AdventureQuest

AdventureQuest
File:AdventureQuest-header5.jpg Logo and all the major characters present in AdventureQuest.
Developer(s)	Artix Entertainment, LLC
Publisher(s)	Artix Entertainment, LLC
Designer(s)	Artix Entertainment, LLC
Platform(s)	Macromedia Flash Player
Release	October 2001
Genre(s)	RPG
Mode(s)	Single-player

For other uses, see Adventure Quest.

AdventureQuest (also referred to by its website name BattleOn or abbreviated to AQ) is an online single-player RPG developed by Artix Entertainment in 2002. It was released on October 15 of that year. It is written in Adobe Flash, and features animation. The game follows the adventures of a character tied with the town of Battleon (the player) as he or she explores the game world while engaging in combat with various enemies. As of September 5, 2009, aq.battleon.com, the game's hosting website, and www.battleon.com, the game's homepage, have an Alexa rating of 1,818.

AdventureQuest and all related games are set within the world of Lore, formerly a tongue-in-cheek reference to the game's original title, Lands of Rising Evil, which has since been explained to refer to Lorithia, a name of the goddess of creation in the game's storyline. In June 2004, the number of AdventureQuest players had reached one million. By June 2005, the game had 5 million users, which increased to 40.3 million by September 2007. As of June 18, 2009, Battleon.com currently holds a database of more than 65 million users.

Guardianship, a measure introduced on February 23, 2003, to manage the costs of running the game, added a one-time fee-based character upgrade service. Ownership of the game transferred to the newly-formed Artix Entertainment in 2004, and a server population cap was added for non-Guardian players in May of that year. In October 2006, Artix Entertainment introduced a "special group" in which a player could log on at anytime, but could only get to level 50. Around June 23, 2009, Captain Rhubarb decided to dissolve this special group. On the forums, Captain Rhubarb said: "Due to changes being made for WarpForce, and the various exploits possible in AQ to get XP outside monster battles, I decided to dissolve that special group system." As AdventureQuest grew, Artix Entertainment added new methods to pay for in-game content, such as X - Guardianship in October 2005 and purchasable Z-Tokens in June 2006, and released other related games, such as DragonFable (July 26, 2005), MechQuest (October 11, 2007), ArchKnight (now integrated into DragonFable) and ZardWars. In May 2008, AdventureQuest Worlds, a massively multiplayer game related to AdventureQuest, was created.

Gameplay

AdventureQuest is a single player game, although sometimes players push for a common goal together, or against each other, in events such as Clan Wars. Much of AdventureQuest's game play revolves around fighting monsters. As players defeat monsters, they gain Experience Points (XP), gold, and possibly Z-Tokens. Experience is used for leveling up the player's character for more Mana, Health, etc. Gold is used for buying weapons, armor or pets. Z-Tokens are not always dropped by monsters, but they have a special rarity, and can be used to buy special weapons, items, houses, or can be exchanged for gold.

There are four towns that can be explored fully, three of which are open to non-Guardians. While Lolosia is generally exclusive to Guardians, a non-Guardian may visit the town by giving a pet rock to Valencia, in return for which she will provide a Travel Pass, enabling access to the town.

Combat mechanics

Most fights are started through random encounters and quests, which can be found throughout the game. The battle system is turn-based; on his or her turn the player may attack, equip an item, drink a potion, cast a spell, or call a pet. Changing armor, weapon or shield does not use up a turn but equipping certain items, changing pets or drinking a potion does. On an opponent's turn it may attack, though some monsters have special attacks such as healing. A few monsters can summon reinforcements.

Several things can affect the outcome of a battle. Both characters and monsters have a "defense modifier" for each of the eight elements; a higher defense modifier means an attack of that element does more damage. There is also a defense modifier for each of the three methods of attacks: melee, ranged and magic; a lower number means greater vulnerability to that element of attack. Players can change their character's weapon, shield and armor. There are a few other "Hidden" elements that are not shown, but still exist; Void is an example of such a hidden element. Six stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, Endurance, Charisma and Luck) also affect the amount of damage inflicted and taken, as well as the probability of an attack being resisted. In addition, pets and guests can assist the character in doing extra damage. When a battle begins, either the player or the monster goes first mostly depending on whoever has the most Luck. Sometimes, attacks vary depending on what weapon is used, and the weapon can sometimes release its special attack.

A battle ends when all monsters' HP drops to zero or if the player's drops to zero. If the enemy dies, the character is awarded with experience, gold or Z-Tokens. If the character dies he or she has to speak to Death to return to town without any penalties. The death is saved in the game's database.

Skill Points

In an update on September 10, 2007, the green SP (Skill Points) bar was added. The SP bar, like mana, is primarily used for certain class abilities, but is also used by some armors and in the activation of certain items and usage of potions. When the SP bar appeared, potions started to cost SP. Now it is possible to use two potions at once using less turns to heal. Characters can also use SP to flee from battle, but the higher the monster's level, the more SP is needed to flee. There was escape before SP was enabled but no price was paid for escaping.

A character begins with 50 maximum SP, and gains 5 SP every time he/she levels up. When a player logs in, his/her character will start with zero SP. The character gains SP every time it is their turn during battle until the bar is full. The character starts each battle with as many points as he/she had at the end of the last battle. Furthermore, if a character dies, their SP is drained back down to zero.

Elements

There are eight primary elements (Earth, Wind, Water, Energy, Ice, Fire, Light, and Darkness). No one element is more powerful than another element. Monsters may be weak to one or more elements. For example, the monster "Undead Horse" has a light modifier of 120% and an Energy modifier of 130%.

Apart from the eight primary elements are secret elements. One is Void, previously known as Element X. Some weapons, when triggered, deal Void damage, or in their special attacks. The vast majority of monsters in the game have a Void resistance of 100%, however, there are handful that have a lower modifier. It has been stated on the forums by the staff that the Void resistance of most monsters will be set to 200% in a future update. A recently added type is called Harm, which is equal to Element X instead. Harm appears to be a completely separate neutral element which all monsters have a 100% resistance to. There is another secret element, Death, which is currently only used in a very strong special of the Awe Weapons. There are other secret elements that certain monsters use; they are not available to players.

Equipment

File:Battleposition12.PNG

The position in which battles take place, including guests.

There are certain things which improve a character's ability and survivability in combat and/or cater to miscellaneous purposes: weapons, shields, armor, guests, spells, pets, and other miscellanea. Weapons can be used to deal damage, while armor and a shield will increase a character's defense. Guests are temporary characters that join the character in combat, and are usually acquired in event-based quests or temporarily by finding specific items. Spells will typically deal more damage than normal attacks (or heal), but will generally cost mana. Pets' and guests' abilities will vary, and will likely have some of the same general abilities as the main characters; guests are temporary characters usually acquired in quests or in finding specific items. Miscellaneous items will provide various benefits, such as augmenting attack power or boosting the character's statistics. Most of these things can be purchased or sold at shops, using the ingame currency of gold; the character must also meet a level requirement. Most equipment will specialize in one of the games eight elements.

Classes

Classes are distinct forms of fighting in which the player may train. Each class has ten skills, which are activated in battle by a unique class armor, although non-paying adventurers may only acquire the first five skills of any class except Assassin, which allows adventurers every second skill. The base classes are Fighter, Mage, Rogue and the initially unavailable Scholar. After establishing skill in one of the base classes, characters can train in one of the advanced classes: Knight, Beastmaster, Wizard, Paladin, Pirate, Necromancer, Berserker and Martial Artist. Advanced classes include Dragonslayer, Dracomancer, Ninja and Vampireslayer. On the 27th of November, the new Assassin class was added.

File:AQmage.jpg

An example of a base class armor (Mage).

Sub races

In AdventureQuest, players may visit the ruler of a sub race to become part of it. Once a player has become a sub race, it can be removed (if desired) by accessing the "The Cure" quest in Darkovia. Sub races do not alter a character's base appearance (although the armor available makes the player appear as such during battle), and generally are only applicable when the appropriate armor is equipped or if the player is involved in a sub race quest. The three available sub races are vampire, werewolf and the "WerePyre" (a mix of the former two).

Clans

In AdventureQuest, players may join a clan on the island of Paxia, and participate in Clan activities such as Clan Wars and Clan Challenges. There are eight clans available for players to join, representing the eight elemental realms. The clan names and elements are Geoto (Earth), Aerodu (Wind), Nautica (Water), Dynami (Energy), Igneus (Fire), Glacius (Ice), Lucian (Light), and Nocturu (Darkness). To become part of a clan, players may enter Paxia, click on the location of a clan's base and ask the clan's leader to join. The player is guaranteed entrance in any clan unless she or he is already in a clan, or if a Clan War is ongoing. Only players that have joined a particular clan and those without a clan may enter a clan's base. Clan bases contain a shop which sells items of its element, as well as (occasionally) clan-unique items. Some of these items are more powerful when used by a member of the corresponding clan, such as the "Gong of the Wind" series of pets. Players may leave a previously-joined clan if no Clan Wars or Clan Events are currently active by speaking with the Negatus Statue on Monolith Island, which lies off the shore of Paxia. Also on Monolith Island is Paxus, who provides information about the eight Paxian clans and their creation.

The eight clan leaders, Paxus and Negatus, Paxia on the Travel Map and Paxus Arena.

In addition to the in-game leaders of these clans, there are also player-leaders who are elected by the BattleOn Forums. These players ensure activity and stability for their respective clans and also play larger parts during Paxia oriented game releases. Aside from this, they also have a variety of other jobs in regards to their clans.

Every so often, Paxia has challenges and wars. Challenges are given by Paxus, and happen in the Octo-Paxi Arena, which floats above Paxia. They can vary from guessing things to winning battles. Clans with the highest score gain prizes for this. During wars, players will fight random battles against opposing forces on Paxia, battling things such as airships and other clan members in computer controlled PvP, and can repair their bases to help keep ahead in the war. Eventually, the clans with the most health at the end of the war is awarded war spoils.

There are a few clans not available to the general public. The AdventureQuest Team Clan is used to mark characters belonging to staff members. The Test Characters Clan is used to mark characters used by Staff & KoO (Knights of Order) for testing purposes. Characters in the Test Characters, and the AdventureQuest Team Clans have their equipment hidden on their character pages to prevent normal players from gaining a sneak preview at unreleased items. There is also the C/A/T (Cheaters/Abusers/Time Wasters Clan) where a character, not an account, is sent. This clan is to stop cheaters. Some C/A/T clan members may not be able to log in to that character at all.

Alignment

Players in AdventureQuest may take one of several alignments, similar to those of Dungeons and Dragons, which include the selection between Good and Evil as well as Unity and Chaos. These alignments are chosen by actions in-game, and will (for instance) give the player a selection of either good or evil items as a reward in a war. The game also includes equipment that will bestow special effects depending on the players' alignment. The player can check his alignment using a "Moral Compass".

Houses

In December 2006, housing was introduced. Currently players can buy houses with Z-tokens, and can also buy pictures and guards to decorate and protect their house. When a player visits another player's house, he/she must battle the owner's guards (if any) to gain access to that house. Some buildings yield various resources. Players can also take some potions if their number of potions is low. Amounts of potions given are based on the type of house.

In July 2008, estates were introduced. This update allows the owner of the house to purchase various "add-ons" for their property, like a fruit orchard or a fishing pond. These add-ons can be leveled up to strengthen them from monster attacks and increase resource (food, wood, stone and energy) production while others consume resources to run.

In April 2009, portals to other worlds were introduced. These came in the forms of paintings each leading to either Trescol or Kairula. In addition to that Mega World Portals were also introduced, which required an estate and at least one portal to another world to be built, and allowed for users to send armies to participate in wars. The armies could also bring back valuables which will be released following the future update of the Museum.

Storyline

Up until June, 2008, the storyline focused on an apocalyptic being named The'Galin. While there is a deity for each element in the AQ universe, there is a supreme Goddess that creates all of them, the creator Lorithia. Lorithia promoted The'Galin, a human, to be a God thousands of years before the main story begins. The'Galin eventually becomes troubled by the flaws of creation, and sees the only solution as "uncreating" all of creation. Henceforth he was known as the Devourer.

Akriloth

The first major villain to be introduced, this arc was known as the Great Fire War. This long event set the standard of all major story arcs in Adventure Quest. First, there would be a "kill bar" in which the event still goes on until a certain number of enemies are killed. However, the number of enemies would be fulfilled too quickly, which led the AQ team to manually adjust the bar, letting the bar fill up over the course of about a week. Then, there would be a major reward, and the process is repeated. This is done until the final boss is fought, which is Akriloth in this case.

Even though the event itself was over quickly, the story arc still continued, introducing the characters of Drakath, Mysterious Necromancer, and Drakonnan. They were all related to Akriloth's central goal, which was to obtain the fire orbs for power.

In Dragonfable, most of the unearthed answers of the fire war were discovered like the reason to get the orb of fire, Demento's death, how the ice claymore was forged and the origin of Drakonnan.

Carnax

The second major villain to be introduced, this arc was actually split into three parts.

The first part was the advent, in which players merely fought incarnations of Carnax's arms, body, and an incomplete avatar in a single quest. This quest was very difficult, and only high-level players were able to complete it. It was about a year later when the Stonerule story began.

The second part dealt with actually fighting Carnax, who arrived in his flesh in the city of Stonerule. The game has been alluding to Carnax's arrival since its creation, in which the first quest new players took hinted at the Drakel fearing something (Carnax). Several major characters were introduced, and all of them whom stayed except for the Shadowgale family, who merely served as a "prophet" for Carnax's arrival.

The third and final part dealt with the future, in which a villain known as Makkissar revived Carnax to fight a future human resistance, called the Order. Players don't get to fight Carnax again; instead they fight with spawns of Carnax, which were just regular creatures but with very good drops.

It should be noted that inflation, a major concern with players, began with the Carnax story. The popularity of AQ began to skyrocket at this time, and players also started to go into serious grinding. As a result, prices of items soared, which leveled out to current prices around a year later.

Darkovia

This section of The'Galin story dealt with Nightbane, which is part werepyre and part dragon. Though not quite as popular as Carnax, the Darkovia plot did not have a central villain. Instead, several previous villains, such as the Zardmaster, now become connected with The'Galin. This bringing together of previous minor villains culminates in the "Battle of the Sinister 7", a part of the main arc.

At this time, a quest called "Epic Quest" was created. Created mainly to spur interest to get low level players to level up, the Epic Quest ended up consisting of 15 different parts. In order to get to the next part, the level requirement increases by 5. Thus, the first part requires merely level 15 to take part, but the final part required level 85. The Epic Quest's purpose is to hint at a mysterious entity soon to come to the world (The'Galin) and introduce us to one of his servants, the human-spider hybrid Epheel.

Eastern Map

It is at this time that the original map of AQ expanded rapidly to such a degree that there is a button for "Travel East". Here, players are introduced to the Clans. It was mostly uninvolved with The'Galin save for one battle in the main arc.

Players are also introduced to Isle D'Oriens, a middle-ground of sorts between the real world and the magical world. They are introduced to the Eternal and the Huntress, both of whom are allies in the war against The'Galin. More of the Devourer's servants make their debut.

Finally, players get to meet Falerin the Loremaster, who is from another planet called Caelestia. They also meet his "assistant" Galrick. After a few months, they lead us off to find the Temple of Hope, beginning the main storyline.

The order, which helped fight Carnax part 3, also makes a return, though it takes place in the middle of the main arc.

Main arc

The main story begins with Frostvale, in which a war is fought against Ice monsters led by King Frost. What's different is that the final reward is the Ice Orb, which isn't an equip item. Falerin then introduces us, after a brief quest, to the Temple of Hope, in which the player learns about The'Galin, the deities, and how various villains were actually servants of his.

The first task was to acquire all eight elemental orbs, of which the Ice Orb was one. Taking place over several months, players were finally asked to acquire a ninth orb, the Orb of Creation. Unlike the other orbs, which could be acquired by a single quest, the Orb of Creation required a chain of 5 quests to be completed.

Several battles then took place, in which the player finally sees The'Galin's main forces, which consisted of extraterrestrial beings either evil by nature or forced to do his bidding. These included the Exodus (darkness based), the Predecessors (energy based), Evil Tikis (earth based), Clokes (wind based), Void Dragons (non-elemental based), Brilhado (light based), fire demons used in the Akriloth story (fire based), the monsters fought in Frostvale (ice based), and sea squirts (water based).

The Brilhado were actually The'Galin's greatest forces, capable of commanding all others (except the void dragons). The player is introduced to another island - Deren - which is even further East of the already expanded travel map. The Brilhado were important enough to designate as an arc of itself, with 7 different quests required, plus two extra scenes. When Deren was released, the story has gotten complicated enough that extra material had to be published on the forums, which is now compiled all into one encyclopedia entry. The material dealt with how Carnax and Akriloth were used by the Devourer, The'Galin's backstory, and the present state of affairs on Deren.

Finally, the last section dealt with the Devourer's forces directly attacking the world, such as obliterating Granemor, destroying Augerthorne, and various other skirmishes. What was unique in this war is that almost all the quests involved the player's side losing. Finally, the Devourer attacks the Temple of Hope itself, in which the players finally manage to repel the Devourer's forces. The 2.5 million enemies required also set a record for most enemies needed to be destroyed. The character Galrick also perished.

The Devourer isn't destroyed, though, as he is a God, but he is repelled without uncreating the world, as he is convinced (through a certain degree of coercion) that not all creation is bad.

Current storyline

As The'Galin is defeated, the player does not know yet if a new villain is involved. The current story takes place in Granemor, which has been rebuilt into a fortified city (it used to be more like a shantytown). As for the storyline, nothing of main importance seems to be happening, but, there seem to be 3 current sub-plots:

• Currently, the NPC character Cenara has been infected with a "Dracopyre" virus, causing her to change. She changed into the Dracopyre GraceFang and flew off to find her half-brother who has become NightReign. Their fight was interrupted and there is now a truce between them. (Dracopyre Legacy Sub-plot)
• The Vartai are back and with stranger connections, a new villain, and mysterious turnovers. (Vartai Sub-plot)
• The No Man's Land near Granemor hosts 2 creatures named Visia and Mutant King. Currently, Both the Mutant King and Visia have been defeated, and now, their master, Absolix has been revealed. It was also revealed that Absolix was created by Cartwright. (Mutant Sub-plot)

Upgrades

Guardianship

File:Guardian13.PNG

Guardianship is a "premium" version of AdventureQuest, which players can buy for a one-time fee. Players who have bought this premium version are called "Guardians", while those playing the free version are called "Adventurers".

The premium version grants the player more quests and items. Guardians also have more powerful starting weapons. In addition, they can log in at any time, despite the server cap which limits the number of Adventurers that may play simultaneously, and they can use all 10 of the skills trainable using classes. Besides that, it also comes with a Z-Token boost, which boosts the player's Z-Token amount for 1000. Other exclusives include the ability to have an account for ArchKnight and ZardWars, which are side mini-games similar to AQ also created by Artix Entertainment.

X - Guardianship

X - Guardianship is the upgraded version of guardianship. Besides having all normal guardian benefits, it also enables X - Guardians to get an additional 10% experience points for every monster they defeat. They also can start with three potions with maximum of 35 potions of each type, and receive a single-time bonus of 25,000 gold. Besides that, it also comes with a Z token boost, which boosts the player's Z token amount for 500 more, which adds up to 1500 free Z tokens.

Z-Tokens

Introduced in June 2006 to replace the former system of donating money for items, Z-Tokens are rare coins in AdventureQuest, which players will occasionally find after winning battles. Players may also purchase Z-Tokens with real money, with various exchange rates.

Players may use Z-Tokens to buy shields, armor, and weapons - these combat items tend to be more powerful than normal items, and can be bought with a much lower relative level. They may also purchase inventory slots with Z-Tokens, or trade them for in-game gold.

Critical reception

A common criticism of AdventureQuest is the low player capacity of the free-to-play server. Grrlgamer.com highlighted the simplicity of the game play, the "not bad" artwork, and interesting story with quirky humor. However, the reviewer criticized the animation and the lack of indication of quest levels, and claimed the NPC names to be unimaginative. OMNG praised the graphics theme, and the broad range of quests, events, stories, equipment and monsters. The battle system was considered easy to learn, but held "nothing to get excited about."

Server cap

File:AQservercap.jpg

The message that displays when a free player tries to log on if the server limit is reached.

There is a limit on the number of free players which can play simultaneously, depending on the time of day (peak times such as in the afternoon or evening) and factored server load. Both Adventurers (free-players) and Guardians/X-Guardians count towards the server cap, something Adventurers have complained about frequently in the past. The limit was fixed at 4,000 during the early days of AdventureQuest, but it currently fluctuates from 4,000 to 10,000. Once the limit is reached, only Guardians and X-Guardians may log in, until sufficient players log out or the limit increases.

Because of the server cap, difficulties are often presented for free players trying to log in at busy hours of the day, and even still, the server limit sometimes spontaneously decreases as soon as there are free spots available or all of the spots are maxed, making it often impossible for free players to play.

Free accounts start out with 24 free logins that are used each time that specific account (not character) logs into the game. AdventureQuest also provides an account confirmation that upon completion grants users another 48 hours of unlimited free logins.

Artix Entertainment defends the server cap as a way of controlling server load and covering the cost of hosting the game. AdventureQuest recently introduced sponsored advertising to allow more servers to be purchased, thus increasing the server limit. The advertising is limited to a row of icons on both sides of the homepage in an effort to not interfere with gameplay. Also, Ballyhoo, a pay-per-click/view advertising method was introduced in an effort to raise money for the game. Sponsors pay AQ to display their company's respect adverts which directly, on behalf of Artix Entertainment, provide a source of revenue when players view the advertisements or click on links. Depending on market variations and timing, some seasonal advertisements might be displayed, as with the case with Coraline and The Legend of the Seeker advertisements.

External links

• AdventureQuest
• AdventureQuest Wiki
• AdventureQuest Wikia