On this page we cover the following topics:
On page 1 we covered the steps involved in starting a new character in Tharsis Gate:
And here are the links for page 3:
When you enter the game you are in the foyer to the Adventurer's Building in a town called Tolnedra. Right outside the door is a teeming marketplace and the surrounding city. Inside this city you have a large array of wandering local people and animals.Wandering round can of course get you lost and in case you need to find your way back it's advisable you make a map, or use our one. Of course there may well be hidden areas not shown on our map.
You should check out the general store, pubs, bank and other shops shown on the map, for they will provide usefull items for your adventuring.
Some of the people around town are rather tough and you should be careful attacking anyone without first looking at them to determine what equipment they are carrying. You should also use the 'consider' command before attacking.
The newbie booklet, obtained from the dispenser to the west of the login room, lists a few places easily reachable from inside the town that provide a good place to start your adventuring. Or alternatively you can just wander round and start out with the dogs and cats.
Playing Tharsis Gate often boils down to killing monsters. Monsters being anything else that moves. And trying to kill something is usually what gets you killed. Thus you need to prepare as well as possible.Armour makes a big difference in combat, thus get as much as you can. You weapon also makes a big difference, but be a bit careful with your choice as a large weapon can be difficult to use. And if you have a low skill with the weapon, then you will tend to damage it and miss - rather than killing your opponent.
Always 'consider' your opponent before attacking. This provides useful information about how well you think you will fare against them.
Set you 'wimpy'. Once combat starts, nothing stops it until one or the other opponent is dead or runs away. By setting your 'wimpy level' you can specify when you want your character to automatically flee (IE if your HitPoints drop below 20, then run away). Don't think that this will automatically save your life - some monster might do large amounts of damage very quickly, or they might chase you.
Turn on your HitPoint monitor. You do this using the 'notify hp' command. When you have hp notification on then you will be informed of any change in your hitpoints. This enables you to keep track of how the combat is progressing.
Combat is usually started by you issuing the 'kill' command. Once this command is issued the MUD will automatically handle the fight for you, causing you to swing at the monster and it to respond in kind. One or other of you might be a bit faster (you can attack faster with a smaller weapon) and may get more swings than the opponent, so be careful.
Each time you swing at least one of your skills is used. This will be the skill associated with the weapon you are wielding. As a general rule the skills used are the following:
When you attack, your bonus in the appropriate skill (as well as a roll of the dice) determines whether you will be able to hit your opponent. Magic weapon can of course help you here. It is thus usually best to concentrate on raising just one of the above skills and sticking to that type of weapon.
- combat.melee.edged: swords, axes, knives, polearms
- combat.melee.pointed: spears, daggers, some polearms
- combat.melee.blunt: clubs, staves
- combat.unarmed.*: Used when you have no weapon
When the oponent swings at you, your character will make an attempt dodge or block. You can specify whether you prefer to block or dodge using the 'response' command. It is again best to concentrate on raising only one of your combat.defense.dodge or combat.defense.block skills and using the response command.
Combat will continue until one or other opponent's hit points reach 0 or below. At this point that person dies. Their corpse will fall to the ground and you will be able to loot it ('get all from corpse') for items and gold. All guilds also have a spell or command that allows you to use the corpse in some way.
For killing a monster you will receive some experience. This experience can then be used in the training rooms to advance your skills.
Simply by participating in combat your character can learn how to fight more effectively. This translates into possible increases in your combat skills every time you swing your weapon or are attacked by a monster. Such increases are called "Auto Advances" or "AAs". These are identical to the AAs that you can receive through the use of guild commands.
Sometimes you will come second in a fight, and this means you will be dead. Dying isn't the end of the game (usually), but you should definitely consider reading about what to do when you die before you go into combat.
A much longer description of what a guild is and the details of the open guilds can be found here.. This page tells you where to find the guilds and why you should join one.All guilds can be joined from the rooms upstairs in the Adventurer's guild. Each guild has a room and within it there are hints on the command to issue to join the guild.
These rooms ARE NOT the actual guild halls. Each guild has a hall (a set of rooms which only guild members can enter) located somewhere in the mud - usually within Tolnedra. The joining rooms all have a blue portal which you can 'enter portal' to pass through and arrive outside your guild hall.
You should join a guild for several reasons:
- Other guild members will help you.
- In the guild halls are places where you can train more cheaply than in the Adventurer's building.
- The guild halls often have other tools and shops that can help you.
- Every guild has a 'guild box' that members can use to store items to help each other.
- You will receive extra powers in the form of 'guild commands' that will help you greatly while adventuring.
Be careful about you choice of guild, because leaving a guild is a very costly ordeal and not to be done lightly. Thus you tend to stay in the one guild for a long long time.
Since the dawn of mankind, or at least since gold became valuable, mad scientists with really frizzled hairstyles have been trying to convert common metals into valuable ones.Tharsis Gate thinks that these experimenters throughout history were onto a good thing and as a result there is a whole system of alchemy in the game which allows you to attempt such tricks as base metal conversions and mixing of wierd and wonderful potions.
Alchemy (as defined in Tharsis Gate) focuses primarily on the production of potions, which can be applied to metals for the purpose of converting them.
Potions are made through the mixing of a number of ingredients, also known as "reagents".
And what are the reagents? Well, that is part of the trick, you have to find that out yourself. There are some hints however. There are three broad categories of reagents: Liquids, Herbs and Metals.
Liquids cover almost any liquid you can find - from beer and water to more archane substances. Metals are much the same; ranging from dirt to mercury. Herbs are just that - small weedy plants. You can find herbs using the 'forage' command, read the help on it separately ('help forage').
Whenever you find a reagent you probably won't recognise it fully. For example you find a small plant, but is it a piece of mandrake root or is it a small green moss? You can learn more about an unknown reagent by using the 'study' command. Once you have successfully studied a reagent you will always recognise it in the future. You can list the reagents which you have successfully studied using the 'known' command. And now - you want to mix a potion. Potions have to be mixed in a vial. You can buy the vials in several locations, but themost convienent is probably from the "Alchemy Manufacturing Inc" outlet in Tolnedra. Once you have a vial you are ready to start mixing a potion. The first step in any potion is a liquid, so fill you fill with a liquid reagent. Then simply 'mix' other reagents into the vial. Herbs and metals must be crushed to be mixed in, so you will probably need to buy a mortar and pestle from Alchemy Manfacturing as well. Note: the mix command will not work unless you have a vial in your inventory. If you know a recipe you could try following it (Your known recipes can be listed with the 'known' command also), or you can just experiment. Mix a few things together, drink the potion and see what happens. As an incentive for trying, let's just say that you can heal yourself, kill your enemies, blow yourself up and complete a quest - all through potions.
- Get a copy of a mud client. We recommend ZMud and have a version available for download that is already configured to connect you to Tharsis Gate.
- Never forget the 'help' command.
- Learn about 'aliases' - read 'help alias'.
- Learn about 'nicknames' - read 'help nickname'.
- Rearrange your stats (once you are ready) - read 'help rearrange'
- Spend all your experience on training your skills as soon as you get it. Then if you die then you don't loose it.
- Map everything, then you can't get lost.
- Learn about parties and then adventure with other players - read 'help party'.
- And if you get stuck, just ask a wizard for help, but remember - they won't save you in a fight or anything like that, they are just people who can answer questions.