Runes of Magic: Monthly F2P Allowance

Free-2-Play (F2P) isn’t free, if you’re spending a lot of money in the game’s item shop.  Just because you don't have objections about engaging in RMT, it doesn't mean you should do it with wreckless abandon.  Even when I have the diamonds available for a purchase, I translate the cost into dollars and ask myself, "Is this particular item worth that cost to ME?"  How important is it to the way I'm approaching the game?  Based on the answer I buy it or not.

Clearly, I’m not playing Runes of Magic because it’s free.  I’m playing because it’s fun and it’s fantasy.  It’s my alternative to having become worn out in World of Warcraft, unhappy leveling in EverQuest II, bored by the early questing in Lord of the Rings Online and disgruntled in Warhammer Online.  Finding out Runes of Magic (ROM) fit my gaming tastes was a surprise.  The fact that it’s free is a boon.  Regardless, I know that the game isn't made and maintained for free so I have no qualms about spending money in ROM’s Item Shop.

Big Expenditures

The first big expenditure I made happened almost immediately.  By the second day of play, I purchased a permanent mount ($13 USD).  Since then I've been tempted to buy one of the newly released mounts that have cool animations but I haven’t.  Having a cooler looking mount doesn't pass my, "Is this really important to me?" test with a resounding, "Yes!"  It falls into, "Oh man, that's sweet," and I'd love to have one but not enough to pony-up the diamonds.  Pets are falling into that same category for me right now because they're all timed.  Grrrr!

The next big set of expenditures was to turn my house into a crafting workshop.   Relatively speaking, it was costly ($50 USD one time cost).  On the other hand, it was no more than what I've spent on purchasing subscription-based games.  However, in the scheme of F2P, some would see it as extravagant.  I didn’t hesitate because it was something I’ve wanted for a long time.  The nice thing about these two expenditures is that they are both one time costs.  The only re-occurring fees are the energy costs for having expanded my house’s furniture slots.  I have hidden crafting stations being used to boost my crafting XP.  Once I hit max crafting level the hidden stations will go into the bank and the number of slots can be reduced to the default/free number of items.  All the visible workshop furniture can remain without costing me anything extra.

Once I fell into a steady playing routine, I began keeping track of how much cash I was spending.  My goal is to keep the costs between $15 and $20 a month.  Roughly what I’d be paying for a fantasy MMORPG subscription.  Right now, my two largest re-reoccurring expenditures are for conveniences that will stop at max level - energy costs and Talent Point charms.  Even with those, I’m still able to purchase other items and stay within my budget.

One of the costs I've yet to incur that I hear people crying, "ZOMG, they're trying to coerce me into doing RMT in this F2P," is related to bag space.  *Shrug*  Renting additional storage in my backpack or for my bank vault hasn't been necessary.  I tend to manage my inventory at the end of each gaming session - always have done it that way.  That might be working to my advantage in this situation.

Other Purchases

The other luxuries I enjoy are the "Home Sweet Home" (HSH) runes that port you directly to your house without consuming a portal cool-down.  When you leave your house you're taken back to the previous location.  This comes in handy for replenishing consumables while out questing.  I can pop back home to pick-up potions and food.  If I arrive at an area where I want to turn in a group of quests on my Warrior versus the Priest, I can HSH, make the switch then step outside which leaves me where I was before.  I see no point in riding back and forth unnecessarily.

A couple of times during the past month I've treated myself to XP boosting potions for the Warrior.  I don't level on that side much but when I do, it's nice to do it more quickly.

I'm all about maximizing my stats using runes.  If you read my article on player-made runes you know why.  For that reason, I will invest in drilling additional holes in uncommon gear.  My base armor set has been the same for several levels.  The armor that gets upgraded from quest rewards is my gloves, belt and shoulder pads.  When they get traded out I want a minimum of one rune slot.  I purchase armor drills for this purpose.

On really nice items I will use Blessings to increase the items power.  For gear it increases the attack power stat.  For weapons and accessories the damage and critical strike percentage is increased. 

At Maximum Level

Once I hit max level on my character and profession, my expenses will go down considerably OR I’ll dabble in some of the other Item Shop merchandise to see how they work and report back.  *Smile* 

If gold was a concern, I could seal my gear and save the 5K gold repair bill.  Like World of Warcraft, repair cost relates to item quality.  I'm wearing a 4-piece blue set hence the repair costs.  For me, the 5k gold savings ins't worth the diamond costs.   I rarely group and PUG even less, which means I don't die much anyway.  If on the other hand, I'd been insistent on running Forsaken Abbey for all the nice drops, armor quest rewards and level 25 elite skill components, I would have sealed my Ventis armor set.  PUGing FA can be troublesome.

As you can see, I keep my budget within the range of what a subscription-based game is likely to cost me each month.  I might not use all of those optional items in a given month so things come out cheaper.  My biggest expense is from using Talent Charms to obtain additional Training Points on my Priest.

Watch for Sales!

I took advantage of the 1/3 price sale on diamonds that was offered during the game release downtime.  So actually, my expenses for the next three months are actually 1/3 the cost.  Nice little bargain that was and I’m glad I noticed it.  I’m enjoying ROM and I’m very satisfied with the freedom of choices and opportunity to say for myself, what the best allocation of my gaming dollars are for how I’m playing the game.

Comments

[Troy Christensen]

I have not had much time to play the game, but what I have experienced seems very akin to every free game I play: dated graphics, garish simple music, and wonky game play.

Worse, I think, was the 4 gigabyte download on top of the hours of patching I had to just to log into the game.

After I logged in, I spend most of my time blocking the endless stream of gold spammers that defiantly spammed the channels.

I hope to play more this weekend, but the pay to play services don't have much to worry about from this game, sadly.

[Sören]

Ahem... Does item sealing work differently on PvE-servers? I think, item sealing is to prevent PK-dropping of that item.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@Troy - I don't think they are targeting players happy with their current subscription fantasy MMO. I believe this game is appealing for players who've abandoned those like myself. More importantly, for people who've never played those and so they don't have the perspective you've just mentioned "like very other..."

MANY of the players I've met are coming to this game from the mini game F2Ps like Puzzle Pirates and are loving this very different group and solo PVE content in an explorable world.

By the way, just right click the name of a spammer in chat and choose to black list them.

@Soren - sorry I hadn't tried it yet and "drop" I took as drop in durability - the explanations are so vague. They need a lot of work. If it's about not dropping then I guess I'd still use them since our guild is going to do PVP wars. Glad I didn't waste any diamonds on them trying it out. :-)

[Bhagpuss]

Played RoM for about three weeks in beta. It isn't a bad game at all, but it's very, very limited. Even for a just-launched game it has a very small amount of content indeed, and what there is is pretty repetetive.

I got into the 30s before I totally ran out of steam. Never felt the need to spend a cent on anything from the Item Mall. Don;t feel much of a pull to re-visit RoM now it's gone Live either, or at least not until there's some more interesting content.

[mbp]

Saylah I notice you aren't spending any money on potions to remove XP debt. I had assumed this would be the default way of dealing with this. I know you don't die often but you must die sometimes - what do you do then? Work off your XP debt or buy it out?

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

I've never purchased anything to remove debt. For me at least, there's no value in it. I rarely die. I can pull and defeat 3 to 4 mobs at a time which makes clearing the debit too easy.

The most I've died was in Blood Gallery which was a complete massacre. I died every few minutes it was such a mess. I used the free write-off received in some bag that one time and never went back into that abomination of an instance. *Smile*

I died twice in FA but the debt was gone before I came out of there. Erasing debit just isn't an issue for me. I realize that it scales and I've seen people crying about it in chat. I might feel differently later on.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@Bhagpuss - I hear ya. I've read that it can get very grind heavy in the upper 30s. I'm not there yet to know.

This game isn't going to appeal to everyone. I wondered how anyone got to level 30 in LOTRO it was so boring or how anyone survives at max level still in WOW since the idea of doing the same dailies and BGs for months on end - YEARS for the BGs, was more than I could stand after 3.5 yrs. Yet these games have players that love them, as will ROM.

When I run into people where this is their first MMORPG of this type they are all wide-eyed and excited. They feel the magic and wonder of exploring a virtual fantasy world, like I used to feel back in the day. Even though I'm very jaded now it's fun to be around players who still feel that way about being in a fantasy setting.

This is virgin territory for many of the ROM players I encounter. Their excitement and pleasure is infectious, which is why I get easily caught up in doing nonsense for hours at time with them. :-)

[Snifs]

I was considering buying some furniture for my house to get the exp/tp bonuses.

How does this work and is it worth the money?

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

Leveling XP is worth it. If you download Extended XP add-on it will show you just how much bonus XP you're gaining. I think this boosting is part of the reason that I'm able to keep both classes relatively equal in level but only "playing" on one of them.

The crafting XP is good BUT you have to boost it significantly to see a benefit. I think I have 3x copies of stations for my actual trade and 2x for the others. The overall cost is more expensive than it needs to be because I haven't focused on leveling it quickly then removing those items from the house and reducing the slots. But at a total of only $2 a month I can't be bothered to worry about it overly much.

Crafting is very grind-heavy right now. Anything to reduce the number of comps needed to produce an item is helpful. At roughly 72 raws per 1 production item, you want to gain as many crafting levels per combine (item) as possible!

Or you could wait a bit and see if they realize this is extreme grind and adjust things for the better. That's what I've been doing. I'm harvesting but not producing right now.

[Snifs]

Another question...

Is "learning bonus" the EXP bonus?

And "training bonus" is?

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

Uh, that was so f'n confusing. I have to find my original post about it. I think I explained the definitions there. I'll edit this comment when I find it.

[Sente]

Learning bonus is xp yes and training bonus is for the training points, which you use to level up your skills.

[Chris]

That's a wise move, Saylah. I think I'll start hoarding my mats in the hopes that the crafting system will become less resource-intensive (and more useful).

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@Chris - the only thing I craft right now are mana potions. seems silly to buy something I can make for myself. Even then I don't make many. They seem to drop enough to keep me going under normal circumstance. I also only use the second tier ones for questing as Battle Monk I'm not as mana dependent as a normal caster. I save to correct tier of potions of if I end up healing a group.

Yep, I'm hoping they tweak it soon. :-)