Tibia (video game)
| Tibia | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | CipSoft |
| Publisher(s) | CipSoft |
| Platform(s) | Windows, formerly also Linux (but is able to be played through such emulators like Wine) |
| Release | 1997, continuous updates (currently at version 7.6) |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
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Tibia is one of the oldest, longest-running graphical online computer role-playing games (MMORPGs).
Started as a non-commercial programming experiment by three German computer science students running on a university computer system in 1997, with many of its graphics borrowed from the classic single-player game Ultima VI, and heavily relying on volunteers for game administration, creation of game art and level design, it has since become a professional commercial endeavour.
Changes have been incremental rather than radical over the years. However, Tibia's 2D, faux-isometric sprite graphics (which seem quaint by today's standards) and the lack of sound effects have had no detrimental effect on the steady growth rate of players in the game. Such shortcomings are offset by the resulting small download size and modest system requirements.
Tibia's success can also be attributed to the fact that a large portion of the game, which can be downloaded from an official website, is still playable free of charge. This is in contrast to larger, more recent MMORPGs, which must be bought at a store and only provide short trial periods.
For a monthly fee, players can upgrade to a 'premium account', unlocking some additional game features and areas. These players also have priority login rights on the often congested game servers. Currently, those servers are located in the United States and Germany.
Players mostly spend their online time training their characters' skill levels, hunting a large population of monsters with numerous weapons and magical spells, and scouring the vast continent for treasures and fortune. They interact with other players for conversation, to trade various objects, or to form parties to take on even stronger foes. Guilds are also important for many players. There are plenty of guilds which has a complex idealogy which their members live by such as Cult of the Black Prophecy and The Pirates.
On most of the game's servers, players are also allowed to attack and kill each other, although there is a reputation system in place to keep hostile actions under control. However, some servers do not allow such player versus player combat at all, while others place no restrictions on it, indeed practically encourage it.
Before game updates test servers are run. These are first available to players that hold official positions such as tutors, senior tutors, counsellors and gamemasters. The test server is then usually opened to the general Tibian public. The overall reason for staging a test server is to find and repair bugs and glitches within the update, however it is also an opportunity for players to explore, attack and fight in wars without their main character on a normal server being affected.
After learning the basics of the game on an introductory island reserved for new players called Rookgaard, players may choose one of four classical roleplaying vocations: The Knight, excelling in close combat, the Paladin, mainly a distance fighter, the Druid a spellcaster specializing in defensive (primarily healing) spells, or the Sorcerer, a more aggressive spellcaster specializing in offensive (primarily attack) spells. The main difference between the classes is the rate at which a character's skill levels increase. For example, a knight will more quickly improve his sword fighting skill while in battle than any other character class.
Monsters players encounter in the game range from non-aggressive dogs and deer, to easy-to-kill rats, dangerous orcs and fierce dragons and demons.
Towns
- Ab'Dendriel — The elven city, located at the north-east on the main island.
- Ankrahmun — The Egyptian-themed city, located south on the island Darama. Contains many of the new "Boss Monsters" also known as Pharoes which are a difficult challenge and part of a difficult quest.
- Carlin — Called the "Amazon" or "Woman" city since women rule Carlin, is located in the north-west on the main island.
- Cormaya — Cormaya is a small island that can be reached either by boat travel from Edron or by passing through a series of tunnels on the southern tip of Edron. There are simply houses and a large guildhall on Cormaya. Characters can also reach the sage Eremo from Cormaya.
- Darashia — The desert city, located to the north of the island of Darama. It is the pearl of Darama.
- Edron — The first premium account island, it is considered as a city of pure glory of knights.
- Greenshore — A small village north of Thais.
- Kazordoon — Kazordoon is the dwarven city which can be found deep under a mountain known as "The Big Old One".
- Port Hope — The newest city in Tibia (according to its chronological creation in real life), is located to the southwest of the big island of Darama. A huge jungle covers this part of the desert island. It's separated to the rest Darama by mountains. Most of the area is for more skilled adventurers and introduces many new high level hunting areas and quests.
- Rookgaard — Rookgaard is the island on which every player begins his adventure in Tibia, as well as the name of the town on the island. Characters must stay on Rookgaard until they reach level 8, at which point they may choose to leave the island for the mainland.
- Thais — The capital city and the most important (according to it's role in the game). It is located in the south-west part of the main island.
- Venore — The swamp city, found in the east on the main island.
Note: The cities in italic are only available to premium accounts. They are located on islands and can only be reached by boat or flying carpet for a small fee of in-game money (gold, aka gp).
Vocations In-Depth
In Tibia there are four different vocations to choose from. They are the Knight, the Paladin, the Druid, and the Sorcerer. These vocations each have advantages and disadvantages which are listed below.
The Knight is the master at hand-to-hand melee combat and will advance in melee skills faster than any other vocation. Although he has a high powered melee and health regeneration rate, he sacrifices much needed mana for his pure strength. Knights are usually the least expensive vocation to choose as their equipment is self-supporting. They are the easiest to raise at low levels.
The Paladin is actually the games most well-rounded character, 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. One drawback to playing as a Paladin is that they are quite expensive to play. Arrows or spears must be bought and these items cost money. Paladins can conjure ranged ammunition using magic, but it is time consuming and uses a lot of mana. They are rather hard when low level but good at medium and high levels.
The Druid is probably the best money-making vocation available to you. Druids are non-melee oriented and focus on defensive and healing types of magic. Although they give up their ability to effectively hunt alone, they are the only class able to make the highly coveted Ultimate Healing Runes which are extremely useful to all vocations. They are similar to sorcerors in leveling except that they dont have very useful offensive magic, on the contrary, they have very effective healing spells such as the ability to heal a friend or a group of people.
The Sorcerer is the master of arcane magic and specializes in using magical spells with high damage to take out entire armies of enemies at once. Sorcerers, with their coveted Ultimate Explosion spell, are the masters of aggressive magic. When you come across a high level sorcerer, it is best to befriend him. However, the disadvantage of being a Sorcerer is that early leveling can be slow and very costly. Very hard to raise at low and mid levels but the best vocation at higer levels.
Christmas Update 2005
Major updates are released twice yearly by Cipsoft. During 2005 the magic systems were greatly altered. Soul points were introduced (Summer Update) which reduced the amount of macroers (cheaters) as they had to hunt monsters in order to continue creating runes (magical items). Then in the Christmas Update even more drastic changes ocurred. Mana regeneration (magical power, a term often used in many RPG games) speed was increased by 3x, and level requirements to create runes were also changed. 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 in the game's graphics.
Magic
There are two types of magic:
- Instant magic - Magic that is cast automaticaly 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 rune in your hand(Example: Adori Vita Vis, Adevo Mas Hur, Adori Gran Flam, Adori gran)
Gameplay Jargon
- 2H - Two-handed sword.
- Ab - Ab'dendriel, the elven city.
- Behe - Behemoth, a monster.
- Bh - Beholder, a monster.
- BP - A backpack, used to store other items.
- Br - Brazilian; If someone says "Br?", they're asking if you speak Portugese.
- Char - A character.
- CIP - CipSoft, the company that makes Tibia.
- DH - Demon Helmet, a helmet gained from a quest.
- Drag or Draggy - Dragon.
- ED - Elder Druid, the promoted version of druid.
- EK - Elite Knight, the Promoted version of knight.
- E-plate - Magic Plate Armor
- Eq - Equipment.
- GP - Gold pieces, the basic unit of money in the game.
- Grats or Gratz - Congratulations.
- GS - Giant sword or Giant spider, a monster.
- HMM - Heavy Magic Missile rune.
- HP - Hitpoints; they're taken away when you're successfully attacked.
- K - One thousand gold pieces.
- K-armor, -legs, -set - Knight armor, legs, or set of both.
- Kaz - Kazordoon, the dwarven city.
- Lvl - Your character's level, based on experiences points.
- Mage - Another term for the Sorcerer character.
- Main - The main continent.
- Mino - Minotaur, a monster, Also Mino- or M-archer, -guard, or -mage.
- MOLS - Maze of Lost Souls - A labyrinth-dungeon that lies underground north-east of the city of Carlin.
- MP - Mana points
- MS - Master Sorcerer, the promoted version of sorcerer.
- Msg - A private message to another player.
- Newbie or Newb - A new player.
- Noob or N00b - A stupid newbie, or a player that acts immature, or does not fully understand the ways of the game and possible dies as a result.
- NP - No Problem.
- NPC - A character, usually human, controlled by a computer instead of a player.
- P-armor, -legs, -set - Plate armor, legs, or set of both.
- PA, Prem acc, P acc, or Premmy - A premium account, which you can buy for real money in order to get in-game benefits.
- Pally - Paladin, the vocation that uses distance fighting.
- Plat or PP - A platinum piece, equal to 100 gold pieces.
- Pls, Plx, or Plz - Please.
- Pm - A private message to another player.
- PvP - Player versus player combat.
- PZ - Protection zone, area where players cannot attack other players.
- Quest - A mission that players can do for NPCs to get items or GP.
- RL - Real life.
- Rook - Rookgaard, the island that players must stay on until they reach level 8.
- RP - Royal Paladin, the promoted version of paladin.
- Safetrade - A way of trading items between characters so they're not stolen.
- Scout - Elf scout, a monster.
- Skelly - Skeleton, a monster.
- Sorc - Sorcerer, another vocation.
- Thx or Ty - Thank you.
- TNL - To next level E.g 500xp tnl
- UH - Ultimate Healing rune.
- XP or EXP - Experience points; you get them when you kill monsters.
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.
- 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 characters in Tolkien's book.
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.
Game Modifications
Note: The following practices may be in violation of the program's license or Terms of Service.
It is possible to edit the graphics of the game by modifying certain files, a technique that can be used to create interface skins or change the actual game sprites. These modified files are then exchanged on web sites and internet forums (such as [1]). Some such modifications may give players unfair advantages, for example when trees and other large objects are made invisible so that items hidden behind them can be easily detected.
Other modifications include AFK tools and aimbots. These are considered cheating and looked down upon by the official community but the usage of these tools is rampant, especially by lower level players wishing to gain experience fast and by players involved in intense guild wars. The first popular cheat for Tibia was Tibia GG, followed by TibiaBot. Currently there are several cheats available including those which cost money.
The communication protocol between the Tibia server and client has been reverse-engineered by users, leading to the creation of an emulation version called Open Tibia Server (often abbreviated to OTServ). This enables anyone to run their own game world that is entirely independent from the official, commercial version. Dissatisfaction with changes brought about by updates of the official servers are a common reason for migration of players to these offshoots.
External links
- Official Tibia website
- Major fan sites - Fansites supported by CipSoft (including "TibiaNews")
- World of Tibia - Popular fansite
- TibiaNews - A large fansite with daily Tibian news and other information
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