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Tibia (video game)

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Tibia
Tibia screenshot
Tibia screenshot
Developer(s)CipSoft GmbH
Publisher(s)CipSoft GmbH
Platform(s)Windows, formerly also Linux
Release1997, continuous updates (currently at version 7.72)
Genre(s)MMORPG
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Tibia is one of the oldest, longest-running graphical online computer role-playing games (MMORPGs). It was developed as early as 1997. To this day, it is continually being improved. CipSoft GmbH, which is based in Regensburg, is Tibia’s developer and operator.

Tibia started as a non-commercial programming experiment by three German computer science students called the 'Gods' named Steve (Stephan Vogler), Durin (Ulrich Schlott) and Stephan (Stephan Börzsönyi). Guido actually started as a normal player and joined the ranks of an Executive Officer in 1999. 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 very basic 3D 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.

Although servers are located in Germany and the US, players arrive from all over the world, a majority being from Brazil. Tibia has been featured in many Brazilian newspapers, and it seems that the influence is spreading throughout that country, and it is becoming a LAN house favorite. However, with the sketchy IP addresses that emanate from a single source, such as the aforementioned LAN house, it is very hard to police the account sharing that goes on from said areas, and it is sad that most Brazilian players are involved with some form of cheating. This is heavily due to the fact that most cheating programs are developed and distributed by Brazilian players for many reasons.

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 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.

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:Tibia Map.jpg
A map of the game world
  • Ab'Dendriel — The elven city, located at the north-east on the main island. This city is known to be sort of a 'social city', where players often gather up to do stuff.
  • Ankrahmun — The Egyptian-themed city, located south on the island Darama. Contains many of the new "Boss Monsters" also known as Pharaos which are a difficult challenge and part of a difficult quest.
  • Carlin — Called the "Amazon" or "Woman" city since women rule Carlin. It is located in the north-west on the main island. This is also the home to majority of brasilians, polish and pks.
  • Darashia — The desert city, located to the north of the island of Darama. It is the pearl of Darama. This island is the home to mages, (Sorcerers, druids). They can start out hunting Rotworms in the famous Rotworm caves, and on higher level go on vampire and necromancer hunts.
  • Edron — A large city where special spells can be learned, located on the first premium account island of the same name.
  • Kazordoon - Situated in a huge, extinct volcano, the city of Kazordoon is the pride of the dwarven race, a miracle of science and of craftsmanship. Many generations of dwarven artisans and engineers have contributed to the creation of its beautiful halls and passageways, and countless mine workers have spent their lives extracting ore in order to help amassing the fabulous wealth that is hidden deep in the dwarven city. Kazordoon has many hunting places suitable for knights.
  • Port Hope - The colony of Port Hope is one of the newer acquisitions of the Thaian Kingdom. After Port Hope was founded as a small camp on the new continent, it was soon found out that the jungle of Tiquanda was rich on valuable resources. It is one of the last "Pacc Cities" which means that only players with premium account can visit this location. Tiquanda, which is the name of the island where port hope lies, has many hunting places suitable for the Paladin.
  • Rookgaard - Rookgaard is the name of a large island and a town on the island where characters start out. Once they reach level eight, they are allowed to travel to the "mainland" and choose a vocation. Characters cannot attack each other on the island, and there are even people who stay and level up beyond eight, called Rookguardians.
  • Thais - Thais is the largest city in Tibia. Due to its long history and to the fact that King Tibianus III resides there, the Thaians consider their city to be the capital of the realm, even though this has never been officially confirmed by the king.
  • Venore — It is a bustling merchant city situated deep in the eastern marshlands. Venore lies in the middle of a huge swamp, the smartest free account players knows places somewhere in the swamp where noone ever hunts.

Villages

  • 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.
  • Fibula Village — Located on the island of the same name southwest of Thais, it is famous for the NPC Timur, the only NPC in the game who will buy crossbows and bows, and for the guildhalls of the legendary Red Rose and Mercenarys, two guilds which can still be found on Antica (the oldest gameworld) to this day.
  • Greenshore — A small village located northwest of Thais. Known best for Greenshore Castle, one of the most attractive guildhalls in the game, as well as the Tibianic, the very large boat guildhall.
  • Northport — A small fishing village comprised of mainly player-owned houses, situated northeast of Carlin.
  • Outlaw Encampment — A small village located west of Venore. Famous for H.L., a sexist NPC (will not serve females) who is the only to purchase scale armors in the game. It is the home of the Wild Warriors, a band of humans banished from the domain of King Tibianus III.
  • Senja Village — Located on an island of the same name northwest of Carlin, it is home to little more than player-owned houses surrounded by the icy setting of the island. A single quest is available in a castle northeast of the village.
  • Stonehome Village — Named for its houses perched atop giant stone formations, this small village lies directly northeast of Edron City.


Monster-Controlled Towns and Places

  • Amazon Camp — Northwest of Venore, a small village populated by Amazons, Valkyries and Witches.
  • Banuta — Located northeast of Port Hope, it is the present home of the Apes, who were prior enslaved by the Lizardmen. In it lowest levels isa civilization of dangerous monsters.
  • Chor — The new home of the Lizardmen. Driven out of Banuta by the their former slaves, the Apes, their present home can be found almost due east from Port Hope.
  • Cyclopolis — The Cyclops call this their central home. The Cyclop's "fathers" are in the deepest and lowest part of Cyclopolis. It is located on Edron Island, north of the city.
  • Demona — Hidden far underground, Below even the Maze of Lost Souls, north of Carlin. A series of chambers used by Warlocks and some mages for magical research purposes.
  • Draconia — Home of the undead and dragons. Dangerous island with a black pyramid built on it found northeast of Ab'Dendriel.
  • Elvenbane — Due west of Ab'Dendriel, a small fort with Minotaurs and Orcs, and other suprises.
  • Mintwallin — The home of the Minotaurs, located far beneath the surface, in the vicinity of Thais.
  • Uldereek's Rock — Also known as "Orc Fort" or "Orc Land", it is the home of the Orcs. Located far to the east of Kazordoon.
  • Shadowthorne — Alternate Elf City southeast of Venore, inhabited by deviant Elves differing from the friendly Elves found in Ab'Dendriel.
  • Drefia - The home of the evil Necromancers and Vampires, is a small land with many caves where live some undeads. Drefia is to the west from Darashia.
  • Hero Cave - This cave was once a monastery of the Monks, but someday the Demons that live under the temple cursed the Monk, Priestess and some Hero's mind and turn them to the evil side. Now this is the best known Demon's home. There is also some secrets hide. Hero Cave is to the north of Edron.
  • Mount Sternum - Is a big mountain with many Cyclops. Near the mountain are some elves and hunters.
  • Plains of Havoc - A big land full of Giant Spiders, Dragons, Orcs, Undeads and Hunters. Is very dangerous.
  • Tombs of Ankrahmun - The hardest place in the game, there is almost EVERY monster, with predominance of Undeads. There are also the Pharaohs.
  • Maze of Lost Souls (MoLS) One of the Tibia's secrets, MoLS protect the entrance to Demona, the city of Warlocks. It's a BIG maze with many dangerous monsters.

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 most expensive vocation to choose as they require expensive armor to block creatures whereas all the other vocations have ranged attacks and can run and fire at the same time. They were the easiest to raise at low levels before the wands and rods update, but now are the slowest to level. 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.

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. Premium 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 have always been concidered as the better mage, though.

Druid vs. Sorcerer

Sorcerers have almost no noticeable difference from Druids at earlier levels. Though they cannot use "Heal Friend", "Mass Healing" (both of which are mildly expensive, and require a paid account), or make healing runes, they have instant healing magic spells to use that are equal in strength to healing runes, and have access to instant damaging spells, such as "Fire Wave", and "Energy Beam". 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. Also, the Sorcerer has access to the defensive "Magic Wall" spell, which the Druid lacks. 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, via an in-game "rune shop". Since the update that included Wands (Sorcerer weapons) and Rods (Druid weapons), the lower level Druids and Sorcerers are now fairly 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 (characters using illegal macros) as they had to hunt monsters in order to continue creating runes (magical items). One of the most important features of this update was the introduction of a shop in which to buy runes, creating much controversy among the mages, and paving the way for the loss of over half of the druidic population (here meaning the characters actually used, and not just for rune-making purposes). This is most problably the most controversial of the updates applied to the game.

Christmas 2005 Update

In the Christmas Update even more drastic changes occurred. Mana regeneration (magical power, a term often used in many RPG games) 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 25, as no worthy runes can be created. Also, changes were made in the game's graphics.

Spring 2006 Technical Update

On May 18th, 2006 the Tibia 7.7 version client was released. This was only a techinical 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 (framerates 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. This has yet to be implemented into the clients yet, however.

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)

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 the "premium land". Also, some spells require elite 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 King Tibianus of Thais, or Queen Eloise of Carlin.

New magic wands and rods were also added for certain level players, now every mage from rookgaard at level 8 can get one free wand or rod of their vocation at the nearest magic shop.

Support And Rules

Tibia relies heavily on support and help from within the community in its support and rule enforcement system. Premium Account players who reach certain formal requirements in expertise and did not violate any rules in the recent past may become a "Tutor" who offers support to other players in their world in a special chat channel. Tutors also report character names which violate the Tibia Rules directly to Tibia's customer support. They can be promoted to Senior Tutors after three months of service who then also engage in moderating the official forums by reporting bad posts.

Tibia also has a number of Gamemasters from within the community who are equipped with special tool characters which can for example target and teleport to the location of a certain character across the game world. The Gamemasters pursue and punish violations of the rules in the game. Gamemasters had a staff of trusted helpers, the Counsellors, who were able to answer rule violation reports in the game and have special means to forward them to the Gamemaster. However, the position is considered to be closed and obsolete and the remaining Counsellors have been released from their position. All three groups are closely monitored by the Customer Support employed by CipSoft, the games developer.

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 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.
  • Somewhere within the dwarven caves, there is a sleeping beauty locked in a room with seven dwarves. This is in relation to the Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

In King Tibianus' court, his guards are named Harsky and Stutch. These are similar to Starsky and Hutch.

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.

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 and 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[1] that resembles the layout of Pacman.

Numerous NPC's in the game talk about "Excalibug" being the ultimate weapon, similar to Excaliber in King Arthur stories.


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