Knight Online

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Knight Online
Developer(s)	MGame Corporation and Noah System
Release date(s)	2004
Genre(s)	Fantasy MMORPG
Mode(s)	MMO
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Media	Download
Input	Keyboard and mouse

Knight Online is a MMORPG developed by MGame Corporation and Noah System. Currently there are many different companies that host this game by geographic region. Some are Free to Play while others are Pay to Play. Two major updates have been released for the Knight Online. In September 2005, a major update known as Knight Empire was released that changed a few maps, added new item upgrading systems, and introduced the King system into the game. On or about August 3, 2006 a new expansion called The Reign of the Fire Drake was released. The update added several new maps, quests, monsters, and bosses; changed the user interface, introduced the Post-Office system and Chaotic Generator, and increased the maximum level cap from 70 to 80.

Contents 1 Servers 1.1 By Geographic Location 2 Playable Races 3 Classes/Jobs 4 Clans 5 Rebirth Items 6 The Party System 7 Zones 7.1 Moradon City 7.2 Karus / El Morad 7.3 Eslant 7.4 Ronark Land 7.5 Ardream 7.6 Lunar Valley 7.7 Abyss 8 Events 8.1 Lost Temple 1 & 2 8.2 Lunar War & Dark Lunar War 8.3 Castle Siege War 8.4 Special Events 9 Reign of the Fire Drake 9.1 User Interface Changes 9.2 The Post Office 9.3 Other Features 10 Criticism 11 External links 12 Notes

[edit] Servers

The main Knight Online servers are currently divided into eleven servers (called 'worlds' in Knight Online) that are completely independent from each other. The servers are (in order of creation): Ares, Diez, Xigenon, Beramus, Cypher, Olympia, Edana, Manes, Pathos, Logos and Ronark.

Generally, the older worlds are the most heavily populated and therefore hardest to enter for Free2Play players (see Criticism). Players are allowed to have up to three characters on each server, but all of the players on a server must be from the same nation. To have one character that is human and one character that is orc, a user would have to make separate characters in two different worlds. Each world is further divided into three sub-servers (ex. Ares1, Ares2, Ares3). Players can use a character from a certain world on any of that world's servers, however it is not possible to transfer characters/items/money between worlds. The Postal System allows for intraworld communication, but letters cannot be delivered from one world to another (ex. Diez to Edana). Some zones/events including War, Delos, the Abyss, and Andream can only be accessed from server one in each world and the first server typically has the most users logged in at any given time.

[edit] By Geographic Location

• North America - Hosted by K2 Network - currently Free to Play with option to purchase enhanced-game play..
• Malaysia - Hosted by Egames - currently Free to Play with option to purchase enhanced-game play.
• Korea - Hosted by Mgame - Currently Pay to Play.
• Japan - Hosted by Terra Corp. - Currently Pay to Play.
• China - Hosted by SOHU - Currently Pay to Play.
• Indonesia - Hosted by Web.id - Currently Free to Play.

[edit] Playable Races

There are two playable races in the game: El Morad (human) and Karus (orc). El Morad have the barbarians (warrior) and male and female El Moradan (can play all classes). Karus have the Arch Tuareks (warrior), Tuareks (rogue and priest), Peri Tuareks (mage and priest), and Wrinkle Tuareks (male mage).

Class	El Morad			Karus
	Barbarian	Male El Moradan	Female El Moradan	Arch Tuareks	Tuareks	Wrinkle Tuareks	Puri Taureks
Warrior	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Rogue	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Mage	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Priest	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes

[edit] Classes/Jobs

Knight Online has four different classes for both nations; Warrior, Rogue, Magician and Priest. Each class has basic skills and additional 3 different skill-trees that skill points can be added to; skill points are obtained at each level once the second job has been selected at lvl 10. It is recommended that you only choose two of them so that you can obtain its best skills. Each class also has a master set of skills that can be learned from various quests after lvl 60.

Class	Description	Skills Trees	Master set	Player Skill
Warrior	Melee fighter, high hp, high defense (Main tanker in game)	Attack, Defense, Passion, Berserking	Berserker Hero(Karus), Blade Master (El Morad)	Warrior players need to learn how to use mana pots in time with their hits. They can't hit without mana. Also need to learn how to hit fast to hold monster's attention.
Rogue	Assassin (massive damage in the first few hits, good at combo and sliding, fastest class in game) or Archer (moderate ranged damage, some skills have blinding effects)	Archery, Assassin, Explore	Shadow Vain(Karus), Kasar Hood (El Morad)	Rogue player will need to have "quick fingers" to take advantage of all the given skills (to combo). Rogue players often need to flip between 2 or 3 pages of skills. While they are attacking, they also benefit from minor heal skill that instantly convert mana to health for single target.
Mage	Ranged magic attacker, low defense.	Flame, Glacier, Lightning	Elemental Lord (Karus), Arch Mage (El Morad)	Casting large Area of Effect(AOE) spells can be tricky to control at first. "Summon" is perhaps the most useful mage skill that can teleport(TP) a party member to the mage location, either teleporting party member out of danger or quickly advancing to the battle front. Sometimes, the mage player's skill is judged solely by how well he or she TPs party members.
Priest	Can either aid others in battle (Buffer, Healer, or Debuffer) or become a Battle Priest (Massive damage, low defense)	Healing, Aura, Holy Spirit, Talisman	Shadow Knight (Karus), Paladin (El Morad)	Requires some skill from each of the above classes; watch mana, multiple skill pages, and casting AOE. Priests can also resurrect dead players. When in a group, keep the party buffed. Healing spell is not as fast as we expect, thus priest players need to predict who is going to get hit and heal that person. Priest can use two handed swords; thus, can play a role as a warrior.

[edit] Clans

A clan is a club of users (generally friends) that group together; most players prefer to have friends as clan members, but the larger and more powerful clans will only admit strong characters. The benefits of being in a clan include: a separate chat channel for clan members whose text appears in green on the main chat window, the ability to party with your clan members no matter what levels they are, the ability to party a clanmate without being close enough to manually select them, and finally the ability to get capes. Capes cost huge amounts of money and require many national points (referred to as "NP") which are gained by killing users of the opposite nationality (+50 NP). Some large bosses also reward you with a few national points if you manage to find and defeat them (+10/50 NP).

National points can also be lost if a member of the opposing nation manages to kill you (-50 NP). A clan's national points are made up of the total national points of each of its members. This determines your clan ranking (V being the lowest and I being the best). At higher ranks, more events become available to you.

Ranking	National Points Required	Bonus
V (Lowest)	0 - 74,000	None (grade 5, Humans have blue armband, orcs have purple)
IV	74,000 - 144,000	Ability to participate in Castle Siege War (grade 4 , humans have green armband, orcs have blue)
III	144,000 - 360,000	Ability to attempt the Knights quest to buy Cape purchase (grade 3, Humans have dull bronze armband ( with more intricate detail), Orcs have a gray one with a different design)
II	360,000 - 760,000	Ability to have Knight Symbol on cape (grade 2, Dull Golden armband)
I (best)	760,000+	All of the above. (grade 1, Burnished Gold armband, slight red tint)
10 Best Clans	10 clans with highest NP gain/month	Top 10 Clans in any particular server have Grade I clan armbands, with the added detail of flames running along the design

[edit] Rebirth Items

A reverse scroll can be purchased from Charon in Moradon. Items that can be revived (used by reverse system) are as follows:

   * High class items that are enchanted by +7 or above.
   * A few unique (high rank) items that are over +7.
   * Set items that are enchanted by +7 or more.
   * Accessory items cannot be used in the reverse system.

Strengthening steps for regular items to becoming reverse items are as follows:

   * Existing +7 item -> reverse +1 item
   * Existing +8 item -> reverse +5 item
   * Existing +9 item -> reverse +11 item
   * Existing +10 item -> reverse +21 item
   * Upgradeable, Unique, and Set items follow the same rules.

Items are applied by reverse-upgrade probability formula, and their original stats do not change. Regular items that are +7 to +8 and Reverse item that are +1 to +5 have mathematically very similar probabilities of success.

   * Reverse items can be upgraded up to +21.
   * The items that are revived (used by reverse system) cannot be restored to original items.
   * +1 step to +21 has the same probabilities of succession in upgrading.

When the item is changed to reverse item, the original item�s step is broke into parts so the general probabilities of a successful upgrade will not increase. By reversing an item, the item is now able to be upgraded to a +21. The original +1 to +10 scales has now been expanded to a +1 to +21 scales. When the item is reversed, the probability of success to go from one level to another in its original state, is divided proportionally.

Reversed items do not increase the level of items, but breaks it into parts, giving each part a higher probability of success for upgrading. Also, it has other advantage such as giving a wider variety of items and diversifying the market.

[edit] The Party System

Knight Online allows groups of players to form "parties" and work together to complete objectives. A party is a group of at least two but no more than eight players. Parties allow players to level-up faster than normal because monsters drop more experience points when killed by a party. Normally, a party can only consist of characters from one nation, but there are some occasions (Lost Temple Event, beginner quests) when humans and orcs are allowed in the same party. The party leader can only invite players within 15 levels of his/her level, thus preventing extremely high or low level characters from unbalancing a party. However, parties involving clan members are not subject to the 15 level difference limit and can contain players of any level (from that clan). Good parties will usually consist of a high level buffer/healer to restore health and a rogue with the skill swift to keep everyone moving quickly. Such parties can consist either of a large number of rogues and warriors to take down strong opponents one by one, or mages to take down enemies in groups.

[edit] Zones

There are a few maps in which players of Knight Online may find themselves in, each with their own pros and cons. Players travel between them using a set of Warp gates (for a price).

[edit] Moradon City

Home of the Arena and the Lost Temple, this is the only zone where both El Morad and Karus cannot attack each other and for this reason is the main merchant hub in the game. It is also where all new players start out and offers many low level quests. The wasteland surrounding Moradon is filled with low level creatures ideal for new players.

• Map of Moradon

[edit] Karus / El Morad

The largest zones of the game, each nation holds many creatures which make good hunting for mid to high level characters. Only members of the appropriate nation can enter their land, so the majority of the gamepay in Karus/El Morad focuses on the player versus the environment. However, after a war, the victorious nation is able to invade the opposing nation for one hour and members of both nations can encounter each other on these maps and be rewarded Nation Points for killing opposing players.

• Map of Karus
• Map of Elmorad

[edit] Eslant

A zone that can only be entered by higher level characters (lvl 60+) this zone holds host to high level monsters and bosses. There is no PvP in this zone as 2 Eslants exist (one for El morad and one for Karus) so that the members of each can focus more on the dangerous monsters within.

• Map of Eslant

[edit] Ronark Land

Ronark land is almost identical to the old Colony Zone, but the new expansion has added many new monsters, and implemented the Bifrost feature. In this zone, bosses only spawn in the bowl, which is located in the center of the map. Ronark land, also has a few new quests in which the players can earn large amounts of experience points if completed. It is mainly a player vs player zone.

• Map of Ronark Land

[edit] Ardream

Ardream is a lower level version of Ronark Land, available for anybody between level 30-59.

Unlike Ronark land, bosses in Ardream can spawn everywhere. This zone has different monsters than Ronark because of the level of its players.

[edit] Lunar Valley

The landmass that connects the two nations. During the Lunar Gate wars members of each nation gather here for battle, after which the winning nation can "invade" the losing nation's homeland.

[edit] Abyss

The only dungeon in the game. It is located in Delos, at the heart of the castle. It is made up of 20 levels going down, each level being a large circular chamber inhabited by progressively worse monsters. Many times you can't move on to the next floor of the abyss until you find a key by killing the monsters within the floor you are on. Within the abyss is a "secret" gate into the hell abyss with even stronger monsters. Likewise, you'll need the key to the hell abyss to find this entrance.

The abyss is a PvP area where humans and orcs can kill each other. Unlike the Colony Zone, Invasions, or Wars you do not lose or gain money or NP for killing another player. For this reason there is an uneasy truce between orcs and humans, which sometimes break out into hostilities without warning out of spite. In the Abyss, all the monsters (except the goblins) drop an item called the Abyss gem, these gems can be traded to a NPC in Moradon for the chance of a rare item, making their prices reasonably high. This isn't all that attracts players to brave the dangers of the abyss. Many players go to the abyss for +9 accessories, transformation scrolls, abyss health potions, and other more expensive items dropped by the monsters there.

With the Reign of the Fire Drake patch, a final floor with one of the newest bosses, Felankor, was added. Felankor is the dragon you often see on the Knight Online homepage, he is one of the hardest monsters to kill and drops a Ring Of Felankor, and other unique items.

[edit] Events

Scheduled events happen on a regular basis for each server. These are one of the main focal points of Knight Online.

[edit] Lost Temple 1 & 2

Open for characters of both nations who are Level 60 or above (temple 1) or Level 46-59 (temple 2), this event pits the first 32 to enter the event (from a gate at Moradon) against waves of high level monsters. Those who remain standing at the end receive a treasure chest they can then trade in for powerful unique items. You do not lose XP if you die within this event. Players can form parties with members of opposing nations during Lost Temple Events.

On September 12, 2006, the US branch of the game disabled it due to a bug which lets users win the event without killing a monster. This bug was fixed on February 14, 2007 along with the valentine event.^[1]

[edit] Lunar War & Dark Lunar War

Another focal point of the game. Players can choose to participate in the event by entering the lunar valley during war time. The first 200 (in Lunar war) or 120 (in Dark Lunar) players from each side will decide the fate of the battle in the Lunar Valley where they must try to slay the Keeper of the opposing team.

The winning side may then invade the opposing nation, regardless of participation in the war. Each invasion lasts 1 hour, after which the invaders are recalled back to their homeland. During this hour, the victorious nation invaders try to drive their way as deep as possible into enemy territory, with the aim of killing players from the opposite nation to gain National Points. The defeated nation attempts to repel the invaders.

[edit] Castle Siege War

The only clan versus clan event. It occurs within the Delos zone. Only clans ranked IV or better can participate. The clan that manages to hold the castle by defending an artifact inside for the longest period during the event will be given control of the Delos castle, and their customized flag will fly above it until the next castle siege war in which they must defend their hold.

The clan that holds the castle will set the tax rate for all zones and will receive all collected funds. However, setting the tax rate too high will make it difficult to get allies to defend the castle at the next castle siege.

Furthermore, the clan that holds the castle controls the gate through which people must pass in order to get to the Abyss dungeon. By simply closing the gate to non-allies they can inflate the price of the abyss gems which they can then sell for increased prices.

[edit] Special Events

These events do not occur on a regular basis.

Boss events may be announced in-game with only a few minutes warning and may occur on any or all of the maps. Bosses may start to appear outside of the home cities in Karus or El Morad or even in Moradon. The bosses are typically very strong and are usually only taken down by very high level characters and well organized clan parties.

XP events occur more frequently when game managers or Kings launch the events. XP events increase the amount of experience points gained by killing monsters. Similarly, there are Noah events which reward users with higher than normal levels of in-game currency when they kill monsters.

Tournament war events may be organized well in advance with exp rewards to encourage participation and are typically restricted to paying players. Inter-server wars can take place between the humans and orcs of one server group (ares, dies, etc) and another. Inter-branch wars can take place between the humans and orcs of one branch (US, China, Korea, Japan) and another. While only the first 300 paying players may participate in the war from each branch of Knight Online, the rest of the players (both free and paying) may go head to head in the Colony Zone. The most recent World Championship was held September 14-18, 2006 and the U.S. branch finished in second place.^[2]

[edit] Reign of the Fire Drake

The Reign of the Fire Drake is the third expansion for Knight Online, released around the 3rd of August, 2006. These are some new features that were implemented with the Reign of the Fire Drake expansion.

[edit] User Interface Changes

1. The chat window and information window’s position and size can be modified. You can toggle the windows with the [9], [10] or by clicking the little circle next to the windows.

2.The skill shortcut window can be used in a horizontal position.

3. Mini map’s position can be moved.

4. The data (HP, MP information window) window’s position can be changed and the experience indicator has been moved to the lower side of screen

5. Various kinds of menus are combined together. It is similar to pressing the window’s start button. Clicking the “M” icon on the interface or pressing the windows key on the left side will activate the menu.

6. A Quick menu has been added. When another player is selected, you can press the right mouse button to bring up the quick menu. You can choose to send a party invitation, whisper, and trade etc… through the quick menu.

7. Inside the Party window, a button has been added to leave the party. Pressing the X key in the upper right side of the party window will allow you leave the party.

8. Classic mode has been added. The button on the right side of sit, trade, party invitation, character window, inventory, and skill

9. Windows have a transparency level that you can set.

[edit] The Post Office

The post office is a new feature that will allow players to send letters to other players so they can receive messages once they log on. It also allows in-game items and money to be mailed between players, preventing the hassle of finding the character to trade.

1. Items may be attached to mail and sent through the Post Office that can be reached through a button the regardless of whether or not the recipient player is on the sender's friend list.

3. Mail will be saved for 7 days. If mail remains unchecked for the 7 day period, the mail will be returned to the sender. If the returned mail is unchecked in the next 7days, it will be permanently erased.

4. You can receive/hold a maximum of 10 letters. For Premium Users, the maximum is increased to 20 letters.

5. If the player’s mailbox is full, the player cannot receive any new additional mail. Mail sent while the mailbox is full will be saved at the post office. When mail is read, and the mailbox is no longer full, the post office will send the other pending mail. In this case, the time the mail spent in the post office is also included in the 7 day period.

6. Dead Characters cannot receive mail.

• A bug allowed players to send mail to themselves simply by adding a space to the end of their name. This allowed massive increases in the number of potions one character could have in Player Killing*

[edit] Other Features

• 'Dark Colony Zone' for users between Level 30 and 59 to PvP
• New bosses and monsters including the Fire Drake, Felankor and new monsters like the Reaper
• Brand new maps
• New NPCs, and make-overs of old NPCs
• New skills for Level 70 and up characters
• New items
• New Quests
• A new Female Karus magician character
• A red dragon, Felankor (hence Reign of the Fire Drake) is available to kill in the new expansion, and drops many rare unique items including the Ring of Felankor

[edit] Criticism

• Regular patch releases which remove duplicated content are criticized because they often affect players who unknowingly acquire duped items.
• In late January of 2006, some characters were set back to level 30 by a bug that came with the nr.18 patch.
• The company has no refund policy^[3] so if by any chance something happens to items purchased through the 'power up' store, there is no ability to retrieve it or receive compensations.
• Server stability issues result in serious lag problems and frequent disconnects for some players.
• Free2Play players are often presented with a "non-Premium members cannot login at this time" message when servers reach a predetermined 'cap' (somewhere between 50%-80%). Free2Play players are not allowed to log in until the server load falls below this threshold. Other MMORPGs such as RuneScape or Realm Fighter do not encounter such problems. Some players consider this policy as evidence that "Free2Play" is misleading and inaccurate. Also, as of the 1470 patch, non-premium players have experienced problems with getting access into the first server of each world (The server where Wars and most events are held), even when the number of players in those servers is below the 80% thresold.
• A rash of user account hacking/hijacking through technological and social engineering means has led to several^[4][5] announcements from the KOL team, but players are critical of long delays in resolving account issues.
• Some players feel that K2 software does not do enough to prevent/stop "Macroers" who use third party programs to gain an unfair advantage over other players in violation of the Terms of Service. This results in many duped items and money, which in turn creates inflation-a large problem in the game.
• K2 network has a BBB rating of "F" which is the lowest possible rating.^[6]
• Knight Online also has an exceedingly large Turkish player population, with well over half of Knight Online players playing from Turkey. This has led to a split in the Knight Online player community where Turkish and non-Turkish speaking players are often hostile to each other because the latter has felt that the former has hijacked their game.

[edit] External links

• Knight Online Official Site
• Knight Online Information

[edit] Notes

1. ^ "Temple Events Temporarily Disabled", Knight Online, September 6, 2006.
2. ^ "Results from the Final WC Battle", Knight Online, September 18, 2006.
3. ^ "End User License Agreement", Knight Online, May 7, 2006. See # 6. Sales of game items and in-game virtual money.
4. ^ "Account Security Warning", Knight Online, September 6, 2006.
5. ^ "Spoof emails and Fake KOL websites", Knight Online, September 25, 2006.
6. ^ "K2 Company Report from BBB", Better Business Bureau, October 25, 2006.