Yulgang

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Yulgang is a Korean MMORPG. Developed by KRGsoft, it is based on a Korean martial arts comic which shares its name. [1]. The title of the game, Yulgang is an abbreviated form of the full title Yul-Hyul-Gang-Ho (热血江湖) which means "hot-blooded Jiang Hu." The subtitle "Balance of Power" refers to the two factions that are presented in the game: "The Order" and "Chaos." In China, the game is licensed to Beijing 17game Network, a subsidiary of China.com. This MMORPG charges no fee to play the game, but creates revenue through sale of virtual merchandise. As of September 28, 2006, the game is popular in China and Korea, with 30 million registered players and a peak of 315,000 concurrent users,[citation needed] with servers active in Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand, and America

Contents

[edit] General introduction

In 2005, Yulgang was recognized by the Korean Government to be the best MMORPG by winning the national President Award in the MMORPG category. In the same year, Yulgang was awarded with seven game awards in China. Yulgang currently has servers active in Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan and Thailand and has received rave reviews from the MMORPG community. Since its opening until now, Yulgang has logged more than 35 million users and even now has more than 600,000 concurrent online users.[citation needed] Yulgang is a game that incorporates adorable animations with stunning combat visuals to create a game that is both fun and easy to play. While there are surprisingly complex skills, Yulgang incorporates a simple control system that allows even the most inexperienced players to get the most out of the game.

[edit] Setting and story

The story of Yulgang takes place in a mythical realm of martial arts. In this realm there is a place called Central Valley where martial artists from all over the world gather to practice special combat tactics and skills to improve their strength of mind, body, and spirit. In this land there existed clans created to more effectively spread the knowledge of martial arts.

But as the clans grew more and more numerous, a faction arose that called itself The Order. It ruled the clans, with the best martial artists administering to the factions needs. The Order was also created for fighters who wished to not only learn new skills and improve their abilities but also to gain spiritual enlightenment.

Soon, another faction, called Chaos was created to be set in opposition to The Order. Those who allied themselves with this faction saw fighting and learning skills to be the priority and spiritual enlightenment as a frivolous endeavor.

As time passed, these two factions were plunged into conflict and the original hope of solely developing martial artists through training and discipline was lost and The Order and Chaos basically became two political entities.

In Yulgang, players become martial artists and begin their journey through Central Valley learning martial arts, completing tasks, and mastering skills. As they progress, players will be able

[edit] The house

Yulgang has its own embedded guild system, called The House. Its function is more or less what guilds provide in any other games, but the terminology used is a more realistic term in a martial arts society. Players are able to start creating their own houses once they reach the level 35, which is the level where they decide their factions. If the two factions are the two big communities in this game, The Houses serve more as the sub-communities under each faction to build stronger connections between individuals. As the numbers of members grow, each house will have more social and political power within the game.

[edit] Character class

The Swordsman is a warrior that has relatively weaker health and defense ability compared to the Bladesman. He also has weaker attack power compared to a spearman, however the attack precision, dodge and faster attack rate are his main strength.

The Bladesman is a warrior that has strong health and defense which provides the ability to withstand a lot of damage. He has strong attack power however his precision is low. Bladesman are the only characters in the game with AoE (Area over Environment, or the ability to attack several enemies).

The Archer is an agile warrior that uses arrows to attack from far distances. He has relatively low health and defense ability however he has a very high dodging ability.

The Healer is a magic-using character in this game that has relatively low health and defense ability. He has the ability to heal other players and execute ranged magic attacks.

The Spearman is a character that uses spears as his main weapon. He has relatively weaker health and defense, however his attacking power is the strongest of all characters.

[edit] Rage mode

Rage mode is a mode that players will reach when their rage gauge reaches full. As players fight against monsters, their rage gauge level will increase as they receive hits from monsters. Once this gauge is full, players enter into rage mode which increases the attack power. This mode lasts for a certain period of time which varies due to the player's level, character specification, etc.

[edit] Abilities and skills

Abilities are specific to each type of character, with ability points being rewarded with each level up. It allows players to improve certain specifications of their characters such as accuracy, damage, or the duration of rage mode. Players must be careful when they use ability points because those are the main factor that determines what type of characters they are going to raise. For example, a healer character has abilities for improving the amount of HP heal, increasing damage, and the duration of buff skills. Upgrading the first ability will help their ability of healing, the second will help them become an attack-oriented healer, and the third will help them become a better buff-skill provider.

Skills are specific moves that are performed by pressing a certain hot keys after a setting. Players can train skills when they reach their requirements of Ki points, level, and class. Ki points are rewarded with the kills of each monster by player themselves or a member of their parties. There are two different types of skills. Combat Skills deals with the damage to monsters using moves that become flashier and cooler at higher levels. Support Skills are any skill that does not involve directly with the attack damage to monsters such as wind-drifting, healing and buffing.

[edit] The party system

The balance of power in the game is focused on the online user community and this is reflected in the party system which is designed to bring the players closer together. Forming parties in this game is very crucial. Players can level up and strengthen their characters much faster by partying with other players. This game was created to be difficult to play alone. If a player plays alone, they will have to use more potions and will take much longer time to raise the character's level.

Of course, compared to the amount of experience gained in solo play, experience will be accrued much more slowly when you are in a party. However, as a player’s level increase, the party system will become more and more useful, if not necessary, in order to advance, especially in the case of an extremely experienced players whose character’s level is high. These players will rarely be seen acting alone in their missions. Rather, they will be in parties in order to accomplish their task with other users in or around their own level, because bonuses will be attributed to their party’s experience.

In order to promote and assist players forming parties in the game, the party request system is provided which players can use to request parties to join. Players will then be able to see the lists of players who are also looking for parties. A party can have up to eight members. An example of an efficient party would be one or two players focusing on healing and buffing, one or two Bladesmen and the rest of the party consisting of damage-dealing characters.

For instance, if a player kills 10 monsters that usually give a solo player 50 EXP points each, then a full party with 8 members each killing one monster will give a total of 710 experience. Because there will inevitably be members of the same party that are of different levels, we have also included a party experience penalty that changes with the monster’s level in relation to the players’ levels. For every level that a player is higher than the target monster, there will be a 10% experience penalty. For instance, if your character was a level 10 character and the monster you kill while in a party is a level 10, you will receive 100% of the experience. However, if you are a level 11 and kill the same monster you will only gain 90% of the experience from that mob. Let’s say that you kill a monster that gives a level 10 player 50 EXP points but you are a level 11. The EXP you gain will be 45 instead of 50 because of the 10% party penalty. This penalty is calculated through the highest level character in the party. This means that if a level 10 character parties with a level 20 character, while the hunting will be fast, each monster will give you only a small percentage of the experience that you would usually gain if you were to kill monsters of your same level.

[edit] Apprentice training

This system was created so beginners and low-level players would be able to receive help from a higher level player at his own discretion. A beginner can get acclimated to the game quickly through the help of an experienced player and a low-level player will be able to advance through the latter parts of the game through the relationship with the master. Creating a master/apprentice relationship with another player is relatively easy once all the requirements are satisfied. Of course, both players must agree to start this relationship in order for it to work. The apprentice training system allows new players to advance much faster than is usually the case. It allows the master to teach three skills and give items to the apprentice. The master gains experience from his apprentice’s gains in level and allows the master to receive items from the apprentice’s quests. While the in-game individual user experience is important, there is an interest in the growth of the Yulgang online community as a whole.

[edit] Pets [Premium Shop]

In Yulgang, pets are creatures that help you hunt and raise your own character’s level. In order to receive a pet, you must either buy the pet from the Premium Shop or buy/trade a pet from other players. To use a pet, you must visit Heather in Central Valley to initiate Quest 1/5. Quest 1/5 will increase your pet's loyalty to you while it is still an unhatched egg. Once you complete the quest, you are able to turn the egg to a Summoning Charm by right-clicking on the egg. Summoning Charms are used to summon pets and each character may hold up to 2 of them. The first time you summon your pet, you will be prompted to name it. Once it is named, you will be able to raise your pet and level it along with your own character. Pets are able to wear clothes and accessories just like other characters, with the exception of weapons due to the nature of the animals.

There are four different types of pets that you can choose from: mice, hawks, leopards, and tigers.

Pets are similar to regular characters in terms of statistics, but they are not given primary statistics (spirit, strength, stamina, and agility) but they are only given secondary stats (attack, defense, accuracy, and dodge). Pets also have a system of loyalty. Based on the level of the pet’s loyalty, its statistics, its experience gain, and your ability to summon the pet will change. There are 9 levels of loyalty. At the lowest level the pet may even refuse to be summoned. You can raise your pet's loyalty by feeding it certain foods that it likes. Pets may also be promoted in the game. After a pet receives its first promotion, it may learn skills. Characters earn Ki points and spend them to learn skills but pets learn their skills through skill books that are obtained through quests or shops. Mountable pets may also learn wind-drifting skills for even faster movement speed as well.

[edit] Item crafting

Items are extremely significant in this game. When a player attains a new level, their attack and defense abilities will only increase by one to three points. Because of the minimal increase in a character's abilities, many players choose to craft their items to add additional status abilities such as defense, attack, dodge, and accuracy.

Crafted items often assist players to level up quickly. However, a player must reach the minimum level of the item in order to craft it.

There are three different components to Yulgang's crafting system: enchantment, enhancement and essence. All three systems have different success rates based on the craft level of the item. In the order of crafting an item, it is recommended to first enchant the item, then enhance it, and finally apply essence.

Enchantment allows a player to take a sapphire or emerald gem and transfer the gem's abilities to a piece of equipment. Sapphires are used for weapons and Emeralds are used to enchant defensive equipment. Enchantment costs gold for each time an item is enchanted, whether it succeeds or fails. When an enchantment attempt fails, the gem is lost but the item is retained, along with its previous enchantment it had (if any). If the enchantment attempt succeeds, the item name turns blue and the options that were embedded in the gem are transferred over to the item. Equipment and weapons may be successfully enchanted up to four times. Armor can only be enchanted up to two times. Accessories cannot be enchanted. A player can apply as many gems to enchant a weapon until all four lines are maxed. However, the rate of success after the second enchant is very low and it often takes many gems to successfully enchant the 3rd-4th slot. Luck charms that increase enchanting success by a percentage are sold by the NPCs, though the use of the charm is optional.

In the enhancement system, a player uses a Ruby to upgrade the item. For every successful enhancement, it increase a weapon’s attack by +6 or a piece of defensive equipment’s defense by +3. Once an item is enhanced, it cannot be enchanted. There is a cost for every enhancement try. The number of rubies used to enhance an item depends on how many enchantments it has. For a clean item, it costs one ruby to enhance. An item with two enchantments will cost two rubies. And items with three or more enchantments will cost three rubies. You may successfully enhance an item up to 10 times. ONLY weapons up to level 2 in enhancement is guaranteed 100% success rate. The enhancement level is displayed to the right of the item name in brackets. There is a note of caution with enhancement: a failed enhancement attempt results not only in the loss of the gem, but also the loss of the item as well. Specific charms sold in the Premium Shop (nCash) can prevent an item from breaking if the enhancement fails. Luck charms that increase enchanting success by a percentage are sold by the NPCs and in the Premium Cash Shop, though the use of the charm is optional.

Applying essence uses amethyst gems. Amethysts give a weapon a special glow and embeds a property ranging from increased attack, defense, rage, accuracy, poison-ability. It is helpful in PvP since it gives players an additional advantage over their opponents. There are six different types of amethysts: water (blue), fire (), wind (green), poison (purple), inner energy (), and physical energy (red). Each essence has different effects on equipment, and their effects also differ when used on a weapon or on defensive equipment (among defensive equipment, essence may only be applied to robes). The same essence may be applied on an item up to 10 times. A failed attempt will result in the loss of the gem and in an initialization of essence statistics of the item. Amethyst gems must be bought from Holly in Central Valley town. There is no other way to obtain an amethyst except from Holly or a player selling it from their personal shop.

[edit] Types of attacks

Yulgang's unique features include the combo attack and skill combo attack. Ability points that are obtained at each increase in level can be invested in certain abilities that raise the power or procreation rate of these combo moves.

The combo attack is a move where the character does three choreographed attacks for slightly greater damage at a faster rate. Investing ability points in flowing blade will increase the procreation rate of combo attacks. As a side note, healer characters expel energy balls as their form of attack and do not have combo attacks.

Skill combo attacks use chi points to perform a powerful skill. In Yulgang, consecutively activating different skills will not cause the character to perform those skills consecutively. Instead, skill combo attacks are used. A player may register at least two different skills in a skill combo which will cause the character to consecutively use the registered skills in a combination attack. The downside is that a player will use more chi points than usual, and the skill combo is not repeated like other skills.

Other forms of attack in Yulgang include regular attacks, skill attacks, critical attacks, critical skills, armor crushing attacks, attack reflections, triple arrow attacks, and chi arrow attacks. Each form of attack has its own unique characteristics and the wide variety of attacks adds distinctive flavor and fun to Yulgang Online.

[edit] External links

[edit] Official websites

[edit] Fansites

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