Tibia (computer game)
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| Tibia | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | CipSoft GmbH |
| Publisher(s) | CipSoft GmbH |
| Release date(s) | 1996, 2-3 updates per year (currently at version 7.92) |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | not rated |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Linux |
| Media | Download only (12.4 MB) |
| System requirements | Windows 95/98/ME/XP/2000/Vista or Linux with libc version 5+, 25 MB hard disk space, DirectX 5 or X-Window System installed & Hardware accelerated graphics driver (for Linux), Internet access. |
Tibia is a MMORPG first released in 1996. It is a free game which is open to the public, though players have the option to pay a fee in order to upgrade to a "premium account," gaining them access to all other benefits. This includes the "Promotion" that gains all vocations a special trait, or ability, but is only obtainable at a cost of in-game money.
Encompassing about 275,000 players from around the world, Tibia is an Online Game that encompasses sprites that have different attributes. These are in the form of Items, People, NPCs, and Creatures that make up the game. Host servers for Tibia are located in Germany and the United States.
Gameplay involves training to improve skill levels, hunting monsters using weapons and magical spells, gathering treasure, doing quests and exploring the world. Players interact with each other in character for conversation, trade and group battles and partake in guilds for more role-playing opportunities. On most of the servers, player versus player combat is allowed as well.
Contents |
[edit] Vocations in-depth
In Tibia there are four different vocations to choose from. They are the Paladin, Druid, Sorcerer, and Knight. These vocations each have advantages and disadvantages which are listed below.
[edit] Paladins
The Paladin is the well-rounded vocation of Tibia, neither gaining much nor sacrificing much in any area. They are noted for their mastery in the art of distance fighting as evidenced by their ability to gain the distance skill faster than any other vocation. The paladin is also noted for his well rounded selection of spells. The Paladin gain ten hitpoints, fifteen mana points, and twenty capacity points per level. When promoted a paladin becomes a "Royal Paladin".
In reality, Paladins were the elite guards of a states officials. Often these guards were of noble or high-ranking families by which they received such an honorable job of protector. Paladins came to be a higher rank or order or knights. They were often better equipped and in better battle position than the average knights. They also had additional training in multiple weapons types, such as the bow. They also typically were mounted on horses.
[edit] Druids
Druids are a magical class which use nature and healing based magic. As such, they lack skills with weapons, but make up for it with a strong level in magical skills and the ability to make healing runes such as 'Intense Healing' and 'Ultimate Healing'. The latter of which is very popular among all vocations. Since they are a healing based class they lack many 'instant' attack spells, but make up for with excellent healing spells such as "Heal Friend" which heals just as much as the Ultimate Healing spell, but for less mana, and the ever useful "Mass Healing" spell which will heal everyone in range. However, note that on PVP (Player Vs Player) worlds, this spell will also heal ANY monsters, as well as players in range. (This will not happen on Non-PVP worlds.) Although non-melee oriented, they gain shielding and melee skills slightly faster than sorcerers, making them slightly better at melee fighting. The Druid gains five hitpoints, thirty mana points, and ten capacity points per level. When promoted a Druid becomes an "Elder Druid".
In reality, Druids were the priests of the Celtic people. They were learned in the uses of nature's flora to produce healing solutions to ailments. They were also worshippers of nature. This correlates to Tibia in druids being the healing, defensive, side of magic users. Likewise to real life druids, the Tibian druids follow the god of trees and plants, Crunor.
[edit] Sorcerers
Sorcerers are masters of chaos and destruction. Lacking in every way when it comes to physical combat, they are masters of the arcane, they have many damaging instant spells that other classes lack. Such as the ever powerful "Ultimate Explosion" capable of dealing MASSIVE damage to everyone in range, to the less powerful, but still quite damaging "Energy Wave" spell. They are also the only class which can make the Sudden Death rune. The Sorcerer gains five hitpoints, thirty mana points, and ten capacity points per level. When promoted a Sorcerer becomes a "Master Sorcerer".
In reality, Sorcerers were generally alchemists who studied nature and the cause and effect of things. They worked in the discovery and use of elements. This developed into trying to find solutions to everyday problems. Their work was misunderstood and misrepresented as magic.
[edit] Knights
Knights are adepts at wielding a variety of weapons and armor. They are strong at close range, but when it comes to distance they are at a sore disadvantage. Also, they can only use a handful of low-powered spells, such as Light Healing and Magic Light, and because their Magic Level progresses the slowest of all, as well as being unable to surpass a maximum Magic Level of 15, the power of runes they use are weak. However, they have the most health out of any other vocation. The Knight gains fifteen hitpoints, five mana points, and twenty five capacity points per level. When promoted, a Knight becomes an "Elite Knight".
In reality, Knights were youths in medieval society who were working up in the social life order. They began more so as public servants, to aid those in need. This developed into a code, order and lifestyle for people. They served on usual occasions liken to law enforcers. When times of war came they acted as military; firstly militia style then more formally as a paid military group. Knights were typically melee fighters, hand-to-hand combat, but some specialized in the bow. In time when horses were available, the more wealthy or higher ranking knights were mounted. The original elite knights were known as Paladins.
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[edit] Free Account Cities
- Rookgaard - This city is where all adventurers in the land of Tibia start out. The name "Rookgaard" is synomus to that island. Until level 8, all players must stay in this area, out of the way of the mainland. There is no restriction on how many levels that can be gained in "Rookgaard", although the main gameplay takes place away from this island and players gaining above level 8 in Rookgaard take a considerable stat disadvantage, since stats increase more slowly there.
- Thais - Thais is the unofficial capital of the realm called "Tibia". King Tibianus III rules here. It is the first city that existed ingame.
- Venore - Venore is a large, prospering town locted on top of a swamp. Since its inception, it has grown steadily larger.
- Kazordoon - Kazordoon or Kaz for short, has a long history of being the centre of the Tibian continent, the pinaccle being an extinct volcano. It also has the honor of being the only city where Dwarves are the premmient race.
- Ab'Dendriel - This city rests with nature. Elves inhabit this area, and can be found at the far north end of the continent.
- Carlin - This city is usually favored by newer players. Because of narrow areas that are common in the city, trapping players to kill them is common.
[edit] Premium Account Cities
The Premium account area is used by players who have paid an extra fee for the usage of this game. It includes all Free Account Cities.
- Liberty Bay - A small island settlement founded by Venore to the west of the main continent.
- Edron - The main city in the Premium areas, it has an academy of lerned teachers who will teach advanced spells.
- Ankrahmun - Literally, the city of the undead. Ruled by a pharaoh, it has given rise to a desert, Egypt, style.
- Darashia - The first settlement founded in the desert region containing Ankrahmun and Darashia. Sports numerous low-level hunting places around the city. This city is located on the island of Darama.
- Port Hope - Legend has it that there were some shipwrecked sailors that made a city out of the intense jungle terrain around this city.
[edit] Updates to Tibia
Major updates usually are released twice yearly by CipSoft. Before game updates, test servers are ran to find and repair bugs and glitches within the update. These servers are first available for testing to players that hold official positions such as tutors, senior tutors and gamemasters. The test server is then usually opened to the general Tibian public. Because no permanent change to a player's character occurs on the test server, it is also an opportunity for players to explore, attack and fight in wars, without their main character on a normal server being affected.
[edit] Christmas 2004 Update
During the Christmas update of 2004, the skull system was introduced. Players could no longer kill a numerous amount of people per day. However, players often complained about having a skull for training with their friends. Therefore, duel mode was released. Duel mode created a green skull next to the player that only other players in duel mode could see. However, high-level players soon began to enter duel mode to gain the privlege of killing other players in duel mode for fun. Therefore party mode replaced duel mode, and is still active even today, but even this mode has its problems, new players are often tricked into entering party mode with higher level players, then killed for sport with no consequences to the higher level players.
[edit] Summer 2005 Update
During 2005 the magic systems were greatly altered. Soul points were introduced (Summer Update) which reduced the amount of macroers (characters using illegal macros) as they had to hunt monsters in order to continue creating runes. Another major feature from the update was the breaking of spears. This made it harder and more expensive for Paladins to keep on "macro-training" while away from their PC. This is probably the most controversial of the updates applied to the game; evidence of is the fact that in the 7.6 update spears were made more resistant to breaking, due to complaints and suggestions from the Tibian general public.
[edit] Christmas 2005 Update
In the Christmas Update even more drastic changes occurred. Mana regeneration speed was increased by 4x, and experience level requirements (instead of magic level requirements) to cast spells were also created. The change has made it harder for druids and sorcerers to make money below level 25, as no worthy runes can be created. Also, changes were made to the in-game graphics.
[edit] Spring 2006 Technical Update
On May 18, 2006 the Tibia 7.7 version client was released. This was only a technical update, however. Changes included the white list, which allowed players to ignore everyone else except for characters in their white list and/or their VIP list. Players could also choose between either DirectX5, DirectX9, or OpenGL as their graphics engine. This led to a major increase in many players' fps (frame rates per second). During the test server, the trade channel also got a new look. Players would have to press an "advertise" button and type in what they wanted to sell.
[edit] Summer 2006 Update
On August 1, 2006, the new Shattered Isles (12 islands total) were introduced; the infamous Liberty Bay being the main settlement for players from the 12 islands. Aside from the main city, there are numerous fascinating islands just off the shores such as Meriana, Laguna Islands and Treasure Island. A significant number of new creatures was introduced. Another major aspect of this update was the hotkey feature for items, wherein all usable items with triggers can now be set as hotkeys for one-touch instant actions. Also players are now allowed to shoot directly at people from the battle list; there is a built-in light intensity feature which made the light spell obsolete, plus new clothes and addons for outfits. A contentious inclusion is CIPs addition of tools which were previously illegal cheats but have now become standard. Some are opposed to the addition as it "ruins role-play." Others like the change for the obvious benefits. The presumed goal is to bring all players on an equal playing field by giving everyone use of the tools.
[edit] Christmas 2006 Update
On December 15, 2006, the Pits of Inferno was introduced, as well as the famous 'Dream Challenge' which allows one to join the Nightmare Knights and fight for good, or join the Brotherhood of Bones and help raise hell. Characters now have a quest log, allowing them to see information on major quests they have started or completed (Desert Dungeon, Paradox Tower, Djinn Factions, Post Officer). Houses were upgraded so litter bins and ovens were removed, and can be bought from furniture stores, in addition, window shutters were added to keep unwanted garbage out of houses. Banks were added in Rookgaard, and all the mainland cities, located at the current NPCs where you change gold. A Rookgaard Trade Channel was also introduced to keep the selling and buying of items separate from the mainland. New items were introduced and so were new monsters. New monsters that were introduced can all be found in the Pits of Inferno except a select few, those being Nomads, who will roam the desert of Darama, and Wyverns, who can be found all over Tibia. And finally, another feature to help prevent cheaters was introduced. When you eat food, your character makes an eating graphic (Yum, Crunch, etc); this alerts Gamemasters to possible macroers.
[edit] Magic
There are two types of magic:
- Instant magic - Magic that is cast automatically when you enter the words of the spell (Example: Exevo Gran Mas Vis, Exevo Mort Hur, Utana Vid).
- Rune magic - Magic that is cast while having a blank rune in your hand (Example: Adori Vita Vis, Adevo Mas Hur, Adori Gran Flam, Adori Gran)
Spells can be bought from the guild leader of each vocation (Knight, Paladin, Druid, and Sorcerer) which are located in most of the towns.
The power of spells relate directly to their Character Level and their Magic Level, moreso the latter. Knights gain Magic Levels the slowest, and cannot surpass a maximum of 15; aside from being very difficult to achieve in the first place, it keeps the Knight from becoming an adept fighter and magic user. Paladins gain it at a relatively fast pace, and the Druids and Sorcerers gain it at a very fast pace, gaining the highest among the classes.
Knights have the least amount of spells to buy, Paladins have a few more spells to buy, while Sorcerers and Druids have a large amount of spells to buy. Some spells can only be bought in premium account areas. Also, some spells require elite vocation ranks. The special promoted vocations are Master Sorcerer, Elder Druid, Elite Knight and Royal Paladin. Vocations can be promoted with 20,000 gold, a paid account, and an experience level of at least 20 from any of the leaders of any given city.
Magic wands (for Sorcerers) and rods (for Druids) are especially made for mages. With these weapons, they can use their magic points (Mana points) to attack creatures. These rods and wands need a certain level of experience for mages to handle them, as example, at level 8 you get your first free wand/rod, then at levels 13, 19, 26 and 33, you gain the ability to buy and use sequentially stronger ones.
[edit] Support And Rules
The Tibian support system is based on a hierarchy of ranks, starting from lowest to highest: tutor, senior tutor, the now defunct counselor, gamemaster, and finally Customer Support. Retired gamemasters and long-term tutors may also - with prior invitation by CIPsoft - choose to adopt the title of senator.
[edit] Tutors
The role of tutor encompasses a number of duties, including: answering questions from the in-game help channel and on the help forum; checking the tutor forum and in-game channels regularly; reporting bugs and bad names.
Following 3 months of active tutorship without a bad/false name/bug report, a tutor is automatically promoted to the position of senior tutor. In addition to the tasks of a tutor, this title brings with it a number of further duties: moderation of the public forums and ability to report inappropriate statements from the public in-game channels.
Note that only people who currently have a Premium account or has had one in the past may apply to be a tutor.
[edit] Controversy
The replacement of the counselor position by senior tutorship has been a source of controversy ever since its introduction. Many players believe the position is too easy to acquire, often misused and the additional powers it provides can make tutors over enthusiastic to report minor infringements where a warning or polite suggestion may be sufficient to resolve the situation. Senior tutors may be promoted directly up into the position of gamemaster if invited to do so by CIPsoft; whereas the previous system of recruiting gamemasters required a lengthy period of counselorship, during which a prospective gamemaster would gain experience in dealing with rule violation reports. The phasing out of the counselor position brought an end to this practice, consequently many players feel newly appointed gamemasters don’t have the appropriate experience for the position. CIPsoft insists appropriate measures are taken to ensure that problems, as a result of these new conditions, are kept to an absolute minimum.
[edit] Cheating
Any prospective player (current or otherwise) is reminded that cheating is a bannable offense in Tibia.
[edit] References
Tibia has been noted to include several References to J. R. R. Tolkien's three-part novel The Lord of the Rings and its legendarium, suggesting that Tibia's creators were heavily influenced by these works:
- Similarly to The Lord of the Rings, Tibia uses the theme of Norse mythology, including races of Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs. It also references names from Norse mythology, such as Durin, that Tolkien refers to.
- Several monsters in Tibia are closely related to those in The Lord of the Rings such as giant spiders or orcs.
- A non-player character quotes from The Fellowship of the Ring (the first part of The Lord of the Rings).
- In Tibia, the underground dwarven city of Kazordoon has a similar name to the dwarven city of Khazad-dûm in The Lord of the Rings.
- In the city of Thais, you can find Frodo's pub and Sam's shop. Both of them are main characters in Tolkien's book.
- In the city of Liberty Bay, there is a small sewer and a locked room with 4 tortoises and a rat, along with weapons such as a katana and throwing stars, in reference to the 90's TV show and movie "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"
Other references can be found throughout the game:
- Somewhere within the dwarven caves, there is a sleeping beauty locked in a room with seven dwarves, a witch and an apple that cannot be grabbed. This is in relation to the Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- In King Tibianus' court, his guards are named Harsky and Stutch. These are similar to Starsky and Hutch.
- In the Jakundaf Desert, there is a complex cave system that contains a book that refers to the "Holy Hand Grenade" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- The game also contains several references to human anatomy, starting with the title Tibia (the shin bone) itself. Fibula, Sternum and Femur are all places in the game as well as bones in the human body. Also Thais may or may not be in relation to the Thighs.
- In a bar in one of the games cities, the player can read a sign which informs the player that "Crossbows n' Tulips" will be playing soon in the bar. This is a parody of Guns and Roses.
- Some of the gravestones in Tibia mention penguins and windows, referring to the Linux penguin, Tux, and the Microsoft Windows operating system.
- In a tomb, there is a floor[1] that resembles the layout of Pacman.
- Numerous NPC's in the game talk about "Excalibug" being the ultimate weapon, similar to Excalibur in King Arthur stories.
- There's a place called "Hard Rock Tavern", a reference to Hard Rock Cafe.
![[1]](http://tibianews.net/picday/000729.jpg){kind=link}