Rappelz

[Psycho-Matt!]

I have created this thread to find out if anyone in TOG has or is currently playing the free game called Rappelz (Created by Gpotato), i'm just appeling to my clan members for there insite on this game, or if there is even a TOG guild inside the game. I haven't started playing the game yet but i am after to start a TOG guild inside the game, After i get a bit of experiance.

Does anyone have an old account that they don't use or i could trade with them.

Cheers: Psycho-Matt!

[Arep]

That's funny that you posted this... A friend or mine turned me on to this game and I've been playing it for a few days now. Still trying to figure it out. Not sure if there's an official ToG presence there.

I'm on the Yeti server as Arepella if you play there and start a guild.

[Psycho-Matt!]

Sure, i think i mite just start a guild, i'll have to talk to admin about it, if i'm aloud to become a Guild master for there guild. Any idea who i should contact to query them.

[Karmajay]

There would have to be a good size group of TOG members playing the game to create a division FYI.

[eesx]

I've been pondering downloading and trying this...here goes

Ok! Downloaded, installed patched and created last night.


First Impressions:
VIDEO
Looks very pretty. Great spell effects and combat effects. I have a new rig so it *should* look good.
Graphics options are locked in a pre-configured setup unless you select 'User config' from the drop-down right at the top. Selecting 'user' allows all the graphics properties to be changed, sliders moved etc. The drop-down has some other pre-configured setups as well.

GAMEPLAY
Click to move - there may be navkeys but I havent found em. Camera controls arent too unwieldy, although there seems to be a rotation limit.
The game defaults to CTRL+key to activate stuff (CTRL-Q for quest menu...CTRL-I for inventory) and normal input goes straight to chat - so for the first few minutes I was spamming all around with my "wasdwasdwwwssss" type exclamations. This can be altered so that ENTER opens the chat window, and normal keypresses no longer require CTRL (CTRL-Q becomes just Q).
Awesome hotkey system - things like looting, mounting, sitting and most other social functions are available as either /commands or macro/buttons. Looting in particular is very handy with just a keypress per item.

CHARACTER CREATION
Dont be put off by what seems to be a choice between only 3 races, and a male or female avatar. This is simply a "base" class - all characters start out as either male or female 'Guides' for a very quick 10 levels (like a 10-level newbie school). You then get to choose class specialisations based on your race, and go up in levels in those.
I, for example, chose the Deva race - and at level 10, I can choose from Holy Warrior, Cleric and Breeder.
For real information on what the classes have to offer looks at the wikipedia entry - the official webpage has very little real information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rappelz#Deva


CUSTOMIZATION (LOOKS, CLOTHES)
I cant say much for look customisation - the equipment you find/get given must be 'leveled up' to stay useful as you yourself level up (level 1 gear is good up to level 10... level 2 gear can be used from level 20 etc) - so I think either you
a) find a look you like, and keep levelling the gear up
b) shop around a lot for gear that looks right and is still worth wearing
You can alter the starting faces and colours a 'bit' but we're not talking City-of-Heroes level of customization, obviously.

GAMEPLAY
Not the easiest game to 'get into'. Written originally in Korean, then translated across to English pretty poorly in most places. The word-wrapping designed for oriental characters really messes with what is poorly translated english to begin with. If you're like me, you won't mind the 'engrish' issues - its kinda cute in places - but after playing well-written quests for so long I can understand how it would grate with some folks.


COMBAT
The game has an interesting 'looping' system for monster debuffs.
Killing monsters while wearing a chaos necklace allows you to collect 'Lak' (a kind of random spirit force) from dead creatures. So basically stuff you kill has a chance to spit out a Lak that you automatically gain if you are wearing your necklace (given to you in newbie school as a quest).

Lak can be taken to a (*gasp*) Lak trader, to be exchanged for either 'Force chips/Soul chips' or raw cash money.
The game insists that selling Lak for money is not the best way to go.

Its reason is this - Force chips can be used on creatures to debuff their physical damage resistance, and Soul chips can be used to weaken their spell resistance (therefore creatures die quicker once you use a chip on them). Force/Soul chips are basically 'thrown' debuffs that seem to never miss and take no time to throw. The word 'chip' has no meaning technologically...its just a word they used instead of 'spell' or 'item'.

Trading Lak in for more Force/Soul chips allows you to debuff more creatures, and to kill more stuff quickly, and to gain more Lak over time...so on and so forth.


LEVELLING UP
The game has an interesting system that requires a kind of 'balance' between skills and levels.

Skills (Job Skills) are either passive or active - passive being '10% more hp'. Active being something like 'Smite' or 'Holy Strike' that have short cast times and require 'MP' or magic points (mana). Active skills are generally strikes/buffs/debuffs/spells.
Skills costs 'job points' to raise - stuff you kill and quests you complete give you 'JP' (job points) which you can use to either buy skills/raise skills, or gain Job Levels...

Levels (Job Levels) unlock more skills and modify your skills' power as you raise them.

The trick is that Job Skills and Job Levels all have to be raised/bought from the same pool of Job Points.
The game warns that spending too much on Job Skills (while neglecting Job Levels) will leave you with ineffective skills (but a range of them) and you wont have access to the higher level Job Skills.
The game also warns that spending too much on Job Levels and neglecting your Job Skills will mean you have no powers to use, and creature fights will be very tough.

So the trick is working out whether to spend your JP on Job Skills at your current Job Level...or raise your Job Level, and maybe unlock some new cool Job Skills.

There is also 'XP' and 'Levels' that govern the difficulty of quests/creatures relative to your own level. I am having real difficulty finding a decent explanation of XP gain compared to JP gain, but I know you gain them at the same time (quests, kills).

Posting this part so I dont lose it - more info coming soon.
Eesx

[eesx]

Ok, part II

LEVELLING UP - Job Points vs Experience Points

XP - CHARACTER LEVEL
Your Character level increases your hp/mp and affects what equipment you can use.
(hit points/magic points - health and mana).

Equipment has 'upgrade levels' (1 to 5 I think) that allow them to get better weapon statistics. These equipment levels govern who can use the items and when.
(An equip-level 1 sword is crap, and an equip-level 2 sword is crap +2, but an equipment-level 2 item can only be used by people between character level 10 and 20 for example.
A level 11 character can use an equipment-level 1 sword, but would do more damage by taking that equipment-level 1 sword to a blacksmith, paying money, and making it an equipment-level 2 sword.
Conversely, a character-level 9 toon may not use an equipment-level 2 sword.)

JP - JOB LEVELS
The Job Level affects what skills you will be able to learn and gives increases to your stats each level.



STATS
Each toon has stats that can be affected by equipment and buffs. Stats are not assignable on their own and are raised automatically based on your race, class and jobs.

This breakdown is from the FAQ section (http://rappelz.gpotato.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=78042)
and carries the caveat
WARNING THESE MAY NOT BE RIGHT!

Luck
Increases Critical Ratio by .2% and Lak Drop rate
Vitality
Increases Health regen by .2% and Max Health by??
Intelligence
Increases Mana, Magic Atack and Magic Defense
Strength
Increase Physical Damage by +1, Max Weight by .2%, Attack Speed by .2%
Agility
Increase Evasion and Attack Speed all by .2%
Wisdom
Increases Mana regen, Magic Defense, Magic Resistance all by .2% and Cast Speed +.5
Dexterity
Increases Cast Speed by +2 also Accuracy by +.5 and Bow Damage by +1.5
Mentality
Maybe Accuracy and Magic Defense?
Mag. Def.
Magical Defense good against ranged attacks (pixies)???
Mag. Atk.
Increases your magic attack by???
Mag. Resist.
Negates Side effects of Spells (stun, burn etc..)
Phys. Atk.
Increases your Physical Attack by 1
Phys. Def.
Physical Defense good against melee MOB
Accuracy
Increases your chance of hitting by ??%
Evasion
Increases your chance of not getting hit by ??%
Move. Speed
Increases your movement speed by 1%
Block Phys. Def.
Shields: increases chance to block melee attack
Max. Weight
Increases Maximum carry weight by 1
No. of Slots
Number of creatures you can have out
Atk. Speed
Increases your attack speed by 1%
Avoid. Inc.
Maybe lowers threat level???
MP Regen
Increases your mana regeneration by 1%
Max MP
Increases your mana by 1
Max HP
Increases your health by 1
Critical Ratio
Increase your chance of hitting for a critical
Critical Power
Increases damage during a critical hit

Individual stats are not assignable, they are given to you based on your race, class and job. Stats are autolevelled for you, something most folks in the forum seem relieved to find out (less chance of 'stuffing up' your build with bad stats)



COMBAT FATIGUE/STAMINA
The game has a 'battle fatigue' system than I found similar to SWG's original premise, and reminiscent of WOW's bonus xp system.

Time spent killing monsters accumulates, and is translated into 'condition'. Your condition affects how much XP/JP/Lak you make from creatures. There are 3 levels -
'best' (white, over 100% JP/XP gain, fully rested)
'good' (yellow, 100% xp/jp gain I think) and
'poor' (red I think, never seen it myself, low rates of XP/JP gain)

Stamina is 'regained' or fixed by
- logging out while sitting down in a town (best stamina regain rate)
- Spending time sitting down, out of combat away from creatures. Best stamina regain rates are achieved by using /sit (sits your toon down) and doing so while in a town or starting area.
- Buy a tent and sit down in that (can be used anywhere apparently)

Either of these will restore your stamina. Having only spent a couple of nights in game, I havent spent enough time logged in to really notice the effects of low stamina. The game seems to encourage the log-off approach.


MOUNTS (and PETS)

Pets are a major feature of this game, and as yet I have only been able to buy and summon a mount. I hope to update this info when I can

The premise is this;
Mounts/Pets are summons, summoned from a 'card' that you either buy, find or train/create (more on this in another post).

I bought my mount card from a dealer for 1000 rupees for 6 hours. Be aware that ONLY MOUNTS HAVE A TIME LIMIT.

Mounts are non-combat summons (normal pets will fight with you) and as such only last a certain period of time. Normal pets are interchangeable and permanent (i.e. you can have a few different pet cards, but depending on your skills, only 1 or 2 out at a time) and can be 'bred' and 'overbred' to gain skills and powers.


CRAFTING/UPGRADING
PETS (in depth)
PVP (PVE and PVP servers)
MULTICLASSING (Multi-jobs)

All coming soon to this post. Apologies for the lack of content here but the first post stuff was quite crucial to my understanding (or lack thereof) of the game, and it seems half-arsed to not have a shot at finishing the review/intro properly.


Some handy links in the meantime;

New player FAQ (mostly good english) http://rappelz.gpotato.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4

Wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rappelz

Cheers,

Eesx



PS - quick addition;

(From Gtalk)
Pelao: oh: camera rotation limit i think is just coz as you hold down right button and drag.. it still moves the cursor
so when you hit the edge.. you stop

Perhaps lower sensitivity would allow full rotations without the mouse hitting the edge of the screen.

[Psycho-Matt!]

Awsom thanks EESX for the heads up, i've been play a while i have a level 21 summoner and a level 23 caster. And it is true that we would need a substantion ammount of player to creat a new division but i could just creat a new guild as a temp TOG guild for players that are in need of support in side the game. I don't think that i would creat a new division out of it because it will only be a game that people can try if they get bored. Just like people that played Flyff, most of us got bored of that game after chnaging to second job class.

I'll wait till i gain alot more money that way if people do join the guild i can lend them a helping hand.

The only problem is using the TOG name, i am fine with using my own guild name and i will post it around for people to join.

Cheers Psycho-Matt!

[eesx]

Quick update - 4 toons currently, only 1 has left the newbie island :P

Wyntra - level 11 Holy Warrior
Vaarsuvius - 16 Dark Magician
Greenhilt - Level 1 Gaia starting toon...might wipe him
Kaobelle - Level 1ish Sorcerer

Only Vaar is in a guild (typical catchall newbie kiddie guild) so far.

[Psycho-Matt!]

lol true well i'll keep everyone updated,