I've never played Arelith, but my observation about players who were conditioned to Arelith's conventions is that they are generally very averse to difficulty, mystery, or discovery of any kind. Sorry, I'm not going to post all the cool Easter Eggs of my module on a wiki.
Honestly, I've noticed this aversion to difficulty, mystery, and discovery in a significant portion of gamers these days. People just seem to want instant gratification and their hand held while they are playing.
I prefer classic Everquest style game play where you were just thrown into the world with minimal instructions: you had to explore, die a bit, and figure things out with none holding your hand. This is what I try to emulate on my server.
Well, the simple answer is that not everyone is on Arelith.
Says the person literally banned from most NWN communal groups and discords due to their malicious, and rather vile treatment of other innocent players/devs/dms/server of the community. Banned, by Beamdog employees no less. I think it's safe to say that you have no idea what you're talking about, especially if you haven't even played these servers.
Having played several, I can tell you dear poster that many people just have different tastes. Arelith's attraction is their wonderfully coded mechanics and (Well it used to be) the fact that you didn't need haks to play it. Now with the workshop, that last part isn't really applicable anymore. Arelith has a wide playerbase as well, and this alone attracts player. It is a very similar system with Ravenloft. The mechanics are done relatively well, and it has a large established playerbase with a setting that is easy to just roll up a new character on. On top of that, both of these servers have active, established teams that- and despite some corruption among both- do a relatively decent job of managing players and telling stories with what free time they have. Most small servers die because either the team fights and everyone quits, the server is just not attractive enough to bring in more players, or perhaps the setting is too in depth to be able to just roll up a new character on.
I have also need drama kill older servers before. And, unfortunately, drama can be a thing that happens a lot in our communities. Because, people are human and no one is ever going to always get along.
Why are people playing Arelith? Because it's easy and well made, in short.
The most important thing is for people to find a server that shares their values. Administration, roleplay, action, magic, treasure, all of these aspects should align with personal taste and personal decision.
Try Isles of Styss. Its a pretty good server where its fine to run everywhere and pvp and pve are fun and challenging, the player base is growing fairly quickly too.
Keep in mind that the fourth big sale (65% off this time) in a three month period just ended. You can't really assess any server's stable population during or after a sales period. It will take a few months of no sales before the numbers start to stabilize. This is because new players try NWN and then quit at some point, or at least cut down their play time considerably.
The retention rate overall is not so good, and it's probably a more important subject to discuss than server populations during a sales period. That's because at some point it's conceivable that at some point even a 90% off sale could bring in very few new players. How servers invest in their new players will no doubt be a factor in how many they end up retaining as part of their actual stable population.
Try Isles of Styss. Its a pretty good server where its fine to run everywhere and pvp and pve are fun and challenging, the player base is growing fairly quickly too.
@Spinilith if you want adult content, always best to clarify
To everyone else
Arelith combines Realmslore with the ability to create your own storyline without the hassle of oh crap I cannot do that because we are in " insert location from the canon realms here"
Our teams are incredible and highly skilled and work for the love of the game. DMs are rotated so burnout is limited and always have new exciting ideas of their own in addition to working with the playerbase on their plots and dreams.
I have been privileged to play on Arelith for over a decade, in various incarnations. From a halfling insane barbarian, to a devout Drow Matron and many others.
Those who call Arelith home are highly skilled and gifted Rpers, and wonderful people as well, which shows in our community and how we will all go out of our way to help new players learn and fit in to the server culture.
Players come to Arelith and Players go from Arelith. However please refrain from insinuating things just because you do not care to take time to learn about the server and the community at large.
Come step off the boat or underferry and actually try us out. Then you can make an informed decision and not speculations.
I don't think the phrase 'perfect Roleplay server' is a thing. People always have different flavours, and no server can ever deliver on everything.
Over at SK (and I will clarify that we do adult content) we get Arelith players that play both. Most are very complimentary of the growing RP community, the attitude of the players there, and the lack of toxicity that is prominent on other servers.
That's what my server offers. Arelith offers something different, and players will choose whichever their mood, RP style, social groups, and time investment dictate.
I have NWN EE and yet didn't play any kind of role playing persistent world and that is not my intention. But I will try Arelith to see what is it about.
Arelith is not unique in any way... the have some cool systems (other servers have cool systems) they have a broad, far reaching PW (other servers have broad far reaching PW) they have active DM's (other servers have active DMs) but for so very long they were HaK free, and that alone allowed a free flow of "wander-ins"
I played a decade on Arelith, it was fun, I enjoyed it. I had good times, I had bad times. I laughed, I cried, I shouted obscenities at the screen, I broke rules, I took my lumps from the DM's, I fought wars against factions, I fought wars against individuals. A lot of RP was great, A lot of RP was crap. Sometimes even my own RP was crap.
But Arelith is appealing to a lot of people. It was appealing to me for 10 straight years. -sure I took a few breaks in there, but it was my RP and Online home for 10 years.
But it isn't for me any more, and so I don't play there... although I do enjoy an odd visit every now and again... I have to admit.. but usually I log my characters into Arelith to remind myself why I don't log in anymore... just like why I eat Big Macs once a year... to remind myself why I don't eat them anymore.
But when new players wander in, and they see Arelith's 4(?) servers with 200 people logged in combined across them all.. of course folk are going to wander in. High population is the single greatest recruiting tool.
Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd.
Me... I have been trying to boost awareness of my new NWN Server obsession by making YouTube videos about them. --I won't post the link here, but you can search "Tiny Orc" or "Tiny Paladin" to see the gorgeous PW that basically made me stop playing Arelith.
There IS life after Arelith... but the peeps there run a good server, they work hard on it, and it shows.
Not playing on Arelith doesn't mean Arelith is bad. They just have players.. and most people will always gravitate to where the people are.
Keep Keepin' On, Arelith! We'll take your cast offs... however few they may be.
this weekend after two years development Areliths new city is opening, every unique CD key no matter what character gets a gift award as well, so come all new players and old players. Even you Kriv
Returning NWN player after the Steam sale here! Sorry for necro...
It's a bit of a shame that some of the excellent PWs out there don't get enough love because people are going straight for the most populated servers.
I've tried a bunch so far and ended up going back to Amia which I used to play on a long time ago. I'm giving Ravenloft a go despite it being quite hardcore but I definitely think it's worth trying some of the lower pop places to see if there are any hidden gems out there. Thank the gods for NWSync as it's no hassle at all to try them out now!
I do also remember some pretty fun action servers from back in the day but they don't seem to be around any more. Sometimes it's fun to just run around like a madman and kill stuff. I'm half tempted to fire up the module I used to run but to be honest I wouldn't have a clue how to maintain it now!
Also walking everywhere for the sake of "realism" in a game where you shoot fire out of your fingers, and summon dragons out of your arse seems rather redic
The walking rule is just for RP. When you join the expeditions you have conversations along the way and talking while walking makes that easier. Its about the journey. It also helps the DM to plan ambushes or events. This whole argument that we shouldent talk about realism in a world of magic is getting old. Even in a fantasysetting the world is also ruled by basic logic. You cant run everywhere without exhausting yourself.
Anywho we need a good non RP server to kill some shit on.[/quote]
Um, i think diablo is more your style. PW-servers is for RP and not only Hack n slash
Comments
I prefer classic Everquest style game play where you were just thrown into the world with minimal instructions: you had to explore, die a bit, and figure things out with none holding your hand. This is what I try to emulate on my server.
Having played several, I can tell you dear poster that many people just have different tastes. Arelith's attraction is their wonderfully coded mechanics and (Well it used to be) the fact that you didn't need haks to play it. Now with the workshop, that last part isn't really applicable anymore. Arelith has a wide playerbase as well, and this alone attracts player. It is a very similar system with Ravenloft. The mechanics are done relatively well, and it has a large established playerbase with a setting that is easy to just roll up a new character on. On top of that, both of these servers have active, established teams that- and despite some corruption among both- do a relatively decent job of managing players and telling stories with what free time they have.
Most small servers die because either the team fights and everyone quits, the server is just not attractive enough to bring in more players, or perhaps the setting is too in depth to be able to just roll up a new character on.
I have also need drama kill older servers before. And, unfortunately, drama can be a thing that happens a lot in our communities. Because, people are human and no one is ever going to always get along.
Why are people playing Arelith? Because it's easy and well made, in short.
The retention rate overall is not so good, and it's probably a more important subject to discuss than server populations during a sales period. That's because at some point it's conceivable that at some point even a 90% off sale could bring in very few new players. How servers invest in their new players will no doubt be a factor in how many they end up retaining as part of their actual stable population.
@Spinilith if you want adult content, always best to clarify
To everyone else
Arelith combines Realmslore with the ability to create your own storyline without the hassle of oh crap I cannot do that because we are in " insert location from the canon realms here"
Our teams are incredible and highly skilled and work for the love of the game. DMs are rotated so burnout is limited and always have new exciting ideas of their own in addition to working with the playerbase on their plots and dreams.
I have been privileged to play on Arelith for over a decade, in various incarnations. From a halfling insane barbarian, to a devout Drow Matron and many others.
Those who call Arelith home are highly skilled and gifted Rpers, and wonderful people as well, which shows in our community and how we will all go out of our way to help new players learn and fit in to the server culture.
Players come to Arelith and Players go from Arelith. However please refrain from insinuating things just because you do not care to take time to learn about the server and the community at large.
Come step off the boat or underferry and actually try us out. Then you can make an informed decision and not speculations.
Arelith - A Persistent World
@AArelith 19h19 hours ago
We've launched our new server!
Arelith PGCC (Pretty Good Character Creator) with plans to evolve this into a fully fledged NWN Arena environment.
We'll also be accepting submissions from the NWN community for new combat areas!
Find the details on our main web page.
Over at SK (and I will clarify that we do adult content) we get Arelith players that play both. Most are very complimentary of the growing RP community, the attitude of the players there, and the lack of toxicity that is prominent on other servers.
That's what my server offers. Arelith offers something different, and players will choose whichever their mood, RP style, social groups, and time investment dictate.
I'm not sure what you mean. I used to play there and have just returned.
I played a decade on Arelith, it was fun, I enjoyed it. I had good times, I had bad times. I laughed, I cried, I shouted obscenities at the screen, I broke rules, I took my lumps from the DM's, I fought wars against factions, I fought wars against individuals. A lot of RP was great, A lot of RP was crap. Sometimes even my own RP was crap.
But Arelith is appealing to a lot of people. It was appealing to me for 10 straight years. -sure I took a few breaks in there, but it was my RP and Online home for 10 years.
But it isn't for me any more, and so I don't play there... although I do enjoy an odd visit every now and again... I have to admit.. but usually I log my characters into Arelith to remind myself why I don't log in anymore... just like why I eat Big Macs once a year... to remind myself why I don't eat them anymore.
But when new players wander in, and they see Arelith's 4(?) servers with 200 people logged in combined across them all.. of course folk are going to wander in. High population is the single greatest recruiting tool.
Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd.
Me... I have been trying to boost awareness of my new NWN Server obsession by making YouTube videos about them. --I won't post the link here, but you can search "Tiny Orc" or "Tiny Paladin" to see the gorgeous PW that basically made me stop playing Arelith.
There IS life after Arelith... but the peeps there run a good server, they work hard on it, and it shows.
Not playing on Arelith doesn't mean Arelith is bad. They just have players.. and most people will always gravitate to where the people are.
Keep Keepin' On, Arelith! We'll take your cast offs... however few they may be.
It's a bit of a shame that some of the excellent PWs out there don't get enough love because people are going straight for the most populated servers.
I've tried a bunch so far and ended up going back to Amia which I used to play on a long time ago. I'm giving Ravenloft a go despite it being quite hardcore but I definitely think it's worth trying some of the lower pop places to see if there are any hidden gems out there. Thank the gods for NWSync as it's no hassle at all to try them out now!
I do also remember some pretty fun action servers from back in the day but they don't seem to be around any more. Sometimes it's fun to just run around like a madman and kill stuff. I'm half tempted to fire up the module I used to run but to be honest I wouldn't have a clue how to maintain it now!
Um, i think diablo is more your style. PW-servers is for RP and not only Hack n slash