Image: Alfred Bayle
The date that many gamers have been waiting for was finally announced on May 12 during a press briefing with executives from Electronics Extreme and ELITE Global Sourcing. Philippine Ragnarok Online will start Closed Beta testing by mid-June 2017.
Electronics Extreme managing director Kamphee “Ken” Piromward also revealed additional details with regards to how Ragnarok Online (RO) will be handled during its second run in the Philippine gaming market.
First and foremost, the game will be free-to-play. Players will also have access to an item mall. By topping up credits that can be bought from various outlets, players may purchase items that boost character experience gain and other such utilities. Costumes will also be available. God-like items will not be available for purchase to maintain in-game balance. Instead, all critical items can be gained within the game through monster drops and quests.
To address cheating, Piromward gave assurances that their partnership with EasyAntiCheat will help prevent the use of botting programs and other cheating software. In fact, the company is confident enough with their anti-cheating solution that they are allowing players to open up to five clients at a time. This means players will be able to run multiple accounts on one computer.
Additionally, game masters (GMs) will not have access to game items. This will address the issue of GMs giving rare items to their friends’ characters.
The game will initially release with classic 2-1 jobs and have a server rate of 1x. Account transfers from International Ragnarok Online (iRO) servers will not be available.
While this may be disappointing for long-time players that transferred their old Philippine RO (pRO) accounts to iRO, having players start from scratch should help build a more stable in-game economy. It will also help in building a community that’s similar to when pRO first launched back in 2003.
As for game mechanics, the re-launched pRO servers will employ a mix of classic and renewal versions which will be optimized in an attempt to enhance gaming experience.
Image: Alfred Bayle
Guild Wars and alliances will also be available upon launch.
Job class updates (Class 2-2) will go live within six months after the launch of pRO servers. High Class 1-2 character jobs will be made available within a year or two.
On streaming, Electronics Extreme opted to not include an in-game streaming feature. Piromward believes that 3rd party streaming software is better and would suffice for game streamers.
To help promote engagement, Electronics Extreme have laid out plans for localized events that will be done nationwide.
Finally, access to the game will not be IP restricted. This means that old pRO players that have gone overseas will still be able to play with friends in the Philippines.
Image: Alfred Bayle
Registration for the Closed Beta testing is now available at the Philippine Ragnarok Online official website. According to Piromward, there is no limit to the number of registrations. Alfred Bayle/JB