SandDemon
02-13-2006, 03:19 PM
So, RFOnline. After a 1.2gig download and some time leveling various characters in the last few days (Accretian Warrior, Cora Spirutual (2) and a Bellato Ranged - all to 20 at least), I think I've got a handle on the game and thought I'd let ya guys know how it went.
1) If you loved Diablo and it raped your life away for months at a time, RFOnline is your next coccaine. All gear has the prefix/suffix bonuses, potions are taking like candy and leveling is a breeze...and speaking of potions...
2) Potion system is quite honestly just awesome - posted directly from one of their community reps:
Healing potions are your primary means of healing and they have a 3 second delay between uses. This allows for no downtime when fighting solo or in groups when it comes to health regeneration. Potions come in several different replenishment sizes including: 50hp, 125hp, 250hp, 500hp, 1000hp, 2000hp, 3000hp, 4000hp, and 5000hp.
You can carry potions in stacks of 99 and as many stacks as you want as long as you have room in your inventory for them
This method of potion spamming is necessary to somewhat eliminate pvp on the micro (1v1) scale. The point of this game is cooperation as a race and pvp on the macro scale (5v5,10v10,1000v1000, ect) Potion spamming is a method to survive, but there's a limit.
Potions are only one factor in a fight
For example:
If you are being hit by 3 people each doing 1000 damage every 2 seconds, and you have 2000hp potions that you can only use every 3 seconds chances are you will not survive. Thus the object of the pvp in this game, is to work cooperatively with your fellow race members to overwelm your opponents healing abilities.
Simplified - if you got money, you have no downtime at all. 1on1 are possible but very unlikely to the point where most dont even bother. There's only 3 healing abilities in the entire game, most are Bellato Holy spiritualists - so healing isn't expected. There's quite a bit of debuff/buff abilities in the game that can mess with healing.
3) PvP is grand-scale, fast-paced and very team oriented. Let me give you an example of a Core War I watched yesterday before the login system went kapoot (beta afterall).
The Core War begins and all three races start swarming the mine to try and take the center guardian (huge beast that rapes anyone alone, but if you win he guards your mine).
The Accretian robot race gets there first...they move a lot faster than any other race, and they setup their offensive line of Siege Launchers (specialist classes get these rocket launchers with siege mode - aka they cant move and they throw volleys of rockets).
The Bellato race comes in - few casters and ranged, but a lot of Mech users. Mechs are really strong in certain level ranges, and crappy elsewise - LOTS of hps. They stand back far enough from the rocket line...whoever gets to close gets a face full of rocket pain.
The Cora come in - almost all casters with summons (only class that can), they quickly swarm the Bellatio. All kinds of crazy AoE goes off (meteor storms, sand storms, tornados, tidal waves, etc) and the Mechs start retreating back hoping the Accretian get in the mix.
The Accretian come on the Cora from behind - they're not the most damaging but those rocket lines HURT. Cora, not paying real attention get fragged.
The Accretian push forward to the Bellato who are hoping to be buffed enough to handle the onslaught when a few Accretian Dementers walk into the mix and self-destruct. Bellato become pink mist.
And Accretian's take the mine and win the right to mine for 24 hours (good money) near the guardian (best mining).
4) Experience isn't everything - it's skill points. Very UO like in the fact that experience just raises your maximum allowed points, but skill points are key. If you level too fast, you'll "deadend" - the term for someone who didn't get his points and now cant anymore because he misses everything on higher level mobs.
5) UI is a bit clunky - no keybinding, no real auto-run...it's kind of a pain in the ass. But it's Beta, hopefully it gets better.
6) Classes are specialized. Your base class and 2 sub-classes (one at 30, one at 40) define your maximum points allowed in different skills - you can pretty much learn anything you want as any class...but remember, if you spread out too much you won't get Tier 4 skills (which are a must, really). Warriors can cast snares, casters can melee...depends on what you want to focus on - my warrior wears ranged gear so he swings faster, gets resistances from the armor, and can move faster...and all I had to do was practice my throwing knives for awhile :)
7) Balance seems like an issue right now...supposedly there are some changes come to fix it out. MUA (Mechs) have real power spikes...gods from 30-35, useless 36-39, gods 40-44, and 45-50 complete shit (50 is level cap).
8) Bugs....what'd be a beta without bugs. Some things are real bad (try and shoot a grenade launcher right now and it hard crashes), some are little (UI hiccups) and some are expected (stress test knocked out the login server).
So ya....I give it a 8/10 for now but it's beta. If nothing changes to production, it'll be 6 or 7 outta 10. It could be a 9 if they fix some problems/balance/etc. We'll see how it goes.
If ya got any questions, just ask.
1) If you loved Diablo and it raped your life away for months at a time, RFOnline is your next coccaine. All gear has the prefix/suffix bonuses, potions are taking like candy and leveling is a breeze...and speaking of potions...
2) Potion system is quite honestly just awesome - posted directly from one of their community reps:
Healing potions are your primary means of healing and they have a 3 second delay between uses. This allows for no downtime when fighting solo or in groups when it comes to health regeneration. Potions come in several different replenishment sizes including: 50hp, 125hp, 250hp, 500hp, 1000hp, 2000hp, 3000hp, 4000hp, and 5000hp.
You can carry potions in stacks of 99 and as many stacks as you want as long as you have room in your inventory for them
This method of potion spamming is necessary to somewhat eliminate pvp on the micro (1v1) scale. The point of this game is cooperation as a race and pvp on the macro scale (5v5,10v10,1000v1000, ect) Potion spamming is a method to survive, but there's a limit.
Potions are only one factor in a fight
For example:
If you are being hit by 3 people each doing 1000 damage every 2 seconds, and you have 2000hp potions that you can only use every 3 seconds chances are you will not survive. Thus the object of the pvp in this game, is to work cooperatively with your fellow race members to overwelm your opponents healing abilities.
Simplified - if you got money, you have no downtime at all. 1on1 are possible but very unlikely to the point where most dont even bother. There's only 3 healing abilities in the entire game, most are Bellato Holy spiritualists - so healing isn't expected. There's quite a bit of debuff/buff abilities in the game that can mess with healing.
3) PvP is grand-scale, fast-paced and very team oriented. Let me give you an example of a Core War I watched yesterday before the login system went kapoot (beta afterall).
The Core War begins and all three races start swarming the mine to try and take the center guardian (huge beast that rapes anyone alone, but if you win he guards your mine).
The Accretian robot race gets there first...they move a lot faster than any other race, and they setup their offensive line of Siege Launchers (specialist classes get these rocket launchers with siege mode - aka they cant move and they throw volleys of rockets).
The Bellato race comes in - few casters and ranged, but a lot of Mech users. Mechs are really strong in certain level ranges, and crappy elsewise - LOTS of hps. They stand back far enough from the rocket line...whoever gets to close gets a face full of rocket pain.
The Cora come in - almost all casters with summons (only class that can), they quickly swarm the Bellatio. All kinds of crazy AoE goes off (meteor storms, sand storms, tornados, tidal waves, etc) and the Mechs start retreating back hoping the Accretian get in the mix.
The Accretian come on the Cora from behind - they're not the most damaging but those rocket lines HURT. Cora, not paying real attention get fragged.
The Accretian push forward to the Bellato who are hoping to be buffed enough to handle the onslaught when a few Accretian Dementers walk into the mix and self-destruct. Bellato become pink mist.
And Accretian's take the mine and win the right to mine for 24 hours (good money) near the guardian (best mining).
4) Experience isn't everything - it's skill points. Very UO like in the fact that experience just raises your maximum allowed points, but skill points are key. If you level too fast, you'll "deadend" - the term for someone who didn't get his points and now cant anymore because he misses everything on higher level mobs.
5) UI is a bit clunky - no keybinding, no real auto-run...it's kind of a pain in the ass. But it's Beta, hopefully it gets better.
6) Classes are specialized. Your base class and 2 sub-classes (one at 30, one at 40) define your maximum points allowed in different skills - you can pretty much learn anything you want as any class...but remember, if you spread out too much you won't get Tier 4 skills (which are a must, really). Warriors can cast snares, casters can melee...depends on what you want to focus on - my warrior wears ranged gear so he swings faster, gets resistances from the armor, and can move faster...and all I had to do was practice my throwing knives for awhile :)
7) Balance seems like an issue right now...supposedly there are some changes come to fix it out. MUA (Mechs) have real power spikes...gods from 30-35, useless 36-39, gods 40-44, and 45-50 complete shit (50 is level cap).
8) Bugs....what'd be a beta without bugs. Some things are real bad (try and shoot a grenade launcher right now and it hard crashes), some are little (UI hiccups) and some are expected (stress test knocked out the login server).
So ya....I give it a 8/10 for now but it's beta. If nothing changes to production, it'll be 6 or 7 outta 10. It could be a 9 if they fix some problems/balance/etc. We'll see how it goes.
If ya got any questions, just ask.