Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Luminary tips for beginners
I was positively surprised how many of my readers turned up in Luminary and set me as their recommender. As only a handful of my readers tend to comment on my posts, I tend to forget how many lurkers there are. :) It was really nice to meet some of you in game and chat, although that obviously is a problem with my US readers and the time zone difference. I do get a message every time somebody who set me as recommender levels up, and if I don't have them on my friends list yet, I send them a friends invite. I do get recommendation points (RP) for people leveling past level 10, but right now they aren't used for anything. The Korean version has an NPC who hands out goodies for these points, maybe it'll be implemented later. Anyway, since I noticed some common problems people starting to play the game have, here is a list of some beginner's tips for Luminary:
- By default Luminary starts in windowed mode, with a fixed resolution. That is fine on a small laptop, but the window is tiny on a 22"+ monitor. So the first thing to do in game is to go to Menu, System, Setting, and put a checkmark next to the Use Full Screen box. Then relog, and the game will be in full screen mode. The disadvantage of that is that Luminary doesn't react well to Alt-tabbing, and can even crash to desktop on trying to get back.
- You start the game with the first quest already active, and the quest instructions in the lower right corner of the screen. If you ever lose that window, you can get it back via Menu, Quests, selecting the quest, and choosing quest relay.
- The first quests are from Sarah, who sends you to the next city to Airin, then back to the starting city. Then there is a series of quests from McCoy (crafting), Siegfried (fighting), and Gieselle (resource gathering). Do those in the suggested order. Try to keep the Siegfried and Gieselle quests at the same level, the monsters that Siegfried tells you to kill are usually those who drop the ingredients Gieselle wants to have. So sometimes you need to kill a couple more than the Siegfried quest says to do both quests. By the time you have done all Gieselle quests, you should already be level 20, and Siegfried leads you on to level 25.
- Two things I already mentioned in my review: Quests asking you to click on a "red box" or "red square" on the Game Info screen are talking about the black on white frame with a thin red border on the mid-low left of that screen. You first need to open the Game Info on the page you are asked to open for that to work. And second, the quest that asks you to craft a level 8 weapon fails to mention that you probably don't have the skill to do so. Buy at least 2 manufacturing books for that weapon from the market before doing the crafting, otherwise you will produce a worthless junk weapon.
- If ever you *do* produce a worthless junk weapon, you can still use it to enchant a weapon of the same type. Select the MIX window in your inventory, put the good weapon in the "power-up" field, the bad weapon in the "normal" field, select an element like Wind, and press Enchant. A wind enchanted weapon has bonus damage against earth based mobs, etc., in a circle of the 4 elements. You can find what mob is what element in the Game Info, but low level mobs tend to not have one.
- I recommend sword, spear, or axe as the weapon for your first character, as the stat distribution for those is easiest. Gun and bow are still okay, you just need additional agility, and arrows / bullets. Stay away from canes, as these not only need lots of different stats, but also consume mana, and combat is thus much more expensive. Wait until your first character is rich, and make a second character with cane if you wish to become a magic user.
- If you do the Siegfried quest to kill country rats, you should get a medal which allows you to summon a horse at level 15. Use F9 to mount up. A horse also doubles the size of your starting inventory. The first horse you get comes completely trained. So do *not* feed your horse, and turn off auto-feeding in the Status Info, Horse tab, because otherwise your horse will simply eat out of your inventory.
- Your first horse coming trained also means you don't need to read Horse training skill books for the moment. If you experiment with various skills and find that you wasted skill points, you should be able to reset them at level 10 and 30 for free. Later that only works with paid for skill reset tickets, so don't miss the chance at level 30 to rethink your skills like I did.
- At level 20 you can mine using a hoe in Shenburry, Ankha, or Kucha, or farm using a sickle in Athravan. That is expensive, you pay around 50k for the tools, which only lasts for 2 days or so, and 10k to 20k for a 10-hour mining/farming license. But some of the resources you can mine/farm sell for 1k to 2k each, and you can mine/farm afk, so this can be profitable. Check market prices, usually mining brings more than farming. Your chance to find something per attempt is 10% plus 1% per skill book you read, so read at least 10 skill books to get your chance up to 20%.
- Skill books marked BGN for beginner only get you so far, usually to skill 10. After that you need INT books for the next 10 skill levels, which are made out of 5 BGN books. You see how this gets exponentially more expensive. Don't overpay for INT books on the market if they are listed for much more than 5 times the price of BGN books. Rather set up a manufacturing request, or learn how to make INT books yourself. You need to either make the tools for that, or get them from a series of quests in the Monkey Hot Springs for levels 30+.
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Nothing.
They do have a forum thread where I could sign up and receive $2 worth of Aeria points for something like my posted review, but I refused to do that.
Ultimately every single post I write is advertising about some game or other, and I haven't been paid for any of them.
I did once receive a press pass for a Blizzcon, and free subscriptions to WAR and Puzzle Pirates. And as my post states, I do receive in-game reputation point for people who join the game stating I recommended the game to them. But I have a strict policy of declaring all of these advantages to my readers.
I find that most complaints aren't "Why are you giving free advertising", but "Why are you giving free advertising to a different game than my favorite one". I'm sure if I wrote about your favorite game, you wouldn't be complaining.
They do have a forum thread where I could sign up and receive $2 worth of Aeria points for something like my posted review, but I refused to do that.
Ultimately every single post I write is advertising about some game or other, and I haven't been paid for any of them.
I did once receive a press pass for a Blizzcon, and free subscriptions to WAR and Puzzle Pirates. And as my post states, I do receive in-game reputation point for people who join the game stating I recommended the game to them. But I have a strict policy of declaring all of these advantages to my readers.
I find that most complaints aren't "Why are you giving free advertising", but "Why are you giving free advertising to a different game than my favorite one". I'm sure if I wrote about your favorite game, you wouldn't be complaining.
If ever you *do* produce a worthless junk weapon, you can still use it to enchant a weapon of the same type. Select the MIX window in your inventory, put the good weapon in the "power-up" field, the bad weapon in the "normal" field, select an element like Wind, and press Enchant. A wind enchanted weapon has bonus damage against earth based mobs, etc., in a circle of the 4 elements. You can find what mob is what element in the Game Info, but low level mobs tend to not have one.While we're on the subject, it is advisable to enchant the starter weapon as soon as possible, as this gives 20 points of elemental damage bonus. The sacrificial weapon can easily be produced by disassembling a couple of the other starter weapons granted by the first few quests (no manufacturing skill is needed, since the quality of the sacrifice doesn't matter).
Very interesting. I'd be curious to see what your opinions would be about Atlantica Online which was made by the same developers. Interesting article which talks about the similarities and differences between the two games:
http://mmorpg.gamesource.it/Articolo/63/Atlantica-Online-intervista-a-Kim-Tae-Gon-2.html
http://mmorpg.gamesource.it/Articolo/63/Atlantica-Online-intervista-a-Kim-Tae-Gon-2.html
I am not complaining, I'am just curious to see 3 huge walls of text about some crappy KoreanBBQMMO...
How would you know it is crappy, if you haven't even played it, or at least played it for less time than an Eurogamer reviewer?
The mistake many people make is to judge a game by its screenshots, and not by its gameplay features. Expect another "wall of text" this week on what features of Luminary would be great in a game like WoW.
By the way, the "wall of text" is called "content", and is all there is on offer on this blog. If it is tldr for you, you are probably on the wrong blog.
The mistake many people make is to judge a game by its screenshots, and not by its gameplay features. Expect another "wall of text" this week on what features of Luminary would be great in a game like WoW.
By the way, the "wall of text" is called "content", and is all there is on offer on this blog. If it is tldr for you, you are probably on the wrong blog.
I just can't understand the mentality that when a writer takes the time to publish a well-thought out post with actual information in it, he or she gets derided for it, but if that same writer were to write a 300 word blurb and pass it off as a review, it would be hailed as being the next Pulitzer winner.
But you're right, Tobold, if you had written about the MMO they play, it would be considered worthwhile; it is only because it's not a mainstream MMO that it gets ridiculed. I like coming here and reading about different kinds of games. I don't even play MMOs anymore, and I am here every day because you actually write for content rather than just to say you posted something up that day.
Ugh, The TLDR folks frustrate me.
But you're right, Tobold, if you had written about the MMO they play, it would be considered worthwhile; it is only because it's not a mainstream MMO that it gets ridiculed. I like coming here and reading about different kinds of games. I don't even play MMOs anymore, and I am here every day because you actually write for content rather than just to say you posted something up that day.
Ugh, The TLDR folks frustrate me.
Cm'on Tobold, don't get pissed at me lol !!I just think you should be giving us you impression on the SPRPG versus MMORPG showdown thats all.
I love the way you write and your analytical skills, that is why I read your blog, and that is why I am trying to get you to give us your point of view on stuff that does matter for the community.
I love the way you write and your analytical skills, that is why I read your blog, and that is why I am trying to get you to give us your point of view on stuff that does matter for the community.
Cm'on Tobold, don't get pissed at me lol !! ... I love the way you write
Well, calling a blogger's writing a "wall of text about some crap" is bound to piss that blogger off. It's the equivalent of telling a musician that he is producing "noise".
Well, calling a blogger's writing a "wall of text about some crap" is bound to piss that blogger off. It's the equivalent of telling a musician that he is producing "noise".
Interesting post, but I miss your wow posts Tobold :(
I do like how you found a game with cool economics. Also, did you see the Just My Two Copper economic forums I emailed you about? I bet they'll knock your socks off :D
I do like how you found a game with cool economics. Also, did you see the Just My Two Copper economic forums I emailed you about? I bet they'll knock your socks off :D
I love the way you write and your analytical skills, that is why I read your blog, and that is why I am trying to get you to give us your point of view on stuff that does matter for the community.Comments on other games do matter to the community. Even what you call a "crappy KoreanBBQMMO" might have some elements worth discussing, and if it's not crappy then it's even more worthy of discussion. There are a lot of games out there that don't get any attention because people assume they're just another "crappy KoreanBBQMMO", yet people might love them if they tried them. Reviews and tips and posts like this really do help people find cool games they would never have looked at otherwise.
Also bear in mind that even the most devoted [game] addict is at risk of eventually burning out on their game of choice, and if that's one of the big games then they might abandon MMOs as a whole, thinking all the majors are too similar to keep their attention. A free, different game with weird mechanics and a different focus could bejust the thing for them. I mean, how much guild drama could be avoided if people had a secondary game to blow off some steam in with a few other friends - keep the friends, but play with them outside of the drama-inducing environment of [main game] for a bit.
I dunno, this is probably all a bit tl;dr.
Tobold: Thanks for these posts, they're neat. Ignore the teal deer crowd, or at least post interesting and insightful comments in response to them!
Also bear in mind that even the most devoted [game] addict is at risk of eventually burning out on their game of choice, and if that's one of the big games then they might abandon MMOs as a whole, thinking all the majors are too similar to keep their attention. A free, different game with weird mechanics and a different focus could bejust the thing for them. I mean, how much guild drama could be avoided if people had a secondary game to blow off some steam in with a few other friends - keep the friends, but play with them outside of the drama-inducing environment of [main game] for a bit.
I dunno, this is probably all a bit tl;dr.
Tobold: Thanks for these posts, they're neat. Ignore the teal deer crowd, or at least post interesting and insightful comments in response to them!
Man, I'm trying to figure out how to get Luminary to work by reading the tech support forums, but no luck. Clicking the play live button in both Firefox and Internet Explorer produces a "process has failed" error. Have cleared cache data from both browsers, but still no luck ;(
Play Live button? You download the game from luminary.aeriagames.com, then install it like any regular game. No browser involved in playing. Unless you confuse it with Free Realms.
Ahhh that helps thanks! I must have been trying to play a different luminary at http://luminary.ijji.com. It was the first google result I had for it.
Ill be home in less then 10 days, I guess I'll look this game up then. Thanks for the heads up Tobold.
If you are a frequent commenter on this blog, then the best tip I have found is to name your toon after your Blogger name, then set Tobold as your referrer. He will then give you some free limited tech support. :-)
Another tip: there is a "Help" button in the upper right that you can use for hints up to 5 times a day. I don't know who answers these hints (probably not Tobold). I wonder if high-level characters get experience by answering them? Anyway, it works pretty well -- I asked "Where do I find cowhide" (needed for an early crafting quest) and a few minutes later I got a reply: "Man-Cows near ..." And I got an option to rate the answer "Satisfactory" or Not.
Another tip: there is a "Help" button in the upper right that you can use for hints up to 5 times a day. I don't know who answers these hints (probably not Tobold). I wonder if high-level characters get experience by answering them? Anyway, it works pretty well -- I asked "Where do I find cowhide" (needed for an early crafting quest) and a few minutes later I got a reply: "Man-Cows near ..." And I got an option to rate the answer "Satisfactory" or Not.
Never played Luminary and truthfully I couldn't get over my 2-D cutesy anime prejudices enough to install the game but I did put some time into Atlantica Online. They have the same help feature implemented and it does indeed go out to actual players.
As for rewarding them, I wouldn't doubt it as it's one thing nDoors knows how to do is cultivating and rewarding player benevolence.
Great blog article here about it:
http://www.thecolorinside.net/lounge/?p=37
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As for rewarding them, I wouldn't doubt it as it's one thing nDoors knows how to do is cultivating and rewarding player benevolence.
Great blog article here about it:
http://www.thecolorinside.net/lounge/?p=37
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