Qs from an old player returning

Zalandrus

I played Lusternia 6 years ago and am thinking about making a return. Have kept up with events from the outside so know about the major changes (they look so cool!) But have some practical questions about playing today:

1. What's the best client to use nowadays? Looks like lots of improvements to Nexus; or is Mudlet & mmf still better?

2. What does server side curing mean practically for gameplay? Is curing easier? Automated?

3. What's the pvp environment like now?

4. Any other warnings or surprises to help me ease in would be appreciated

Arix

1. I think a f air few people use Mudlet still, I know I do
2. SSC is awesome, I can actually hunt now. It still has SOME issues but it's being continually improved
3. This I could not answer
4. Depends on how well you're actually keeping up, but I think the change to curatives and the guild restructuring are the main thing that trip up the woodwork dwellers

Zalandrus

With serverside curing + improvements to Nexus, what's the gap btw that and Mudlet?

Deichtine

MMF and serverside curing is what the vast majorty of people use. Serverside is more than good enough for high speed pvp. Issue is server side doesnt manage defenses so you need a system and well MMF does that job good enough. Theres a few guides about on how to disable mmfs curing to let server side do the work and just use mm for the defs and other handy tools its got inbuilt.

PVP environment is sort of a bit confusing organisation wise right now. Seren-Celest-Halli are technically in an alliance, Gaudi-Glom are allied, Mag is technically on its own. Mag and Halli are in the process of setting up a working alliance, got an alliance clan for group defense and stuff but not officially offically allies.

Numbers wise it fluxs a fair bit but raids with roughly equal numbers tend to happen on a frequentish basis so theres a decent ammout of pvp to jump into to refresh your memory. Some orgs are a bit more restrictive than other orgs in allowing you to fight or attack your orgs enemies atm but thats a result of the diplomacy and could change overnight.

Most classes have a pretty good spot in group combat atm as well but if your curious about specific classes best to ask what your looking for. Wiccian/Druid/Mage/Monk/etc?

Minkahmet

Serverside curing is viable and keeps up decently in pvp, works perfectly pve-wise and somewhat customizable, though there are still issues with the curing that the server side system fails to recognize things as being pitted and for some reason, there's still a problem with writhes or certain writhes, a few kinks still yes.  MMF is abysmally outdated, but...still usable in a few functions I suppose.

The guild changes are rather nice, so definitely worth checking out and liking the clearer channel to get in contact with a patron for requests etc, and the prompt responses we get from them.  The factions appeared to have reverted in a sense, back to a 3-guild style+leader organization, but with a much cleaner design without the clutter of excessive positions, even some ministries had changes/deleted/downsized(into a unified function-noted the Ministry of Education)

PvP environment....still toxic as the forums are, but not -as- bad, sadly trolls will never go away. Other than that, if you can get past that, it's still fast-paced and fun otherwise.

Zalandrus

For reference, I'm thinking of joining Hallifax and trying out their new monk class. 

Do people skillflex a lot? Seems like an awesome idea but in practice it doesn't feel as... practical

Deichtine

Well skill flex as a monk you only really have one skill choice acro vs psymet.

So skill flexing between isnt that big a different I guess.

Classflex between a totally new class can be nice but well cost of lessons and new skillls and all that.

Zalandrus

Ohh I don't think I fully understand skill/classflex yet. It sounded to me like you could switch archetypes pretty quickly without much penalty, but it seems not

Deichtine

Ah theres classflex and skillflex.

Classflex is changing class totally. You go from monk to guardian to mage or what ever. Its got a bit of a cost lessons wise and its on a cooldown so you cant change class every 5 mins. But if you want to try out a new class and come back thats totally fine. Keep your monk skills try out bard see if you like it and then you can classflex between bard and monk for example.

Skillflex is akin to classflex but its just for skill choices.

In lusty lots of classes get a wide selection of choices of skills. Monks are one of the ones that get the least choice.

For example a Wiccan can pick between healing, hexes and astrology for their third skill.

A warrior ebonguard could pick between bonecrusher, pureblade, axelord, cavalier, blademaster for their prime skill. Then Crow, Night or Hunting for their third skill.

Skill flex would allow you as an ebonguard to stay a warrior but swich from being a Crow user to a Hunting user for example.

Zalandrus

Thanks for all the info so far! Been enjoying reading up on new help files and news posts from the last 6 years A few more questions have popped up:

5. What's the population spread across the different orgs look like now?

6. Lots more gods around = awesome! Which Celest and Hallifax ones are active right now? Is it generally tough to be in the order of a god that's in the pantheon of an allied city (eg a Hallifaxian being in a Celest god's order)?

7. One thing that frustrated me when I left last time is that almost all areas for my level were cleared out or influenced out all the time. Even if I wanted to go bashing/influencing, I couldn't. Has that situation improved?

Lief

5. I can't really speak for the big picture, but I can say that Serenwilde typically seems kinda populated during Euro times? Possibly during peak US times too, but I'm usually in bed by then. CULTURE can possibly help give an idea about population too; I think that the score by Cultural Activity is generated by people logging in. If I'm right, of your two choices from the sounds of it, Celest looks like it could use some loving and Hallifax is middle of the pack in terms of population.

6. Not sure about Celest gods, and not sure about most Hallifax ones, but I know Isune and Czixi are around for sure and both seem really awesome! Some gods are okay with you joining if you aren't part of their city and some aren't because of affinity - I believe there's a drain in essence if you aren't part of their city weighted by order rank.

7. I don't run into many problems, but aetherbashing and astral bashing are both group bashing experiences that happen with some regularity in the northern orgs.

Deichtine

Zalandrus said:

Thanks for all the info so far! Been enjoying reading up on new help files and news posts from the last 6 years A few more questions have popped up:

5. What's the population spread across the different orgs look like now?

6. Lots more gods around = awesome! Which Celest and Hallifax ones are active right now? Is it generally tough to be in the order of a god that's in the pantheon of an allied city (eg a Hallifaxian being in a Celest god's order)?

7. One thing that frustrated me when I left last time is that almost all areas for my level were cleared out or influenced out all the time. Even if I wanted to go bashing/influencing, I couldn't. Has that situation improved?

Population always fluxs a bit.

Across the past year or so:

Glomdoring is on a pretty big high population wise atm but seems to flux to fairly low ebbs at points. We've been the last org to get guild halls and finish the guild/faction overhaul events so we've had a big upsurge for people in coming back for them for sure. New divine events tends to draw old established players and new interested people for sure. Gloms got a fairly nicely spread pop for timezones but is mostly yankie times. Theres a significant portion of us in euro/far east times so there's generally a noteable person or two knocking around most of the day.

Hallifax has been in the more consistant higher population orgs for a large ammout of time. Better part of a year they've had top dog status number wise on a more regular basis. Mainly since the Seren exodus. Serenwilde was one of the larger populations but a big number of them left the org to move mostly to hallifax, a few to other places like Celest or Glom but seren lost a lot of people and dropped from being one of the highest pop orgs to a low-mid ranger. They always seem to have a decent amount of folks around though, they've got a pretty good loyal core who sticks around most of the timezones.

Celest has consistantly been one of the smaller orgs activity wise it feels. Gaudi is a bit funny in that it seems to flip between having a solid population and being near empty its one of the more random orgs population wise it feels.

Magnagora seems to have a solid consistant population that does peak to push them to top popualted org at random points.

There are quite a lot of new bashing areas as well for your last question, I never had much trouble finding a new place to bash. I doubt you'll have much trouble if one area is empty there are a lot of other areas to move to.

Aeldra

Activity wise, Celest sadly has been a little quiet over the past half year, but I'm feeling we're having an upsurge of new people lately... I do hope it lasts us through and a few stick around, but yes, generally we're one of the smaller populations in Celest, but we're always glad to have more along