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Free mmorpg with item shop that doesn't unbalance game.
Gregross111
Member Posts: 52
Hi all , I am in search of a free mmorpg, fantasy themed, that has an item shop but the item shop cannot offer , Powerful gear or mega god like buffs that make pay players on a diff level then free players.
For example , Regnum online is 100% free mmorpg that offers an item shop with mounts, cosmetic gear, exp potions , and teleport scrolls
Why not play regnum then you ask? because the ppl that run the game are hopeless educated at the college of mexico developers who cannot fix there 4 year old mmorpg..
so something similar maybe? PVP/PVE/RVR games all welcome just needs to be free (no subscription and or initial cost)
and the item shop must not offer "leet" to players that pay , just cosmetic gear, exp pots, things along these lines , nothing that would imbalance the game vs free players
Comments
D&D online
you can play for free for months until you have to buy some dungeon packs (with are like 5-10$) and those could last you for couple of months more
the rest is rest shrines, not much into the leet stuff i think you can browse their online shop through their official page which im to lazy to look up or type
Have a look at "Runes of Magic" I havent played it in some time (just completely sick of fantasy MMO's) but when I was playing it it had a great community, great gameplay (mainly PvE) and I know it has had 2 major content expansions in chapter 2 and 3 which got rave reviews although I stopped playing before they arrived.
When I played I never noticed too much on the cash shop to unbalance play, some perfect gems & reset items but they were things you could live without. Lots of cosmetic stuff and of course mounts, but dont worry about mounts, once you walk to a new location/quest hub the first time you will unlock the portal point which you can then use to fast travel around the world map and even around the sections of the larger cities.
As I say it has been sometime since I played but it was good fun.
i heard cash shop unbalance pvp in runes of magic but im not sure, pve is nice tho
you heard right, runes of magic is probably the most worst example of a free to play mmorpg sadly =(... the game is free for along time then after months of time invested you find out you have to spend money to compete in PVP etc..
i enjoyed pve in RoM tho i never joined PvP because for some reason im attached to pvp in faction vs faction mmos (ex: horde vs alliance, evil vs bad, heroes vs villains, defiant vs guardian, etc). I dont find it exciting to pvp in mmos with only 1 faction, there i tend to focus on PvE only
Try Cabal Online
Try Flyff at gpotato website, its old school, anime graphics, can lvl over 120 and a lot of the item shops stuff is mostly cosmetic, show pets, clothing sets, u can get buff potions and items to prevent gear from breaking if u upgrade over +3, +10 items r hard to get and cost a lot of real cash to make, they give a damage bonus but mostly a super glow aura to you char, i have played it on and off over 5 yrs, it can be a bit of a grind above lvl 80, but they are constantly adding new content, the classes r fun, my fav is Billposter fights with a huge fist knuckle weapon and shield and has lots of buffs
all look into it, Anime not really my thing more of an american/European fan, It really comes down to game play though and if the item shop ruins the game...
True free to play games sells useful items to go around. Even freemium games does that and they also makes you to pay for a lot more things.
The only game I can think of that doesn't sell useful stuff in a itemshop and at the same time have no monthly fee is Guildwars. The problem is that you need to buy a box for Guildwars.
It is really not strange, MMO devs needs to get in money to run their game and selling fluff isn't enough, they will need to sell useful stuff, have box sales or get in monthly fees.
F2P pvP games just isn't good. You could of course play WAR, but just the first 25% is free there. Or DaoC without the expansions. Those 2 are your best options if you don't want to pay anything.
LOTRO. As long as you don't mind grinding multiple characters for points, you don't have to spend a dime.
you completely misunderstood me bro , I dont mind the item shops , i just want those item shops to only sell stuff that makes the game easier to lvl and stuff that makes you look cooler , run faster etc,
i do not want them to sell weapons , armor , buffs, specialty skills only gained through item shop , etc
Almost every F2P shop still sells gear.
DaoC, WAR or GW(B2P) still are your best options. I would go for DaoC if I wanted open PvP.
I didn't know DAOC had any sort of free access. Checking it out.
ive got a 65 warden on LOTR and a 50 runekeeper =P kinda over it , was in a raid guild played for about 6 months
guess realms/regnum online is my only option then , that or planeshift if i wanna roll with 20 active ppl lol
I have as long as you play it without the expansiobns. It is kinda old but still the best RvR game around.
There might be something else as well, but none of the more popular games (I havn't tried them all, there are zillions of MMOs out there).
All F2P games I tried with some kind of PvP sells gear than unbalances it.
Could try Faxion. Just went live yesterday so the server is still getting its community legs. The characters from open beta were not wiped however so there are high level players around. The game is F2P as you asked with a faction PvP system, Heaven vs Hell. Nothing at current is available through the item shop that cannot be attained through normal play though maybe not as quickly or in such a pretty form. Some cash shop items have unique graphics but the stats are on par. Cash can be spent to speed up skill gains (it's like EvE) or to open additional inventory slots. All and all it is a good start to a game with a mildly rocky launch. Some server issues they are working out. Don't let some of the player crying sway you too much. If you have been around MMOs a long time you will remember worse launches for games that are still around.
www.faxiononline.com
i just remember this game King of Kings 3
http://kingofkings3.gamigo.com/
sorry for some reason the link doesnt get clickable :S..... anyways, its suppossed to be a massive pvp realm vs realm mmo f2p, i dont know about the cash shop but you can check it out. ALso there are some other nice games from the same publisher.
edit: i read that the game has housing system and you can also build entire Guild cities. thats some nice stuff... againm i dunno about cash shop
I don't know how much you really want to deviate from Regnum, but the title practically begs for a mention of Vindictus. Plus, other suggestions in this thread are so dissimilar to Regnum that I probably shouldn't get chewed out for it.
Vindictus is less of an MMO and more of a small-party action game with MMO elements (if you've ever played DFO, you will see a huge influence from that in this game). The game is free and has an item shop, but it has to be one of the most unnecessary shops of all time. Most of the items seem to be convenience-based, and really don't unbalance the game at all. Pretty good for a Nexon game, of all things.
Overall, I'd say that the game is good to screw around with until you can find a more permanent home. Finding something that plays like Regnum but doesn't have a ridiculous cash shop is hard to find, since these companies need to make some money.
I recommend you to play Aika, as far I know it has very balanced cash shop and huge pvp fights, or you can play Lineage 2 on official russian server (it is f2p with sub option)
Faxion Online has said in interviews that their cash shop has a Time vs Money mentality. If you have the time you can find the exact gear in game.
The game wasn't for me but I do like their cash shop policy. Give it a go perhaps you'll enjoy it.
I strongly agree with Vindictus. On the same lines Mabinogi's cash shop doesn't really unbalance anything but you can pay a monthly fee to get access to useful things like shops and extra inventory space.
I like Perfect World's cash shop system. I never got to endgame, but from what I understand there are mystery boxes that can give you uber equips. However, I very much like its system because you can legally buy cash shop currency and items from other players with ingame money, meaning that you can farm / merch instead of paying irl money.
There really are no instances of cash shops in MMOs that don't unbalance gameplay for paying players against non-paying. The best instances of cash shops exist outside a MMO setting (Bloodline Champions and League of Legends for instance I really wouldn't call MMOs, but they have balanced cash shops where a paying player has no real advantage over a non-paying).
My suggestion would be to try a Perfect World Entertainment game as most of the items sold in cash shop can be purchased using in game currency. It will take a huge amount of effort to farm for these cash shop items, but at least you have a balance there if you really want to invest your time into it.
I'm not sure about Runes of Magic, but I heard you can play the game for a relatively long time without purchasing from the cash shop especially if you don't want to participate in PvP. The endgame from what I hear involves purchasing from the cash shop to stay competitive, but if you aren't in it for the long term you could probably get several hours of enjoyment out of it.
Definitely avoid Gpotato games. I know a few were suggested here. Every one I've tried had an imbalanced cash shop that almost forces you to pay to be competitive near the beginning of the game and you'll likely have to pay hundreds a month to keep up with progression.
Looking at the cash shops beforehand if possible can help a lot. Do a bit of research. Ask yourself a couple of questions. You can tell a lot about how fair a game's cash shop is by first glance. Does the game seem to make a lot of money off custom skins that have no effect on gameplay? Can you buy gear directly from the cash shop? Do they have lotto boxes (avoid these)? Can you buy mounts and other items? Do you need to pay money to enchant/empower your gear? Are there huge buffs or healing pots available in the cash shop? Do you have to pay money for combat pets and maintaining them?
Uncharted Waters Online's cash shop is unobtrusive.