Metal Reaper Online (Part Five)

Additional Need to Knows

• Weapon Skills
  
  
  
  At times, while out hunting mobs, one may come across "peculiar" weapons (with skills) such as that shown above. These skills (on the weapon) are known as "Finishing Skills".
  
  The way these work is that, when you attack mobs continuously (with the weapon), you will gradually build up some kind of a "rage indicator". And as you build it up, the weapon skill's level will also tick upwards in steps, from Level 1 to 3, slowly (along with an increase in its "potency" or damage potential).
  
  
  
  To let it rip, simply point your cursor at your intended spot and press "F" to target that area with the weapon skill.
  
  Upon using the weapon skill, your rage indicator will be reset and you will have to build it up all over again. Likewise, failure to "link up" your attacks in time will also cause you to lose all of your rage (that was built up).
  

  Pity though, I've only encountered like two types of these weapon skills...so there doesn't seem to be much variety out there...to look forward to. Hopefully more will be implemented in the future.

• Moonstones
  
  Moonstones are actually something that you get (with a small chance) when you disassemble high rare and above items.
  

  More specifically, you get those "Moonstone's Fragments" first (from the disassemble process). Then you open them up (right-click) to get a random-colored moonstone of the same level as indicated (on the fragment).

  There are, as far as I know, three colored versions of these moonstones. Red, Blue and Gold.
  
  
  
  Red moonstones provide EVA and HP bonuses. Blue moonstones provide DEF and SD bonuses while gold ones offer ATTK and Finisher Charge Increase.
  

  The higher the level of the moonstone, the stronger the effects it will provide.

• Moonstone Merge
  Moonstone merge is actually just a quick and dirty way (that is offered by the game) for us players to obtain higher level moonstones...without having to work too hard at disassembling tons of items.
  
  
  
  So long as you have a pile of moonstones lying around, you can use this system (right click on the moonstones) to "merge" two moonstones (of the same level and color) into one that's of one level higher.
  

  For instance, two Level 2 moonstones can be combined to form one Level 3 moonstone.

• Moonstone Insert
  
  To make use of a moonstone, you will need to visit a town hub and look for a "Moonstone Expert" (refer above) to insert the stone into your equipment (top, bottom, gloves or shoes).
  
  The thing to note here is that each piece of equipment will have three slots, one "A", one "B" and one "C". Slot A only accepts "gold moonstones", Slot B only takes in "red moonstones" while "blue moonstones" goes into Slot C only.
  
  
  
  From then onwards, its only a matter of which piece of equipment...that the moonstone's going into...to determine what bonus it will apply. As simple as ABC (no pun intended).
  

  Though its not possible to remove an already inserted moonstone, I do believe that your still able to replace it with a "higher level" one.

Metal Reaper Online Video Clips

Previous: MRO (Part Four)

Read more »

Posted in: Metal Reaper Online

Metal Reaper Online (Part Four)

Gameplay (Continued)
Character Progression Related
In terms of character progression related gameplay, I've found that there's not too many eye-catching features found in this game.

As far as I can see, there's your typical focus on equipment upgrades, skill learning and perhaps attainment of titles (but I wonder if you can call that a "progression" though).

• Equipment Focused
  The following are screenshots of my character's info or status window (when fully equipped and naked).
  
  As you can see, there's none of those "Strength", "Agility", "Intelligence", "Dexterity" and other whatnot parameters, that you can usually find in most MMO games, is there? Furthermore, as soon as I've unequipped all of my armor and weapons, you can immediately see a drop in most of my character's stats.
  
  Yup, essentially, the game more or less deals purely with equipment...and...the stronger your equips, the more powerful your character then becomes (minus the branch factor of course).
  

  So what then constitutes as "strong equips"?

  Well...apart from the "level" criteria (which is a given), there's also the "rarity" aspect. And rarity...comes in the form of "Common", "Rare", "High Rare", "Super Rare" to "Legendary".
  
  
  
  Naturally, you will have to note that with the accompanying rarity increase, the "number" of bonuses that you MIGHT find on the item also increases correspondingly. As such, its pretty much safe to say that the higher the "level" and "rarity", the more powerful the item will be.
  

  Bonuses that directly affect the existing stats of an item are automatically factored into it...so much so that what you see is what you get. For instance, the "ATTK + 26" bonus is already counted into the "Min-Max Damage" shown on the HK VP70 rare handgun.

  
  
  Other than that, an "attractive" alternative would be "Set Items"...which are also pretty "powerful". However, that is only if you can assemble the entire set (to harness its benefits).
  
  Sadly though, that is probably (just about) the hardest part of it all...as its practically down to "Lady Luck" in determining what you might loot. Nevertheless, that's all you can do I guess...to keep on hunting out in the sectors (with monsters) and/or the instance dungeons (regardless).
  

  But I do believe that your chances of getting something "nice" will be higher if you hunt out in the "high-risk" sectors rather than in the "low-risk" ones (in comparison with your character's level).

• Branch Skills
  Recalling the Class Selection which I've previously talked about, another aspect that is highly related to character progression is the raising of your branch related skills.
  
  
  
  And as far as this goes, regardless of whichever branch you've picked, each character is apparently only going to be given 1 skill point (SP) per level up.
  
  With this limited amount of skill points, the player will then have to make their own choice with regards to which branch skills to pick up, which to max and whether it will be some passive or an active skill.
  

  Passives are marked with a "P" at the top left corner of the skill while actives usually have a cooldown and some "STA" (kind of like MP in typical MMOs) requirement to use.

  Thankfully though, each of the skills appear to be independent of each other and are not needed in the learning of "higher" skills (you'll just need to be of the right character level).
  
• Achievements
  
  
  
  Achievements in Metal Reaper Online function quite similar to "Titles" found in Dragon Nest and "Medals" in Dragonica.
  
  By performing acts to satisfy the condition(s) of the achievement, you will be rewarded with a title that can be worn or attached to your character.
  
  If the title has an accompanying "benefit" or "bonus", you will be bestowed with it accordingly (when you use it). But if it has none, then its merely a "cosmetic" title with not much use in particular (except for showing off, I guess).
  

Crafting
At around character level 10, players get introduced into the crafting scene in Metal Reaper Online.

And as far as this is concerned, you will be given a chance to pick ONE out of the four crafting "professions" available.

• Ringring - In charge of making pistols, rifles, shotguns and sniper rifles.
  
• Rei Chen - In charge of making rocket launchers, flamethrowers, heavy machine guns and chainsaws.
  
• Ranber - In charge of making armors (top, bottom and plates).
  
• Kuron - In charge of making armors (helmet, gloves and shoes).
  

Once you've made your choice, you will then be able to access some sort of "crafting interface" (like as shown above) by interacting with your "mentor" again. Additionally, you will also obtain some skill progress "indicator" in your "Skill Management" window (press "K" and look under "Tech Manual").

From then onwards, its just a simple matter of assembling the "right ingredients" to craft what you need. And to do this, just hover over the ingredients to find out how you can obtain them.

But from what I can tell, ways to get them include the disassembling of items (of various rarity), looting from monsters (found in missions) and as rewards for participating in special events.

Lastly, once you've crafted enough of them (to skill up), you will then be granted further access to more stuff (to craft) as well as better ones. Its a pretty linear and simple system to be quite honest.

Do note that upon accepting a crafting profession, the player will no longer be able to "switch" to another one...that is unless they are willing to spend some real life money to purchase some "item" sold in the "cash shop" or "item mall" (that will erase their existing choice).

Previous: MRO (Part Three)

Next: MRO (Part Five)

Read more »

Posted in: Metal Reaper Online

Metal Reaper Online (Part Three)

Gameplay
As far as gameplay is concerned, Metal Reaper Online actually doesn't stray too far off from typical shooters or even (for that matter) MMO games in general.

There's your usual assortment of quests, instanced dungeons and crafting of items.

Apart from that, nothing too out of the ordinary or noteworthy to speak of. And for a mere client filesize of 1.1 GB, it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise anyway.

Quests

Quests found in the game mostly comes in two forms. There's the main storyline (in green) and there's the side quests (in yellow).

And just like all others, the general questing flow still revolves around following the main storyline plot (from sector to sector) and clearing the side quests (in each sector) while your at it.

However, putting the side quests aside (which mostly involves killing X of X or something similar), I somehow felt that the main storyline quest kind of lacked a sense of "coherence" to it.

Initially, the game kicked you off with a simple cutscene addressing on the issues surrounding the game's world and about the overall theme of the game.

Upon finishing with that, the story then leads you on into the "Tutorial" scene where your just another "rookie" in a boot camp...trying to get the hang of things.

Suddenly, the enemy nation, "Nix", mounts a massive attack upon the boot camp, puts everything into disarray and you find yourself in a messy situation where you either fight or die.

Being swarmed and eventually overwhelmed, your dying commander sends you off...fleeing...towards the nearest friendly base of operations, "Falorn Outpost".

Nice storyline? Yea...that's what I thought too. It even had a nice sense of urgency to it as well.

But sadly, that's as far as it goes.

Ever since reaching Falorn Outpost, that very sense of urgency vanished all of a sudden. Maybe the enemy nation's massive army ceased their invasion, got killed by aliens, got spirited away or perhaps I've missed something vital, who knows?

The point is that I was no longer getting that feeling where I'm having a ton of enemies hot on my heels.

Anyway, after getting to that point, everything just sort of wound down and things even got to a point where I found myself leisurely chasing after a bunch of kidnappers instead.

Apart from that, not much else to complain about, I guess.

Missions
Quite like Kingdom Under Fire II (that I've just recently went over), the instanced dungeons found in Metal Reaper Online also comes in the form of "Missions".

Spread throughout the various sectors lies NPCs (such as that shown above) marked with a "target board" icon (on the mini map). Through these, you will be able to access some sort of an interface that allows you to enter "instanced dungeons" related to that sector.

Once in, you will be served with the usual assortment of "small fry" and a final "boss"...which upon killing, given a grade and some appropriate reward.

The important thing to note here though...is that apart from having to meet the mission's pollution resistance requirement (to enter), you will also need to spend a certain amount of "mission points" as well.

The number of mission points that you have can be found at the bottom right corner of your game interface, has a capacity of twice your character's level and refreshes itself daily and/or whenever you level up.

Bounty Quests

Also lying around in the sectors are interactable billboards such as the one shown above.

However, access to them will only be granted to you at character level 19 though.

Upon accessing them, you will be shown the billboard with a list of bounties and their individual short descriptions (if you hover your cursor over them).

From that point forth, all you need is to accept any one of the bounties...to start the chase (provided that you've cleared its level requirement that is).

Once accepted, head on over to the sector indicated and search for a black flag (like as shown above). The location of this flag will be indicated on your mini-map as well...in the form of a "wanted poster-like" icon.

Interact with the flag to spawn the NPC criminal and then proceed to either capture or kill it.

To capture, drop the criminal to low HP and press the associated "key" on your keyboard as instructed (most probably "E", if I'm not wrong).

After completing the task, return to any of the billboards to claim your reward. Its as simple as that.

Previous: MRO (Part Two)

Next: MRO (Part Four)

Read more »

Posted in: Metal Reaper Online

Metal Reaper Online (Part Two)

Game World

Quite like typical browser MMOs, Metal Reaper Online's game world is made up of individual "sectors" that are strung up together like as shown above.

Progress through the sectors is done by physically running your character there (for the first time) through portals much like that shown above.

But once you've unlocked them, subsequent journeys (to these places) can then be made easily by teleporting through a "driver" or a "pilot" stationed in each sector.

However, the costs of getting you there is "proportional" to the distance between your present location and the place that you intend to get to. The further you are from it, the more costly it becomes.

Instanced dungeons are named in red, towns with its major facilities (like storage, crafting and auction) are named in green while orange ones are regular monster-filled maps.

Life Check, Region Pollution and Pollution Resistance
Now before you go on a rampaging charge through the sectors, there is something in particular (about the sectors) that you need to know first. Something called a "Life Check".

Towards the top right corner of your in-game screen, if you hover your mouse over the bar that shows the sector your in, you should find yourself presented with some sort of a "Life Checker" info board.

In it, you will find details regarding your character's "Pollution Resistance" and the sector's "Pollution Rating" (also known as its "Region Pollution").

Basically, what constitutes as a "Life Check" is then just a simple arithmetic subtraction between your character's "Pollution Resistance" and the sector's "Pollution Rating".

The resulting value is something called your "Life Checker Point" or "LcP".

If its a "positive" value, your character is deemed "safe" and no penalty is applied. Everything functions at full strength and your SD (shield) regenerates as per normal.

However, if this value turns out to be "negative", then depending on the severity (how negative that value is), your character will be hit with varying degrees of a "Contamination Debuff" as well as a cessation of your natural SD regen (for as long as you stay in that sector).

LcP	Safety Level
0 or above	Safe	SD regens
-25 to -1	Caution	Contamination Lvl. 2 SD does not regen
-33 to -26	Warning	Contamination Lvl. 3 SD does not regen
-34 or below	Danger	Contamination Lvl. 4 SD does not regen

A Level 2 Contamination Debuff reduces your ATK and DEF values by 20%, a Level 3 Contamination Debuff reduces your ATK and DEF values by 30% while a Level 4 reduces them by 40%.

So how do you increase your character's pollution resistance?

Well, this is actually just a value that is derived from the equipment that your character uses. The armor that you put on, the weapons that you carry and the accessories that you wear.

And in turn, the pollution resistance of an equipment is highly dependent upon its level requirement and rarity. The higher the level requirement and rarity, the higher its pollution resistance.

Finally, when you sum up all of these individual "pollution resistance" values, you will get your character's overall final "pollution resistance" (which will be used to carry out the life check).

Simply put, its just a means to keep you within your level appropriate areas...so that you don't venture too far out of your safety zone.

Or at least makes it harder and more challenging for you to do so.

Previous: MRO (Part One)

Next: MRO (Part Three)

Read more »

Posted in: Metal Reaper Online