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

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

Yes, as I’ve said countless times in the past, I’m a fan both of tabletop RPGs and massively multiplayer online RPGs. Despite spending hours upon hours of rolling dice, taking down notes, and pumping my mind to produce images and play out scenarios, I find the allure of playing tabletop role-playing games nearly irresistible. It’s too bad I don’t get to play anymore, since most of my AD&D buddies are living about 900 kilometer northwest of my residence.

That’s probably why I shifted much of my thirst for RPGs to MMORPGs, despite the lack of any real role-playing in online games. I managed to lure two of my AD&D friends into MMORPGs. Louie, who now lives in Shanghai, China, hacked his way through Rune Midgard until Ragnarok came in 2003. Relly joined me in exploring the mythical world of Pangu when Perfect World was launched in 2006.

Of course, being tabletop RPG players, we opted to name our avatars after AD&D characters, either pre-generated (or characters that appear in various AD&D novels or adventure modules) or rolled (yeah, as in using a dice). To date, I’ve used quite a number of AD&D character names, including Tika Waylan from the AD&D Dragonlance series for my wife’s blacksmith in Ragnarok Online and Storm Silverhand from the AD&D Forgotten Realms series for my hunter in Ragnarok Online, and for my wife’s ranger in Fly For Fun and her Half-Elf archer in Rohan: Blood Feud.

It’s disappointing that other players always beat me to Drizzt Do’Urden, the name of the famous Drow ranger in the AD&D Forgotten Realms setting. Sigh. Anyway, going back to the topic …

I spotted a familiar name and somewhat familiar, uhmm, face while playing Atlantica Online. Check out this screenshot:

Egad, it’s Tasslehoff! Wait, you say, who’s Tasslehoff? Let me clue you in:

Tasslehoff Burrfoot (often called Tas) is a fictional character of the kender race from the Dragonlance series of novels, written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. He was born in Kendermore. His parents are unknown and he has few known relatives. He has a sister, and also claims (like many other kender) to have an Uncle Trapspringer. He has three uncles, by the names of Remo Lockpick, Berties, and Wilfre. He also has a cousin, Latchlifter Furrfoot.

As you may have probably surmised from the brief background on Tasslehoff, the kender is a race of cutpur … uhmm, borrowers, meaning they are fond of borrowing things but tend to forget to return what they borrow.

Can’t relate? Watch this video:

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

Have party, will grind. That’s the name of the game whenever my former Perfect World Philippines Tiger Server clanmaster winwin and his brother weejay are online on the North American Rohan: Blood Feud server Akhma. The brothers don’t seem to get tired of hacking and slashing (and shooting arrows and spells) at the mobs that spawn in their chosen hunting ground, Shadow Gorge.

Back when I was playing Rohan: Blood Feud on the Marea server, I used to go around the different towns—Einhoren, Vena, Kai’inon, Rev’Decca, Par’Talucca and Montt—and grabbing all the quests available before setting out to eliminate monsters required by the quests. Some quests gave decent experience points and other rewards, some did not. Bottomline: I still ended up grinding my characters rear bumpers off.

When I finally convinced winwin and weejay to join me in the world of Rohan: Blood Feud, I relocated from Marea to Akhma and tried to play the game winwin’s way—grinding, all the way up from Level 1. It was fine at first, and I made Level 25 in a couple of days, but the experience points waned soon after.

The low experience point modifier of x5 per 25 party kills didn’t help much. I’d probably do much better with the increasing experience point modifier for solo grinding at x7 for the first 20 kills. The brothers mirrored my thoughts, but decided to continue on their wanton slaughter of beasts, minus my knight, who went solo.

Here’s a brief description of Rohan: Blood Feud’s unique M. KILL (Monster Kill) system:

In Rohan bonus EXP are awarded for killing every 20 monsters. Additional EXPs are awarded ranging from multiples of 7 to 19 times the original EXP. Accordingly, it is advantageous to hunt a monster exceeding your level as the 20th monster to level-up. Additional EXPs are awarded for every 20 monsters hunted, and the most bonus EXPs are awarded for the 100th monster captured. But rather than hunting distant monsters and wasting time to acquire bonus points, it is beneficial to hunt monsters emerging nearby at comparably high levels.

In hindsight, I realize that solo leveling, with the help of experience points from quests, may be more rewarding, but nothing can replace the fun I have at grinding with a group of friends. I mean, that’s the very essence of massively multiplayer online role-playing games … playing with people from other places and from all walks of life, exchanging stories and making more friends.

So my suggestion is, party up and let the slaughter begin!

Post from: MMOtaku