Yearly Archives: 2009
Introduction
Personal opinion
Angels Online: New PVP system Preview
The Angel Arena in sever branch 1 of all servers. Players can use any [teleportation] items or [Escape Potions].
After the event starts, all participating players will be teleported to their corresponding battlefields. Then, the system will automatically count down 5 seconds in the World Channel (it is included in the 20 minutes for each stage.) After 5 seconds, each participating Angel must find a blue circle on their feet. Then, they can begin to PK with each other.
Magic World Online 1 year Anniversary Celebration
Destiny Online Anniversary
There’s no more requirement of level or friendship points any more. You can marry any one whatever your level is or however your friendship point with her/him.
Fairy Dew can be used on pets above level 80.
To stay in and never out, hairstyle is always the key. Destiny Online provides you more choice of hairstyles and hair colors.
Saga of Ryzom goes P2P
The free trial pass gives three weeks of free and unlimited gaming that does not limit levels gained during the three week period (You are no longer forced to remain on Silan). Do not hesitate to invite your friends, as the game is still free to download (and play – within trial account limits) here and a new free trial account can be created here.
Now you are on the road to Atys, a wonderous, living world awaits, let the adventures continue!
The Ryzom Team.
RPG Dreamer
Here’s the winner for the Onrpg Blue Dragon Video Contest! The video is by Hotshotz79 and here’s the description:
“I start playing mmorpgs to see if they are worthplaying. While playing I fall asleep and wake up in a different world, only to find out that I have 10 minutes left on my quest to have lunch with my girlfriend! Will I make it in time or will i be suffering the consequences?”
Pangya
BattleForge Review: Perfectly Balanced
The first step in BattleForge is to choose your army. BF provides you four different sets of cards, divided by colour: red for massive attacks, blue for stalwart defence, green for regeneration and healing, purple for decay and damage over time. You can combine these colours any way you want but, just like in Magic the Gathering, the more colours you use, the more unlikely it will be for you to use the most powerful spells. A deck is composed by 20 cards, and you will need a balanced army, with melee and ranged units, turrets and spells. To help you move the first steps and get accustomed to the cards, the game provides you four pre-built single-colour decks. You can try them and decide which colour is more suited to your play-style and if you’d rather use one or more.
By Gabriele Giorgi (Darak), Onrpg writer
Take a good chunk of the Collectible Card Game Magic the Gathering (or Yu-Gi-Oh, if you prefer), dip it in a broth of Warcraft (I mean the original Warcraft, mind you, not WoW) and add a pinch of auction house from any MMO; boil and stir and… there you go! It’s the recipe of BattleForge, a brand new title by EA Games that can’t be boxed in just one genre. Will the gamers like its taste? Let’s try to guess it with this preview.
Build your deck
There’s more to it, of course. When you complete scenarios, you will be awarded upgrades and new cards, or “coins” you can use to buy boosters. Boosters will contain at least one rare card, much like in the CCG Magic the Gathering, and you can combine copies of a card, upgrades and battle points to create more powerful versions of it.
So part of the strategy and the first step to victory lie in a careful and balanced planning of your deck. As soon as you have arranged it, you are ready to enter the battlefield.
Power to fight
Although BattleForge is basically a Real Time Strategy game, some of its mechanics might prove to be a bit unusual from what you are used to. The main difference is that you do not need buildings to produce your troops, nor you have to constantly gather materials or gold to pay for them.
The only thing you need in order to summon your army is power from pylons scattered throughout the map: the more pylons you control, the quicker your power pool will replenish. The other essential requirement for your cards are elemental shrines: when you access a new one, you have to select which colour it will be. If you are using a single-colour deck, the choice will be straightforward, but if you are playing with more than one, you might want to be careful selecting what you need the most in that moment. Also, when your troops are defeated, some of the power you spent to summon them will form another pool and will contribute to your main level as well.
With your power you can summon units and cast spells near any other unit or pylon of yours. This means that you do not have to manage structures, and the defences are limited to walls you can erect in no time. So basically you just need to claim pylons and shrines, then defend them with turrets and troops alike (the only thing preventing you to amass you a vast army is a fixed unit cap).
This way the action turns out to be more fast-paced than a regular RTS, and a game, PvE or PvP alike, will not usually take more than half an hour.
Visually the game looks great: the graphics are stunning and really polished, while the animations are smooth and nice to watch. This is one of the best assets of this title and people will surely be impressed by it.
Know your enemy
As you might expect, you will have to face two different kinds of opponents: computer-controlled PvE scenarios and human adversaries in PvP.
Contrarily to what you might expect, the PvE part of this game is developed very deeply: not only there is a story unfolding, but you get to choose your path through the world map, since some of them require a cooperative effort to be completed. As usual, they will be increasingly difficult, letting you experience more of the game as you progress. About the kinds of mission, they are quite similar to what we have seen so far in RTS games, ranging from defending outposts to protect NPCs and the like. Anyway they are worth playing, both for the immediate rewards and because they can unlock other, more powerful cards.
PvP scenarios are set in simpler maps, and it will usually be a rush for the power pylons and the elemental shrines, since controlling them allows you to use more powerful creatures and spells. On the other hand, human opponents make them definitely more challenging. Something that takes a bit getting used to is the rule allowing you to spawn a troop nearby another one: it might be a bit disappointing if you are about to finish off an opponent, only to see another, more powerful unit, spawn at his feet. About balancing, this could be another possible issue, but problems of this kind will surely be addressed on a regular basis. PvP duels are also quite important, since they award some coins required to upgrade your cards.
A boost with boosters
As already mentioned, one quick way to improve your army is through boosters. BF will use a micro-transactions system to get in-game currency with real money. This will help people willing to invest real cash to have a more powerful deck in less time.
Players who do not want to spend real money will eventually be able to obtain the same cards, but it will take time and many battles, and in the PvP scenarios they will have to watch out for “boosted” opponents.
Another way to get more cards is the auction, very similar to most auction houses you might know. Along with simple trade (just contacting people through the chat system), it is a good way to get rid of the cards you are not going to use and search for those that will fit in your favourite deck.
Conclusions
BattleForge is surely an innovative title, that winks to different kinds of players. While it provides something for every one, it remains to be seen how it will appeal the public. Anyway it is to be recommended, since this game is trying to bring something new in the MMO environment.
Pros
– Astounding graphics
– Every game mode (solo, cooperative PvE, PvP) has been equally developed
– Many ways to obtain and trade cards
Cons
– PvP maps quite simple
– Some RTS unusual rules might require getting used to
– PvE missions too similar to any other RTS
Maple Story celebrates fourth anniversary
– Fourth Anniversary Maple Weapons – Monsters will be dropping special anniversary weapons. Or the players can exchange previous anniversary weapons and Maple Leaves for new Fourth Anniversary Weapons, Maple Hats, Maple Shields, Maple Earrings, or Fourth Anniversary Scrolls.
– Item Upgrades – Maple Hat and Maple Earrings obtained through monsters are upgradable using Maple Leaves. The earrings can be upgraded by completing additional quests.
– Leveling Up Event – Each time players levels up, they will receive Maple Leaves. The number of Maple Leaves rewarded will vary depending on the level. Higher level players will receive more Maple Leaves.
– GM Events – The GMs will run special events and summon last year’s anniversary boss, Big Puff Daddy, at random times.
– Monster Transformations – Any player can transform into one of MapleStory’s monsters for a given period of time.
– 4 Candle Event – Nexon is giving away 1,200 prizes over 40 days, including in-game items, Nexon Game Cards, digital cameras, iPod Touch and a laptop computer. Players who play for 40 minutes will receive a candle. Once a player has a candle, they can receive up to four pieces of cake for each successive 40 minutes of game play. Players who get four pieces of the cake will have a chance to win.
– Maple Quiz – Players can take the Maple Quiz. For every question a player gets right, five Maple Leaves and a special cake will be rewarded.