Hi guys,

At present, I play Achaea. I've played Achaea for years, but as of late I've gotten fed up with it. Mostly, the players. But to an extent, also with how one-dimensional and static the world is. I'm mostly sick of the fact that there seems to be so little creativity and the extent of 'good roleplay' seems to be measured in how much of a prick you are. Since you can't play a multi-player game without having to deal with the people, and I've finally gotten very fed up with the way they act over there, I'm looking for a new world and a new story to get involved in. I've always heard good things about Lusternia, but my information is kind of old. So, if anyone would be so kind as to help me, I have some questions and concerns.

1) I have always heard that Lusternia is in a constant state of flux and change, rather than the static world Achaea has become. Is this true?

2) Are the sides more or less even? Is one side altogether dominant? I prefer a world where the outcome of fights is not already a foregone conclusion.

3) There are a lot of skills in Lusternia. What sort of investment is required to become a serious player, if you are at all interested in fighting?

4) The specialization thing you've got going on for warriors intrigues me. Are all the specializations viable, or is choosing something other than a weapon in each hand little more than crippling yourself?

5) If you had to rate it, how sportsmanlike would you say the playerbase is? Achaeans are shoddy at playing well with others.

6) How would you rate the various places on how well they roleplay? How good is the standard of Lusternian Roleplay overall?

I think that's all for now. I appreciate any help you guys can offer in helping me find a new playground.

Come to Glomdoring, we have Rainbow Cookies!

You made me HONOURS RAUROS. Hmph.

Answers in the quote, welcome!

1) Yes, we have the most active coders in IRE.
2) Somewhat, though people tend to complain. Out of the four organizations, two tend to team up against the other two.
3) Credits are always nice. But unless you REALLY want to start blowing big bucks, I wouldn't go overboard. Putting many lessons into Planar, Combat, Discernment and Discipline are a good start.
4) It's almost REQUIRED for ANY sort of decent PVP.
5) There are some who will grief people for the fun of it, but there are others who are pretty honourable, once you get to know them. It's just something you have to learn.
6) Pretty well, it all meshes. The places are smaller, more or less, but the planes give a large variety of things to do. The people are somewhat friendly. My advice is to make alts in a few places, see how the people RP. Then pick one spot, and make your real character.

Warriors are the only class to use physical weapons under specializations. Everyone else can either summon, bond (bards, and that's just so they can get an instrument that looks pretty), cast, etc.... Except monks, but they don't have weaponspecs.

All the weapon specializations are viable, to some degree. Most people will say that some are better than others, but it really just comes down to who's using it. When I started, Blademasters were all the rage what with being able to pinleg (don't worry, you'll hear plenty about that if you stick around), but now Bonecrushers (which I started as from day 1, three RL years ago during the heyday of the Blademaster) are considered "the s***" because of stun and knockdown. That being said, I'm a bonecrusher and can't kill for beans, and Lisarel was an axelord (considered one of the lesser specs) who could absolutely destroy everyone, and this was before the +20% wounding bonus to 2-handed weapons, I believe.

Anyways, pick something that looks cool, learn to use it effectively, and it'll be fine.

And Myrkr, I think you mean "if you get ENEMIED.... you're fair game"

What typo? I see no typo.

How easy is it to buy credits in game? I'm fine with buying the major stuff with RL cash if the minor-but-nice stuff can be reasonably gotten without hard currency.

ETA: Oh! Also. Thieves and theft. I was led to believe by second hand knowledge that neither is really 'done' in Lusternia. Is this the case?

Really tough right now, due to the recent Great Hunt and the current extra-lessons-from-credits. Though they've come back down a ways, it's still somewhat high.

2. Side balance change sas fighters rise or go inactive. However Glomdoring are usually the underdogs in any combat situation so fighters there would be hugely appreciated

3. Skills wise you are looking at a pretty hefty investment for 1v1 combat. It depends on your class, but it's generally percieved to be more than other IRE's

4. Warriors specs, you are always going to be wielding weapons in both your hands. However the deep wounds mechanics offer a greate rdepth to combat than doubleslash doubleslash warriors in other IRE's

5. Usually pretty good, occasionaly blips but decent. Stealing is virtually non-existant here, with serious player smackdown on any that happens

6. Generally pretty good all around, slight blips here and there. You'll just have to think what kind of character you want to play.

edit: for so so many typos

If there are, they get griefed, by everyone. Well, from what I heard.

Thank God. I can't tell you how vanilla Achaean Knight combat is. Even when you use all options available to you, it is very, very basic.

ETA: You guys have sold me on this game and I'll be making a character soon. I want to thank you for the information. I just have one final question to ask.

In Achaea, your race basically decides your class and your fighting style. People over there change race like some folks change their socks. I always thought that was rather crummy roleplaying. Looking over the races on the website, I notice that they seem more or less to be good at everything and the more specialized races often seem to have variations of themself to accomodate other classes. Is it safe to say that if I go for a warrior archetype and choose a human or an elf, I am not necessarily shooting myself in the foot? How important are the stats that come with the races to Lusternian Combat?

Right now, because of the extra lesson per credit promotion, the prices are really high. But they'll be going down again soon when all the credits from the anniversary stuff starts hitting the market.

And theft is very rare in Lusternia. Thieves are persona non grata in every guild and org. I only know of one person who was ever a 'successful' thief and even he gave it up after a while. There's just too much negative reaction to theft. Guilds and cities/communes disfavor thief characters, players shun players who play thieves, thieves are griefed by everyone, etc. Occasionally a random theft will take place, but it's not rampant at all and when it happens it's generally more of a 'someone picks up something you dropped' deal or a shop theft. The entire time I've played, no character of mine has ever been robbed.

eta: Which isn't to say that thieving isn't possible. There are some skills that are quite handy for stealing. It's the people and the reaction of people that makes theft so rare.

To be a thief in game is very, very easy.

However, almost all guilds have anti-theft laws, and if someone should accidentally end up with something of yours, they will almost always return it to you.

If you are caught being a thief, you face being outguilded, out-org'd, and being uber griefed.

Oh, by the way -- it's very hard to be a rogue.

Yes and no. If you are thinking about warrior I would suggest only going Elfen if you are in the Serenwilde, as they get racial changes for the elfen race. Hrm it's a tough one to judge, there is variety but you've got to be careful about it. For instance the racial balence/equilibrium bonuses mean very little now, so mugwump is a poor choice for pretty much everything

Stats are very important, but, the spec races all seem to be at least semi-decent at their jobs, so, it is possible to have your combat and RP too.

I don't really expect to fully understand the answer to the question I am asking, but what sort of changes?

They fairly recently rebalanced the races. Faelings and Mugwumps got screwed.

Each community has a race designed for that city/commune.

If you choose an elf, and go to serenwilde and become a warrior, you get bonuses, like +2 str, +2 siz, -2 int type of thing.

Its in the racial help file.