Tibia (video game)
| Tibia | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | CipSoft GmbH |
| Publisher(s) | CipSoft GmbH |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Linux |
| Release | 1996, 2-3 updates per year (currently at version 8.00) |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Tibia is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) first released in 1996. It is a free game which is open to the public, though players have the option to pay a fee in order to upgrade to a premium account, granting special in-game benefits, including additional areas to explore, access to vocation promotions, and extra spells.
There are about 350,000 players around the world that play Tibia, distributed amongst some 74 servers located in Germany and the United States.
Gameplay involves training to improve skill levels, hunting monsters using weapons and magical spells, gathering treasure, doing quests and exploring the world. Players interact with each other in character for conversation, trade and group battles and partake in guilds for more role-playing opportunities. On most of the servers, player versus player combat is allowed as well.
Vocations
Upon reaching level 8, a player may choose one of the 4 vocations and be taken to the mainland. The vocations are the Paladins, Druids, Sorcerers, and Knights. These vocations each have advantages and disadvantages. Players, however, may choose to remain on Rookgaard despite being able to enter the mainland.
Paladins
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. The Paladin gain ten hitpoints, fifteen mana points, and twenty capacity points per level. When promoted, a paladin becomes a "Royal Paladin".
Sorcerers
Sorcerers are masters in the arcane arts of chaos and destruction. While they lack in every way when it comes to physical combat, they have many damaging instant spells that other classes lack, eventually giving them the strongest attacking power in the game at the expense of longevity. They are most popular for being able to produce "Sudden Death" runes, a very powerful rune spell in the game.
Upon promotion, sorcerers attain the title of "Master Sorcerer".
Druids
Druids are most popular for their healing skills. They are the only vocation able to create "Ultimate Healing" Runes. Druids advance in skills the same ways as Sorcerers, but use different spells.
Upon promotions, Druids attain the title of "Elder Druid".
Knights
The knight is most proficient when it comes to melee weapons. They're also second only to paladins in distance fighting. Their selection of spells is limited and their magic level progresses far slower than the other vocations. They are very ineffective when dealing with magic and runes. Knights gain more health per level than other vocations and fare brilliantly at close-quarters combat with their unparalleled melee damage and shielding abilities.
Typically, knights are designated as the tank in group hunts for the above reasons. Their unique ability to use the Challenge spell to draw aggression toward themselves from nearby monsters further makes this even more evident. When promoted, they become Elite Knights.
Cities
Free Account Cities
- Rookgaard - This city is where all adventurers in the land of Tibia start out. The name "Rookgaard" is synonymous to that island. Until level 8, all players must stay on the island. There is no restriction on how many levels can be gained in "Rookgaard", although the main gameplay takes place away from this island and players above level 8 remaining in Rookgaard take a considerable statistic disadvantage, since stats increase more slowly when a character has no vocation.
- Thais - Thais is the unofficial capital of the realm called "Tibia". King Tibianus III rules here. It is the first city that existed in game. The small town of Greenshore lies to the north, and Fibula to the southwest.
- Venore - Venore is a large, prospering merchant town located on top of a swamp. Since its inception, it has grown steadily larger.
- Kazordoon - Kazordoon or Kaz for short, has a long history of being the centre of the Tibian continent, the pinnacle being an extinct volcano. It also has the honor of being the only city where Dwarves are the preeminent race.
- Ab'Dendriel - This city rests with nature. Elves inhabit this area, and can be found at the far north end of the continent.
- Carlin - This city is usually favored by newer players, and is almost entirely comprised of female NPCs. A small town known as Northport is located to the north.
Premium Account Cities
The Premium account area is used by players who have paid an extra fee for the usage of this game. All Free Account Cities are also accessible by Premium Accounts.
- Port Hope - A city amidst a jungle in the southwest portion of the map.
- Edron - The first ever premium account city.
- Darashia - A city within the northern desert of Darama.
- Ankrahmun - Southern desert city of Darama, similar in appearance to ancient Egypt.
- Liberty Bay - South-western city located on a tropical island, similar to many carribean islands.
- Svargrond - A nordic city, populated by viking-like barbarians.
Updates to Tibia
Major updates usually are released semi-annually by CipSoft. Before game updates, test servers are run to find and repair bugs and glitches within the update. These servers are first available for testing to players that hold official positions such as tutors, senior tutors and gamemasters. The test server is then usually opened to the general Tibian public. Because no permanent change to a player's character occurs on the test server, it is also an opportunity for players to explore, attack and fight in wars, without their main character on a normal server being affected.
Christmas 2003 Update
During the Christmas update of 2003, the skull system was introduced. Players could no longer kill too many people in an unjustified manner, within a short time span, without repercussion. However, players often complained about having a skull while training with their friends. Therefore, duel mode was released. In duel mode, players will see a green skull, which is invisible to people not in duel mode, on themselves and any other player in duel mode. However, high-level players soon began to abuse the duel mode to gain the privilege of killing other players in the mode for fun.
Consequently, party mode replaced duel mode, and is still active even today. Party mode, however, is also plagued with problems. New players are often tricked into entering party mode with higher level players, then killed for sport with no consequences to the aggressors.
Summer 2005 Update
During 2005, the magic system was greatly altered. Soul points were introduced to curb macroers (characters using illegal macros) as they had to hunt monsters in order to continue creating runes. Another major feature from the update was the breaking of spears. This made it harder and more expensive for Paladins to engage in "macro-training" while away from their PC. This is probably the most controversial of the updates applied to the game; evidence of is the fact that in the 7.6 update, spears were made more resistant to breaking, due to complaints and suggestions from the general Tibian public.
Christmas 2005 Update
In the Christmas Update even more drastic changes occurred. Mana regeneration speed was increased by 4x, and experience level requirements (instead of magic level requirements) to cast spells were also created. The change has made it harder for druids and sorcerers to make money below level 23, as no worthy runes can be created. Also, changes were made to the in-game graphics.
Spring 2006 Technical Update
On May 18, 2006 the Tibia 7.7 version client was released. This was only a technical update, however. Changes included the white list, which allowed players to ignore everyone else except for characters in their white list and/or their VIP list. Players could also choose between either DirectX5, DirectX9, or OpenGL as their graphics engine. This led to a major increase in many players' fps (frame rates per second). During the test server, the trade channel also got a new look. Players would have to press an "advertise" button and type in what they wanted to sell. In the background, game protocol introduced encryption, which caused the number of protocol-based cheats and account thefts to reduce, due to problems with inserting and reading data that client and server were exchanging.
Summer 2006 Update
On August 1 2006, the new Shattered Isles (12 islands total) were introduced; the infamous Liberty Bay being the main settlement for players from the 12 islands. Aside from the main city, there are numerous fascinating islands just off the shores such as Meriana, Laguna Islands and Treasure Island. A significant number of new creatures was introduced. Another major aspect of this update was the hotkey feature for items, wherein all usable items with triggers can now be set as hotkeys for one-touch instant actions. Also players are now allowed to shoot directly at people from the battle list; there is a built-in light intensity feature which made the light spell obsolete, plus new clothes and addons for outfits. A contentious inclusion is CIPs addition of tools which were previously illegal cheats but have now become standard. Some are opposed to the addition as it "ruins role-play" and takes away from the skill involved in player versus player combat. Others like the change for the obvious benefits, and because laggier players can now participate in combat more easily. The presumed goal is to bring all players on an equal playing field by giving everyone use of the tools.
Christmas 2006 Update
On December 15, 2006, the Pits of Inferno, as well as the famous 'Dream Challenge', were introduced. In the 'Dream Challenge', players can choose to join the Nightmare Knights and fight for good, or join the Brotherhood of Bones and help raise hell. Characters also have a quest log, allowing them to see information on major quests they have started or completed.
Houses were upgraded so litter bins and ovens were removed, providing players with the option of decorating their houses by shopping for furniture. In addition, window shutters were added to keep unwanted garbage out of houses. Banks were added in Rookgaard and all the mainland cities, located at the current NPCs where you change gold. A Rookgaard trade channel was also introduced to keep the selling and buying of items separate from the mainland.
New items and monsters were also introduced. Generally, most of the new monsters can be found in the Pits of Inferno with Nomads and Wyverns being the few exceptions. Nomads can be found roaming the desert of Darama while Wyverns can be found all over Tibia.
Finally, another feature introduced was when you eat food your character makes an eating noise ('Yum', 'Crunch', etc) which other players are able to see.
Summer 2007 Update
On June 26, 2007, the second part of the long-awaited vocation balancing was introduced to the players. With the first move toward balancing 2005, Sorcerers and Druids were affected, making them incredibly strong at higher levels. In the aftermath, Cipsoft took steps to re-balance the four vocations 2007 by reducing the power of both Sorcerers and Druids as well as increasing the power of Paladins and Knights. High-level Sorcerers and Druids saw measurable cuts in damage in both runes and instant spells. At the same time, Knights and Paladins saw large increases in dealing physical damage (both mêlée & distance). Despite this increase in physical damage, these two vocations saw their ability to use attack runes decreased in compensation to avoid those vocations becoming "overpowered". The exception to the magic decrease was with healing (both runes and spells) which remains largely unaffected for now. The only healing that was affected was the Druid's "Exura Sio" (heal friend) spell. Before this update, Druids could heal past walls and other solid objects, which has now become impossible. Rumors have emerged hinting Cipsoft may change healing more in a future update.
This is one of the more controversial game updates. Since higher level Druids and Sorcerers have seen such a dramatic decrease in power, petitions have been formulated to restore their previous levels of power. Craban, an employee at Cipsoft headquarters, has repeatedly stated that this update was necessary because mages gained power at an exponential rate and compared to other vocations became quickly overpowered; something needed to be done. Arguments continue between both players and Cipsoft with this update as complaints are heard from all vocations (though mainly Sorcerers and Druids, since they were affected the most negatively). Though it's not yet known whether any changes will be made between now and the Winter update, it looks as though nothing will revert back to the way it was, pre-update.
Also introduced was the vast ice lands to the north, Svargrond, one of the largest areas ever introduced in one update. This area and update has spawned several new quests, monsters, hunting areas, and especially new weapons. At least 60 known weapons were introduced into this update, and several new monsters introduced as well.
For the future, Cipsoft has stated that in the Winter update of 2007, changes may be made again to Sorcerers and Druids, with the idea of making each mage class more unique when compared to the other. Not much information has been released about this topic, yet, as it is still in the development process.
Magic
There are two types of magic:
- Instant magic - Magic that is cast automatically 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 blank rune in your hand (Example: Adori Vita Vis, Adevo Mas Hur, Adori Gran Flam, Adori Gran, Adori Vita Vis)
Spells can be bought from the guild leader of each vocation (Knight, Paladin, Druid, and Sorcerer) which are located in most of the towns.
The power of spells relate directly to their Character Level and their Magic Level, more so the latter. Knights gain Magic Levels the slowest, and cannot surpass a maximum of 15; aside from being very difficult to achieve in the first place (the current highest magic level for a knight is 9), it keeps the Knight from becoming an adept fighter and magic user. Paladins gain it at a relatively fast pace, and the Druids and Sorcerers gain it at a very fast pace, gaining the highest among the classes.
Knights have the least amount of 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, some spells require promoted vocation ranks. The special promoted vocations are Master Sorcerer, Elder Druid, Elite Knight and Royal Paladin. Vocations can be promoted with 20,000 gold, a paid account, and an experience level of at least 20 from any of the leaders of any given city.
Magic wands (for Sorcerers) and rods (for Druids) are especially made for mages. With these weapons, they can use their magic points (Mana points) to attack creatures. These rods and wands need a certain level of experience for mages to handle them, as example, at level 8 you get your first free wand/rod, then at levels 13, 19, 26 and 33, you gain the ability to buy and use sequentially stronger ones.
Support and rules
The Tibian support system is based on a hierarchy of ranks, from lowest to highest: tutor, senior tutor, the now defunct counsellor, gamemaster, and finally Customer Support. Retired gamemasters and long-term tutors may also - with prior invitation by CIPsoft - choose to adopt the title of senator.
Cheating
When caught, people "cheating" in Tibia are punished severely. Sharing accounts, selling accounts and using any and all non-official programs such as "bots" for playing Tibia is considered cheating and is illegal, resulting in harsh bans and instant account deletions for a second offense within 6 months. Many players commonly complain about the understaffed gamemasters. Most gamemasters are volunteers and do not visit many of the newer worlds. With twice the number of worlds (servers) as gamemasters, many cheaters go unpunished.
Names
Names must not describe an inanimate object, sentence, celebrity (though fictional characters are allowed), be unpronounceable or be offensive. They must also not break out of the fantasy setting. Furthermore, you may not closely copy an existing name or imitate another player. Names can be similar to a monster or creature as long as users do not try to imitate them.
Tutors
The role of tutor encompasses a number of duties, including: answering questions from the in-game help channel and on the help forum; checking the tutor forum and in-game channels regularly; reporting bugs and bad names.
Following 3 months of active tutorship without a bad/false name/bug report, a tutor is automatically promoted to the position of senior tutor. In addition to the tasks of a tutor, this title brings with it a number of further duties: moderation of the public forums and ability to report inappropriate statements from the public in-game channels.
Eligibility for the tutor position is determined by the outcome of an online multiple-choice test on the official website. All subject matter for this test is game-related and can be found in the guide section of the official website. However this test is only available to players whose accounts fulfill the following conditions:
- Is at least three months old.
- Has at some point been premium.
- Contains at least one character of level 20 or above.
- Contains no Tibian criminal record entries.
- No history of either a failed tutor exam in the last two months or previous incident of ‘dishonourable dismissal’.
References to popular culture
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 such as giant spiders or orcs.
- 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 main characters in Tolkien's book.
- There are also many references to the Dragonlance book series. Some of these include Kinslayer, the hero of Edron.
Other references can be found throughout the game:
 | This article possibly contains original research. |
- Somewhere within the dwarven caves, there is a sleeping beauty locked in a room with seven dwarves, a witch and an apple that cannot be grabbed. This is in relation to the fairy tale Snow White (Schneewitchen in German)
- In King Tibianus' court, his guards are named Harsky and Stutch. These are similar to Starsky and Hutch.
- In the Jakundaf Desert, there is a complex cave system that contains a book that 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 (Femor Hills in the game) are all places in the game as well as bones in the human body. The city of Thais used to be named Tibia (in the earlier days) and the Tibian world was built around it with other bones-of-the-leg-names for locations. When other cities and surrounding areas were created however, Cipsoft renamed Tibia, Thais as to avoid confusion. Thais may also refer to the thighs of legs.
- In a bar in one of the games cities, the player can read a sign which informs the player that "Crossbows n' Tulips" will be playing soon in the bar. This is a parody of Guns N' Roses.
- Some of the gravestones in Tibia mention penguins and windows, referring to the Linux penguin, Tux, and the Microsoft Windows operating system.
- In a tomb, there is a floor that resembles the layout of Pacman[1].
- Numerous NPC's in the game talk about "Excalibug" being the ultimate weapon, similar to Excalibur in King Arthur stories.
- There's a place called "Hard Rock Tavern", a reference to Hard Rock Cafe.
- In the city of Liberty Bay, there is a small sewer and a locked room with 4 tortoises and a rat, along with weapons such as a katana and throwing stars, in reference to the 90's TV show and movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
See also
