Questions about coming back

Jiraishin

Hello, I don't know if anyone remembers me or not at this point. I'm Jiraishin. I was a Mhaldorian Serpent for a long time, an Ashtani Serpent for a short time, and quit Achaea cold turkey because I needed to focus on university (I started playing as a high school sophomore) and couldn't make the time commitment. This was several years ago: I'm out of uni, in the workforce, and have a bit more spare time now.
So: I've been gone for years. What's the game atmosphere like, compared to 2013-2014? What's the RP situation like, city to city? What's the current state of the Serpent class? Is it worth coming back? Are there active Divines, and should I make a new character if I do decide to come back at all, or is Jiraishin viable?

Also, I'm very sorry to anyone I left hanging RP-wise all those years ago. I needed to quit to focus on real life and had to make the decision to cut myself off all in one go, which unfortunately left me no chance to contact anyone I didn't talk to OOC.

Tvistor

I logged in for a little bit recently and things seemed a little bit dead to me. I didn't recognize too many players, so they were either all asleep or (more likely) they've mostly moved on to real life or switched to alts. Serpent seemed basically the same although apparently creating venoms is a tradeskill now.

I'm not super up to date, but I'd probably consider taking a pass for now unless the game is very different during peak American times.

Dalok

I dunno, Im here after a pretty long break and am only around really early due to life. Things seem pretty active and even if they aren’t there’s enough to mess around with to keep you occupied for a while.

Jiraishin

Can you be more specific, please?

Penwize

I think your quick glance of the game is a bit off, @Tvistor.  There certainly are times of day this month where the population dips a lot, but I think that's mostly because of a lull in content while they gear up for whatever it is they have planned for September, and how many major games just got released/got expansions.  WoW in particular, it seems, has drawn a lot of people away at least temporarily.

Still, every city except Eleusis has at least one active god.  Cyrene's got two-ish, Ashtan's got three, the rest have one.  Plenty has been happening on the story front, both big picture and small picture.  Game development is more active than it's ever been I think, since it seems like they've acquired more developers and content producers.  We've had some of Achaea's largest content additions ever in the past year, with the Underworld overhaul and the entire Yggdrasil/Elemental Planes reveal.

I think it's absolutely worth coming back, and taking advantage of the current lull to ease back into things and sort yourself out with all the changes.  The game has changed a lot in the past 4 years of active development, and the vast majority of it has been good.  Serpent is still serpent, not too much has changed with it, but there's so much more on top of that.

Edited to add: If the forums look deader than you remember them being, it's because almost all of the old forum banter is now on the Achaea discord instead.  Forums are definitely more quiet than they have ever been.

Jiraishin

Penwize said:

 Serpent is still serpent, not too much has changed with it, but there's so much more on top of that.

Can you elaborate? I left after they re-worked theft, but I hear weird things have happened with Venom and they'd already nerfed my Subterfuge a tad. How is Subterfuge doing? What's the class flavor like these days?

Also, nice to see a familiar name. Hiya, Penwize.

EDIT: No hiya for Tvistor, because I know his real name and so do my merciless assassins

Penwize

Theft as it once was is a little bit dead, you can't force give/put anymore.  It was replaced with pickpocketing, which has its own mechanics and targets mostly gold, sigils, keys, and other small items like that.  It can be used on denizens too, so there's that avenue now.

I'm not sure if the lightwall change was before or after 2013/2014, I can't remember, but it was a pretty significant boost to Serpent's combat power.  Lightwall makes darkshade tick way faster, and tick even at night/indoors.  It opens up a lot of locking avenues that force a fork between ginseng and something else. 

Subterfuge hasn't really been nerfed that I remember, other than the theft changes.

Fully artied serpent is the best bashing class in the game.

As for other content, uhh, wow.  There's been a lot.  Off the top of my head, the Depthswalker class was a significant addition that evened out a lot of the factional class advantages.  Monks got a secondary spec, Shikudo, which is a pretty strong mix of afflictions and prep.  Most classes have had some significant changes or overhauls, although Serpent's remained pretty stable there.  With the elemental planes came the ability to become an elemental lord, which is its own class that you can shift into and out of like dragonform, and is acquired through questing on the elemental planes.  Questing in general has had some major updates.  We've had a handful of very major world events that drove the story forward in very significant ways (Underworld war, second Black Wave, Yggdrasil and the Elemental War, etc).

Class flavour is very mixed now, honestly.  Almost every class gets representation to some degree, except maybe Jester and Tekura monk I guess.  Most classes are really great these days, in their own ways.  Multiclassing helps, some people switch their class pretty regularly with it.

Tvistor

Hello @Penwize my old friend,

I've come to get mind crushed by you again

(But it sounds like the night in Australia is just too early in the U.S to play )

Penwize

That shows your age, I haven't played monk in years at this point!

I'm around at that time a bunch (if I'm getting my timezones right), and yeah it's definitely the deadest time lately I think.  Still, I imagine it'll pick up by September, and once the new WoW expansion fever dies down a little.

Jiraishin

What in Apollyon's name is Depthswalker though
Is it as cool as it sounds from the name? (I'm guessing no)

Also did multiclassing ever become a thing, and if so how?

Penwize

Depthswalker might be cooler than it sounds.  Shadow-manipulating time wizard, basically!  It came with the second Black Wave event, its powers originate from Tsol'teth research.  There's some really cool history to read about it!

Multiclass is a thing!  You have a limited number of class slots, with more opening up either by buying them with credits or gaining levels past dragon.  Switching which class you're using has both a normal cooldown (which can be reduced with artefacts and levels), and an aggression cooldown (which can't be reduced).  Aggression cooldown is straightforward: you can't change class until 10 minutes after the last aggressive action you take.  The lesson cost for learning class skills increases for every class after your first, up to a certain cap.  I'm not entirely sure of the exact numbers there, I'd have to look those up.

Oh! Something else you might be interested in, some arties have had significant changes to make the whole two class of citizen thing less of an issue.  Gems don't completely remove you from who lists, and veils are completely different now: they give you cross-planar farsee and fullsense, instead of hiding you from people without veils.

Sena

Jiraishin said:

What in Apollyon's name is Depthswalker though
Is it as cool as it sounds from the name? (I'm guessing no)

They use Tsol'teth magic to control shadows, which they use to create their weapons (shadow scythes and daggers), along with Tsol'teth words of power that they first have to research, and a sort of time-manipulation. Notable abilities include plunging an entire area into darkness, having someone killed by their own shadow, and the Litany of Obedience.

Jiraishin said:

Also did multiclassing ever become a thing, and if so how?

You unlock a second class slot at level 80, then another at level 100 and every 10 levels after that. You can also just buy slots for 250cr. Learning another class takes extra lessons, increasing pretty quickly with every additional class. You can switch between slots instantly, but there's a 12 hour cooldown (reducible with an artefact) and an aggression timer so you can't change mid-combat. You can't have factional classes from multiple factions at the same time.

Jiraishin

My god I'm even more jealous of Veils now
And Depthswalker sounds like it steals what Serpent should have been. Hissss.

Xae

Tvistor said:

I logged in for a little bit recently and things seemed a little bit dead to me. I didn't recognize too many players, so they were either all asleep or (more likely) they've mostly moved on to real life or switched to alts. Serpent seemed basically the same although apparently creating venoms is a tradeskill now.

I'm not super up to date, but I'd probably consider taking a pass for now unless the game is very different during peak American times.

I came back for a few months! But I'm trying to focus on work

Mindshell

Tvistor said:

...

(But it sounds like the night in Australia is just too early in the U.S to play )

Or the best time for hunting.

Kresslack

Of course I remember you! There was a certain archery tournament I remember meeting you at for the first time. That was a lot of fun. Welcome back!

Jiraishin

Kresslack said:

Of course I remember you! There was a certain archery tournament I remember meeting you at for the first time. That was a lot of fun. Welcome back!

We didn't meet there...You were my official mentor!

Kresslack

Jiraishin said:

Kresslack said:

Of course I remember you! There was a certain archery tournament I remember meeting you at for the first time. That was a lot of fun. Welcome back!

We didn't meet there...You were my official mentor!

Ack! Forgive my faltering memory. I'm really glad to see you've returned.