Returning after 6 years.

Wow, where to begin. I guess my first question would be is anyone still around. Is Achaea more active than it was 6 years ago, or is it stagnant or dying? What has happened to all the Houses in Shallam? Honestly I think I might be more intimidated now than I was when I first started all those years ago.

Comments

  • Hi there!  Well, I'm not the best source (since I've only been playing here a year) but there've been a lot of changes.

    Guilds to Houses

    Shallam to Targoassas

    Race trait thing so every race is much more balanced with each other

    Blademaster and Alchemist

    And an ungodly huge number of other things that I have no clue how long they've been in.  Point is, there is a LOT of new stuff and we're glad to help you get acclimated again!
    image
  • I started playing right around when you did. Playerbase wise, I would say there's more people playing but it goes through waves of lots of activity to not a lot. Have fun and welcome back!
    meh


  • Welcome back!
  • edited May 2013
    Bring back guilds!

    /rant

    Welcome back!
  • I really think it depends on your personal prospective of how you actually played the game. For starters, some pretty intense events and changes have been in effect or taken place since you were last around. Which @Nellaundra covered decently. I'd also like to point out that each race does include stat-packs as well. Really, it's quite a bit of information, but there are players that have accurate accounts and can help you out get back on your feet. 
  • @Delphinus had a nice rundown of major changes from the past couple years for someone asking a similar question. Perhaps he or someone else with better search-fu than me could find it and link it for you.
  • edited May 2013
    This was originally meant as a summary of the last 3-4 years, but it should help.

    - The Blademaster class was introduced.
    - The Alchemist class was introduced, providing a non-forestal source of healing items. Forestal classes can only join Eleusis now, and alchemists can join any city but Eleusis.
    - Praying for salvation no longer costs additional XP.
    - Racial stats, bonuses, and penalties were overhauled. They've been largely replaced by a combination of racial specialisations (stat builds) and traits (perks/feats you can take every ten levels).
    - Theft via the force-command system has been removed. In its place, Serpents are now able to pickpocket gold and certain items from a person's inventory. This can also be done on NPCs.
    - Aligned classes are more closely aligned. Necromancers, forestals, devout, and occultists have all largely been pulled from cities that oppose them.
    - All of Sapience has been revealed, as well as most of the continent of Meropis. (See here)
    - Simplified PK (PK with RP justification) replaced the old PK-cause system.
    - Shallam was destroyed. Its refugees have founded the new city of Targossas.
    - A bunch of gods were killed, and a bunch of older, formerly dead gods returned. HELP GODS has the full list.
  • Oh awesome that does help. What seems to be going on with houses though? It looks like class acceptance is much more strict these days.
  • Within a given city, only one house can accept a given class. There are no more situations where every house in the city has monks/serpents/druids/whatever.

    Oh, and Shallam's houses exploded, too.
  • Daitanis said:
    Oh awesome that does help. What seems to be going on with houses though? It looks like class acceptance is much more strict these days.
    Not sure exactly what the status was when you last played, but I'm guessing from this comment that it was after autoclass (i.e., the transition from guilds controlling access to class skills and each guild having a single class to houses that accepted players of all classes). This was since restricted back down to sort of an intermediate position - each house accepts some set of classes (ranging from 1 to ~5), with only one house per city allowed to accept a given class. So most houses accept more than one, but given a city and a class, you basically have one available house (with the exception of the few houses that are based in one city but accept members from foreign cities).
  • I started back in '04ish and left around summer or fall of '07. Yeah I noticed that when I tried to apply for a House. Are there any plans for the new city of Targossas to allow forestals once Houses open up, or is everything starting to shift back towards guilds?
  • AchillesAchilles Los Angeles
    Daitanis said:
    I started back in '04ish and left around summer or fall of '07. Yeah I noticed that when I tried to apply for a House. Are there any plans for the new city of Targossas to allow forestals once Houses open up, or is everything starting to shift back towards guilds?
    Forestals (unless grandfathered in) can only join Eleusis or stay a rogue.  
    image
  • EiredhelEiredhel California
    Welcome back. :)

    Meow, meow, etc. 
    Eiredhel's Family Tree

  • Daitanis said:
    I started back in '04ish and left around summer or fall of '07. Yeah I noticed that when I tried to apply for a House. Are there any plans for the new city of Targossas to allow forestals once Houses open up, or is everything starting to shift back towards guilds?
    As @Achilles and @Delphinus said, forestals are only allowed to join Eleusis since the advent of alchemy. There have been some hints that the Targossan houses, when they come, may offer an experiment in opening the general class restrictions back up again a bit. In general, there's been a push toward restricting factionally aligned classes to the relevant cities (necromancy to Mhaldor, devotion to Shallam/Targossas, occultism to Ashtan, forestals to Eleusis). That restriction is far from complete: Cyrene still has accepts devotionists, Hashan has occultists, necromancers and even one or two devotionists, grandfathered forestals still exist everywhere, and so on. But I wouldn't expect to see changes in the opposite direction in the near future; you're much more likely to see necromancy and devotion booted from Hashan than to see forestals accepted outside Eleusis, for example.
  • @Eiredhel Thanks for the warm welcome back from you and everyone else. I really am glad to see the forum is still full of awesome people all these years later.

    @Eld Was this some kind of RP event that began it? I mean I understand it completely from an OC perspective, but are cities like Eleusis and Targossas actually at odds with each other IC? Also was there any OC reason for trashing Shallam, or was it pure IC?
  • KyrraKyrra Australia
    Shallam didn't have Babel with mad pitting skills to save the city from giant worms.

    I think you might enjoy reading through the event posts surrounding Bal'met. It explains the IC nuking of Shallam and why some of the gods are no longer around.

    Having returned from a five year dormancy last year, it takes a little time to adjust to all the changes, but it's definitely good to be back. Welcome back!
    (D.M.A.): Cooper says, "Kyrra is either the most innocent person in the world, or the girl who uses the most innuendo seemingly unintentionally but really on purpose."

  • VayneVayne Rhode Island
    There have been several events over the past few years to realign classes and cities more factionally. You might want to read up on the following as well as others:
    - The Burning of Darkenwood
    - Establishment of the Citadel
    - Keresis's return
    - Necromancer Recall
    - The Nurazar Saga
    - The Bal'met Saga
    image
  • Wait what happened to Darkenwood?
  • JonathinJonathin Retired in a hole.
    Achimrst said:
    Wait what happened to Darkenwood?
    Find out in-game.
    I am retired and log into the forums maybe once every 2 months. It was a good 20 years, live your best lives, friends.
  • What a better way to be welcomed back than flattery through imitation.

    Daitalis, Ward of Nature (male Tsol'aa).
    He is 18 years old, having been born on the 2nd of Valnuary, 607 years after the fall of the 
    Seleucarian Empire.
    He is unranked in Achaea.
    He is an extremely credible character.
    He is not known for acts of infamy.
    He is a Freeman in Eleusis.
    He is considered to be approximately 0% of your might.
  • @Seldin

    GAT DANGIT

    You didn't see anything.
  • Jonathin said:
    Achimrst said:
    Wait what happened to Darkenwood?
    Find out in-game.
    (╯° _°)╯︵ ┻━┻ A pox on you I say! A POX!
  • I experienced that choo choo train first hand when I met Dontarion and a few others in my grove after they burned it down.

    Pretty neat for my second real day back.
  • Holy crap that's actually you?
  • @Seldin It is, it is. I looked at it this way: Daitanis had never really accomplished anything. He wasn't well known outside of of the Sentaari, hell he wasn't even known in Shallam really. Not to mention after embracing two classes and switching had made his lessons all kinds of fug'd up. Better to just let him fade into obscurity and try to make something out of Daitalis.
  • I should do the same with Sylvance. She's what happens when you make a toon at the age of 18, then come back at 29 and try to continue your RP as you left it. What I wouldn't give to start this character again.
    Tvistor: If that was a troll, it was masterful.
    I take my hat off to you.
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