Friday, December 25, 2009

FB Castle Age - Simple Review & Guide Part 2

Castle Age – Stats & Achievements

The stats determine the playing style of Castle Age. As with any other RPG game, the stats will influence how well a player fight / defend etc. 5 points of stats will be given whenever the player levels up. Stats points will also be given when 100% Influence is achieved for quests, or when certain achievements are completed, or when the player reaches some of new rank in the Battle arena.

For a better sense of what these stats means, here’s some brief descriptions of the 5 stats attributes. Energy is described first since that is the more important (in my opinion) stat.

Energy – For each of the quest there will be an Energy requirement stated, and the player will consume that amount of energy to do the quest. The amount of energy needed, together with the rewards is stated next to each quest. Under some circumstances, Energy is also needed to fight monsters. Try to have a higher maximum Energy available, or the higher level quests may take much longer to complete. The Energy points regenerate once every five minutes.

There were forum discussions about the optimal amount of energy. The figure seems to range from 130 to 170 points. I guess it is up to individual player, but the main issue to consider is the rate of energy regeneration versus the amount of time you play Castle Age each day, which in turns affect how fast you can level.

Attack - This affects how good the player is in the battles against other players and monsters. In the initial levels there is less need to focus on this stat unless you intend to create a PvP character.

Defense – A good defence will be useful against other attacking players. When the player successfully defends against other attacks, there is even possibility for gold to be gained.

Health - This measures how long the player can last in a fight against monsters and / or other players. Once the health reaches 0, it means the player is ‘Eliminated’. Each PvP fight will only consume a few health points unless the player is whacked real hard for some reason. Once Health drops below a certain level, other players cannot attack you. It is quite easy to heal the player back to full health, and thus this stat is not as important actually. It regenerates 1 point every three minutes.

Stamina - It costs 2 stat points to increase the stamina by one point. Stamina points are used when the player fights against other players or monsters. PvP battles consume 1 stamina point, but for monster fights, the player has the option of a 5 stamina point attack. The stamina points regenerate at a rate of 1 every five minutes.

To help increase these stats (other than leveling), the player can also call for ‘Elite Guards’ to join his rank. Basically it is a call for help from friends who are also playing the game to join the player. Each Elite Guard that joins will help to boost attack / defence of the player, with increase of gold as well.

Castle Age – Demi - Powers, Alchemy & Items

Oracle - This is the ‘shop’ for Castle Age, where more powerful heroes and items are available for sale through Favour Points. The player starts with 20 Favour Points, which would be sufficient for simple services like a change of name, Energy refills etc. In order to buy the items or heroes, you will need typically 25 points and above. The player can get more points by praying to the demi-powers, completing quests, getting achievements etc. The more straight forward way of getting more Favour Points is to do surveys listed at the Oracle tab, or simply buy them at a rate of 60 Favour Points for $10. Well, the developers need real cash for their hard work and server maintenance too.

Demi-Powers – There are 5 Demi-Powers (Ambrosia, Malekus, Corvintheus, Aurora, and Azeron) with unique aspects in the game that can help the player in the game with their individual benefits. For example, Corvintheus is the demi-power of defence, and players who seek blessing from him will gain a defence point.

Via the Blessing function, the players can also get demi points linked to each demi-power. With sufficient demi-points, the player can gain access to demi-power quests that often offer items and magic. Many of these demi-power quests will require other heroes to gain influence in these quests. The players are limited to one demi-power Blessing each day, except for Azeron who gives more demi-points but the Blessing frequency is limited to once every 2 days.

Units, Items and Magic

Units - Army units / troops are essential because they form the pre-requisite for the quests. Moreover, they to defend / invade other players under the Battle tab. The troops can be purchased under the Town tab, and each troop will come with their own defence / attack.

Other than the initial troops, other higher level ones will have an upkeep cost, and players need to be mindful about their overall upkeep costs. There are also certain heroes, e.g. Penelope and Garlan, who will help to decrease the troops purchase costs by a few percent when you buy the troops in town. It is important to note that the discount applies only when the purchase is done in towns; if the player purchases the troops via the Quests tab, there is no discount.

Land – The upkeep costs of army units and heroes will need to come from somewhere, and that is mainly from income earned through Land. There are different types of Land, from simple Temple to Castles and Lake Fortresses. Each of these land will give gold per hour, ranging from 200 to 150,000. Attacking players or earning gold via quests will not be sufficient to maintain the troops upkeep, and land will be essential. Land can also be given when the player completed the fights against monsters.

The cost to purchase each type of land will increase based on the number of such land the player has in each category.

Items – I feel that many of the more worthwhile items are obtained via fighting monsters or getting them via Demi-quests, and thus it is not much point to buy them via the Blacksmith shop. One such example is the Holy Avenger sword that players may get after the completing the Land of Earth quest (12 attk / def).



Also see:
- FB Castle Age - Simple Review & Guide Part 1
- Castle Age: Battle of the Dark Legion

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