Hello everyone! I'm in the process of looking for a new IRE mud to play. I played Achaea for several years, quit, came back for a few months and realized that it just wasn't what I remember it being. I'm looking for a game with more roleplaying and less of a gank fest. I was looking at this one and it seemed to have a lot of features that the other games didn't. It's just a whole different game mechanic though compared to Achaea and I was wondering if anyone would be willing to help explain just some of the basics of this game to me. Are there classes? How do the races work (you get different stats and such as you get stronger)? Are there any public systems available (like vadi's for Achaea)? With my job I don't have a lot of time to make my own system so I'd rather buy one that's decent and go from there. How's the roleplaying here?

That's a lot of questions for now, I would appreciate any and all help! If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask! Thanks!

Everything you just asked could have been solved by looking at the website, and briefly looking through the forums.

Oh, be nice.




Now then. There's plenty of RP here, if you know where to look. Depending on the style you want, I'd suggest either the Nihilists for darp, forboding rp or a wiccan guild. A large part of the player base is into PK, so don't think you can get away from that. As for systems, Zarquan (Iasmos ic) has Treant which is widely used, and Ethelon has AG, which is also decent but he hasn't updated it in about..oh, four guild's worth of releases. Both are moderately cheap and even have free versions if required.

Which I did and am doing while waiting for posts here. I like to hear answers that reflect opinions of the players in the game. Thanks though!

Thanks Shaddus for the information. Cost is no issue for me so if there are expensive systems that are good I don't mind paying for them at all. I welcome the PK, love it actually. Just in Achaea it was getting to the point where everyone's been there for so long that they're all super artied up and it became just a massive gank fest. Hard to find 1v1 there nowadays.

Darp?

One thing I really like about Lusternia is how the Admin operate.

They aren't distant, and they're willing to play around with you a little. And their responses are in character, period. Unless it's a major issue, which will then be promptly handled by other people. Jigan once asked Fain about putting a chest someplace. He came in, fixed it, then killed Jigan via katana to squishy things for summoning him on such a minor issue.

Admin to player interactions is one of the things that makes this game great. Be it when they are possessing a mob and surprising people, or Fain killing you, because Fain is awesome.

Yeah, the admin, all of them honestly, are great. Sometimes they have their moments, but they are always willing to help. Except for Eventru, he just wants to stand around and have you drool all over yourself about his muscles.

You'll hear many agreeing with Jigan about loving the admin interaction here, and I'm one of them.

Also I mostly play games for the stories and mythologies, and Lusternia is a mishmash of every style of mythology and story I love. You'd do well to read the history files eventually, if you're into that kind of thing.

One thing you'll learn with Lusternia is there isn't really good/bad. It's all shades of grey, with each group having good points and bad.

One bit of advice, never compare Terentia to Eventru. I got zapped, only because my compliment was misconstrued.

Also, another thing to note is that the item designs are typically top notch. When things are silly, they're done very well design wise usually. So you aren't being cut in half by a toy. Players here show an insane level of creativity when making new items, so be sure to actually look at what you're buying. It's almost certainly a player design for most objects.

You'll mostly find that we aren't Achaea.

The underlying code base is the same, so if you really disliked that, you won't like it here. Most everything else is pretty radically different. The nature of admin involvement has been hit on. There isn't less PK here. In fact, there's probably more. It's less about getting roflstomped by a dragon and more about group combat, though. Races are here and matter a little bit beyond just a stat set. Racism is alive and well in certain places. Politics tend to be more important, mostly because being a rogue here is like kneecapping yourself IRL, partly because most of the goals beyond getting level 100 revolve around the cities and communes.

Where do we not have racism in Lusty?

There are no 1v1 fights here either, really. Given that group combat is a focus here it is still possible to fight 1v1 and some people will do it like myself if I can find someone to fight or on the other hand if your opponent outright knows they can beat you they'll fight 1v1 elsewise you have to fight a group of people which is the case more often than not. As for RP there is a lot more here than Achaea for sure but it is nothing like it used to be either.

end of story

The Lusternia world is so intricately and so well designed, it really is like a whole other complete world. Sure, you come across something that reminds you of something else in the real world ( eg. mister "Weeky Pedia" and some Dingbat items), but on the whole the Lusternia world is just so different from everything else.

Player interactions are good too. Generally, there are two things going on in Lusternia-- PK and RP. They sometimes mix, but that happens less and less now. But there are plenty of people like Jigan who have put so much effort into their characters that they are fun to be around-- even when they are beating you down because you are just a Serf.

There's something for everyone in Lusternia.

Here's what I like best about Lusternia, in no particular order:

The people. I really enjoy the playerbase and have made some really great friends here!
The admins. They work so hard and are so open to suggestions and working with the players. They're creative and awesome.
The crafting system. I just adore the fact that I can design items and that design will always be there. Even if I die today, that scroll or ring or hat or table or whatever I designed will always be there and someone might think it's nifty and use it.
The Theater and Library system. Maybe you suck at fighting but you want to contribute to your org? Write a book and publish it in your org's library and not only have you made something which - again - even after you're gone people can read and enjoy, but also, you're directly helping your org. Same with the theater and that's even more fun, cause being in a play is just awesome. And being able to go back and watch plays other people have done is awesome times two.
Influencing. It is actually possible to play a completely non-violent character if you really want to! With Influencing and Dramatics, you never ever have to spill a single drop of blood ever and you can still level and get gold and so on. Course, some quests require killing, but the vegan character just ignores those. Sometime or another, I'm going to make a character like that just for the fun of it!
Really cool skills and areas. Seriously, there's some really cool skills and gorgeous areas in this game!


But really, the very most important and best thing I like about Lusternia is that my characters matter here. In other games, particularly when I try to test the waters in Achaea, my characters' efforts are completely ignored. I could count on one hand the number of times any of those characters ever got a favor, no matter what I did.

But here, every character I have rises in the ranks. I've had all sorts of positions of responsibility on various characters. The things my characters do, they get noticed and it doesn't matter that I suck at fighting cause I can do other things that are just as important and my work is recognized. Every guild, every org I've been in in Lusternia has felt like a little family where everyone pays attention to each other and so on.

So, that's what makes Lusternia so great to me.

Well, golly jee willickers mister, I sure do hope you stay...

My favourite thing about Lusternia is its history and culture - and it always has been.

Really, it's what drove me to volunteer to become an admin, uhm, almost three years ago! And certainly one of the reasons I 'hang around', so to speak. Estarra's so much fun for me to be around, and I'm always in awe of her creativity. <- Estarra after storytime in Havens.

You may see some things that have a 'similar' feeling to things in Achaea (some people've commented that fleshpots/spheres and transmology/harmony remind them of pearling for crystals for mages, paradigmatics is vaguely reminiscent of occultism, Kx'Krah reminds them of a lucidian, this sort of thing) - but really, considering that Estarra and Roark both came from Achaea (and had their hands in designing most if not all of those), that should just be a sign of how awesomesauce they both are.

And, I'll tell ya, I think we've got some awesome players. They generally get along pretty well (with some exceptions, of course), while they like to keep the conflict going ICly. With six (SIX!) organizations and twenty-six guilds spread between them (and four more to come over the next year or two), it's a good thing we've got a lot of people (and more coming or considering coming, much like yourself) to fill it out.

And besides. You've heard them. We've an awesome staff. Who doesn't want to brush my hair while I stare vainly in the mirror, flexing, anyways?

Edit: And hey, the sooner we can get our population up, the sooner I can try to convince Estarra that Ackleberry should be able to come out of time-out...

so very true. This game is cliquey to an extent but nothing like Achaea was to where you couldn't even get favored up if you weren't in with the right people. Aetolia wasn't quite as bad as Achaea in that aspect but still I've never seen favours thrown around like they are in lusternia. I think I got favoured once in aetolia after fighting in a war repeatedly taking out multiple people but that was probably due to the fact that I started talking more and more to the people that mattered like desian and co.

And I'll agree with the general consensus that the admin are pretty good. No matter how gaudy eventru's entrance messages are or however many times he zaps you for obscure reasons, he's still a pretty good guy.