RF OnLine

Originally named 'Rising Force', is a 3D MMORPG developed by CCR.

The first version of the game was released in South Korea and was later followed by Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Brazilian and English translations. The North American/European version of the game launched its retail phase on February 21, 2006 and closed on November 10, 2008. RFO is currently a free to play game.

The EU/US game service was brought down as of November 9, 2008, due to licence expiration.[1]
However, the developers, CCR have started to relaunch the game hosting it themselves for EU/US[2] It released on January 18, 2009.

A mixture of science fiction and classic fantasy, RF Online (or RFO, as many of its players call it) is set in a distant planet in the Novus system where magic exists alongside high technology. Like most MMORPGs it follows the typical fantasy setting complete with swords and sorcery, but it also emphasizes the three-way Race vs. Race vs. Race (RvRvR) concept and modern/futuristic technology such as mecha and nuclear weapons.

Bellato

Introduction
Due to the intense gravity on their home planet, the Bellato are the smallest people. They are a race of inventors that are able to combine creative tools and weapons with the Light form of universal magic. The Bellato enter the war as the least physically capable and yet given their ingenuity they have the potential to become the strongest. Before they became the Bellato Union, however, they were the Bellato Empire, who seized control after the Cora civil war but were beaten by the Accretians. Under such sustained attacks they fell from power, yet they have bided their time until they can become a force to be reckoned with once again.

Background Story
The mechanized equipment was initially produced for use in scientific progression, and was used on construction sites in the past and not for battle purposes. As the technology progressed, more diverse types of armour equipment were mass-produced and as the armour unit became more established it was placed into live battle zones.

Those early battles featuring the armoured machines saw some impressive victories for the federation. This led to the national defence expenditure increasing, with the army gearing towards producing more of the armour units. However, in the course of the Novus War, the armour units previous criminal records coupled with a series of defeats in battle to the Accretian launcher units, saw the internal position of the unit's effectiveness within the army weakened. These defeats where largely as a result of the armoured units not being designed in consideration of the geographical features of the Novus Planet, but after the rights to manufacture was handed over to the civilian contractors, they were remodelled to suit the landscape of Novus.

As the efficiency of the armour units dropped due to the huge operational costs involved, the federations peace committee decided to close down the armour unit group. The armoured units can be divided into two types; one constructed as a field style unit and the other as a siege warfare unit. The Siege unit was very complicated to produce and required vast amounts of consumable resources, more than the federation could really sustain. The Field Armour unit in contrast was better suited to mass production as it was possible to produce them economically and for this reason they are more widely available. The committee then became unsure as to how to dispose of the units, so they decided that the civilians could dispose and trade the units at a low price, but a law was passed due to the powerful firepower of the units to ensure that they were not used outside of the army.

Bellato Society
Bellateans learned early on that the fastest way to develop technology and profit is for their people to be happy. A happy person is a productive person. This is why they have freedom of expression and individualism. They have long understood that freedom drives minds to think better, rather than oppression. This is why Bellato citizens enjoy many freedoms and liberties.

However, most, if not all of the dominant Bellateans are members of Houses. Houses are congregations of individuals who share the same blood (family ties being taken very seriously by Bellateans) and/or interests (wealth and power being taken much more seriously by Bellateans).

Success breeds success, and while Bellateans promote individual achievement, over the years, the same families harvest most of the wealth and power. Influential Bellateans then lend money, offer services or help to lesser ones, for the conduct of their business or other matters, and strong ties develop between the two sides. Soon enough, it is a vast network of interests that emerges. A House. Several networks can intertwine, of course, but the core of every one of them is a powerful and identifiable family that will do its best to keep the relatives, allies, and clients in line with the House’s interests.

The Union
The Union is the Bellatos military and colonization force.

The Bellato Union utilise machines and some magic in their culture. Renowned for their great mechanical minds, intelligence and hand-eye coordination, the Bellato can construct huge armoured battle mechs and weapons to use in the war. Though they are physically strong and intelligent, the huge gravitational energies from their home planet have left the Bellato with smaller builds. The Bellato are experienced traders and their financial minds and greed have driven the need to extend out to other planets, to colonize and claim resource. To expand to the rest of the universe, the Bellato have to ensure that the Novus Sector doesn't fall under the supremacy of the Accretia or Cora. This desire to expand and grow will no doubt leave the galaxy engulfed in turmoil and chaos.

Cora

Background Story
DECEM has created the world to turn oblivion into beauty, and the Corites to enforce his will. Knowing they are the chosen race, Corites have organized their society accordingly to their faith in their god. Everything they do in “This Life” is to ascend to a high station or being, gaining them a closer relationship with their god. It is evident that those who do enforce His will are granted more powers, abilities and become stronger in the use of the Darkling Force, the most precious gift Decem has made to His children.

DECEM states that Corites must not harm the planet or any planets they inhabit, that they must ensure its well being and take care of it, for harming the planet would be harming DECEM himself. Corites are permitted only to use the resources they need to expand and move on to help fulfill the will of DECEM. They do all things within nature, heightening it in its vast beauty. The Corites refine metals with the Darkling Force, combining alloys without causing pollution to create their items and weapons. All of their items are technologies empowered by the Darkling force.

Corite clothing and armours are made from nothing but natural materials, the clothing they wear is loose and allows for a lot of flexibility. It is the Corites' belief that their bodies are a shrine to DECEM, for he created them. Corites hold beauty with a lot of value, and take care of their bodies and hygiene extremely well. They love and respect their bodies as to act in perfect unison within DECEM.

All foods and consumables eaten by the Corites must be blessed by DECEM before they eat them. In accordance with their beliefs, all the food they ingest is to be completely natural wholesome foods grown specifically by the Corites for the purpose of eating, using only natural means to create the sustenance which they require to survive.

The Holy Alliance
The Holy Alliance Cora is a spiritual civilization with a firm belief in religion and the magical arts. Though the history of the Cora has been built on religious wars, which has created multiple states and nations, the country is strongly unified through its core religious beliefs. The Cora people, united as the Holy Alliance, now battle for their survival using the magical powers drawn from their spiritual beliefs, and traditional weapons blessed by their god, Decem.

Accretia

Background Story
Accretians are organic beings merged into mechanical bodies. Not being mere robots acting accordingly to a rigid piece of software, they are to obey a motive, and that motive is the pursuit of perfection.

While individualism is not promoted, and not even tolerated, self-consciousness does remain; the Accretian society is not to be seen as a hive or a collective mind. The way they are created, educated and indoctrinated makes the Accretians solely concerned by the evolution of the society as a whole. However, perfection at a higher level can only be achieved through perfection at an individual level.

Accretians are the direct descendants of the EMC researchers, the humans who gave birth to Bellateans and Corites through their experiments. Thriving on that heritage, they have brought the intelligence and dedication to science of their ancestors up to new levels.

Accretians' culture is all about science and rational thinking. That makes them seek relentlessly for knowledge and rational explanations and solutions to problems, at every level. Be it a soldier learning tactics from past skirmishes or a leading scientist searching new cloning methods by the study of other races’ anatomy.

The Accretian army, being fully mechanized has very few needs, it does however require constant maintenance. Apart from this downtime for repairs, the Accretian army is quite self-sufficient; their robotic bodies completely self sustaining and replenishing their energy and bodily functions where required.

However the human brain inside of the Accretians' cybernetic bodies does need to rest every once in a while. The brain is incapable of being on alert constantly without suffering from fatigue, thus when needed to, the Accretians will shut down and "rest". Despite this biological need to rest, an Accretian is still far stronger than it would be if still in human form. Their metallic bodies also grant the Accretian populace a far superior regeneration capability then that of the Bellateans or the Corites.

Accretian Society
Accretians are cloned and, during their first years of life, indoctrinated via a combination of neurochemical procedures and education, until they are estimated efficient enough to become fully fledged citizens of the Empire. Then, they undergo a radical surgical procedure to get rid of their weak and disposable flesh and have their brains integrated into mechanized bodies.

Abilities and potential of every Accretian are estimated as early as the first stages of the creation process; education and training unfold accordingly to these estimations. Every Accretian is assigned a specific task, the one at which he will be the most efficient. They embrace it totally; it is their path to perfection.

Accretian society is organized as a strict hierarchy ladder; the upper along the ladder, the more complex and far-reaching the task assigned to the individual. Despite that hierarchy, there are no social classes, not in the way the other races could understand it, for social segregation comes only from resentment and will for changes, and contentment and will for status quo. Such things do not exist in the Accretian society. At least, they shouldn’t…

The Empire
The Accretian Empire follows a totalitarian regime where goals are for the Empire, a thought that is embraced by its followers. There is no feeling when it comes to the destruction of other races and for good reason, for the Accretia are a race of mechanized units with a materialistic thinking. The Accretia are proud to be the strongest and most formidable race in the galaxy, and are proud of the huge weapons they have created to kill men, women and all things living. Their need to expand to the further reaches of the universe to become even stronger is paramount and a key driving force to their being. This has inevitably led them to the Planet Novus and the arcane civilizations it plays home to.

Game mechanics

As with many MMORPGs, the player will select one race and fight monsters to gain experience points. RFO is populated with many different monsters across many areas.

At the start of the game, a character will be led through an in-game guide of the basic commands for the game. From there, the character will be exposed to a series of quests which will familiarize him with his character's headquarters. As the character progresses in level, his quests may take him out to aggressive maps, where he will be exposed to the player killing Features of the game.

Political System
Each race is led by the archon, a person voted into power by their subsidiaries. Below the archon are four councillors. These councillors are determined based on the number of votes received during their run for archonship.

As of Episode 2, Giga 1.5 (Crimson Dawn), four additional councillors were introduced. These four are assigned by the archon.

In addition, each position is granted special abilities to help their race. These abilities range from increases in defense, increases in attack, or affect auras to increase the statistics of racial members around the councilor.

In the event the number of archon aspirants is not enough to populate the council position, the top racial characters will be placed into the vacant council positions by default. Racial standings can be seen by checking with the respective race manager NPCs.

Economy
The game's economy can be divided into two parts - production and consumption. The mine is a new field where resources are produced as a part of and in support of economic activity. Mining for minerals and processing the products of these produce many kinds of items. These form the basis for conflict within the mines.

Chip War
The battle for resources is actualized in an all-out war among the three races termed as Chip War. Chip War happens three times in a day, where the winning race obtains the right to control the guardian of the mines - the dreaded Holystone Keeper.

The war is led by the respective racial leaders, whose goal is to break at least one control chip owned by the opposing race. Once broken, the player who has dealt the last blow on the chip must touch base at the center of the mine caverns, to earn his race an extra 60 minutes of mining time guarded by the Holystone Keeper.

As of Episode 2, Giga 1 (Crimson Dawn), the Holystone Keeper will be vulnerable for 30 minutes after a control chip has been broken. The winning race must defend the guardian, or risk losing his guardianship over players who will opt to mine for resources until the next chip war. In addition, only characters who have been able to obtain a HolyMental Scanner during the battle will be recognized by the guardian as a valid member of the controlling race. Connectivity issues, however, have been seen to cause problems with this new feature.

Player Killing
Unlike most MMORPGs, RF Online revolves around player killing. Only the racial headquarters, and the settlement towns, are considered as safe areas from enemy races. Player killing comes into play because of the battle for resources between the three races. By default, opposing races members may engage in combat at any point in time on aggressive maps. Same race players may not engage in combat, unless by virtue of an item called the Chaos Potion, or during a special in-race competition called the Guild Circle Zone Scramble, also known as Guild Wars.

Home Page : http://www.playrf.com/