Regnum Online
| Champions of Regnum | |
|---|---|
| File:Small Logo Regnum.png | |
| Developer(s) | NGD Studios |
| Publisher(s) | NGD Studios |
| Engine | NG3D |
| Platforms | Windows, OS X, Linux[1][2] |
| Release date(s) | May 24, 2007[3] |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Regnum Online is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by NGD Studios, a game development studio located in Argentina. This game is also known as "Realms Online" in America. The game focuses on full Realm vs Realm team player vs player combat, with a three-way war constantly in progress over forts and castles. There are monsters and an element of grinding, but these are considered secondary to the war.
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 abbreviated as RO or ROL (which in Spanish also means role, as in role-playing games). The game was officially released May 24, 2007.
Although the game has more than 500,000 subscriptions, the number of players online is around 200–300, distributed on five servers (probably more now).[citation needed] NGD studios made a contract with gamigo AG, a German gaming company, and opened a German server. Soon after, gamigo added another German server to meet the demand for the game, then at the end of 2009, opened a French server called Nemon. In 2009, UnitedGames gained the exclusive rights for the Netherlands and Belgium and a new server, Tyr, was opened, with Dutch as its official language. However, Tyr has since been shut down by UnitedGames and the players database has been merged with the Horus International server. In 2011, a US-oriented server named Raven was opened through GameSamba. Raven has active GMs and fairly regular xp boost and other GM-run events. Later that year, a lack of take-up on the Raven server caused GameSamba to reconsider their management of the server, and it was decided to merge the Raven and Horus Servers to create a much larger international server called Haven.
Overview
Players create characters as their avatars in a fantasy medieval-themed persistent virtual world. Individual appearance of characters is customisable. The player has to choose between three realms: Alsius, Ignis and Syrtis, with each having their own races. Players then level up by grinding on monsters or with quests. The game is designed so that you can level up to about level 25 purely on quests, which can take place within a day or two of constant playing. You are permitted to enter the warzone above about level 10, but players recommend you enter at about level 25 or above.
Gameplay
The inspiration for Regnum Online is the online game Dark Age of Camelot (DAOC). As such, RO is heavily focussed on Realm vs Realm (also known as faction pvp or team pvp) combat. In general, at all times a player can find active wars occurring in the "Warzone" where players of the 3 realms fight for control of forts, gates and castles. Players can choose the realms of Alsius, Ignis and Syrtis. Each realm has four races, and some of the races are essentially the same across the three realms. For example, each realm has a race of humans, and each realm has "lamai."
The differences between the races of the three realms is cosmetic as all share the same character classes and powers. Alsius is a snowy realm, Ignis is a desert realm and Syrtis is a grassy realm.
Regnum offers the three standard character classes: archer, warrior and mage. Each class is further offered two specialisations. At present, the full range of classes are: Marksman, Hunter, Barbarian, Knight, Warlock and Conjurer.
Combat skills, stealth and spells are drawn primarily from the lore of DAOC and Dungeons and Dragons, with much shorter durations and magnified effects.
Combat takes place by the use of the W, A, S and D movement keys and clicking on the target. Each class has a unique skill tree. The game's combat is considered by some reviewers to be fairly well-balanced.[4]
In order the promote intensity and smoothness of combat, the developers deliberately reduced the graphics detail. However, the artwork and ambience in game is considered by some reviewers to be exceptionally good.[4]
Quests
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. There are also player versus player quests which require the player to accomplish a certain task such as killing a certain amount number of players from another realm or holding a specific location for a certain amount of time.
