Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

It had been a long hard battle and Rikara was exhausted. The home guard had fought well. Driving back the Naga had become almost a weekly occurrence. It was not uncommon for the Naga to attack more in the winter when their traditional home becomes almost uninhabitable but this marked the seventh week in a row they had tried to raze the village. Rikara was not sure how much longer they could hold out without reinforcements. The soldiers were getting tired and weary without much rest.

She would have to speak with the commander about returning back to the main city to recruit more help. Which reminded her that she had a house in the city; it would be nice to go home and relax for a bit. A luxury she did not have in the field. This would give her a chance to see how many new gowns her house maid had crafted for her and catch up on her Alchemy, she was sure that at least one experiment would have been ruined from over incubating. It really had been too long. Even though they had only been fighting the Naga for seven weeks she had been stationed here for the better part of the year. Yes she would have to speak with the commander so that she could get some more recruits and a hot bath.”

For most MMOG's player based housing is little more than another way to pass the time or used just for those who like to role play. Runes of Magic manages to take this to a step further; like they do most things, and give a fair amount of actual game enhancements.

Facts

• You can get your house at any level one
• Houses can be accessed anywhere using the “home-sweet-home” rune
• Starter homes only come with one 20 slot chest
• Most items for your home seem to be purchased or earned
• Right from the interface menu you can change your style of home once you receive them
• The house maid or fairy allows you do change your house name, change your house password (for visiting guests), change your class, leave your house, and just get some general information about how to perform other tasks like arrange your furniture.

Overview

Some have tried and won, some have failed miserably, while others are just meh. However, Runes of Magic has a very unique blend of fun and functionality with their player based housing.

Runes of Magic housing offers the typical items to spruce up your house like beds, chairs, room dividers, and the like. They also offer items that can help you out in quite a few ways. These are the items that we are going to spend most of our time focusing on and making sure you know all about.

Bling for your Crib

Runes offers something I have never seen in any MMOG that I have ever played. (for the sake of complete disclosure I have only ever played 3 other games that offered individual housing.) It offers items for your home that actually enhance your character and gameplay rather than being purely cosmetic. Below are a few of these item types that you won’t want to overlook, even if you’re the type of player who typically isn’t into the concept of home decorating in an MMOG.

Mannequins – Offered in a male and female variety these have a cool feature that is often over looked as a game helper. You can have a specific set of armor set up on one of these items and with a simple click you can re-outfit your toon.

Chests – Offered in a few different varieties you can use this to store your personal stash here. One thing I found extremely cool about his is you can allow others into your home and give them access to said chests. This way if you have somebody who is doing some major crafting or perhaps you have a family member who is just starting out they can gain access to all the goodies you have.

Enhancement Items – First of all logging off in your house gives you a “rested” bonus to both your XP and your TP. There are other games that offer this kind of bonus, however no other game that I am aware of allows you to increase the level of bonus you receive. According to some of the information I have seen on the forums the amount of “stuff” it takes to acquire an item that gives you said bonus is barely worth the effort. While this may be true for your first character who wouldn’t love a quicker leveling time the second time around?

Crafting from home – So you have spent hours collecting the mats and maxed out your profession. You head to the nearest forge, loom, or whatever it is that you need only to be hounded by several other players asking you to craft something for them because they either don’t want to, or sometimes cant, because they have another profession and cannot craft the item themselves. This is where crafting in your home can become a time saver. If you just need to get in and out and get your crafting done this home option can be huge.

Summary

The Runes of Magic team is pumping out expansions right on time. Just like clockwork more and more major content comes out. They have added an entire new race and two new classes in less than a year of being live in the US. With every patch comes one more cool thing such as recipes and items for your home.

Future expansions already have plans for you to be able to expand your house to a second floor, basements, maybe even other small rooms outside of the house. They also have plans to allow you to share things with other characters as you level up.

Bottom line to me is that Housing is done well, very well and it seems that its only going to get better. Runes of Magic has proven that it not only can put together a solid game but that what it does it does mostly well.

The question is: How much time do you spend on your house? Are there any incredibly cool “must have” house items you think other players should know about? Be sure to let us know in our Runes of Magic forums!