but who? :/

Do those only work in one direction? Once you get to the aetherbubble, how do you get back to prime?!

Works both ways. You pop out at the Aetherplex when you use the bubblix to get home.

Which means if you have one, oddly enough, the fastest route to the Aetherplex from most places is via some distant aetherbubble. Okay, maybe I'm the only one amused that the fastest way to walk from the Mother Tree to the Aetherplex goes through Xion...

I am one, with the exception I can't do mercy yet to do my highmagic only being at about 100 lessons in.

Probably because I'm so busy these days I rarely bother with small orders. Plus I'm about to start stocking a shop!

So, shamrocks are supposed to give you a blessing when you eat them, correct? Does anyone know what? I ate one and nothing happened. Or is it bugged?

Also, (market): you say "Trans elemental spellcrafter for hire!"

EDIT: I was totally wrong.

You lick a black shamrock.
You sense you will receive a minor mana blessing from this shamrock.

You lick a candied shamrock.
You sense you will receive a minor health blessing from this shamrock.

You lick a forest green shamrock.
(Says nothing. I bugged it. I assume it's supposed to be an ego blessing.)

Nevemind me then, I totally misremembered.

Do Guardians need Demigod/Titan/whatever?

Greetings, Lusternians! Prospective new player here. I have a few questions, and they seem simple enough, so I'll just put them here rather than starting a new thread.


1.) Many MUDs have newbie-friendly class/race combinations, and not-so-newbie-friendly ones (i.e. difficult to play, expensive to equip, etc.). Are there any I should know about?

2.) I am aware that Lusternia's high-end locations (the Planes?) are open PK areas. On a scale from "sugarplum gumdrops" to "meat-grinding bloodbath," how vigorous is the PK activity in these areas?

3.) Is this game any good? (That's a joke... please don't kill me.)


Thanks in advance.

1. If you're confused on race/class, go with a specialization race (Elfen, Trill, Lucidian, Dracnari, Faeling, Viscanti, stay AWAY from Merian IMO) or Human. Monk is an easy starter class, as is Bard I'm told. Warrior is expensive later. Go with what you like, fix a mistake later. You get 1 free reincarnation, after all.

2. Depends on the people, the politics, etc. Usually, about a 5 or 6 on a 1 - 10 scale in my opinion.

Hm... well, I would say that some of the most straightforward classes would be the knight classes, but I don't think any of them are really all that -difficult.- Just pick one that sounds interesting to you and you should be fine! IRE did a decent job of making all the classes accessible. There are some that are more difficult to PK with though.

And the open PK areas really depend on who's around and what's going on. Most of the time you'll probably be the only one in the area. I wouldn't say there's really any areas that you'll walk in to, as an unknown person, and just get slaughtered. However, city affiliations play a big part in the conflict here, so if you're part of a city that someone else despises, there's always the chance that something will happen!

And yes, I Lusternia is amazing. I've played all of IRE's games (and Achaea for 7 years) and Lusternia is by far my favorite one. There's so many different things going on, from straight up PvP, to working to control the different villages, to trying to make sure your city has the highest culture score through writing books and plays... if you can't find something to do you're either hopeless or have been playing for way to long and have burnt yourself out on them all.

P.S. Come to Glomdoring!

1.) If you're looking for a straight-forward class to learn and get into without high cost. That would be any of the Bard guilds with Spiritsinger being the easiest. Or, you could also be a Monk. All of the Monk guilds are pretty good, really. As far as race combinations, it depends on your org. Glomdoring tends to have a lot of Shadowsinger, Shadowcaster, and Shadowlord Faelings because it is our spec race. Human is a good first pick though if you're unsure. As far as expensive classes, that would be Wiccan/Guardian/Warrior. Warrior is the most expensive and requires artifacts to make use of it. Wiccan and Guardian require that you at least be tri-trans in guild skills.

2.) Well. It depends. Some people, like myself, tend to raid enemy territory frequently. They're not PK havens though. It's rare when anything extremely dire happens.

You'll likely get ten different answers from ten different people on these topics, so here's mine!

1) This is likely the hardest to answer. Personally, I've always found Warriors to be more costly (weapons, armours, etc) than, say, Wiccans (which basically only need a set of robes, even if those can cost a little bit). They're all interesting to play though, and the cost isn't in any way staggering anyway.

2) In general, not very much at all. And, interestingly enough, Ethereal seems to be the deadliest, and it's the first plane above Prime. I could likely count the amount of times I've died on the free-pk planes on one hand though, so it's not something to run away from most of the time. Of course, when (for instance) Serenwilde decides to raid Glomdoring on the Ethereal Planes (or vice versa, of course) you might want to stay out, but otherwise it's fine.

Also, there's an ability semi-high up in Planar that basically resurrects you on Prime again with minimal experience loss should you happen to die on the other planes. It's perhaps not the first to aim for as a newbie, but it's there!

3) I've played all IRE games, and Lusternia is, by far, the most compelling. As Iktomi said, if you can't find something to do, ask and you shall receive

I'm laughing right now, because Merian has been calling out to me as I read about the game (no idea why). But that's completely fine... there are plenty of other appealing races to choose from, too.

Thanks for the heads-up on newbie-friendly classes. I'm not really big on monks or bards (in any RPG), so I'll probably choose something else, but at least I know what's what.



5.5/10 sounds pretty reasonable to me, and if politics play into it, then it must not be a complete free-for-all, which is nice.



That's great! I'm vaguely familiar with Achaea (just vaguely, mind you), and I know there's a lot of... I guess, min-maxing people do with race/class combos?

All the interesting races and classes are one reason Lusternia attracted me, so it's nice to know I can't dig too deep of a hole for myself by making a "bad" choice.



That's all good to hear. I think it's safe to say that any fears I might have had about Lusternia's open PK policy (which is the sort of policy I tend to like, depending on how the game plays out with it) have been laid to rest.



That all sounds awesome. I'm anxious to get started (and probably will very soon).

Thanks all for the replies!

Also, assured that I'll be reading every response to my post, even if I don't get around to replying to everyone. I'm going to continue watching this thread today until interest in the discussion wanes.

Thanks again for the responses, they've been fast, friendly and informative. And keep 'em coming if you'd like to say your piece.

For Pyromancy's Fireproof (0% Master), the AB I've found on the wiki says "You can temper your skin against fire, offering some fire protection as well as the chance to avoid catching on fire. Also, you will be protected from blasts of fire that move you on the Elemental Plane of Fire."

How much is the fire protection worth, roughly, and what about the chance to avoid catching on fire?

Also, the ABs mention that pyromancers can meld natural desert without changing the environment. Do the other mage guilds have similar natural environments (not counting the Elemental Planes!)?

Naturally flooded places for Aquamancers (eg Inner Sea), Naturally tainted places for Geomancers (eg Blasted Lands) , Natural cloud terrain for Aeromancers (eg Clarramore).