Arelith Review

[JustMonika]

Hello everyone!

Some of you may, (or may not!) remember me from several years back. I played Arelith for a good ten years or so. (First having washed up in Cordor in the year 64AR, if I recall, just after the end of the Baronial Era, and around the tenure of Jolly Fiddlesticks and the Dark Agencies Act.) Back then the Isle of Arelith was a very different place - We had a lot less servers, a strict no Hak’s policy and an Underdark section of the forum…

Eventually about three years ago, I took my leave in a huff after a disagrement with Irongron about the future direction of the sever. But they say no-one ever leaves forever, so about three years later, I thought I’d come back for a while. It’s been about three weeks now, so I thought I’d share my perspective, in case its useful for players considering taking the plunge, or an outside perspective for the current development crew.

First, The Good.

Crashes.

Arelith has a terrible reputation for crashes. I can’t count the number of the times in the last few years Arelith has come up in an eternal chat and someone has complained about it being that place that crashes all the time. It’s been three weeks, and it’s not crashed once on me, on any server. Perhaps I simply have a lucky charm, but I’ve been fairly active (normally three to ten hours, depending on the day) and it’s been smooth sailing. I’ve even only been caught in a server reset once, and while those do happen fairly often, Arelith’s object permenence system means that a server reset doesn’t actually make much difference at all.

All the little changes.

Metal Ingots are different colours now! So are raw gemstones! Honestly, the sheer amount of minor tweaks that have been added that improve quality of life over the base game are huge. Let’s not even talk about the comprehensive options available in the rest menu editior. (We have a character appearence editor that looks like it fell out of a modern game?!) I’m sure I can’t begin to estimate the amount of work that went into some of these relatively small changes, but for me at least they were hugely welcome.

All the classes are so cool.

And there’s so many of them! I really enjoyed how many of them have clearly been designed to encourage late level investment. It really seems that ‘The Dip’ is far less of an automatic yes, and there are much deeper arguements in favour of any build, most of which you seem to be able to throw together relatively easily and get straight to enjoying the content.

Levelling

Back in my day, it took forever to reach level 30. Sufficently long I never did! (My highest in ten years was level 28.) The old joke was that ‘Roleplay begins at 30’. It was often very hard to get involved in any plot or function unless you were high level and a lot of new characters devoted themselves to a lengthy grind, leading the concept to often burn out before level 30 and the cycle repeated. It seems like the Admin team have, rather than try to change the culture to get people to roleplay more at lower levels, have signifcantly streamlined the path to 30 through a huge amount of work on the writ system. There are a Ton more writs, with hugely inceased rewards, all of which encourage fresh exploration of the world. As you level up, you’ll naturally go travelling and discover new places and while level 30 isn’t something you’ll fall into tomorrow, it feels like a significantly more attainable goal.

Rewards

A lot of work seems to have gone into the old ‘Epic Sacrifice’ system, to encourage the closure of high level characters. I particularly like the long asked for ‘High level starts’ (8 & 16 respectively) have been included in the reward system. This seems like an excellent compromise for a long asked for feature- And I’m excited to see what the new ‘Point Buy’ system looks like when it’s introduced.

The World.

I’ll come back to this in a bit, but Arelith is a really big world. I’m not exactly sure how long it would take to walk through every map on the server, but it would really be quite some time at this point. The mainland, the outlying islands, the plains, the underdark. Travelling between cities alone is a measure of exploration and Irongron (And others) maps are as always, particularly breathtaking. Every location feels unique and most have had a substantial facelift since I last played. (Rest in peace, tiny lake Minmir.)

Crafting

The crafting system on Arelith is really good.
No, really.
It’s really, really, really good.


The Bad

Crossing between servers.

There’s a downside to all these many servers, and that’s while I don’t crash, I do come across all sorts of weird bugs hopping between servers. These tend to revolve around fixtures not spawning in (A door, which still blocks passage, but you can’t see or interact with) remaining frozen in place (Your spirte does the walking animation in one spot but doesn’t move) or lastly inexplicable teleportation. (An Arelith Classic, sometimes you’ll just randomly appear somewhere else on the map. The best was when I was shopping in Westcliff, and mid conversation I abruptly appeared in the Abyss with no warning.) Logging in and logging out doesn’t seem to fix these problems reliably, but closing the client entirely and re-opening it does. Given the I don’t even want to think about it, levels of code that power Arelith and the impressiveness of server crossing anyway, this seems like a reasonable failing, although very awkward when there are monster spawns on the transition.
The World Is Really Big

It’s not suprising I’d bring this up since it’s the point I left on, but Arelith is big. Super big. Extra big. It is sufficently big, that it’s much harder to find people than it used to be. (Despite the very impressive two and a bit thousand unique players at last count.) Cordor and Andunor seem to be the exceptions (Edit, and Skal!) - Passing through either the Hub or the Cordor square has never left me short of a player. But the Arcane Tower, Westcliff, and new Guldorand have all been deathly quiet. Likewise, passing through Dungeons is much less likely to encounter another party or a player. I’d say it’s been roughly 1 in 10 times I’ve ventured out to solo somewhere that I’ve run into another player or players.

Now on the one hand, I suspect this is a design decision to make the world feel big, and not tiny and on another its a concession to the huge amount of variety and ‘play whatever you want’, style of gameplay we lean into. It’s also probably because I’m a British person, and as ever with Neverwinter Nights, the US Timezone is likely more populated.

I need a Wiki.

Arelith isn’t particularly Neverwinter Nights anymore. I won’t dispute it’s better - Not just a little better, it’s hugely better. But it’s so divorced from the base game that I can’t even figure out how a fighter works without consulting a wiki. Rewards? Wiki. Spells? Wiki. Feat changes? Wiki.
While we’ve thanks to the blessing of Haks, fixed a lot of the incorrect in-game text on feats and so forth, this isn’t always the case.
Exploration is something that’s naturally and well handled in game, but even with my extensive historic knowledge, I had to do a lot of reading to figure out what I was doing. Much less new players who have never heard of a planar portal source before. I feel this could be a barrier to entry. (Then again, we have over 2,000 players, so perhaps I’m just getting old.)

The rules are broken.

Not, they’re unworkable and we should all protest the draconian admins.
But literally, when I try to access them in my in game journal, they overlay on top of themselves, (The dropdown just covers the other dropdown bars below, rather than pushing them down.) This wasn’t the case for all of them, but it was the case for the PvP rules - I’m just hoping those havn’t changed!



The Ugly (Or more just Monika’s opinions, which could probably include the above now I think about it)

Roleplay -

It feels like people roleplay less. That could just be personal bias, that could be poor luck, that could be a small sample size. But a lot of the times when I encounter a person and or people in the wild, it doesn’t turn into roleplay, but rather a hello emote and by the time I’ve finished typing anything, they’ve hightailed it into the distance. Sometimes I’ve wandered into a dungeon group, and they’ve just… Added me to the party.
Now I 100% can’t fault the inclusiveness of people. I’ve not had an unkind word, no-ones tried to gatekeep any dungeons, I’ve not seen a single case of poor PvP, but it does feel people are a little more focused on the grind. (Which is fun, enjoyable and understandable) than they were ‘Back in my day’.
Rose tinted and all that.

History is a bit inaccessible.

Or maybe I don’t know where to look for it. It’s probably that, but then maybe other people don’t know either? The forum seems to have been pretty stripped back (We live in the age of discord now)but there don’t really seem to be any resources anywhere about recent events, happenings, the history of the island etc. It makes playing anyone who didn’t turn up off a boat yesterday impossible - Now that of course might be 100% intentional. But being able to find out basic facts like, ‘Where is Arelith? Who is this King Edward guy and why is he so old? Whats this Wharftown place?’ externally would be nice.

So many updates!

I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Almost every time I log in, there’s an update. It doesn’t tell me what’s changed in game, so I have to go find the forum or the discord to find out what the latest tweak is. This seems to be anything from ‘Very minor tweak you won’t notice’ to ‘Substantial change.’ I’ve seen some people concerned about rapid changes to class balence, it doesn’t bother me, but it might bother others. But the pace of change is hard to keep up with.

On the other hand, these are all great, amazing new features that all seem to make the game better, and why wouldn’t I want them all now, today, in the next update so I can get out enjoying them? There’s possibly a case to be made for a monthly release shedule with patchnotes in advance, as an alternative, but I’m not sure it’d be a very good case. I’m more including this here because it seems some people might think of it as a problem, than because I have any particular issues with it.

tl;dr

All in all, I’d probably rate my recent experiences on Arelith has a 8.5 out of 10. If you enjoy MMO style play, if you enjoy casual roleplay, if you enjoy the challenge of mechanically building a class, if you just enjoy exploring and learning about a breathtaking new world, and if you enjoy being a merchant, Arelith is definately the server for you.

It doesn’t take much playtime to see why Arelith has survived the years, why it has so many players, or why it continues to grow.

Admin and DM Team, old and new, you’re all great, and thank you for all the hard work you’ve done.

(Disclaimer - These are my thoughts. They're not right, they're not wrong, they're just my thoughts.)

[Amateur Hour]

History is a bit inaccessible.

Or maybe I don’t know where to look for it. It’s probably that, but then maybe other people don’t know either? The forum seems to have been pretty stripped back (We live in the age of discord now)but there don’t really seem to be any resources anywhere about recent events, happenings, the history of the island etc. It makes playing anyone who didn’t turn up off a boat yesterday impossible - Now that of course might be 100% intentional. But being able to find out basic facts like, ‘Where is Arelith? Who is this King Edward guy and why is he so old? Whats this Wharftown place?’ externally would be nice.

Just to remark on this, a lot of server history is accessible through in-game libraries. Now, keep in mind when you read these books that they are books written by characters who have their biases and can sometimes be outright wrong...but so can real history books be.

[Spriggan Bride]

I don't think it's totally fair to complain about lack of roleplay. When you're on a small server players are starved for RP and are more likely to stop and talk to anyone they pass. This is a high pop server and if you're traveling you run into lots of other characters. It's natural to be standoffish instead of trying to stop and get something going with everyone. It's like being in a big city, you aren't going to try and talk to everyone you meet on the street in NYC.

But I do think if you hang around RP hubs, go to events, join factions and many other things the RP potential is much greater here than almost anywhere else. In part for the same reason, the sheer numbers, but also the way the mechanics give you so much ability to work without a DM.

Yeah it can be rude if you show that you want to engage and they ignore you and keep running but random road or dungeon encounters isn't where the best RP happens here. Just keep in mind someone on a road or doing a writ is on a mission and they may have limited time or patience to be derailed with chitchat. I'm unapologetically guilty of being standoffish in those situations because I'm almost always trying to beat the RL clock when doing writs or errands.

[JustMonika]

I would clarify for context, I'm not comparing it to anything else but my experiences of Arelith itself historically. It wasn't 'There's less Roleplay on Arelith than X', but 'People seem less interested in engaging in roleplay than they used to when I was here last.'

It's only my isolated experience, in the EU timezone, nor is it a complaint at the server or any given individuals, just a reflection on my personal experience here.

[LichBait]

https://wiki.nwnarelith.com/Main_Page

There's a wiki link at the top of the options next to the 'Portal' option on the Forums. It's, for the most part, comprehensive. I have it open pretty much all the time.

[Dr. B]

I need a Wiki.

There's a link to the wiki conspicuously barking at you from the top of this forum, and it's the first hit that comes up if you Google the words "Arelith Wiki."

[JustMonika]

I think you may have misunderstood.

I'm not suggesting that I can't find or use the Wiki. I have been here for a decade, after all, not counting my break.
I've even commented ammendments in the discord for it.

Rather that requiring a wiki to being able to engage with a game at all is not nessicarily a good trait. (At least, in my view.)

[Party in the forest at midnight]

That's NWN in general though. Any system that isn't custom changed on Arelith, I end up looking up on NWN wiki to see how it works.

[DM Spyre]

Firstly welcome back. Glad you are having fun playing.

Let me answer some points here with a bit of information.

Crossing between servers.

There’s a downside to all these many servers, and that’s while I don’t crash, I do come across all sorts of weird bugs hopping between servers. These tend to revolve around fixtures not spawning in (A door, which still blocks passage, but you can’t see or interact with) remaining frozen in place (Your spirte does the walking animation in one spot but doesn’t move) or lastly inexplicable teleportation. (An Arelith Classic, sometimes you’ll just randomly appear somewhere else on the map. The best was when I was shopping in Westcliff, and mid conversation I abruptly appeared in the Abyss with no warning.) Logging in and logging out doesn’t seem to fix these problems reliably, but closing the client entirely and re-opening it does. Given the I don’t even want to think about it, levels of code that power Arelith and the impressiveness of server crossing anyway, this seems like a reasonable failing, although very awkward when there are monster spawns on the transition.

This could be HAK related - there is suspicion that something is not behaving in the haks that is causing it. It is more so a resource unload issue that occurs through NWSYNC when you transition servers. We will have to use a fine tooth comb to determine what the issue is. But it is on our list.

Current work around is to log out to desktop and then log back in.

The rules are broken.

Not, they’re unworkable and we should all protest the draconian admins.
But literally, when I try to access them in my in game journal, they overlay on top of themselves, (The dropdown just covers the other dropdown bars below, rather than pushing them down.) This wasn’t the case for all of them, but it was the case for the PvP rules - I’m just hoping those havn’t changed!

This journal entry exceeded the character limit and needs to be split into two journal entries. It is something that will be done eventually but is low on the totem pole. The wiki does have the rules listed here: https://wiki.nwnarelith.com/Rules

So many updates!

I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Almost every time I log in, there’s an update. It doesn’t tell me what’s changed in game, so I have to go find the forum or the discord to find out what the latest tweak is. This seems to be anything from ‘Very minor tweak you won’t notice’ to ‘Substantial change.’ I’ve seen some people concerned about rapid changes to class balence, it doesn’t bother me, but it might bother others. But the pace of change is hard to keep up with.

On the other hand, these are all great, amazing new features that all seem to make the game better, and why wouldn’t I want them all now, today, in the next update so I can get out enjoying them? There’s possibly a case to be made for a monthly release shedule with patchnotes in advance, as an alternative, but I’m not sure it’d be a very good case. I’m more including this here because it seems some people might think of it as a problem, than because I have any particular issues with it.

Update schedules had been proposed and a poll was given to the playerbase. The players were in favour of the current system (which is when possible, implement updates) rather than a dedicated schedule. I had proposed doing updates every Monday so that they can be played out, bug fixed, and not impact the weekend.

The hard part of all of this is availability. Everyone that commits code, areas or anything to the server that goes into an update has their own schedule and availability to handle it. We cannot enforce them to meet deadlines or be available at a specific time to release the patch. So for the time being it will remain the same.

Anything that is announced I would consider an update. Unannounced downloads to haks that you have are likely me doing bug fixes, and I do not tend to announce them in any announcement channel but through the bug report that is related to it. If you do not wish to use the forum or discord, you can browse the latest announcement in-game by using the chat command -updates

Thank you for the feedback! I am sure other members of the team will review and spur some discussion on the points brought up. Maybe some of the mentioned small fixes will be done sooner.

[JustMonika]

Thanks Spyre! It's good to see you still around.

Could I suggest as a short term fix (Though I've no idea if it's as simple as it sounds) that the broken journal entry be erased and replaced with a note refering people to the wiki in the interim?

[Liareth]

(We have a character appearence editor that looks like it fell out of a modern game?!)

This is big praise! Thank you!

[TheBlueWizard]

Roleplay -

It feels like people roleplay less. That could just be personal bias, that could be poor luck, that could be a small sample size. But a lot of the times when I encounter a person and or people in the wild, it doesn’t turn into roleplay, but rather a hello emote and by the time I’ve finished typing anything, they’ve hightailed it into the distance. Sometimes I’ve wandered into a dungeon group, and they’ve just… Added me to the party.
Now I 100% can’t fault the inclusiveness of people. I’ve not had an unkind word, no-ones tried to gatekeep any dungeons, I’ve not seen a single case of poor PvP, but it does feel people are a little more focused on the grind. (Which is fun, enjoyable and understandable) than they were ‘Back in my day’.

This is something I've encountered a fair bit as a player who tends to dip in and out over months at a time, but part of my working theory on it is perhaps the people who you run past and don't bother talking much might be playing on console (Switch, etc). At one point I (stupidly) considered getting NWN to play on my Switch thinking it might be a good way to play Arelith just for the Writ's at times, but the lack of any decent keyboard attachment for a Switch put me off.

Could only imagine this may be the reason to attribute to a lack of role-play while out doing Writ's and stuff. Which again is a bummer for me personally, 'cos I love to find a bit of role-play while wandering around, but I can get why some people just want to grind



On the point of the Wiki as well...

I will say as someone who will play obsessively for a month, then disappear for a couple of months, Arelith is become a lot more... inaccessible? From a stupid persons point of view that is.

Case in point, I've just come back after last playing in maybe April or so, and noticed all the Summoning mechanics have changed and the Sequencer thing is now here. I looked at the Wiki page, and it doesn't make good mention of how Summon's can no longer take buffs. Fine. But then the page for Sequencer's is very, very poorly written (no offence at all to whoever wrote it). It's written as if the person reading it should have a huge underlying knowledge of all things Arelith.

Like, the page on Sequencers needs an explanation as to what they are in some depth. It needs to explain what they do using examples, etc. I dunno. This may be a me issue, but I've felt the same with some other mechanics in the past (sailing, aspects of crafting) and finding them slightly hard to get into and understand from someone who can only get maybe an hour or two to play a night a couple of nights a week.

[Dr. B]

I think you may have misunderstood.

I'm not suggesting that I can't find or use the Wiki. I have been here for a decade, after all, not counting my break.
I've even commented ammendments in the discord for it.

Rather that requiring a wiki to being able to engage with a game at all is not nessicarily a good trait. (At least, in my view.)

I see. I'm not sure what you think the alternative is. Keeping everything vanilla? (Notwithstanding the fact that NWN's rules are already very obscure and you need a wiki to understand how its system works.)

[Xerah]

You can play most of Arelith/NWN without a wiki. Sure, you might screw up from time to time, or spend way too much time trying to figure out how things work yourself, but it can be done in most cases (and you'll be nowhere near optimized).

But pretty much every game, even AAA games, relies on people reading outside game sources to know how things work beyond top level. It's pretty unfair to hold Arelith to that kind of unattainable standard.

[Edens_Fall]

Thanks for the review. Was interesting seeing a returned players point of view on modern Arelith.

[TurningLeaf]

I think you may have misunderstood.

I'm not suggesting that I can't find or use the Wiki. I have been here for a decade, after all, not counting my break.
I've even commented ammendments in the discord for it.

Rather that requiring a wiki to being able to engage with a game at all is not nessicarily a good trait. (At least, in my view.)

I see. I'm not sure what you think the alternative is. Keeping everything vanilla? (Notwithstanding the fact that NWN's rules are already very obscure and you need a wiki to understand how its system works.)

Having first tried Arelith about 14 months ago, I can't imagine not having the wiki to rely on as a player. To bring it all IG so that someone can oocly know important things without having to go to a wiki, I think it would need some kind of tutorial area or something that basically restates a lot of what's on the wiki.

[MissEvelyn]

With NUI I wonder if we could conjure up windows of the wiki (perhaps with a dark background to match NWN's UI?) somehow. That would be super useful, especially for those of us who don't have two screens

[AstralUniverse]

With NUI I wonder if we could conjure up windows of the wiki (perhaps with a dark background to match NWN's UI?) somehow. That would be super useful, especially for those of us who don't have two screens

The future is here. You can literally slap on NUI anything that you could/would otherwise use in an in game dialogue. It takes some work of course but we have some serious code wizards around here, and even more of them lately. So it'll probably take time, maybe even years, but I think we'll see even more incredible improvements to base nwn.