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Unique Features of Aetolia
I've been playing Iron Realms games off and on for several years now - played Achaea for a while, then got into Lusternia and played that almost exclusively for several years (again, off and on, not really consisently) except for a brief stint in Imperian.
I've never gotten into Aetolia, but I'm interested in trying it out, and just had a few questions.
Coming from Lusternia, which is a game I do still love, I've just gotten a bit tired of how all PvP conflict is centered around large scale groups. Small groups and 1v1 stuff rarely happens. This conflict is encourages primarily through 2 systems - village revolts and aetherflares, which happen semi-randomly. If you aren't on when they happen you miss out. Pretty much no conflict happens other than this.
In addition, the combat over there is super complicated. The number of afflictions and types of afflictions is pretty high relative to the other IRE games. This, combined with a lack of in game documentation about all these afflictions, makes trying to improve yourself at PvP very difficult.
I'm just wondering, what are some mechanics and systems unique to Aetolia? Where does your conflict come from? What are some unique PvE things that Aetolia has? I know pretty much nothing about the game.
Looking at the front page there are some lines in the carousel, but don't link to anything explaining them:
1. Lead one of the cities of Sapience against the god-like Dreikathi.
2. Track down and do battle with the mysterious Eld, draining them of vital energies for city R&D
3. Is Albedos different from regular areas?
4. No level cap?
Also I saw a thread on the forums about instanced dungeons. Not sure how those work.
Basically I'd just like a summary of what there is to do in Aetolia or things you like about it that are unique to it.
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What I love about Aetolia is that it's nearly impossible to get robbed by other players, and it's extremely unlikely that you'll get PKed by someone unless you've actually gone and done something to warrant it. I've also found that roleplay is a bit more widespread and more easily accessible.
There's also been a lot of quality of life changes to the game. I'm not sure if other IRE games have this, but a while ago, Aetolia implemented an ability in the Survival skillset called First Aid, which is essentially a rudimentary curing system that will make you sip health/mana or consume curatives whenever you get afflicted with something. It's not as good as most player-made systems, but for someone who's new or doesn't have a system, First Aid makes leveling a whole lot easier than just manually healing and curing yourself.
Our affliction system is also pretty neat. Unless I'm mistaken, the game pretty much tells you what you've been afflicted with (unless the affliction is hidden), and tells you when you've cured it, so gathering affliction lines for building your own system is relatively easy. More recently, they've added a config option that allows you to cut down on combat spam by only showing you brief messages for attacks instead of the usual flavor text.
To address the points you wanted clarification on:
1. The Dreikathi are a race of people from the continent of Albedos that tried to invade Sapience in a big event that happened a while back. Technically we're supposed to be at war with the Dreikathi, but since they retreated, they're more of an invisible threat right now, though that might change when Albedos opens up some more.
2. Eld are energy creatures that exist primarily as part of one of the game's main conflict mechanics, leylines. You hunt foci for ylem, which your city can use to invest in research trees that provide benefits to its citizens. Eld frequently pop out of foci that are being extracted (more pop out the more people that are present), and can cause a lot of havoc at lesser foci. Most group PK tends to happen at lesser foci, which occur every few hours if someone finds one.
3. Albedos is an entirely separate continent that is planned to be much bigger than the main continent Sapience. There are different races, different cultures, and lots of new areas to explore, but Albedos has only seen a limited release. This should be changing as soon as more of Albedos gets finished by the Builder team.
4. I think there is a level cap, but it's really high. Something like level 200. They might end up increasing the level cap if there are people who get close to it.
In regards to instanced dungeons, they're not widespread yet, and we only really have one, I think, which is Xaanhal. Essentially, when you walk into an instanced part of the dungeon, no one else can enter your instance unless they synchronize to you, so you won't have to compete for or share a hunting area.
Aetolia's admins are also planning on introducing raid instances in the future, which revolve around more coordinated boss fights and obtaining actual loot drops.
^_^