New player (Gasp!) seeks information

[Blueman]

Hi there, I'm pretty much new to Asheron's Call but I'm a veteran of many MMOs both old school and new school such as EQ, DAoC, EQ2, and many more.
After getting a little disgruntled with SOE and their baby, Everquest 2, I saw this game in a store and decided to pick it up.

I spent about 5 minutes with it last night and probably 30 minutes with it this morning and I'm totally lost. The combat system and camera perspective is very different from what I'm used to. I want first person darn it :mad: . I always like to start off on the most populated server. Right now I have a soldier on Frostfell but I can always change it. As you can tell by my username I will play as a Viamontian. Besides wondering what the most popular server is I'd like to know if there was any decent guilds around on that server that would like to take me in. I usually only join guilds with web sites since I believe it's essential for planning and communication. Plus I just like making sigs and posting on forums. However, sometimes I will make exceptions if I know the members of the guild well enough.

So if you guys could give me some pointers on some things, show me some good guilds, and help me pick out a server I'd appreciate it very much.

[Scenario]

Welcome aboard!

You are able to enter First-Person mode by hitting the "." key on your numpad. Most camera controls can be found there. If that key config doesn't do it for you, you can always reconfigure your keymap from the Options panel.

[Debbie Brown]

Welcome to AC, here's a list o' answers:

1. For 1st person view hit . on the keypad
2. I *think* Leafcull has the highest population of the white worlds
3. Check out lcc.dereth.ac it has a list of different guilds on LC and is a great group

Hope that helps

[Captain Obvious]

If you're really interested in some help, but not molly-coddling, check me out on Solclaim. Character name is either Country Evil or Heart of Arrakis. I head up an EXTREMELY small allegiance (four people), but we're all longtime very skilled players and can tell you anything you need to know.

*edit* No website, but we all use IM (Yahoo/MSN) and two of us use voicechat. If you're looking for the ubar-hold-my-hand-until-I'm-L33t guilds, that's not us either.

[JJC]

> I want first person darn it

As others have pointed out, it's there. I don't think it would be very good for a melee attack.

> I always like to start off on the most populated server.

They stopped giving off population numbers but it's not all that much different between servers. Leafcull and Morningthaw used to report the highest numbers if my memory is correct.

> I'd like to know if there was any decent guilds around on that server that would like to take me in.

A decent enough list of allegiances can be found here - http://acvault.ign.com/allegiancedb/allegiance.php

Some might be defunct as consolidation has occured and there are some that have formed but haven't been updated but you should be able to find a group that fits your style within that section.

JJC

[Blueman]

Thanks for the info on the first person mode. I usually use first person for exploration and navigating then turn to 3rd person so I can see my character in combat. I usually like to group a lot so I guess my next question is at what lvl does grouping start to kick in, if at all?

I *think* Leafcull has the highest population of the white worlds

What do you mean by white worlds?

[JJC]

> What do you mean by white worlds?

On the radar :
White = NPK
Pink = PKL (It is PK without the risk)
Red = PK

Darktide is a world in which everyone is PK and is a "red world"
Every other world is "white" in the sense that everyone is default NPK unless they change themselves to red or pink.

If by grouping you mean anytime people are attacking the enemy like a wolf pack then it starts at every level. If by grouping you mean coordinating attacks as a cohesive unit then it never starts.

JJC

[Blueman]

I mean grouping like getting a bunch of players (whatever the group cap is) together to go out to a hunting spot and constantly pull/kill mobs for XP.

[JJC]

Any level. Keep in mind that for the first 50 levels you have to be within 10 levels of the person leading the fellowship to draw a percentage of the experience. After 50 it's all the same. The game is a bit short of new people but if you find a group odds are there will be people rerolling new characters and can help you find how you like to play.

The group cap is 9 for any fellowship.

JJC

[Gyes]

You're welcome to look me (and my monarchy) up on Solclaim too.

When it comes down to it, there really isn't much difference in populations in the non-PK worlds these days. If you've already established yourself on a server, there probably isn't a whole lot of motivation for you to try another. There are good groups of people pretty much everywhere.

As for your question about grouping, it is true that you can form fellowships with people of any level, but if you want to share, either everyone in the fellowship has to be over level 50 or everyone has to be within 5 levels of the creator. Otherwise, you can form a fellowship but no experience will share. Typically, that means you will do a lot of solo play from 1-50. Also bear in mind that (aside from the influx of new people) there aren't a whole lot of people between 1 and 50. Even if you did want to fellow, you would likely have a hard time finding a group. Fortunately, you can make level 50 very quickly these days.

Last, but not least, you may want to have a look at a guide I wrote for new and returning players. It explains the back story, the basic mechanics of the game, classes and skills, transportation, combat, crafting, and more. You can have a look at:

http://www.paladinsofasheron.com/AC/gyes_guide.htm

Best of luck to you!

[Blueman]

When it comes down to it, there really isn't much difference in populations in the non-PK worlds these days

In that case I may just stay in Frostfell then. I've done some research into guilds/monarchies and I'm not at all sure which ones I want to join. If anyone has some tips on that I'd appreciate it.

[Jothony SC]

Ask everyone you meet for a link to their clan site. After you read thru 20 of em, you should have a good idea what you're looking for and who might be good for you to join. And if you don't like you're first choice, there's no penalty for changing.

here's mine to add to your list http://www.renegadeguild.net/guild.html

[Blueman]

Thank you for the suggestion. I really like the site so I'll keep it in mind for the future. I got invited to a clan in the market place tonight and so far they seem alright. They have around 392 members but I'm not sure just how many of them were online today. I'm gonna shop around and see what all my options are and decide if I wanna stay with that guild or not.

[JJC]

The number by each monarch isn't the number of members, it's the number of characters sworn. At a current max of seven characters an account it could be anywhere between 392 individuals and 56 accounts who may or may not be even playing on that world.

JJC

[Bardo]

The manual probably still says that they keep your characters for 6 months after an account is cancelled but it's not true. There is a fair chance that some of those members don't actually play any more. Then again there are a lot of people coming back, not so many completely new people (lots have been gone for a while, my new vassal 18 months) but the numbers are rising =)

[Blueman]

The ammount of players seems pretty decent. It's about like the size of a single realm in DAoC on a populated server (300-600). Notice I said decent. it's nowhere near where a game like this should be. IMO, if you wanna get more players combine the servers, don't make new ones. It doesn't matter if someone may lose his house. I think that's a worthy sacrifice seeing as how it puts the massive back in this MMORPG.

Now back on topic, I'm not to clear on the patron, vassal, monarch system. Could someone explain it to me in a little more detail?

[sandman]

A Monarch is the leader of a guild/allegiance/(fill in your name for the group). By definition ALL of his/her followers are vassals. A patron is a member of a monarchy that has followers of his/her own that isn't necessarily the monarch. For example on Verdantine my characters are all members of El's monarchy. All are thereby vassals of El. Some of my characters have followers of their own thereby making me their patron. In laymand terms it's a typical medieval feudal system in a sense.

What blurs things a bit is the patron/vassal relationship. Some players want followers for the xp passup only and therefore seek out experienced players to be their vassals. Others seek to help their followers in various ways. For example I tend to give away equipment that I no longer need. I'll also help at times with quests and corpse recoveries.

Another thing that gets a bit blurry is monarchy structure. Some groups have various councils to plan events and hold regular group meetings. The Silver Citadel on Leafcull is a good example of this. They hold weekly monarchy meetings to go over the weeks planned activities and to address any issues that crop up. Furthermore they have several "houses" that cater todifferent types of players. For example they have a "house" dedicated to melee combat. Other monarchies are a bit more loosely grouped. These tend to cater to players that prefer more freedom to do what they want.

The best thing to do is to check out several groups on your server of choice and see which ones best suit your needs and play style.

[Northstar]

Thank you for the suggestion. I really like the site so I'll keep it in mind for the future. I got invited to a clan in the market place tonight and so far they seem alright. They have around 392 members but I'm not sure just how many of them were online today. I'm gonna shop around and see what all my options are and decide if I wanna stay with that guild or not.

Good morning :)

If you're interested, The Chosen Ones are still very active on Frostfell and you can browse our website here:

http://www.thechosenonez.com/

Also you can read our allegiance code of conduct here:

http://www.thechosenonez.com/coc.php


We have many active patrons who play at all hours of the day, drop by and say hello :D

North

[a5roseb]

Hi Blueman,
While it can be helpful at your level to quickly find a monarchy, normally you would be reasonably equiped and helped to a higher level, doing so has its downsides. The BEST thing to do is get out and about, hunt, and build natural friendships. Then join the Monarchy that makes the most sense.

I play on WE and would happly donate a bit of pryeal and equipment. I'd bet someone would do the same on the world you are currently playin.

Good luck! Rest assured there will be significantly more folks playin soon.

[Blueman]

I think I've pretty much decided to stay on Frostfell. It's not that I dont' feel that I can spend enough time to get another character to 20 but that I just have grown attached to my character. I'm currently looking into joining the allegiance that the above poster gave me a link too.

My name on Frostfell is Vallon D'Lere if anyone needs to contact me for any reason.

[regenboog]

This can be a help for you :)

http://www.treestats.com/

You can see all servers, the clans, toons.
I am not going to say on wich server it is best to play, neither wich guild.
But I am going to say is, try things out, there is so much in AC,and if you need help, most players are willing to give you.

Enjoy! :)

[Garak]

Frostfell is a good choice.
If you judge by message board activity, frostfell is the most active world. BTW im reffering to the ign vault network boards, which are superior to turbines and thus offer far more active and on topic server boards.

There is a util to check server pops, it shows leafcull and frostfell to be fairly even as the top 2 servers.

Note the # of the people in a allegiance does not actualy indicate much. Frostfell is home to over a dozen monarch's with 3000+ followers each.. The entire game does not even have that many subscribers. That number is everyone character sworn to anyone in the allegiance, at anytime.. The game is 6 years old, so 99% of those accounts, are inactive.
There were many times where free trials were offers, and certain individuals ran scripts to automatically generate dozenz of accounts and swear them all to 1 character. That was done to gain rank. Rank effects a few things, your ability to purchase a mansion and certain items require rank to activate there magic. But that is generaly not important, because the rank required is almost always 8-10, which is quite high, so few meet it. It doesn't matter much either, because there are skills (tinkering) that allow you to remove rank requirements.

So an allegiance with 3000+ followers, may only have 25-50 active members. I know personaly some with as high as 5000 have less then 20 active members. That said, there are still some good active guilds around. Thechosen isn't a bad choice. Mark-Wheen, Ophar Kabitaki and Shai'tan are also good active monarch's on frostfell you could look into.

Check out ACvault.com under allegiances for a full list.