Found this recently and thought maybe some like to use a Trial without the need of a credit card..hope they will offer that also after the new content patch.

secure.wwiionline.com/scripts/wwiionline/user/promo.jsps

Originally posted by giantsquid

Interesting...

Runes of Magic is so obviously NOT a grinder.  It's built around story-driven quests and daily quests.

The game is actually anti-grind.  My guild mates and I had talked about it one day, and the game seems to almost punish you for trying to grind.  You could do it if you want, but the way the game is built you never ever have to grind.

The other thing I wanted to comment on the post above me.

I read a lot of analytical reports: those boring business memorandums that I'm sure 99% of ppl don't read.

5 years ago they did a census and study, and released a report about Blizzard, the makers of World of Warcraft.

They said behind everything, behind the entire game, at the core is that Blizzard built the game as a 1-player game.  Now I know it doesn't exactly mean the same as solo, but for most ppl's meaning of the word "solo" I think it is interesting to point this out.

It is true that up to level 50 there are loads of quests to do which give you really big xp rewards, you will advance in the game a lot faster with quests instead without them.

But there is one point that players should not forget, when you reach lvl 50 and you did do your quests to reach this level you have just enough talent points to max 4 skills (or you just distribute them for more skills but with lower level).

After you reached lvl 50 you dont stop gaining talent points and you will farm for them, either with daily quests or just from killing mobs.

Therefore it is wrong to say that no grind exist in this game since the grind for talent points farming starts when you maxed your character level, so we need to be honest here.

Iam not sure how long it would take to max all your skills for your first character, maybe someone else can comment here.

What is countered, if you want to compete it takes insane long times if you dont exploit the whole game system especially on a pvp server. But the pvp system is so harsh to newcomers or to f2p gamers that most will quit and change to pve servers cause they just get farmed from pkers.

There are some tricks which players use to be competetive in less time and without investing money, but you need still lots of time and a good pc system.

You just farm phirius tokens with twinks and you use your twinks for transmutor charges. For t6 you need 36twinks around, each twink has 10 charges if i remember correct. And if you have loads of twinks you can farm probably 5000 phirius tokens a day for upgrade jewels..you just send the item from one character to the next and upgrade your stuff. They run 5-6 accounts on one pc and start botting daily quest items each day for their 40+ twinks. This is how hardcore players beat the game without investing money, except those who really pay for it but if you are a regular player with one account it would take forever if you dont invest money or trick the system.

But honestly, this is just too time consuming and not my playstyle, i did quit anway since there is not much pvp endgame left and class balance/bugs issues are just too much,  the  pvp server i was on for example is quiete empty already and the pimped players just dont find any opponents except ganking everyone since they are all in guilds. Red players dont drop anything with the help of the item shop protection and they just farm such who dont have that, dont bother to do pvp without pimped gear the power difference is just insane and they 1-3 shot you. If you like only PvE there seems to be no problems, except you need probably pimped gear for the most difficult high end dungeons to get a spot in any raid/party and for guild wars.

I dont want to stop people from trying out the game the intention of the thread is just to give infos what you can expect as a f2p gamer without investing money, just do your own expirience maybe you love it who knows.

The probably most easy way is to level up your first class  to lvl 34 and your second class to lvl 24 (with quests and xp potions in the second starting area). When you reach lvl 34 you can do an easy daily quest where you could be even afk, someone just needs to kill some mobs, lots of party invite is going on for this. The xp rate for your lower second class is really high and you will level up quiete fast with this tactic.

Funny thing is that all you need for endgame, especially for magic classes, is a t7 2h weapon and pimped gear with stamina. All those armor stats dont work since skill damage hits like you would be nacked. And the most wired bug i noticed are healing rogues which are more powerfull than priests...

1. Tabula Rasa (hyped like mad, it had the highest rating on this webside of all games and no endgame content, server shutdown - reviews were wrong and manipulated a lot)

2. Vanguard (half finished game and hyped like mad, people left in hordes)

3. SWG after expansion (servers were almost empty after the introduction and changes, game is dead)

4. Warhammer Online (  i had a lot more hopes for this game, so its more a personal opinion - still activ and populated)

5. Age of Conan (no thx)

6. Face of Mankind (where was the content lol, server shutdown)

7. Runes of Magic (plays like beta almost and wont stay successfull if they dont drastically fix things)

8. Dark & Light (that was a bummer with criminal intention almost at the end, server shutdown or just empty)

9. Neocron ( had lots of people playing after open beta but was a huge letdown after some patches, game is empty now)

10. Archlord (was p2p and went f2p only a year later, european server shutdown so far i know (?) )

11. RFOnline (was p2p and went f2p,)

12. Hellgate London (no comments)

13. World of Warcraft after expansions ( my personal letdown, still very successfull and populated)

14. Battleground Europe/WW2online after the introduction of TOE patch 1.7 1-2 years ago (great game still but TOE destroyed big parts of the playerbase, still running and enough populated)

15. Most of the shitty asian grinder and ingame shop games released in the last 9 years, the game list would be too huge here

A lot of those games got hyped  and reviews were/are just manipulated ...

Originally posted by adamthebrave

Originally posted by bananajoe

Originally posted by adamthebrave

  Also, to be competitive on the PvP server (where stuff can drop), you need to spend so much more.

 

Well at least for the items to protect your gear which you dont want to loose.

 

Actually there is a mechanism so a player can use costume pieces in order to have no items at all drop even though the system was designed to only protect eight.  Those players can then spend much more money to give them virtually as much defense and health as any in-game gear.  I know a high cs rogue and a high cs priest that have as much hp as a moderate-high cs tank (tank is using modded in-game pieces).  So, in order to be competitive, it takes a fair amount of money spent on pvp.  I'm a warrior in chain armor and can fall to a priest if they put enough money into their gear.

I agree that pvp in RoM is very poorly implemented, and the servers/game engine can barely handle 20 people fighting in one spot.  I would recommend the PvE servers for anyone who might want to join RoM.

Side Note:  Don't post dissent on the RoM forums, you will get posts/topics deleted and get ban warnings, which result in a ban if the "warning tool" the gm's have set up to streamline the process is used on you too often.  And the GM's don't appreciate refined wit or sarcasm.

The official forums are full of complains no worry - well not just whining always. People who play on a pvp server notice a lot more how the game is broken in some important parts. But hey it is still fun and i dont count this game as a blockbuster with monthly fees and of course not everything has to be true what you read in forums some of the infos i did post included, but you read em and the answers.

Originally posted by Sixpax

That entire summary assumes you're buying everything with diamonds bought with real money.  We all know that's not necessary, especailly since diamonds are available on the AH for gold and items you sell on the AH can be listed for diamonds.  Not to mention the fact that they now offer many of the upgrade items for tokens as well.

So yeah, people should take this info with a grain of salt.

 There is just one important point, if you play on PvE servers you wont have such a big competition problem and most points i expirienced or read are about pvp servers.

You can get to lvl 50 without investing a cent into the shop system, you can see the whole game content and all dungeons without investing a dime. Yes, i think it is fair like you mentioned but its a bit different if you think about endgame on a pvp server.

Originally posted by adamthebrave

  Also, to be competitive on the PvP server (where stuff can drop), you need to spend so much more.

Well at least for the items to protect your gear which you dont want to loose.

I found an interesting thread which tells the problems you will get if you just want to play this as a "free" mmorpg without investing any money into their ingame shop. Yes it is possible to play this game without money and lot of the people around will tell you this, but most dont know how the game looks like if you go this route. I only can advice to think about the class you choose if you dont want to invest any cash, some classes are heavily dependant on good gear. As a beginner you should know how long it would take to gain the same equipment like someone just buy from the cash shop.

I also did add some hints for gameplay to to this thread that beginners get important informations which you often dont read at the beginning.

This article describes some interesting aspects about the current state:

forum.us.runesofmagic.com/showthread.php

* Clean end-game gear costs $266.70US minimum
* Investment equals ~2 years playing a subscription-based game
* Farming enough daily tokens would take 165 days
* Some suggestions to lower cost without impacting Frogster's bottom line too much.

* 14 items to be upgraded with six desirable stats each.
* 1 weapon to be upgraded to Tier 8 using vendor-available fusion stones*
* 15 items to be refined to +6
* PvE server (no seals required)
* Original gear is "clean" of undesirable stats.
* Stats are obtained from looted items, no buying stats with diamonds.
* The items enchanted are the only ones the player will ever equip, he already has and/or will not upgrade to any epic gear from end-game instances.
 

* 6 Purified Fusion stones will be required for each item to obtain 6 desirable stats. (purified stones 2$ each)
* 6 stones x 14 slots = 84 purified stones. 55 diamonds per stone = 4620 diamonds.
* 8 arcane transmuter changes per item = 182 charges = 3360 daily tokens = 34 days of dailies OR 546 diamonds.

* Attaining Tier 8 requires 729 Fusion Stones, when buying random stones this equates to 1,093,500 gold.
* Combining all of said fusion stones uses 364 arcane transmuter charges, 10,920 daily tokens, 110 days of dailies or 1092 diamonds.
 

* With the shady practice of not documenting the effects of upgrade jewels, we are only left to guess as to their effectiveness. Based on purely subjective evidence of forum posts I'm making a conservative estimate of on average 20 jewels to reach +6. I will reduce this to 19 as it is practical to use vendor jewels to +1.
* 19 jewels x 15 slots = 285 jewels = 855 diamonds.

* Purified Fusion Stones: 4620 diamonds
* Arcane transmuter charges: 1638 diamonds**
* Refining jewels: 855 diamonds

* Total: 7113 diamonds

 Another point to think about....:

Cost you can expect to pay in "real money": $266.70US, or around 2 years of subscribing to a P2P game.

Note this gears you for one function of one class. As a Knight/Rogue I can imagine wanting 3 sets:

Knight Tanking
Knight DPS/PvP
Rogue DPS

Extra bank/backpack space, permanent mounts, Exp/TP furniture, Transport Runes, Golden Hammers, Skill Books ... all of this must be paid.

Some more tricks n tipps about the game you dont read everywhere

Another personal hint about Diamonds:

Diamonds are the inofficial ingame currency for items not gold anymore i.e. buying items from other players. If you buy diamonds and you want to use it in the auction house for items and not for the ingame shop, you have to wait for 30 days at the moment and there is no notice about that. I heard they want to change this soon probably, but just that you know before you buy them.

 If you love PvP and want to join PvP servers:

Be aware that if you get pk´ed that you could loose any hard earned random item you have equipped or in your backpack...it is also possible  that higher lvl players with full equipped item shop gear milk other players due to the drop chance - lvl difference doesnt matter. The difference between pimped cash shop gear and normal one is significant. There are additional costs for seals on pvp servers which you dont need on the pve servers. Since there is not much endgame content, ganking/pking will happen of course so be prepared if you choose such a server, quality pvp doesnt exist except duels but you can find duels also on pve servers. PvP servers offer  just ganking in comparison to the pve servers, nothing more. If you want to be a successfull pk ´er dont even think running around without full pimped out gear.

If you kill a "bad" player it counts aswell as PK with the common penalties and drop chances  !

Best class for PK is probably a combo with one stealth class, since the more pk rep you gain the more people will hunt you of course. It is common that PK players prefer weaker players.

some rules which may sound funny but are unfortuantely reality...

- never do pvp with your main character otherwise you cant quest anymore due to penalties

- If you dont want to loose equipment: pvp nacked...alternative is only full pimped char with item shop gear, same counts for inventory

- If you want to start pvp on a pvp server, just start talking to any npc and maybe seconds later someone will stabb your back. Alternative, you look for an opponent which seems weaker and is not prepared for your attack.

There are no factions,  RvR or Battlegrounds on any server.

Guild vs Guild:

There are some options which you should know.

- it is possible that opponents invite players from other guilds

- it is possible to leave the guild to avoid the war

- it is possible to hide in your house to avoid the war

- you can declare war on a guild even if the guild is in war already (which is an exploit currently)

- if you take part in a guild war the opponent can attack you without warnings

- if your guild just make one kill and logout you win the guild war

- when someones declares war on your guild and all your guild members logout, the other guild looses 200k due to 0:0 result.

.....well you see there are some issues here - thats about guild wars in this game currently.

Character- Skill Development:

You get talent points (TP) which you can invest into skills for each of your two classes. On average you can easily max 4 skills up to lvl 50, this seems first quiete nice but you have to know things about that.

- you dont have to plan how you skill your character for the endgame, but of course you should choose important ones first during lvl up.

- there are no individual skill distribution i.e. crowd control vs damage, you can be both depends which is your class combo.

- after you reached lvl 50 some kind of grindfest starts since you still can get talent points, which means the more you grind after you reached max lvl the more skills you can obtain. In other words, they did implement quests so you level up fast but the talent point grind is still a part of the game like known from other f2p/asian games. In other words the grind starts at endgame and not before, dont forget that you have to lvl up 2 classes in one character aswell collecting talent points for their individual  skills later on. The arguement that this game is grindfree is not correct.

 Stats distribution:

There is one major important stat in this game: Stamina - which benefits every class. You will find magic classes with almost similar hp like tanks, there are magic class combos out there with more than 10k+ hp.

Stats are influenced a lot by items, up to 60-70% later on, so dont expect that you get most stats+  just by leveling up, basic character stats doesnt mean that much.

Notes:
* Making a pure T8 weapon would cost $1,503.36 in Purified Fusion Stones alone.
** Discount this if you are willing to spent 165 days farming dailies...

It would be better to tell newcomers how this game really works and how they will expirience gameplay without any cash investment into their ingame shop.

Without diamonds and other stuff you will have big problems in the higher lvl regions especially if you are going as melee and particulary as a tank. Guilds are looking for good equipped players and often demand that, otherwise you wont get invited to higher lvl raids. So choose your class already wisely if you dont want to spent $$.

I will post it later....

edit: wrong post, the answer should have belong to the thread "spending no money"

Originally posted by Loke666

The thing about WW2 is that most battles were quite massive. So for a realistic MMO to exist (sorry, WW2 online makes a good try but it wont really cut it) you need to have thousands of players fighting the same battle at the same time.

I think a Vietnam MMO would work better, it was more small scaled battles there and the setting would work perfectly for a massive online game.

Also, in WW2 you would have to be very careful about people roleplaying Nazis, it could turn ugly fast amd there are a lot of old stigmas about WW2.

I would like to see a MMOFPS in WW2 in 10 years or so when the internet is a lot faster so you could support 5000-20 000 people fighting in the same battle to get a true WW2 feeling but I dont want a MMORPG about it.

There are other wars that would make a better MMORPG like US civil war and indepence war, the napolenoic war, the Cuban revolution, Kongo, War of the roses, the scottish civil war and many others...

But few wars still have such an impact on people today as WW2, the crusades and the 7 days war possibly, so if people actually roleplay certain sides it will only pain survivors and paople who lost family there.

There is a big difference between a MMORPG and a MMOFPS, and FPS games dont face the same stigma as RPG games do.

  The current ww2 mmo called Battleground Europe is quiete different than you maybe expect. You dont need thousands of players online to have great battles and the roleplay part is even more serious than in most mmos, but also different. You can take the role of officers but you lead your squad or lead your brigades or even the whole theater map of your faction. Thats of course not the same like the mmorpgs for the masses, but there are ideas of content which are really great.

In general i wished at least 30% of all mmos would be similar like planetside or Battleground Europe, you have just great battles/pvp but the option to roleplay and your acting means something more than only just words. This type of game is not just a simple mmofps like any fps out there.  The roleplay element on most mmo servers are not really huge, except special servers are available for it since the masses dont roleplay in online roleplay games, most of it is just a hack n slash, quest, level up and kill aswell pvp expirience.

Well nazi roleplay should not be allowed of course, but ...the whole real life war scenarios are a problem if you start roleplaying since there is no war without a bad taste and without crimes on every side. The best is a mixed mmofps with roleplay elements for such game types and not just based on paper and pen roleplays without influencing the gameplay. Themes with war content are better off with fps elements instead of killing mobs to 5 star general socks or trousers with +2 aim, that would destroy a lot of options.

The game already supports up to several thousand players online but they just dont have the numbers.

There would be so many options with such game types, doesnt matter if its civil war or vietnam...I was waiting for a StarWars game like that and was so dissappointing about SWG which was just like every other mmo out there. There could be real StarWars and epic battles not just "mob nr. 200 dropped one cloth +5 armor" or such crap we have already enough.

Battleground Europe/ww2online has realism and simulation combined but such kind of mmorpgs are still niche games. Nowadays most mmos are seen as cash machines and not to fullfill any dream like the devs of ww2online tried to do. Dont think you will find such games in the next future, we are already lucky to find just this single ww2 mmo with slow but constant development. as an alternative to the mainstream mmos. I just hope they will succeed with their announced china release and get the cash to invest into new engines and further development.

One thing is sure, that you cant get the same eye candies if you want to have realism and sim aspects in the game. ArmA (Armed Assault) for example has great graphics but such games get already problems with only around 50 players online and far less realism/damage modells, insane server and engine performance needed - a lot more than only for normal but just good looking mmos.

The biggest mmorpg´s are probably EVE and for sure Battleground Europe. Alone in Battleground Europe you would need more than a real life time week to cross the whole map with any infantry unit....probably BE has the biggest world and the world has not any zones. So far i remember it has more than 230 Kilometer x 230 Kilometer, for example SWG has 15Km x 15Km with zones.

edit:

Wikipedia tells Battleground Europe has 350.000 km² (not sure how much EVE has), but its bigger than dark & light for sure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_Online

All other mentioned mmorpgs i.e. EQ 1, AC1, VG... or whatever are small in comparison to the one i mentioned. If you have never tried the Battleground Europe Trial you did really miss what means a big world size in the mmorpg industry, but doesnt mean the world is also the most beautiful...thats a different story, but hey it was the first mmofps.

Amazing Video....and i had to laugh about the comment  "This is sort of how women do to men"

www.youtube.com/watch

Originally posted by Kordesh

Originally posted by bananajoe

Originally posted by Kordesh

 Way to blow hundreds of thousands of dollars on imaginary items that cost them a one time cost of next to nothing and are in infinite supply... 

 

 

Its a big cash machine and iam sure more companies will follow it after such an success. I mean, they report that only 5-15% of the playerbase is needed to get such numbers, profitable business.

No doubt its profitable. My complaint is more with the dimwits who actually bought this crap. Companies will continue to try and exploit us if we just sit back and allow ourselves to be exploited like this. We're teaching companies they don't need to even produce anything anymore. Half ass some textures on a robe and we just throw money at them until we're on the street. Pathetic. 

Yes, and we invest into stocks and later if the companies get too much under pressure employees loose their jobs doesnt matter which branche...well, i know what are you talking about. Isnt the world crazy..hehe

Originally posted by Kordesh

 Way to blow hundreds of thousands of dollars on imaginary items that cost them a one time cost of next to nothing and are in infinite supply... 

 

Its a big cash machine and iam sure more companies will follow it after such an success. I mean, they report that only 5-15% of the playerbase is needed to get such numbers, profitable business.

Maybe some of you are interested about Frogster and their success....

If you translate the article you will find out that Frogster has days with item shop sales up to more than 100.000 Euro a day. They predict in the future, at least conservative numbers, to get at least 500.000 Euro a month, just for Europe alone but they have the licences for all parts of the world and expect in the US similar or higher conservative numbers...other countries will follow of course. The company counts 80 employees at the moment.

All in all the stocks seem to skyrocket, at least with the possibilities of the current general world crisis....interesting read

Here is the article, just translate with i.e. google ....

translate.google.com/translate

original link:

www.wallstreet-online.de/produkte/boersenbriefe/deraktieninvestor/nachricht/2721350.html

"I think its ok. I think most players have to play for at least 2 month to have explored it all."

Seriously, you can ride with a horse from one end to the next of the world within 10-15 minutes and the lvl density of the mobs is huge. This game is one of the smallest mmorpgs i have seen, except you compare this to the general tiny item shop games besides perfect world which is huge in comparison to this.

Originally posted by Portland

i bought diamonds via paypal and now i have to wait 30 days until i can use them for player to player trades or gifts. this is insane stupid.

this game has one million of bugs and classes are horrible balanced, its one of the worst Grind games on earth after level 30 but i can life with all this pain, but i want to be able to buy the proper equipment for this grind horror from other players.

i dont even know if i still play in 30 days when my diamonds will become tradeable.

 

worst move in mmorpg history Frogster

 

>>>>>>>>>>>> PAYPAL 30 DAYS VERIFICATION <<<<<<<<<<<<<   = self destruction of Frogster

 

 

i wiped the game from my harddisk, screw the diamonds money is lost and i wont ever play a game from this company again.

 

Well, investors or companies are eager to find people who just pay even if it is crap....hehe