Chapter 0017

Leviene did as her brother recommended (command, but put in a nice way so he don’t sound like a despotic tyrant, which he totally is, especially during raids). One time, Kaleseze …. Nah forget about it; the resulting chew out resounded in her head days after the incident and left a scar in Leviene’s poor little heart. It also changed how she view her younger brother.

She open the main menu, pulled up the introduction section and started reading about all the classes available for players.

Leviene groaned.

Even the introduction to the introduction of classes is long winded. Leviene wanted to contact her brother for a synopsis, but thought better of it. She pushed herself to sludge through the introduction of classes.

The lengthy introduction can be split into two parts, the player and the classes.

The good news and the answer to Leviene’s main concern, it is possible to play multiple classes.

In order to play another class, players must buy another name for themselves. This is like creating an alternative character, shorten to alt, on the same account.

Woot woot.

Leviene Altreyes Rayael Arganox.

Leviene is elated. She can play four characters without paying. Free! She doesn’t have to buy another name for alt character because she came with it already. The jubilant player forgot her exasperation when creating this character. The benefits are good.

Once a name is bought, a icon appears on the main menu. This icon is used to change from one character to another.

The experience player already thought of a drawback to playing multiple characters. There are 10 quickcast buttons and 2 slots for potions. Changing from one character to another requires a slot on the quickcast buttons, which means one less spell a player can cast quickly.

In Dark Drake Kingdoms, the issue of quickcast buttons was solved by outside modification. A program was created which allows games to have more quickcast buttons on their screen.

Arashia doesn’t allow outside interferences. The System will prevent any attempts in modifying the current program, although The System itself can change the game. What the point of creating a game to remove boredom when they can’t change it to suit their amusement?

It reinforces Leviene’s perception about Madalinos. She was able to add a tail slot to the character screen. Leviene was sure the tail portion was not there before she met the psychotic woman.

Virtual reality games back on Earth are dependant on quickcast buttons. In Arashia, quickcast buttons is not an issue to the experience gamer because once a player master the spells, they can cast it from memory. In this case, the quickcast buttons is more an assistance rather than the main focus.

Aside from the issue of the quickcast button, there is also a problem with casting the change-into-an-alt-spell: time. To change from one character to another, it requires the player to cast a 30 second spell.

Battles with mob are quick and intense, requiring all the concentration of the player. Encounters last from 5 seconds when fighting cannon fodder to hours when attempting to down a never before killed boss on the server. In the first situation casting a 30 second spell is a red flag for come kill me, I can’t fight back. The second case allows room for maneuverability, but if you are going to change your class in the middle of a fight without permission, Kaleseze’s previously mentioned chew out which Leviene will not casually mention due to a minor mental trauma will be a joke compared to the hell the leaders will rain on said aforementioned player.

Despite its drawback, the ability to change into another class has its uses. The flexibility to change the composition of the raid to fit the situation is boon to raid leaders, generally with the stipulation that said alts have minimum required amount of gear.

During raids, players get switch out all the time. Of course the personnel shuffling take times and extends the raid time.

The gear stipulation brings another point to change into alt problem. Gear doesn’t get change when you change your classes unless you buy a built in modification, shorten to mod, called wardrobe.

When a player change from one class to another, the new class is either naked or is partially equipped. Naked invites death. Partially equipped invites death. Partially equipped with the wrong stats invite death. The wardrobe mod allow player to the equipment dilemma by allow the player to change into their alts with the equipment they previously wore.

Except this mod is very expensive. Money goes copper > silver > gold > crystal with 100 copper equals 1 silver, 100 silver equals 1 gold. When a player gets 100 copper, the system automatically changes it to one silver and so forth. Crystal coins doesn’t follow the pattern. Crystal coins has no set price, varying among race, rank, and titles. It is also limited in quantity. Players can get only so much, and that varies from race, rank, and titles as well.

While crystal coins vary with selective inflation and favoritism, the prices of goods remain the same. With a wardrobe mod, the set price is 10 crystal coin.

Furthermore, most of the high end goods require crystal coins, not gold.

Leviene can already see it. She’ll never be rich!

The constraints place on alts were not meant to be insurmountable. It is actually reasonable considering most players creates an alt when they are bored with their current characters, realized the play style doesn’t suit them, or have nothing else to do in game beside raiding dungeons where they have all the best gear already. In which case, the players can afford the money for an alt.

However, the amount of money is astronomical when a game first started. To the poor Leviene, the evil System is a money grubbing monster out to rob innocent players like her of their hard earned money.

Money aside, (Leviene’s tirade against the System is ongoing, “Stupid people, money is the end all be all.”) creating an alt requires a character assessment.

Arashia is not a virtual reality game. It has been established as a fact. This point is important. There are tons of elitist jerks, arrogant a**holes, bullies and indifferent bystanders in an MMO. The players might not be like that in real life, but given anonymity without consequences, player express their darker side or release their general frustration at the world.

The disconnect between the virtual world and the real world allows players to ease their frustration, relax and enjoy a new world, then they go to sleep, wake up refreshed and leave for work in a better state of mind.

Since Arashia is the player’s new reality, the disconnect is not present. A player’s actions have consequences, though partially mitigated by the rules of the world. Hence the class a player choose will affect the player’s personality. The changes can be minor as going vegan or it can be as life changing as becoming a homicidal maniac to fuel their kleptomania.

Before a player create an alt, they have to answer a survey. The survey gives the player a token use to train in the specific class or classes depending on the assessment. There are always those who want to cheat the system. It’s not possible. It’s impossible to lie to the survey.

How does the System knows when someone is lying? Leviene has no clue. Try to find out? No thank you. Leviene want to live another day. She might be tempted to test out the power of the System, but she was given an example of the System’s power when she was whack by Madalinos, bringing her life to 1%. If Madalinos was one member of the System, then how strong was the collective? The cowardly Perrian Let shirk back from the research.

Finally the classes themselves.

The classes are divided into four subcategory depending on the gear they can equip: plate, chainmail, leather and cloth. A plate wearing class can equip chainmail, leather and cloth. A cloth wearing class can wear only cloth.

A general rule of thumb to go by is plate = tank/meat shield, cloth = casters, chainmail and leather = damage dealers.

The main factors in determining the role for a class in a raid setting is their spec and gear. Player’s skill is important, however it is secondary to spec and gear. It might be different in Arashia, but when Leviene was playing Dark Drake Kingdom, spec and gear was the most important followed by skill.

Or so Kaleseze and Wraith told Leviene. She’s still their sister regardless of her skills or lack thereof.

Leviene turned out to be an okay player on most days, terrible terrific when she’s mad and whatnot which leaves the sibling in a conundrum since they want to take advantage of her abilities without having to be there when she does get good.

Each class nine potential route they can take, three main trees with three branches in for each main tree. Respecting or changing their trees is possible, but very very very costly.

The first respect is free, then 1 copper, 1 silver, 1 gold, 1 crystal coin, 10 crystal coin and so forth.

Leviene knew a guy in Dark Drake Kingdom who change his spec every week. Waste of money in Leviene’s opinion, but perfectionist are strange that way.

The classes are as followed:

Cloth

Leather

Chainmail

Plate/Tanks

Damage Dealers

Warlock

Thief

Sword Dancer

Holy Knight

Summoner

Rogue

Blade Runner

Dark Knight

Spiritualist

Assassin

Stancer

Warrior

Mage

Tamer

Archer

Guardian

Elementor

Naturalist

Range

Templar

Healer

Enchanter

Druid

Divinity

Paladin

Priest

Cleric

Shaman

Auralist