RF Online, originally named 'Rising Force',is a 3D MMORPG developed by CCR.
The first version of the game was released in South Korea and was later followed by Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, and English translations. The North American/European version of the game launched its retail phase on February 21, 2006.
Storyline
The game is centered on the conflict between 3 races (descendants of the now extinct human race) in their bid to control precious resources, and their desire to advance their respective agendas through any means necessary. There are three different races:
* Accretia - A race of cyborgs who were forced to turn to artificial bodies due to the harsh environment on their home planet. Now they have forsaken flesh in their pursuit of perfection and 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. Reestablished as The Empire, Accretia entered the Novus conflict against both Cora and Bellato.
* 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. 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 reckoned 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 to 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 it also emphasizes the three-way Race vs. Race vs. Race (RvRvR) concept.
Gameplay
As with many MMORPGs, the player will select one race and fight monsters to gain experience points. RFO is populated with many different monsters across many areas.
* HP The most prevalent among games, HP or "Hit/Health Points" represents life. On your character, it is the red bar in the middle.
* FP FP or "Force Points" is the equivalent of Mana or energy in this game. On your character, it is the blue bar below.
* SP SP or "Stamina Points" is used for running and some higher level skills. It can be seen on your character by clicking on the "S" button next to the yellow bar on the top left of the screen along with your level, HP and FP.
* DP "Defense Points". DP dictates the damage you are able to withstand. You lose DP as you get hit. The lower the DP the higher the damage you receive. When DP is completely drained, your defense will be significantly reduced. It is represented by the thin white line above your character, above the larger HP and FP bars. Also known as the Defense Gauge.
* DDP "Dodge Points". Implemented in the Episode 2 patch. With the same effects as Defense Points, you will lose DDP as long as someone is attacking you. When it is drained, your dodge will be significantly reduced. Also known as the Dodge Gauge.
PT (Point)
In the place of the traditional statistics (such as strength, vitality and luck) found in many RPGs, RF has PT (PoinT). PT represents various masteries such as melee or range. Each PT has its own experience bar that is completely autonomous with a character's level. PT levels up as one uses the appropriate actions corresponding to that PT. For example, Defense PT gains in level as one gets hit.
* Melee (Used for increasing melee weapon damage and accuracy. Required to wield higher level melee weapons and to wear close-range armour.)
* Range (Used for increasing ranged weapon damage and accuracy and for increasing stamina. Required to wield higher level bows or guns and to wear ranger armour.)
* Force (unavailable for Accretians) (Used for increasing maximum FP as well as increasing attacking force effectiveness. Required to wield higher level staves and to wear force armour.)
* Shield (Used to increase blocking rate. It increases when your shield blocks an attack. Required to use higher level shields.)
* Defense (Used for increasing maximum HP and DP.)
In addition, the specialists of each race have an additional "Crafting PT", which is divided into three groups:
* Weapon/Shield (Used for crafting higher level weapons and shields.)
* Armor (Used for crafting higher level armors.)
* Ammo (Allows crafting of elemental, giga and advanced ammo. Elemental ammo applies a certain element to the attack, giga is a magazine filled with 500 ammo as opposed to 100 for regular and advanced is more powerful ammo for beam weapons.)
Finally each race has its own special PT which is available only to members of that race:
* Launcher (Accretia) Increases launcher attack power. Required to wield higher level launchers and to wear launcher armour.
* Unit (Bellato) Can be used to upgrade a Massive Armor Unit (MAU). Certain components require a certain level and PT in order to be bought and equipped.
* Summon (Cora) Increases rate of the HP regeneration of the animus in their unsummoned state. It also limits the ability of a summoner to wield animus force reavers that are of very high levels.
The maximum limit PT is based on the character's level and the amount of PT gained per attack from a monster depends on the difference in level between player and mob.
Classes
* Warrior - Warriors have great strength and stamina and specialize in melee combat.
o Upon level 30 Warriors can change into one of two classes, usually a damage dealer or a damage tank.
* Ranger - Rangers rely on speed and dexterity and are skilled in ranged combat.
o Upon level 30 Rangers can change into one of two classes, usually a cloaker equipped with mines or a damage dealing ranger. Accretian rangers can change into the Gunner which specializes in launcher weapons.
* Spiritualist - Spiritualists use magical force to combat their enemies and equip staves. This class is not available to Accretians.
o Upon level 30 Bellato spiritualist can change into one of two classes, a psyper or a healer whereas Cora spiritualists can become a Summoner or a caster.
* Specialist - Specialists have a variety of special abilities depending on race, though all are skilled at crafting and are balanced in all areas.
o Upon level 30 specialists can become crafters whereas Bellato specialist can also choose to become a Driver and pilot huge Massive Attack Units (MAUs). Specialists who choose the Engineer class (Accretia) or Craftman class (Bellato/Cora) at level 30 can set up guard towers.
At level 40 characters can change their job again to one of two available to their current job. Jobs provide additional abilities and have their own weapon preferences. Different jobs are available to different races.
Skills/Force
Skills and Force follows the same level-up strategy as PT in RF in that they must be used in order to level. Furthermore, Skill and Force have their own classes such as Basic, Expert and Elite. Although everybody has access to the same Basic skills/force, it depends on your initial job class and your subsequent level 30 job choice as to which Experts and Elites are available as well as which unique class skills are unlocked.
Race Specific Abilities
Each race has a unique, powerful ability:
* Launcher System: The Accretian 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 with either physical or elemental damage properties. However, there is a great delay period between shots but this delay can be overcome by using launcher specific armor. Accretians have the additional ability to enter siege mode, increasing fire rate but disallowing motion. Launchers can only be used at levels 15 and above and Siege Kits can only be used at levels 30 and above. There are currently two different Siege Kits: the level 30 kit is good for 1000 shots and increases defence by 20%, the level 40 kit is good for 1500 shots and increases attack power by 35%. After a Siege Kit runs out of durability it is destroyed and the player has to buy a new one.
o Latest upgrade of the siege kit is the Epochal Siege Kit(level 50), A.K.A red siege kit. There are 2 types, the attack kit(1000 shots) and the defense kit(2000 shots).**
* Massive Armor Unit (MAU): Bellato 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. A player must switch to the Driver class at level 30 to operate a MAU. The player can purchase up to 4 MAUs from the MAU Dealer NPC. These MAUs can be upgraded (by paying a fee) according to the player character's level and UNIT PT, the higher the UNIT PT and level of the player, the more upgrades available to their MAU. The level 40 MAU upgrades change the color of the MAU's armor to black leading to the nickname of Black MAUs or BMAUs. MAUs also costs the most to maintain out of all the equipment. This is due to them not being able to self heal which requires the player to pay a heavy repair fee. A normal MAU can cost around 1.3 million dalant to replace/upgrade and a Black MAU can cost up to 1.5 million dalant.
o Last upgraded of Black MAU is a Red MAU unit.
* Animus: Decem has granted the Cora the ability to summon creatures called animus. Animus appear and can help the Corite who summoned it and its allies by attacking, healing, tanking or stunning opponents. Only a Cora who chooses the Summoner class at level 30 can summon Animus. An Animus has its own HP/FP and exp which are individual from the player's own stats. A player must level each Animus individually. When an Animus is summoned, a window displaying the Animus HP/FP and Exp is displayed. This window also has an order tab which the player can use to make the animus attack or heal whatever the player is targeting. The 4 Animus are Paimon (close range combat and tank), Hecate (force attack and stun), Inanna (healing), Isis (powerful physical attack). When a player is promoted to the Summoner class they receive a free level 25 Animus reaver of Paimon, Inanna or Hecate. These 3 can also be bought from the Force Mentor NPC. Isis can only be obtained from a monster drop or by being promoted to the Graizer class at level 40.
o Last Evolution Of Isis Animus is the Red Isis, Codename: May
Equipment
There are three types of Equipment in RF, four if you include jewellery. They are :
* Cloak: Latest Addition on RF(Available at Ep.2).cloaks are usually called Jetpacks/Booster since it adds a new item skill which increases your movespeed and drains sp faster for a limited amount of time.Jetpacks are made by Combining 99pcs of Rian, 99pcs of Beam, 1 bag, 1 Olive Excelsiar(A,B,C)which generates the success, 1 talic (chaos, elemental talic)this will be the JetPack's attribute whether it decreases the critical rate done to you or increases your resistance from a certain element + 22million Dallant/Desena/CP.
* Armor: There are three types of armour for each race in RF Online. Close-range armour has the highest defense and its use is tied to melee pt. Ranger armour has the lowest defense but has high elemental resist and increases movement and attack speed. Its use is tied to range pt. Force armour for Cora/Bellato and Launcher armour for Accretia has defense somewhere in the middle and increases the attack power and speed for the race specials (Accretian Launcher armour has the same defense rate as Accretian Range armour).
* Shield: Shield increases a character's overall armour as well as giving a chance to totally block an attack. However, equipping a shield will decrease a character's attack speed and evasion. Shields also takes up a hand which will require the player to use one handed weapons which are considerably weaker than the two handed variety.
* Weapon: Weapons are classed as melee, ranged and force/launcher types and further sub-classed as one-handed, two-handed and dual-wield.
o two variation of Dual wielding; one hit dual-wield(one target) or slashing dual-wield(one or many in the attack area beside the target)
Equipment Attributes
Furthermore, monster dropped equipment may have certain attributes not found on store(as of Ep.1):
in Episode 2; however, these items will be available at certain vendors.
* Type B - Intense: 40% - 50% increase in Attack or Defense Power, depending on the type of weapon/armour. Usually equal in power or defense to the next weapon/armour available. Can be randomly crafted by a level 40 or higher pure class Specialist (e.g. Specialist-Engineer-BattleLeader).
* Type C - SI: A Type C weapon is a weapon that has both the attributes of a type A and B weapon. Its nickname SI comes from the fact that originally only Strong-Intense versions were available. They are created by combining both an intense and a purple version of a specific weapon and a corresponding excelsior (a C grade Black Excelsior makes a level 45 melee weapon for example). When a Type C weapon is created, it has a random chance to lose its up to 4 levels from its level requirement (e.g. level 45 to level 41-45) and a random number of upgrade slots.
* Type D - SI : A Type D Weapon is much similar to a Type C Weapon. The only difference is that Type D Weapons are Lv.50 Type C Weapons(Hora Weapons) that are usable by level 45 players.
* Leon's Weapon: Leon's Weapon are the New weapons at the start of RF eps.2 where great power comes great drawback.Currently the hardest to attain weapon on RF. Due to the fact you must complete the 4 pieces + Blueprint from the Battle Dungeon and Form it through Hero's Combine. Completing the part is one of the hard part. Combining it is a big gamble since you may have the chance of destroying all of the parts in a single combine. Leon parts are non-tradable and non droppable but a complete Leon is Tradable. Leon weapon will have 3 good status like additional attack, defense or avoidance and 1 drawback -resistance, -movespeed, decrease in defense and such.
* Relic Weapons: Relics weapons have been implemented on Episode 2. Like the Leon Weapons, they are extremely rare. Nothing is certainly clear about the relic weapons' attributes, except that 'unsealed' Relics (they are Sealed) have a chance of casting certain Force Spells when used in combat.
Economy
The game's economy can be divided into two parts - production and consumption. Most other MMORPG economies focus on hunting. 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.
Every twenty-four hours, the amount of currency in the economy is re-calculated, and based on this, a tax rate (inflation rate) is established for each race. The tax rate makes NPC vendor items more expensive. Players can keep the tax rate in check by converting their currency into gold. The cost of gold is based on the tax rate; Higher tax rates mean cheaper gold, while lower tax rates make gold more expensive. In this manner, the tax rate prompts players to convert currency to or from gold based on whether or not the economy suffers from inflation or deflation.
Ore & Ore Processing
From the beginnings there are special material that can not be sold to the NPC, "Rare Ore" this kind of ore is able to be processed into a process ore by ore process NPC, and then the ore can be traded for a box that can be opened in the gem collecting monster NPC, if you opened the box it will come out a random type of mining ore Level +1, +2 or +3, on some occasion +4 level ore. The ore can be processed in the NPC ore process, the breaking of ore can sometimes produce another ore sometimes bonus items like: recovery items, Talics and Gems.
Ore Properties
Processing the processed ore can be processed for the second time in the NPC ore process, the breaking of ore can sometimes produce another ore.
Talics
Talics are upgrade items that are processed from ore that can be obtained from mining in the Crag Mine area. Different talics, when inset into a weapon or armour piece, give different beneficial effects. For example, an Ignorance talic can increase a weapon's attack power or a Favour talic can increase an armours defence ability.
Talics are also found at pit bosses.
Gems
Gems increase the chance of talic upgrading success. They are inserted into the equipment before talics are. They are randomly obtained when refining ore and are dropped by crag mine monsters except for T4 gems, which can only be obtain by processing +4 ores (+4 ores can only be obtain from the Big UMT/Big UMT+ and from gift boxes).
The 4 ranges of gems are commonly referred to as T1 (Tier 1) as Normal Range to T4 (Tier 4) as Greatest Range.
Archon/Patriarchal/Rulership System
A player receives Contribution Points (CP) whenever they kill, or hit a character from another race and also from completing quests. This also means you will lose CP if you are killed by a member of an opposing race. The members of each race with the highest amount of contribution points (top 30) can enter in an election to become the Race Leader for the week or one of the four supporting Archons.
These five Patriarchs as they are collectively known are able to communicate with the entire race through global race chat and are expected to lead the race in the Chip Wars. The Race Leader also has the unique ability to understand the language of other races.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for RF Online was sung by a Japanese singer Lia.
Free to Play
RF Online recently became free to play. Players can get into the game now by setting up a trial account and receiving a key to activate it. However, once activated the account becomes a full account instead of a trial account.
Optional in-game credits can be purchased with real life currency, the credits are in turn used to buy in-game items.
RF Online in the Philippines
RF Online became the primary option for lots of gamers in the 3rd or 4th quarter of 2005 due to Level Up's Ragnarok Online being "saturated" of people, 3rd party programs and its good share of scandals. It has been widely-anticipated and became popular in its release. By 2006 up to early 2007, the game has been very good with the mods and events in-game that encouraged a great deal of players to join. The Episode 2 release in late August of 2007 has been widely discussed and has been labelled as the worst patch so far due to its cons weighing over the pros such as:
1. CCR gave the Free-to-Play (F2P) in Episode 2 bringing in a lot of new gamers, but also lagged the game too much, this may be in lieu to LUG Inc. with players asking for server upgrades to combat the problems in-game or the launch server.
2. One major point of debate is the lessened effectiveness of the resources of the cragmines upon the introduction of Episode II and the raised processing fees which questions the main reason why the game itself existed in the first place (Storyline).
3. CCR also lacked the foresight when the patch was released due to the fact that the Korean RisingForce Online's (kRF) population distribution, culture, trends, etc. are much different than the Philippines' where lots of gamers, especially the veterans or those who spent more than a year in the game, quit in disgust, frustration or disappointment. This is due to the changes in drop, PT rates and still, the bugged crafting success rates that brought down the possibilities of players earning in-game cash.
4. The elemental defense rate has been lowered too much to the point that the race having a greater number of mystic-based classes would usually take the upper hand due to very significant damage increase on their part. And on the other side, the ranger armors that would've been useful to minimize elemental damage seemed to be used only for movement speed purposes.
5. CCR's introduction of the item mall has been viewed like a double-edged sword, and received much more criticism in the Ignorance and Favor Upgrade Boxes, being dubbed as "Gamble Mall" because of it, although lots of players will be looking forward to the next patches since it will finally guarantee 100% a Keen or Favor Upgrader.
6. CCR and Level Up! GMs has been widely criticized and lost trust in a lot of its players who love the game when the "Servers Restart" problem has been very much been part of the game since the 2nd week of September and is still a problem as of this date with at least an average of 1 or 2 restarts in peak hours usually in the afternoon and at times, before or during the 9pm Chip War.
7. In relation to the "Servers Restart" problem, lots of gamers lost valuable amounts of hard-earned experience and some lost precious items because of this, especially when the restarting of servers haven't been being announced in-game, resulting to numerous disgruntled, angry and flaming players in the RF Boards against CCR, Level Up! and its GMs. This has been the cause where GMs would rather chatban or temporarily suspend these players especially those who paid for the "Premium Service" rates who clamor for a mods compensation. The compensation so far is only a mere 500 Galactic Credits (GC)where a lot of gamers have been outraged with all the mess that happened because of this problem. Currently, the administration and its GMs in the forums somehow tried to pacify the avid players saying that they are trying their best and waiting for CCR's patches, although this problem has been going on for already 3 weeks or a month. The said problem HAS BEEN FINALLY solved after arounf 1 and a half months of this being a problem, yet no decent compensation so far has been announced.
8. Another point has been the ever-worsening Level Up! and RF GMs customer care response due to its slow and incompetent response times. One example is that sending evidence for a Real Money Trading (RMT) case, one would usually have a reply that they have not attached proper evidence when it has been very much obvious about the act. Also, it takes at least a week to at most, 6 months before one can have a response from a filed ticket. Also, there are certain accusations from the GMs put some players under charges when it is not probably true like some DDNM and RMT charges.
9. The RMT cases have been rampant in all servers in RF Philippines, adding to the recent problems in the changes in Episode 2 and the servers, GMs would only chatban people for minor offenses rather than look or trace those who are involved more on bug abuses, RMT cases, hacking cases and game infringement cases where there are a number of unknown players who immediately became very much stronger than those who have been known for a long time even when it has been tested by some players from Altrax Server. Due to this incident, the RF Brand Manager has issued a statement about it.
10. Going back to the bugged crafting rates, it has not been fixed since (possibly) the beginning of Episode 2 where a lot of specs from the 3 races have chosen to put their characters into a hiatus, make another character, or completely quit from the game and find another one.
11. Some progress has been made against the infamous DDNM bug widely abused by the Accretian population (or players from other races using Accretian characters). This was done by an Accretian using a Siege Kit and using the sit emoticon which affected to a great degree the outcomes of Chip Wars by far. The punishment for the first offense is a seven day ban with a percentage deduction (50%) on PT and EXP and (20%) on Contribution Points (CP or ConPt). Although, there are questions if it's possible for the other 2 races, namely, Bellato or Cora to do such a bug.
12. As of October 30, due to the intense bug abuse caused by DDNM and other such factors mentioned above, there has been a statement released by the Nexus Accretia archon Restless, which became a hot subject amongst the players and the pro-LUG camp. Reference: http://rfboards.levelupgames.ph/index.php?showtopic=29089
13. This article has recently been facing vandalism due to this being deleted 7 times most likely due to the company, or its subordinates denying the ones mentioned above as true.
