| AdventureQuest is a free, lunch break-sized online RPG. The only system requirements for the game are a web browser and version 7.0 or later of Macromedia
Flash Player. The game is totally free of cost, but for a one time donation of $14 (£8 for UK players, €12 for EU
players) one can become a "guardian" and receive in-game perks and features not available for non-guardians. Only 4500
nonguardian gamers can log on. Guardians get to log on even when there are more than 4500 people on. The game and its costs are
entirely supported by guardian donations, and as such, there are 'Guardian Swims' whenever money is needed to support costs.
During this period, only guardians can log in and play. Once the swim is over (enough people have become guardians) the game is
free for all again. The staff make absolutely zero profit from the game. Guardians also get to play ArchKnight, another RPG based
loosely off AdventureQuest.
Gameplay
The game itself plays much like any other turn based RPG, the player has a menu with several commands his or her character can
perform. These include attacking with the current weapon, using spells, drinking potions for restoring health/mana, and changing
equipment. One can also use pets for extra damage or healing.
In the game there are eight elements, as opposed to the classical four. These elements are: Fire, Water, Wind, Ice, Earth,
Energy, Light, and Darkness.
Both monsters and players have elemental resistance towards each element, and all attacks (both from weapons and spells) are
of a certain element. For example, a player could run into a Djinni, which takes 130% damage from ice attacks. Since the Djinni's
attacks are fire, the player equips himself with an armor and a shield for best possible protection against fire, and arms
himself with an ice weapon for most damage.
Not only do all attacks have an element but also a type: Ranged, Melee, or Magic. Both monsters and players have different
blocking values against the different types. The player can change his or her blocking values by switching armor and shield,
which the monster cannot. Another important difference is the random damage bonus which depends on stats. The random
damage bonus is calculated like this:
- Melee Damage
- strength/8
- Ranged Damage
- strength/16 + dexterity/16
- Magic Damage
- intellect/8
The random damage bonus is added to the weapon's random damage (max damage - min damage), and is such not a guarantee for
doing more damage. For example, a character with 80 intellect using Trident of Etain which is a magic weapon with 15 random
damage, gets a 10 boost to the random damage, making it 25.
Since all characters have a fixed amount of maximum stat points to spend (550, 5 stat points are earned each level to level
110), one must choose to specialize certain areas while sacrificing others. Thus two main groups of players have formed: mages
and warriors. Warriors focus on training strength, while mages train intellect. Naturally, rounded characters with about equal
intellect and strength (known as hybrids) exist as do Rangers (DEX monkies). Rangers are rarely played due to a shortage of
strong ranger-supporting equipment.
As of a few months ago, the staff introduced a level cap on 110, due to a lot of "power-levelers" used various techniques,
such as extreme hardware performance to improve game performance, and as such they could get through battles faster, this was
very hard on the server, and as such a cap was put.
Classes
The class system in AdventureQuest is a new introduction, and at the moment the only available player classes are Dragon
Slayer, Vampire Slayer, Mage, Fighter and Rogue. These are to soon be joined by other classes including Necromancer, Paladin,
Summoner, Beastmaster, and many more.
Races
At present, you may only be a human, but at some stage you will be able to play other races.
Sub-Races
Also, none as of writing, but you will be able to become a werewolf, vampire, or werepire in the future.
Staff
AdventureQuest is run by a large staff, but the three staff members that are most famous are Artix von Kreiger, Galanoth, and
Captain Rhubarb. Artix (real name Adam Bohn) is the creator of the game, while Galanoth, previously known as Demento, is somewhat
a sub-creator. Captain Rhubarb joined later in the project, but has contributed enormously with his coding skills.
Community
AdventureQuest has an IRC channel located on the Caelestia server. The main channel for AdventureQuest players is #battleon, the
random chat for AQ players is #yulgarsinn. The official message board for players is located here (http://forums2.battleon.com/f/).
External links
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