PlaneShift

A first person account of a happening within PlaneShift...

Leaving Hydlaa on the way to the Eagle Bronze Doors, I encountered a mass of people at the intersection of the paths leading to Hydlaa, the house of Levrus, and the Eagle Bronze Doors. A dwarf named Omeror held Xiosia's symbol, and all were intent upon his voice.

Xiosia has been busy of late, blessing seemingly random beggars. So out of curiosity, I watched. It was not long before I became a participant in the antics from there - first, Omeror called for the blood of Tefusangs. Later on the path toward the Eagle Bronze Doors, Omeror instructed us to slay Ulbernauts in the name of Xiosia. This followed with bathing in the lake near the Ulbernaut nest around the gold mine. The lake turned red.

Then other creatures were slain; the Marfusangs on the way to the Eagle Bronze doors had the good sense to simply not be there. Trepors were slain.

All in the name of Xiosia. { Read more }

One of the more intriguing aspects of PlaneShift are quests. Quests can get one items, experience and trias (the local currency) - as well as opening up the opportunity for new quests. But it's still a beta, so dealing with the NPCs can be painful. They can be literal or not literal - and the inconsistency can drive one mad. Key phrases to say to NPCs to get quests are:

Can I help you?
Give me a quest


Once you get the quest, you will likely have to deal with other NPCs - a sometimes frustrating aspect of the game, though long time players do say that it has improved. Even so, you can be stuck with phrases that start with 'about' or 'xyz sent me', where 'xyz' is the person who sent you. Riddles abound - and those riddles are typically not found in a search engine. Thus, people have to actually think or get help. Unfortunately, I've seen the latter more than the former. Some people don't even seem to try. They immediately ask for the answer and typically ignore any hints you might drop. 'But what is the answer?', they ask. And someone with good intentions gives the spoiler away so that the person can run off to get the next quest solved for them. With non-English speakers, this can be understandable - particularly with riddles.

One of the better aspects of PlaneShift is that the developers frown heavily upon spoilers. Guilds, however, put their spoilers behind closed doors. { Read more }

I've spent over 100 hours playing PlaneShift, and now I'm ready to write a little something about it.

First of all, I like it - obviously. Spending 100 hours doing something one doesn't like is a fairly insane thing to do.

While the game is in alpha (or beta, depending on which spirits you channel), it is playable and fun and interesting. It's free to download. It's free to play. It can be annoying/frustrating at times because it is a work in progress - but the ingame advisors and game masters can help smooth over the rough spots if you actually find a rough spot. Having recently started being an advisor in game, I've gotten a feel for what a lot of people have problems with added to my own experiences.

What You Need To Know

It's a MMORPG. A massive multiplayer online roleplaying game - the stress, in PlaneShift, being placed on roleplaying. What does that mean? It means you're supposed to know your character and play it at all times - out of character (OOC) comments and conversations are supposed to be done in square brackets ([this is an example]).

Thus, after you download your PlaneShift client you should think about what your character will do and how it will interact with others. And to do that, you really need to get an idea of the world itself - a read of the setting, races, history, government and economy are worthwhile for this. { Read more }