[JamesE]

(See below)

[Levi]

I'm almost convinced already!

[internisus]

I haven't logged on here in like three weeks, and I'm here now for only one reason:

James, you promised to make a thread about Nexus War to convince us all to play it. I want that thread right here, right now.

See, I've been curious about roguelikes since dess started going on and on about Nethack and Crawl and since Shiren exploded onto the IC scene and since I saw that amazing gameplay video of ADOM set to a metal cover of Scorpion's Still Loving You five minutes ago, but I just don't think I could ever really be interested. See, without a pretty fleshed-out world, I can't feel gratified by character building and customization, and randomly generated dungeon grinding has always turned me off.

So, I want to know what there is to know about more social alternative to roguelikes. I mean, we're basically talking about MUDs, aren't we? So, yeah, okay. Get me into something here.

I mean, I guess I want a roguelike that's bigger than what a roguelike is? Is that what I want?

Ah, forget it. Just tell me why I should play Nexus War.

[JamesE]

OK.

Relevant to the following:

http://www.nexuswar.com
http://wiki.nexuswar.com
http://www.urbandead.com

Nexuswar is essentially an offshoot of the Urban Dead community - one of the members of a larger survivor horde started to code when that game began to wane, to keep the scene alive. Whereas Urban Dead remains basic, spartan and kind of limited, Nexus War has continued to mature and grow into a fairly complex and rewarding game. There are three morality trees, three tiers of classes, and 11 final classes. All of this is excellently documented on the wiki.

The overview: You either fuck shit up alone (lonely, unrewarding) or enter a faction. Factions are either evil, neutral or good. Neutrals can join any kind of faction, good and evil are restricted to their respective factions. The idea is that Neutrals retain free will, while good and evil are locked on their own paths forever. All of this is done in the service of nine elder powers - these used to be just flavour, but soon cults are coming in. I am very excited about cults! Cults are going to be for tier 3 characters, and you'll have to please your patron god to get unique upgrades and bonuses. Pretty neat stuff, and it'll add more interest to the game.

This is done over four planes - heaven, hell (with a roaming dragon quest element that has yet to be slain), purgatorio (a chaotic, muddled and brilliant-looking realm lashed together by chains) and Valhalla, an island chain sucked into the conflict. This has a sewer system, islands and is where you start. It is where most of the action is. Goodies (who are boring) stick to heaven. Most evil factions keep it corporeal - hell is barren and mundane. Purgatorio is a "new frontieer" of sorts.

Morality defines what class choices you can pick at level 10 - thereafter, you're restricted to being good if you're good, bad if you're evil and doing whatever the fuck you feel if you're neutral. One class, the Nexus Champion, can buy skills that give massive buffs for perfectly balanced (0) morality.

Leveling up to level 10 can be quick or slow, depending on how you play it. It can be boring. The real fun here is playing as a faction, and fucking other factions up. You need to be above a certain level as a faction (defined by your karma, which is another system) to establish a base, or stronghold. Once you have this you can have a safe (for storing items) and a ward to sleep behind. Of course, this can be destroyed, and you can lose your faction standard - taking the current stronghold with it.

More on classes tomorrow - it's late. But look: this is a basic game. It's got a primitive interface, it's got a lot of text. It is shitty or amazing depending upon one's imagination and it is selectbutton.net's chance to totally beat the fuck out of other, worse factions. Playing this together, we could have an absolute blast. It takes no more than half an hour (max) to play. You can be a warrior, an explorer, a crafter or a medic. I would love to play as a SB team, and so would you (you just don't know it yet). This is some MMO BBS door game shit for 2007.

I have created a faction, and it is for neutrals. The general theme is Nordic-blooded super-soldiers. You'll need to log into the game to see it, and when you do it is here:

http://nexuswar.com/factions/view.do?factionID=1602

Post your profile, character name and rough aspirations (warrior/magician/magic warrior/summoner/crafter and infuser) below. I will provide advice that will help you get through the initial grinding. When you spawn head to 3,30 - it's a fort some dorky good faction set up, but it's safe as long as you aren't evil and people will give you goodies.

[boojiboy7]

I may do this. the zombie one was fun for a bit.

[JamesE]

Start today! Seriously, it takes shit all time to play a turn, but if you set it up right you can really have fun crushing shit up.

[JamesE]

Oh god, the second Nexus Wedding just got announced :(

http://forums.nexuswar.com/viewtopic.php?t=8465

Understand that I intend to teleport in and destroy these people, ok

[Jaihson]

Hopping on board the faction train ITT. Going to aim for a standard HtH Rev, perhaps with a side of long arms unless there's a pressing need for something else.

How 'bout that cult stuff?

[JamesE]

The cult stuff has me excited for the game all over again - I'm hoping it will fragment the larger clans and lead to a crazy gameboard full of small, unpredictable factions. My TSO Nexus Champion (who maxed out - how is yours doing?) pretty much just sits around crafting guns these days or goes on badge hunts. I was trying to get a dragon hunting party going but meh... it's kind of faceless being in a faction that big.

I guess you can level up pretty well hand-to-hand since you know the lay of the land - I'm making this one a Wizard who uses bows, for faction leading and shit.

[boojiboy7]

alrighty, so i set up a dude named Cold Law V, but he started out way far away across an ocean. So I made another dude named juan valdez, with melee fightin as his starting ability, and then headed to that 3,30 place. and yeah, there i am. so how do I join this faction?

[boojiboy7]

wait, i figured that out. you got another bro. a bro named juan valdez.

[JamesE]

1) log in

2) click the faction link

3) if it gives you shit click "reload"

4) click "join faction"

Melee is a good pick - try and find an axe, then go around swinging axes at dudes. Level up melee to advanced melee first, then grab repair item. Don't worry about swords yet - improvised weapons have a lower-to-hit, but they break. As an axe dude you can just talk around chopping up T1s.

Are you going magic or combat for your tier 2? Your starting choice would probably make a better footsoldier than a magic dude, but both are entirely doable - if you choose Wizard as your t3, you can add enchantments to your blade to make it super awesome. Most magic guys aiming for lich go hand-to-hand, since they get death touch. Elementalists... have the best travel skill for the island chain (free movement in water) but they're a little weak. Any magic t2 can make potions to beef himself up. mymrdons are the combat class to being a combat dude and have the best hunting skills (enhanced senses).

juan sounds like a fancy dude

[JamesE]

[boojiboy7]

juan hopes to become just a beast, just killing motherfuckers for the heck of it and shit.

[boojiboy7]

so i can't find an axe yet, but i have a crowbar.

[JamesE]

[professor_scissors]

I created a dude, but I lost track of my AP so I am chilling around in an elementary school, hoping nobody kills me (I tried to hide but I failed).

This looks interesting.

[JamesE]

Feel free to join us! You should check the forums - there's a suggestion pool there you might be interested in. Since this is in beta (probably always will be) it's fascinating to see a game get built from the ground up around you. Probably up your alley.

[duomo]

I created a character and joined the faction.

[Gin]

Ok I created a dude named Miguel and started with ranged combat and search bonus. Chilling at 3,30 though it doesn't seem I can get in.

What I want out of this character is to shoot some people.

Edit: I need some good starting tips for gaining experience and and not getting killed by the first dude I shoot. I wasn't very good back when it was a kinda lame zombie game see.

[JamesE]

If you want to be a Nexus Champion (crazy tattooed class that can use spells and gets morality bonuses) go archery when you upgrade ranged. They get a strength upgrade that lets them use bows to more lethal effect than rifles. Bows are harder to craft and repair but they're a pretty nice choice. Short and Long Arms work nicely as a pair because you can use more ammo types.

3, 30 is a faction stronghold, ging - go to the gun store and search in there. Booji, you could probably do with hitting some shit up, dogg.

What we have here is a plan. I will have more AP tomorrow, and we will maybe try to arrange to do some things with raiding on monday, since I have some buddies who could clear a place in northcamp out for us.

[professor_scissors]

Which faction are we talking about? The Good faction at 3,30? Because I am all about the neutral.

[Gin]

I found barnabus truman. He was hiding.

This game is interesting.

Edit: I now have a submachine gun of average quality and a clip for it.

I think what I really want to do is take a rifle and shoot somebody in the head, rather than use a bow or crossbow or whatever archery entails. Should I go into eternal soldier or something?

[professor_scissors]

Upon attempting to log back in, I find that my password AND my email address are now invalid for some reason. Hmph.

[haze]

I joined as Tintern, thinking of becoming Revenant, probably. I found my way to 3,30

I should probably read the wiki now to figure out how to play

[JamesE]

[Gin]

Well I want to be the guy that makes guns and shoots them and hunts people down and makes them die. Eternal soldier seems good for that.

[haze]

I have proudly killed my first man! Blam blam blam.

I'm looking at all the various skills and combat trees, but it's not easy to pick. How fast do you actually earn CPs, and how many fields can you afford to specialize in? Is there enough to get combat skills and class skills and a crafting skill? Would it cost way too much to get two combat types?

[Jaihson]

CP gain from leveling can be seen here, and if you don't mind a bit of spoiling, there's an exploration badge map which gives the locations of 40 free points. Don't expect to see many achievement badge CPs any time soon. What you'll have the points for kind of depends on the classes you pick, but going for one primary combat tree and its related crafting tree is quite reasonable, and if you go a simple route (say, Eternal Soldier) two combat trees is also very doable. If you're really worried you can fiddle around with the character generator though with new content still dropping, you're probably going to end up regretting some investments anyway.

[JamesE]

Nexus Champions make better hunters, ging. They can read information from corpses.

Worrying about running out of CP is a nasty trap to fall into at level 1 BUT it's seriously not worth it and more CP routes are going to come into the game soon. Killing the dragon reaps 5 cp each time, but it is an epic quest.

[boojiboy7]

OK, dude,s so I totally died, but I have come back to life, but I am on the opposite side of the planet, but I am beating the hell out of random dudes.

This is fun.

I made a couple other dudes as well. we shall see what happens with them.

[Gin]

So what raises morality?

I'm at negative 13 for shooting upon complete strangers.

[haze]

morality goes up when you repair doors, generators, heal people, or just attack Evil-aligned people. I've accidentally found a lot of the latter.

(after reading through the rather disorganized wiki, alignment only affects certain things. you can still join the neutral faction, and advance to a neutral class no matter what you are. it does affect what EXP you get for breaking or repairing stuff, and who you can kill for morality points. also, Good characters will definitely target you if you're Evil, so you'd have to stay out of that base we're in.)

I found a rifle! I'll trade it for your machine gun. Unfortunately, don't have any bullets for it.

[boojiboy7]

i got like 3 pistols. I unloaded them into people. I got some decent hits in. this was with a different character than is in the clan.

Edit: This guy is named buttplug.

[Gin]

I got a rifle too.

The submachine gun seems like the best low level weapon, since it has a decent damage and large clip size.

I bet it wears out quickly though. I'll check if I have an extra for you. Where are you at?

Edit: No extras on me. dang.

I'm not sure where I want to go with this character. I want to go far a tough gunner type or something like that, but ain't sure where to specialize.

Hey James how do long arms and small arms stack up to eachother? Which is best in the long run?

[JamesE]

Archery is maybe the best in some ways, it powers up with Strength and Tattoo of Strenght

Pistols and SMGs are easier to source ammo for

Rifles make huge, huge holes, as do shotguns

Work out if you're going to pick the strength skills later - if the answer is yes max out archery and bowyering. if the answer is no, choose long or short arms. focus on one to save CP - you will probably want to buy a lot of the tier 3 skills

On dad's PC, must be brief - made it to the meetup point, going to search for wood and bows

I will arrange something cool for next week to get us honor, oky

[Gin]

An arrow slinging hunter in a crazy apocalyptic world.

fancy.

but! how am I going to locate arrows so early on? at this point all i've got is a short bow with like, 2 arrows.

[bort]

http://nexuswar.com/characters/view.do?characterID=27634

lemme in this.

i want to have gun's and if i can be a ghost too then that would be desired.

[JamesE]

Bort invited!

Ging, read the Wiki. Shit is all in there.

[Gin]

Ok I am officially too evil to get into the current temp base of operations. I need to find a hardware store so I can start making arrows and shit.

I guess I shot too many people.

I'm level 3 though. Should I take repair item or archery?

Currently sitting at 5, 32 inside the fire station, if anyone wants to know.

[haze]

you can find arrows in gun stores too! i seem to get them more than gun ammo.

i don't think you can become Neutral again unless you start healing people or repairing power lines and doors. hrmm, this seems a little broken, since early on most players can only fight for experience points, and you can't get out of Evil by fighting.