RF Online: Difference between revisions

RF Online, or Rising Force Online (also known erroneously as Romance & Fantasy Online) is a 3D MMORPG developed by CCR Inc. The first English version of the game has been recently launched in its commercial (pay-to-play) phase in the Philippines and the European version has recently entered beta testing.

Story Line

The game is centered around the conflict between three races in their bid to control precious resources, and their desire to advance their respective agendas, through any means necessary. There are three different civilizations, one as unlikely as the next:

• Accretia - They are a race of cyborgs who have forsaken their flesh in their pursuit of perfection. Due to the environment on their planet, they were forced to turn to artificial bodies. Now however, they scorn every flesh being in the universe. Their metallic bodies are the toughest in the game and their technology is the most superior, but they have no access to magic.
• Bellato - Due to the intense gravity on their home planet, the Bellato are the smallest people. They are a race of inventors that are able to combine creative tools and weapons with the Light form of universal magic called the Force. The Bellato enter the war as the least physically capable; and yet given their ingenuity they have the potential to become the strongest. Before they became the Bellato Union, however, they were the Bellato Empire; who seized control after the Cora civil war but were beaten by the Accretians. Under such sustained attacks they fell from power, yet they have bided their time until they can become a force to be reckon with once again.
• Cora - They are an ancient race that scorn technology. Highly spiritual and gifted with natural magical abilities, Corites regard themselves as the highest form of creation. Their magical arts are far more superior than that of which the Bellato practice. Their god is Decem, whom they believed had given Corites their powers as well as their mission to subjugate all other forms of life in his name and to rid the galaxy of technology. The Holy Alliance of Cora was thus born to carry out their crusade.

Basically a mixture of science fiction and classic fantasy, RF Online (or RFO, as many of its players call it) is set in a distant planet in the Novus system where magic exists alongside high technology. Like most MMORPGs, it follows the typical fantasy setting complete with swords and sorcery, but RF Online emphasizes the three-way Race vs Race (RvR) concept similar to the Dune series.

The three races, hungry for resources descend on a planet and engage in battle for control of the rare minerals found there. The war begins with the Imperial Army of Accretia which first entered the war to protect themselves from the Imperialist Bellato Union who tried to conquer the entire galaxy. Later, they allied themselves with the Cora armed forces against the Union , and upon their triumph, split asunder the Empire that the Bellato Union tried to establish. Upon restaking their claim as an Empire, the Accretia gathered its troops for war against their former cohorts among the Holy Alliance of Cora and the newly formed Bellato Federation to lay claim to the Talic Mines.

Gameplay

As with any MMORPG, the player will select one race and fight monsters to gain experience points. RFO is populated with many different monsters across many areas. New game visuals based on a new graphics engine CCR developed called "R3" specifically for next generation MMORPGS.

Unlike other RPGs, RF Online does not follow the same stat formula. Instead there are PT. Various PTs represents the mastery of close combat, range combat, magic mastery, etc. By doing this, CCR has managed to put an end to "builds". To master these various PTs, you must increase usage of what they represent. To level up Force PT, you must icrease the usage of magic, and to increase Shield PT, you must block more often. Maximizing these various PTs are not required to complete the game, but it adds some additional advantages.

Classes

All characters begin as one of four classes.

• Warrior - Warriors have great strength and stamina, and specialize in melee combat.
• Ranger - Rangers rely on speed and dexterity, and are skilled at ranged combat.
• Spiritualist - Spiritualists use magical force to combat their enemies, and equip staves.
• Specialist - Specialists have a variety of special abilities depending on race, though all are skilled at crafting and mining and can use all weapons reasonably well.

At level 30 characters can change their job to one of two avaliable to their class. At level 40, characters can change their job again to one of two avaliable to their current job. Jobs provide additional abilities and have their own weapon preferences. Different jobs are avaliable to different races. The spiritualist class is not avaliable to Accretia characters.

Race Specific Abilities

Each race has a unique, powerful ability.

• Launcher: The accretia launcher is an enormous ranged weapon the size and power of which make it unusable by any other race. Launchers can fire missiles across great distances, and are capable of firing many different types of rockets. However, there is a great delay period between shots. Accretian rangers have the additional ability to enter siege mode, increasing fire rate but disallowing motion. Launchers can only be used at levels 15 and above.
• Massive Armor Unit (MAU): Bellatos have the ability to pilot MAUs. MAUs are large, heavily armored and well armed robotic bodies. They come in two main varieties: Catapult, and Goliath. Catapult MAUs use ranged weaponry, while Goliath MAUs use melee weapons. MAUs are very durable, but the pilot cannot use skills or magic while riding them.
• Animus: Decem has granted the cora the ability to summon creatures called animii. Animii appear and can help the corite who summoned it and its allies by attacking, healing, or rendering other services. Different animii can be summoned as the spiritualist's level increases. Only some spiritualist class jobs can summon animii.

Realistic Economy

RF Online's economy can be divided into two parts - production and consumption. Most other MMORPG economies focus on hunting. In RF Online's case, the mine is a new field where resources are produced as a part of and in support of economic activity. Mining for minerals and processing the products of these produce many kinds of items. These form the basis for conflict within the mines.

Also, just like in the real world, overproduction causes prices to fall. If many players convert their ore into currency, the going price of ore will drop as supply begins to outstrip demand. Every hour, the economy is recomputed taking into account sales of items over the entire server and who currently controls the mines. This system places the economy (mostly) in the hands of the players.

Race versus Race Wars

All members of a single race band together to fight the other races for the rights to control the Talic mines. The winner gets mining rights and a virtual stranglehold on the economy until another race wins. Victory in this war has major effects, as it increases the tax rate of the winning race and makes their goods more expensive.

The wars are not just confined to a certain time period. Each race's area is open to incursion by the other races, and raids to disrupt players from levelling their characters are commonplace. Some are designed to increase the power of a character's skills, while others seek to increase their ranking in their own races by killing low levelled characters.

Mining

The winning race wins the right to search for Talic in the mines. The other two races get to organize raids to steal Talic from the mines, or to wrest control of the mine from the other races by driving away or killing their miners.

You can mine directly outside of your portal, but the rate is 1 ore per minute. Acquiring control of the mine will mean your race can mine in the center, where the mining rate is greatly increased to roughly 3 or 4 ores per minute. However, a monster called the HolyStone Keeper guards the center, where none but the ruling race can mine.

Patriarchal/Rulership System

A player receives contribution points whenever they kill a character from another race and also from completing certain quests. The character with the highest contribution point becomes the Archon, the leader of a race. Players with ranks 2-5 become council members. The Archon and the council members are the representatives of a race and have some privileges and responsibilites, namely access to a chat system where they can talk to ALL members of their race. This is used in race warfare to alert everyone of enemy actions and to coordinate attacks.

Archons also have the unique abilty to understand the language of other races'. Also, they have higher defense owing to the fact that Archons are automatically targeted by other races. A player who kills an Archon would recieve an incredible CP (contribution point), which dictates where you are ranked

External links

• Official RF Online-International website - by Codemasters, Publisher of the game in Europe/North America.
• Official RF Online-Japan website
• Official RF Online-Philippines website
• RFO wiki site - Dedicated RF Online Wiki - go add your info!
• RFBase.com - The First Ever English-speaking RF Online fansite/forum/community.
• RF Info - RF Online Encyclopedia
• U.S. Server Status