| This article may not meet the general notability guideline or one of the following specific guidelines for inclusion on Wikipedia: Biographies, Books, Companies, Fiction, Music, Neologisms, Numbers, Web content, or several proposals for new guidelines. If you are familiar with the subject matter, please expand or rewrite the article to establish its notability. The best way to address this concern is to reference published, third-party sources about the subject. If notability cannot be established, the article is more likely to be considered for redirection, merge or ultimately deletion, per . This article has been tagged since November 2007. |
| Regnum Online | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | NGD Studios |
| Publisher(s) | NGD Studios |
| Engine | NG3D[1] |
| Released | May 24,2007[2] |
| Genre | Fantasy MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
| Ratings | ESRB: PG |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Linux[3] |
| Media | Client |
| System requirements | see System requirements |
| Input methods | Keyboard, mouse |
Regnum Online is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by NGD Studios, a game development studio located in Argentina. In addition to usual character development present in other games of the genre, the game focuses on the conflict of 3 realms in which players take part, fighting against characters of opposing factions and capturing fortresses and castles aside from the usual player vs monster combats. The name Regnum means realm in Latin, and is also a tribute to one of the first games ever published in Argentina by some of the team members (which was named Regnum). It is frequently abbreviated as RO or ROL (which in Spanish also means role, as in role-playing games). The game was officially released May 24, 2007. The game has currently more than 100,000 subscriptions and has received reviews in local newspapers, TV programs and in game-related websites (see External Links), as well as international sites spread throughout the world. Also, Regnum Online has been awarded a Sapo award as best Multiplayer Game of Argentina, in the EVA 06 (a national videogames exposition), in 2006.[4] NGD studios recently made a contract with Gamigo, a German gaming company and opened a German Server. Soon after, NGD added another German server to meet the demand for the game.
Contents |
Overview
Players create characters as their avatars in a fantasy medieval-themed persistent virtual world. The first choice a player must face is selecting one of the three realms or nations: Alsius, icy home of the empire of dwarves, humans and utghars; Ignis the desert homeland of the necromancer dark elves, humans and moloks; or Syrtis, the forested peaceful lands where elves, half-elves and humans live. Once a nation is chosen, the player may create a character (up to 3 per account) and customize it by choosing its race, gender, hair style and color, stature, etc. After choosing a realm and race, players go on quests and gain levels in the first two areas. After they have gained sufficient levels, they go to the third area which is called the War Zone. In the War Zone, players can work together in clans or parties to take over enemy forts and castles.
Community
Since the game originated from Argentina, there are a lot of players who speak Spanish but the game is slowly gaining momentum in the international community and there are already several players from countries all over the world. Depending on the time-zone, players may find other players that speak Spanish, English, French, German, Swedish, Polish and other languages. One by-product of the game having a small development team, was that the developers were always in touch with the players, creating a symbiotic relationship that helped improve the game over time. NGD Studios officially stated that they are planning on hiring a community manager that in turn will help create a volunteer's program, thus embracing the community and opening the opportunity for those who want to participate. Current officially reported top 10 countries (in order), are Argentina, the US, Spain, Germany, Brazil, the UK, Chile, Canada, Mexico, and Poland. They recently agreed on a contract with Gamigo, a German game company, to open a German-only server.
Realms
There are three realms a player can choose from. Each realm has 3 races (for a total of 9, although 3 of them are humans).
Alsius
The cold and icy landmark of Alsius, at the northern border of the world. Dwarves have come from afar and settled in the mountains, using their mechanical wisdom to establish a base into the hardened rock. They soon found out the there were inhabitants already living in the place. These humans were retiscient at first and engaged into a small war with the dwarves to realize that they were pretty similar minded. Nordos, as they called themselves, are now living together with the dwarves. They both have built the great city Montsognir, which stands still in the everliving mountains, showing off the creator's pride and honor.
Ignis
After being exiled from Syrtis, the necromancer elves started a pilgrimage that would change them forever. An obscure ritual darkened their skin and opened their eyes to a vision of a new home. This prophecy led them to the land of Ignis, a barren wasteland full of volcanoes and underground fires. It was here where dark elves and humans were joined, by exchanging the meat of their dead in order to survive famine. Humans in Ignis were renamed to Eskeligs, and alongside the dark elves they finally found the promised land and erected the city of Korr-Tabhar. The forces of the brotherhood are strong in magic thanks to their unique knowledge of necromancy.
Syrtis
The green forest of the Syrtis was never the same after the Great Exile and the division of the elves. Separated from their necromancer brethren, the loneliness struck the hearts of these magical creatures and got them closer to their Alturian neighbors. They adopted them into their society and now treat them as equals. This union made the rich elven culture flourish to new heights, making Syrtis the cultural capital of the world. Even after the long years, devotion for Lemorel the prophet still can be found in the hearts of elves and men alike, who have forgotten some of the magical ways, devoting themselves to archery and swordsmanship.
Characters
The characters created by the players differ from each other depending on the choices made. The most important differences depend on race and class (being gender, stature, hair, etc purely cosmetic). Characters from different realms have virtually the same possibilities, although as each realm has different races available. There are currently 9 races available (3 in each realm), and 3 classes (each with 2 subclasses). The classes are, Warrior, Mage and Archer. Subclasses are: Warrior: Knight (defensive; tanker) and Barbarian (offensive; lots of damage but little defense), Mage: Conjurer (support; heals, buffs, and has the ability to summon creatures and use defensive spells) and Warlock (offensive; has the ability to cast devastating spells), and Archer: Marksman (offensive; has the longest range and deals lots of damage) and Archer: Hunter (support; can track creatures and enemies and can tame a mob to act as a pet).
Character development
Characters have attributes, which represent their physical and psychical characteristics. As characters complete quests or defeat monsters, they gain experience and advance to new levels, becoming more powerful, gaining new skills and increasing their attributes. They can engage enemy characters from opposing realms, monsters, comrades inside coliseums and capture fortresses and castles. The social factor is also very important to the game, and is supported by chat channels, the ability to form parties and clans, several online rankings and an official forum (the latter two available in the homepage).
Quests
There are over a hundred quests you can do in each realm. Along with many side quests, there are storyline quests that reveal things about each realms past and the war between them. Quests reward players with experience, gold, and some items that they could not obtain otherwise.
Development
The game was officially released on May 24,2007, after being in development for more than 4 years[5]. Although the launch was silent, NGD Studios intends to keep polishing and fixing bugs in order to do a more aggressive marketing campaign with partners all over the world. Most of the basic gameplay is already implemented, although some skills are disabled due to an ongoing revamp. Also general skill/class balance stage still needs more work. Many dropped and missing features are added in successive updates which are released periodically, and users are encouraged to discuss new features, bugs and gameplay issues in the official forums, where members of the development team usually post answers and become aware of recurring problems and suggestions.
Commercial Model
Although initially the game was planned to require a subscription fee to play, NGD Studios decided to change the commercial model to what's generally known as Free-to-play with Premium content. This means that you can play for free as long as you want with no restrictions whatsoever, but for those who desire an enhanced experience, they can purchase premium content with real-life money. Care is being taken so that premium features do not unbalance the game between paying and non-paying users in player versus player combat.
Premium Content
There has been an official announcement about the first iteration of premium items, as follows:
- Mounts: Rent Horses
- Health regeneration potions
- Mana regeneration potions
- Experience bonus scrolls
With the 0.9.20 version released on 6 September 2007, some new premium items have been added:
- Teleport scrolls: to move instantaneously to a specified town.
- Repair hammers: to repair everything on inventory without the need to go back to the blacksmith.
References
- ^ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedgamedevsergiopost - ^ *NGD Studios, see portfolio page for info.
- ^ *Regnum Online Downloads Page
- ^ *Spanish Wikipedia's EVA article. Additionally, see [1] for more information.
- ^ *http://mmorpg.qj.net/category/Regnum-Online/cid/2849
