I chose the Silva server of Rohan Philippines because a friend played there. I was supposed to milk him for items. Unfortunately, he wasn’t around. So I did the next best thing: I played the game sans a friend’s help, and did pretty well. Shame on me if I got my character, Alusair, killed in the first three hours of playing. She survived, thanks in part to my experience playing Rohan: Blood Feud on the international server.

Just like in any other MMORPGs, it’s better to start in the novice training area. In Rohan: Blood Feud, the training area doubles as the stomping grounds for the tutorial, which teaches the basics of playing the game, from attacking monsters to forging or crafting.

Yes, I already knew how to play the game, but why did I start in the training area? Simple economics. The NPCs there give free items and crones, the in-game currency, which you won’t get as easily as when you start Rohan Online with guns blazing.

In just a few hours, I managed to level my Human Knight to Level 13. I actually wanted to continue playing, but the real world kept beckoning for me to withdraw.

I’ll probably go at it again in a few hours. I hope by then I’ll bump into my high-level friend.

Screenshots taken by Joel from the online game Rohan: Blood Feud, copyright YNK Interactive.

Post from: MMOtaku

Actually, ever since we came out with news that The9 was sour-graping cooking up plans to launch a new game to replace World of Warcraft, nothing extraordinary has happened. Well, nothing except for my almost getting hospitalized because of overexposure to the afternoon sun while painting the house.

But let’s not talk about that. Rather, let’s focus on what we’ve been up to and what we’ll come up with in the next few days.

First up on MMOtaku’s plate is Rohan: Blood Feud, both the international and the Philippine versions. It’s been quite some time since I laid my hands on Rohan and I’ve been rearing to play a giant. Thing is, I uninstalled the client to the international version a couple of weeks ago and haven’t gotten around to reinstalling and updating it.

As for the Philippine version of Rohan Online, I’m back at Square One. This means I have to work my way up before I can write any substantive article. Fortunately, good friend Alcarcalimo is playing the game and I might get a bit of help from him in terms of proper equipment and (hint, hint!) in-game currency.

Of course, I’ll continue to play my current game of choice, Atlantica Online. The guild we help put up on the Delphi server, the Guardians, is doing great, and my character, Cooky, is shaping up to be one of my best Atlantica characters. The latter is more the result of my wife’s help, through her character Elphame, than anything else.

Look forward to more postings on Atlantica Online. Without going into too much details, I plan to launch a one-million-gold-a-day promo for players who will transfer to or open an account on Delphi server. I’ll also come up with more in-depth articles on Atlantica Online such as guides and features.

And because I can’t possibly play more than a couple of games at the same time without sacrificing the growth of some characters, I just vow to find some time to play a bit of the other games I’ve come to love in the past six years I’ve been playing online games. These games include Ragnarok Online, Fly For Fun, Granado Espada, and Perfect World.

Well, that’s it for now. Time to get down to business by playing online games and writing about them.

Post from: MMOtaku

Wait! Before you cast that stone, hear me out (or read about it if you can spare a peek). I got discouraged, plain and simple. I didn’t continue playing Rohan: Blood Feud in the Philippines after the first day of closed beta because of sheer frustration with latency. I watched my character die dozens of times, and that was just inside the training area. She never even got past Level 10.

Now that Rohan Philippines is in open beta, I expect things to run a little more smoothly. Of course, I haven’t tried logging in. I’d hate to end up pulling my hair out in frustration again.

Anyway, for those who missed it, here’s the Rohan Online Philippines open beta announcement:

To celebrate the launch of OBT, we will be launching a new server: Syrephis!

Now you can forge your own legends and conquer the lands of Rohan for as long as you like because OBT will have NO MORE server wipeouts. Accounts and characters created in OBT will continue on until Rohan’s commercial launch.

OBT also includes the much-awaited Item Mall feature of Rohan Online as well as other web services and account linking to My Level Up.

Players may now register new accounts or use existing CBT accounts. Upon linking these accounts to MyLU, they may now use the web services such as change/forget password utilities. Linking accounts to MyLU also allows players to top-up their accounts and assign credits to acquire Rohan Points.

Image downloaded from Rohan Philippines official site. This online game, developed by YNK, is operated in the Philippines by Level Up! Games.

Post from: MMOtaku

No, no, no. You’ve got it all wrong. The giants are not among those mindless mobs you slay on the hillsides. They’re actually a new playable race!

Check out this announcement from Rohan: Blood Feud operator YNK Interactive:

Join us as we welcome Rohan: Blood Feud’s new race, The Giant Warriors. In preparation for their arrival, game servers are now down for updating till March 11, 7 p.m. Pacific Time. Once we reopen, you can create your Giant Warrior and begin him or her on the trail to fulfill their destiny as a Savage or Berserker!

Cool, eh? Now for the catch: You can play giants if you haven’t installed the new client. Don’t worry, the new Rohan: Blood Feud is available for download.

What are you standing around there for? Go download the client and install the darn thing. You wouldn’t want to be the last to create a giant, do you?

If you want to know more about this new Rohan: Blood Feud playable race, visit the official site.

Post from: MMOtaku

I know, I know. I shouldn’t be harsh, since that’s why online games have a closed beta period—to iron out the kinks and ride out the birth pains. I just wish things were a little better in terms of latency.

Just this morning, I dropped by the Rohan Online Philippines homepage and read through this short announcement:

Attention beta testers!

Thank you for participating in the Rohan CBT. Two of our servers are already open, Torian and Silva.

Please be reminded that we are currently conducting our own stress tests with the CBT servers to push it to its limits and to discover errors and bugs.

We would like to ask for your help in reporting all errors, bugs, connection problems, etc. Please send all feedback to this address.

Note that our current test environment still has minor bugs and errors. We ask for your patience if you encounter them.

Vengeance is always an option!

Actually, ladies and gentlemen of Level Up! Games, publisher of Rohan: Blood Feud in the Philippines, the players can deal with “minor bugs and errors” and not break a sweat. Unfortunately, it’s the lag that’s killing our interest.

Post from: MMOtaku

As you’ve probably gleaned from the title, Rohan Online Philippines is set to begin its CBT on February 26, and partly due to the hype generated not only by Level Up! Games, publisher of the game, but also by bloggers who want a piece of the action, more and more players seem to be lining up to get accounts—figuratively speaking, of course.

What makes the CBT of Rohan: Blood Feud more interesting is the recent announcement that Level Up! Games will be raffling off a Nintendo DSi and a gaming laptop for the first lucky players to reach Level 20 during the closed beta test. Nummy, eh?

Here’s the official announcement from the Rohan Online Philippines site:

Join the Rohan CBT and win a Nintendo DSi or a gaming laptop

All those who pre-registered for closed beta test accounts AND reached at least level 20 during closed beta will be eligible for the Rohan Closed Beta Raffle.

The mechanics:

1. Just pre-register for your free Rohan CBT account by clicking on this.
2. Play Rohan Online (download it or have the CD/DVD delivered to your doorstep).
3. Level up your character to 20!
4. That’s it! Done! You’re eligible for the raffle draw!
5. Employees and relatives of Level Up! Incorporated (up to the second degree of consanguinity) are disqualified from joining the promo.

Prizes:
1 winner: Nintendo DSi
1 winner: Gaming laptop (specs still unavailable)

Promo Start: February 13, 2009
Promo End: March 11, 2009
Draw: March 13, 2009

Screenshot downloaded from Rohan: Blood Feud Philippines website. Game copyright YNK Interactive.

Post from: MMOtaku

The splash page of the official Rohan Philippines website says it all:

I find this news refreshing as I’m already growing tired of playing on the North American or international server. No, it’s not that YNK Interactive, developer of Rohan: Blood Feud, is doing a bad job at handling the hit online game. It’s just that, as I explained in an entry entitled Playing an MMORPG alone is hazardous to your (character’s) health, I find “playing alone” on an international server tedious. And making friends when you have all these barriers—lingual and cultural come to mind—is difficult.

Well, here’s to a good start. I can’t wait to get on board a great game such as Rohan: Blood Feud, the local version, I mean.

Post from: MMOtaku

I’ve tried my hand at going solo, particularly in online games like Granado Espada (Sword of the New World to other folks), Requiem: Bloodymare, Rohan: Blood Feud and Atlantica Online, and my characters suffered immensely. Name it, they’ve got it—slow leveling, bad equipment, weak stat and skill builds.

No, I’m not an introvert. It’s just that playing on international servers makes one imagine barriers are in place—the foremost of which is the language barrier. Well, yeah, English is the common medium, but cultures usually clash, even in virtual worlds. I’ve made some friends in the aforementioned online games, yes, but they’re really not into the okay-I’ll-drop-everything-I’m-doing-to-help-you thing. I’m not expecting them to do that but, hey, it’ll be great if they do.

Of course, I’m comparing my experiences in international servers of online games to that in locally published games. Making friends, and fast, is second nature. No language barrier, no cultural differences, and adventuring in the virtual world is even better with stories being exchanged among friends.

Recently, I’ve taken more interest in Atlantica Online. I’ve delved into its virtual world a few times in the past, particularly on the Argos server. But I have moved from Argos to Macedon because a few friends, including my former Perfect World clan master winwin, his brother weejay, and the irrepressible Rovil.

In past incarnations of my character in Atlantica, I only managed to reach a maximum level of 18. This could be attributed to the fact that I didn’t really know much about the game and that I didn’t have a mentor who could teach me the hows, wheres, whats, whens and whys. My current character, Alusair (again, named after an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons heroine), is now level 26 after two days of erratic playing. Of course, I have Winwin, Weejay and Rovil to thank for my renewed gusto.

Does this mean that I’ll start playing Atlantica more? Yes, definitely, but I won’t forget all my other characters. Sure, they’ll suffer a little because I can’t possibly level all of them at the same time. I just have to visit them from time to time and see to their needs one at a time.

Screenshot taken by Joel from the online game Atlantica Online, copyright NDOORS Interactive.

Post from: MMOtaku

The question, “Do you want to be more powerful in Rohan: Blood Feud?”, isn’t about acquiring an artifact that can wipe out dozens or hundreds of mobs and decimate foes in the field of Township Battles. It’s more about using weapons and armor that are beyond your low-level character. Unbelievable? Not in Rohan.

Refining in the world of Rohan: Blood Feud is different from that in other MMORPGs. In other online games, your character, avatar or toon is stuck wearing higher level armor and wielding higher level weapons by two factors—level and stats. If your character doesn’t meet the requirements of an armor or weapons, then you just have to find a way to romp around the virtual world with what you have.

In Rohan: Blood Feud, refining does away with these restrictions. There are two types of refining methods in Rohan, Level Refining and Status Refining. Here are short descriptions of the two refining methods from the Rohan: Blood Feud International website:

Level Refinement
Rohan offers level-down refinements to enable you to equip items with a level exceeding yours. For example, Mace, which can be worn at level 10, inflicts 50 damage, and Triple Mace, which can be worn at level 29, inflicts 107 damage. A character at level 10 normally would equip a mace inflicting 50 damage. However, through level refining, the Triple Mace can be worn at level 10, allowing your character a significant bonus to the damage he or she inflicts.

Status Refinement
Upon collecting an item with a stat requirement that is useless for your class, or when an excessive restriction is attached to an item picked up during hunts, the Status Refiner NPC can be found in each of the towns to lower this requirement. Previous level-down refinements only lower the level requirement, but Status refinements can remove stat requirements such as Strength, Intelligence, and Agility in phases along with the level. For example, if a Half Elf archer acquired a nice bow requiring an Intelligence of 20, it can be used after reducing Intelligence via a Status Refiner NPC without investing stat points needlessly or selling the bow to the shop.

Beware, though, as refining, as in any other MMORPG, comes at a price—most of the time, steep. Then there is, of course, the danger of losing refinements. Go check out the step-by-step guide to level and status refining.

Before I end this post, here are a few tips for those who want more ooomph:

• You need not refine equips upon entering the game for the first time as it requires a lot of crone (the in-game currency).
• With that said, it’s better to wait for good equipment drops. Yes, even low-level mobs drop weapons and armors with decent bonuses.
• Set aside funds for refining good equipment. Since inventory space and your character’s capacity to carry loot are very limited at the start, you may want to set aside the best equipments that you get from mobs and sell the rest.

More tips on Rohan: Blood Feud in a later post.

Post from: MMOtaku

This is why I am elated to find an email from YNK Interactive in my inbox that announces the changes in Rohan: Blood Feud. The email is set up exactly like a newsletter. It’s also aptly titled—The Rohan: Blood Feud Katar Khronicle.

Here’s what the guys up at YNK Interactive have to say in this year’s first issue of the Katar Khronicle:

It’s the New Year! This means new events, new surprises, and new adventures in the world of Rohan: Blood Feud. The Katar Khronicle will keep you up to date so you won’t miss a beat.

New Dungeon. The Fire Temple Garden is now open and awaits your visit, if you dare. It has defeated even the most hardened of warriors, designed for level 80+. You may enter the dungeon through the portal at Amethyst Crater where you will journey through 16 newly added quests which unleashes the four regions of the Fire Temple Garden—The Blazing Temple, The Ring of Flames, The Lamp of Flames, and Kasa’s Tower.

Molly, The New Sidekick. Not only is she cute, but she heals and protects your character when she is summoned. Make sure to take care of her, by feeding her regularly so she can level. The higher the level, the more HP she can recover for you. Having a cute little sidekick comes in handy, especially when boss hunting and fighting mobs at Rahkon 5.

So what are you waiting for? Strap on and tighten those straps and belts, and draw your weapons because we’re heading into the newest dungeon!

The last things you’ll see before your characters are sent back to their save point.

Screenshots downloaded by Joel from the Rohan: Blood Feud forums. Rights to the game and everything contained in it belong to YNK and YNK Interactive.

Post from: MMOtaku