Ran Online / Silkroad Online

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 18, 2007, 2:05 pm

It's a free Chinese MMOG (Ran Online) Not sure where Silkroad Online is from but it's free as well with some sort of pay for premium item deal.

First up Ran Online:

http://ranonline.e-games.com.my/index_eng.asp

anyone try it?

May get lots of Red X's as I'm hotlinking to kooky sites.

Looks like you play high school kids and beat each other up.

A review of the game:

http://www.starcade.com.ph/inner.php?id=50&selection=74

Not sure what's up with this pick but they were promoting Ran Online:

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Graphics better than WoW but not great.* Seems to be more graphic than some of the other games. Looks like you pop pills if that's what I think it is at the top of the screen:

*chill

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Silkroad Online looks like it has better graphics and more traditional fantasy as opposed to beating up highschool students:

http://www.silkroadonline.net/dataroom/screenshot.asp

more red x's inc

Here's a site with a buttload of MMOGs

http://www.freemmorpglist.com/games_rpg_mmorpg.html

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » March 18, 2007, 2:31 pm

I played Slkroad lots before. Silkroad is a Korean game

The Europe expansion is more fun though for the peeps i guess, less grindy and with classes such as Rogue, Necro, Warrior, Mage, Bard, Cleric etc

The Chinese side can use pots but the Euros have a 30 sec interval between pot-usage, which means they cant spam Healing Pots like the Chinese.

They do have better support classes such as Cleric and Bard tho.

The Chinese heal-spells are crappy with a bit slow refresh.

Chinese have Glaive (Halberd), Spear, Sabre, Sword, Bow

Euros have 2hSword, dual axes, dual daggers, crossbow, sceptre, sword and shield and staff.

But alas, it was too much of a grind for me (the chinese side).

The higher up in lvl you get, the grindier it gets (of course).

Fighting thousands of the same type of mob to ding isnt that hot.

Maybe it changed with the Euro-expansion but i doubt it!

It was fun until it went Grindy (lvl 20+)

A fun aspect with Silkroad is the professions, either Trader, Thief or Hunter.

Hunters gain xp and rewards by hunting Thieves.

Thieves attack Traders who slowly pass through the roads between cities (if the Traders manage to complete a very difficult trade-route, its a huge reward for them).

Thieves can kill Traders and steal the tradingitems on the camels and then head to thiefbase to sell it off.

Its nice to ambush traders

--

Haha ive played Ran too! I remember! It was a while ago tho!

I played a Martial Arts kicker (kind of cool animations!) without Weapons.

Yeah, different schools, but i felt it became a bit too grindy as well the further you got (just like Silkroad)

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 18, 2007, 9:03 pm

Kwon's played everything! I might check a couple of them out. There's still no major MMORPG out there I want to get into again yet so poking around in these might be good temporary filler.

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » March 18, 2007, 10:43 pm

Winnow wrote:Kwon's played everything! I might check a couple of them out. There's still no major MMORPG out there I want to get into again yet so poking around in these might be good temporary filler.

If yer gonna play SilkRoad, better wait for the Euro-patch to be implemented!

I believe it has more depth for you, since they have loads of classes to choose from with different skillsets.

Chinese side choose from Glaive, Blade, Bow (All Phys-based) and Spear, Sword (All Mental-based).

Then there is Lightning, Fire, Ice and Heal school of magic for chinese, while Euros have much more, like Earth etc, Necros with drain Hp spells, Rogues with poison procs, Bards and whatnot.

I believe the quickest weapon in the game is Rogue with dual daggers + poison proc.

The new Trade system with Euro-patch
http://forum.mmosite.com/topics/105/200 ... 430,1.html

Euro-Map (they meet the chinese in Takla Makan or so)
http://kr.silkroad.yahoo.com/news/huges ... on=new_map

The Euro Weapons (Female Swordsman and Weak people.... )

Lovin' the Korean to English Warrock Lod (Warlock Rod)

Rogue Skills
http://www.silkroadforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=21424

Warlock (Not Necro, it was Warlock but still same style)
http://www.silkroadforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=21546

Bard
http://www.silkroadforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=21514

Cleric
http://www.silkroadforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=21544

http://www.silkroad-oasis.com/forum/sho ... php?t=1697

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The monsters you fight on the Euro side are of course euro-based mythos like Cyclops from Greece etc, Fenris Wulf and whatnot, while the Chinese based monsters are asian mythos like stone lions, ghosts with meatcleavers and whatnot

http://kr.silkroad.yahoo.com/userpg/web ... WebMDiv=11

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 18, 2007, 11:41 pm

I'll wait on Silkroad for the patch but it looks like fun!

The wolf pet in this video looks cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa5g1lsQRZE

Why does every game I see look better graphically than EQ2, Vanguard or WoW? The Asians have a knack for making things so much more visually appealing while maybe not technically as great as some of the U.S. based games.

Ran has cute pets!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvL6RmBi ... ed&search=

wth is this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUhixlDY ... ed&search=

Skill effects in Ran look ok. Check the last minute of this video. It gets pretty chaotic with lots of people in the same area.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLxKFrb4 ... ed&search=

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 19, 2007, 3:19 am

So far the nod goes to Silkroad Online.

Both clients are 400-500mb and downloaded quickly. There are monster patches to download after installing the game the first time though.

I tried Ran Online first but it didn't like Firefox so I ended up with four accounts as it was creating them but I didn't know it with the "user name already in use" messages. I switched to IE and the account created fine and then found the other confirmations in my email for the other ones. Guess I can powerlevel myself later but I haven't been able to log on in past four hours. There's a maintenance message now so that might change.

Silkroad went a lot smoother. The user interface is very slick and the world is visually pleasing. The avatars look nice except for the hands which look like mutant stumps.

Here's some images of me logging on the first time. All of the windows etc are easy to figure out and the help/quest appears well done.

The Eldorado Server had a "new" beside it so I chose that one.

After creating a character and logging in, I was able to access the options and set my res to 1920X1200 and change graphics from low to high.

There's ~8-10 different looks for both male and female chars, 3 different sets of armor (war/hybrid/mage), and ~7 weapon choices.

I chose the warrior armor with a weapon favoring melee of mana.

The rest are 1920x1200 res:

The look of the world is nice. Animation while riding horses etc look good. I'll try some fighting later.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » March 19, 2007, 3:43 am

you save any screenshots that aren't little asian girls in miniskirts or is that just an amazing coincidence?

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 19, 2007, 4:44 am

I don't see a single shot of a girl in a mini skirt taken by me above and my character looks like a cat or something. But there you go spending your time worrying about what others are doing again. if I want to stare at a female ass instead of a male ass while I run around in a game, what the fuck is it to you?

You stick to the most pathetic arguments that nobody cares about like a fly on shit. You seem obsessed with my financial status, my sexual preferences, if I downloaded a movie before you were able to torrent it yourself, and just plain obsessed with me in general...stalker! Go away freak.

-----

Ran Online doesn't work with Vista yet. Will put that one on hold for the time being.

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » March 19, 2007, 10:47 am

Winnow wrote:I'll wait on Silkroad for the patch but it looks like fun!

The wolf pet in this video looks cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa5g1lsQRZE

Why does every game I see look better graphically than EQ2, Vanguard or WoW? The Asians have a knack for making things so much more visually appealing while maybe not technically as great as some of the U.S. based games.

Ran has cute pets!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvL6RmBi ... ed&search=

wth is this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUhixlDY ... ed&search=

Skill effects in Ran look ok. Check the last minute of this video. It gets pretty chaotic with lots of people in the same area.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLxKFrb4 ... ed&search=

Graphics are good and the animations are great (think Martial Artists with weapons), but they sure could have added more gameplay (at least for the Chinese side, adding more Quests etc not having to grind like there was no tomorrow at some lvls).

Still, the graphics in Silkroad is good, nice effects, nice animations etc Very good feeling when you enter the 2nd tier area for the first time with deserts,ruins and undead etc

Effects in Ran aint bad but still, they need more quests and more fun gameplay added there too, killing x of y mob isnt that fun in the long run. Some variation wouldnt hurt!

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In Silkroad, did you pick Glaive and heaviest Armor?

You do know that wearing the garment (lightest) will grant you +20 % movement speed as well as a reduction of cost on all spells/skills?

Garment also protects against Magic the best, but physical the worst.

Glaive is Str based, so pump your stats into STr and dont mind the mental side at all!

You will thank me for it in the end, unless you really want to be a hybrid.

Amazingly enough, my char also did the Glaive,Heaviest Armor and STR-route.

If you want to be a faster damage-dealer with better res vs magic tho (for pvp and later areas), try Garment

Also, if you love the heaviest armor the most (i did), bulk up on Run speed potions as well as levelling the windwalk in LightningSchool.

Having a decent lvl in GrassWalk/windWalk will make you move very fast, even with the heaviest armor.

You dont actually have to worry that much about magic attacks until lvl 30+ so

miir · Post by **miir** » March 19, 2007, 12:38 pm

Graphics are good and the animations are great

Are you fucking serious?
The graphics in both of those games are complete shit.

Jesus man, if you think those games are even remotely decent, you'd splooge over the steaming pile of shit called Archlord.

Archlord looks better, plays better, has meaningful PvP, and is less grindy... But it's still shit.

Maybe you should also check out RF Online.
It's got way better graphics and gameplay than those 2 games.. the PvP is fun for.. oh, maybe a week. But it's still shit.

Man, you gotta be scraping the bottom of the fucking barrel if you're trying out these free-to-play asian grindfest MMOGs.

miir · Post by **miir** » March 19, 2007, 12:52 pm

Wanna see some decent graphics circa 2002/2003?

Click here

That game is free to play as well... and it's got a fuck of a lot more depth than Ran Online and Silk Road.