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Possible Retiree
Hello,
I'm a recent retiree from Achaea considering coming to Aetolia. I played a few years ago (around 2010 ish) and I imagine tons has changed since then. I had some questions I wouldn't mind being answered if someone feels like being helpful?
1. Achaea has loads of PK, how is the PvP community here? Am I likely to find fights regardless of faction?
2. How's Sentinel as a class? 1v1? Bashing? Group PvP?
3. Can I play Sentinel as non-Duiran or is that not allowed?
4. I know this one is subjective, but how's the community in general?
Thanks!
I'm a recent retiree from Achaea considering coming to Aetolia. I played a few years ago (around 2010 ish) and I imagine tons has changed since then. I had some questions I wouldn't mind being answered if someone feels like being helpful?
1. Achaea has loads of PK, how is the PvP community here? Am I likely to find fights regardless of faction?
2. How's Sentinel as a class? 1v1? Bashing? Group PvP?
3. Can I play Sentinel as non-Duiran or is that not allowed?
4. I know this one is subjective, but how's the community in general?
Thanks!
0
Comments
1: From what I can tell, the PvP community's pretty good. We have Sect and Ylem Foci along with Arenas, so you can find your fighting with little to no consequence pretty easily. As far as learning/teaching, we got some good teachers who can help with systems and combat skill/theory. Obviously someone better ingrained with PvP can answer better, but this is what I got for ya.
2: No idea, my char is Sciomancer, which is about to get a big update/overhaul.
3: It was recently made so that you can only be guilded within your own city.
4: We're great!
Hi.
2. There was a lot of changes recently to Sentinel which looked very promising. The class itself as great even before that, but I'm not sure anyone has tried it seriously with the new changes. Easy enough to learn, though, in my opinion. Great for bashing and probably the best bashing class of the spirit side (maybe the entire game, though depends on who you ask).
3. You can get any class on your tether, plus neutral ones, without being part of the guild. We have multiclassing which allows people who aren't in the guild, but have the class, to hand it out. But, if you go around it that way, there is a lesson or credit cost. If you get it from the guild, you're fine. Just requires a class slot being free. You get two total by default, which allows you to have your main class and a secondary.
4. Overall, we're pretty great. You'll find people here and there that you will not want to be around, but that happens in any game. Our community as a whole does try to be as friendly/helpful as possible.
Unrelated note, since you're coming from Achaea, you might be used to the system they give out. We have one named Source, which you can download from their Discord channel, that can be a great starting place.
And since you're coming from Achaea, you should know that here you may need to get to endgame in order to really compete in combat. It's not nearly as hard to get to as it is in Achaea, so that feat sounds larger than it actually is.
2. Never played it. It looks fun.
3. Yes. In Aetolia we have tethers for Shadow and Spirit. If you're spirit aligned, you can pick up any class that's attached to your tether via our multiclass system. In order to play a Sentinel straight out of the tutorial, you'll need to choose to start in Duiran, but if you chose to start as a Templar in Enorian, you could multi-class later as a Sentinel. We also have neutral tether classes that you can get regardless, and those are Monk, Wayfarer, Syssin, and Shapeshifter. Monk and Syssin, despite being available to either tether are affiliated with Shadow and Spirit aligned cities.
4. I'm originally an Achaean, from 1997-2001. I've been an Aetolian since it opened in 2001. I retired my first Aetolian and decided to come back to Aetolia with a new character. The community has its high points and its low points, but it's really fantastic. I think it's the best community in IRE. There's something for everyone. RP, PK, hardcore bashing, people who just want to socialize.
You can still find 1v1 if you want to through the use of the dedicated system (HELP SECT if you go ingame), but you'll be going up against the same people pretty much all the time.
Also, I'm here if you have more specific questions.
2. I don't know enough to answer this.
3. Others have answered this.
4. I enjoy the player community. I very rarely experience toxicity, even after big fights and contests. In any competitive game there's going to be salt, but I think it's a healthy amount!
The community toxicity exists as much as expected from any IRE game. No need to see the game through rose-tinted glasses or black-painted ones. You will find high notes and low notes throughout the game populace.
"But Sigmund! You don't PvP at all!"
That's right, I have yet to hit that proper loadout of credits, artifacts und IG resource to even feel confidnt bucking up to anyone - But that does not stop me (Sigmund), from still causing trouble, AND just outright accepting any and all deaths without complaint. Regardless of who did it, where it happened, or why.
I have to agree with you, when you state that the majority of PvP feels instutionalized and synthetic, more so in the sense that it hardly permeates, or elicits the right manner of energy to compliment roleplay properly to the point it feels organic and ALL PERVADING within the IG environment. Not 100% of every IG trooper/warrior, but pretty f*****g close to be fair. A handfull of serious PvP players work their magic just right enough to make me feel like I'm not around some sort of PvP automaton (I'm looking at you @Fezzix, and a few others as well).
As for all the associated toxicity within the PvP community - It's gross, but best thing I do now is just ignore all of that outright and withhold any reactions to some chump freaking out behind his computer screen for being killed.
I'm on board with you when you say the boss hogs are no doubt working on new outlets, and I hope to see it all soon!
2/3 - no clue, never played one
4. In general, I think our community is pretty welcoming and encouraging! As Sigmund pointed out, probably the highest point of contention and "salt" you'll see in the OOC Aetolian community is (unfortunately) based around PK: people complaining that other players are gaming the system with their tactics, people complaining that other players are PKing them without adequate reason, people complaining that other players are PKing them too much, people complaining that other players are PKing them and not letting themselves be PK'd back, people complaining that other players have more money/time/skill to have better artifacts/write a system, etc.
Overall, though, I really hope you give us a shot, we love new people and want to help you love us back!
For the record, I am totally not a PKer, but anytime I try to improve my pathetic PK skills everyone in the game I've ever run into is helpful and encouraging about teaching! The dedicated PKers would rejoice to have more PK-inclined players join the ranks!
1) aetolia is not nearly as large as achaea, so our pvp scene is smaller (duh). i'd say it's healthy enough on the whole, but because the game is smaller, we're a lot more susceptible to ups and downs. holiday season was pretty darn quiet, for instance. seems like both the main factions are pulling pretty decent numbers lately, though, so who knows!
i began my aetolia (and thus, MUD) career as a dedicated non-combatant, mostly because i didn't know squat about code and didn't care to learn. that said, i think i can reasonably describe myself as pretty decent now, and a lot of the reason is that our pk community largely is very helpful. sure, there are jerks. sometimes people (myself included) get too heated. i've had more good experiences than bad, though, and there's always something challenging to figure out - i say this about 1v1 in and out of the sect 'minigame', as well as about group pk of all sorts.
there are a few differences in pvp that stuck out to me when i gave achaea a try. the first is that achaea seems to have more options for ranged fighting, and thus players tended to consider it more readily. ranged fighting here is... weird, fewer classes have ranged abilities that are widely seen as useful, etc. you won't see it all that much.
the second difference is that achaean players seem much, much, Much more comfortable with raiding. in the ~1 year i've been playing aetolia, i've seen about a handful of real raids (i.e. not counting one rando riling the guards). this includes being a defender and an attacker. i saw at least as many raids in just the first couple days of serious play in achaea. why? idk. different player culture for whatever reason. it seems to have a stigma in aetolia that it doesn't really have in achaea - at least, my perception as a defender in achaea has mostly been that my citymates are having fun, whereas folks in aetolia seem less likely to find defending against a raid fun.
a third difference is that pvp in aetolia seems to have more bars to entry. in achaea, my impression as been that most classes can get away with learning two of their class skills and a couple general skills while remaining viable for both group and 1v1. most classes in aetolia are not so... forgiving. the reasons why are a bit complicated, and i've already spewed so so much, so i'll leave it at that for now.
all this said, pk can be had! and it can be fun! i'll fite u >:3c
2) regarding sentinel, vyx started off with this class/in this guild, so i can say a little bit here. bashing? it's pretty dang good for bashing. i got endgame with sentinel, and i didn't have too much difficulty doing so (after being power-leveled to ~85 by my then-mentor lol). is it the best bashing class in the game? imo, that honor belongs to zealot (yes, zealot), but for real, you shouldn't have trouble bashing.
it's also pretty potent in pvp. there have been a number of changes, but as a now-outside observer, i think it's a goldmine that's only just being tapped. lots of great skills for both 1v1 and group pvp - folks just have to find the best ways to combine them.
3) technically, you can use the class as long as you're spirit-tethered. if you start as a sentinel, though, you'll begin life in duiran, which is where you'll more or less have to stay until you gain 'class permanence'. if you go that route, i promise you'll (probably) live through it.
4) community, ah community. i'm not really able to comment in relation to MUDs in general or even versus achaea, as aetolia is really the only MUD i've played enough to have a feel for the community. most of the time, the community is nice, helpful, welcoming. sometimes it's not so much. like life, eh? my perception is that things have largely gotten more and more positive thanks to @Tiur, who took over as producer in april last year. his transparency, accessibility, and humor have really helped. that said, there are still some things i would tell people to keep an eye out for - although, bear in mind that these are my perceptions and opinions. i mentioned the game is small, right? well, most characters are played by a fairly small group of players, and perhaps not surprisingly, it can feel like there's a bit of a revolving door at times. there seems to regularly be some amount of drama (in either faction) that's more about these OOC relationships than anything IC. the revolving door extends to organizations - a lot of leadership positions are filled, repeatedly, with the same handful of players or even characters. sometimes that's not pernicious, of course. other times... well, it makes it more difficult to 'break in' to those parts of the game unless you have a higher-than-average amount of tenacity and the time/energy to establish yourself as a known presence in some way. sometimes people will assume you're an alt of some other player/character who they don't like. sometimes people just want to hold onto their crowns for whatever reason. i could go on (especially since i have a bad mental habit of focusing on the negatives), but despite all that junk, go away with this:
i'm coming up on my one year anniversary as a MUD/aetolia player, and i've essentially had a single character the whole time. the good has outweighed the bad by several orders of magnitude. people everywhere have helped and continue to help me with every conceivable aspect of the game, and i've made friends i wouldn't have otherwise. i love the setting, the story, the lore - and i love that, as a smallish game - there's a real possibility of making an impact on it. i'm grateful that this community exists, including those people who think i'm a jerk or i think are jerks, because it's been a really big part of my life in a year that's been among my hardest.
i hope you'll join us, even if you decide to join those no-shower-having, dirty-tree-hugging forestals in duiran.
A few things that might be helpful:
Setting up your own background story as being generally offensive, does not give you enough to fall back on as a reason for attacking people. You'd have to engage in RP to build some kind of connection with others, for good or bad. RPing from a brawl that escalates to full-out PK can be quite fun. Building up a conflict with an organization (engaging several people from that in RP), learning which ones would be alright with "having at it" can create a good, long-lasting personal conflict. Communication is key, though. It's a give-take thing, making sure everyone involved has a chance to get their fun, even if they don't win.
Others might not agree with my tips, but it's my experience that it's possible to have enemies in this game without too much salt, so long as it is handled properly. (I'm looking at Zaila and Teani, for example, where we've found a good balance on how to properly express the appropriate amount of hostility.)
3. It's been far too long since I played a Sentinel, but I remember I liked the class. They've made adjustments recently, and I think people are checking them out.
3. They don't have that locked down yet, but I believe it is generally stay in Duiran or nowhere at all. Besides, I don't think it makes sense for a Sentinel (ranger type of person) to live in a city, but that is my personal opinion!
4. As with all communities, there is salt, and cliques, and idleness, but as a whole, I really like the community. Some people are really helpful when it comes to systems, PK questions and mechanics, while others keep their helpful tips to close friends. There is an OOC clan for people who want to discuss RP, get helpful tips or find someone to engage with in smaller things.