s lack of monster models. Looking like someone else is bad enough but being killed by a monster who looks like its low-leveled kin makes it darn annoying. I recall leveling around with my twins, constantly bashing everything in my way when suddenly I was struck down by the same monster I was farming on for a couple of hours. It didn’t take me long to realize that the monster who killed me was called ‘Paradise lost’, who was a lot stronger compared to the bone ‘thingies’ that I was farming on.
Interesting features?
 
Rappelz is by far the only game (I may be exaggerating) that players OWN a certain dungeon– yes thats right… you can OWN your very own dungeon!. If a guild beats the time attack record upon completing a certain dungeon (provided that they killed all the bosses and the guild who owns it), that guild will be crowned as the new owners of the once instanced (non-persistent) dungeon.
 
Owning a dungeon allows you to tax people who use it. It is pretty slick, especially if all the alpha players are in one guild… now that’s an age of tyranny! LOL
 

The Verdict

 
If I were to judge this game, I’d say its pretty good. Grinding is a total bore at times but this game really made me look at things through a whole new perspective. The game lacks a variety of stuff like character aesthetics and background music. Though this may seem like something to complain about, everything else pretty much justifies the problem. With a good community and a lot of possibilities, Rappelz is a must play MMO.
 
Pros
– Dungeon ownership
– Customizable guild emblems (fully customizable)
– Shiny spells
 
The Bad
– Utmost grinding for almost everything
– Lack of variety
– Lack of music

Champions Online: Launch Postponed

This message was published on the Champions Online official website:
 
We wanted our fans to hear this from us first… We’re changing our Champions Online launch date from July 14th  to September 1st of this year.
 
Why? Here’s what our own Bill Roper, Design Director and Executive Producer on Champions Online, had to say about it:
“It is critically important for an MMO to be as good as it possibly can be at launch. Through our constant dialogue with our vocal and supportive community of beta testers, we quickly realized that in order to implement certain features that we all considered important the development of Champions Online would require more time.  So that’s what we’re going to give it. Cryptic has a proven track record of releasing solid games and we want to maintain that with Champions Online.”
 
What does this mean for you? Simply, more beta play time right now and a better, more polished game at launch.

Free Realms: More Than 1 Mil in 17 Days

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) today announced that more than one million unique users have registered for Free Realms, the free, family-friendly online video game that launched on April 28. To mark this milestone, SOE is rewarding all current Free Realms players with limited edition, in-game T-shirt featuring special graphics. The one-millionth player will also receive a lifetime membership to the game, a one-of-a-kind in-game astronaut suit, and 10,000 Station Cash.
 
“The excitement surrounding Free Realms, and the positive response the game has already received, is overwhelming,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “To achieve this milestone so rapidly speaks to the quality and the fun gameplay experience Free Realms offers to players of all ages.”
Along with the limited edition Free Realms T-shirt for their character to wear, 999,999 players will receive a matching pet T-shirt for their four-legged friends, and 200 Station Cash to use toward the purchase of in-game items.
 
In Free Realms, players can customize their characters, explore, quest, battle monsters, and play a wide variety of minigames in a safe, online environment, packed with stunning visuals, distinctive environments, and social networking capabilities. Players are free to do or be anything: Fight like a ninja, cook a tasty meal, raise a pet, battle goblins, set out on epic quests or connect with friends through a safe, social networking site. Also available is the Free Realms Trading Card Game: a full-featured trading card game, playable both digitally within the Free Realms online game and offline via physical card decks available wherever you buy trading cards.

Dungeon Party Launched

Focus Home Interactive and Cyanide Studio have announced the launch of Dungeon Party, a free MMOG in which two teams of up to 5 players compete over one or more rounds and victory is only assured when one of them gets out of the dungeon with the treasure. Players can choose from one of 6 character types and they can customise their hero with various items of clothing or other objects that might come in useful in a dark corner. Regular tournaments promise games of even greater intensity and will allow all players to measure themselves against the best, thanks to a real-time ranking system.

The Warlords: Join PK Tournaments

Attention adventurers,
 
To revive the militarism tradition of the Manchu and select the elite warriors, the Qing Court will host the regular PK Tournaments starting from May 17th.
 
There will be tournaments on every Sunday and the first day of each month, namely Weekly PK Tournament and Monthly PK Tournament. Each tournament is divided into 3 groups: Civilian, Soldier, and Veteran, participants can apply according to their levels.
 
In PK Tournaments, you will experience an intensive battle royal against your peers, and the last one standing will be the winner, to obtain various rewards and honor. Among the rewards, the Qing court has prepared the robust steeds for the heroes/heroines. With these loyal steeds, you can travel the Middle Kingdom swiftly, and wipe out those bloody rebels for the empire.
 
Warriors, prepare yourselves well to win the appreciation of the emperor.

Return of Warrior

Return of Warrior is the remake of Risk Your Life (RYL) with major upgrades. You choose between two factions; Humans or Ak’Kan and fight in duels or giant battles.
 
Take part in quests or missions, fight other players and trade virtual goods. All elements aim to secure your faction to win against the enemy!

Wakfu Review: The Sequel of Dofus

By Mohammed Afzal (MageMoa), Onrpg Journalist
Dofus had always been a unique game. It was 2 dimensional, it had many classes which not one other game had, its community was amazing and it had a lot of amusing features. After the success of Dofus, Ankama decided to develop a game that had the good parts of Dofus combined with modern graphics and a new world: Wakfu.
Even though the game is still in Open Beta, and it is still being developed, it is already popular and many former Dofus players decided to give the new game a try. They noticed many similarities with Dofus, but it was somehow different. They thought it was an amazing game, but could it beat the great reputation of Dofus?

At the Start

Right from the beginning of the game, you will notice that there are many differences if you would compare the game to Dofus.
When logging in to the game, you will have to create your character. Sadly, you will only be able to change the color of your skin and hair which means that you will encounter many people ingame that look exactly like you.
Keep in mind that Wakfu is only partly Free to Play. Most of the areas can only be accessed as a subscriber. 

Stats and Combat

Wakfu is a turnbased game, just like Dofus. This means that you will have to wait for your turn before being able to do anything.
The combat of the game is not very complex. You basically have to wait for your turn and select a spell to cast. Attacks and movement is limited; It is not possible to kill all your enemies or to move through the whole map in one turn.
Every player has an amount of AP (action points) and MP (movement points) to keep the usage of spells limited. Spells cost a certain amount of AP and moving costs MP. This is a great way to think very well before using a spell.
 

Classes

Wakfu has 12 unique classes. These classes can also be found in Dofus. There are some small differences, but they are practically the same, which is pretty disappointing since many players expected more unique classes.
Here is some information about all the classes:
 
Cra’s Range – They can be seen as the archers of the game. They have high range and they deal a decent amount of damage. The only problem is that their defense is low and they could use some more health. It is also a bad idea to fight monsters with spells, since Cra’s are vulnerable to magic.
 
Ecaflip’s Coin – They are real gamblers. All their spells are based on their luck. Sometimes they are able to hit very high, but they can also do very low damage.  Ecaflip’s Coin is a though class, especially for beginners, since they need decent stats to hit high.
 
Eniripsa’s Hands – This is the healer class of the game. They are very flexible, but their damage is not very high and they really need good damage dealers in their party to keep up.
Since they support their party members, they should focus on buffing and healing their friends.
 
Enutrof’s Fingers – This class has a bit of everything. They mostly tank or support, but they also have some attacking spells. The only problem with Enutrofs is that their damage is very low, which means they are a hard class for new players.
Feca’s Shield – A Feca’s Shield has a mix of defense spells and magical traps (glyphs). They are also a support class, since their frontal damage is really low. They should set up their traps and then start using their defensive buffs on their allies.
 
Iop’s Heart – Iop’s Heart is often called the strongest melee class of the game. They can deal high melee damage to their opponents, but they also have a lot of health, which means that they could also be used as a tank.
 
Pandawa’s Pint – The members only class of Dofus. This is one of the most amusing classes, because you are a panda and you can get drunk. What else do you want? When a Pandawa is drunk, it will be able to deal decent damage to more than one enemy. They have some AoE (Area of Effect) spells, but they are also able to carry their allies and they can even throw with them! Now, that sounds amusing, doesn’t it?
 
Sadida’s Shoe – They summon dolls to protect themselves and their allies. Other than that, they also have a decent amount of offensive spells. It is the best to join a party when fighting harder monsters, because Sadidas are not able to resist a high amount of damage.
 
Sacrier’s Blood – They have the highest amount of health, but they also can deal  heavy damage. Sacriers are mostly used as punching bags, but I personally think they don’t really need a party. They can practically handle everything on their own.
 
Sram’s Shadow – Many different spells is what makes this class so good. They can hide, set traps, clone themselves and deal magical damage. There are many guides on how to use this class, but none of them will make your character very strong, because it is almost impossible to deal very high damage with a Sram.
 
Osamodas’ Whip – One of the most challenging classes of the game. Most Osamodas rely on their summons in a fight, but they also have the possibility to max a magical attack to protect themselves when all their summons are dead.
 
Xelor’s Sandglass – A magical class that uses magical attacks to fight. Xelors mostly use their magical attacks to attack their enemy, but they also have some spells which allow them to steal AP from their opponent.

Features and graphics

The graphics of Wakfu are way better than Dofus’. The characters have been completely changed and the monsters look even better. The only negative part of this upgrade is that many players with an old computer will not be able to run Wakfu without any lag.
 
Wakfu offers us quite some features. The game has PvP, but it isn’t really special. It basicly is the same as normal combat; The only difference is that your opponent is a real player. A great feature of the game are the professions such as harvesting and planting. There are many different professions in Wakfu. Some of these can only be executed if you are a subscriber, which is quite disappointing.
 
The most unique part of the game is that the economy is completely player based. There are no NPCs who buy your items which means that it could go wrong if the players decide to ruin it.

Conclusion and personal opinion

Wakfu is a decent game and a good sequel of Dofus. Anakma has done a great job on upgrading the game. The bad parts of Dofus, such as the graphics and many bugs, have been fixed and many players will enjoy Wakfu.
I personally don’t think Wakfu has ‘beaten’ Dofus. Dofus will always be a great game that gives you everything you want of a game and nothing can change that. Not even a sequel.
 
 
Pros
– Amusing graphics
– Wide variety of classes
– Unique features
– Player based economy
 
Cons
– Mostly Pay to Play
– Disappointing compared to Dofus