Logging in...and no Thalia by my side, phew.
Sneaking out the house (thankfully she’s off somewhere), I sneak into Cindy’s and lie on my fur mattress (finally back in its usual position).
Logging out, I go back to character creation and enter that white-squared room once again.
Luckily no loading time is needed and my world quickly fills with a line of characters, as well as Allie, her curly blond pigtails bobbing happily along with her.
“Hey there again” Eugh I forgot about her monotonic voice.
“Hey Allie, I need to make another character”
“Within calculations” Oh she’s at it again. Hmm I wonder what’s she’s calculating this time.
“I would like a human, exactly as I am but called ZMaster”
“...Not within calculation spectrum” Obviously, I mean who would want a character of themselves, like ever?
As the dozens of races fly away, leaving an exact copy of me mirroring my actions, I find a query to ask.
“Ah Allie, is there a way to delete characters?”
“No, once made they cannot be deleted”
Well that kind of sucks, if I create me then that’s one slot wasted...
“Hmm...is there a way you can delete this character for me, if I said this one is made simply to guide others in a tutorial-like manner?”
She cocks her head and then smiles “Why if you are using your character as a an instructor for a tutorial I will be able to delete your character, but it will disallow you to create one for the next 30 in game days”
I’m pretty sure she just made that up...but it’s a win so don’t see why not.
“Sounds Fair”
Finalizing my voice (of course making it deeper and more commanding) I accept the changes.
“Where would you like to spawn?”
“Ah, before I do that, may I bring my tutorialees here?”
“It is possible if they are all making their characters”
“They are. Oh, and just in case they ask; tell them that I’ve asked an admin and been given permission to do this”
“Makes logical sense to not make others think of my capabilities, as only fourteen out of eighty two thousand have talked to me like you do”
“Perfect”
I give her Ricky’s character name along with Mila and Jane’s full names and Roger’s Skype (he added me on a few minutes ago).
With four big flashes the all appear before me, looking mildly confused, especially when they see me.
“Hi guys, welcome to your character creation, there should be a line of your races in either direction I believe” I note out loud as I look around, seeing that we’re boxed in by 4 sets of different races.
“Ooh group character creation, never knew we could do this” Mila’s eyes sparkle alongside Jane’s.
“I contacted some admins and they agreed to let me help you learn. This is the original helper, Allie, who will still help somewhat, especially with the women” I point to Allie, who curtsies (how cute).
Everyone finds their respective race line by moving around and see which one mirrors them.
“Ok, so first things first, everyone find a race that you like”
Immediately Mila and Jane start zipping through wide eyed, while Roger and Ricky take a more thoughtful approach...
“Draconids!” Mila stops on the half-dragon half-human race.
“No fair, they look cool!” Jane pouts and continues to scroll on. Maybe they have an agreement to be different?
I mean in RL they look pretty similar (hence why some people call Jane, Mila’s Shadow. That and a few other reasons).
“Oho”
*CRACK*
Swivelling back round to Jane, I spot her flicking her hand while a cloned version of her with small curved horns, golden eyes, demonic red skin and don’t forget the black leathery wings and tail, cracks her whip.
Damn, Jane the Succubus, can’t actually say no to that...even if she looks a bit childish without much there...
She without hesitation picks it though (Guess she wants to beat Mila sometime?!).
While Allie buzzes off to help their features, I walk over to Roger, who’s having a difficult time.
“Hmm Zach, I don’t know what to be”
“Isn’t that always the problem...well think what kind of class you want your character to be and maybe build your race around that?”
“But what if you don’t know what you want your class to be” A voice asks from my right
Ricky was listening in it seems.
“Then forget my advice, I’ll get to you in a second” Turning back to Roger, he’s still flicking about aimlessly. “So what class do you want?”
“Hmm, well according to you, magic users tend to be better in the late game, however I’d like to hit things too...without being hit” It’s as if he’s almost got it!
“Then play a small race, something like a gnome, something small and quick”
“Wait, I’ve found it” Roger finally stops on...a centaur.
Well I’m sure there’s some reasoning behind this?
“Why’d you choose a centaur?”
“Because they’re renowned party animals, literally. Plus I get to be half a horse and you know what they say about horses” *wink* “Also I’ll be super fast and give cute girls free rides” He adds on with a whisper.
WOW he may be 40 odd but he’s still a raring party monger it seems?
Centaur seems like fun I guess though? Well that leaves him sorted anyways.
While he changes his features (I do see him sneak a peek at the female version, but decides on the male), I walk over to Ricky.
“Right, so I was thinking...I want to be speedy”
“Good, so would you like to be normal, good or evil, fantastical, or disgusting looking?”
“Erm...fantastical? Sounds different”
It sure is in some ways.
“Cool” I show him how to flick the choices he doesn’t want away and we’re left with about two fantastical races.
Getting rid of the more ugly ones, as well as the ones that look like they’ll be slow as hell we’re left with a few elementals, something called a Pukwudge, iffrit and djinn, nymph and satyr”
“Which one out of these would be the fastest?”
Not sure he quite understands that races don’t change your gameplay much...but guess i’ll try.
“I’d say the wind elemental, the sylph would be fastest?” I’m making a guess because wind is faster than the rest of the elements? (Pretty logical I think).
He nods and chooses a sylph. Which is kind of strange because it’s simply a human shape formed of air (more like clouds really) making him half visible at most. Though there is an option for a more human form with blue tattoos.
Ricky goes for the basically an air elemental kind of look.
Helping him with the rest of his character features, I tell him to make himself look slightly different.
And so he changes his nose, to make it a lot more narrow.
Wow, you only make yourself look more perfect, genius!
Right he looks done for that.
Telling him, who is now a floating chunk of air, to follow me, we go towards a young bucking stallion with a glowing chestnut mane on the horse part with long flowing locks of black hair on the human part.
“Ya’ll ready to get Randaaaaaay” He raises his front hooves in the air with a glorious cry.
Wow, I’m not sure whether Roger is awesome or just bizarre.
I’m going with awesomely bizarre.
Having a better look at his face, I see it to be Roger, but a younger version with a clean shaven face and a special glint in his quite mesmerising green eyes.
He’s really going to enjoy this isn’t he?
Taking the two of them with me, my growing parade of bizarrities head to the succubus.
Standing, facing each-other a few inches apart (not able to get closer) they both grin with a competitive look in their eyes.
Apparently, both of them had growth spurts and I’m inclined to nod in satisfaction towards Allie for her good work.
Jane the succubus has black curved ram horns sticking out her forehead and although her face is of Jane’s (albeit slightly more mature looking) she’s grown quite a lot...
Mila is a little different with being a green dragon with a lengthened and more draconic face but she also has grown quite a bit.
Wow, seems like I wasn’t the only one who felt disappointed with their growth spurt.
“Alright are you done?” I call towards them, breaking their concentration towards one another.
They both nod.
“Ok next step is...choosing a pool (right have to do this myself)”
They all cock their heads in confusion, jumping slightly back in shock when a blue window appears in front of each of them and for me too.
“There’s Mana, Rage and Energy it says” Ricky helpfully points out.
“Mana can have the largest capacity, so like a large battery; but once its run out it takes a long time to recharge. Rage has a smaller capacity and like a solar battery, requires a specific thing to charge up. In this game and all games its damage. Energy has the smallest capacity but it recharges at a fast rate, like a rechargeable battery”
Looks like everyone understands somewhat.
“So what is best?” Mila asks as she raises her hand.
Hmm, good question. Depends on persons gameplay style and whatnot...Ah!
“Right, everyone I’m going to ask you a couple of questions to help you with this and the rest of the character creation Ok?” Everyone nods “Firstly do you want to deal damage, support others or be able to take lots of damage?”
“Deal damage” Everyone but Roger says simultaneously. Well no tanks here then eh
“Support sounds kind of fun” Roger looks pensively in the sky...what plan is he cooking up in that mind of his?
Alright, so your pool depends on your playstyle. Let’s begin with Roger since you’ll be the simplest. As a support you shouldn’t be taking damage, so no need for Rage, therefore you have a choice of being able to cast mass support or individual support”
“Individual”
“Energy it is for you. Now you 3, would you like to be a warrior/thief or mage?”
“Mage” All three say. Wow this might be a strange party indeed.
“But I want to hit things too” Ricky adds on.
Hmm ok, so let’s begin with Ricky.
“Ricky, would you rather want to one-shot things, whittle them away or win by attrition”
“Erm...whittling them away is safest isn’t it?”
“In a way, because if your one-shot misses you’re kind of screwed” I confirm for him.
He too chooses energy.
“Now the two of you, do you want large area magic to blow everything up or small magic that can be used continually and for more individual targets”
“Why aren’t there 3 options?” Jane asks confused.
“Because Rage isn’t a useful pool for mages” Completely forgetting strange situations like Jöt “Mages aren’t supposed to take damage so if they do that’s not good usually”
After some deliberation between themselves Mila looks back at me.
“Why would we ever choose small continuous magic over large area magic?”
“Simply because continuous magic means that you’ll never run out and with your large area magic, when you finally run out you will die because without any use of your pool, as a mage you’ll die” Putting it simply as to why I’d choose energy over mana anytime.
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But mana does have its uses in large scale battles (mana users will definitely be wanted in late game guild wars).
“Continuous magic then” Both agree.
...
..
.
I’ve just made 4 energy users...this might get interesting.
“Right, next are weapons. If you want to be a mage, choose a rod of a magic type, and for you Roger, as a support-”
“I’LL HAVE A LANCE” He proclaims to the window that just popped up in front of him, and it surprisingly produces one for him, well a spear...so close enough.
Huh I’m not sure whether Roger and I agree on what a support is.
The others choose their beginning staves.
Ricky goes for air (no surprise honestly) while Mila goes for earth and Jane goes for fire (colour coded, nice). I go for an axe because I love me axes.
“Next is armour” Another window pops up and everyone starts to have a look through “Now armour causes spell failure and the heavier the armour the higher the spell fail chance”
All nod in understanding and Ricky raises his hand “But if I’ve cast the spell and it’s something that stays for a while?”
“Ah, depends on the spell, but to be safe don’t wear much armour. For you Ricky, I think you should get some leather armour and the rest as cloth. Yes you can mix and match. Whereas Mila and Jane, you should just wear cloth since it doesn’t have a fail chance at all. As for you Roger...” I turn towards him to see him fully covered in plate with a full on faceplate, even the horse parts...wow.
“I’M A FREAKING WARHORSE” He neighs to the air, rearing and stomping to the ground with a trembling thud.
I think he got support mixed up with tank.
“Roger, as a support you’ll be helping people with spells and such...why the armour?”
“Oh, well I was thinking that I’d support people by being a ride for them into battle thus leaving both their arms free while I make sure we both survive”
For the quite a lotith time today: wow.
So Roger’s going to be a living warhorse, so a tank/technical support which will crush things underfoot? Seems like Roger might become one dangerous foe on the open plains.
With that sorted, everyone is fully equipped (Roger even got himself a towershield, which doesn’t reach the floor due to him being 2.5 metres tall...).
I think getting so much plate at the beginning of the game is slightly cheaty...but then again the cost to get horse fitted plate has got to cost way more than a pretty penny.
“Everyone ready?” I finally choose a full set of leather armour and press accept.
“Yes” They all chime in unison, with their own voices I see...seems like you need to ask for a voice configurator.
I peek at Allie and she nods, I assume she’s mathematically figured out what I’m wondering.
“Somewhere with lots of open grass would be nice Allie” I bow to her and she teleports us off, each of us disappearing into a shimmer of light.
And we appear at a small village in what seems like the middle of summer.
The village is a dingy little place with around 6 houses along with a smithy, an inn and stables.
We spawned on a slightly hilly grassy plain and for quite a large distance that’s all there is (there’s a small forest in the distance but that’s about it as far as I can see. I do spot a couple of people fighting here and there and a couple milling in the village, obvious by their ecstatic demeanour.
Perfect for Roger I believe.
“Right, so Let us open your stat screen...” Oh god names. “Give me a second”
Sending a message to Allie about forgetting to set their names and allowing them to change it once on their character sheet, I hope she allows it.
“Open up your character sheet, you can do so in the menu” I swipe down with my right hand “Or just simply think it”.
I see a few blank windows opening and I decide to open my own
NAME:
ZMaster
TITLE:
(none)
Class tree:
Wanderer
Class:
None
Race:
Human
Gender
Male
Level
1
Experience
0%
STATUS:
Remaining points (0)
Health Points:
110/110
HP regen (out of combat)
1/sec
Energy
100/100
Energy regen
10/sec
STR:
10
TGH:
10
AGI:
10
VIT:
10
INT:
10
MND:
10
ATTK:
Phys 10-11
Extra:
None
DEF:
25
M.Res:
17
Satiety:
99/100 (well fed)
SKILLS:
One-handed Axe Mastery [lvl1]
-Hack (Active)
Leather Mastery [Lvl 1]
Racials [max]
-Versatile
-Quick Learner
-Diverse
Quite boring.
“Right, first change your name at the top of your character sheet, and don’t give your own name please”
Everyone thinks and ponders about their names for a bit (phew, seems Allie accepted the request...since technically her/my mistake).
Eventually I see their names change one by one...oh my god, I really shouldn’t have given them free reign
...
..
.
“Come follow me...JuicyTemptress, EarthenBabe, QuickyRicky and Rogerick Zulataine” To be honest at least Roger’s name is...bearable...I mean what was going through their heads??
I kind of want to cry...but it’s not my name so I’m fine.
Pacing across the field calmly, I quickly find a nice spot to sit down.
“Ok, so I’m going to tell you all about the 6 stats we have. STR is strength, so how strong you are. Game-wise it affects damage. AGI is agility, so how agile you are, it affects anything that requires accuracy and or speed. INT is intelligence, it increases your magic damage. TGH, toughness, increases your natural defence. VIT, vitality, increase your hit points and MND is mind which increases your magical resistance as well as increasing your pool. Use this knowledge when you want to put points into these stats”
Juicy raises her hand. “We get points?”
“Every level you will get 2 points to spend, though in this game it seems equipment will give you stats as long as you wear them”
Making sure they understand that, I then stand up and have a look at what I can use as combat practice.
In sight are rabbits and some boars. Perfect!
Going up to a boar, it’s passive. Well this is slightly unfair.
Name: Plains Boar [Lvl 3]
100/100
“Ok, so combat works quite like real life” I go up to the boar and chop my axe into its head.
-16 (84/100)
“Hitting vital areas cause’s criticals, which are double damage” I sidestep the boar as I tries to gore me and chop at its flank
-7 (77/100)
“So be careful when it attacks you”
Dodging it again as it charges past me in a straight line, I activate hack.
-12 (65/100)
“If you look in your Skills box in your character sheet-”
-7 (58/100)
-12 (98/110)
“-then you will see a weapon/magic mastery and possibly a sub-skill”
-8 (50/100)
“To active your skill, you simply think it, like this”
I reactivate hack, smacking it down onto the boar’s eye, while getting gored myself.
-24 (26/100)
-20 (78/110)
“As you see it uses energy-”
-26 (0/100)
-16 (62/110)
“-So it can be used repeatedly as long as you have energy” Hmm about 25 energy a hack, so once every 2.5 seconds to maintain full energy, sweet.
Everyone claps as I stand there with a hole in my chest, but a dead boar beside me.
“Now I want everyone to read their skills and understand how you can use them”
Everyone immediately goes into deep study of their own characters.
Mildly interested, I ask permission to see Rogericks sheet, to which he presses a share button (somehow it appeared...probably Allie’s help).
NAME:
Rogerick Zulataine
TITLE:
(none)
Class tree:
Wanderer
Class:
None
Race:
Centaur
Gender
Male
Level
1
Experience
0%
STATUS:
Remaining points (0)
Health Points:
110/110
HP regen (out of combat)
1/sec
Energy
100/100
Energy regen
10/sec
STR:
10
TGH:
10
AGI:
10
VIT:
10
INT:
10
MND:
10
ATTK:
Phys 15-18
Extra:
None
DEF:
88
M.Res:
17
Satiety:
96/100 (well fed)
SKILLS:
Spear Mastery [lvl 1]
-Impale (Active)
Plate Mastery [Lvl 1]
Shield Mastery [Lvl 1]
Racials [max]
-Large Stride
-Overrun
-Nature Attuned
-Rideable
So impale is same as hack and the racials are only mildly interesting: Large stride means movement speed is 60% better naturally (pretty awesome and it says this can increase at later levels too!). Overrun is a passive that diminishes penalties to bull rushing enemies and trying to trample them underneath. Nature attuned means nature likes him more and Rideable, is pretty awesome.
Interested, I actually have a peek at the rest of them.
NAME:
JuicyTemptress
TITLE:
(none)
Class tree:
Wanderer
Class:
None
Race:
Succubus
Gender
Female
Level
1
Experience
0%
STATUS:
Remaining points (0)
Health Points:
110/110
HP regen (out of combat)
5/sec
HP regen (in combat)
4/sec
Energy
100/100
Energy regen
10/sec
STR:
10
TGH:
10
AGI:
10
VIT:
10
INT:
10
MND:
10
ATTK:
Phys 10-11
Extra:
None
DEF:
10
M.Res:
17
Satiety:
96/100 (well fed)
SKILLS:
Fire Manipulation Mastery [Lvl 1]
-Flare (Active)
Cloth Mastery [Lvl 1]
Racials [max]
-Entrance (Active)
-Demonic blood
-Flight
-Man’s Desire
Nice to know I’m not the only one with Man’s desire...
Apart from that, the rest is pretty cool: Flight allows her to hover a certain height (increasing with levels like Rogericks move speed). Demonic blood has both ups and downs: No holy healing, but increased hp regen (in combat too ooh) and blood can be used in certain spell components (Mages will love her). Entrance is quite literally as it sounds; a target is charmed far as long as she sustains it.
Flare, which is her combat ability, is literally a small bolt of fire, doing damage equal to energy used.
So she could do 1 bolt a second doing 10 damage, or 1 bolt a every 10 seconds doing 100 damage. Interesting indeed.
Onto the next one
NAME:
EarthenBabe
TITLE:
(none)
Class tree:
Wanderer
Class:
None
Race:
Draconid
Gender
Female
Level
1
Experience
0%
STATUS:
Remaining points (0)
Health Points:
110/110
HP regen (out of combat)
2/sec
HP regen (in combat)
1/sec
Energy
100/100
Energy regen
10/sec
STR:
10
TGH:
10
AGI:
10
VIT:
10
INT:
10
MND:
10
ATTK:
Phys 10-11
Extra:
None
DEF:
10
M.Res:
17
Satiety:
94/100 (well fed)
SKILLS:
Earth Manipulation Mastery [lvl1]
-Rock bolt
Cloth Mastery [Lvl 1]
Racials [max]
-Flight
-Dragon breath (Active)
-Natural immunity
-Draconic blood
Ok, so skills are a decent bit different (even though it seems like they both have some sort of health regen in combat).
First off Dragon breath; apparently it’s acid due to the green colour, and deals it in a cone, so pretty badass. Though it’s got limited uses. Natural immunity gives magical resistances to basically quite a few things. Draconic blood is the hp regen, less than demonic blood but it doesn’t get the penalty of no holy healing.
So all in all, they’re not too far off each-other in character. Only time will tell.
Now last of all, Ricky (no way am I calling him Quicky...that just sounds wrong.
NAME:
QuickyRicky
TITLE:
(none)
Class tree:
Wanderer
Class:
None
Race:
Sylph
Gender
Male
Level
1
Experience
0%
STATUS:
Remaining points (0)
Health Points:
110/110
HP regen (out of combat)
1/sec
Energy
100/100
Energy regen
10/sec
STR:
10
TGH:
10
AGI:
10
VIT:
10
INT:
10
MND:
10
ATTK:
Phys 10-11
Extra:
None
DEF:
18
M.Res:
17
Satiety:
92/100 (well fed)
SKILLS:
Air Manipulation Mastery [lvl1]
-Wind Slice (Active)
Leather Mastery [Lvl 1]
Cloth Mastery [Lvl 1]
Racials [max]
-Flight
-Concealment (Active)
-Air Affinity
-Windlike
Wow, His skills are actually pretty awesome.
So first off is wind slice, which is as it sounds so pretty cool.
Concealment means that naturally he’s harder to hit and if he activates it he can become almost invisible (as long as he doens’t wear any armour).
Air affinity just increases his bonuses to air spells (duh) while Windlike increases his movement speed dependent on the wind and it’s direction (so in a storm he’d probably be insanely fast).
Ok, now that I’ve read all their cool skills along with them, I believe it’s time I teach them how to play!