Shaiya: A Free to Play MMO

                                                                     

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In my study of free to play MMOs I have found quite a few games now that are worth playing. DOMO, a cute and forgiveable game, is an amazingly complex game for being free to play. It has immersion and depth but notably less than a subscription based game like EQ, WoW, etc. I decided that I wanted to continue to expand my knowledge of this sub genre and continue downloading and playing more of these games. It seems there is one major company out there known as Aeria Games that, I guess, makes all of these. Their latest project is Shaiya.
It’s a game that reminds me of Lineage 2. The characters look incredibly similar and they run/jump/fight in what looks to be the same way. I’m not sure if this is because of the heavy eastern influence or a specific engine they’re using. Either way, the game is a full 3d MMORPG. It features weather effects, spell effects, and all the usual suspects of a fantasy mmo. In Shaiya you can choose from Light or Dark countries. Once you choose a side all of your characters are restricted to that choice. The reason behind this restriction is because a big part of the game is PvP. Similar to Lineage 2 and even DAOC these sides are doing battle against one another in frontier/battlegrounds.
Back to the character selection. Once you choose Light or Dark you then have 2 races. Elves and Humans for Light and Dark Elves and some Brute looking race for Dark. Each has their own selection of classes. For example, the light humans can be Fighter, Defender, or Priest and the Elves can be an Archer, mage, etc. Character creation is standard for this type of game. You can choose from hair, face, and height. I wish they had more customizations like skin color. The ingame interface is also standard. My only gripe so far is that I can’t figure out how to change my chat window opacity.
For my first character I decided on a big hunter guy. I created him and received a quest to kill a few spiders and boars but just wasn’t feeling it. I deleted him and rerolled an Elf Mage. I’m much happier with this choice! My mage character started off with a staff and one spell. The catch however is that in Shaiya skills must be trained using points. If you spend points you can not reclaim them. This leads to standardized builds and the usual fear I have that I’ll ‘mess up’ my character. Since it’s free to play and I’m only playing this for the heck of it I decided train 1 level of this magic bolt spell. I was able to 2 shot foxes and monkeys but quickly learned that if they get into melee range I have to be very timely in my casts – one hit and I’m completely interrupted.
I finished up a few quests at the starting outpost but wanted to quickly explore and get a feel for how big and detailed this world was in comparison to other free to plays. I made my way to the little town’s portal master and I was swept away to the main town of the region. The town whose name I can not even begin to remember or spell was impressive. It appeared to be a city with walls around it featuring a charming old-town feeling. I was again surprised when I saw that it was decorated for Christmas and there was a jazz version of jingle bells playing throughout the square. Looking around the town had all the amenities you would expect in a MMO city. Merchants, quests, portals to other cities, and a ‘lived in’ feeling.
Asking around for information I became aware of the PvP situation in Shaiya. There are frontiers or battlegrounds segregated for level ranges. Levels 1-15, etc. Being only level 4 I knew I stood no chance but I decided to head out and look at the PvP. I entered the battlegrounds and saw two large armies – the enemy and my nation – doing battle. I died in 1 hit and decided to go back to the city. This should be good for later when I have some AOE spells!

I decided to head back to the newbie area and continue my leveling. That’s as far as I have gone in Shaiya so far but I’m once again pleasantly surprised that the developers made these game free to play. There are no ads or restrictions for not paying them money. The RMT’s are there but so far I don’t see what they have to offer that you can’t get from playing for free. I don’t suggest you run out and play this game as your main MMO or that you think it’s something more than it is; if you’re like me it’s simple and pure fun to tide you over until Warhammer or your MMO of choice.

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How to start a Crossfire game

                                                                

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Starting a new game may be for several reasons

a. The host just quit, leaving you with the 'privilege' of becoming the host

b. There aren't any games you'd like to play

c. You just feel like it.

This is how to start a new game. On the bottom left of the screen when you view all the games in the channel, there is a button called 'New Room'. Click it. However, you cannot change the location of the game; the channel and server you clicked the button in will be the place where your game will show up.

Now, you get to choose the maps, the game type, the amount of kills, the time for respawning and whether or not people can spectate the match or not. You may also choose whether the game will have a password for players to enter, and the name of the game.

Name

This will be the display name of the game on the channel. Game names such as 'Noobs not allowed' or 'Pros only' will make certain people shy away from your game, while names such as 'Noobs only' will make certain people come to the game to take advantage of the noobs. Make sure to choose the name wisely...or you can just pick from the default names the computer provides you.

Map

This allows you to choose the map of the game. There are plenty of maps to choose from in Crossfire, and that depends on what type of game you're playing.

Game Type

There are currently different types of games in Crossfire:

a. Team Deathmatch...there are two different teams. Kill the opposing team while trying to die as least as possible.

b. Elimination Match...similar to Team Deathmatch except you don't respawn when you die.

c. Search and Destroy...one team tries to plant a bomb while the other team tries to destroy it.

d. Ghost Mode...the global risk attempts to eliminate the ghosts and the ghosts vice-versa played like a S&D match or elimination but the ghost side may only use whatever is their current melee weapon.The global risk may use all their weapons and usually the ghosts only win by planting the bomb S&D style.

e. Escape Mode... BL has 10 mins to have their players go through a portal near GR spawn. Each "escape" provides extra kills anging from 0-6 extra "kills". The number of "escapees" can range from 6-16. After the 10 mins are up or all escapees are have escaped, the teams switch and the defense starts escaping.

f. Mutation Mode/Hero Mode... At the begining of the match, the humans have 20 secs to find a place to hide or defend. After the intital 20 secs have passed, 1-3 humans become "mutants", which have large ammounts of health and use melee attacks to "mutate" other humans and turn them against the human side Mutants can be killed if enoguh damage is dealt to them, though mutants can recover health by being still for 3 secs. In Hero Mode, If there are more than 6 players, a random human will become "Hero" with access to a special weapon (FAL Camo with 60/240 ammo and with a grenade laucher with 3/9 rounds). Mutants in Hero Mode, though having more health, can respawn after being killed without a headshot.

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