Returning Player

Comments

• Ognog

  August 2021

  I think you'll find that the aspects you remember fondly are still present in Achaea. Still plenty of people playing - lots of new faces (some of which are definitely re-rolled characters for experienced operators), but I'm sure there are many you will recognise from back then that are still present.

  Many things have changed, though:

  • The old houses are gone, replaced by houses that are very much city oriented (with a few exceptions).
  • For the most part, cities are factions strongly connected with the realms of their patrons.
  • Bashing has changed, with rage abilities adding a new dimension.
  • Many new areas have been added.
  • There are more sub-game aspects to get involved in, including forays, mining, elemental plane conflict, foraging, and many more.
  • Trade based skills have been detached from character class, and several more character classes have been added. Many existing classes have had significant revamps.
  • Seafaring has become far more engaging with sea monsters and truly amazing encounters with kraken.

  Dive back in and check it out :)

  
  

  1
• Kogan

  August 2021 edited August 2021

  Hey there @Goethe. I can't say I knew you but welcome back nonetheless. I will do my best to answer some of your questions and hopefully, you will decide to stay and hang out with us for a while.

  There is a retirement system now. HELP RETIREMENT explains it. This system effectively allows you to retire your character (never able to log into it again) and in exchange, you can transfer 50% of that character's credit value to a new character. So if you check up on your old friends and you see in their honours that they have 'given up the adventuring' life there is a decent chance they're still around! Just perhaps as someone else.

  I would say everything is still fairly active compared to 2011. Some names have come and gone, but overall there is still plenty to do. Some cities are more active than others but now more than ever I would say all cities partake in conflict with the other cities. 

  Eleusis, Hashan, and Cyrene are all pretty large populations most of the time. So they are likely some of the busiest. With Eleusis and Hashan leaning more towards conflict out of those three (mostly with each other) and PVP opportunities. Mhaldor is quite small in comparison but has a lot going for it with strong fighters who make up for their smaller population in most cases and they seem to have some pretty neat RP. Shallam is no more. You can read up on that in-game or ask around. Targossas replaced Shallam and is on the smaller side as well but they still get raided and raid others. There is a bit more zealotry than I remember Shallam having as well which may be more interesting to you. Not to mention Paladin is due to get a rework sometime and I'm sure that will get a lot of people excited. Ashtan's population can be pretty decent-sized some timezones like any other city and smaller at others, but I really liked learning the lore there personally. As of now, I believe every city even has an active Divine Patron. Some are more active than others, but it's really nice to see each city receiving support and attention.

  As for PVP, I would say a lot more is automated now. There is a serverside curing (HELP SERVERSIDE) system and serverside queueing (look at HELP QUEUEING and HELP ALIAS) so your ping should not be as much of a factor as it was before if you had bad ping. I know automation can seem daunting to face if you're not very inclined to working out your own scripts yourself, but there are a few really good combatants who are mostly manual and you can definitely grind your way to success. People like Austere being nice enough to make their work public has made it so that affliction tracking is now no longer something that you have to develop yourself which should help if you wish to make use of it. His affliction tracking is called AK and can be found on the forums. I think you can find just about any kind of PVP you're looking for still. There are cities that do group combat of differing scales throughout the day and if you ask for duels you'll probably still find someone most timezones willing to show up and smack you around a bit. 

  
  

  I'll bring up a few things that have changed that may interest you:

  -There is now multiclass. You can read up on that in-game with HELP MULTICLASS. Essentially you can pick up additional classes (that are appropriate for your city) with each additional class having an increasing lesson cost to learn. 

  -Depending on what skills you had put lessons in when you left you may notice you have a lot of lessons now. Survival and weaponry have been done away with and made more baseline in that you gain these abilities as you level. I'm sure if you ask around someone would help you with the next best thing to spend those on if you have them and you're not sure. 

  -There are quite a few new classes and other classes have been reworked. 

  -Anyone can learn any of the trade skills now regardless of their class.

  -There is now a daily credit system. Look at HELP RENOWN for the details. You can do certain tasks to receive renown which allows you to earn up to 20 credits per day. This has made affording the most basic of artefacts over time possible for people who can't or don't want to spend as much.

  -Probably tons of other stuff I'm forgetting.

  
  

  I know returning can be a bit overwhelming, but you should be able to find someone willing to help you get going again and answer your questions regardless of your city. As a quick reminder make sure to buy yourself a new pack to put your gold up if yours decayed and make sure to work with someone in your city to set up anti-theft so you don't lose anything. If you decide to stick around I hope you have fun and enjoy yourself. :)

  5
• Goethe

  August 2021

  Thanks for your time folks! Yeah I saw a few names that rang a bell when I logged in earlier kicking around, honestly it’s been so long that I remember old friends’ real names way better than I remember their characters. There are still a few active people in some of my ancient clans so I should be able to get back on my feet smoothly with a minimal amount of pestering. Looking forward to playing with all of you again, once I get set up here and learn all the new curing systems which seem to have been completely changed a few times. RIP Shallam, think last time I played Quoren had just come to power there if I’m remembering properly. Curious to find out what happened with all that but I’ll probably save it for in-character.

  1
• Accipiter

  August 2021

  To get back into it, I would recommend making a burner character. The tasks for newbies are pretty comprehensive and tell you a fair amount of commands that people have internalized and won't think to tell you.

  4
• Aerek East Tennessee, USA

  August 2021 edited August 2021

  @Goethe I don't believe we ever crossed paths, but I remember you from my era. I've also returned semi-recently, and feel appropriately overwhelmed by all the things that have changed and appropriately amused by all the things that haven't. The scripting barrier for everything other than roleplay has increased significantly, monthly promotions have perhaps impacted the overall atmosphere and suspension of disbelief a bit, and there are new mechanics and systems like renown and forays that we never would have dreamed of in our day, but the game you love is still there under all the pizazz and inevitable power creep.

  I'm a free agent without a lot of factional ties these days. Invent an excuse to stumble across me and we can reminisce about the days gone by.

  -- Grounded in but one perspective, what we perceive is an exaggeration of the truth.
  

  0
• Mannimar

  August 2021

  Welcome back @Goethe. Definitely, a lot has changed over the years since you last played. I returned recently-ish as well, and can confidently say you will feel a strange sense of deja vu with a touch of wonder at the new changes. This dish will be accompanied by extreme amounts of excitement at all of the opportunities and a slight aftertaste of disappointment with the things that never change.

  
  

  Overall, I think you will be able to really enjoy yourself, and if you ever need anything, just reach out. Some of the biggest IG monsters are a great help OOC, and have really helped me get back into the swing of things!

   
  

  0