Regnum Online

Infobox VG
title = Regnum Online


developer = NGD Studios
publisher = NGD Studios
Dev Team = Andres Chilkowski, Fernando Testa, Nicolas Lamanna, Marco Antonio Alvarez, Eugenio Insausti, Sergio J. de los Santos [http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=419229 Regnum Online - GameDev.Net Discussion Forums ] ] , Nicolas Campelo, Bruno Valenti, Rodrigo Fernandez
engine = NG3D
version =
released = May 24,2007 [ [http://www.ngdstudios.com.ar/ NGD Studios] , see portfolio page for info.]
genre = Fantasy MMORPG
modes = Multiplayer
ratings = ESRB: PG
platforms = Windows, Linux [ [http://regnumonline.com.ar/index.php?l=1&sec=6 Regnum Online Downloads Page] ] [ [http://www.happypenguin.org/show?Regnum%20Online HappyPenguin] ]
media = Client
requirements = see System requirements
input = Keyboard, mouse
preceded by =
followed by =

"Regnum Online" is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by NGD Studios, a game development studio located in Argentina. In addition to usual character development present in other games of the genre, the game focuses on the conflict of 3 realms in which players take part, fighting against characters of opposing factions and capturing fortresses and castles aside from the usual player vs monster combats.

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 frequently abbreviated as RO or ROL (which in Spanish also means role, as in role-playing games). The game was officially released May 24, 2007.

The game has currently more than 100,000 subscriptions and has received reviews in local newspapers, TV programs and in game-related websites (see External Links), as well as international sites spread throughout the world.

NGD studios recently made a contract with Gamigo, a German gaming company and opened a German Server. Soon after, NGD added another German server to meet the demand for the game.

Overview

Players create characters as their avatars in a fantasy medieval-themed persistent virtual world. The first choice a player must face is selecting one of the three realms or nations: Alsius, icy home of the empire of dwarves, Nordos and Utghars; Ignis the desert homeland of the necromancer dark elves, humans and moloks; or Syrtis, the forested peaceful lands where elves, half-elves and Alturians live. Once a nation is chosen, the player may create a character (up to 3 per account) and customize it by choosing its race, gender, hair style and color, stature, etc. After choosing a realm and race, players go on quests and gain levels in the first two areas. After they have gained sufficient levels, they go to the third area which is called the War Zone, though a specific level is not required. In the War Zone, players can work together in clans or parties to take over enemy forts and castles or to simply hunt down their enemies.

Community

Since the game originated from Argentina, there are a lot of players who speak Spanish but the game is slowly gaining momentum in the international community and there are already several players from countries all over the world. Depending on the time-zone, players may find other players that speak Spanish, English, French, German, Swedish, Polish and other languages.

One by-product of the game having a small development team, was that the developers were always in touch with the players, creating a symbiotic relationship that helped improve the game over time.

NGD Studios officially stated that they are planning on hiring a community manager that in turn will help create a volunteer's program, thus embracing the community and opening the opportunity for those who want to participate.

Current officially reported top 10 countries (in order), are Argentina, the US, Spain, Germany, Brazil, the UK, Chile, Canada, Mexico, and Poland.

They recently agreed on a contract with Gamigo, a German game company, to open a German-only server.

Realms

There are three realms a player can choose from. Each realm has 3 races (for a total of 9, although 3 of them are humans).

Alsius

The cold and icy landmark of Alsius, at the northern border of the world. Dwarves have come from afar and settled in the mountains, using their mechanical wisdom to establish a base into the hardened rock. There, they soon discovered inhabitants had already been living in the place. These humans were retiscient at first and engaged into a small war with the dwarves to realize that they were pretty similar minded. Nordos, as they called themselves, are now living together with the dwarves.

They both have built the great city Montsognir, which stands still in the everliving mountains, showing off the creator's pride and honor. After the war the dwarves discovered Utghars and created a peace alliance between the three races.

Ignis

, a barren wasteland full of volcanoes and underground fires. It was here where dark elves and humans were joined, by exchanging the meat of their dead in order to survive famine. Humans in Ignis were renamed to Esquelios, and alongside the dark elves they finally found the promised land and erected the city of Korr-Tabhar. The forces of the brotherhood are strong in magic thanks to their unique knowledge of necromancy.

Syrtis

The green forest of the Syrtis was never the same after the Great Exile and the division of the elves. Separated from their necromancer brethren, the loneliness struck the hearts of these magical creatures and got them closer to their Alturian neighbors. They adopted them into their society and now treat them as equals. This union made the rich elven culture flourish to new heights, making Syrtis the cultural capital of the world. Even after the long years, devotion for Lemorel the prophet still can be found in the hearts of elves and men alike, who have forgotten some of the magical ways, devoting themselves to archery and swordsmanship.

Character Gameplay

Regnum offers 3 playable classes in each realm, each with 2 subclasses, one offensive, one defensive, attainable on reaching a certain level in the base class and completed the required quests. However certain races cannot play a certain class. For example the humans race can play as a Mage, Archer, or Warrior, but the Dwarf class from Alsuis can only choose the Warrior or Archer class. Characters from different realms have virtually the same possibilities, although as each realm has different races available. Once a character chooses the selected subclass, they will not be allowed to choose the other one, making the choice permanent. There are 5 Attributes for the character, Attributes are the areas that define your character.

• Strength: Strength is an attribute that reflects your characters physical abilities. It influences attack power for Warriors, and it increases your maximum carry weight.
• Intelligence: Intelligence affects the recovery rate of your characters mana bar and the mage's spell values.
• Dexterity: Dexterity affects the agility and defense of your character. It also affects the attack strength of archery.
• Concentration: Concentration refers to the ability of a character to focus and ensure a direct hit on the target.
• Constitution: Constitution determines how much health your character has, how fast your health regenerates, and your resistance to knockdown, stun, and immobilizing spells.

There are 9 races available to choose from altogether, but is limited to 3 races per realm. The 3 main classes are the Warrior, Mage, and Archer.

Warrior

The warrior is a class that focuses on head to head melee combat. Warriors naturally have more Health than the other classes, and they have the most effective armor. The main attribute of the warrior is the Strength attribute, higher strength means more melee damage.

There are 4 skill branches in the warrior tree, (Note: Slashing, Blunt, and Piercing categories use their respective weapons listed) they are:

• Slashing: the slashing skill tree consists of skills based on weapons that deal slashing (Swords and Axes)
• Blunt: the blunt skill tree is made up of skills focusing on weapons dealing blunt damage (Hammers, Clubs, and Maces)
• Piercing: the piercing skill tree focuses on skills using piercing damage, (Spears and Rapiers)
• Tactics: in the tactics skill tree there are skills focusing on various combat maneuvers and techniques, these skills may be used with any choice of weaponry

The two subclasses for Warriors are Knight (Defensive) and Barbarian (Offensive). Knights focus on the ability to take high amounts of damage, and become the tank class, while Barbarians focus on giving massive amounts of damage.

Knight

• Vanguard: Defensive buffs for the Knight as well as Taunts
• Shields: Block chance increases and shield based area effect buffs for allies

Barbarian

• Warcries: area effect buffs for allies and area effects to harm enemies
• 2H mastery: Skills for use with a 2 handed weapon

Archer

The archer is a class that focuses on ranged combat using short and long bows. Archers are quicker than other classes and have higher evasion rate. The main attribute of the archer is the Dexterity attribute; higher Dexterity gives higher range damage and higher evasion rate.

There are 4 skill branches in the archer tree

• Tricks: Allows skills the do low damage but affect opponent's stats
• Evasion: Gives the player special abilities that increase dodge chance and damage absorption
• Short bow: Gives increased abilities with a short bow that may cause damage, affect the target's abilities, or increase the user's stats
• Long bow: Allows abilities with a long bow that have varying effects

Subclasses for Archers are the Marksman (Offensive) and the Hunter (Defensive). Marksmen have the ability to make precise shots that have temporarily increased statistics, while hunters have the ability to track as well as tame monsters for pets.

Marksman

• Aiming Mastery: Gives the marksman increased abilities when fighting
• Arrow Mastery: Focuses on using arrows that have special abilities, such as poison or extra damage

Hunter

• Tracking: Gives the Hunter the ability to detect monsters, allies, and enemies from other realms
• Pets: Allows the Hunter to tame beasts and prevent them from attacking

Mage

The mage is a class specialized in ranged combat, dealing damage and supporting allies.They use magical staffs as weapons, allowing them to attack at a distance without the use of ammo.The main attribute for mages is Intelligence, since it gives them more Mana. (Mana is used for casting spells)The mage, unlike the other classes, gets 3 more trees when choosing subclass.

There are 4 skill branches in the mage tree.

• Mental: Damage dealing magic and crowd control spells
• Mana Control: Spells that improve the spellcasting for the mage, as well as protective shields
• Staff Mastery: Gives the mage additional uses for his staff (damage bonuses and similar)
• Enchantments: Allows the mage to strengten his allies and weakening his enemies

Subclasses for Mages are the Warlock (Offensive) and the Conjurer (Defensive). Warlocks are specialized in damage dealing magic and debuffing the enemies, and conjurers specialize in protection magic, summoning and healing.

Warlock

• Arcaria: Damage dealing magic using the material forces of the world
• Necromancy: Magic used to weaken the enemy, and drain his health and mana
• Elements: Damage dealing and crowd control effects, using elemental forces, such as fire or ice

Conjurer

• Healing: Healing magic, also used to resurrect dead allies
• Sorcery: Protection magic, allowing the conjurer to shield himself and his allies
• Summoning: Allows the conjurer to summon various creatures to fight for him a limited time

Quests

There are over a hundred quests you can do in each realm. 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 x number of players from ignis or holding x bridge for a certain amount of time.

Commercial Model

Although initially the game was planned to require a subscription fee to play, NGD Studios decided to change the commercial model to what's generally known as Free-to-play with Premium content. This means that you can play for free as long as you want with no restrictions whatsoever, but for those who desire an enhanced experience, they can purchase premium content with real-life money.

NGD Studios ensures that premium features do not unbalance the game between paying and non-paying users in player versus player combat.

Premium Content

The following Premium items ingame as of now are:

• Mounts: Rent Horses
• Health regeneration potions
• Mana regeneration potions
• Experience bonus scrolls: with 50%, 100%, or 200% bonus
• Teleport scrolls: Teleports to a specified town
• Repair hammers: Personal method to repair armour and weapons
• Tintures: Color available as an add-on to armour
• Scroll of Mastery: Instant level 30
• Expand number of characters from 3 to 6 permanently

System Requirements

References

External links

Official Sites

* [http://www.regnumonline.com.ar/index.php?sec=0 Regnum Online (Spanish)]
* [http://www.regnumonline.com.ar/index.php?sec=0&l=1 Regnum Online (English)]
* [http://regnum.gamigo.de Regnum Online (German / Gamigo)]
* [http://www.regnumonline.com.ar/index.php?sec=0&l=2 Regnum Online (Portuguese)]
* [http://www.ngdstudios.com.ar NGD Studios Official Website (English)]
* [http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=419229 GameDev.Net Article]

Gaming Wiki

*

Interviews & Listings

* [http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/882/882184p1.html IGN Interview, Part 1]
* [http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/gameId/279/setView/overview Regnum entry in MMORPG]
* [http://www.onlinegamesinn.com/showgame/3126/Regnum%20Online Online GamesInn.com Article]

Official Fan-Sites

* [http://www.regnumzg.com.ar/ Regnum Warzone (Spanish)]
* [http://www.alsius.com.ar/ Alsius Empire (Spanish)]
* [http://www.syrtis.totalh.com/ Syrtis Republic (Spanish)]