Runes of Magic - Freebie Game (better than WoW)

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 21, 2009, 8:14 pm

I'm going to check this game out for the hell of it. Will post after I've played just enough to create an unqualified review.

http://www.runesofmagic.com/us/index.html

Those with Newsleecher can find the game posted by searching for "Runes of Magic" within the past day, otherwise it's downloadable from the main site.

It's a WoW type game (should say EQ type game I suppose)

Bagar- · Post by **Bagar-** » March 21, 2009, 9:43 pm

Some guildies have been playing this outside of raids and speak highly of it.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 21, 2009, 11:51 pm

As free games go, this is nice so far. UI is pretty polished. The graphics are about WoW level (meaning crappy compared to some other newer games) but stylish enough and less crooked screen cartoonish than WoW.

I still had to download a lot of updates/patches before playing but had no issues logging onto the servers, no lag, etc

It's good enough for me to setup a Saitek Game Controller profile for it.

I've had more armor changes from level 1-3 in an hour in Runes of Magic than I had my entire 50+ levels in Age of Conan.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » March 23, 2009, 3:24 am

You hammer WoW graphics, but seriously. WoW is not meant to be "realistic"; it's supposed to be "cartoony". I believe that was more a stylistic design decision than a weakness or that their artists are crappy because the PC doesn't have 40-million polygons on their asses.

I like WoW's graphics.

Thanks for the info though Winnow. I may give it a look, but my gaming time is limited. It's not a question of cash (although I am frugal to a fault). I play EQ2, Left 4 Dead and occasionally AoE2.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » March 23, 2009, 3:28 am

I sense a new forum in the making!

miir · Post by **miir** » March 23, 2009, 3:45 am

There is absolutely nothing that stands out about this game.
It's a by-the-numbers, free-to-play, fantasy MMO.

It tries too hard to mimic WOW but has none of the lore or personality or WOW.

miir · Post by **miir** » March 23, 2009, 3:50 am

Oh, I came upon a totally fucking bizarre bug...

If you happen to have Matrix Online installed, this game will not update..
The updater copies matrix.exe into the game directory and fails.
It's actually the same file/executable from the Matrix Online directory.

The only way I could get the game to update was to rename the install directory of Matrix Online.

Spang · Post by **Spang** » March 23, 2009, 4:01 am

You have Matrix Online installed on your computer?

miir · Post by **miir** » March 23, 2009, 4:26 am

Yep, I used to play it.
It's part of my Station Access account.
I know some people who still play and I log on to say hi every once in a while.

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » March 23, 2009, 4:27 am

some people collect bottle caps. miir collects MMOs. I collect embalmed fetuses

miir · Post by **miir** » March 23, 2009, 4:30 am

miir collects MMOs

Haha, too true!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 23, 2009, 9:34 am

Having fun with this game.

Best "free" game I've played. Most polished. I quote "free" because I spent more money on Rappelz than any other MMO I've played, not counting the subscription fees with EQ for 4 years.

I also don't see anything unique in this game but it takes some of the best parts of other MMOs and includes them in a free game.

I have played WoW and didn't enjoy it at all. RoM, with a few free Add-Ons from Curse, is a solid game. It figured out that people enjoy different looks. I mentioned before that I had already gone through more equipment looks in RoM in three levels that I did in 50 levels of AoC. I'm level 13 now and the different looking armor has continued to pour in.

They've also done a good job with the diversity of mobs in the game...and I mean diversity in looks as with the early levels, most mobs don't vary much in abilities. Cities, Towns, landscape etc look nice. No server lag or issues logging on. Spell effects are all nice and not too annoying.

The UI is well done. I like the follow commands on the quest map and the "move to" commands. Running back and forth is the most boring part of an MMO. Having that automated somewhat lets you at least sit back and enjoy the scenery (which is maybe slightly better than WoW's but much less cartoonish at least) After adjusting the WASD keys and putting them on my controller, everything is great with the UI. All the good parts of other UIs are included and they have a thriving Add-On community over on Curse.

So far, the only thing I've purchased was a mount for $10 since getting around faster is always useful. Unlike Rappelz, I haven't found the need to go apeshit buying stuff. You can rent mounts in the game if you don't want to buy one. Gold seems to drop (from selling loot) at a good pace so you can buy stuff at the Auction House and keep your character up to date all without spending any money if you wish.

I still don't know how I survived playing EQ without a gamepad key controller.(and that's with the insane number of buffs being handed out pre group buffs in EQ by shaman on raids) Every MMO since has been much more entertaining with all the keys mapped to the gamepad along with movement linked to the little thumb joystick. (Saitek).

Runes of Magic is worth a look if you are looking to play an MMO from time to time, WoW holds no appeal to you, and don't have time to invest long times in the game. Sign up is hassle free as free games go.

The game loads incredibly fast. After the initial long patch process. You can load this game up quickly when you feel like playing.

I'm on Govinda (PvE)

Canoe · Post by **Canoe** » March 24, 2009, 8:28 pm

Patching it now, going to see how this baby is.

Free + Casual = right up my alley right now.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 24, 2009, 11:45 pm

Canoe wrote:Patching it now, going to see how this baby is.

Free + Casual = right up my alley right now.

cool, 1825 is the last patch if you're watching the patch progression wondering when it will end : )

Canoe · Post by **Canoe** » March 25, 2009, 1:27 pm

Winnow wrote:
Canoe wrote:Patching it now, going to see how this baby is.

Free + Casual = right up my alley right now.

cool, 1825 is the last patch if you're watching the patch progression wondering when it will end : )

yeah it took FOREVER, but eventually I got in.

Name is "Canoe" for now... we'll see if I stick with this char or not. Was looking for one that could solo fairly well, so just went with a Knight... and eventually will probably be a Knight / Priest combo.

Look me up

Sabek · Post by **Sabek** » March 25, 2009, 6:27 pm

I am on Govinda as Sabek as well.
Enjoying it so far.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » March 27, 2009, 11:41 am

Started downloading this around 8pm last night. This morning around 7am it was about 32% done. WTF

Jarori Bloodletter · Post by **Jarori Bloodletter** » March 27, 2009, 5:06 pm

For some reason it took me 12 hrs to download it and all the patches on a 16mb connection lol..

Im on also as jarori.. i sent a tell to "Canoe" but he never answered~

Sabek · Post by **Sabek** » March 27, 2009, 6:13 pm

Do no use their torrent type interface for the initial client download. I wasn't getting more than like 60k/s with it. I just got it from one of the mirrors and it was much quicker.

Canoe · Post by **Canoe** » March 30, 2009, 11:16 am

Never received your tell Jarori - weird.

As far as downloading it - use file planet (the free version is fine). Using runes of magic torrent after 24 hours, I was still at 60% or so. I went to file planet and had it within 2 hours or so.

I'm up to 18/15 Knight / Priest - and really enjoying this game so far

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » March 30, 2009, 6:45 pm

Fun game, but man, I don't know how you can rate this as superior to WoW in the graphics. It's exactly the same style. I keep expecting to see Night Elves and Dwarves.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » April 3, 2009, 12:06 pm

For a free game this looks pretty good so far; I was impressed actually. But God almighty, it took forever to finish patching. That was crazy.

Thanks for the heads up on this one.

Canoe · Post by **Canoe** » April 3, 2009, 12:21 pm

Yeah, I'm really, really enjoying this game so far.

I just got into the crafting aspect of it (only done cooking), and while it takes forever to level it, I don't really consider that a bad thing - spreads out the time doing it.

Also I've realized you can purchase from people diamonds for about 7.000 gold each, so if you find a cash cow (gathering can make a lot of money) you can turn around and buy diamonds, which in turn you can buy stuff (horse etc).

It takes a LOT longer than using real $$, but if you want to put int he time, truly nothing isn't attainable in the game. Spending $$ just puts it more on "easy mode" than otherwise.

Anyway - I'm having a blast. Thanks for pointing it out.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » April 3, 2009, 1:03 pm

Same, although my play time is limited (i.e. when I'm not playing EQ2 or L4D or w/ family/friends). I'm into pretty much every craft EXCEPT cooking (so far!) although I'm not really into Alchemy either, just herbalism to get what I need for tailoring etc.

I'm playing a Priest / Rogue and right now I think I'm 13/9 (actively on Rogue ATM trying to get it on par w/ Priest, but crafting sure slows me down - which I'm fine with. I want to make armor and weapons to twink my daughter's character). No, I didn't give the combo a lot of thought, it just seemed like it would be fun.

Bubba Grizz · Post by **Bubba Grizz** » April 3, 2009, 5:46 pm

A theiving priest? Novel concept.

Sabek · Post by **Sabek** » April 3, 2009, 6:47 pm

Priest/Rogue is kinda of a WoW style shadowpriest face melter.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » April 4, 2009, 1:08 pm

Winnow - you mention add-ons. Enlighten me please if you would be so kind.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 4, 2009, 4:55 pm

Ashur wrote:Winnow - you mention add-ons. Enlighten me please if you would be so kind.

http://rom.curse.com/

good game. I don't play it due to doing other things that I enjoy but the above link provides the add-ons for RoM.

Rogue/Knight was what I had tried and liked. The high damage of the rogue combined with the enhanced armor protection by using the Knight as secondary looked to be quite the force.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » April 5, 2009, 12:28 am

Bubba Grizz wrote:A theiving priest? Novel concept.

Sarcasm alert!

Siji · Post by **Siji** » April 7, 2009, 4:04 pm

Warrior / Mage or Warrior / Priest..

Siji · Post by **Siji** » April 16, 2009, 3:13 pm

Decided to restart and did a mage/priest. Up to 16 on both and finding that I've probably done dozens of quests and haven't once gone somewhere to kill stuff just to gain xp. It's much faster to level up using quests, which is how the game should be (hello everQUEST!), due to the xp/tp reward at the end. The graphics really continue to surprise me at how good they are for a free game. It's also very nice to be able to log on for 5 minutes and then be off in 5 seconds if necesary. The only thing I'm still struggling with is the interface and such. I guess I"m just so used to the controls in EQ that i'm having trouble finding easy ways to do things. Only thing I can say that I really dislike is the limited backpack spots. I'm guessing you can buy more, but eh. And they could really shorten the casting time for a horse too..

miir · Post by **miir** » April 16, 2009, 5:22 pm

It's much faster to level up using quests, which is how the game should be (hello everQUEST!)

Yea, compare this to a 10 year old game

In EQ2 they actually give you the option to turn off combat XP.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » April 16, 2009, 6:24 pm

miir wrote:
It's much faster to level up using quests, which is how the game should be (hello everQUEST!)
Yea, compare this to a 10 year old game

wtf does its age have to do with it? It would be pretty easy to add higher percentages of XP rewards for completing quests/tasks than presently exist. In EQ there's rarely a reason to do 90% of the quests that exist in the game. Adding nice XP to them would be a pretty good incentive. It's not like the RoM quests are brain science and considering they're not getting $14.95 a month from each player, the fact that they've got a shitload more quests to do is pretty impressive imo. If I were comparing graphics to a 10 year old game you might have a point, but not when it comes to content.

miir · Post by **miir** » April 16, 2009, 6:58 pm

It would be pretty easy to add higher percentages of XP rewards for completing quests/tasks than presently exist.

EQ was not designed to have quest based leveling and quest based timelines.

not like the RoM quests are brain science and considering they're not getting $14.95 a month from each player

ROM was designed to be a micro-transaciton based game.
It's design is by-the-numbers for a free to play (F2P) MMO.
It's newbie friendly with a crapton of generic low level kill and fedex quests.
When you get to the higher levels, it's grind-grind-grind-grind like every other F2P MMO.

the fact that they've got a shitload more quests to do is pretty impressive imo.

It's not impressive at all.
Plugging a quest into generic MMO engines like this game uses takes about 25 lines of code.
Pummeling new players with an overabundance of quests is actually pretty lazy design.

If I were comparing graphics to a 10 year old game you might have a point, but not when it comes to content.

Let's compare the design of games like GOW, Killzone2 or Half Life to games from roughly a decade ago like Quake, Redneck Rampage or Duke Nukem...
Those old FPS games have no cover systems, no physics puzzles, no co-op, no scripted events and only rudimentary multiplay...
They are basically linear key hunts.

Why not compare this game to it's contemporaries?

Siji · Post by **Siji** » April 17, 2009, 12:36 am

miir wrote:
It would be pretty easy to add higher percentages of XP rewards for completing quests/tasks than presently exist.
EQ was not designed to have quest based leveling and quest based timelines.

When's the last time you played EQ? I'm going to guess not very recently. EQ has indeed moved to more mini and daily quests and the like with their task system. The difference is that SOE thinks the best way for people to enjoy themselves is doing nearly pointless quests with little reward and barely noticeable experience results. Read any of the current message threads on the SOE forums about EQ's wonderful quests. My comment was that it wouldn't be hard for SOE to change their quest results to give more experience, and it wouldn't be. But that doesn't fit the model of 'keep subscribers as long as possible by making them grind as much as possible'. Heaven forbid you have something like the monster missions where people were able to get AAs quickly - we all saw how quickly that nerf bat came down. It's not that it's hard or that EQ wasn't designed for it, it's that it doesn't fit what SOE -currently- thinks people want. Obviously that's changing. SoF alone I can think of a dozen daily quests players can do just like, oh I don't know, Runes of Magic has. The difference is that RoM gives decent exp for it. EQ mainly gives faction for doing it. (And yes, I know SoF/EQ came before RoM).

EverQuest has a lot more to it than Runes of Magic does, there's no denying it. My original reference was that a game with the name Quest in it could learn something from a game that's free. There's no code or design flaw that would prevent SOE from letting quests be a way of leveling up. It's a personal decision. If I had lots of time to play games, I'd go back to playing EQ. But since I don't Runes of Magic is a great worthy alternative, and not just because it's free. The graphics are better, the quest system (imo!) is better, the ability to have legal 3rd party plugins is extremely nice, the ability to solo for as long as you want or as short as you wnat is great, the dual class system is great.. and it's free. Depending on how badly the 'grind' changes is at top level maybe my opinion will change.

miir wrote:
the fact that they've got a shitload more quests to do is pretty impressive imo.
It's not impressive at all.
Plugging a quest into generic MMO engines like this game uses takes about 25 lines of code.
Pummeling new players with an overabundance of quests is actually pretty lazy design.

And yet it's more enjoyable doing 25 code line quests and being able to spend all of the time playing the game doing nothing but those crappy 25 code line quests to not only enjoy yourself, but to also level up your character and get some pretty decent items for doing it. Funny how there's probably 15 different quest arcs I've completed, all with multiple parts to them that have all been enjoyable, well thought out (not just 'go find Bob because I said so' bullshit) and rewarding in game. If that's what RoM can do with 25 lines with ease, then I'd say they're on to something pretty great. Give me more 25 code line quests to enjoy anytime you want.

miir wrote:
If I were comparing graphics to a 10 year old game you might have a point, but not when it comes to content.
Let's compare the design of games like GOW, Killzone2 or Half Life to games from roughly a decade ago like Quake, Redneck Rampage or Duke Nukem...
Those old FPS games have no cover systems, no physics puzzles, no co-op, no scripted events and only rudimentary multiplay...
They are basically linear key hunts.

Why not compare this game to it's contemporaries?

You're a looney.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » April 17, 2009, 1:06 am

Quests.. I'd personally just kill mobs for XP so that's ot a big deal to me. I barely have done any of those quick task quest thingies they implemented. Even if they gave more XP I wouldn't bother since it's rather boring doing over and over.

The only thing I wish EQ did better was some way to track stuff or guide you along. If it wasn't for sites like Allakhazam's people would be, to put it mildly, fucked on a lot of quests.

Canoe · Post by **Canoe** » April 17, 2009, 9:58 am

Aslanna wrote: The only thing I wish EQ did better was some way to track stuff or guide you along. If it wasn't for sites like Allakhazam's people would be, to put it mildly, fucked on a lot of quests.

Which is another thing that Runes of Magic does very well (possibly could be argued too well).

For 99% of the quests, you can just look up where the quest giver is, or more information right in game. No more "I finished the quest, but I can't remember where the hell to turn it in" so you run around for 2 hours trying to find him.

Also the click "move to" feature rocks. At higher levels it's getting a little more dangerous heh, but it's still nice, as it points you in the right direction!

Anyway, I'm with siji on this one. For a F2P, at least up until this point (30ish), I'm loving this game, and I have yet to Grind for XP at all.

Maybe this changes when you get to 40+? I know Miir states that's the case (at higher levels) - but what experience do you really have? Have you played to 50?

Siji · Post by **Siji** » April 17, 2009, 11:09 am

Aslanna wrote:Quests.. I'd personally just kill mobs for XP so that's ot a big deal to me. I barely have done any of those quick task quest thingies they implemented. Even if they gave more XP I wouldn't bother since it's rather boring doing over and over.

The only thing I wish EQ did better was some way to track stuff or guide you along. If it wasn't for sites like Allakhazam's people would be, to put it mildly, fucked on a lot of quests.

Just to clarify, the quests in RoM that we're referring to aren't ones you do over and over (though I guess you might do them twice, once for each class of your dual classed character). It's a string of quests that become available as you reach certain levels and such. The rewards are worthwhile as is the xp gain. You could sit and grind in one spot if you preferred, but it would be just as boring as it is in EQ. Another nice thing in RoM is that the spawn time of most mobs I've seen to date is like 3 minutes or something.

The aggro in RoM is also different.. so far, it doesn't seem like you can train other people. If someone is running with a train of mobs, when they get away, the mobs seem to be set to run back to their spawn points without getting aggro on the way. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how it's seemed so far.

Like Canoe said, the guide features of RoM are pretty crazy. Quest npc names are highlighted in the quest text. Most of the time if you're in the right zone/area and you click their name, you'll run to them. And if that can't be done, there's a follow option that gives you a red arrow that you follow to get to them. Resources for tradeskills (plants, wood, etc) even show up with special icons on the mini-map so you can find them easier.

I woudn't want to see EQ get dumbed down to RoM's level, but RoM is a nice free alternative that's fine as it is. It kind of reminds me of an online version of oblivion.

miir · Post by **miir** » April 17, 2009, 11:46 am

Maybe this changes when you get to 40+? I know Miir states that's the case (at higher levels) -

It's not griding like in EQ...
It's more like grinding in WOW...
The XP for mob kills is inconsequential so you just gather up like 10 'kill' quests for mobs that you can kill efficiently.

But I still fail to see how you can compare this game to the original EQ.
It really has more in common with EQ2 and WOW (which are 4+ years old) and a handful of other current-gen F2P MMOs.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » April 17, 2009, 11:59 am

Since you're higher level, what's that robot like level 70 mob in the NE area of uh.. is it Silverspring? NE of Twilight Mines. He kinda looks nifty (as do the mobs around him).

Since it's free, everyone should give it a try imo! Even Winnow likes it!

Siji · Post by **Siji** » June 4, 2009, 5:09 pm

So I've been playing this since back when this thread was started and I'm still enjoying the hell out of it. A big patch was done yesterday that added a bunch of stuff to guild halls and opened up a new 50's area. Also brought in some new elite skills for 40 and 45 I believe. I'd originally purchased a horse and recently got a new mount that I like better, but that's the only cash I've spent on the game. I've heard rumblings that for high end raiding guilds you can't really be at the 'top of the game' without spending cash, but do any of us here have that kind of time anymore to be top tier raiders?

In any case, up to 36/36 now and it's enjoyable. Some of the run to A then to B then back to A then to C then to A quests get a little repetitive but you certainly get to see all areas of all of their zones and besides, you're not required to do all of the quests.

If you're still playing you should definitely be using the Curse add-on client. Here's some add-ons that rock:

QuestWiz
WoWMap
AdvancedAuctionHouse
Mob Info Tracker
nBuff
pbInfo
Shut Up!
XBar