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Roman Rambo
Dec 21, 2009


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYYbbWdqjNA (A bit long, but a glimpse into raiding in SoD. Created by the guild Sacred Band.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1IILncMXxo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAI5KVG4rKk

Shards of Dalaya (SoD) is a *Goon Created and Goon Run* emulated Everquest server which focuses on creating an experience similar to Everquest Live while providing new experiences and adventures. We have taken the best parts of Everquest and integrated them with entirely new lore and content. We have hand made thousands of quests, NPCs, books, zones and pretty much every other part of our game. Shards of Dalaya is absolutely free, and is run entirely by a passionate volunteer staff. The server is still in active development, with new content being released on a regular patch schedule. Please view our recent patch history on the main page, https://shardsofdalaya.com/

If you have any questions after reading the thread, or just want to hang out, be sure to join us in SoD Discord at https://discord.gg/PtVs8GZ

Want to skip my pitch?
https://wiki.shardsofdalaya.com/index.php/Installation_Guide_(Steam)


SoD also runs beautifully via WINE and Crossover. We have quite a few people who play daily using Linux or OSX.


How much does it cost to play?
SoD is absolutely free. We take donations to keep the server running, but strongly believe that no amount of money should allow you to gain power over those who do not have money to spend. We offer some toys for monthly donators, but nothing that substantially effects in game power.

Tell me more!
Shards is the one of the most successful EQ1 emulated server to date, having been run for close to 14 years, and sporting a playerbase of several thousand active accounts. We've taken EverQuest, spun it around, and created something of a hybrid between the classic game and something new of our own. We've done our best to eliminate the real hassles and boredom of the original game, without taking away the danger and challenge. We have large epic raids, but we've slimmed them down to 18 players to make everyone absolutely vital to the raid instead of just another cog in a machine. Dungeons are there, full with nice loot and frogloks. We have ~160 zones with some 12000+ NPCs and 15000+ items, all created by our own developers. Nothing has been directly copied from the original game, it's essentially an entirely new game in the EQ client.

Stuff for the hardcore
Shards appeals to casual and dedicated players alike, just to highlight some of the things that keeps even the most hardcore players playing:
This video pretty much exemplifies raiding in SoD. Tough, but satisfying and exciting when you get it right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYYbbWdqjNA
An established high level population and raiding game. Plenty of content to enjoy on your way to the top!
Huge amounts of raiding content that gets progressively harder. See how fast you can take your guild from the bottom to the cutting edge!
Dozens of zones and hundreds of mobs of varying tiers, from your average giant gorilla to your stereotypical giant elemental gods and dragons.
Hundreds of hours worth of AAs to grind, heavily customized to be more useful for classes that got a bad draw in the original game.
A stable and well-balanced game that will not take sudden gigantic leaps in content power to make people buy the latest expansion.

Stuff for the casual
Many additions have been made to Shards to give even the chillest of players a place to play:
Unique Adventuring Bands that allow you to keep gaining experience at the same rate as your friends, regardless of the difference in amount of hours you can play.
Treasure hunting, powerful tradeskills, high end dungeons and other casual content as an actual rival to raiding, allowing you to progress even if dragon killing with seventeen buddies isn't your thing.
Experience debt puts a limit on how much time bad luck can cost you.
A healthy mid and low level population, that at any given time is made up by more than half the players online.
Groups are promoted via large experience bonuses, and powerlevelling is heavily penalized via experience penalties, encouraging players to be social and generally making it easier to find a group to slay your gnolls with.
Starting cities that are still the centers of player activity, rather than being deserted as in the original game post-Velious.

Other cool things
An ongoing, dynamic storyline that you are able to participate in and affect. The game world is in the midst of a war, and zones can be gained and lost, and ultimately lead to victory or defeat, depending on how dedicated players are. Either way, future content will be heavily affected.
Hundreds of quests, including a massive main quest that spans from level 1 to 65, introduces you to the lore of the world, and gives you a number of irreplaceable rewards.
A dedicated developer staff that do regular patches and additions of new content. These guys seriously own.
A browser based, fully automated character profile system to keep track of your achievements.
A relatively comprehensive wiki to help you with questing, finding loot, and doing tradeskills.
An online and in game vendor system letting you barter and sell your wares.
A server status page.



Treasure Hunting and Raids






Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1IILncMXxo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAI5KVG4rKk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0rySYhp9YU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYYbbWdqjNA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyBNtBWXRIg

Classes

Melee Classes
Warrior - A lot of custom work has gone into making warriors fun to play. Gone are the days of turning on auto-attack and mashing taunt. Warriors now gain endurance by hitting things and getting hit, and in turn spend stamina to do damage, aggro, and damage mitigation. These guys own. Do you want to own? Play a warrior.
Monk - They punch, and kick, and club stuff really well. They can take hits well, and they're also the best pullers in the game. Chaining their different special attacks in specific combinations can increase damage, heal yourself or even buff your group!
Rogue - What they lack in utility they make up for in damage, these guys can seriously dish it out. They also can steal from NPCs, burglarize houses and disarm the myriad of traps that exist throughout Dalaya.

Hybrid Classes
Bard - These guys sing songs. Songs that make orcs weep blood. Songs that can make their groupmates into little demi-gods. They're best described as 60% of every class. They really can do it all, making them a great addition to every party and raid.
Beastlord - Beastlords are an excellent support class that also can tank and dish damage with their animal companions.
Paladin - Paladins excel as tanks of the group or raid, they are particularly strong in controlling aggro on multiple mobs with their area effect spells. Their group heals are also extremely potent and useful in both groups and raids.
Ranger - Do you like shooting things with arrows and casting spells? Do you larp as Aragon? Play a ranger.
Shadowknight - Excellent tanks with unrivaled aggro generating ability. A Shadowknight are so corrupt that they can damage things simply by touching them.

Priest Classes
Cleric - The strongest healers in the game, somewhat lacking in other utility when compared to druids and shamans. They are always needed in groups and guilds. If you want to be perpetually loved and needed, be a cleric!
Druid - A well rounded healer, their heal over time spells are the best out of the priest classes, plus they have damage shields and teleports.
Shaman - As much of a support class as they are a healer. They buff, slow, heal and poison enemies. They're fun to play and great to have around in any situation.

Pure Casters
Enchanter - Extremely powerful if matched with a competent group. Their ability to charm mobs makes them potentially the most powerful dps class in the game. Can channel their groupmates power through themselves, mimicking spells or melee damage for short periods of time.
Magician - Strong pets and area nukes to match.
Necromancer - They have the most powerful damage over time spells in the game and good dps overall.
Wizard - The strongest burst damage class in the game.

Races
For a quick rundown of the differences between races, I'll refer you to this handy comparison chart. While races of this game have been pretty well balanced, they are unique enough to make choosing one more than just a cosmetic choice.

Deities and Alignment
In Shards of Dalaya, you can pledge yourself to one of a number of deities. Doing so grants you a couple of benefits. First off, you'll get a medallion that grants you teleportation from anywhere to your deities plane. Secondly, pledging to a deity grants you access to a quest line that yields an augment for your gear. Lastly, by choosing a deity and making decisions in game that are consistent with that deities own alignment, your character will gain a small bonus to their specializations (such as spell casting, meleeing, and tanking. See '/cmd specialization help' in game for more info.). In short, SoD has an alignment system closely resembling D&D, where you can choose to be Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic, as well as Good, Neutral, or Evil. There are many quests in the game that will affect these alignments, based on how you approach them.

Factions
There is an over-arching quest line in the game that will eventually have you choosing between one of three rival factions. Which faction you choose will have an impact on the rest of your characters progression. In short, the three factions are:
Silvercrown Trading Company: These guys love making money and expanding their influence. A good choice for lawful and good characters.
Council of Innovation: Gnomes gone political, they love knowledge. Also a good choice for chaotic, neutral and good characters.
Blackscale: Marauders and scoundrels. A good choice for chaotic and evil characters.

Tradeskills
There are a lot of tradeskills, all of which are useful. Below is a list of what is available on the server. Some of the wealthiest individuals on the servers are tradeskillers.
https://wiki.shardsofdalaya.com/index.php/Category:Tradeskills

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Roman Rambo
Dec 21, 2009
There is still a 2 box limit.

Roman Rambo
Dec 21, 2009
There are screenshots of the beastlord pet models here: https://wiki.shardsofdalaya.com/index.php/Beastlord

I don't know to what extent there is video of them walking around though. I think for the most part they are good, but scale your idea of good to 1999.

Roman Rambo
Dec 21, 2009
Congrats to all the gamblers who won in the slot machine GM event today, including big winner Narg who got the Lucky Charm.

https://i.imgur.com/Wt4N92C.jpg

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