[Meridian 59] is still not dead

altlat55

Ever play the granddaddy of MMORPGS? Not UO, but its less popular older Brother? This game bounced around from 2 brothers basement (Archtype Interactive) to 3do and finally to Near Death Studios. I know, its ugly...

from its ball shaped lightning bolts


box shaped terrain


funky bird people


to its underground temple


However it still hasn't lost all of its charm. It still drags me back from time to time. Its been (un)known for its annoying population of assholes, but most of them are now gone now.

The game has a unique character creation and class system. Unique in that there are no classes. Each character has 200 points to distribute among 6 stats.

Might

Partly responsible for damage rates of all melee weapons, particularly blunt weapons and unarmed combat. Also the ammount of items you can carry

Intellect

Responsible for the number of maximum skill and spell levels a character can attain as well as how much advancement is required in order to make the next level. Also responsible for the spell power and improvement rate of the schools of Riija and Jala

Stamina

Determines maximum HP, how quickly you rest, and also responsible for the spell power and improvement rate of the school of Kraanan

Agility

Partly determines how difficult your character is to hit. Also partly responsible for damage and improvement rates of slashing skills and improvement rate of defensive skills

Mysticism

Responsible for maximum MP, and spell power and improvement of the schools of Faren, Shal'ille, and Qor

Aim

Partly responsible for how often you hit, especially with ranged weapons. Determines the speed of improvement and effectiveness of your archery.

After which you are free to pursue one or all of 7 schools of character progression.

Weaponcraft

Allows improved combat with ranged and melee weapons as well as defensive skills to evade weapons and spell attacks. Most people have this school as it does good damage without wasting MP

Kraanan

The warrior god grants buffs for weaponcraft attacks and defensive spells against the other gods. This school has all of the best buffs.

Faren

The god of nature specializes is elemental attacks and defense. Faren has all of the strongest attacks, but can find themselves out of mana if their opponent is properly buffed

Shal'ille

The god of peace comes equipped with healing magic. Also surprisingly some attack spells such as the ability to remove buffs.

Qor

The Vile Qor specializes in hinderence spells such as hold and blind. Often the preferred choice of pkers, but can be shut down when without the element of surprise.

Riija

The trickster is mostly made up of debuffs and a high level teleportation spell. Also some other useful illusions

And Jala

Although she died before properly becoming a god, Jala still manages to have a spell school full of area buffs and potion making.

HPs are attained seperately from level development by killing monsters with more than you. You start with 20 and gain HPS 1 at a time up to a maximum of 150. Most attacks do from 8-12 damage, with the max set to 35 (I believe) however there is a cap limiting single attack damage to 1/3rd of your total hps.

The game is centered on a mostly balanced PVP system. Its a small game so the most you're going to be seeing is 10 on 10 and the guild wars have a tendency to drag on for quite awhile. It has a decent faction system with solid reasons to keep your faction in power, but it often takes a backseat to guild conflict.

This video was taken from the 10th anniversary 2v2 tournament, its too bad the filmmaker didn't have Detect Invisibility up, but it does show some of the games best fighters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW2qOKpl0d0
Heres a really low quality trailer someone made, for some reason he used the old graphics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XWs_2EBTKI

MuddBudd

No.