Runes of Magic is gearing up for some serious player vs. player action with its new patch coming later this year. The game is taking a set toward GvG combat, or guild vs. guild warfare. It continues to do well and offer players plenty of options on the PvE front. With the new patch though it is all about the siege system and allowing players to fight it out.

A whole new area is coming into the game for players to create guild castles. The zone works like an arena set up with two castles for guilds to fight over. There are about 150 players per side for the battles. The guilds can set up their castle and also farm resources to get buffs for the coming siege. You can also gain resources by killing opponents and working in your Library.

Once you have all of your members in place the battle begins. Both sides have access to siege weapons such as catapults and ballista. We got to see a double catapult drive around the siege zone and blast shots at the gates. The catapult also acts as a mount for up to three players. Siege weapons can be used to attack players or castle gates. The primary fighting area in the zones will be the castle gates. The demo we saw was between developers and player guilds in Runes that were fighting on a test server. The colors between the two sides are evened out, one is tinted red the other is blue. There is no specific designation.

The overall fight goes toward the Guild Throne and Guild Crystals. These are the objectives that guilds will be fighting over. Each side also has access to battering rams like any siege would. The Thrones act as a beacon for guilds to use resources, plan the defense etc. Players can decide their strategy before going into it with a strong defense or all out attack.

One of the great features that Runes of Magic has planned is a Guild Ranking System. Players will be able to achieve titles from GvG combat with both a guild and player reputation system. The game will have an overall rank system for the top guilds to see who is strongest in the combat. So not only will Guilds have a rank, but players can unlock their own achievements as well.

In addition to the Runes of Magic new guild battle system, we also got a chance to check out their Facebook application coming soon. The Facebook application is a dungeon crawler game which always players to adventure with friends in the application. The experience system will be familiar to any Runes players currently and easy for new more casual users to pick up on. They are about 50% through the application's development right now. It is a stand alone game however, the company is working to get codes into the Facebook game that can be turned in for rare items in Runes of Magic itself.

Right now Runes of Magic just launched their first chapter for Rise of the Demon Lord. The raid is for two groups or twelve players to battle it out with the fiendish beast. One of the great features in the raid is that player characters can actually get the demon lord's gear to use.

Runes of Magic continues to give players some great game play options with its free to play format. The newest patch also offers two person mounts to make travel easier, especially if you are helping out a new person. Also the PvP additions give the game an extended piece to its end game allowing guilds to battle it out. The siege system is still a ways out but the early demo we saw looked fast paced and definitely gives guilds something to brag about.