Several questions from a newish player

Kerp

Hey. I'm somewhat new to the game (I played it for like month back and forth, back in 2004 and 2006) and I'm having trouble deciding on what to settle on, city/house/class-wise. I don't play a lot of muds, so this is all new and rather overwhelming for me. I was able to google some info, but it is mostly very outdated. My questions:


1. I have a very hard time on deciding on what city to choose. I've tried half of them. Haven't tried Mhaldor, Eleusis or Targossas. Mhaldor is most likely out of question because I don't really like playing completely evil characters - I prefer to be more grey. Though I am aware that Mhaldor is more machiavellian evil than "chaotic dumb". I kind of liked Ashtan, though the whole chaos and chaos lord stuff seems a bit too esoteric for me - are you forced to worship or respect chaos? Is it hard to learn and understand the chaos stuff? Cyrene seems a bit too "clean" and while it's nice having a LOT of friendly people around you, it's a bit too...posh? For me. Hashan seems interesting, but it seemed a tad underpopulated. Plus the whole research and science angle doesn't completely fit the characters I mostly play. Eleusis seems interesting, but how much freedom is there to it? Can I play as a more brutal protector of nature, or as an explorer? What city should I choose if I want to have quite a bit of freedom and a good place to learn the game?


2. On houses, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the necessity to write essays for some of them. I'm fine with doing long roleplay, I'm fine with studying the game's lore, I'm fine with doing various tasks - but writing essays to rise up in ranks isn't really my thing. Are there houses that don't have this requirement to rise in ranks, and what are they?


3. What are some easier to learn classes that excel at hunting and don't require you to spend a lot of real money for artefacts and such? I'll probably start completely without artes. Preferrably something doesn't require huge background knowledge to roleplay well. I don't really want to get yelled that I'm roleplaying a class wrong, because I don't know every little detail of the class' history. I like to play tough mercenary types, snarky intellectual types(with a bit of humor thrown in) and "crone" types. 


4. The hardest part of the game seems to be the PvP stuff. It seems like you require scripts and so on to play well. I've tried both the HTML5 client and Mudlet, and I prefer the HTML5 one - I just like having a GUI to check some stuff easily. I am completely coding illiterate - I've tried it (for other things) and I honestly can't make heads or tails of it. Even the simplest tutorials for Mudlet stuff confuse me. I haven't been able to find a lot of HTML5 client scripts or GUI changes online, are there any?

Tael

1. I have a very hard time on deciding on what city to choose. I've tried half of them. Haven't tried Mhaldor, Eleusis or Targossas. Mhaldor is most likely out of question because I don't really like playing completely evil characters - I prefer to be more grey. Though I am aware that Mhaldor is more machiavellian evil than "chaotic dumb". I kind of liked Ashtan, though the whole chaos and chaos lord stuff seems a bit too esoteric for me - are you forced to worship or respect chaos? Is it hard to learn and understand the chaos stuff? Cyrene seems a bit too "clean" and while it's nice having a LOT of friendly people around you, it's a bit too...posh? For me. Hashan seems interesting, but it seemed a tad underpopulated. Plus the whole research and science angle doesn't completely fit the characters I mostly play. Eleusis seems interesting, but how much freedom is there to it? Can I play as a more brutal protector of nature, or as an explorer? What city should I choose if I want to have quite a bit of freedom and a good place to learn the game?

Mhaldor is less Machiavellian evil and more Social Darwinist evil. Ashtan definitely does not require you to be a part of the chaos stuff - that's just one faction in a very large city with a lot of different stuff going on. Ashtan is sort of the "melting pot" city of the game. Eleusis has a fair amount of freedom and there is already a fairly developed faction of "brutal protectors of nature" in the city (though there are a ton of people interested in other perspectives on the whole Nature thing too). Every city is mostly full of friendly people - while Mhaldorian characters are "evil", their players are very nice and very welcoming for the most part.

Ashtan is the city that objectively offers the most freedom. Cyrene is similar, and is a pretty good low-pressure place to "learn the game". Though personally I would caution strongly against trying to give yourself too much freedom - it's pretty frequently the case that, in practice, freedom to do whatever you want involves lack of investment. In almost every case, people enjoy things more if they just jump headlong into things and get involved.

2. On houses, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the necessity to write essays for some of them. I'm fine with doing long roleplay, I'm fine with studying the game's lore, I'm fine with doing various tasks - but writing essays to rise up in ranks isn't really my thing. Are there houses that don't have this requirement to rise in ranks, and what are they?

No house is supposed to have essay requirements anymore. That practice was banned by the admin a while back. There might be a few left that have things that skirt the edges of that ban, but you should be pretty safe in most houses. Most of the houses that have any explicit reference to essays offer you other options to fulfill the same requirements.

3. What are some easier to learn classes that excel at hunting and don't require you to spend a lot of real money for artefacts and such? I'll probably start completely without artes. Preferrably something doesn't require huge background knowledge to roleplay well. I don't really want to get yelled that I'm roleplaying a class wrong, because I don't know every little detail of the class' history. I like to play tough mercenary types, snarky intellectual types(with a bit of humor thrown in) and "crone" types. 

All of the classes are pretty similar in terms of hunting - they play similarly and they have similar effectiveness. Some are definitely better than others, but the difference isn't that great and you're pretty safe with any of them. And it'd be extraordinarily rare for people to say that you're roleplaying a class "wrong". Pick something that appeals to you, that sounds cool, and you're probably fine. Artefacts aren't really ever required in any way for hunting. They're not really required for PvP either until you're fighting at a relatively higher tier.

4. The hardest part of the game seems to be the PvP stuff. It seems like you require scripts and so on to play well. I've tried both the HTML5 client and Mudlet, and I prefer the HTML5 one - I just like having a GUI to check some stuff easily. I am completely coding illiterate - I've tried it (for other things) and I honestly can't make heads or tails of it. Even the simplest tutorials for Mudlet stuff confuse me. I haven't been able to find a lot of HTML5 client scripts or GUI changes online, are there any?

You can do a lot of PvP with very little coding. That didn't used to be the case, but now that the server automates curing, you can do pretty well without any real scripting. As for learning to script, if you get to that point and you want to get into it, it's really not as hard as it's made out to be and there are a ton of people willing to help (a lot of people have learned scripting specifically for Achaea). The HTML5 client uses JavaScript for scripting and is newer, with fewer things people have already written, but it's totally functional as a client. If you like it more than Mudlet, you can certainly use it (I use it), though there are admittedly more existing scripts for Mudlet. If you really don't want to learn scripting and you really do want to get involved in high-level combat, I also know there are at least a few people who commission other players for scripts, paying them in credits.

Tael

The upkeep shouldn't be too oppressive for any of the classes. Runewarden used to be pretty bad if you were into higher-tier combat before forging was changed, back when good weapons for PvP cost considerably more than an arm and a leg, but it's not so much a problem anymore. If you don't ink tons of runes on people for free all the time, I wouldn't worry about it much. And venoms aren't used in hunting, nor are they really too expensive once you start wanting them for PvP. Runewarden definitely has the highest upkeep cost of those classes, but it's unlikely to be enough to really bother you.

In terms of hunting, all of the classes are almost completely identical in terms of complexity (shaman attacks faster and needs to hit a swiftcurse button every once in a while, but that's about it). Mashing your bashing attack and occasionally using your battlerage stuff when you have enough rage built up is about the extent of any class's complexity, with a few pretty manageable exceptions.

In terms of PvP, all of them are going to seem complicated compared to most other games. Of those classes, shaman is probably the most complicated, but not by too tremendously much - the PvP in Achaea is just complicated, no matter how you slice it (Which is one of the reasons it's so enjoyable! Lots of depth!). Every class is probably going to seem pretty "micro heavy".

Con is pretty much never a bad choice for any class, and it's usually regarded as the "best" statpack for the majority of the classes, but it depends a little bit on which class you end up with. For shaman, for instance, int isn't going to be of much help in PvP compared to con - the choice there is typically fairly easy. For runewarden, con is definitely still useful, but str actually has an impact on your ability to pressure health in PvP, so the choice is less straightforward. And even then it probably depends somewhat on which runewarden weapon spec you choose. Once you know what class (and potentially spec) you're going to do, then you should ask around and figure out what the typical stat choice is.

As for GUIs, you don't really need much of one. Some people put a ton of work into them, and they look really nice, and it can be nice to have all of that extra information laid out cleanly, but plenty of people do just fine without any custom GUIs. The overwhelming majority of players don't use any special custom GUI.

Server-side curing works the same on every client - it's just a thing you configure in-game via the CURING commands. Almost everyone used to use client scripts to manage their curing automatically, and server-side is basically just that, but built into the game so you don't need client scripts for it anymore (though some people still have scripts to do things like automatically swap the automatic curing priorities around in certain circumstances).

Achimrst

A bit about Eleusis to sort of answer your questions, yes you can play a brutal protector of nature or an explorer. Eleusis only really limits you from harming nature which can include NOT hunting certain denizens.

Edit: Oh and killing other Eleusians is bad too. As for houses, I don't think many of them do essays anymore but you are going to have to join a house that belongs to your city or one of the two houses, CIJ or Merchants, that are neutral. You also will learn about most houses when you join a city and do the city tasks.

Sarathai

Some semi-brief answers, in order:

1) There's a fair bit of freedom in Eleusis, and yes, you can play as either of those archetypes (or both, if you want, or anything in between). There are some limitations on what you can hunt (can't hunt Istarion, Tsol'aa, Sparrow's Rest, and a few other places/denizens), and there's obviously no harming Nature (which would get you kicked fast).

2) I'm not sure what Houses still have essays, but I'd guess/hope most are reducing them nowadays, if not dispensing with them entirely.

3) Runewarden is pretty decent for basic hunting, to pick one. Dragon is good for the tanking, but, well... yeah.

4) A good free system is Wundersys, which uses server-side curing instead of client-side. As far as clients themselves are concerned, Mudlet is popular and free, and there are free GUIs around too (Zulah's is in one of the forums here). I'm coding-illiterate as well, and really wouldn't know the first thing about HTML5 stuff.

Fusco

Kerp said:

Even the simplest tutorials for Mudlet stuff confuse me. I haven't been able to find a lot of HTML5 client scripts or GUI changes online, are there any?

One reason you might consider sticking with Mudlet is that a lot more people are making scripts for it. You can find several free GUIs on the forums that will give you most of, if not all of the features the HTML5 client has. I encourage you to learn bare bones scripting (for whatever client you choose) at the least. You can get a lot of use out of super basic aliases and triggers if you're clever about using them.

Aereidhna

I'm obviously biased, so take all this with a shaker of salt, but...

Virtuosi are a good example of a House that doesn't require essays - in order to advance in the House you study a certain type of art (you can do additional paths after graduation for Housefavours). Each path has eight tasks, most of which include workshops, tours, and producing whatever type of art you are studying (dance, music, theatre, tailoring, jewellery, cooking, painting, sculpture, poetry, or prose). The tasks build on each other and go in order, so you don't need any prior knowledge of the art - they are meant to teach from the ground up. You work one-on-one with your path head or their aide. As far as I know, most of the Shield tasks center around actually doing spars and such, so less with the essays, there, and I know the Outriders' exploration path focuses a lot less on essays and their other paths have some tasks that require essays, some that don't.

Cyrene can come off as...posh and pretentious, for sure, and some of us are overly(?) friendly. (I'm totally guilty.) But it is moving in more of a neutral direction as a city, and it's a very good place if you want some space to learn the game and pursue your own goals - it's meant to be a place where people can do what they want to do and achieve their own goals without being pushed in any specific direction. There is not the influence of factional RP that you get from other cities. 

Runewarden is a really good class for hunting, but the classes are starting to become more balanced hunting-wise, really, so my advice would be to find whatever class fits you - or that you think you could grow into - and try that. Make use of your time before you embrace class to switch around a little bit. If you are really min/maxing for best hunting, runewarden would be your best bet, but whatever fits your RP would be better.

Tael

TL;DR: Moral of the story is don't worry and pick whatever sounds fun!

All of the classes are viable (for hunting and otherwise), all of the cities have good people in them, all of the houses are fine (and none of them should require essays).

It's much more important to jump in and get involved than to fret over picking the "best" class/city/house.

Hellen

Hashan's a bit underpopulated due to events that caused it to give one of it's old Houses the boot and the Renaissance basically only just came to Hashan, raising two brand new Houses. It's starting to get more populated now that the stagnation of waiting for the Renaissance to come has passed and the new Houses can always use good people.

But if it doesn't fit your style, no harm done. Simply thought to comment on the population thing.

Kerp

Thanks for all the answers. I'm mostly interested in Ashtan and Eleusis for now. Runewarden, sentinel, sylvan and shaman seem like the most interesting for me. I understand runewarden can have a rather expensive upkeep due to having to purchase ink, venom and other extra things, is that easy to get gold for as someone new? Are shaman and sentinel as micro heavy as they seem? I've tried all of them except for sentinel, to level 20. Kind of a hard choice since all of them have something that appeals to me. Stat packwise, is it faster for hunting to focus on str/int, or on con? It seemed like I needed a bit more con to hunt reliably in Great Rock.  

As for GUIs, I was able to find Zulah's, and they seem okay. Are there any other free ones? How exactly does server side curing work on the HTML5 client?

Sena

When it comes to con vs str/int, ignoring PvP and just worrying about hunting, I'd almost always recommend con to new players who don't plan on buying artefacts right away. Runewarden would be one of the few exceptions though, because they're extremely tanky regardless of con, so a str-specced runewarden will still have an easier time surviving than a con-specced shaman/sentinel. Sylvan is decently tanky as well even if it doesn't come close to runewarden, but sylvan also requires significantly more lessons to get their nice defensive abilities, so I'd still recommend con to start with.

Xaden

I took on Runey as my second class there recently. For hunting it's an absolute dream (first class is monk - but after the nerfing Runey now is much better imo). In terms of cost - armour and weapons (full plate and dual scimi's) set me back circa 50k. Which is a big ask when your only means of earning quiche is hunting - but I think a lot of houses have donation bins / training equipment they will give or loan to you. And if you RP a female you'll get pretty much everything free all the time Inks and venoms and stuff are expensive yes, but they're not vital if you don't go down a pvp combat route. The old Ashtan was certainly the business in terms of cities, now it's a bit odd to me. Targossas is pretty cool people wise if you don't mind the regular praying As other people said above; just jump into whatever character it is you decide to play and commit to it. You'll enjoy it regardless of the who's, what's, where's and when's.

Valkyn

You mentioned you liked the idea of Hashan, but not the 'sciencey' stuff, the Somatikos is very much more physical oriented, combat, hunting, sailing, etc. You do have to do a little research for your trials, but it's not heaps, most any house is going to require some sort of research or writing. No essays though.

Each of the cities has a slightly different peak period it seems, you might have found you don't mesh up with Hashan's if you found it small - it's not as big as Cyrene or Ashtan, but it's not that small, bigger than Mhaldor or Targossas.