Runes of Magic was successfully released over a year ago, and as new content continues to appear, we thought it was time to catch up with the team. Now Chapter III has been unveiled to players, Julien Crevits, Community Manager for the game, explains how the title continues to naturally evolve.

Could you begin by giving our readers an insight into the class system?

That’s a tough one.

Runes of Magic features a unique dual class system. You can choose a primary class for your character and combine it with a secondary class. There are a total of eight classes and each race can access six of them, two being race-exclusive. The result is a deep player experience: the possibilities are numerous; every combination is interesting and different enough to be tested.

Players can choose their classes among the traditional archetypes of RPG: the Warrior uses his battle rage to lure opponents out of their reserves using special attack techniques which increase their power, Scouts are masters of ranged combat letting them exploit their special abilities in elaborate attacks using longbows and crossbows, Rogues are specialists in particular types of physical damage like close-combat or weapons throwing, and Mages use fire and lightning in their attacks and deliver the maximum amount of magical damage.

Human characters can also play Priests which don’t simply increase defense, health points and other values of their companions, but also have the power to bring fallen comrades back to life or Knights who fight very effectively and turn their enemies’ hate on themselves in order to protect the group.

Elven characters can choose to become Druids who must decide whether they wish to dedicate their powers to a healing and supportive role, or to destroying their enemies. Wardens can summon nature spirits that accompany them through the forests and protect them during combat

Every player can create their own character and gear through a crafting system which will help them create an outfit with unique characteristics. Each dual class combination produces its own powerful elite skills which can influence players’ experience of the game in many ways. And since players are free to switch primary and secondary class, adventurer are capable to cope with all the challenges they will face during their journey.

Can you tell us about the developer’s, Runewaker, and how they began working on Runes of Magic? When the team was in the conceptual stages of creating the game, what was their vision?

Runewaker was founded in Taiwan in 2004. The studio developers were all big fans of MMOs but were never entirely satisfied with the games available. So they all sat down together, refined the recipe for MMOs, added their own ingredients – effectively creating the best game in their eyes – and this is how Runes of Magic was born, from pure passion and the will to create the perfect MMO.

The result of their work – Runes of Magic - has been available to play for more than a year now and has attracted more than 3.5 million players in the western territories. Moreover, thousands of new players start the Runes of Magic experience every day.

The MMO genre is an overcrowded one. With many free-to-play titles available at the click of a button, what does Runes of Magic offer that is unique?

I think it is not the fact that Runes of Magic is a free-to-play game, but that it is a high quality game explains its success. And this is what allows us to attract and keep our players.

As opposed to the free-to-play-model chosen by many other publishers, you are able to play Runes of Magic without paying anything for it. No need to go to the item shop to move up levels and there are no powerful weapons or armors to buy there either. Everything can be achieved just by playing the game and investing a little time. The item shop is only there to offer convenience functions and supportive or decorative items. What can be more captivating than a good game you can really play for free?

Can you summarise some of the new content in Chapter III for our readers?

The old kingdom of Dalanis, a realm of the new continent of Zandorya, lies in chaos and turmoil with plotters scheming behind the throne of the child king Callaway. Little remains of the old glory of the ruling dynasty from the time of the legendary King Kalume.

In total desperation, the people long for the return of the old heroes. So it is down to all brave adventurers to support the young king and bring order to the chaos, becoming the new heroes of Zandorya.

Personally, after a few weeks wandering around on this continent, I can’t wait to find out answers to questions such as who is behind all this trouble or who is responsible for the death of Callaway’s father, Motwas. Moreover, there are still new zones to discover on this new continent and we can look forward to more captivating landscapes like the Valley of Glory for instance.

Along with the new and epic continent we have introduced massive siege wars, new guild quests and structures, and of course additional dungeons, hundreds of quests and challenging public encounters. In the upcoming patch we will also introduce things like a new pet system and the marriage system. And this is not the end of Chapter III: Until the release of Chapter IV we are introducing new content on a regular monthly base.

What was the objective when creating this update? Have the players had any say in the extra content?

The objective of every expansion of Runes of Magic is to offer a logical continuation to the adventures in the world of Taborea. The first chapter explained the rise of the Demon Lord, we ended the second one offering players the possibility to defeat him after they managed to get some help from the Elves.

“The Elder Kingdoms”, the third chapter of Runes of Magic, explores a totally new part of our fantasy universe with Zandorya, a long forgotten continent torn by power struggles between the young King Callaway and opposing would-be usurpers.

As a player you are invited to shape the kingdom’s future by answering the call of the King Callaway who is searching for heroes strong enough to help him defend his throne.

When it comes to its general features, the team of Runes of Magic does its best in meeting players’ requests. Our main guideline for the qualities of a good game is to consider and incorporate the feedback of our players. The game is designed for them, to satisfy their desires and go beyond their expectations.

For example, if a large majority of players asks for a particular feature we try our best to add it: it was the case, for instance, for the wedding system, which led to hundreds of posts on the boards discussing its functions.

Will new users be able to access the added content comfortably, or do they need to improve their level before travelling to Zandorya?

New users who just embark on their Runes of Magic journey now, will benefit from the fact that they can look forward to countless adventures and massive content waiting for them.

I wouldn’t say that newcomers face any kind of handicap just because they have just started and are not able to visit the newest instances or travel through Zandorya. That content is for those who have the levels and skills to survive in these areas. No doubt the newcomers will need to face many challenges and be victorious in many fights, before they will reach these new areas.

Our new users benefit from a range of new features such as the monster cards, the upcoming pet system, two-player mounts and much more added through the updates. We definitely want them to be available for as many players as we can right from the start. So it’s not compulsory for a player to be high level to enjoy the content of our updates.

Do you feel ‘grinding’ is a problem in Runes of Magic, or do the quests naturally flow?

Runes of Magic is definitely not a ‘grinder’ game. All the quests are integrated in a comprehensive storyline. Sometimes, they ask you to eliminate a bunch of foes to progress through the game, as in every single MMORPG, but the key is that in Runes of Magic you never do anything without a story-driven purpose.

With this in mind, we designed a brand new type of quests for Chapter III which require players to pay close attention to the quest log to find the clues to solve them.

Overall, we now have more than 2,700 quests in the game, lots of them being linked to epic quest lines which end with players facing some of Taborea’s most notorious villains. One large quest line will allow you to enter the ‘Heart of the Ocean’ or the quests linked to water spirits which will grant you an access to the ‘Cave of the Water Dragon’.

I won’t give much away about the most interesting ones because I don’t want to spoil too many of our cool new quests. But I can confess that I spent entire evenings on some of the new epic quest lines just to find out how they will end.

Huge thanks to Julien for taking time to answer our questions.