through your eyes the strains of battle like a brooding storm

Ah, spring and the scent of...goats...in the air? Buh?



(I'm never sure what's more odd as a warrior of Taborea: the fact that the goat people are our allies, or the fact that my sword is nearly taller than I am.)

Taborea, on occasion, is a very strange place. In one land we're told we are the only race; that everyone else, who is not us, is an invader that needs to be stopped, controlled, boxed, banished, or slain.

Then we go to Reifert, and discover no, there are other races...and they're anthropomorphic goats.

The hell?



(Why do the crafters of Taborea always give me balloon pants? Trust me, they're even worse from the front.)

So the game starts everyone out in pants and a tunic, or a long robe, depending on whether one is centered on magic (or healing), or fighting (in any regard). I'm talking everyone, now; everyone, male or female, starts out in pants and tunic, or long robe.

But then differentiation begins, and it's very very odd. The line for priests and mages, for instance:

* long sleeved robe that fully covers to your boot-tips
* long sleeveless robe that is entirely backless and covers to your ankles
* midriff-skimming short coat and heavy-seamed leather trousers
* thigh-length tunic and BALLOON PANTS

I swear, the balloon pants option? It's a dodge. It's a dodge to get people to pay in cash and buy better outfits. Because, really, wandering around the fantasy realm with Hammer pants? It makes me bitter and unstable.



(The arrival of the huge sword. Hells, in reality, I couldn't even lift this thing! I feel like Pyramid Head!)

I've been playing Runes of Magic since before they went live; granted, the game did change, and in some ways, changed radically, but then, it's still evolving, still moving forward; the developers are still tweaking the code, the rewards, the names (though that still baffles me--we get used to NPCs with one name, and then they have another name, and sometimes, even the color text for quests hasn't caught up yet--so the NPC is now Mimi, but the quest is still referencing Meimi; for a while, we had the constant nigh-daily battle between the little girl Lola and the little girl Narfi--and they were the same little girl).



(There are definite disadvantages to short skirts.)

There are still far too many gold spammers in the game; the game disallows gold farming, and shouter bots, but we're still overrun with them. I've never been able to figure out why, when gold for quests, gold for selling things in the Auction House, gold for selling armor and weapons back to the merchants is so damned easy to get!

Also, it's very odd playing in a game with built-in underwear layers. On occasion I'm grateful to the game designers--witness the pic above--but it's just odd that they are so defiantly white cotton undies. It's just bizarre.



(And then new armor arrived. Mine was purple.)

Once we got to the point where we had a crafter (and I am still loving that you can gather ingredients and make new armors on your own--and generally, even better ones than you can buy!) making us armor, we started to look a bit better. We were still limited to their odd color choices--blue and white, teal and brown, silver and purple--but at least they weren't multi-striped balloon pants!



(Remember, chainmail, it's not always about the armor bonus. AKA, the more scantily-clad, the more distracted the monsters are...or something.)

I have to admit, I could live without the open belly panel, but the rest of it I really like.

Also, Gatheryn is approaching the beta testing stage. If you haven't signed up for an account, and you want to be in on the beta-testing process, sign up now! A limited number of account-holders will be invited to download the game early and test it out.

I admit--I had a lot of fun working out the bugs for Runes of Magic, along with ten thousand other early-entry gamers. I'm fascinated with what Gatheryn has come up with for "steampunk" gaming...