I could never get into Achaea, it's just too daunting. Imperian never grabbed me and I liked the idea of Aetolia I just wasn't too impressed by its execution.

I quite agree! What little I played there was fun only because I was a Luminary.

You guys were both Luminaries? O.o

I miss the old Priests there. That guild had great reason to be destroyed, but gods do I regret giving up healing.

I started playing a few months after the Priests had been replaced by the Luminaries. I was already a Priest in Achaea so it was kind of new and familiar at the same time. Fun!

I was the second priest in Aetolia. Then the first suicided, so I had eldest status. Hah!

Anyway, off-topic...

Suuuure, suuuicide.. I'm sure he just magically flew off that cliff.

The engine for Achaea's wilderness map is in some ways similar to Aetherspace, but Lusternia did it so very much better. We actually have ships. Great thing is, the ships aren't on water.

To add to this, Achaea doesn't always really seem to give a damn about it's playerbase, and it's forums seem really badly moderated in places. For example, there's a bug in the wilderness that means you can never see anything due east of you. From what I've read, this has been there for AGES. It's not exactly a small bug. And they haven't solved it.

Lisaera once gave a perfect definition of Aetolia in Lusternian terms when she was explaining several things about the nature of lusternia.

"We wanted to create a hell to put players in as the ultimate god punishment, but we didn't have time, so we decided to just link Aetolia instead."

...was there actually a point to the wilderness? I didn't play on Achaea that long, but it just seemed like an incredibly convoluted way to get somewhere. And possibly PvP...

Anyway, Lusternia should stay as being like Lusternia. Each of the IRE games has their strong points. One of the great things about Lusty is the way that pretty much every location is tied into gameplay. It makes the game more interesting.

Plus there are locations for just about every level, guild, or city... And I don't mean guildhalls. Spectre Isle, to take the easiest example. Most Magnagorans would claim it belongs to Magnagora, it's certainly a prime hunting location for low-midbie Mags, and yet it's still an important part of the RP of Lusternia - at least between New Celest and Magnagora. Maybe I'm not looking close enough, but I can't really think of any locations like that elsewhere (imagine if there was a similar location between Kinsarmar and Stavenn in Imperian...)

So. Maybe the game world feels smaller, but that's not necessarily a bad thing...

According to the help file, it was to create "a sense of distance". They didn't have to build a thousand tundra rooms if they wanted to make a mountain area, they could just put a wilderness entry/exit point there so that they could be lazy and send people that way. AFAIK, it's only other use was that you didn't really have to remember directions if you wanted to get somewhere, just go a long way se or whatever. There was a wilderness point right next to my grive. Kind of useful. But still seemed pointless.

Could you imagine how time-consuming it would be to write the descriptions of a thousand individual tundra rooms? I think 'lazy' isn't exactly the right term for it... I liked Wilderness in Achaea.. I liked that it was genuinely time consuming to get to the furthest places, and there were plenty of places out there. Having said that, I like Lusternia's take on the concept -much- more.

There was one very popular use for an immense area where you would likely never run into another soul. It starts with "m," ends in "x," and rhymes with... uh... mudsex.

Heh. The Wilderness was only there for Marks and Infamous people to generally hide, because whenever you farsighted someone there, it would say, " is in a place so indistinct, you are unsure of his/her exact location." And when you scried, you wouldn't be able to see anything at all. And yeah, as Demotrios said, you could probably find a lot of that there if you looked hard enough (Though, I honestly don't know why'd you look. ) The Wilderness was also the only way to get to some areas actually, like the one place.. I forget it's name.. that has the evil beggar statue, and if you interact with it in any kind of way.. it comes alive and kills you.. Kinda like what happened to Shamarah *cough*.

Before they started putting areas in there, it was just used for hiding or for people who were directionally challenged and couldn't find their way. Although, it's not really hard to find the general location of places once you take a look at a map of Sapience but ah well.. Some people are different.

Autoclass might have killed what kind of an abomination that Achaea had in place of roleplay, but it was necessary.

Why? Because the guild system sucked. Matt gave too much power to the guildmasters - you can't advance from novicehood without their permission, if you leave/get kicked out before GR 3 you lose all skills, and even if you're a rogue there is a skill you can't use to its full extent, because some of the items needed to practice it are in the guildhall.

Adding this up to the fact that most leaders in Achaea were corrupted and/or retarded... and the tests were too difficult, with people getting kicked out at a smallest slip-off. Need I mention the Druids, who were so afraid of alts (gasp, alchemy!) that their tests were so difficult that only alts could pass them? Need I mention the Magi, where the fluffy-retarded exterior is only a mask for daggers to stab at whomever you don't like?

You think that they'd get a clue after autoclass. But last time I've checked, the House tests are as difficult as they used to be during the Guild time. So joining a house is masochistic, and no one will teach you to RP if you aren't in a house and don't know how to RP. So I think they brought it on themselves.

In some cases, I agree with you.. but somethings no. Matt probably did give too much power to the guildmasters, but you didn't rely on them entirely to get far. In fact, while I was in the Infernals long ago, I probably had the worst relationship with Sinistar during the whole Death's Heart thing. But I still managed to keep advancing. Although, Sinistar wasn't a corrupt guildmaster like a few people who I won't name.

The Druids, Sylvans, Maldaathi, Ashura, and namely Occultists are famed for having some of the most difficult requirements. And yes, it is to the point where only an alt could do well and pass them (probably what they aim for too, sadly). I'm glad the graduation system for Lusternia was implemented, but it does have some drawbacks, but I'm sure we all know them so I'm not going to get in painstaking detail..

As for the guildhall requirement for using some skills, the only guild I can think of that had that is the Jesters and Suicidemice. But.. Suicidemice just functioned as well-timed bombs. Not only that, they took six months to train, and they weren't that useful in combat. Although. It was rather humourous seeing someone get chased by an army of 60-70 rodents with bombs on their backs. Suicidemice was just a skill that looked neat, enough said.

The issue with getting GR3 was only a problem in some guilds. Some guilds favoured you for doing absolutely nothing, or whenever they felt like. While in some guilds, getting one involved donating your left kidney. Although, that problem still hasn't been resolved in some houses.

Druids also weren't the only place to get Concoctions.. Sentinels and Sylvans (depending on how old you are to have seen the Sylvans created) had them too. But Sylvans had those nasty requirements and Sentinels were better at combat so.. Yeah! Go Sentinels.

And also, if you were new to Achaea, joining a House is beneficial.. if only for a little while. You need that kind of guidance, don't be stupid and join some rogue clan. They won't teach you crap, and many of them will probably try to exploit you. But! You should always be in a city. Some cities, like Ashtan, have Yen-Sorte statues and stuff which help the entire population when hunting and definitely in PvP. Plus, there's the statue that comes when a certain city wins a CTF that gives a large EXP boost when hunting, so.. yeah, there's no reason not to be in a city. Plus, you make friends, who can help you out.. More so then if you started out as a rogue.

Ha! How ironic considering Lisaera's current position.

Well, maybe not ironic. Suits Lisaera to rule over a hell.

I should go torture her there.

Tael. Enchantment. You try doing it without a guildhall.

If I'm mistaken, didn't Tasur'ke have Ouroburos for Rogues even when guilds were around? I know they had crystals for Crystalism. Being a Rogue Magi is too costly. Heh.

Tasur'ke...grew to that level? Well, it never did when I was there.

Not to mention that Enchantments in Achaea.. is the worst skillset ever.. Useless, utterly useless.. Except for the pretty necklace of purity you get.. I'd kill for that... Otherwise, useless.

Crystalism.. Not so much, I fear Vibes.