X. Etc
   a. World Map of the West (zip)
   b. Monsters: 1-2999, 3000-19,999,
      20,000-100000, 100,000+,
   c. History
   d. Version
   e. Contact Information

   Welcome to the land of LostHope. Here you can create imaginary characters and interact with other players in the game. Fighting creatures or even other players will reward you with experience which you can use to further develope your character. Items are available to collect and increase your character's abilities in other ways. The game has been designed to be very deep in advancement of skills, variety of items, and overall uniqueness of each individual character.




GETTING STARTED

a. Main Screen

    The game is best viewed and played at 1024x768 screen resolution or higher. Recommended browsers for playing are Internet Explorer (version 6.x or 7.x) and FireFox (versions 1,2,3). The game has also been tested successfully on Opera (windows), Safari, Camino (Mac). When the screen first loads, the login screen will be in the top middle of the screen, allowing you to type in your character name and password and playing the game.

The middle menu contains various options to see more about the game. The default loader is the news, which has various notable events that have occured posted by admins or wizards. Clicking on Staff brings up a list of the current people that are part of keeping the LostHope in-line along with their contribution to the effort. Version info is where I post fixes and updates and what I have changed starting with most recent. Rules gives a list of acceptable behavior within the game, these rules must be followed or punishment will occur. Then there is the Forum link; this opens a new window allowing one to access the LostHope forums where various discussions take place (everyone is free to look). Next over there is a Top 100 tab. This again will open new window with a list of the Top 100 players, their races, their classes, and their levels. The last link, Who's On, gives a list of all of the people currently playing the game (except for the higher ranked officials). This list is displayed right below the link.

b. Creating a Character

   Creating your character has the greatest impact on how well your character will function. The first part of the creation form (created by clicking on either link below the Login buttons) asks for basic information. The name will be both the name of your character and your login name. Your password is what keeps others from accessing your account, do not forget it, and do not make it something very easy to guess. Your email address is currently used for verification purposes, such as password changes and account cancellation.

   i. Races

      The starting Races of LostHope include Imp, Elf, Hill Dwarf, Orc, Gnome, Ghoul, Goblin, Gargoyle, Fairy and Siren. Choosing from one of these affects your stats and starting location. Each race has its own statistical bonus attributed with it. Orcs, for example, gain an extra +30 to strength and +10 to vitality. This also allows them to raise those skills higher than would a character without a bonus. But which stat does what? Most can be deducted from the name of the stat, but to view more of how each affect your character go to the Stats Section.

Table of stat increases per level for races

   ii. Classes

      The Class you choose gives your character its starting skills. All of the skills in the game are available again in the world by doing quests, so it is possible to turn a warrior into a mage, but the starting skills have bonuses associated with them that are unrecoverable if lost. So if a warrior and a mage started with the same stats, are the same level, and the warrior decided to become a mage, the mage would still be stronger because he started with those skills and still has the bonuses associated with them.

      The Brute is a massive warrior that uses its fists as weapons. The Sharpshooter the ranged fighter using bows and crossbows as weapons. The Warlock is a mystical fighter, relying upon magic to defeat his foes. Assassins are quick, nimble fighters that prefer smaller weapons and hiding in the darkness. Knights are similar to Brutes, but use large weapons in their attacks. Finally, the Dark Mage, similar to the Warlock, uses magic as a weapon, but differs in that they do not follow rules set forth by the nobles.

Table of stat increases per level for classes

   iii. Stats

      Stats are the more vital aspect of your character creation. They are developed in game based on your race and class. Stats are also what your actions are based upon. Skills just amplify what the Stats create.

      Strength is the primary attribute to how hard warriors hit in combat.
      Agility is now easily your character can evade others and affects how likely you are to hit the opponent.
      Vitality gives a bonus to defense, and also is important for magic users, as it affects their spell damage, and cast chance.
      Psi is the primary attribute for mages; it greatly impacts spell damage.
      Speed is important for all classes of character. It affects how many strikes you get against your opponent in each round, as well as warriors' chance to hit and every character's evasion.

c. The Graphics Package

    The game contains quite some images. Especially during the login it might take a while until all of them are fetched from the server. Therefore, for Internet Explorer users, the prefered method is to download an image-pack (.rar) or pack as executable . (dont download this if you use FireFox browser) Once you download it, double click on the file to open the extraction window. It will have "Install to... " then a textbox. In order to ensure proper installation, make sure that inside that box is C:\ and nothing else. Once it is installed, the confirmation code will be located at C:\stratimgs\confirm.txt. Images that are not found in the local folder (maybe only single ones) will still be fetched from server then.

d. Logging In

   Logging in is a simple process. Upon loading the LostHope main screen, there will be two black boxes in the upper-right of the screen. Enter your character name and password in these boxes then click on login or press enter. You will then enter the game (be patient, on slower connections it may take a minute to load everything, expecially for the first time).

INTERFACE

a. Abilities Tab

   Under abilities, you can check current character status. Health is shown as the red bar, with the mana bar under it; hovering the cursor over either of the bars will show the numerical health and mana values. The character's defense and attack amounts are just to the right of the health and mana bars. All of the character's resistances are shown in the colored bars below. Resistances can be gained either through item effects or by fighting magic users that attack with elemental powers, or other players or monsters that happen to use melee attacks with an elemental factor. To the right side are submenus within the abilities tab.

   Equipment, the first submenu, shows the character's items currently being worn or used, along with all the other items in inventory in the drop-down menu. The four buttons below allow for altering the status of these items or viewing them. Each character can only carry 20 items at a time, not including ones equipped; so a possible 30 items can be obtained at any time.

   The magic tab gives the percentage of regular damage that a character does; this is based off of psi primarily, and also vitality. All of the known spells are seen in the dropdown menu and the two buttons below function the same as in the equipment submenu. A character may learn up to 30 spells. It is a good idea to keep many various spell types, as different monsters and players have varying resistances to the different elements. Each time a spell is used in battle, the character gets better at casting that particular spell, and the percent to next level increases; once this values reaches 100, the spell goes up a level.

   The skills tab is where you may manage the skills your character may have. The name of the skill is shown followed by the current skill level and the experience needed to raise the skill again. If the player has enough unused experience, then two arrow images appear next to the skill. The first is to raise the skill once, the second is to put 1, 10, or 50 points into that skill. You can select which you want by clicking on the number above the arrows. The unused experience can be seen just above the skill table. Also, if you so desire to drop a skill, there is a cancel button to the far right, double clicking on that will drop the skill and refund all experience you put into that skill.

   The status tab gives various information about your character, such as badges that other players see when identifying you, earned by accomplishing various tasks, such as reaching a notable level. Trade Licences allow characters to trade with one another. Portal passes give characters free passage through portals after fighting guards. And lastly, clan membership is shown along with the current clan you happen to be in (if you even are).

   Under the Other tab, there are just some helpful numbers: total experience that you have obtained; how much experience you will have at the next level; how much more experience is needed to get to that next level; experience bonus in % and absolue (both from item bonuses; how much money you have in cash (usable at stores, but losable if defeated in battle); how much is stored at the bank (where various centers take their money from); money bonus in % and absulte (both from item bonuses).

b. Land Tab

   The Land Tab is probably the most complex part of LostHope. To the left is the view of your character within the world. On top of the graphical image in the center gives your coordinates within the world. To the far right you can fight monsters, identify people, or duel with other people. You move around by clicking on the arrows. Once you have established a camp, a new button [CA] will appear just left of the arrows. This is the quick-travel-button to your camp and has to be double-clicked. If your clan ahs got a Fort, you receive another button above that, titled [FO], which is used in the same way. By moving on a unique location, you can click on the Interact Tab to interact with the special object you encountered.
- Wall, unable to walk through
- Barrier, requires certain item to pass over; or in case of check point requires a certain stat or badge
- Quest item on the ground
- Quest monster
- Beast monster (random quests)
- NPC (person to talk to for quests etc)
- Portal, go through and be transported - some of these are invisible!
- Spawn Gate, attune here to pop up when you die
- Rock, unable to walk through
- Your character, some players have their own avatar images
- Bank, deposit gold for safe-keeping
- Clan Center, manage everything with clans here
- Jail, sent here if caught fighting another player
- Armory, buy/sell armor here
- Miscellaneous Shop, buy/sell potions and other items here
- Weaponry, buy/sell weapons here
- Trade Center, buy trade licences and manage trades
- Shrine - there are various different types
- Camp - facility belonging to a player
- Fort - belongs to a clan

c. Interact Tab

   Based on where a character is in the world, the location may be of particular interest (depicted by an images of something on the land). If there is nothing, then there won't be much to do here. A shop or bank on the other hand, can be accessed here.

   Each shop in the world is unique, and each has its own buy and sell rates, as well both items that the shop has permenently in stock and items that the players sell to that shop. Shop items are grouped by class (headgear, leg armor etc) and a player may buy whatever he or she wants, so long as the funding is available. Shops do refresh their inventory every 10 minutes or so, so items seen do not stay forever.

   Banks are quite simple. A player may deposit money here to be kept safe in case of a defeat in battle. This is good, but the money kept in banks may not be used for shops or trades. Bank money can only be accessed at bank locations.

   When fighting another player, there is a chance of the guards catching you and you being sent to jail for trying to start a fight. In this case, you are sent to jail where you cannot more or anything for a set amount of time.

   Trade centers are where you can buy trade licences for a set amount of money. Once you have a licence, you can put items out for trade, and trade for items already placed. The better licence you have, the more of a profit you get from placing your item on trade.

   Spawn gate allow players to set new locations for them to resurrect after they are defeated in battle. This can be done at no cost and as many times as you want.

   Barriers are objects that prevent players from passing unless they have a certain item in their inventory.

   Portals allow characters to be transported across large distances. They do cost money though, but to get around this, defeat the portal guard so that you can pass for free. There are different levels of portals, along with different levels of guards, but once you defeat a guard, all portals that level and below are free passage.

   Quest Items can be picked up off the ground for quest completion, some have spawn timers though, so sometimes when you go to interact, there appears to be nothing there... just check back later

   Quest monsters are monsters that drop unique items for quests. If you lose, you can try them again, but if you win, there is a timer as to how often you can defeat the monster.

   NPCs usually give quests. They will tell you of the item they seek, and just give it to them and they will reward you.

d. Help Tab

   The Help Tab brought you here... remember?

e. Log Out Tab

   The Log Out Tab immediately removes your character from the land (except during battles). Just closing the window will cause a timer to wait a while for a response before it considers your character gone, but going here will do it immediately.

f. Top 100 Tab

   This opens a new window exactly the same as the one on the Main Screen.

g. Donate Tab

   This game does cost money to run, and if you like the game and have some extra money lying around, it would be much appreciated in keeping the server and game up and running. This opens a new window asking how much you are willing to give, then directs you to the paypal payment options.

h. Options Tab

   This screen gives you various options for the game. First, you may change your password if you feel that the current one is insecure (this does require your email address). Second are the chat filters. You can filter various chat messages here. Third, are just some graphics options. For colors, we use the RGB-hex-representation. For example #331111 means dark red and #DDDDFF means bright blue. There are various tools on the internet that make translating these values into real colors comfortable, so have fun playing around!




CHAT

a. Chat Usage

   In order to chat, you must be above level 10 (does not take too long to reach this). Once you have reached this, clicking in the black box after your name and typing in the message followed by pressing enter or clicking 'Say' will send your message. You may not see it at first, because chat refreshes once every 5 seconds.

b. Chat Syntax

   For a normal message, just type in what you wish to say, and press enter. If you wish to do an emote, type a colon : before your message such as ": likes to eat food". If you want to private message someone, either click on their name in chat, or type "/w name, message" name being the player's name and message being the message you wish to send to that person. Ignoring other players can also be done by typing "/i name," to hear a person again type "/h name," and to list all the people you are currently ignoring, type "/li" -- note that you cannot ignore moderators. To send a sales message, type "/s " before your message. Private messages are kept even if the recipient is not online at the time. They get deleted on reading

c. Chat Types

   There are three different chat rooms. First is the default regular chat. Second is the SalesChat where all messages are sent as emotes. Third is ClanChat where you can talk to only the people in your clan. When you click on the type of chat you want, wait 5 seconds before thinking something is wrong, because chat refreshes every 5 seconds.

d. Calculator

   The command to use the calculator that is built within chat is /calc. You may use any of the symbols [0-9]+*-/.()^ and space to form arithmetical constructs in the usual way. The expressions are evaluated with multiplication (*,/) having higher priority than addition (+,-). The ^-symbol stands for the power function and is written in binary prefix notation, so ^(2,3) means 2 to the pwoer of 3 and the result is 8.

e. Memo

   To memorite a text, you simply write /memo in front of the text. To display the memorized text later, just type /memo.

Furthermore there are: /sta (beast), /shr (shrine), /skc (kills), /gem (stones given to Joe) and /cjc (JC status).

For a complete list see: Chat Commands

MORE SPECIFIC INFORMATION

a. More on Stats

   Stats were given an overview before this, but here I'll give a more detailed description.

Health
Your character's health is a measure of how much damage it can take before it dies. Your maximum health increases with each level gain. It can be restored with health potions.

Mana
Your character's mana is used to cast spells. Your maximum mana increases with each level gain. It can be restored with mana potions.

Strength
Strength is the stat that melee damage is mostly dependant on.

Agility
Agility is the primary stat for determining whether or not you hit an enemy with a physical attack. It is vital for fighters. It is also the primary damage modifying stat for bow users.

Vitality
Vitality is the primary stat needed for resisting spells, and for mages, to successfully cast on a monster, as well a small effect on spell damage.

Psi
Psi is the primary stat for mages, as it is the major factor in spell power.

Speed
Speed determines the number of turns a player gets in battle and who gets the initial attack each round. It also directly affects chance to evade melee attacks.

b. More on Skills

   Currently, there are more than 40 skills that a player may obtain, though only 6 may be used at a time. All skills are used automatically and require no action from the player to use once they are gained.

List all skills




Clans and Kingdoms

Clans

A clan is a union of players who have their own chat channel, share clan-bonuses - and possibly a kingdom and a fort. Players high in a clan hierarchy should help the lower ones in order for a clan to be successful. The power of a clan is calculated from the levels of its members. Higher power means more options for bonuses and the settlement of a kingdom. The leader of a clan can determine a co-leader to assist them in business. Besides that, there can be councilors of several different levels who are allowed to perform some actions, like raise the bonuses.

The following more specific rules apply to clans.

• New clans can be started by anyone who has 100,000 gold.
• Clans can have up to 5 members at a time.
• Once you leave your clan, you must wait 1 hours to join one again or create one.
• If a clan-leader leaves his clan, the co-leader will jump into the leader-position. If there was no co-leader the clan gets removed.
• Leaders and co-leaders may assign councilors of levels 1-3.
• Councilors of any level can increase bonuses.
• Councilors of levels 2 and 3 may set clan messages.
• Besides the leaders, councilors of level 3 can accept new members.
• Only leaders may boot members from clan or reject recruits.