Long Dormant - Some Inquiries

Grignor

Hey -

I've been gone from Achaea since right around the introduction of multi-class / houses. I moved to Aetolia, and then quit Aetolia in about 2015ish. I'm looking to get back into muds, and Iron Realms are my favourites. However, changes made to the PvE experience in Aetolia during my absence have me seriously disinterested in the game, so I'm considering a return to Achaea. Hopefully, I'll find some answers here that'll set me on the right path.

1. Is PvE viable as a main mechanical interest? What I mean is, can one sustain the costs of bashing in Achaea by bashing? This is not really possible in Aetolia any longer.
2. Has any sort of streamlining taken place with regards to PvE viability? Back in the day, horkval monks could do whatever they wanted in PvE, but a satyr druid struggled in their level bracket, much less above it.
3. There doesn't seem to be an up-to-date system on the forums, and while I know that all Iron Realms games offer server side curing now, is it viable to hop into the game with no system and bash into end game and beyond, or will the server side curing alone only get me so far?
4. Aetolia has a robust, in game mapping system that largely negates the need to wander around blindly. Does Achaea?
5. Is Dragon as a class useful, or will I still find myself bashing in whatever class I used to get there?

I'm sure there's a ton more stuff I should be asking that'll be relevant to my ability to have fun in Achaea, but in short, I'm looking to PvE and role play - I have nearly no interest in PvP, but I'm also feeling sort of old. I know that Achaea is likely a completely different game than I remember, but I'm a much different player/person than I was the first time around, so I'm wondering if I might fit in better here now than I did in yesteryear.

Thanks for your time!

Cailin

1. Absolutely. Bashing is the main way that people make gold, and there is even a gold cap because people were making too much. I do find that a newbie can struggle a bit just for a little while, simply because they have so much to buy at first, stocking up on curatives and buying armour and so forth. But once you have your supplies, you're good to go.

2. Classes and races are pretty well balanced. Trait specialisations help with that. Of course, there are still small differences, and some classes are noticeably faster or slower at bashing, but the differences are not near as extreme as they used to be.

3. You can definitely bash with serverside alone. Combat is a bit of a different story - I think it is possible to rely on serverside for combat, but few people actually do it. Perhaps someone else can answer this question better. There are systems generously offered for free that can be used with Mudlet, though.

4. Achaea has maps, and you can WALK TO most places.

5. I'm not a dragon yet so I don't know much about it, but I do know that many people use dragon to bash and in group combat, and other people use their class instead. So dragon is at least viable, and it probably depends on what you're going for. (I get the impression that they're tanky but slow at bashing.)

There is plenty of good PVE, PVP, and RP available. I think you will enjoy your return. Welcome back!

Kaedan

1. Yes, you can viably support your character with just bashing. There is a gold cap, first a soft then a hard, but it's fairly high and most people never reach the hard cap. Quest rewards are slowly being reworked

2. Mostly, yes. There are some classes that struggle with PvE. Psion damage apparently sucks with PvE, as does SnB knights and Depthswalkers (this is all anectdotal). Races are a lot more balanced towards each other, and can have their stats shifted around a little at level 10. Traits also help things out. Some classes will be much better bashers (Bard, Runie, Serpent are the better ones these days, afaik), but they try to keep things as balanced as possible. There's a PvE analysis thread on here, be sure to look at later posts as some things changed, like huge changes to weaponmastery damage that really bufed them. It's a tiny bit out of date for some of those numbers, but should give you a rough idea of where everything stands. Race really isn't as much of a factor as it used to be, thanks to the new stat system and traits.

3. svof is the free and open source successor to svo which was the successor to vadi's old system from back in the day. Now it's fully built into mudlet, no need for a separate app that you stream the game through like before. A quick Google will get you the github page. I really like it. That said, there are plenty of people who run serverside only and it's completely viable, both for PvE and PvP, and doesn't require mudlet.

4. Mudlet has an extremely robust mapping system, esp. with the crowdmap. In-game, the MAP command is pretty handy, and you can always have it showing on each room with CONFIG MAPSHOW ON. A lot better than back in the day when you had Asara's maps on a side window, and even better than vadi's mapping system.

5. Depends. Artied serpent is insane and the default choice except against stuff that hit really hard, earth lord (elemental lords, sort of like Dragon not dependent on leveling but instead upon large quest chain completion) is apparently very good, I know runies and bards that prefer those over Dragon. But lots of people bash in Dragon when they get it. Depends on your class, your artefacts, what you're hunting, etc.

Grignor

Hello -

@Kaedan - I found the SVOF topic, but the last post in it with regards to system updates is quite old. Am I going to run into major issues using the system when my mudlet code knowledge is lacking? I'm looking to learn my way around lua, but I'm a ways off being able to update the system as changes are made to the game.

@Cailin Thanks!

Jiraishin

1.yes. What's more, bashing bonuses are more available than they used to be. And the current world event is fantastic gold for even casual bashers.

2.unsure, but if I understand the question correctly the answer is no. Build and class still strongly affect bashing efficiency  

3. Can confidently say yes, is viable, from personal experience  Server-side won't get you far in pvp but is fine for PvE  

4. Yes, if you use Mudlet at least 

5. Yes, is useful. 

Kaedan

Grignor said:

@Kaedan - I found the SVOF topic, but the last post in it with regards to system updates is quite old. Am I going to run into major issues using the system when my mudlet code knowledge is lacking? I'm looking to learn my way around lua, but I'm a ways off being able to update the system as changes are made to the game.

Actually, thinking about it, not sure if Psion afflictions or Priest changes are in yet. I'll take a look myself at what needs updating.

Veldrin

svo got finished getting put into the client? Thought it was still being worked on

Grignor

That'd be awesome news, if it was - the github page is unclear if the integration finished, and the forum topic seems to indicate that at least some changes (priest) haven't been added, so I'm wondering what else is out of date.

If it's nothing too earth shattering, I'll probably be fine to use it and find a working GUI and go from there, but ideally, I'd love to get my hands on a system/gui still being actively developed - I didn't see any for sale, but I bought SVO back in the day, I'm not above paying for good work.

Cyr

Veldrin said:

svo got finished getting put into the client? Thought it was still being worked on

Last I looked it was functional but still probably had some bugs. The people who were writing the code got busy with other things and haven't gone back as far as I'm aware.

Thaisen

https://forums.achaea.com/discussion/6749/mudlet-ashliagui-2-0-a-simple-install-and-done-gui

Ashlia put out a clean simple UI recently. I really like it.