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Astonia is a medieval fantasy MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) developed, published, and maintained by Intent Software. Its current version, Astonia III, was launched in 2002 for Microsoft Windows and is played in a third-person isometric view. The previous version of Astonia, Astonia v2, is also licensed by Intent Software and many free servers have come online based on the original software.

Gameplay

Players select to role play as a Mage or a Warrior, later on being able to choose to become a combination of them called a Seyan'Du, or expand on racial powers by becoming an Arch Mage or Arch Warrior.

Quest solving is rewarded with experience points and 'drops'. Drops are potions (which restore hit points, mana points or endurance), elemental stones or even equipment. Some missions are unique to the military system in the game, and earn the character higher ranks in the Astonian military.

Some of the major adventure locations are a series of differently themed labyrinths, randomly generated dungeons levels 10-99, a very large and long-term ongoing 'Pentagram Quest' (trademarked) in which the player delves hellish realms and fights demons while solving a puzzle, challenging quests from a prominent NPC character named Ruby, in and around the various towns and locations in the game realm. There are also mines, in which players can mine for silver and gold to enhance their equipment.

The game has two distinct and complex systems of player-run organization systems, one being clans, and the other being clubs, which were added more recently. Unlike many similar games, clans and clubs have weekly upkeep costs (the former in "clan jewels" that are periodically spawned in special competitive areas, the latter in currency) in order to be maintained, helping to ensure that all member and that all clans and clubs remain active entities. There are only 32 clans, each with its own distinct hierarchy and place of residence called a clan hall. Any subscribing player that can pay the upkeep cost can start his own club; clubs have no halls and the hierarchy is only three-tiered. The clan system is what is perhaps the most distinctive and addictive part of the game. Different clans are always being born, rising up, or dying. Clans can also have different relations to each other. Neutral is the normal setting, in which interaction between the two clans will be as normal, and all fighting will be exclusively inside the special arenas where clan jewels spawn.(Commonly called spawners.) Another option is alliance. two or more clans can ally, which will make them fight as one team in spawns. And also give one shared private channel for chatting. War can be set when a clan which to "raid" another of it's clan jewels. And Feud is total war where all members of either clan within a three level range can attack each other anywhere. This can only be set if both clans agree, and is very rare. Many players play only for their clan, and to create alternative characters (alts) specialized to fight in particular spawns. The competicion is high and it takes a lot of practice to gain skills to make yourself noticed. The never ending drama and the amount of work that is put down into each clan is something which is hard to find in other games. It is one of Astonia's best sides and for many, what makes it worth playing for years on.

The game has relatively broad functionality for chat and communication. Besides the common MMORPG options for communication (say, tell/whisper, shout, etc.) there are many different chat room like 'channels' that players can join, including the 'info' channel in which game advice is requested and provided to inquirers, and a casual conversation channel called, and 'gossip, and several other major channels covering various topics. Each clan or club also has its own personal chat channel.

Equipment and skills

Unlike many RPGs and MMORPGs skills aren't raised when you level up, but as often as you want to. You can save up experience and raise those skills that are higher than others (and thus costing experience points more to raise). The maximum character level is 200; only a handful of characters in the entire game are that level. At this time, weapons can not be dual-wielded. There are twelve slots of equipment, ranging from armour slots to accessories such as rings and amulets.

Enhanced items-
Enhanced items can only be found on a monster,in a chest, or from a person. Enhanced items raise the mod value (unless the skill is hp mana or magic shield) of skills These items unless when examined says that they cant be are further enhancable by orbs of enhancement,or strength, orbs are not very strong when bought but earth, fire, ice and hell stones from demons in pentagram quests can enhance your orb. Stones have different quality determining how durable the item is, try to only use stones with quality 100% or above from with orbs. Orbs are a high demand item and can be sold for a decent amount depending on the strength and quality

Sewer items- Sewer items are special items with high stat bonuses, these items are found at lvl 13 by going into the sewers in the town of Aston,there you will kill rats which will tell you which direction to go to find the item, you must go in that direction and search the grates until you find the item,then you must wait till the next day to return for an item

Astonia 3.5

As of August 15th, Intent started an open beta on a second Astonian server, 3.5, which has a significant amount of changes from 3.0. Several issues which were found in 3.0 were fixed or removed, and some game features have been revamped. The general difficulty of the game was also increased significantly, making 3.5 a more challenging game. In addition, this server is also free to play, with the option of paying for a premium account. A premium account user will have twice as much inventory space as a basic account user, and he will also be able to fully utilize dual- and tri-stat items. In addition, a premium account member will always have access to the server if it was ever to fill up, whilst basic account users will have to wait for a free slot to appear. Premium accounts will also have less wear and tear on gear. The cost for a premium account is $9.95 per month, with the option to pay for every 3, 6 or 12 months for increased discounts.

A player finds gear in this world solely by drops. They use varing stones each with different strengths to increase an orb's strength. They use the item of choice on an orb to increase the stats given on it. There are also more welds in 3.5. Weld shrines allow the player to swap stats from one item to another item.

External links

Astonia Home page

Top 100 characters of the game

Clan Overview