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.
Calipso

Comments

  • PhoeneciaPhoenecia The Merchant of Esterport Somewhere in Attica
    When I first started playing IRE games, I started out on Achaea. Being completely new to the game and not knowing much of anything, it was utterly demoralizing to get randomly PKed or robbed every single time I logged in. I stopped playing Achaea after only a month because of that, and then tried out Aetolia.

    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.
    EsperEzalorJasline
  • LinLin Blackbird The Moonglade
    They say Aetolia is the RP game out of all the IRE games. Our emotes are badass.

    We can target items and NPCs in emotes. We can emote text behind our name. We can emote giving things to people. We can emote while putting our clothes on. We can emote while eating. We can emote to save your marriage.
    SetneTeaniTza
  • Thanks for the info - I guess at this point the best way to learn would be to hop in, so I'm choosing a guild.

    Before I do that, are there any classes that are more expensive to be viable than others, or cheaper? For example in Lusternia Warriors are far and away the most expensive class to get good at. Not sure if that would affect my decision, but it would be nice to know. Kind of leaning towards Syssin right now.
  • ArekaAreka Drifting in a sea of wenches' bosoms
     Credits currently available for purchase:
           5 credits at  3200 gold per credit.
           3 credits at  3400 gold per credit.
          38 credits at  3600 gold per credit.
         100 credits at  3700 gold per credit.
          10 credits at  3800 gold per credit.
         377 credits at  4000 gold per credit.
          12 credits at  4700 gold per credit.
          74 credits at  4800 gold per credit.
          20 credits at  4850 gold per credit.
           5 credits at  4899 gold per credit.

    You won't have the same financing issues as in Lusternia. The Knight classes will be a bit heavier for optimum performance, both due to equipment needs (though the forging market's not nearly as pricey as it used to be), as well as benefiting from Weaponry, outside of guild skills - however, high tier combat requires investment in more than guild skills, so you'll find that regardless. Start with some classes that appeal to you and your roleplay,  not just the cost. Earning credits and money is completely feasible in game. 
    image
  • No offense but just posting credit prices is kind of meaningless without knowing how hard that gold is to farm.

    Credits are like 22k - 25k a piece in Lusternia, but I can make like 50k in a couple of hours. Also looks like Lusternia bardics/aritisinals are more consistently judged than here, and that's a big source of financing.
  • ArekaAreka Drifting in a sea of wenches' bosoms
    Gold is pretty easy to come by, though the amounts vary by your level and the areas you're bashing in. Noob bashing is offset by the novice areas also dropping curatives.Some areas are more profitable than others. Cities and guilds also run sales and reward with credits for merit achievements, more often than not. At endgame, You can make 20-30k by bashing Xaanhal and Tiyen Eyisti in 30-40 minutes. 
    image
  • Do you all have some sort of gold sink that keeps prices down? The only thing in Lusternia to spend gold on is manses, and then your regular curatives and such.
  • ArekaAreka Drifting in a sea of wenches' bosoms
    Credit prices fluctuate, the highest they tend to plateau at is 5-6k each. Gold sinks come in various places - houses, havens, shopping, iron coin market, shops, gold item auctions that occasionally come through, special gold-enforced mini artifacts, cryptic chests, skull tokens for the wheel of fate, the crafting system and various trade skills (which you can have multiples of, unlike the cartels) - furniture, brewing, cooking, jewelcraft, tailoring, woodworking - the talents (linguistics is a good gold sink, pyrotechnics and custom fireworks, fumology (smokables), instrument making in strings or woodwinds, fletchcraft and custom bows, etc), etc etc. 
    image
  • Phoenecia said:


    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.
    Isn't the Black Keep also an instance?
  • ArekaAreka Drifting in a sea of wenches' bosoms
    I don't think it is anymore, now that that's Iosyne's jam. 
    image
    Angwe
  • For those of us without a lot of arties, the Ylem system also offers a bit of a gold sink - amulets for 15,000 gold that offer similar benefits to level 1 artifacts.
  • IosyneIosyne the Lair
    Areka said:
    I don't think it is anymore, now that that's Iosyne's jam. 
    Correct. The tear in reality that was making the Black Keep unstable was fixed when Big Z was killed. The Black Keep is just a normal area (and it wasn't really a very good instance in modern times, now that we've done so much development with instance code).
    Valabrax said:

    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.

    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.

    What I typically hear people rave most about Aetolia, from players who have experienced other IRE games, is how many ease-of-use options Aetolia has implemented over the years. If you take a look at CONFIG, you can see a lot of cosmetic options available, which gives you a lot of control over how you experience Aetolia. It also makes for a very transparent game experience, if you're interested in system coding. As someone mentioned already, AFFLICTION LIST and the Affliction View system is amazing all on its own. 

    The second thing I hear most often is that Aetolia has a very rich roleplaying community, with a healthy amount of in-game code to support it. Take a look at HELP EMOTES - there are a lot of special ways and tokens to enhance emotes - says within emotes, emotes within says, targetting emotes, even deciding where your character's name appears in the emote. There's also HELP ATTIRE, which further customizes how your worn items appear on your character. I'm not sure if attire is unique to Aetolia or not, but it's pretty fun!

    The ylem conflict system is fairly new, and reliable for occasional skirmishes, be it 1v1 or small group. It tends to lean towards small group PvP. Every three hours, a lesser foci spawns, which usually guarantees some sort of conflict. We're currently in the process of making several enhancements to this system, to provide more avenues of conflict. 

    Raid dungeons are an upcoming addition to the game that has a lot of people very excited. They're aimed at giving endgame PvE some additional challenges, with heavily scripted group encounters requiring additional strategy. This "raiding/dungeon system" will have some unique features with it as well, once the first dungeon is released. Somewhat closely related to this is another system that's in the design stages currently - Factions. This will be another PvE enhancement (with potential for PvP conflict) to greatly change the way your character's reputation in Aetolia is made. 

    Hope that gave you some insight, Valabrax. We hope you stick around! 
    image
    LinValabraxAldricPiper
  • MoireanMoirean Chairmander Portland
    DID SOMEONE SAY RAIDS WHERE
    AldricAarde
  • edited June 2013
    Since no one has mentioned it yet, I'mma gush about our crafting system that is player-approved (the only one that is). Its faster (3-4 days TOPS on an item in the que, compared to a week/weeks), more efficient, more flexible and offers a much, much more grand customization than any other of IRE game's. 

    Echoing just a few more things, what others have said, ectr - 

    +RP is the best here out of all of the games. I've played all of them, they are all extremely poor in comparison. 
    +The society is the best all around. Helpful, communicative, understanding in a lot of ways OOCly, like here on the forums. This translates in game to a better playing experience because a lot of us try to make the game better for others to enjoy. 
    +Its not cluttered. But its not lacking. A lot of the other IRE games (all of the other IRE games, imo) have one or the other problem. There is a lot to learn, a lot to do and appreciate, and some of it can be confusing, but its not so overwhelming if you're coming from another MUD, especially Lusternia. 
    +We have amazing admin group and producer. The best.

    So really, what I'm saying, is Aetolia is awesome you should play.
    PiperAardeHaydyn

  • Nola said:
    Since no one has mentioned it yet, I'mma gush about our crafting system that is player-approved (the only one that is). Its faster (3-4 days TOPS on an item in the que, compared to a week/weeks), more efficient, more flexible and offers a much, much more grand customization than any other of IRE game's. 


    ...I can't get out of the quote box. D:

    But this is inaccurate. Imperian's has been player approved for years. It does seem to have some pretty nifty upgrades to customization. Though it could certainly do with a litttttle more documentation about what stuff does. :P
    imageimage
  • Areka said:
     Credits currently available for purchase:
           5 credits at  3200 gold per credit.
           3 credits at  3400 gold per credit.
          38 credits at  3600 gold per credit.
         100 credits at  3700 gold per credit.
          10 credits at  3800 gold per credit.
         377 credits at  4000 gold per credit.
          12 credits at  4700 gold per credit.
          74 credits at  4800 gold per credit.
          20 credits at  4850 gold per credit.
           5 credits at  4899 gold per credit.

    You won't have the same financing issues as in Lusternia. The Knight classes will be a bit heavier for optimum performance, both due to equipment needs (though the forging market's not nearly as pricey as it used to be), as well as benefiting from Weaponry, outside of guild skills - however, high tier combat requires investment in more than guild skills, so you'll find that regardless. Start with some classes that appeal to you and your roleplay,  not just the cost. Earning credits and money is completely feasible in game. 
    As iterated above, this is all relative to the current market. Noting someone said 50k in a few hours, that's actually kind of...bad. Anyone who tries hard enough in Lusternia can net 40c or more a day at credit prices. Esteem is an extremely lucrative and unlimited source of gold income.
  • The difference between here and Imperian is that in Imperian, you have to be approved by the crafting admin in order to be apart of the crafter's guild so you can approve. You don't have to here, its like, you pay some gold, you're in, and there is a player-organized clan for those people with plenty of helpful projects. 
  • AlexinaAlexina the Haunted Soul
    I like how there's not infinite gold drops/quests/farming in Aetolia.

    ^_^
    image
    Aarde
  • Small note: while that is a somewhat-accurate depiction of credits right now, the average usually does tend to be around 5-6k. Bear in mind that we just had 3 auctions wherein people were trying to sell mass quantities of credits for gold to bid on for-gold items.
    image
    Feelings, sensations that you thought were dead. No squealin' remember, that it's all in your head.
  • Alexina said:
    I like how there's not infinite gold drops/quests/farming in Aetolia.

    ^_^
    What? No more so than any other game?
    Valabrax
  • edited June 2013
    No personal attacks please.

    I'd also like to rave for the tradeskills/talents system, though i wish Luthier and Ventier would be more useful.
    image

    Tyrai
  • TzaTza
    edited June 2013
    Things I like about Aetolia (especially when compared to Lusternia):

    + Easy to earn gold to buy credits with. You don't have to be endgame or even close to it to get decent gold-earning rates (unlike Lusternia imo. Esteem is also not an option if you don't have trans Influence or are a sucktastic charisma race a la viscanti).

    + You do not need a bazillion skills at (near) transcendent to wiggle your toe. Also Minis exist in Aetolia. You know, those skills that have (almost only) passive effects and cost less credits to transcend (not like <insert -certain- Lusternia skills that fit the description and cost the full amount of credits>)

    + You do NOT need a bazillion pieces of equipment (omg Lusternia wtf... and I'm not even looking at a warrior.).

    + Cheaper curatives, cheaper upkeep (aka replacement etc) of your equipment. Makes it less of a hassle if you only casual play (like me) and stuff decays on you regularly.

    + IC Conversations tend to be more IC - in my experience at least. In Lusternia it's all just far more "in your face" with the OOC stuff in IC conversations. I like Aetolia's way far more... more creative phrasing going around here. :) In Lusternia no one seems to bother or care. :(

    + Affliction classes are actually viable in Aetolia. Much much love for that.

    + Less randomness in afflictions, more options for scripters, (some) fixed curing queues, discernment etc cause PVP in Aetolia as a whole to be more about strategy and tactic than in Lusternia. In Lusternia it's just too random and imo by far not all classes synergize well enough to do that. I just like Aetolia's approach in PVP far, far, far more.

    + Aaand finally: Aetolia encourages me to type out my emotes, whereas Lusternia makes me feel silly for doing so... because no one else does. :(


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