Conquer Online

Infobox VG| title = Conquer Online


developer = TQ Digital Entertainment
publisher = NetDragon WebSoft Inc
version = 2.0 (Patch 5068)
released = November 14, 2004
genre = MMORPG
modes = Multiplayer
platforms = Windows
media = Download & CD
requirements =
*Intel Pentium III 800 MHz equiv. CPU
*128 MB RAM
*16 MB or higher 3D graphics card such as GeForce 2 or better
*2.0 GB hard drive space
*DirectX 8.1, Internet connection of at least 56 kbit/s
input = Mouse & Keyboard

"Conquer Online" is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, developed by TQ Digital Entertainment. The game is available in English, Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish. The game landscape is a two dimensional rendition of mythical China with three dimensional characters. The game has a straightforward combat-focused play style, incorporating common elements of many MMORPGs such as wealth, fame and character development.In the game, players can choose from four distinct classes [Trojan, Archer, Taoist and Warrior] , with the Taoist branching off into two sub-classes after level 40 promotion [Fire and Water] , participate in server-wide battles, and enjoy player killing at leisure. Downloading and playing Conquer Online is free, with funds provided by an item shop. The operators also sell installation CDs for those who cannot download, or would like to own a hard copy of, the game.

Gameplay

Conquer Online involves many typical MMORPG features, such as PvP, quests and guilds [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/systempage/introduction.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] .The entire Conquer Online, save for a few cities, like Twin City, allows for unrestricted player-killing. A player usually accumulates 10 "PK points" for killing another player. However, killing an enemy guild member will result in only three points. Killing an enemy that is on your enemy list [they have killed you before] will result in only five points. These points give in-game NPCs [guards] reason to attack and kill the offending player. When a player kills or hits another player they will receive a flashing blue tag to warn other players of the action. PK points slowly decrease over time (10 points an hour, or 1 point every 6 minutes), even upon death. [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/guides/pkint.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] A player who has accumulated over 30 points will have a red-colored name tag and has the chance to lose equipment when killed by another player and lose items in their inventory. However, non-equipped items can be lost by any sort of death. A player with 100 PK points or more will have a black-colored name tag, and will always drop at least one piece of equipment and be sent to the in game jail, if they are killed by another player or NPC. Characters with locked items can not lose them apon death. Characters with more than 1000 PK Points cannot kill those with less than 30.

Guilds and Guild Wars

Conquer Online will allow players to start their own guild for 1,000,000 silvers [the in-game currency] once they reach level 90. Joining a guild is free and accessible to players at all levels. Each guild is controlled by a guild leader and a maximum of five deputy leaders. Additionally, a guild can have "branches", each with its own manager. Guilds are often a place for players to meet and receive help, where guild funds compensate a player for a portion of the experience lost after being killed by another player. To leave a guild, a players donation must exceed 20,000 silvers to the fund. They may also be ejected by the guild leader [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/guild1.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] .

Another feature of Conquer Online is the weekly server-wide guild war. Each guild may choose to attend the war in an attempt to capture the guild pole from the guild which currently controls it. The attacking guild(s) must storm a castle by taking down one of two gates to get in, then deplete the hit points of the guild pole. When the poles life bar is empty, whichever guild dealt the most damage to the pole gains control over the castle, and must protect the doors and pole until the end of the guild war period. Once the war has ended, the guild which last owned the pole wins and some benefits are granted to the reigning guild. The guild controlling the pole can enter and exit through the gate and leaders of the guild may open the gate at will [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/quests/guildwar.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] .

Combat and Leveling

Like most MMORPG games, the Conquer Online system of leveling is through the gain of experience points. These are gained by attacking monsters throughout the game land. After a certain amount gained, the player will gain a level, allowing them to become more powerful. The amount of experience points needed increases with each level gained, to a maximum level of 137. [http://article.91.com/englishnews/c/2007_8/N2007811054311038.sHtml]

A notable feature of Conquer Online is that when a player reaches the upper limits from 120 onwards [level 110 for water taoists] , they may choose to be 'reborn', essentially starting again from level 15 [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/quests/q_reborn.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] . More skills are awarded to the player who is reborn [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/reborn/rebornadv.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] . More information is available from the Conquer Online website [see below]

The game system in Conquer Online has been designed to encourage higher leveled players to assist beginners in starting out. The higher players is rewarded for this assistance by gaining a form of currency called 'virtue points' [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/guides/virtuepoints.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] - or VPs - which can be exchanged for items from an NPC. Furthermore, when the newer player collects the silvers which drops from the mobs, the higher player receives a small portion of this. Although all players can help others level, only a player above level 70 powerleveling another character at least 20 levels lower than himself can receive Virtue Points (VP) for his efforts. For each level the beginner gains, the team leader who meets the required conditions will receive a set amount of virtue points.

The amount of virtue points gained varies according to the level of the beginner — a higher level gives more VP, since it takes more time to achieve the next level. Virtue points are not gained if the person being powerleveled is above level 70. While players may receive experience points by being powerleveled, they do not receive any skills or weapon proficiency.

Mentors & Apprentices

Recently there was an update for mentor's and apprentice's, this allows players to get a mentor (Higher level player) to help them with potency, thus making the player stronger. The mentor is rewarded by his apprentices efforts in leveling, blessing, or getting + stones. If the apprentice gets enough Exp, + stones or blessing then the mentor gets a fraction of what the apprentice received.

The potency of the mentor determines the potency of the apprentice in terms, Example: If a level 130 2nd Rebirth player with 250 is the mentor to a level 118 non-Reborn player with potency of 176 the level 118 gets 25 extra potency.

Characters

Warrior:Warriors are the only class that can use a shield(besides being Reborn in which case your able to use a shield 70 or below except tao) which leaves them with a higher defense, although only a single handed weapon can be used while holding a shield. This class is commonly used for starters since they have a natural high defense and are the easiest class to level up since they level up faster. They also have the powerful Superman skill, which means for a short period of time their attack is increased 10 times on mobs, and 2 times on players.

Trojan:Trojans are known for their skills to be the only ones who can use dual single handed weapons. Meaning they can hold a single handed weapon in each hand. Trojans also have a high hit point (HP) count but their defenses are slightly lower than a Warrior's. Several skills owned by this class include: Hercules: An attack that hits enemies in a radius. Cyclone: A XP skill which increases their movement and attack speed for a time that can be increased for every kill the user gets while using Cyclone. Golem; a skill which transforms the user into a slow but powerful machine. Trojans can also use any weapon except for back swords, and bow and arrows.

Archers:One of the best characters of all the classes and probably the most popular. Archers are known for their high agility allowing them to escape physical damage since they have such low defense. They are also known to be the most efficient at killing mobs of monsters at the same time very easily. Archers are always accurate and never miss but they consume arrows rapidly. Archers are the only ones who have the XP skill fly, which gives the user a great advantage because while flying they do not have to fear physical damage since monsters can't damage them. Note that Magical attacks can still be used to attack the Archer.

Taoists:Taoists are (unless the person reallotted there points and are able to use specific spells. Or rebirth spells that carry over) the only ones in the game that can use magic and can attack from a distance with various magical attacks rather then melee. Taoists also have low defense and are the only class in the game that uses the back sword. Back swords are very low in terms of physical attack but they assist the Taoist's magical attack power in terms of damage. When a Taoist reaches level 40 they have a choice of either choosing be a Water Taoist or a Fire Taoist. Fire Taoists are more offensive in terms of spells. They are able to wipe out large quantities of monsters or players. Their spells are also more powerful whereas a Water Taoist can cast support spells, revive ghosts, heal themselves and others, making them very useful in a Guild War.

Ninja:TQ Digital Entertainment(The developer of the game),is currently working on a new class called Ninja.

Quests

Quests are a part of the Conquer Online game but they do not feature as prominently as in other MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft.

Quests are divided into categories based on a character's level and may help a player earn rare items, such as gems and weapons.

For some quests, the player is rewarded with a prize. Others reward the player with glory.

There is also a quest that allows the character to "rebirth" into a new class with an extra abilities. When a player gets to level 120+, they have the option of reborning. When a player reborns, they start back at level 15 and all of their equipment is at a low level. Additionally, upon reaching level 70, reborn players can wear equipment of any class in the game as long as the item is level 70 or lower. The player must obtain the required level to do this quest, and can rebirth currently up to two times.

Battle Power

A recent addition to the Conquer Online gameplay is the system of "Battle Power(Previously Potency)". This system assigns each player a number which is calculated from various factors. The level of the character, how many times they have done the "rebirth" process and the general overall quality of their equipment all relate to this score. [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/guides/battle.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ]

Battle Power gives many advantages to the player holding it. One advantage is that the damage received from attacking players is reduced and capped and attacks against players with lower potency will inflict full damage. Another advantage is an increased gain in experience points from mobs that provide it.In a PvP duel, the character with higher battle power wins nine out of ten times.

For example, if a player is level 80, he or she will gain 80% more experience every time they hit a monster if they have no items above 'normal' quality equipped. [ [http://co.91.com/guide/guides/battle.shtml Conquer Online - Guide - Potency - co.91.com ] ] .

Calculating Battle Power:The Battle Power is calculated on the basis of six factors.

See the following example for details:

Characters

Characters in Conquer Online serve as the human players avatar. The game allows one character per server per user account, and the player may choose between four distinct classes: the archer, the trojan [a melee fighter] , the taoist [a magic wielding class] and a warrior [a high defense, melee class] . Furthermore, the taoist class is split into two paths with the 'water taoist' focused on being a support/healer class while the 'fire taoist' is a magic based damage class. Conquer Online has also confirmed a brand new class the Ninja. [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/quests/quests.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ]

Each of these classes have their own unique advantages and disadvantages.

Battle Skills

Only certain classes have access to certain skills.
*Combat skills - these inflict direct damage to an enemy or to support friendly targets.
*Attribute skills - these change a characters attributes in some way, such as increasing attack or defense. Skills are powered through mana, stamina, or XP points [which are not similar to experience points] .
*XP skills - these skills are powerful and use the XP gauge that builds up over time. They can only be used once the gauge is full. Using these skills empties the gauge. It also empties after around 20 seconds if not used.

Combat skills are different for each class. The taoist has access to magical spells [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/skills/m_firetao.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] , for example, whereas the melee classes will have other direct damage attacks [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/skills/m_trojan.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] .

Appearance

As in many MMORPGs, players can customize the appearance of their character [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/guides/customize.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] . A player may choose the characters gender, name, hair style/colour and body size [a 'small' size resembling a child form, and a 'large' size resembling an adult] . Also, depending on the characters chosen class, their body armour and equippable items are distinct from the other classes [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/items/items.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] . The image on the left demonstrates the appearance of the archer character with customization.

Some items, however, are wearable by all classes and allow further customization of the character such as earrings which allow visibility of the avatars hair [as opposed to a hat or cap which does not]

The player also has the option to wear garmets. These are clothes available to all classes that can be worn over the armor. They often change a characters hair style and can be bought with 'Conquer Points' [see Economy section, below] from an NPC in the market, or from other players. Most are available for both genders, whilst a select few are strictly for females.

Weapons

There are three categories of weapons: one-handed, two-handed and other(includes boxing for all classes and shield for warrior. One-handed weapons include clubs, daggers, axes, swords, hammers, hooks, whips, back swords, scepters, blades, and other (for flowers and firesticks); two-handed weapons include pole axes, spears, wands, halberds, glaives, bows, longhammers, and pickaxes. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. After one has achieved level 120, the requirement to upgrade weapons is one dragonball. An example of this being a level 120 sword would need one dragonball to become level 121.

Upgrading Equipment

While armors color can be changed, there is normally only one type of armor that can be worn for each class and level. After first or second rebirth, level 70 characters can also use any equipment that is level 70 or below, regardless of character-class requirements.

Equipment has a range of quality levels - from lowest to highest, they are Normal, Refined, Unique, Elite, and Super. Equipment may be upgraded using either DragonBalls to increase the item's quality, or Meteors to increase the item's required level [which also makes the item stronger] . When upgrading an item via the DragonBall method, it becomes harder to accomplish the further up in the scale the item is.

'Fixed' items have the most powerful properties of any type of item [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/items/fixed.shtml Conquer Online- co.91.com ] ] but are limited to level 52 or lower, and cannot be upgraded in any way. These items cannot be created; they are only found when dropped by aide or messenger type monsters.

An item may also be composed, adding "+#" to the item's name, where # is a number between 1 and 12, inclusive. [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/guides/refineeqip.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] This number, similar to the quality levels, gives the item extra stats, making it more powerful. [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/compose.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ]

Gems can be mined or dropped by slain monsters, and are used to add an effect to an item such as increased damage, weapon proficiency, or overall experience gain [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/items/gems.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] . Gems are also needed for players to be reborn. To insert a gem into an item, it must have a socket; there are a maximum of two sockets per piece of equipment. Additionally, items can be blessed or enchanted, which decreases damage received or increases a player's health. There are 8 gems: Dragon, Moon, Violet, Kylin, Fury, Tortoise, Phoenix, and Rainbow.

An item may also be blessed with the help of Super Tortoise Gems, in order to award the character by subtracting battle damage when in combat. A single blessed item may relieve up to 7 percent of damage taken.

Gems are required for enchantment. [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/guides/enchanted.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] The amount of health is randomly selected - the higher quality gem, the high chance of getting a high enchant. A player may obtain up to 255 additional health per item. Gems come in three qualities: normal, refined, and super. The effect of the gem depends on the quality, with normal being the lowest and super the highest. Usually, the higher the gem's quality, the more expensive it is.

Economy

Conquer Online has a quickly-changing market and the inflation rate and prices of items can vary. As the population of high-level characters increases, the prices of certain low-level items decrease. However, meteors and DragonBalls [rare and useful items] are in constant demand. Conquer Online is somewhat unique to other MMORPG's in the way that lower leveled equipment are generally more expensive than higher leveled. This is because lower level items are generally easier to upgrade using DragonBalls. Conquer Online has a free market system [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/guides/market.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] which allows players to buy and sell items through market stalls in a special non-PK market map. The meteor and DragonBall prices often change rapidly due to their essential role in the game. Gems can also sell for a large amount of silvers or CPs 'Conquer Points'. All of these items may also be traded between players for a value discussed between the two parties conducting the trade. [ [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/guides/tradeint.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ]

A newer economy system has been patched into the game. The rare dragonball item may be exchanged for a currency known as 'Conquer Points' with one dragonball equating to 215 points [http://www.conqueronline.com/guide/guides/cpshop.shtml Conquer Online - co.91.com ] ] . Players may use these points to purchase premium and exclusive items from the newly installed 'item mall' or from other players. The item mall within the game only accepts 'Conquer Points' as currency, and it offers the rarest game items in an unlimited quantity, bounded only by the amount of points a player has.

The latest installment to the games economy is one for those who mainly purchase dragonballs via the website. This is the "VIP area". Players can access this special area after purchasing "Gods blessing" from players or the "Item Mall". This new shop contains the rarest of gems and special "+7 and +8" stones at the expense of a few thousand "Conquer Points"

The recent patches (since the inclusion of the Lottery, the Conquer Point system, and other features) have caused tons of anger towards TQ. These patches are becoming more and more frequent and dramatically changed the economy (prices of DragonBalls) of the game. Many people that had been working hard to attain their items or character level could be easily beaten by someone who only bought a few packs of Dragonballs. This caused mass upset by all the players that had been playing for years and were devastated by the changes. There were complaints about how the company has made Conquer 2.0 more similar to their other games such as Eudemons. As a result, many veteran players quit the game, which could be seen through the constant merging of the servers. Fueled by anger, those players have openly expressed their discontent through the forums. However, many of those threads have been closed by moderators. Many players feel that without buying Dragonballs, they are hugely disadvantaged within the game and feel that the new patches are just a an exploit to poorer players.

External links

* [http://co.91.com/ The official US "Conquer Online" website]
* [http://mmohub.org/2008/conquer-online "Conquer Online" Review on MMOHub.org]
* [http://www.gameogre.com/conqueronline.htm Gameogre review]
* [http://bbs.co.91.com/ The official "Conquer Online" Forums]
* [http://conquer.mmosite.com/ "Conquer Online" English fansite]

Footnotes