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Reviews Cantr is for a niche audience
Cantr has quite a steep learning curve, so a lot of players drop out before they can figure what the game is all about. I've been playing Cantr for 10 years, so a lot has changed during that time. Currently they're working on an intro server so that newbies will finally have an environment where they can test the mechanics and ask questions in a friendly enviroment. The main game is strictly in-character, so if a newbie mentions OOC elements without prefixing his talk with "OOC:", they're likely to get bashed or ignored. Also if a new character steals things or enters buildings, they are likely to get in trouble and be met with hostility. That's why I would recommend starting with a law-abiding, non-abrasive character until you learn to know the ropes, and only consider becoming a criminal if the possibility of getting away with it seems high enough. Experienced players know how to take everything out of the system, playing around the sailing and traveling ticks, cooperating to drag people or attack them simultaneously so that the victim will have no time to react.
The combat system
One of the biggest problems with this game is the combat system, which has changed very little during the whole lifespan of the game. It has always been restricted to one hit per target per day, nominally giving the victim time to react. However, this only works if there is one attacker. If there's two attackers with good skills and weapons, they can already kill a character within seconds and there's nothing the defender can do about it. Survival is a question of luck. If your character has a shield, it deflects a certain amount of damage, but there's a chance that the attack completely bypasses the shield. And since the majority of characters who matter have at least an iron shield, it would be almost impossible to hurt anyone without this shield bypassing possibility. Two things that got added later on were tiredness and skills. Tiredness means you can only attack one person with full effectiveness, and the subsequent attacks will be less effective until you rest up. Skills mean if you're stronger than average or a good fighter, that's good, if you're weaker than average or a bad fighter, that's bad, and if you're bad at both things, that's extra bad, and if you're good at both, that's extra good. These stats go up very slowly so you're basically stuck with it. You might go up one level in a lifetime, unless you train like every day, and no one can be bothered with all the clicking. So basically these random stats define whether your character has any potential to be a pirate or a town guard, or if they should rely on other people to protect them. The third thing that got implemented, and this was quite recently, is near death state. This means when a character gets hit in a way that previously would've killed him instantly, now he drops everything he's carrying and can't move. He can choose to die, and other characters can choose to finish him off or heal him. This enables robbing people without killing them, and eliminates the previous chance of accidentally killing someone if several people attack a person at once. Changes to the combat system have been suggested several times but the community has never been able to reach a consensus about what would be better than the current system, even though everybody agrees it's flawed.
Rest of the game play
You can do many things in Cantr, including gathering and processing resources, manufacturing items, buildings, vehicles; traveling, hunting, and domesticating animals. What you'll be doing the most is chatting with other people, if you're any sort of a social person. Most things process every three hours real time, so that way the game is rather slow. Also players might not be online at the same time, so you might find yourself replying to things that were said while you were sleeping. It's technically possible to do everything by yourself, but things go much faster with team work. Some things, like building a van or a bus, are not meant to be done by a single person and would take over a real life year if you count acquiring and processing all the materials.
The characters
All the characters are or were once played by real people. Some of them are abandoned and remain behind as sleepers. There are no NPCs. It's generally recommended to come up with a visual character description. All characters are humans - it's against the rules to play for example an elf or an orc. In the past there have been cases of people playing a dog or a bear, but technically that's not allowed, and if someone reports you, you'll be told to stop. It's okay to play a human who /thinks/ they are an animal or some sort of a magical creature, but they're not allowed to look like a non-human character. It's also discouraged to have a background story, and instead you should assume your character appeared out of thin air as a 20-year-old with no childhood memories.
The community
If you want to chat OOC, you can register on the forums or come to the chat room. New players are so rare nowadays that oldbies are very happy to see them. Occasionally there's drama and everybody hates that.
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Written by Anonymous on August 13, 2014.
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