Hi Guys,

In the future, we're going to be talking to the guys behind Runes of Magic about their game, and we thought it might be a good idea to ask around to see if you, the readers, have any suggestions for questions that you might ask the developers if you were given the chance.

Once we get some questions together, I'll take a look through and pass some of them along!

 Some questions off the top of my head:

• Test Server - There's been a bit of backlash due to nerfs/perceived nerfs as well as sudden changes to combat, in general. In one such example, changes to hit and dodge rates were rolled back almost immediately after being implemented due, at least in part, to negative feedback from players.  Does Frogster have any plans to implement test servers so that players can test changes and provide feedback before they're implemented in production?
• Diamonds int the Auction House - Diamonds have quickly become the currency of choice in the Auction House, which seems to devalue gold. What plans do you have, if any, for balancing gold and diamond trading in the Auction House?  I have seen a number of suggestions on the official boards, some of which include adding a diamond tax/surcharge or adding additional functionality to the auction house, such as the ability to easily identify and sort by the price/unit.  
• Questing - In my opinion, Runes of Magic questing suffers from many of the same questing issues as other games in that are too many "FedEx", kill-ten-rats and back-and-forth quests.  While quest grinding does occupy a player's time, is it fun?  Not necessarily.  It's more of a means to an end. Additionally, experience granting quests tend to emphasize solo play.  Do you have any plans to add additional group-oriented quests or incentivize grouping, in general?  Do you have any plans to facillitate quest sharing?  Do you have plans for any new types of quests, such as co-op trap triggering, stealth quests, gauntlets, etc...?
• Vision - Can you please reaffirm your vision for Runes of Magic as a free-to-play MMO?  For example, is it your intent, both currently and in the future, to allow a free player to play the entire game (all levels, classes, zones, etc...) from start to finish for free?  Do you forsee adding items to the cash shop that grant significant game play advantages that can't be obtained through normal play?  Do these already exist in the cash shop?
• Add-ons - can you please reiterate your intent for add-on usage vs. game design in Runes of Magic?  As an example, at a high level, are add-ons intended to simply provide UI modifications and simplistic actions that may enhance quality of life experiences, but not provide actual game play advantages?  I've seen examples of macros being discussed that allow a Knight/Warrior to instantly swap a 2h weapon for a 1h+shield and automate that activity every x seconds in order to take advantage of both 2h skills and shield skills.  This seems to go beyond the scope of the class combo design, which would limit skills to whatever items are equipped.  By being able to automate this process with the click of a button, a character would have access to more skills in a battle than seem to be intended.  What is your opinion of this type of macro usage?

~Ripper

Any plans to fix the combat system? The coding needs a complete overhaul, initiating a skill attack and when it occurs is totally out of sync. An example of this is getting hit by a mob after it's laying dead on the ground. Timing to perform combos is also really awkward because of this, I play a rogue and this breaks the vanish skill.

Classes need to be balance, the mage class is incredibly overpowered compared to others, they can kill several mobs at once quicker than other classes can kill a single mob. Is this going to be address or are the devs vision of this game is to have 90% of the population over ran by mages, and 90% of mages being mage/priest clones? Right now if you're not a mage, priest or knight you'll find it pretty tough to find a random party to do the dungeons/instances. With mages practically being gods they basically substitute the need for a rogue, scouts and warrior in a party. It would be nice to have dungeons where rogue and scouts are needed, such as having a indestructible mob that only a rogue may sneak pass to hit a switch that disables this mob or opens another route around the indestructible mob, same could apply to a scout using a arrow to hit a inaccessible switch to further progress in a dungeon. Or maybe just nerf the mages, some cool down on those area of affect skills, so it isn't spammable like the warriors and knights.

Some classe combinations are avoided such as the interesting priest/warrior(monk) or rogue/mage class, they being underpowered and useless in a party. It's a nice feature to have many class combinations but your options are a bit limited since some combinations are superior to others. Are you going to fix these issues or are these combinations going to be left to rot?

The game is incredibly melee unfriendly with a lot of the mobs debuffs significantly affecting melee players, why do range players get it so easy? Making the incredibly overpowered mage class even more overpowered. Are you going to introduced mobs that are strong against magic? World mobs are usually too weak to even get a touch on magic users unless they're elites and only then the elites can only scratch them with all the rooting and stuns the mages have in their arsenal, not to mention the damage absorbing buff.

Enchanting is incredibly overpowered, cloths users can enchant their cloths to out tank a Knight wearing plate armour and the fact mages and priest valuing stamina over intelligence and wisdom, don't you devs think there is something wrong about this? The most desirable state being stamina since high amount of HP is needed to survive instances and boss fight.  Strength, dexterity, intelligence and wisdom don't have a significant affect the way the game is designed, all you need is alot of stamina and a high tier weapon.  Are you planning on toning down the the amount of enchanting one can do with the arcane transmutor, especially limiting the amount of a single stat  one can stack, i.e stamina. This is a big issue, especially in a RPG as highly transmuted gear defeats the purpose of role playing, as one class can fill the roles of others.

Most of the instance are too tough and can not be done by the players of appropriate level unless they are heavily pimped out, are you going to balance this or are the instances geared towards those who invest in the cash shop heavily? i.e for those with highy enchanted gear? i.e those who stacked alot of stamina and HP?

A lot of issues should of been fixed during beta before the game went live, it is incredibly fustrating for a players when they have spent a lot of time and resouces/diamonds into their character, transmuting their equipments and suddenly stats get altered or the class gets nerfed. I'm currently afraid to transmute anything, refusing to buy purified fusion stones because  simply nothing is guaranteed in your game and their is no compensation, transmuting seems like a gamble the way the stats are getting altered. Don't you agree?

Current end game is a bore, do runewaker have anymore ideas for content then just farming dungeons over and over again? It would also be nice to have some puzzles within dungeons.

The gathering and crafting system needs a rework as there is little reward for the time and effort spent in it, do you guys find running around looking for woods, ores and herbs to click on repeatedly for a thousand times fun? Only to increase one of you crafting skill by a third of a level? Maybe introduce quest where you can train your crafting skills so its not such a tedious activity. Like the current dailies but raises your gathering and crafting skill instead.

Allowing diamonds to be traded in the auction house for in game items have crippled the economy. Having just a currency exchange, gold to diamond would of been more sensible,. Is this going to be addressed?

Are you guys going to fix the sound quality in this game? The music is great but it randomly cuts in and out, with hours of silence. Tabora lacks atmosphere especially in places like dust devil canyon and ravenfall, the lack of music doesn't really help. The early zones such as howling mountains and silverspring are well designed and thought out but the later areas just pales in comparison.

Most of the mobs in this game are just re skinned versions of other mobs, wolves and hyenas. I've lost count how many times the lizards have been reskinned, are you going to add more variation in this game?

I hope you guys address these issues first before you introduce the new classes and the elf race, and speaking about elves, any plans to introduce a playable dwarf race? A world with playable humans, elves but no dwarfs would just seem odd but then again maybe not in a world where mages can out tank a knight. Are the elves only going to be an aesthetic thing or are stats going to be involved? Will elves make better mages and scouts for example? Or would they just focus on stamina and aquiring a high tier weapon like humans do and out tank a knight?

Any chance to remove the bind on pick up on world items? Its incredibly fustrating, spending days and hours grinding elites in Ravenfall hunting for a blue dagger for my rogue only to find a blue bow and sword which is useless to my rogue and worthless since it is bound to me, just seems like a waste of time and effort. Bind on equip wouldn't be so bad, but bind on pick up is a waste of time.

Another thing that defies logic in RoM is a horse weighed down in heavy metal armour can out run a horse without this disadvantage, is the hunk of metal enchanted? If so, will you be selling the battle armour for the horse separately so i can upgrade my brown horse?

Oh and botters are already plaguing RoM, how will you tackle this?

RoM is a great game.  Has it's flaws or drawbacks like all games.

Being an Ex WoW player for years, it's easy to make comparisons as the games are so similar.  The homogenisation of classes is what killed WoW for me.  Whether it was to balance PvP, or for whatever - to take away specific roles of specific classes is taking away what defines a class.

I can only hope that RoM's devs remeber what class roles and difining abilities mean.  Don't go the same way as WoW !!

The real question on everyone's mind:

When will this game actually have customer service?

Originally posted by Stormbow

The real question on everyone's mind:

When will this game actually have customer service?

I read on another post here on about the tension in this game.. How a string can only take so much tension before it, well, snaps.

Its gonna happen soon! I were in a "private" chat channel yesterday on Macablabla (Cant remember the server name. Hehe)

People are PISSED! They lose equipment due to bugs and crashes. Stuff with high dura & +6.

They send mails to the Customer Support and they will give you, if your lucky, a "refund", which doesn't match anything you've lost.

and if you complain about that you get a "Leave us alone or we will ban you" mail.

They're like, planning how the hell to get this published and get people away from this game, even a writer for a game magazine came in and asked a few questions and stuff.. Its going to blow soon. So many angry people in one place can't be good for any game.

Ask them about that, if you dare.. Though I highly doubt they would let you, considering they are closing/deleting threads about this topic, on the forums.

EDIT: Typos.

Originally posted by Stormbow

The real question on everyone's mind:

When will this game actually have customer service?

Yes, we are still waiting for adequate customer service. The GTMs are now using the term "Frogster Soon(tm)," which is just an inside joke meaning anywhere from 6 months to never.

Originally posted by Gidas

I read on another post here on about the tension in this game.. How a string can only take so much tension before it, well, snaps.

 

Its gonna happen soon! I were in a "private" chat channel yesterday on Macablabla (Cant remember the server name. Hehe)

People are PISSED! They lose equipment due to bugs and crashes. Stuff with high dura & +6.

They send mails to the Customer Support and they will give you, if your lucky, a "refund", which doesn't match anything you've lost.

and if you complain about that you get a "Leave us alone or we will ban you" mail.

They're like, planning how the hell to get this published and get people away from this game, even a writer for a game magazine came in and asked a few questions and stuff.. Its going to blow soon. So many angry people in one place can't be good for any game.

 

Ask them about that, if you dare.. Though I highly doubt they would let you, considering they are closing/deleting threads about this topic, on the forums.

 

EDIT: Typos.

I have yet to have a Server account banned (actual characters), but I have had several Forum accounts banned, just for asking why others have had their Server accounts banned, and for asking questions about bugs, exploiters, bots, schedules, patch notes, undocumented "features", etc.

It seems they have a 'Fight Club' rule.  Rule #1: You do not talk about Fight Club.  And rule #2: You do not talk about Fight Club.  Similiarly, the RoM rules are #1: You do not talk about RoM problems in the forums.  And rule #2:  You do not talk about RoM problems in the forums.

And it is not just the US players that are complaining.  The EU players are screaming bloody murder, as well.   I wonder if the cashflow from the Asian servers alone can continue to float the cost of the EU and US servers?

RoM is not Frogster's first MMO, but it is the first vastly international MMO.  We'll have to wait and see if Frogster survives and/or learns anything from their customers' feedback.

they should make it so you can u can switch everything but your cape and  headpiece when u swap equipment, or whatever u decide to use on both of your primary and secondary classes

I would simply like to ask ,why they give such preferential treatment to the EU servers players? Giving them ruby shop wings and additional 30% off of whatever diamond purchase deals are currently happening,holding more GM events and contests on EU servers than the US, permitting programmers to add a higher drop rate for items from higher level commonly farmed areas and instances while nerfing the US servers rates.

It seems to me they could care less about us(in the US) as customers, so I wonder how they would feel about a boycott of their US servers for a day. Would they even blink or would they acknowledge that the need for fairness for all customers is necessary to keep a client base? Hopefully the answers to these questions are positive...but due to their poor customer service and Nazi-esque iron hand techniques on the forum for any who dissent from acting the happy idiot, I highly doubt it.

 I left this game for many reasons you mentioned here but they dont care there a money making horde if they did care about there player base they would hide the truth about what every players has said and they have deleted.

Originally posted by Montana_Mike

Originally posted by Gidas

I read on another post here on about the tension in this game.. How a string can only take so much tension before it, well, snaps.

 

Its gonna happen soon! I were in a "private" chat channel yesterday on Macablabla (Cant remember the server name. Hehe)

People are PISSED! They lose equipment due to bugs and crashes. Stuff with high dura & +6.

They send mails to the Customer Support and they will give you, if your lucky, a "refund", which doesn't match anything you've lost.

and if you complain about that you get a "Leave us alone or we will ban you" mail.

They're like, planning how the hell to get this published and get people away from this game, even a writer for a game magazine came in and asked a few questions and stuff.. Its going to blow soon. So many angry people in one place can't be good for any game.

 

Ask them about that, if you dare.. Though I highly doubt they would let you, considering they are closing/deleting threads about this topic, on the forums.

 

EDIT: Typos.

 

I have yet to have a Server account banned (actual characters), but I have had several Forum accounts banned, just for asking why others have had their Server accounts banned, and for asking questions about bugs, exploiters, bots, schedules, patch notes, undocumented "features", etc.

 

It seems they have a 'Fight Club' rule.  Rule #1: You do not talk about Fight Club.  And rule #2: You do not talk about Fight Club.  Similiarly, the RoM rules are #1: You do not talk about RoM problems in the forums.  And rule #2:  You do not talk about RoM problems in the forums.

 

And it is not just the US players that are complaining.  The EU players are screaming bloody murder, as well.   I wonder if the cashflow from the Asian servers alone can continue to float the cost of the EU and US servers?

 

RoM is not Frogster's first MMO, but it is the first vastly international MMO.  We'll have to wait and see if Frogster survives and/or learns anything from their customers' feedback.

Have my babies!

Really, I just wish the heads would clean house and hire professional GMs instead of kids who have a timer on their mothers computer.

when will runewalkers "good enough" attitude become not good enough?

when will siege be working properly? beta feature in a released game? anyone heard of test servers over at runewalker?

when will gm's and mods at the us forums be given timely, accurate, information to post instead of making U.S. players head over to the EU forums to get our news?

when will US forum gm's and mods be given training? as it stands they only understand the use of the 'delete' , 'lock'', and 'bann' features of the forum.

when will customer service become service rather than vague promises of maybe combined with overt threats of banning if one becomes to vocal?

when will gold selling end? for all your promises and threats via announcements regarding the purchase of tiered stones from spammers, i see no reduction in gold sellers outside veranus.

when will u remove all the duped gold from grimdel so the economy can recover? grimdel currently boasts prices in excess of 3x any other server. this is a direct result of your inattention, inactivity and frankly, apathy with regard to the game that pays your bills. in addition, when you bann someone for screwing up the entire server economy though cheating and exploiting your crappy code, and they return 3 days later, what message are you sending me?

the recent firings of the incompetants that were at the head of frogster (FAI) was a great start, now when will you be firing the rest of them and put in place some friendly, approachable staff that actaully plays the game that employs them so they know what the hell we are talking about?