What’s New
On May 20, 2009, Rappelz Epic VI Prologue: Navislamia arrived! A sweeping update to Trainee Island was included, as well as three new pets and new high level content!
Trainee Island was overhauled from the ground up, with brand new localization, new quests, and a new dungeon in the form of the Ghost Ship Navislamia. Response to the new Trainee Island has been overwhelmingly positive, as it provides a much richer and more exciting introduction to the world of Rappelz. It also marks the beginning of a new epic storyline for Rappelz, one that will delve into the hidden world of the three races and reveal the true story of the Witch.
The three new pets introduced in Epic VI are the Gnoll, Harpy, and Wolf. The Wolf and Harpy have been requested by players so much, we were thrilled to finally add them. The Gnoll, on the other hand, is the tanking pet that Knights never knew they needed. All three are making friends across the servers, and proving themselves to be worthy additions to the Rappelz family!
Unlike the new pets, the new high level bosses have been making enemies throughout Rappelz. Silex the Giant, Kiscia the Beautiful, and the other new quest bosses have become the scourge of groups looking for an easy target. These fearsome foes present a new challenge for Rank 6 and higher players and have proven to be quite popular at recent GM events, too.
Event Insider
This month, due to popular demand, the GMs made it a point to visit all of the servers and throw big monster summoning parties. All of the usual suspects were there – Oforia, Likirus, Soulseeker and pals – but there were also some new faces, including new bosses all the way up to Dominatus the Mad. It was also a great chance to meet the most recent additions to the GM team! [GM]LawsVegas, [GM]RawTin, and [GM]Allure were all present to meet the players and summon gigantic bosses on top of them!
"Thanks a lot for the laughs, it's nice to have you guys visit," said Lunabelle of Yeti server.
AerynSun of Bahamut added, "That boss event was a lot of fun, even with the dying and the lag and the dying."
Most people had a great time despite the inevitable lag from that many people in a small area, and the new GMs were a big hit. Thanks to its popularity, we’ve decided to make a strong effort to run more events like this, though we have some ideas that are more exciting than just monster summoning.
Rappelz Reporter Community Spotlight: Kristian of Yeti
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I'm an 18-years-old student from Germany. I still have about one more year of school, and then I hope to go to a University and study something in that direction - Information technology/computer science and Math are my main fields of interest besides design, which I only do for fun sometimes. I spend most of my free time doing web-programming and design, but I still have a lot to learn, especially in graphics design and technical UNIX-related stuff.
Rappelz is my first MMO and I have been playing it for about 2.5 years now, taking part in the E4 closed and E5 open beta phases. Prior to Rappelz, I spent some time being active in the German and international communities for the turn-based Heroes of Might & Magic V strategy game.
However, I like to say that I spend more time with games out of them than actually playing them. This included modding and map-editing for HoMM5, and has now evolved into running a fan site for Rappelz, (http://rappelzcharacters.com/).
How did you start playing Rappelz?
A good friend I knew from the German community of HoMM recommended this "interesting new game" to me in November 2006, just before the launch of Epic 3, I think. I quickly got two of my real-life friends to start with us on Yeti server, and we did most of the beginner's stuff together. I then started my first guild, the "NorrathsHelden", based on the name of my friend's EverQuest guild. Sadly, those three co-founders of the guild quit in mid-Epic IV, and we gave up the guild and our alliance with the "Elfenritter" guild after having a lot of fun together. The remaining members followed me to join the AncariasRappeIz guild, in which I have been ever since.
What inspired you to create the Rappelz Character Database?
The idea first developed during my two-week fall break of 2007. In my small guild, we had very few people, but each of us had 6-8 or even more characters. Originally, I just wanted to be able to see how the characters were related to the real people behind them. At that time it was more like a choice between doing the member list on our guild page by hand or via a more comfortable database backend. Then again, I had already been looking for a project to get deeper into the field of web-programming. So it was over those two weeks that I built a prototype and then gave access to some of my friends, and later to our alliance guild as well. It turned out that all those testers liked the idea very much and started to suggest more features. The first very limited version of the signatures started to spread on the alliance forums, so people who hadn't been invited to the test began to ask about it. Over the Christmas holidays I took my time to work out bugs and more or less finish the version that was then released in January.
With Rappelz being my first MMO, it was only after the prototype was finished that I learned that similar services exist for other game, like the famous WOW-Armory. Once I even stumbled across a post on the official Rappelz suggestion forums asking for "character badges and buttons" to be offered by the game itself. I think that was also the first time that I posted one of our signature images as an example on an open board, and it encouraged me to take the project beyond only my guild.
+ Click here to read more about the Rappelz Character Database and its future.
Your website’s custom forum signatures have become a fixture on the official Rappelz forums. What’s it like seeing your work become such a big part of the community?
I'm really glad my "fun project" turned out to be something quite useful for the community. Seeing the signatures so widespread showed that I could achieve something in a game that's mainly about leveling without having a high level character. Mostly because of the time I spent on the site my in-game main character is still "only" Lv 100.
Honestly, I was quite surprised at the early success I had with the site when it launched in January last year. It was the first time I created something that was actually going to face the public, and I had absolutely no idea how people would react to it, or that it would eventually spread as far as it has today.
What’s in store for the future of the Rappelz Character Database?
Well, we have just released a big update that I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time: The ability to put up to nine characters in a signature and the extended signature style browser. We especially needed the browser to make the style selection easier, as we are nearing the 100-styles mark.
I definitely want to go further in the direction of improving our dynamic signatures in the future. Allowing more information in them, such as guild icons or servers, is something I'll look into over the coming weeks.
I think a lot of people are also waiting for the completion of the Wolf/Harpy/Gnoll skill trees, but I haven’t been able to work on them yet. Those will come "soon", hopefully, but updating them is a quite a dull and lengthy task, so it might take a while.
Of course, there are more ideas that are likely to be implemented at some point, and there have been great suggestions from the user base as well over time. However, I don't want to promise something which might or might not happen in the future.
Furthermore, although some people have requested it over the last year, I won't be building a complete Rappelz reference database in the foreseeable future. We already have a great fan based wiki (http://rappelz.wikia.com), and AlizarinHQ (http://alizarinhq.ancientkingdom.org/) is also in the process of a relaunch. I see no need to duplicate them or the upcoming official Rappelz Library.
But eventually I want to go over some of the most important existing parts of the site to improve them: The user profiles and guestbooks definitely need an overhaul in my opinion, as well as the character search form. This is something I will gradually work on when I get the time to do so.
What is your favorite thing about Rappelz?
By far my favorite thing about Rappelz has been the two beta-tests I've been in (E4 and E5). Seeing communities of all servers merge and work together was a great experience during the Epic 4 closed beta. There was no real economy on the server, because only like 500 people were invited to join it. Everyone shared what they had and gave stuff away to people who needed it. I made friends with lots of people from my own and other servers that I would never have met otherwise during this beta period.
Then again, one year later, there was the open Epic 5 test server. Just being appointed as a volunteer moderator a few months before, I especially liked the chance to get to play and communicate directly with the GMs and the forum mods of other servers there. We sure did have a blast on that server, and I always miss it and hope for such a chance again. Hopefully there will eventually be a need to open up another beta server for later parts of Epic 6.
I really like how the GMs are trying to get the community together for events like those, and are also trying to communicate with them even more recently. So I’d say that Rappelz's great community (and, of course, my guild) has always kept me here when I was on the verge of leaving the game.
Customer Service Tip: "GM Impersonators and Phishing Scams"
Recently, we’ve seen several reports of players getting scammed by people pretending to be GMs, as well as getting their account information stolen by websites pretending to be the official Rappelz website. Here’s what to watch out for when dealing with someone claiming to be a GM:
- GMs don’t need your password. If anyone ever asks for your password, don’t give it to them!
- GMs won’t ask you to trade us your items or pets. We do not need your items in our inventory for any reason.
- GMs will always have [GM] in their name. If someone claims to be a GM without [GM] in their name, they are impersonating a GM and you should report them to us at Rappelz@gala-net.com immediately!
Here are some tips for recognizing “phishing” websites that attempt to steal your account information:
- All official Gala-Net websites are part of the gpotato.com or gala-net.com web domains. If a website wants you to log in with your gpotato account information but the web address isn’t gpotato.com, it is probably a scam.
- Don’t trust links from emails you receive, even if it looks official. Always check to make sure you’re at an official gPotato website by looking at the web address.
- GMs will not give you prizes by sending you to an external website to input your account information. We have the ability to put prizes directly in your inventory without knowing anything more than your character name. Don’t trust any hyperlinks from someone you don’t know!
What if your items or account gets stolen? Report it to us at Rappelz@gala-net.com! If you still have access to your account, make sure you change your password immediately. We will try to return your items, but even if we can’t restore all of them, we will definitely take action against the scammer.
So remember:
- Don’t fall for people pretending to be GMs. We all have the [GM] tag in our names!
- Don’t trust any website that you didn’t navigate to yourself! Make sure the web address is "gpotato.com"
- If you get tricked, report it to us at Rappelz@gala-net.com!
Inside The Life of a GM
GM Name: LawsVegas
Favorite Pet: I like the rooster. It's the most neglected pet, poor Rooster didn't do anything for anyone. And maybe that's why it's neglected?
Name of your Decorative Pet:
Oreo the bunny
First Class You Played:
Strider…because everyone's first character is an Asura right?
Favorite Rappelz Monster:
The Rupee Spammer, cuz I get to banzor them! And find new and creative ways to squash them.
Favorite Rappelz Moment:
Being welcomed by the community so warmly!
