Sunday, August 19, 2007
Main features
Ragnarok Online 2 introduces many new features for MMOs. This section outlines the currently known main features of RO2. Not all game features have been announced yet.
Specialty Job system
This System allows a character to use skills from other classes. Special abilities can be gained by leveling a character's job class, giving them the ability to create useful and original class combinations, such as battle mages and wares-selling thieves.
For example, when a Swordsman learns Bash Specialty, he can equip this ability when he changes into another class, such as an Enchanter. He can now use the ability without being a Swordsman. Specialty skills learned this way have no real limitations, except for the fact that they cannot be upgraded while the character is not in the class in which the skill belongs. In this example, in order to upgrade the skill, the Enchanter must change back into a Swordsman, level up the Bash ability, before changing back to an Enchanter.
A bonus feature of this system is that a class can now equip class-specific gear that is normally limited to a different class. For example, Swordsmen have the "Long Sword Specialty." When equipped on an Enchanter, he/she can use Long Swords, where usually Enchanters could not.
There is a limit to how many special abilities one can employ at a time, represented by 16 blocks in a 4x4 box. Some skills may take up to 3 blocks, however, thus leaving less room for other abilities. Characters start with fewer than 16 blocks, but will gradually gain additional blocks as he/she levels, eventually gaining access to the full 4x4, 16-slot box.
Complex Job Change system
The first Ragnarok Online featured a unique leveling system in which a character's base level (how strong the character was) and job level (how skilled the character was at his job) were leveled separately. However, once a job was chosen, it could not be changed, so this could be considered a limitation to a player's freedom within the game. The Complex Job Change System, available only to Normans, will change this.
The Complex Job Change system will allow a Norman to change his job at any time. This system was devised so that a player can experience all different classes (s)he wishes to without having to create a new character for a specific class. There are certain small requirements one must fulfill in order to change his job, though these requirements are currently unknown. A character will even be able to change from secondary classes (i.e., a priest) to first level classes (i.e., an acolyte) and vice versa.
Though the character's base level stays the same, changing a character's class will reset the job level back to 1. For example, a character is a job level 25 swordsman and changes into an enchanter. Their job level is reset to level 1 while they are an enchanter, but if they decide to change the character back to a swordsman, their job level will go back to level 25. All skills, stats and bonuses from the character's swordsman job will be saved in the event that they decide to go back to that class again.
This system presumably presents a bit of a problem. In the first RO, one would choose stat points based on their class - if a character was a swordsman, it would be a good idea to place all of their stat points into Strength and Vitality. However, if they decide to change their strength/vitality-based swordsman into a mage, these stats would be fairly useless to a magician (particularly strength). In RO2, this problem is fixed by the fact that stats are controlled by the class a player currently playing. In the original RO, the ratio of stats based on where one places stat points versus stat points based on the class one plays was 9:1. In RO2, this ratio is 2:5, meaning 3/5 of one's stats will be controlled by the class they play.
Lastly, it's been stated that in RO2, a variety of stats will be needed in order to play a class well, as opposed to setting all the stat points into two or three stats. This provides yet another advantage to those who decide to change their character's class frequently.
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