Questions
by Padma “Lady Lotus” Fuller, Editor
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Answers
by Axel Schmidt, PR Manager, Frogster Interactive
The free to play MMOG marketplace is full of perils and pitfalls. For
many gamers that have tried out a F2P game, they may have experienced a
title full of translation issues and incredibly grind-heavy gameplay.
However, there are a number of companies throughout the world that are
trying to improve the standard of play for F2P games. The publishers of
Runes of Magic
are one of these companies, and they’re hoping that their
localization efforts combined with a high quality of gameplay in
style="font-style: italic;">Runes of Magic will
insure a solid play experience for gamers. Recently, Ten Ton
Hammer’s Padma Fuller had a chat with Axel Schmidt from
Frogster, and the following interview is a result of that interaction.
All of the information you could need for a solid knowledge foundation
for Runes of Magic
is available in the interview, so please enjoy!
Once you're finished up with the interview, don't forget to head on
over and
target="_blank">check out our exclusive screenshots!
Ten Ton Hammer: What kind
of impact do you think Runes of Magic will achieve within the highly
competitive MMOG market?
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Axel Schmidt, PR Manager
Axel Schmidt:
In our view, Runes of
Magic is a highly competitive online RPG that combines a
rich variety of features that all the MMOG aficionados out there long
for. The game will be launched with a housing system, mounts, pets, a
gripping PvP system with arena combat, dungeons, raid content and a
broad range of six main classes with a secondary class to choose. But
it gets even more astonishing, when you consider that this huge feature
package is free to play!
Ten Ton Hammer: What are
the six main classes that players will be able to choose from?
Axel: In Runes of Magic
players can choose to play a warrior, ranger, cleric, knight, mage or
rogue. Each of them disposes of individual skills with impressive combo
attacks and can use mounts later in the game. When players reach level
10, they will be able to select a secondary class, which increases the
possible class combinations up to 36 individual character types. Within
the towns of the game world Taborea, players can switch between their
primary and secondary class, which gives them interesting tactical
choices about how to approach their next tasks. Consequently the
primary and secondary class will level independently from each other.
So the dual class system of Runes
of Magic functions like two characters in one. Moreover,
style="font-style: italic;">Runes of Magic
offers new special classes, different class ranks and special skill
decks for advanced players. We will announce more details about these
features in the upcoming weeks.
Ten Ton Hammer: How will
PVP work?
Axel:
Basically, Runes of
Magic will have a common duel system and arena combat.
Within the open game world, PVP is only open for players who actively
“flag” themselves for it. If somebody wants to
peacefully play PVE only, they can simply un-flag themselves. As a
result, the PVP system of Runes
of Magic won’t interfere with the game play
experience of players focused on PVE. It’s only an additional
feature so to speak. But there will be PVP only zones and when a player
enters these, he will join PVP automatically. Within the arenas,
players are able to take part in tournament style battles.
The Taiwanese developer Runewaker also plans to implement faction based
PVP and guild wars. In addition to that, they are developing server vs.
server combat as a very special feature. When this feature is ready,
the whole community of one server will be able to fight the players of
another in a massive server war. All results of PVP fights attribute to
the players’ PVP scores, which derive from acquired wealth,
title and class, and will decide his overall ranking in the game.
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You can choose between six classes in Runes of Magic.
Ten Ton Hammer: What can
you tell us about the in-game Collector’s Cards?
Axel: The
Collector’s Cards are very precious items which will be rare
to find in Runes of Magic. Collecting these cards, players get to know
secret information about special species in the game. Runewaker even
plans to give players the possibility to conjure these species as a pet
to escort them.
Ten Ton Hammer: Can you
tell us more about the mount choices players will have?
Axel: As
shown in the
target="_blank">first teaser trailer mounts will
be mighty horses fitting well into the atmosphere of the game world.
But there will also be some very special mounts in the game that we
want to introduce later.
Ten Ton Hammer: Will
players be able to have pets? If so, what will they be?
Axel: Pets
will be connected to the Collector’s Card as earlier
mentioned. So watch out carefully in the game to find them.
Ten Ton Hammer: How will
the Teleporting system work?
Axel:
Generally, every character will be able to teleport in
style="font-style: italic;">Runes of Magic. But
the precondition for teleporting is that you dispose of the right rune
stones and special powder to use them. With the help of the magical
powder you are able to bind the stones to locations and thus, to define
individual binding points to jump to, which will generally be villages
or towns that you have to visit more often. As you can imagine given
the immense game world, you can save some long walks by teleporting
back to these locations. In some bigger towns there are also female
magicians that can help you to teleport.
Ten Ton Hammer: When you
do think the English version of the client will begin beta testing?
Axel:
style="font-style: italic;">Runes of Magic is
technically already almost complete in the original Taiwanese language.
That means that all the content must now only be translated into an
English version. But with the game featuring 600 individual quests
right from the start, you can imagine the amount of translation work
that needs to be done. But we are set to get it done quickly. At the
moment, we are heading for a launch of the closed beta phase later this
year.
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According to Schmidt,
the most interesting part of RoM for him is the amazing variety of
features.
Ten Ton Hammer:
Personally, what is your favorite aspect of
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Axel:
Primarily, most astonishing for me is the abundance of features
considering that it’s a free2play game, and particularly the
broad variety of possibilities to shape and form your character. You
can level up your attributes and every single skill if you want to. In
combination with the second class, players really have an extremely
broad range of choices to build up their avatar. When levelling up,
completing quests or succeeding in combat, they will get new skills and
talent points that they can distribute individually on their skills and
spells. And the runes are really a key feature to improve your
character as well. Using them wisely players can enhance their armour
suits, dye their clothes and so on.
Secondly, most of the quests in Runes
of Magic are directly connected to the interesting
background story. Players who follow them attentively can really
experience the lore first hand so to speak. If you follow a quest, jump
into PVP or arena combat, prepare for the rush on a dungeon or a big
raid – it will always be a thrilling experience and a lot of
fun to play.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Runes of Magic Game Page.
