Arelith NWN:EE in 2022 | Marle in Arelith #1
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- čas přidán 18. 01. 2022
- 💖 This channel exists to connect gamers with MMOs they'll love.
In this series I play Arelith, a group based MMORPG persistent world with no pay to win built on Neverwinter Nights 1 Enhanced Edition. 👇 Read More👇
👉 Subscribe for more MMO content: / @marlemmo
🌟 Arelith: nwnarelith.com
🌟 Arelith's Discord: / discord
🌟 NWN1:EE: bit.ly/NWN1EE
#arelith #neverwinternights #mmorpg
Other MMO Channels to Watch:
👉 Josh Strife Hayes | / joshstrifehayes
👉 TheLazyPeon | / alazypeon
👉 ZackRawrr | / zackrawrr
👉 SuperBitsandBob | / superbitsandbob
👉 KiraTV | / kiratv1
👉 MMOByte | / @mmobyte - Hry
Question! ⚡ What do you think about Arelith, a persistent world of Neverwinter Nights 1 Enhanced Edition? Let us know. 👇The links to Arelith are below. 👉
🌟 Arelith: nwnarelith.com
🌟 Arelith's Discord: discord.com/invite/arelith
🌟 NWN1:EE: bit.ly/NWN1EE
@@RobertEetheart, I hear you! When I play Arelith, I usually need to (somehow) find a block of time north of 2 hours since any adventure can very quickly string into multiple! Do you currently 'main' a game/MMO? :)
@@RobertEetheart, I probably have the most time on GW2 out of the 'top 5.' It's perfect for casual play & I'm glad you're enjoying it. :)
@@MarleMMO The game is really fun. Its immersive, well built, and very challenging. My only problem with it is I don't trust the owner or the DM's with a 100 ft pole. I've been banned before because of their corruption. They play the game as well as DM (being the people who police the game) and it doesn't really feel like theres any consistency to their rules. They only really answer to the Head DM and the Owner and also tend to play characters who have alot of in game power. This in my opinion tends to lead them to being in positions where banning people who oppose them in game for zero actual rule breaking is common. Apart from that if you keep your head down and don't do anything ambitious it can be a very fun game to play with some friends (as long as you all RP!)
I'm sorry to read about your experience yet am glad you enjoyed Arelith for as long as you did. Thanks for sharing! ♥️
I picked up neverwinter nights just a couple of day before this video was uploaded. I played the base game of NWN for a little while, bought pokémon legends: arceus, and left neverwinter nights alone for about a week and speed ran the hell out of pokémon and came back a couple of days ago, played the base game for a bit again then this time I came across the Arelith corner of the game, gave it a download and jumped right in.
I myself have never played any mmorpg of any sort, I've never played any of the DnD classic games, and never taken part of any roleplaying experience, so when I dropped in I had no idea what to do ( I should say that I'm playing the game as a druid with a panther companion ) so I wandered around for an hour or so, feeling kinda bored, then I ended up in the "deep woods" I believe it's called, and as a druid I was "like hey this probably where my character would hangout" then I began so find my snug little corner of the world, literally I live in the woods in a literal corner, its perfect and I love it, so now I'm, druid of the Deep Wood, keeping the trade road and the surrounding areas clean of hobs, gobs, and bandits.
Guiding any weary travelers as a polymorphed druid (panther) with her panther familiar and a summoned panther mimic, so now as often as I can I tend to the forest I call home and the fellow creatures who also call the woods home.
The game is pretty difficult for a lone beginner along with being an "mmorpg" baby, but wandering and serving the forest with my panther companions is pretty bad ass.
One other thing on this comment that's gone on for to long already is, I'm fully enjoying playing a game with this amount of appearance customization that is available with your character, it's quite a bit to wrap your head around first but you eventually figure it out and when you do, you get to fully customize your characters to suite them and you.
Thank you for the lovely story of your character and your recommendation to continue to figure out character customization since there are a lot of options exposed to players that could make it feel overwhelming. I'm glad you're enjoying Arelith! :)
pixie pixie pixie. It can pick locks for you. OP
Yeah! ♥️
Hey all. So I have played on and off Arelith for roughly 11 years. I will preface the positive things by noting that yes, there are cliques and there is 100% DM favouritism. It's reality because they are not paid staff or anything like that. It's been that way for many years, but it's usually not as bad as many tend to make it out to be. Still noteworthy.
Ahem. Anyways, I love Arelith's freedom of story. I can take almost any concept of a character and make it, and roleplay and interact with other characters.
Let me tell a story as to what is possible in this server. At one point I had a bad guy named Cassius Gallostone. I managed to get in touch with a secret cult. They helped me get voted into office in the starting city, Cordor. As I ran the city, I also had "secret" (probably was spied on most of the time, lol) meetings with lots of evil people. Later I stood down, then joined a guild for necromancers, became the leader, ousted opposition, got elected in another town, Wharftown. Then allied with another evil faction and started a war with another city.
Sorry for the wall of text- but also not. Expect lots of text in Arelith haha. The point is, I have only seen this level of depth in players driving storylines on Arelith. So, would recommend. :)
The storytelling potential is one reason why I love Arelith and I'm so glad you shared your experience! :)
Love this content man
Thank you! I hope to cover Arelith again soon! 💖
This game needs to blow up
Hi X! Do you equate "blow up" with "destroy" or "become very popular"? :)
@@MarleMMO Become more popular, theres many people that would fall in love with this game if they played online persistent worlds
@@stevenmcsteven6693, I 100% agree X! :)
Quick tip: Do not spend any skill points at character creation, that way, if you ever relevel the character in the future, you will have more flexibility!
Excellent advice! :)
Great work Sir thank you
Thank you Jason! :)
Wow you have fast internet
My game took 2 hours and server update download took an hour 🤦♂️
Anyway you talked me into trying this. Great content
My internet is fairly normal for where I live - sorry your experience has been slower. Thank you for the kind words & please join Arelith's Discord! Many friendly players will love to help you out/group up. :)
Hi, is there a link to the portrait pack used in the vid? I don't have that one. Also, is this server solo friendly? It was mentioned difficult pve, I don't know if that means u always, or mostly need to group.
Sure - do you use Steam, BD, or GOG's client? Also, there are tons of solo builds although grouping is encouraged. 🥰
A bit late, but most familiars are pretty useless. There are a few exceptions though. At low levels, the Frost Mephit has damage reduction and regen, meaning it can actually tank for you.
Panthers are decent if you know how to use corner sneaking. They aren't good in a fight, but you can use their stealth to spy on players when you posses them. They can also travel to different locations while possessed and you won't travel with them. This means even if they are caught, you aren't in danger. Just your familiar is.
The best familiar however, hands down, is the pixie. You won't use this in combat at all, but instead use it as a pocket rogue. It can pick locks and disable traps. You will generally tell it to hold position and then fetch it when you need it, so it stays out of combat.
Great tips! I hope to return to Arelith soon. 🥰
Good video Got 70h of nwn i Gonna try Arelith now
Thank you! Enjoy Arelith! 💖
love your videos! Quick question , would you happen to know if there is a persistent world liek this for NWN2 ? Thnx :)
Thank you! 💖
Check out this list: nwnlist.herokuapp.com/#
@@MarleMMO cool TY so much!!
♥️
The server itself would be good if it weren't for the staff running it, I want to point out to you and anyone reading this that the server owner Irongron has a history of dismissing any valid criticism of his server as "harassment". Something he plainly told MarleVVLL on the Arelith Forums.
"Whenever Arelith gets brought up on 'offsite' channels, be it CZcams, Reddit, Gaming Press news articles, RPG forums, you will very quickly get many posters (Well I say 'many', it may also just be a few extremely enthusiastic ex-players), that will jump on any comment section to decry the community as toxic, the DMs as bias, and anyone saying otherwise some secret stooge of Arelith's nefarious admins. Sometimes this can be mild, sometime extreme (I had to entirely shut down Arelith's Facebook account due to what were effectively threats against myself).
From time to time to sites, Discord groups, and even once a Twitter account pop up with the sole purpose of harassing (or possible leading a popular revolt against, depending on one's perspective) Arelith. One a video series like this reaches these groups, it will get hit like all the others."
So far, the criticisms in this comment section have been fair and listed issues that are absolutely a problem with the server. Yes, there are cliques of players that can and will harass others with impunity simply because they are the DM favorites, yes the DMs can and will play favorites with players they have known for some time. And despite what one of said players says in the same forum with the server owner, no, this is not Arelith '10 years ago'. Arelith today has these issues, and when they are brought up to the server owner he dismisses the claims as "loaded" and that the increased amount of bullying on the server is subjective, but in the same breath he talks about all the toxicity directed towards him and the rest of the Arelith staff, and how what people are saying doesn't "mesh with his lived experience".
I'm not denying that there are definite bad actors out there that are salty and earned their bans from the server, there definitely are quite a few. But using Irongron's excuse, my "lived experience" is that most of the criticism towards the server is just that. Criticism. But God forbid you ever bring that up to the staff on official arelith servers, the last time I saw someone giving valid criticism of the server and offering their opinion, two of the staff members called the OP crazy and said that they needed therapy, when people called them out on it, the thread was locked. And that's an ongoing thing on the forums, if you present feedback which the staff or their player friends do not like, they can and will sabotage the thread in order to get it locked down. Meanwhile, of course, members of staff have said that they personally link players talking about roleplay they did not "consent" to said players talking about being raped IRL, which on the outside just seems like a hamfisted attempt to silence complaints of poor roleplay. In the same vein, players that have historically been favored by the DMs are also allowed to write essays about how they view "modern tolerance" as a terrible thing which kills tension and fantasy. But no feedback on how the quality of the server that could be improved, that's illegal.
Irongron is grossly out of touch and each time he speaks dismissively fills me with what I can only describe as blood curdling rage and depression.
Hey Laser (and Edwardius),
thank you for sharing your thoughts. From the outside, I will admit that even if server administrators have been erroneous and partial in the past, Irongron did accurately predict what would happen as a result of video coverage of Arelith. I think that's worth thinking about ...
With that said, I do not mind people airing their grievances regarding their experience on the PW. With that said, after playing north of 300 hours, I thankfully haven't touched any of the elements described and hope to never experience them. It seems like the hundreds & thousands of people who still play either tolerate or haven't been so negatively affected that they still enjoy the game.
For the vast majority of players, do you think they will realistically encounter the type of issues you describe?
@@MarleMMO That's because the server has been around for 10 years, and over the time made many people upset and failed to reconcile the situation. Those people have their own stories, many of which are valid.
I got banned twice for daring to criticize decision of the developers. Once was for stating that I dislike map change (Maps in Mithreas time are small but with a ton of detail. Maps made with Irongorn in charge are HUGE but have nothing of interest in them) and another that I dislike frequent mechanical changes. It takes months to invest into a character, and a sudden mechanical change can make it unplayable. Ban for both. After second ban, I see no point in trying.
So the message here is "do not dare to criticize devs decisions".
And that's the reason why I suggested to play it with friends, or "in single player mode", without getting to attached to it. Because when you get attached, you'l start to care, when you start to care, you'll try to offer feedback, and t hen you'll be burned badly by interaction with the staff.
The situation is exactly what Raptor Jesus and Edwardius say.
Yeah, Irongorn is the owner, yes he technically is able to do that, but this sort of interactions are not exactly encouraging to invest time into it.
@@gameplayvideos2975, I'm sorry to read about your experience as you recall. For what it's worth, there's been mechanical changes reverted/removed/delayed due to critical feedback so perhaps there has been a 'change of guard.' Either way, it doesn't discount what you have written presuming it's generally accurate.
What are you currently playing right now? :)
@@MarleMMO He predicted harassment and gave an anecdote about how he was threatened and shut down Arelith's facebook page (which if true is horrible, nobody should be threatened over a game).
And yes, it's fortunate that after playing 300+ hours that you have never run into these issues and I hope you never do. But it took me about 4-5000ish hours to start to notice the flaws with the server, as well as to see just how the flaws were tolerated and even endorsed in some cases. As for the hundreds and thousands of people? I really do not understand where people get those numbers from, hundreds? Yeah, there are a few hundred people that play Arelith. But there are definitely not thousands, and I've always found it odd how the staff seemed to scale up the population like that.
As for the vast majority of players? They eventually will encounter those issues, yeah. Especially if the players try to join any decently sized groups that intend to shift the status quo. The existing cliques will eventually find a reason to bully and harass you into submission, as they have with most groups that have popped up in the past year or so, and it looks as if that will continue to happen in the future. But, I do really hope that I am wrong and that you and others do not run into the issues, or at the very least that said issues do not affect you and others.
As someone who could be considered a veteran of Arelith, I stay purely for my friends and the ability to roleplay with them. The server itself is fine if you just want to keep your head low, grind, and roleplay with a small circle of friends, but that's about it. There are just too many issues with the staff and their favorite players to really do anything worthwhile in the long run unless you're favorited by the DMs. The cliques can, have, and continue to drive players off the server in ways that are very clearly bullying. There are other Persistent World servers in Neverwinter Nights similar to Arelith, I would advise checking them out as well.
Thank you for your comment Toonlogbose! Do you mind sharing more specific details about your experience? While I have several hundred hours, I know that's a small fraction of investment compared to others who have been around for 10+ years.
@@MarleMMO For the most part my start on Arelith was just fine and I've made several friends from that time which I still have to this day. However, in the past few years I noticed certain things were just degrading the quality of the experience for me and several others. When I first noticed this was when there was a long-lasting in-character war between a couple of factions, the good guys eventually won and on the outside looking in it seemed like a fairly standard event. Then some friends of mine who were on the winning side told me that some of the leaders of that group were encouraging players to harass and grief the other side and were stating that they were going to essentially bully the other side until they all quit. They even went so far as to create alternate characters in order to target the opposing group until they all finally did just stop.
That was my first red flag. The second and third red flags were instances where players were punished by other characters for committing crimes and being general nuisances, they were several months apart but the general idea was the same. A player would get exiled from one or more cities in the game because their characters committed crimes and was properly punished, and it should also be noted that in the two most infamous examples of this the players were associated with the same clique. Then, the DMs would come along and wipe out any and all consequences for the punished players, forcing the settlement leaders to lift their punishments of said players, and forcing the rest of the players in said settlements to just accept the fact that the person who was killing them just yesterday is now free to walk around.
I could go on more, I don't want to fill a wall with all the negatives of Arelith even though I easily could. So I will end on the note that Arelith itself isn't that bad of a server mechanically speaking, if you and some friends want to enjoy yourselves or if you just want to roleplay a fun character idea you had, it's a decent enough choice and people searching for a good Persistent World should try it at least once, if not to become a long-term player then to at least get a feel for NWN PWs.
There are cliques of shitheads in every old NWN server with more than ten regulars, unfortunately. EFU is basically a big old boys club of permadeath fiends favoriting one another with DM positions and plots for one.
@@AzraelCaptain, thanks for your comment! What's "EFU"? :)
@@MarleMMO It's a PW, obviously. Play it if you like PvP, hard quests and can stomach more than your fair share of ganging-up on. It can be fun and PTSD-inducing at the same time.
Funny that you show EQ at the beginning before starting your play on Arelith.
I didn't play the original EQ back in the day but I got into Project 1999 and even though the game certainly shows it's age, I had a surprising amount of fun with it, I've been looking for something that gives me that familiar "feel" that EQ did, and I find that the PW's from Neverwinter Nights are the closest thing.
Do you know fo any other MMOs that have the same 'tone' as these?
Cheers, If I ever catch you on Cordor I'll make sure to say hi :)
Hi tatuira!
I believe I responded to your comment on my other video; sorry for not seeing this sooner. Arelith admittedly, especially in Skal, does provide me with early EQ vibes. There are other emulated servers of older MMOs that do provide that 'classic' feel yet player population may be questionable. Some modern attempts, such as Project Gorgon, are slightly too single player friendly to cause the interdependency we felt in early EQ.
If you ever find a game like this, please let me know as I'll do my best to cover it. :)
@@MarleMMO Don't think that was me, pretty sure this is the first time I've commented on your videos.
Project Gorgon is fun, but last time I've played it felt a bit barebones, and like you said there is very little interdependency and lacks that synergy of classes which EQ had, I heard it's come a long way though.
I think there's a healthy balance between group-focused content and solo content, I have trouble finding MMOs that fulfill that, maybe vanilla WoW is an example, but I could do without the handholding.
@@tatuira93, my apologies! I hear you; have you played any of the official classic WoW servers? They're admittedly different than the actual vanilla experience although are analogous to P99. :)
@@MarleMMO Well I have about 6 years of WoW experience under my belt, so I think I rode that horse to death, lol.
Besides, while sharing some of the design philosphies of older MMOs, I still think WoW is a dissonant experience compared to the one you could get in EQ; Great game, specially vanilla and BC, don't get me wrong, but not exactly what I'm looking for today.
Guess we'll have to wait and see if something different comes out eventually, I feel fairly optimistic about computer RPGs lately even though MMOs are not ideal grounds for experimentation considering how costly they are to design.
I'll stick to NWN for now and I'm even thinking about hopping back on P99 as well.
@@tatuira93, I hear you and share both your concerns and optimism. Hopefully the next few years of MMOs can feed our souls again. :)
One thing Marle that you might point out in the next part of the series about build is that there are many pre-made builds on the wiki for help. And well as a active forum and discord community that will help new players out with a build.
Great idea Oscar. I'll see if I can sneak it in (since almost all of my characters do at least loosely follow a build from the wiki or are inspired from one).
I've read that the DMs negatively affect the game with favoritism etc.. have you experienced any of this?
Nope. All the GMs I've interacted with have been cordial, understanding, and have gone above and beyond to assist me even in trivial tasks (before they even knew I was a content creator).
@@MarleMMO Thank you for that. Reading the comments about the DMs had really turned me off from trying it out, but I may give it a shot now.
@@RootSuitMan, sure thing. Typically, if you want to engage in evil-driven antagonistic PvP, the chances of GM involvement rise considerably. I've stayed away from PvP mostly and haven't had a single issue. 💖
@@RootSuitMan Keep in mind that the biggest complainers were unreasonable obsessive type players who stubbornly wanted their character to guide the server or area design in some way. While they may have been decent RPers their ego got the better of them. As long as you have realistic expectations for RP and are respectful of DM and other player’s time and attention you’ll be fine!
🙂
Do custom portraits appear to other players in the server? I've seen conflicting answers!
Hey Lily: do you mean if you don't have the pack also installed? ♥️
@@MarleMMO I suppose I'm curious, if I use a portrait converting tool to make my own, will it only be visible to me? Is there a specific pack most people have on Arelith? Apologies for the questions- I'm only now getting into the multiplayer facet of the game!
No worries at all. I'm honestly unsure what happens if you use a mod/override that others don't have; it's my impression it would default to the starting profile. However, I think connecting to Arelith does automatically download their custom portraits which everyone should be able to see. ♥️
@@MarleMMO Thank you for your answer! I'll have to test it out.
♥️
:O
Cheers! 💖
This game looks pretty dope, how did you enjoy it?
Hey! I actually have a few hundred hours invested and I love Arelith. ❤️
@@MarleMMO Oh nice thats awesome, will definitely try it one day!
I ADORE Arelith! Best RP I have ever experienced!
Me too. 💖
I`m starting with this one today. I feel kinda lost.
If you're in the Discord, reach out! The community is helpful! ♥️
@@MarleMMO will do!
♥️
I started to play today and I was murdered by some rats/bats/ooze in the first cave, I lost all gold and I am in heaven or something. I will make another char or I will give up.
Hey Gorka!
Arleith is difficult! I'm sorry your first game experience was overwhelmingly difficult. May I suggest you join the server's Discord ( discord.gg/arelith )? As stated in the video, it's a /group/ heavy game unless you're a veteran of NWN1 and know how to properly build a solo-capable build.
I hope the difficult nature of the game is charming & encourages to link arms with others.
Which type of character did you decide to play? :)
@@MarleMMO Hi, thanks for your fast answer. I already joined the discord. I was following a build to become a knight(cavalier) paladin. I wonder how to make adventuring parties, nobody talks in the chat. I am Murbella in discord and ingame.
@@Odrade100, my pleasure. Where did you start? The Discord also has region specific subchannels to help find groups. Each area has an in-game 'LFG' area that can be visited to see who may be available. Sometimes, however, soloing is the best route yet depending on your start location, it may be more difficult than others.
Skal is absolutely the hardest start location for solo play. The largest, and easiest, is the city of Cordor.
@@arelith9052, I must be a masochist then since I love Skal, yet thank you for providing a word to the wise! I've actually never been to the city of Cordor.. so perhaps my toon will journey there later in the series. :)
Hey there! Veteran here. I would NOT use beamdogs 'new' models. They're not well done. The origianls is better with the nicer hak heads. You can make characters look really nice with the hak-content clothes too. Other than that, I'd highlight that arelith is a role-play focused server first. Take care! Also, on familiars, pixies tend to be the most perfered as they can cast improved invisibility and also can unlock locks and unlock traps for you.
Great advice! The HD pack is more usable with the community fixes although, yes, it isn't totally ready yet and the older models do have their original charm. Great idea regarding pixies! Very useful. :)
Honestly, RP can be very casual to the point of it not functionally existing. However, my favorite moments are those built around compelling RP. ♥️
@@MarleMMO Skal is basically meant for light RP as opposed to the main areas.
Lol so much bullshit by Raptor and Edward. Pretty much everything both of them said was a lie or a gross exaggeration of actual conditions IG. Arelith is by far the best server in the game at the moment. When Irongron warned us on the forums that there was such mindless hate against him and the server i honesty thought it was a joke... now, after reading their enraged, psychotic rantings i see he was right. Really is sad to see.
Hey V'rass,
I can't comment on the veracity of their accusations yet there exists a subgroup of people who have experienced situations in which they felt mistreated, misunderstood, or the victim of perceived unfairness.
Regardless, my experience cannot corroborate their claims, and my 300+ hours on Arelith has been overwhelmingly positive which is why I frame the server so positively in my videos. :)
Agreed. They're bringing out some hyperbole for certain. Mithreas was also a lot more dismissive than Irongrond, LOL. Not that he was terrible, but he did not "waste time" arguing with people for super long.
@@clintony3000, for clarity, Mithreas was the prior server owner to Irongron, yes?
@@MarleMMO That's correct. And before him was JJjerm.
@@clintony3000, interesting history; thanks for sharing! :)
Is this the 20 year old Arelith related to Amia?
Hm, others with more knowledge could provide a better answer. I seem to recall that some Arelith GMs/developers moved over to Amia at some point. 💖
Amia is a copy of Arelith. There was a split in design philosophy on the team. Officially, Jjrem (Server owner at the time,) said they parted ways amicably.
In reality, behind the scenes, the creators of Amia just took a copy of the server and designed it there way. (Basically stealing.)
I presume Jjrem just didn't want to bring major drama into the community.
Also, regardless of any wrong doing, nothing wrong with playing Amia either, though it is fairly empty these days.
There are cliques and after spending a lot of hours over years on this game you can get screwed over by dm’s and such. They do play favorites and there are downsides. I like the idea and some things about it. I do not like dm’s playing favorites and not making some players stick to rules they harshly enforce on other players. Just my 2 cents.
Thank you for sharing your perspective! Do you have a particular story to share in which you personally were involved? :)
@@MarleMMO I’m not gonna get into it. My comment was about my personal experience. This all also ran off about ten good players and friends of mine. Out of all my friends only one or two still play. My experience ended so badly I walked away from it. I played a good character that was helpful and profitable. 20,000,000 gp was also left in the bank and is still there.. if that would tell you how badly it ended and how much time was spent. I still have pretty powerful friends there and I still don’t play.
@@WildernessRocks, thanks for sharing. I respect your privacy yet note that my expectation is that if people refer to activity that happened in-game in a critical fashion that they should provide sufficient anecdotal information to undergird what was written.
With that said, what are you playing nowadays? :)
@@MarleMMO take it or leave it. Hope I didn’t waste my time here as well as there. I’m no faceless CZcams commenter and I explained enough in my opinion. It is actually sad that I won’t play again and leave a maxed out toon on the table. I also did not power build or race to level 30. I wouldn’t recommend having and spending time on sought after quarters or shops for sure.
@@MarleMMO BG3 mostly although I scaled back from thousands of hours.
You say you're an Arelithian!? What do you know about the X to the T to the S to the G!?
I hesitate to identify as you described and admit I have no immediate knowledge the initialism you provided. 💖
Shao Khan laughs ...
@@deezydeuce, ... from MC? xD
The problem I have with Arelith is that constant roleplaying is not optional,you have to stay in character at all times. The one way around it is to just play a shifter and just write ''Grrr...'' in the chat when someone tries to talk to your shapeshifted form. Even then though some players are very insistent about you giving them attention and will ask you to basically waste a use of wild shape just so you can talk to them.
This is going to sound harsh but there's no use sugarcoating it: Judging by my limited experience with the server as well as everything I've heard about the Arelith community while playing on other servers is the people there tend to be uptight critical role fans who think they're better than you because their backstory is more cliche and melodramatic than yours. This is the one server where I sometimes start immediately running away when I see a fellow player,not because I'm expecting pvp but because I really don't want to read bunch of angst they're almost certainly about to post. Like when I see a Half-elf rogue I already know that they're an orphan,I don't need to hear them say it.
I play TTRPGs so it's not like I don't enjoy roleplaying,but when you're required to be 100% IC at all times and the people around you take roleplaying far too seriously it's just exhausting rather than fun. It's basically a perfect server for those people who play nobles in rpgs and actually expect everyone in the party to look up to them as a leader just because of their status back in their homeland.
Sorry if you're describing your experience. I personally have been able to enjoy Arelith very casually although I should note most of my time has been spent on Skal. I hope you find a fun place for your MMO needs! ❤️
Been looking at persistent worlds for NWN and it seems to be popular opinion that this server has childish and unprofessional Staff, is that about right guys?
Hey Raymond,
I do not think it is a 'popular' opinion that Arelith's staff embody the descriptions you wrote; instead, a very small yet vocal group of former (.. or ironically still current) players, who may have valid responses to game situations, voice their opinions when hundreds and thousands of others still enjoy Arelith every single month.
The best bet is to try the server out for yourself. In my 300+ hours, I've only had professional, helpful, and sympathetic support from DMs.
@@MarleMMO REALLY I was looking at one person trying to live stream the game and one of your GMs stream sniped him and incapacitated him right before he could claim some loot, you dont think thats kind of lowdown. I am looking at more examples as I go but I keep finding more.
@@randalstilskin5266, do you have the link of the stream so we can verify your claim?
Hey. Been playing on Arelith for some years and while I can verify there are staff members there that are ridiculously childish- there are others that are ridiculously awesome. And honestly, as long as you're following the rules and learn the general way of things, you'll be fine 99% of the time.
@@clintony3000, yin-yang as always! Your 99% comment applies to my experience although I sympathize with the 1% who claim to have experienced differently. :)
Personally I'd recommend other servers. Arelith is for mindless grinding and playing with friends but I would caution people against expectations of being able to affect any sort of change with their RP. The DM's play favourites and everyone else's characters are window dressing. Not to mention people just run around mindlessly like bots a lot of the time, running over traps without a care in the world, grinding mobs and loot, PvP hound bullies, cliques, OOC drama and bullying of players in and out of the game. The list goes on and on.
It seems counter intuitive but I'd recommend new players start with the smaller servers. Go to their discords and ask people to play with you if they're not online etc.
Three I can recommend in no particular order, though they are low magic and low level so may not be everyone's cup of tea:
The Easting Reach,
Haze: Saltbourne,
ALFA (A Land Far Away)
They are slower and more considered gameplay and roleplay which feels more like what I'd imagine table-top feels like.
Many of these are level capped at around level 8-10.
Thanks for your comment Server Nomad. I presume you've experienced the negative realities of what you've written and I'm sorry if that has been the case. For me, perhaps due to my casual capacity to play, I haven't run into those problems; in fact, quite the opposite. I do not mean to invalidate what you wrote yet to contextualize my warm attitude towards Arelith (although I think everyone should check out other PWs as I have too).
With that said, those who watch my channel may not be keen on emphasizing roleplaying, so Arelith may be a better fit generally speaking. Regardless, thank you for sharing your experience. Do you mind giving specific examples so others can better understand what they be getting themselves into? Also, how far in the past did they happen?
@@MarleMMO Of course, for casual play, the server is excellent. Casually, everyone is polite, characters get along and work well together. The systems are near expertly crafted and the server is constantly rebalanced, dungeons added sometimes, classes nerfed or buffed as the case may be.
I don't begrudge anyone who wants to play there and it's well suited for anyone who might be nervous but wants to dip their toes in.
If you want a deeper experience though you have to be involved in factions. It's where the roleplay happens as well as the grief. Some examples you asked for:
Characters can be voted for by other characters who are citizens to run certain settlements. Cordor etc. However, there is a player bloc with characters around probably nearly as long as the server itself who hold sway OOC (out of character) with the DM's and/or are their friends for just as long. So, when an outside player has a character they want to run for the leader role, they must contend with an OOC power block that brings their rarely seen, long lived characters out of the woodwork all of a sudden to run or favour a candidate of their choosing when an election is called. Essentially metagaming and keeping all the power to make decisions to themselves and friends in perpetuity. It got to the point where most people just play alt characters now and do nothing but adventure and have superficial roleplay.
Characters who profess themselves to be Helmites (Forgotten realms deity) for example but act nothing like them nor hold to the tenets of the Gods dogma. Dressing down subordinate characters in the public space for the sole purpose of making a show of it and trying to embarrass the player, more so than the character, after having been told it would occur in private etc. More egregious is the fact said character had no authority for what he attempted to impose on the subordinate. (Complete a penitent task or be excommunicated, the character had done nothing to even warrant said treatment, just opposed a power tripping lunatics orders not to speak with enemies, other than attack endlessly since characters are basically immortal until the player decides that they die)
Those are just some of my experiences, I've played with people who've gone through much worse. With constant OOC bullying by cliques, who carry the bullying and harassment into the game and ruin their time playing there. (Characters who don't even know each other or even met before, all of a sudden hating the target because they're friends of players whose characters already hate them)
@@HidingSleeper Honestly you hit the nail on the head. I would also like to point out that I'm fairly certain I know of the Helmite group you mentioned, and during their first huge conflict with another group of players the leaders of said Helmites were actively attempting to grief and harass their opposition until they all quit, even creating alternate characters in order to do so.
It should also be mentioned that said OOC clique you mentioned resorts quite frequently to PvP and general bullying if they don't get their way, and any attempt to retaliate is met with DM intervention.
@@HidingSleeper, thank you for sharing your experiences and referencing those of others. It's disappointing how a game can be a proxy for meta-power misdirections but alas. I have never joined a faction, and honestly never intend to, and I wonder how what % of the player base actually does/engages to the degree you're describing. Hopefully Arelith attracts enough casuals to keep the population healthy yet filters those who want another type of RP experience to enjoy other PWs.
Do you still play on Arelith or do you main elsewhere?
@@toonlogbose6791 It seems we both know that clique then and it's why I rolled my character after the second example I outlined above. I wanted no part in that mess. Now when I play there, among some others who do the same, it's all superficial and purely for fun. No deep RP, just fun, light hearted stuff. I typically don't play there anymore and prefer other servers these days.
Terrible server. Gameplay is fine I guess but the admins are incredibly abusive and arbitrary in their actions. Your best bet is to play it like it's a singleplayer game or just with some friends and pray you are never ever noticed by the rest of the community or jannies. Jealous and fickle creatures that will ruin your day for existing.
I'm sorry that's been your experience. I've only had positive interactions with the moderators. 👍
Lol all these comments talking about poor behaviour by admins and toxic community I have over one thousand hours on arelith and never had problems with the staff and occasionally seen people be banned for breaking rules kind of hilarious reading these comments
While I wish to honor the hopeful integrity of the comments made by those critical of Arelith's staff, my experience mirrors yours too. Hopefully each group can find fun wherever they are and can promote healthy gaming behaviors.
Same here, few thousand hours over 10+ years (with long breaks in between) and only players I've seen banned have been for legit cheating/toxicity. Haven't played for last few years so maybe it's all magically changed and IG went crazy with power like some cartoon villain lol
My experience has always been overwhelmingly positive yet it's entirely possible other people perceive justice variously. 🙂
@@MarleMMO for sure, specially in online rpg communities that thrive on drama :)
Yeah, the in game theatrics can easily spill into IRL. 😕
Arelith has a horrible moderation team and already the owner of the server is peddling out of touch statements to try and cover his bases for any of the community's past corruption and mismanagement. Any and all criticism has been treated as such when it's not within their ballpark to be manipulated. Your video has been featured on their forum and the typical propaganda spiels have already been spun out by the owner, Irongron. You literally cannot make a critical or negative case about the server without being singled out as a supposed problematic individual.
I played with some people earlier last year and it gradually wore on us how absolutely against-the-odds the server is and how poorly balanced the dynamic of roleplaying good/evil characters is, which a strict bias toward good-aligned Surfacers over the more evil-aligned Underdark players. It stifles roleplay and innovation in the story-driven aspects of the server, while at the same time the PvP heavy aspects are at further odds with the constant buffs and debuffs dished out to 3.X era D&D balancing that does not value your time as experience gain is based on a drip feed of points rather than per-kill and per-quest rewards that'd let you normally reach the extraordinary level cap of 30 even faster. This is especially egregious if a stat change nerfs or completely renders your character unplayable. You'll be lucky to negotiate a relevel or straight up respec if the change only effects a minority of players.
A storyline months in the making was recently sabotaged through manipulation of an in-game engine issue involving scene transitions using AoE spells to kill dozens of players loading between zones. The DMs did everything in their power to stifle frustration and even punished people who were victims in this incident who criticized it. They ended up patching the issue weeks later, after repeatedly claiming there was no fault at first. The people who run this server simply do not owe up to anything and put the blame entirely on the player base as they sit on top of their ivory towers where they can be free from any critical involvement in the server's daily occurrences.
You seem to be playing this server for the completely wrong reasons, though. Arelith is strictly a PvP RP experience and many people are infatuated with min-maxing their characters to settle inevitable threats and squabbles with combat against one another; And given the skewed game balance... Combat is pretty much to see who can shotgun the other player the fastest over any actual nuances. Progress in this game is also accelerated with mandatory RP as RPing can get you recommendations by veteran players to increase the rate of drip-fed experience you obtain. You could play the game casually, or try to... But that very may stifle your endgame experience as the more dangerous dungeons and regions are rife with people who are willing to harm you either for wealth or virtually no other reason than to put another skull on their belt, sometimes literally. The person who initially introduced us last year was a veteran of many years who ended up quitting the same year due to many poor interactions from the administration on account of much bad faith roleplaying and moderation incidents over the course of said year.
Ultimately, I would not recommend Arelith for any reason.
Hey Edwardius,
thank you for sharing your experience, thoughts, and concerns. I recognize that over the duration of a server's lifespan such as Arelith's, especially for those who contribute many hours of their lives into the stories being manifest in the game space, that problems can occur not so different than historical political intrigue. I'm sorry that your experience appears to have been shaded negatively and the reasons why you chose to play may have been at odds with those who wielded a degree of administrative power.
I personally, after 300 hours of play, have not experienced such problems. All of my GM interactions have been positive or reasonable. This does not discount your experience yet shows that experiences will vary.
I also kindly wish to shy away from evaluating other people's reasons for playing a game. It shouldn't matter whether or not I play Arelith for X or Y reason assuming doing so is done ethically and within the agreed upon rules of the game. I've never PvPed once in Arelith and I don't care if I ever do, and I say this as someone who deeply enjoys PvP. I find the PvE, socialization, and world-building of the server enough of a reason to continue to enjoy every second spent within.
Do you still play PWs? If so, which ones? :)
@@MarleMMO Sorry, I was in a moment of passion and frustration to denounce your reason for playing. The community at large would do as much to paint any attempt to play casually as foolish as gaining power and participating in conflict was drawn as a necessity to participate in the grander scheme of the setting. Unfortunately, getting involved in this lead to the inevitability of dealing with people playing to win, rather than make a story.
I've sworn off PWs for the time being as the experience was bad enough to make my friends quit on it to make me realize I'm wasting my time playing an outdated edition of D&D on an equally aging game engine. I am anticipating a rework of the Star Wars PW server, though.
I would like to point out that Irongron did in fact make an announcement about this incident on the forums (though in a Q&A he hosted a while later, he refused to acknowledge that there was an increased level of toxicity on the server). And in said forum announcement he stated the following: "I've been known to publicly wonder why it is that certain players build and play spoiling for a fight, but can seem so incapable of actual enjoying it with just getting mad as hell? I admit, this is cynical on my part, but I ask why people are clearly putting themselves in a position that will provoke PVP encounters, while not really being able to handle the consequences - the other side cheated, the DMs were bias, it was metagamed - there so often seems to be a reason why the outcome was unfair."
To anyone who took part in the incident, this just seems like the owner himself is dismissing what happened as saltiness towards the loss. When in reality, the group of players that abused the rules has been consistently favored by the staff and the DM team when it comes to rule breaks. And then after said winning side cheated and weren't punished for it, they went around and bragged about their epic win to everyone and how much the Underdark players suck at PvP. And even though they abused the mechanics of the server and cheated just to score a win, the DMs did not punish them for gloating about it, which only encourages further behavior from that group.
@@Edwardius, no worries at all. I've been there too. I also understand the concern you mentioned regarding PWs although I haven't heard of the Star Wars project. Link by chance? :)
Edward, you sound jaded and upset. That is sad to hear. I could not read your full comment as it was too filled with vitriol and disagreeable seething. I myself have been greatly enjoying my time on Arelith, and I will also enjoy this video series. I have been playing a good-aligned Paladin recently, it is great fun to PVP with evil-aligned players. Thus far, I am proud to say I have not lost a single duel. It is sad that some of them get upset, but it is understandable that people get upset when they are outplayed, I do not blame them as I sometimes get mad when things I don't like happen to me (like burning toast). Anyway, I hope to see you commenting more positively in the future, I am sure with enough hard work it will be positive for you to be able to brag about your own positive accolades. All the best.
I see MarleVVLL isn't a professional in gaming and doesn't care of anyone and bringing in issues.
Hi Javier! What do you mean? :)
@@RobertEetheart, thank you for your comment. I do not want to interfere with legitimate criticism as a result of a poor experience (justified or not) of a player yet also want to protect the comment section to be welcoming, informative, and helpful. :)