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Monthly Archives: October 2011
Age of Wulin Gamescom Trailer
Age of Wulin is shaping up to be gPotato’s Next Gen title of 2012, as well as a ground breaking Asian MMO.
Vindictus EU Enters Commercial Release
Vindictus EU Enters Commercial Release
For Europeans that have been going crazy all these many months, your wait is over. Nexon EU today launched Vindictus EU into full release.
In addition to new content, Evie the magician will now be a playable character in the game. She brings a whole new dynamic by focusing on ranged spell casting as the go-to source of the majority of her damage. For those eager to jump into the game as Evie, Nexon EU is offering a special limited event in which players can obtain a free hair exchange coupon if they level their new Evie to level 15 before October 19th. Now is the time to earn your free hair exchange coupon so don’t wait!
Also don’t enter the journey alone! Meet up with other members of the OnRPG community on our forum discussion to find people entering into Vindictus EU!
The Chosen Online Gameplay Trailer
The Chosen Online has so many features that it’s hard to summarize, but this video does it well.
Fallen Earth Goes F2P This Week!
Fallen Earth Goes F2P This Week
GamersFirst today announced that its award-winning post-apocalyptic action MMO Fallen Earth will complete its transition to Free2Play this week. Starting October 12, players will be able to login and experience the entire game without needing to purchase a retail copy or activate a subscription. Along with the change in business model comes a brand new World Event system, expanding the game’s sandbox offerings with dynamically generated events that can happen anywhere in the game world.
For the first time since the launch of this fan-favorite MMO, Fallen Earth players can now choose how much to invest in their chosen pastime. As is true for all of GamersFirst’s Free2Play games, there are no level caps or content limits for free players, making the same rich sandbox gameplay available to everyone.
Players with active subscriptions prior to the October 12 Free2Play transition will automatically convert to the top-tier Commander Premium Subscription, and qualify for all of the Fallen Earth Veteran reward packages, including monthly gifts, wardrobe slots, and a permanent discount on the Commander Premium subscription.
“It’s always a gamble when a company takes an existing MMO from subscription to Free2Play, but the Fallen Earth community and its veteran players have been overwhelmingly supportive,” said Joseph Willmon, associate game director for GamersFirst. “We wanted to find a way to extend a thank you to subscribers for their continued support and feedback.”
Need someone to jump back into the game and play with? Join our active discussion of players preparing to return to Fallen Earth later this week!
The Chosen Online Releases New Server, Gives Away Laptop!
The Chosen Online Launches New Server, Gives Away Laptop!
Snail Games USA announced the launch of a new server to support their growing free-to-play MMORPG, The Chosen Online. To celebrate the Rally server launch, Snail is offering a one-of-a-kind Chosen laser-etched laptop to the first Rally player to achieve the ultimate in-game rank: The Chosen.
The Chosen is a fabled rank held only by two players thus far, one of which reached the top only three weeks after the game’s release! To achieve this feat on the new Rally server and take home the limited-edition laptop, first become the King of your Dynasty, and then defeat other Dynasties in the Tripod War. The first player to do so will win the prize fit for a king: a Chosen laser-etched EON-17-S high performance gaming laptop from Origin PC!
Gaming laptop specs:
$1880 retail value with one-of-a-kind custom laser etching
EON17-S platform with B3 stepping – 1920 x 1080 17.3″ LED Backlit Display
Intel Core i5-2520 Dual-Core Processor (2.50GHz), 3MB Cache
1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M Graphics Card (1.5GB of Total GFX)
4GB Dual-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz – 2 X 2GB Memory
250GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive
8X DVD+/-R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Optical Drive & Software
Integrated High-Definition Audio with THX TruStudio Pro and up to 7.1 Channel support
Wi-Fi Link 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module with Bluetooth
Built-in 2.0 Megapixel Video Camera
Genuine MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Edition Operating System

The new server went live mere minutes ago so don’t miss out on your chance to be The Chosen Online!
League of Legends: Ascend
League of Legends: Xerath: Ascend
By Jason Harper (Hhean), OnRPG MOBA Reporter
Welcome summoners, to the patch v1.0.0.126 article for League of Legends, the game that just can’t seem to keep its evils sealed in a can. This patch includes minor tweaks to champion balance, a slight alteration to the Crystal Scar, and Xerath, The Magus Ascendant.
Xerath is a long ranged nuker, a floating laser howitzer who’ll zap you long before he sees the whites in your eyes. Xerath stands in stark contrast to the string of recent melee characters, attacking from as far from an enemy as physically possible. If you enjoy similar long range powerhouses like Kog’Maw, Lux, or Nidalee, he may be your perfect cup of tea.
Xerath’s defining ability is his Locus of Power [W], an activated mode that increases both his range and magic penetration, but at the cost of immobilizing him. This spell steroid alone is how he competes with other nukers, as when he is not in this siege mode, his damage and range are both unimpressive. You spend most of your time as Xerath buying time for this mode to come off cooldown, and then proceeding to bombard the enemy from as far away as possible.
Oh boy does he have some great tools for doing exactly that, too. His most commonly used poke is going to be Arcanopulse [Q], a low cost, low cooldown, low damage skillshot that bypasses minions. Taken as is, this ability is underwhelming, but enhanced by Locus of Power, this thing can hit people before they can even see you. This is a skill shot with a range comparable to Nidalee’s Javelin Toss, but with an instant travel time and a two second cooldown.
The other way of enhancing this ability is through the use of Spell Chains [E], a targeted ability that marks the target for a few seconds. If you hit an enemy with any spell at your disposal, it’ll consume the mark and stun the enemy for 1.5 seconds, in the same manner as Brand. This can make the Spell Chains + Arcanopulse combination a nice harassing tool that prevents any trades, and also acts as an escape during a gank.
While most of Xerath’s time is spent grinding down his enemy’s health at range, once you think an enemy’s health has gotten low enough for them to be shelled into oblivion, it’s time to wheel out his full spell combo. The most damaging sequence in Xerath’s arsenal is to sit as far back as possible, activate Locus of Power, tap them with Mage Chains, slam them with the first shot of Arcane Barrage [R], then go to town on them with an Arcanopulse, and the remaining two shots of Arcane Barrage while they’re still rendered useless by the stun triggered from Mage Chains. If they’re still living, pop off another Arcanopulse for good measure. The cooldown is short enough that it is usually ready to fire again after you’re done pounding your enemies with his ultimate.
It’s worth noting that he barely sacrifices any range in order to pull off this full combo, so it is always in Xerath’s best interests to be as far away from the enemy as possible, especially if you’re trying to make use of Locus of Power. Nuking the enemy long before they get in range of you, and from over half health can be an extremely satisfying stunt to pull off.
The trade off here though is that in order for his main combo to do its maximum damage, you must be in Locus of Power, and therefore immobile. The reason Locus of Power is so important from a damage perspective is due to the number of hits Xerath has to do in order to rack up a decent amount of damage on an enemy. Each and every one of the spells he’s spewing forth are being mitigated by magic resistance individually, so an enemy gets far greater returns from MR against Xerath than almost any other mage in the game, because he has to perform five to six spells to do the same damage that other nukers get done in three.
The reason this is a real problem is because using Locus of Power at the wrong time will get you killed. Much like every other mage in the game, Xerath has to carefully control his spacing in order to zone aggressive enemies out, rather than make use of escape abilities to simply hop out of trouble’s way. Locus of Power forfeits this control completely, allowing enemies to easily close ground and murder you until you die from it. You really can only use the ability when your normal, non-enhanced moves are already out of range. At that point, you are likely far enough away to consider immobilizing yourself. Otherwise, stay mobile and leave it well alone until you can get some distance on the enemy.
Take a level in Arcanopulse at level 1. Max it out first, since it’s your only early game poke. Mage Chains or Locus of Power both are viable choices for level 2. If you think it’s safe to get inside the enemy’s range, or they are a melee character, then go for Mage Chains. If you think the enemy is too dangerous to deal with, then hang back and pick up Locus of Power to snipe them from extreme range. Level 3 should let you grab the one you missed. Locus of Power should be your second to max, to both mitigate the magic resist that floats around later on in the game, and also allow you to more reliably increase you range.
For items, you’re looking at a fairly stock mage set up, with a few tweaks here and there. Your starting load out is going to be boots and three health potions against most opponents, but Doran’s Ring or Cloth Armour with five health potions are also good items against certain mid lane match ups. Doran’s Ring is usually better when you feel you’re going to destroy your lane opponent, so you won’t need the regeneration from any potions. The cloth armour is if you happen to go against a physical damage dealer. If you’re heading out in Dominion, I like to start with boots, Blasting Wand, two health potions and two mana potions. The Blasting Wand gets you more early damage than going for a Prospector’s Ring, and the survivability it offers makes no difference to Xerath, who is dead when someone gets in range anyway. It also has the final perk of letting you rush something useful very quickly.
His mid and late game builds need to go very heavy on ability power (which both enhances his offense and defense due to his passive), but tempered by enough cooldown reduction to get his ultimate off more often. You should have access to your full strength at nearly any time with this end game build. Deathfire Grasp and Morello’s Evil Tome are both good picks on him, mostly because they build from the Fiendish Codex, which gives him everything he needs at a cost efficient price. I’d avoid going for both though. Once you have one of them, and a few Doran’s Rings (or not if you’re in Dominion) in hand, you’re going to be heading straight for a Deathcap for mega damage. After that is usually situational picks – Zhonya’s Hourglass isn’t bad if you’re being rushed down and murdered by physical damage dealers, Rylai’s Crystal Sceptre will allow you more time before enemies get in close, and Void Staff helps against that horrible magic resistance that can cripple his damage output. As an aside, I usually don’t mention boots because they should change greatly from match to match, but you should avoid the recommended Ionian boots. He really needs that spell penetration from the sorcerer’s shoes more than the cooldown reduction at the stage in the match you’re usually buying boots, and he usually won’t wind up with a Void Staff until much later on, so that is the only magic penetration he’ll have for some time.
Go with a 9/0/21 mastery set up; it won’t do you wrong. His most important runes are magic penetration marks. The rest is really up to playstyle and preference. I’ve been rolling out with mana regeneration seals with ability power glyphs and quintessences, but you could easily use cooldown, magic resist, health regeneration, flat health or anything else that’s useful for a mage.
I’m not fond of Xerath. I certainly warmed to him the more I played him, and he’s been a wonderful change of pace from the endless stream of melee. However, he’s also very clunky to play. The casting time on his Locus of Power feels a bit too long, and really can break up the flow of combat. I found myself cursing at the character for some time before I worked out that he almost has a minimum range to his attacks.
My biggest annoyance I had while learning him though is you can’t know the range on his Locus of Power enhanced spells until you are actually in that mode, which is too late because you then can’t move to compensate for misjudged distances. What he really needs is a form of ‘ghost’ extension on his skillshots to show you how far they would travel if he was in siege mode. That one gripe I have with him would make both his learning curve that much easier, and for players to more reliably hit at his absolute maximum ranges, which is where he’s at his most effective.
I do think his damage is slightly on the low side, but that’s an understandable trade off given the extremely long distances that he can not only hit from, but unleash his most damaging combo. His utility is also a bit limited, but still on par with other nukers like Brand and Malzahar. I can’t get a full read on how good this guy is though after only a few days of play, as I really struggled with him, and found screwing up his positional game to be incredibly unforgiving. I don’t think he’s bad by any margin, but he does have a very frustrating, punishingly brutal skill curve filled with many unnecessary deaths.
Outside of Xerath, this patch leaves me little to talk about. All of the changes are very minor tweaks, hardly game changing in any significant fashion. The gold rate reduction on summoner’s rift means end game character aren’t quite so frustrating to deal with, which is a very nice change. They also have a few token nerfs to some of the games currently problematic characters. Not much of a change really though, and hardly enough for them to suddenly be made garbage by these minor tinkerings.
To discuss some of the changes yourselves, post in the massive League of Legends thread in the free to play MMOs section. If you haven’t tried League of Legends yet, you’re missing out.
Dragon Nest: The Start of a Revolution
Dragon Nest: The Start of a Revolution
By Thomas vonWolffradt (SomePlatypus), OnRPG Tech Wizard
Co-Written by Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief
Now it’s rare that I go out of my way to spend 30 hours in a game to write up a game review. Normally these time intensive projects are given out to one of OnRPG’s writing staff to do over the course of a month. However, in Dragon Nest I see the potential of a new way to play MMOs that prior to it has never been fully perfected. Dragon Nest represents the beginning of a new horizon in MMO gaming in which MMORPG fans and action console players can unite under one banner of gaming greatness. And since many of its brethren in the action revolution are still quite some development time away from release, Dragon Nest gives us an opportunity to experience the future of MMO gaming today!
Backstory
Dragon Nest takes place in a world that has been ravaged by war many years ago and has just recently reestablished peace. Although everything seems calm on the surface, a hidden war rages in the shadows between the Dragons and their Cultists and a small group of freedom fighters known as the Adventurer’s Guild. Though the Adventurer’s Guild is nearly powerless against the Dragon Cultists, an ancient elf with a bad attitude named Argenta stands alone as the only warrior with the power to prevent their aims. That is, until you enter the fray! Now you must enter an uneasy alliance with Argenta to save a descendant of the ancients from the clutches of the Dragons.
Classes
There are currently four starting classes you can choose from. In terms of PvE prowess, they are all virtually equal and yet specialized enough to make each unique and fun to try. At level 15 you are able to take a test to unlock your second class upgrade and further specialize yourself into one of 8 total classes.
Sorceress: These AoE masters bring immense pain to the battlefield but require meticulous timing and aim to do so effectively. Some of their long channeling times with long cooldowns make it important that they have protection so as not to waste their potential. At level 15 they may become Elementalists or Mystics. Elementalists specialize in harmful status effects like slow and wield unimaginable destructive AoE power. Mystics can follow the path of light or darkness, gaining insane armor piercing damage and gravity controlling AoE spells that can decimate an entire battlefield in one spell.
Cleric: This isn’t your dad’s cleric. Clerics in Dragon Nest have a nasty bite in addition to their support magic. They fight on the front line with weapons like maces, dealing holy light magic that stuns their hapless foes into submission. Those who go the path of the Paladin will become nearly invincible tanks that sacrifice some of their support status in exchange for rendering enemies useless in battle. Priests on the other hand take support spells to an entirely new level, making their allies invulnerable and bringing massive AoE holy magic down around the battlefield.
Archer: Archers are medium to long range dps that are effective at sweeping the enemy off their feet. While also specializing in AoE damage, theirs tends to be higher damage than mages but with a smaller range of effect. At level 15 they can follow the path of a Sharpshooter or Acrobat. Sharpshooters gain immense mobility, range, and are one of the most active classes in the game for attacking an enemy while in mid-air. Acrobats abandon their range safety and instead become a localized whirlwind of damage, knock ups, and knock backs.
Warrior: What warriors lack in damage, they make up for with impressive comboing abilities. They can run, dodge, roll, and slam to keep on top of an opponent until they die. Though restricted to only melee weapons, said melee weapons have such large hit areas that you practically can’t miss. Mercenaries are the most heavily armored character in the game, specializing in one-on-one confrontations in which they simply outlast any opponent blow for blow. Those seeking more active combat can follow the path of the Swordsman, engaging in long damaging combo attacks that are nearly impossible to break free from. At higher levels, Swordsmen can also learn wide sweeping AoE skills to give them range damage as well.
Gameplay
The world of Dragon Nest is broken down in a similar fashion to another action game published by Nexon called Vindictus. In hub towns you learn about the story, adjust and enhance gear, pick up quests, and learn skills. Then you set out, alone or in groups of up to 4, into the instanced outer world in which you can pick up further quests, break down gear into crafting material, and select instanced dungeons and difficulty settings.
The dungeons themselves start out simple and then grow progressively more challenging. Simple run and stab goblins eventually lead to sword and board goblins that will actively blow against attacks. Slow casting lightning mages eventually become fast teleporting massive AoE casting ice mages that can really ruin your day should you fail to dodge a single spell combo. And then in the expansion, Saint’s Haven, you will face fire mages that bring a whole new meaning to the term DoT.
So what makes this all so revolutionary? It’s 100% based on your reaction speed, knowledge of your character’s skills, and aiming every attack FPS style. Every class is provided enough utility to get through just about any situation thrown at them, assuming you know your class well enough to do so. Acrobats with fast reactions can jump and roll through a barrage of spells to disable the caster. Mystics can hold off legions of goblins with a few well placed gravity wells. Mercenaries can stand toe to toe with heavily armored ogres and break their defenses with a few well placed rolls and axe slams. Or you can get your face smashed in after a 5 second duration of enemy combos that leave you sitting in the corner frantically drinking potions.
Where this system of combat really shines in the boss battles. Some of the best designed bosses can usually fly or teleport, have unique defensive abilities, and are able to smash your attempt to combo them apart with strong AoE skills. A gargoyle you face early on will zoom around the map, constantly summoning goblin minions to delay you. After shooting blasts of homing energy orbs he can land and turn into stone, increasing his defense infinitely and rapidly regaining hp until you stun him out of the stance. A later boss hovers over the arena out of reach and sprays the battlefield with poisonous stingers. Just as you think you’ve dodged them all he slams down on top of you dealing massive damage, forcing you to divide your attention between dodging darts and timing a jump to get out of the combo alive. I can honestly say I have never had so much fun fighting bosses in an MMO, and even in console games bosses were rarely as exciting as this.
The Friend Factor
A downside to Dragon Nest that I have seen all too often on the forums is people who claim ‘I got bored and quit at level 2x.’ Even with a game as fun as this, inevitable boredom will always set in for some people. Oh wait that never happened to me because I played with my friend DizzyPW every time. If you aren’t playing Dragon Nest with a friend, you are depriving yourself greatly of the true experience Dragon Nest has to offer.
By teaming up with friends, not only do you have someone to share the experience with, you can take on the harder challenges in Dragon Nest much earlier. There is just an insane thrill taking on Abyss mode dungeons with your friend when you are level 19 and 18 and the recommended difficulty is four level 21s. Teamwork is put to the test as you constantly rescue each other from hordes of enemies, and set up ultimate team combo attacks to devastate a legion of monsters with a 500 hit combo. Our best example was our Mystic Acrobat team. DizzyPW would roll-jump into a group of 40 monsters and hit Marionette to shoot out a string of arrows that pulls enemies towards him. I would then cover the ground with poison and begin opening up a massive gravity well above DizzyPW as he danced around the legion of mobs.
Once the gravity well opened I would blow all my cooldowns launching every magic spell in my possession as the enemy’s were pulled into a central point. DizzyPW would blast then with a fan shaped archer skill and then proceed to bounce on top of the heads of enemies, culminating in the extremely powerful Acrobat skill ‘Eagle Dive’ in which he flies to earth at maximum speed dealing huge damage figures to all in the area upon landing. Seeing the ground covered with a legion of loot where a legion of zombies formerly stumbled is intensely satisfying.
Besides the intangible satisfaction from zombie hunting with a friend, there are also many benefits offered for teaming up. The most particularly important is the PWR system. PWR is a system that allows casual players to not fall as far behind hardcore players by giving you experience bonuses for the first few dungeons you run in a day. If you team up with friends and run multiple dungeons successfully in a row, the game gives you discounts on how much PWR is spent on each dungeon run to keep you going at this bonus level longer. Also players running Abyss mode will only have to spend one key to unlock the bunny chest at the end, providing very useful goodies such as NPC gifts.
Events and Fun
This game goes beyond the call of duty to give players tons of things to keep them occupied. Every dungeon has a dozen or more achievements to be obtained, some giving titles with special stat bonuses. In addition billboards reside outside every dungeon to give players additional challenges (and rewards) for performing certain actions like collecting skulls from graves. An addicting side quest exists in which you can make friends with NPCs and improve relations by running quests or giving gifts to them. Eventually the NPCs will start to give you gifts back to help with your equipment strengthening. Also by befriending NPCs you gain faction points with one of three groups that can later be traded for all kinds of goodies in Saint’s Haven. Various recipes exist for mixing lesser gifts you obtain to make greater gifts as well, and it really adds some flavor to the side quest when you have an item that two NPCs both love and you have to decide who to befriend and who to ignore.
A circus also exists in which you and your friends can take part in crazy mini-game events to earn tickets. Some notably fun ones include a treasure hunt in which you and your friends are locked in separate rooms and must battle until united in the main room to face a super boss. Another epic circus event is the Goblarta Goblins in which Xerxes orders you to destroy the 300 Goblarta goblins in an arena style death match! DizzyPW is working on bringing a video of this epic event to OnRPG in the near future.
This.. Is… Goblarta!
Most MMOs would consider this enough for a launch title. Dragon Nest pushes the envelope further. You can take part in the arena to face other players in PvP battles or the Temple of Darkness where you team up with 3 friends to face an endless gauntlet of increasingly strong monsters, with prizes waiting for the heartiest of adventurers.
The Arena
I wouldn’t be able to talk about Dragon Nest without mentioning the arena, considering this game won E3 2011’s best PvP award. Personally I have some gripes to say about the arena.
At E3 things were fantastic because it was essentially a LAN party, and when everyone shares the same ping the PvP in Dragon Nest is tough to beat. Each class is really well balanced at most levels, and artificially increased defense and HP helps prevent people who cash shopped to power or hardcore power levelers from dominating the game too heavily. Team PvP is especially fun because, as explained earlier with the Mystic Acrobat super combo, you can really perform some impressive combos on your hapless foes. Also in team PvP certain classes like the Mystic and Priest become much more viable as they require teammates to effectively unleash some of their greater attacks.
Now enter the officially sanctioned ladder matches, that are fought only on a one-on-one basis. In this situation the paladin and swordsman classes hands down destroy almost any opponent with their superior combo abilities, endless knockdowns, and overpowered stuns. This only gets worse when you introduce ping issues and classes like Mystics and Acrobats with hard to land attacks are aiming at a shadow of where an enemy actually is. The swordsman and mercenaries especially have such large hit targets with their melee swings and fast movement speed that you will often begin to fly through the air from the opening of a combo attack long before the actual melee fighter is visually within range to harm you. Not to mention you better bring some heavy hitting skills if you even think you are going to stun these opponents as they charge haphazardly through a barrage of fire with little care for the tiny amounts of damage it inflicts.
As such I recommend players stick with the team battles. As long as you have a teammate to interrupt, endless combo attacks aren’t possible. With more targets on the battlefield, you will also have an easier time of landing attacks, and the fun factor increases for support classes as well. Best of all is you still earn medals from non-ladder matches that are used to upgrade weapons with special enhancements!
Conclusion
Dragon Nest has so many nuances going for it that it’s impossible to sum all its parts up in a single review. I will just mention that the crafting system is quite in-depth and will ensure players spend hours in every part of the game to build the greatest weapons and armor possible. Even after 30 hours in the game I’m still discovering new features like this and at level 25 there is plenty more to be seen in this game.
Graphics are simple enough and customizable enough that almost anyone should be able to experience the joys of this game. The cutscenes, side quests, and main quests are also some of the best written in MMO history and should keep all but the most hardcore power levelers delayed a bit to read through them. The cash shop doesn’t present too much of a power gap to players though I would recommend picking up some inventory and bank expansion slots before anything else or you will go mad trying to manage all the nick knacks you pick up in this game. If you are one of the few that haven’t experienced Dragon Nest yet, then grab a friend (or three), divvy up the class selection, and get to cracking some Dragon Cultist skulls!
Graphics – 3 (Watered down character models are balanced by impressive spell effects)
Controls – 5 (For a front runner in the action MMO genre, Dragon Nest controls flawlessly)
Features – 5 (I never felt wanting for more things to do in this game)
Customization – 4 (While graphical customization is minimal, skill trees and armor crafting balance things nicely)
Community – 4 (While I didn’t talk with the community much, there always seemed to be things going on around me)
ArcheAge: What We Know So Far Pt. 2
ArcheAge: What We Know So Far Pt. 2
By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief
OnRPG is back for round two of our compilation of ArcheAge knowledge. In yesterday’s article we discussed the race and class sytems and how you can combine 3 of ten archetypes to build a character custom fit to your style. Today we are going to focus on the macro by looking at territories, castle towns, and how this all fits into PvP and crafting.
The North Continent, Factions, and Guilds
In ArcheAge there is a rather large area of the world known in beta as the North Continent. The north continent is subdivided into dozens of territories. These territories are extremely valuable to control and many battles will be fought between guilds for ownership, as well as much larger alliances called factions consisting of multiple guilds.

Before getting involved in the territories, players will first have the choice of allying with one of the two major factions. This has the benefit of not only ensuring other players are around to watch your back, but giving you the opportunity to engage and kill players of the opposite faction in various open pk regions with no penalties to yourself. As the game progresses and certain power players rise up in rank, they will be able to claim territories for themselves and their guild.
Labor Points and Guild Towns
Once in control of a territory, a political system is implemented on the surrounding region, mainly involving taxation. However players will also be able to commission an area of land approximately 100 square meters in size to build a castle town. And by build, I literally mean workers will have to hammer buildings into existence using ‘labor points.’
Labor points seem to be a limiting factor placed on crafting in the game. Beyond standard weapon, armor, and item crafting, it is also used for the construction of castle walls, housing, ships, and so forth. For a guild to truly build a successful castle town, they will either need a lot of time or a lot of manpower to not only build housing and shops, but also to build proper defenses to protect said town from invaders.
There seems to be some balance issues in closed beta testing related to the labor points system. XL Games is doing balance work to prevent players from just making tons of alts to use as laborers. One solution proposed so far is to increase the cost of labor points to perform projects and then giving players a way to increase their total pool of labor points in order to make alt laborers less useful. Another solution is to make it so that you can only assign one character on your account to replenish labor points at one time.

Guilds will also be allowed to construct a type of ‘super house’ or guild hall which is larger than standard housing and gives your faction a secluded area to decorate and meet to discuss various issues. Likely this will look something like the castle within the castle town.
The importance of owning a territory and castle town isn’t limited to housing and taxation. Different territories will also have access to rare minerals and herbs useful in crafting endgame items. In order to obtain said resources, guilds must be proper building structures where the resources are and regularly send people from their guild to collect those resources.
Multiple Factions and Criminal PK Penalties
In terms of player versus player content, factions play a vital role. At the beginning of the game when a player joins one of the two starting factions, they will immediately be black listed by the other faction. I mentioned earlier about the open pk zones. In this areas killing players will impose penalties on the enemy killed in the form of item durability decreases and increased respawn times. XL Games views looting systems as too hardcore for their target playerbase and intends to limit penalties to just these two options for now.

However if you kill enemies outside of these zones, or players of your own faction, you will be marked as a criminal and penalties you occur for being killed will be much higher than normal. Interestingly enough, XL Games believes that a two faction system for ArcheAge is too limiting and is going to allow players to found their own factions eventually.
Though little details about factions have been revealed, they have told the press that forming a new faction will require someone to control a territory and revoke their prior citizenship to the other faction. To join a new faction you must first revoke your citizenship and then be given approval from a faction master or one of his appointed regents. Those who revoke their citizenship from a faction without joining a new faction are protected from no one and labeled as pirates!
Pirates and the Open Sea
Speaking of pirates, there seems to be one place in which players can escape the confines of their faction alliance completely for a temporary jaunt on the dark side. That place of course is international waters.
Now in most MMOs you would be thinking ‘What a pain that will be to go swim way out to sea just to fight with people!’ Well ArcheAge has a boat system, and one of the most elaborate to date in terms of seafaring.
After a few hardcore days of gathering materials, players will be able to craft large navy vessels complete with wind sails and cannons. These can be summoned by a player and him and around 18 or so of his buddies can go sailing the open seas looking for trouble. One player controls the helm of the ship while the rest perform various duties such as manning cannons or protecting team members from attack.
As such it’s quite likely to see large scale naval battles between opposing factions or even guilds within the same faction looking to pick a bone with each other. And don’t fret too much about your hard earned boat getting destroyed. If your boat is destroyed in combat you simply take the rubble to a blacksmith and, for a price, he can repair it good as new. Though it will take him considerable time to do this so don’t expect to swim back to port, repair your ship, and sail out to sea in time to rejoin a battle in progress.
If my article series has peaked your interest and you want to jump into this game, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is it’s not released yet, even in South Korea. So sad. The good news is that the last closed beta test confirmed that the game is nearing completion and only needs some fine tuning with the early levels. They also aren’t planning a major overhaul to localize this game in the west so conversion time between the Korean launch and western launches should be relatively short. Some sources more knowledgeable than my own seem to expect a launch before the end of 2012 so keep watching and I’ll provide more info as soon as it becomes available. Until then feel free to join our latest forum discussion about the game.
Rusty Hearts is Giving Away an $800 Nvidia 3D Package
Rusty Hearts is Giving Away an $800 Nvidia 3D Package!
Perfect World Entertainment is thrilled to bring Rusty Hearts to its player base in 3D! With their next content update, Awakening, going live on Tuesday October 11th, now is the ideal time to play the game in a whole new way. The vibrant anime graphics and action based art style stands out like never before with Nvidia’s 3D vision wireless glasses. If you’re lucky, a pair can be yours for free with Rusty Heart’s latest contest giveaway!
To enter, players must register for a free Rusty Hearts account, and have at least one character reach level 5. Players that already have a level 5 and above character will just need to log in at least once between October 6th and October 30th.
The grand prize, valued at $799, consists of 1 NVIDIA EVGA GeForce GTX 560 graphics/video card ($199.99), 1 NVIDIA 3D Vision Wireless Glasses Kit ($149.99), and 1 Alienware OptX AW2310 3D monitor ($449). There will be two winners so why not give it a shot!

































