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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 [[server]]s. Currently, those servers are located in the [[United States]] and [[Germany]].
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 [[server]]s. 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 [[monster]]s with numerous [[weapon]]s and [[magic (paranormal)|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 [http://cult.cjb.cc/ Cult of the Black Prophecy] and [http://www.thepirates.co.nr The Pirates].
Players mostly spend their online time training their characters' skill levels, hunting a large population of [[monster]]s with numerous [[weapon]]s and [[magic (paranormal)|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.


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.
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.
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*Kazordoon — Kazordoon is the dwarven city which can be found deep under a mountain known as "The Big Old One".
*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.
*''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, also known as "Rook," 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. It should be noted that vocation cannot be chosen until players leave mainland. Also, players may not go to the mainland until they pick a vocation and hometown (hometowns can be changed later). People who have left Rookgaard may not come back.
*Rookgaard — Rookgaard, also known as "Rook," 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. It should be noted that vocations cannot be chosen until players leave to mainland. Also, players may not go to the mainland until they pick a vocation and hometown (hometowns can be changed later). People who have left Rookgaard may not come back.
*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.
*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.
*Venore — The swamp city, found in the east on the main island.
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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. 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. Since the mana regeneration modification in the game engine, they can make ranged ammunition much quicker now. They are rather hard when low level but good at medium and high levels. This is ESPECIALLY true due to the fact that recent Tibia updates have restricted the use of spears, throwing stars, and throwable rocks by making them sometimes break. Paladins usually will gather many spears, which can be time-consuming or expensive for lower levels. Paladins have the same shielding skill leveling rate as the Knights do. However, they often end up with inefficient shielding skills since many Paladins use distance fighting very early without training their shielding. Also, it can be said that the later levels (and sometimes the earlier levels) of a Paladin use a crossbow or bow to do any real damage. Therefore, their shielding is not as important or used as frequenly as Knights.
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. 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. Since the mana regeneration modification in the game engine, they can make ranged ammunition much quicker now. They are rather hard when low level but good at medium and high levels. This is ESPECIALLY true due to the fact that recent Tibia updates have restricted the use of spears, throwing stars, and throwable rocks by making them sometimes break. Paladins usually will gather many spears, which can be time-consuming or expensive for lower levels. Paladins have the same shielding skill leveling rate as the Knights do. However, they often end up with inefficient shielding skills since many Paladins use distance fighting very early without training their shielding. Also, it can be said that the later levels (and sometimes the earlier levels) of a Paladin use a crossbow or bow to do any real damage. Therefore, their shielding is not as important or used as frequenly as Knights.


The Druid is probably the best money-making vocation available. Druids are non-melee oriented and focus on defensive and healing types of magic. They are the only class able to make the highly coveted Ultimate Healing (UH) Runes which are extremely useful to all vocations. Druids also have the useful skill "Exura sio," which heals a character in range greatly. The skill is instant and is about half as powerful as an Ultimate Healing. Druids also can group heal, make Intense Healing (IH) Runes, and make earlier offensive runes. Druids, although non-melee oriented, gain melee and shielding skills slightly faster than sorcerers, making them slightly better at melee fighting.
The Druid is probably the best money-making vocation available. Druids are non-melee oriented and focus on defensive and healing types of magic. They are the only class able to make the highly coveted Ultimate Healing (UH) Runes which are extremely useful to all vocations. Druids also have the useful skill "Heal Friend", which heals a character in range greatly. The skill is instant and is about half as powerful as an Ultimate Healing. Druids have the ability of "Mass Healing", make Intense Healing (IH) Runes, and make earlier offensive runes. Druids, although non-melee oriented, gain shielding skills slightly faster than sorcerers, making them slightly better at melee fighting.


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 (UE) spell and other offensive magics, can outdamage a Druid.
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 (UE) spell and other offensive magics, can outdamage a Druid.


===Druid vs. Sorcerer===
===Druid vs. Sorcerer===
Sorcerors have almost no noticable difference from Druids at earlier levels. Though they cannot Exura Sio, group heal, or make healing runes, they still have instant healing magic spells to use that are equal in strength to healing runes. Sudden Death (SD) runes can be made only by the Sorcerer, but some of the lower level offensive runes - Heavy Magic Missiles (HMMs) and Great Fireball (GFB) runes - can be made by both the Druid and the Sorcerer. It should be noted that Druids and Sorcerers can exchange or buy runes that they cannot make and use them just as effectively as their vocation rival. Since the update that included Wands [Sorcerer weapons] and Rods [Druid weapons], the lower level Druids and Sorcerers are now formidable fighters. These wands and rods raise magic level and take mana after each use, and most of them are ranged. It can probably be agreed by most players that though these wands and rods are nearly identical, the Sorcerer has the better weapon class due to the fact that their final wand has one more tile range than the Druid's final rod.
Sorcerors have almost no noticable difference from Druids at earlier levels. Though they cannot use "Heal Friend", "Mass Healing", or make healing runes, they still have instant healing magic spells to use that are equal in strength to healing runes. Sudden Death (SD) runes can be made only by the Sorcerer, but some of the lower level offensive runes - Heavy Magic Missiles (HMMs) and Great Fireball (GFB) runes - can be made by both the Druid and the Sorcerer. It should be noted that Druids and Sorcerers can exchange or buy runes that they cannot make and use them just as effectively as their vocation rival. Since the update that included Wands [Sorcerer weapons] and Rods [Druid weapons], the lower level Druids and Sorcerers are now formidable fighters. These wands and rods raise magic level and take mana after each use, and most of them are ranged.

===Rune value===


==Updates to Tibia==
==Updates to Tibia==
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== Game Modifications ==
== Game Modifications ==


''Note: The following practices may be in violation of the program's [[Software license|license]] or [[Terms of Service]].''
''Note: The following practices are likely in violation of the program's [[Software license|license]] or [[Terms of Service]].''


It is possible to edit the graphics of the game by modifying certain [[File (computing)|files]], a technique that can be used to create [[Skin (computing)|interface skins]] or change the actual game [[sprite (computer science)|sprites]]. These modified files are then exchanged on web sites and [[internet forum]]s (such as [http://tibia.gamigo.de/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=11]). 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.
It is possible to edit the graphics of the game by modifying certain [[File (computing)|files]], a technique that can be used to create [[Skin (computing)|interface skins]] or change the actual game [[sprite (computer science)|sprites]]. These modified files are then exchanged on web sites and [[internet forum]]s (such as [http://tibia.gamigo.de/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=11]). 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.

Revision as of 16:04, 28 January 2006

Tibia
Tibia screenshot
Tibia screenshot
Developer(s)CipSoft
Publisher(s)CipSoft
Platform(s)Windows, formerly also Linux (but is able to be played through such emulators like Wine)
Release1997, continuous updates (currently at version 7.6)
Genre(s)MMORPG
Mode(s)Multiplayer

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.

File:UO0017.jpg
Two players hunting dragons.

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.

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.

File:Antica-war.jpg
A massive war in the game world

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

File:Tiba Map.jpg
A map of the game world
  • 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, also known as "Rook," 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. It should be noted that vocations cannot be chosen until players leave to mainland. Also, players may not go to the mainland until they pick a vocation and hometown (hometowns can be changed later). People who have left Rookgaard may not come back.
  • 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. Their shielding skills raise as fast as the Paladins'. Although knights have great 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. At higher levels, Knights generally block for the other vocations due to their massive maximum HP, and the fact that they often use shields unless they have powerful two-handed weapons.

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. 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. Since the mana regeneration modification in the game engine, they can make ranged ammunition much quicker now. They are rather hard when low level but good at medium and high levels. This is ESPECIALLY true due to the fact that recent Tibia updates have restricted the use of spears, throwing stars, and throwable rocks by making them sometimes break. Paladins usually will gather many spears, which can be time-consuming or expensive for lower levels. Paladins have the same shielding skill leveling rate as the Knights do. However, they often end up with inefficient shielding skills since many Paladins use distance fighting very early without training their shielding. Also, it can be said that the later levels (and sometimes the earlier levels) of a Paladin use a crossbow or bow to do any real damage. Therefore, their shielding is not as important or used as frequenly as Knights.

The Druid is probably the best money-making vocation available. Druids are non-melee oriented and focus on defensive and healing types of magic. They are the only class able to make the highly coveted Ultimate Healing (UH) Runes which are extremely useful to all vocations. Druids also have the useful skill "Heal Friend", which heals a character in range greatly. The skill is instant and is about half as powerful as an Ultimate Healing. Druids have the ability of "Mass Healing", make Intense Healing (IH) Runes, and make earlier offensive runes. Druids, although non-melee oriented, gain shielding skills slightly faster than sorcerers, making them slightly better at melee fighting.

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 (UE) spell and other offensive magics, can outdamage a Druid.

Druid vs. Sorcerer

Sorcerors have almost no noticable difference from Druids at earlier levels. Though they cannot use "Heal Friend", "Mass Healing", or make healing runes, they still have instant healing magic spells to use that are equal in strength to healing runes. Sudden Death (SD) runes can be made only by the Sorcerer, but some of the lower level offensive runes - Heavy Magic Missiles (HMMs) and Great Fireball (GFB) runes - can be made by both the Druid and the Sorcerer. It should be noted that Druids and Sorcerers can exchange or buy runes that they cannot make and use them just as effectively as their vocation rival. Since the update that included Wands [Sorcerer weapons] and Rods [Druid weapons], the lower level Druids and Sorcerers are now formidable fighters. These wands and rods raise magic level and take mana after each use, and most of them are ranged.

Updates to Tibia

Summer 2005 Update

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).

Christmas 2005 Update

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 4x, 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).

Knights have the least 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 known as "premmyland." Also, some spells require elite vocation ranks. Vocations can be promoted in premium areas with 20,000 gold.

It is often said by Tibian players that non-premium Druids and Sorcerers will be significantly weaker than the premium Druids and Sorcerers, since many useful spells are premium only for them.

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.

On the mainland's Jakundaf Desert, there is a somewhat complex cave system known as the Desert Dungeon. In one room, a treasure chest can be found with a book that respawns in the chest daily. The book 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.

Game Modifications

Note: The following practices are likely 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 illegal 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.