1. Technical

1.1 I want to play! How? Where?
1.2 On what platform does Arindal run?
1.3 Which engine does Arindal use?
1.4 What are the system requirements?
1.5 Is the game displayed in 3D?
1.6 How does the interface work?
1.7 Do I need to be connected to the internet to play?

2. Gameplay

2.1 Roleplaying? How am I supposed to do that?
2.2 Can I kill other players?
2.3 What is a fighter?
2.4 What is a healer?
2.5 What is a mage?
2.6 Which class should I play?
2.7 How does my character become more powerful?
2.8 I know Clan Lord. Are you different or just a localised version?

1. Technical

1.1 I want to play! How? Where?
Arindal is in constant development. We are now a commercial game, which means we charge a small monthly fee for playing. You can start by downloading a client from the downloadpages and register for a free demo account at the 'Arindal Account' pages.

1.2 On what platforms does Arindal run?
Arindal is available for Macintosh, Windows and we have a Java-client for other operating systems.

1.3 Which engine does Arindal use?
Arindal uses the Clan Lord engine licensed from Delta Tao.

1.4 What are the system requirements?
Low. Arindal is graphically not demanding. Enabling OpenGL effects will take some extra power though. For Windows the minimum is a Pentium III running Windows 2000, for Macintosh the smallest configuration is an 100 MHz PowerPC. The game is playable with an analogue modem-connection to the internet.

1.5 Is the game displayed in 3D?
Sorry, no 3D. Arindal is a 2D game, using relatively simple graphics with a top-down view. Arindal isn't about eye-candies, moving viewpoints or multichannel panning stereo sounds. We want to focus on content more than on the looks. This gives us the chance to create an interesting world, without losing ourselves in the creation of special effects.

1.6 How does the interface work?
The interface is a mixture between simple click-and-point and textual commands. You can make hot keys for quick switching of items from your inventory to your hands or make complicated macros with a powerful built-in scripting language.

1.7 Do I need to be connected to the internet to play?
Yes. All the game data, and the game world is located on our server. The world continues to develop and change there even when you are off-line. It is called a persistent world.


2. Gameplay

2.1 Roleplaying? How am I supposed to do that?
There is a simple formula that tells you how much fun you can have in Arindal: The more you dive in, the more depth you give your character, the more fun will you have. Promised. Or, in short: You are not only an icon in a virtual world - you are invited to play a vital part in its story and magic. You can make role-playing as complicated as you want to. It helps when you don't talk OOC (Out Of Character). Examples of OOC talk are discussing your operating system, soccer games or how fast your internet speed is. Look at other players, and see how they play their role as fighter, healer or mage. Add your own personality to it and see what happens! Have some background ideas for your character. What drives your character? Was your family destroyed by a horde of undead? Are you an orphan, raised by a clan of Urdar (a dwarf-like race)? A gay Drakh Nor (a barbarian like race) with a taste for sturdy Urdars in leather, wearing your pink shirt with pride? The 8th son in a family of fisherman Maqua (a race closely connected to water) who all died by an obscure plague, pursuing a career in medicine? The daughter of a nobleman who fled her home to escape marrying a T'rool-priest (foul smelling, ugly creatures)?

2.2 Can I kill other players?
No. You can not kill another player, nor can another player kill you. Arindal is about cooperation, if you want to kill other players, this game may not be to your liking. We strive for a social game. You can play an evil character if you like, but you will have to find another way to act evil. If you just want to test your skills against another player, challenge them for a fight in the arena.

2.3 What is a fighter?
Fighters are the brute force in Arindal. They do not use magic, they do not heal others. They attack, or defend. They can choose from different kinds of weapons and armour, and they can train various skills to improve their fighting techniques. The more fighters advance, the more sophisticated are the fighting-skills that they can learn. They are also those who possibly save a whole group by easily holding off a monster that would send others to death with a single strike ('bricking').

2.4 What is a healer?
Healers take care of the fallen and wounded. Without healers, fighters and mages would have to stay in town, trembling at the mere thought of meeting a monster. Generally healers don't fight well. They can train in a variety of skills that improve and enhance their style of healing. No hunting party is complete without some healers!

2.5 What is a mage?
Mages are the seekers for - and travellers on - the mystical paths in Arindal and are concerned with magical arts and knowledge. Mages thrive on challenges and as such, their journey is long, filled with difficulties, hard, often secretive and solitary, and of slow progress. They are not offensive. Mages may be able to open portals to distant areas, offer protection to attacks from monsters and imbue weapons with magical abilities. They have a broad variety of abilities that can greatly extend the abilities of a hunting group. Mages tend to be weak in combat, but highly respected for their knowledge and dedication. Mages are the hardest to play of the three classes.

2.6 Which class should I play?
You will be given the opportunity to try out a class before you make a permanent choice. This can act as a rough guideline:

• Fighters are the most powerful class.
  They deal with all the things related to combat. However, they don't tend to have very much flashy or special stuff. If you're keen on achieving things, on becoming powerful then you should consider becoming a member of the fighter class.
  
  
• Healers are a social class.
  They deal with helping others. They have a number of relatively powerful abilities to aid them in this. They are very poor at hunting, but can defend themselves if they have to. If you enjoy socializing or helping other people, then you should consider healer as a class.
  
  
• Mages are a challenging class.
  They are not powerful, they are poor at all forms of combat and are not at all offensive. They exist to provide an extra challenge if you find healer or fighter too easy. They receive very little or no help and they have a very hard time. However, mages do have a number of special abilities available to them. If you have a lot of time and dedication, and if you enjoy politics, solving problems and puzzles against very high odds for a big feeling of accomplishment after you *finally* complete something, then you should consider mage as a class (otherwise, avoid it like the plague).
  It is strongly suggested that you have previously played the game as another class, and that you do not have multiple characters to play a mage.

2.7 How does my character become more powerful?
Your character gains experience. With this experience you can train with trainers of your choice. You will receive messages if you make progress with the training. And if you think you have trained enough with one trainer, you can simply seek out another trainer. There are dozens of trainers out there in the world. Not only healing, fighting and magic-related; you can train pathfinding to reveal secret paths, skinning to get a better bounty; you can learn new languages of other races as well as fishing, mining and so on. Arindal has no 'rank-cap', i.e. there is no maximum amount of ranks you can get, so you can keep developing your character!

2.8 I know Clan Lord. Are you different or just a localized version?
We are different. In some ways the differences are obvious, in other ways it differs marginally. Some things may have remained the same. In general, we differ a lot. Monsters react differently, weapons are different, rewards are different. Don't count on the knowledge you learned in Clan Lord... things might work completely differently in Arindal.