RFO UK/US Release

[Malchi]

RFO is expected to release in the US 2/14/06. This is the P2P release and games can be preordered from game stop. All Pre-order's get a free beta key to use as a sneak peak. No Official CB or OB dates have been published yet, though it is expected late December or Early January giving the release date in to account. CM is still working on deals with UK distributors for pre-order ATM.

[Dexstar]

Any detailed compiled info on RF yet? I played the Malaysian Beta but there were a lot of badly translated NPC's/prompts throughout the game and I couldn't fucking stand it (pretty sure the rates were beyond fucked up also) so it really put me off.

Will it be Euro/US Servers? o.o

[tohohoho]

im sexy, and so is rfo

[Rae]

RF Online is awesome! ^^

http://www.clanretribution.net/rf/rose.jpg

http://www.clanretribution.net/rf/rose2.jpg

http://www.clanretribution.net/rf/rose3.jpg

http://www.clanretribution.net/rf/rose4.jpg

http://www.clanretribution.net/rf/rose6.jpg

http://www.clanretribution.net/rf/rose7.jpg

http://www.clanretribution.net/rf/rose9.jpg

The Chinese open beta is very laggy, but I love the skill / magic system and the fast combat with no downtime. I'm a mage wearing heavy armor top and bottom, and caster hat, gloves and boots. There is no money grind in this game, you make money so easily and can afford all armor and weapon upgrades -- although most of the time you get them as drops from mobs, and there are different (gold and purple name) weapon drops. Seems pretty easy to level up, but I haven't done any PvP yet. ^^

[naiku]

http://files.filefront.com/SEARCH/;4422478;;/fileinfo.html

Shows a little from 2 factions. Doesn't show much about the mages/summoners. Looks decent atm. The damage above peoples heads can be annoying.

[Libo]

Very fun game, I played during the taiwanese/japanese beta's. It's a shame pvp mostly comes down to who can spam pots the fastest, though.

[Wrenn]

I played during the Phillipines Open Beta. I will likely try to get into the US beta, to see if there is anything new. But based on the Phillipino beta, I would have to rate this game overall as a 3 out of 10.

Graphically, the game is very poor. Water-color structures. Horrible ground textures. The armor is "painted-on" which looks great in screenshots but horrible in game.

The gameplay itself offers absolutely nothing new. The fights in the mines are kind of cool, as are the wars with the other factions. But this is a very limiting concept, and grows wearisome after the first few days. Battles tend to be short and boring, and emphasize a zerg rather than skills.

[Rae]

Actually the graphics are awesome. I'm constantly in awe of the environment, the light effects, the textures and the armor / weapon styles. Normally I'm not a fan of sci-fi style graphics, but this game has a gorgeous mix of sci-fi and fantasy (and those that prefer mecha can go play the big robot race x.x) which is quite awesome.

The gameplay offers enough that is new that I think it will be attractive to those into the old MUD style games, where you get exp for every hit and your skills go up depending on what you do (use magic, force skills go up, use melee, close range skills go up). Being able to wear heavy armor as a mage just reminds me so much of D&D, especially the clerics. ^-^

Pot spamming isn't going to save someone from coordinated spike damage from several dds, and it's awesome for PvE because there's absolutely no downtime. There will be more than just mine wars in RFO. Guilds will be able to fight their own faction later and own outposts, and eventually entire planets that they will have to defend with ships. Also guilds can organize the race vs. race wars, and PvP is not nearly as penalizing as some other games (cough).

As I see it now this game will have almost zero gold farmers, because everyone will make more than enough to buy everything they need for every level. Hell people leave loot on the ground (which disappear after about 30 seconds) all over the place because they'd rather not bother with a full inventory. :P

Well I am still pretty much a noob in this game. It took me a while to figure everything out and the traditional Chinese they use didn't help me, because I can barely recognize any characters.

Also, here's a post I made on their official forums:

I was with Lineage II from the very beginning. I played the Korean open beta, the Taiwanese open beta, the Japanese open beta, the Korean live version, the NA closed beta, the NA open beta, and NA release. I loved Lineage II, and wish it hadn't turned into such a festering pool of corruption, farmers, botters and ebayers. :/

There are a few things about RFO, from having played it for a few days, that make me optimistic:

1) Banning of Chinese IPs. All the countries that have a license with RFO will be IP banned from the NA/European release. The farmers will have to proxy in, but I doubt they will have many customers ... see below:

2) No money grind. Read this again. NO MONEY GRIND. Drops are abundant, and it's easy to gear up from day 1. This alone will discourage ebaying by a long shot. Add this to the NO DOWNTIME leveling? This game will appeal to hardcore and casual gamers alike.

3) Little penalties for PvPing. You don't lose gear when you die. You don't lose exp when you die in PvP. You might lose a little bit of PvP honor points, but who cares if you're having fun, and you can jump right back into action?

4) Character progression. The casual gamer can experience a large bulk of the game without spending forever and a half trying to level up. Much of the PT grind can be ignored (for example a mage getting ranged PT) without really affecting too much. The hardcore gamers have a nice PvE grind as well as engaging PvP to keep occupied. Personally I'm more a halfcore gamer, and this game seems perfect. ;P

5) Customization. The appearance customization, although limited, is far more than other games simply because of the fact that any class can wear ANYTHING provided you train up the PT. A mage in heavy armor -- when was the last time you saw this in a recent MMO? A warrior using ranger armor is perfectly fine, in fact beneficial. Beyond that, the individual character builds will be very different depending on the PT trained, the progression and the tier skills mastered. I love this already. ^-^

My boyfriend and I both preordered this game, and we can't wait for the NA version to come

[ReacT]

I don't quite know if this game apeals to me for the fact that items are so easily earned. I prefer games where u must work hard to upgrade and long leveling for the fact that it points out the few "hardcore gamers" and allows the people who work really hard to be rewarded with respect. Lineage works well with my likings :/. Ill still try this game but i'm not too optimistic about it

[Rae]

I don't quite know if this game apeals to me for the fact that items are so easily earned. I prefer games where u must work hard to upgrade and long leveling for the fact that it points out the few "hardcore gamers" and allows the people who work really hard to be rewarded with respect. Lineage works well with my likings :/. Ill still try this game but i'm not too optimistic about it

Items are easily earned at low levels, but definitely not PT points or exp, especially past level 30. That's when the "real grind" starts, because items past level 30 will not be sold in shops (craft or drop only), and spellbooks will be drop-only as well. This game is a grinder's heaven past 40... took a single hardcore Korean a year to get max level 50 and he is the only one right now, but in the NA version rumors have it that the exp rate will be boosted.

Another thing to note about RFO is that the grind will definitely be there, but it won't be a fucking horrible grind where you sit around in town waiting for group for 2 hours only to give up. ANYONE can solo, and everyone has self-buffs -- with no downtime whatsoever thanks to potions which are spammed like ss/sps in L2 right now. Also you have to deal with 2 other hostile factions while you level up so that's something else to keep you occupied and not able to level as fast.

As for people that work hard getting respect, RFO already has a "hero" system in place, where the top 5 people of the race in PvP points get to become race leaders. Race leaders get the ability to talk in race chat (race-wide chat), communicate with other races' leaders and nice glowing blue wings heh. And if the highest level you got in L2 was level 50 imo you should look elsewhere for a better grind. :P

[Wrenn]

Rose,

I am glad that you like the game. This proves that everyone has different tastes. Let me explain why I did not like the game. People usually start with graphics, and so I shall start there as well. I really think this game is ugly. It is too cartoonish for my tastes. The trees look nothing like trees. The ground is a huge, featurless blob. The armor your character wears is painted-on, and has no movement. The only only thing I liked graphically about the entire game was the weapons . . especially the mage weapons. They are cool.

Gameplay is pathetic in my opinion. It offers absolutely nothing new, and traditional MMO fare is not done as well as other games. Hunting mobs in this game is a bore. There is no intensity to it whatsoever. PvP is a joke . . .again, no intensity. I levelled up so I could go to the mines. I made it there, killed a few, died a few . . . and had no fun doing it. It is just senseless killing with no intensity, because you don't have to worry about losing exp or gear. Horrible concept. This is a PvP game, and they took any intensity right out of it.

Nice screenshots you posted. Sadly, this game looks much better in screenies than it does in-game. Sadly, a screenshot is indicative of what a character looks like in-game . . nothing moves.
I rate the game at best a 3 out of 10.

[Rae]

Yea it is pretty much personal taste. The graphics in RFO are stunning to me, although I wish it was more high fantasy than fantasy/sci-fi mix. I adore the anime look, and I think the Cora are prettier than L2 elves. Also there are ground details in RFO, if you have your graphic settings maxed (like turning on ground details in L2, otherwise it sucks ass with blocks of textures). And as far as movement is concerned, the armor is supposed to be hard and not moving... unless you mean mage skirts, in which case there is a starting character skirt that moves in the wind -- albeit not as flowingly as the skirts on elven females in L2, but that's a small small thing imo. There are mechs, robots, guns, rocket launchers, siege towers, and other sci-fi things for those that are into these types of things, all done very well visually.

In terms of gameplay, it offers something which is rather radically new for MMOs (except old school UO and MUDs), that is use a skill often and levels up, and ignore a skill and it won't level up even if you level up in character level. That's brilliant, and pretty much screws over powerleveling if you want a good character that has max potential. As for PvP, I'd rather have frequent fighting than no fighting. I loved playing on the L2 test server where PvP was every day and constant. Why do you think the L2 arenas like monster race track have people hanging out there every day? People want to fight intelligent creatures (i.e. other players) but they don't want to lose everything they've worked hard for doing it.

Oh I get the idea of PvPing with heavy losses, but all that leads to is people joining the most powerful alliances and getting as high level as they can before they actually participate in PvP, because then they minimize their chance of losing -- because losing can cost hours upon hours of gameplay. Losing 4% at lvl 65+ is nuts, and 1% at level 70+ is even more so. And then you have to grind back that exp, and do sin eater to get rid of PKs, and blah blah blah. All this retardation just to get a little bit of PvP.

This game does it RIGHT, by making it so you don't lose anything by ganking (random PK) the other faction, but you gain (PTs, points), and in PvP death you lose a small bit of time (running) and some points (which lead to race leader position). If you want utter "intense PvP" in a corrupt timesink of a game that penalizes PvP and PK heavily, play L2. I want to actually have FUN, and have PvP that won't make me gag from all the politics and drama that happen all the time.

I don't think this game is going to be everything I want. In fact it's not going to really be able to compete with a lot of major American games out there, or the ones to come. But it's the most fun I've had since playing L2 for the first time in the Korean open beta, and more so because there's no downtime and the killing is much much more fast paced. In L2, I played a silver ranger which used almost no active skills in hunting except self-buffs, because if you use double-shot or stun-shot too much you'll run out of mp and have to sit. In RFO, any class can spam all the specials to their heart's content -- in fact it's beneficial to do so! I don't know about anyone else, but I think a game that encourages people to use skills and PvP rather than penalizes them... is good. :P

[megalomaniac]

naked skin
for the win

but this is worse than L2 in that regard :rolleyes:

[Libo]

I enjoy the PVP in this game far more than I did in L2. Mainly because of how well the Japanese race leaders managed each race. I just love the massive battles that take place too.

[megalomaniac]

1) Banning of Chinese IPs. All the countries that have a license with RFO will be IP banned from the NA/European release. The farmers will have to proxy in, but I doubt they will have many customers ... see below:

2) No money grind. Read this again. NO MONEY GRIND. Drops are abundant, and it's easy to gear up from day 1. This alone will discourage ebaying by a long shot. Add this to the NO DOWNTIME leveling? This game will appeal to hardcore and casual gamers alike.This means nothing - people WILL try to take shortcuts, ESPECIALLY in a PvP game where cheating = easier to wtfpwn others without having the gear, skill, or w/e to do so normally. I know this other game where getting money and decent gear is easy as hell, but certain people still feel obliged to point their browser to IGE.com and consorts. I say banning IPs is a step in the right direction because I welcome everything which makes a farmer's life harder, even if it's just a temporary annoyance for them - they will at least suffer from greater latencies. It will suck for Europeans and Americans stationed overseas for their business or armed forces, though.

3) Little penalties for PvPing. You don't lose gear when you die. You don't lose exp when you die in PvP. You might lose a little bit of PvP honor points, but who cares if you're having fun, and you can jump right back into action?which in return leads to "leet" players to disapprove of the game because it's not hardcore enough - there's that misconception that if it doesn't take years for people with a life to get, it's not painful enough and won't feel earned, that dying without losing at least the XP of several hours of played time doesn't make a good MMO. So you'll have to live with people downplaying RFO just because of this. I for one couldn't care less and I'm looking forward to try it again at least once...

In at least one point I have to agree with Wrenn though: It is too cartoonish for my tastes. The trees look nothing like trees. The ground is a huge, featurless blob. The armor your character wears is painted-on, and has no movement. The only only thing I liked graphically about the entire game was the weaponsLike in L2 the groundis totally flat, and even missing rudimentary flora sprites. Trees, cartoony graphics, that's a matter of taste, but completely flat textures with no details to it are so yesterday. Also, the armors aren't bad, but apart from that ridiculous panty fetish I grew to hate so much the main armor textures are too easily spotted as "bodypainting" with no real mesh to it - but of course gameplay > graphics, so I'll stop right here

[Rae]

This means nothing - people WILL try to take shortcuts, ESPECIALLY in a PvP game where cheating = easier to wtfpwn others without having the gear, skill, or w/e to do so normally. I know this other game where getting money and decent gear is easy as hell, but certain people still feel obliged to point their browser to IGE.com and consorts. I say banning IPs is a step in the right direction because I welcome everything which makes a farmer's life harder, even if it's just a temporary annoyance for them - they will at least suffer from greater latencies. It will suck for Europeans and Americans stationed overseas for their business or armed forces, though.

I know what you're saying, and it's been said before, but it's at least something. It's also not too difficult to get money for this game at any level as drops are abundant (at higher levels they start to taper off but the drops sell for more), and you can just kill lower level mobs for massive amount of drops or mine if you ever get low on cash. Mainly I suspect people will be ebaying uber maxed out PT accounts and rare talic-enhanced weapons (which have a chance of failure/blowing every time a talic is applied, more for intense weapons) rather than the money itself, especially since the servers are split in 3 and there is no trading between factions.

On a side note, there seems to be some interesting aspects to this game's economy which I don't fully understand since I'm still noob. There is a fluxuating racial economy that you can track the progress of, a gold standard compared against race-only currency and taxes based on how many people possess gold. The mining is automated and can be done afk, and here's where I think the majority of the farmers will be, but that frees up the hunting fields. I hope the fact that it's easy as pie to make money will discourage the "adena" sales, too. Heh.

which in return leads to "leet" players to disapprove of the game because it's not hardcore enough - there's that misconception that if it doesn't take years for people with a life to get, it's not painful enough and won't feel earned, that dying without losing at least the XP of several hours of played time doesn't make a good MMO. So you'll have to live with people downplaying RFO just because of this. I for one couldn't care less and I'm looking forward to try it again at least once...

I'm split on this. On the one hand I like games that are more on the "hardcore" side, but on the other hand it's ridiculous to say that huge penalties in PvP and spending forever to (legitimately) earn money and equipment make for a good MMO. Now, about the grind in RFO... about 2 weeks ago someone in Korea got the first level 50 in KRFO after the game has been released for a year there, and as far as I know is still the only one. There is no level 50 in Japan or Phillipines yet, and the exp rates are jacked up 3x or more. If people want to hardcore grind and nothing else then they can look forward to that. But after level 30 PvP will be massive and constant in this game. You can guild war someone in your own faction, too, and gank lowbies all day and farm PvP points off them. To call this game carebear just because of lower death penalties would be a mistake. You'll die a shitton and kill a lot, too.

In at least one point I have to agree with Wrenn though: Like in L2 the groundis totally flat, and even missing rudimentary flora sprites. Trees, cartoony graphics, that's a matter of taste, but completely flat textures with no details to it are so yesterday. Also, the armors aren't bad, but apart from that ridiculous panty fetish I grew to hate so much the main armor textures are too easily spotted as "bodypainting" with no real mesh to it - but of course gameplay > graphics, so I'll stop right here

Again I just think that L2 graphics and RFO graphics are on par with each other. Both are anime style, flat ground textures and not too much character customization, but in RFO the ground does have those shrub or whatever things you want to call them, And also I have seen screenshots of high level armor and seen them in-game... a world of difference. The textures have a huge amount of details to them, including translucency, shine and shadows. Also lower level armors are crappier in textures than high level ones, similar to L2. The spell and lighting effects are superb... mages get access to like 70 different spells all with great animation, and it's like a freaking firework show during chip wars if you've ever seen any of the videos.

I agree that gameplay > all, and I'm in love with this game. ^_^

[langlang]

rf is a fun game to pass the time with, kinda like gunbound, but it's not something i'd pay money for.

The game has no content. You go out, fight a very limited range of monsters for your level, level up, move LITERALLY a few screens up to the next set of monsters.

Quests involve killing monsters, usually monsters you really have no buissness fighting at the level you get the quest, even if you are in a group. But you don't want to group, because if you do, you level up really fast, but if you level up really fast, you have no fucking skills, which actually makes you weaker.

Your first taste of pvp will probably involve you wandering past the sentry's guarding your races mining portal, and getting raped by some kid 20 levels above you who knows better then to wander away from that safe spot to mine. Don't bother exploring the mines either, even though the mine itself is FUCKING HUGE, you can only mine a small spot guarded by the gaint one shot kill you dead monster.

Even though each town is guarded by turrents/guards, they really don't matter, as you can't fight in town. So if you do get strong enough to kill/run past the guards, big fucking deal. Another interesting feature is that a few of the towns/safe areas are connected DIRECTLY to enemy towns/safe areas so have fun with that.

Nothing like exploring a tunnel going out of the armory as one of those robot dudes, and getting nuked on the other side by a fucking belto guard turrent.

Like all games, you could say it had potential. Theres alot of spacious areas where more detail could of been added, but of course it wasn't.

One more thing, although you can jump in this game... you can't jump over anything. You can't walk over steep hills either, you gotta go around them. It's a very linear game.

[Rae]

The game has no content. You go out, fight a very limited range of monsters for your level, level up, move LITERALLY a few screens up to the next set of monsters.

That depends on what you want as content. WoW has quests but I hated them. I'd rather grind on mobs and level up my character than craft / quest / swim or whatever the hell "content" is supposed to be. I consider good content to be good gameplay where there is a good variety between characters, skill selection and good PvP between players. The guild system will also be very good.

Quests involve killing monsters, usually monsters you really have no buissness fighting at the level you get the quest, even if you are in a group. But you don't want to group, because if you do, you level up really fast, but if you level up really fast, you have no fucking skills, which actually makes you weaker.

With my caster I would just grind on easy mobs for PT then powerlevel / quest / group after my melee and defense PTs are maxed or near max, then worry about my force PT. Works just fine, and PT grinding is really cool, because I can wear heavy armor and get my caster's defense PT up really fast and not have to use a lot of heal potions. If I had the time to level up my range PTs I could wear that for running faster between spots, etc. There are a lot of options for building a character and that rocks. ^^

Even though each town is guarded by turrents/guards, they really don't matter, as you can't fight in town. So if you do get strong enough to kill/run past the guards, big fucking deal. Another interesting feature is that a few of the towns/safe areas are connected DIRECTLY to enemy towns/safe areas so have fun with that.

Yep I ventured into the Accretia town as a Cora. It was pretty cool actually imo, because I was teleporting randomly in CRFO (my Chinese sucks horribly) and ended up in an Accretia town. It was very interesting, and actually pretty cool. I think the free teleports rock. ^.^

Like all games, you could say it had potential. Theres alot of spacious areas where more detail could of been added, but of course it wasn't.

I think this game has way more than just potential. It's already a killer game in so many ways, and I only played a crappy laggy Chinese version that kicks me out every 15 minutes because my connection to it sucks from the US. RFO has millions of subscribers in Asia already, and don't tell me about the different audience thing because I am Asian. :P BTW in L2 there are numerous spacious areas that don't have jack squat for detail.

[Libo]

The quests have always been on mobs that are lower level than what I train on. Granted, I always train on mobs that have full bars and still get more than enough PT for my launcher.

[langlang]

for accretia in ph beta, the quests always required me to hunt something many levels higher then me. At level 19 i recieved a quest to go kill those giant velsoraptor looking things out in the desert for example. No fucking way :(

[Rae]

Heheh I was killing those things at lvl 19, those raptors takes 6-7 nukes from Cora mage... Yea I can see how it can be hard for a warrior though, unless you have an intense weapon and can do a lot of damage.

[Libo]

You're supposed to spam pots all the time in this game, I fight mobs that can 2 hit me. It does drain your money but if you're mining everytime you're afk, It shouldn't be much of a bother to you. Being able to mine in the core helps alot too.

[megalomaniac]

Like all games, you could say it had potential. Theres alot of spacious areas where more detail could of been added, but of course it wasn't.I came to the conclusion that I played too many games, so new ones with "potential" are those which disappoint me the most

RFO has millions of subscribers in Asia already, and don't tell me about the different audience thing because I am Asianisn't that exactly the point of the "different audience thing"? Asians - like you - seem to expect different things from a game so it's huge there. Just wondering :wink:

[langlang]

Heheh I was killing those things at lvl 19, those raptors takes 6-7 nukes from Cora mage... Yea I can see how it can be hard for a warrior though, unless you have an intense weapon and can do a lot of damage.
i did have an intense weapon, intense armor too :|
Fucking magic is strong :(

[Dexstar]

woot just got confirmed that I'm in the CM Closed Beta, yay ^_^

see ya'll in there if you get in :)