Aluriya, a Preview

[Calypso]

I’m sure by now many of you have probably heard of Aluriya. However, I thought it might be nice to put a little preview together for those of you who were thinking about buying an account, but were hesitant to do so because you haven’t seen much of the site.

So here is a slightly more in-depth, although still fairly general, preview:



This is the homepage- fairly general and straightforward, with a preview of the current news and a display that ticks through the current available aethers, the pets of the site.

**Something else users should note is that every account gets free upgraded status for their first month on the site. While accounts cost $10, you get $15 worth of site benefits when you join- the month of free upgrade, a double pack of hibbari (mini pets), and a free limited edition breed sprite of whatever cash shop pet is current! There is NO recurring fee to keep using the site, unless you choose to upgrade your account.

[Calypso]

[WORLD]




These are some views of the ‘World’ page. There are a lot of useful links here, including links to the Orchard and Herb Garden, as well as the Market and the Herbalist.

There are also useful links below the world map to use honeycomb, wishing sprites, etc, which we’ll talk about later.

Gathering:





This is the orchard. In the orchard and the herb garden, you can collect fruits and plants to take to the herbalist and to the market in exchange for Silver Shards, the site currency. You can gather in each place 10 times, every hour for regular users, and ever half hour for upgraded users. Honeycomb and sprites can be found here as well, mentioned later in this guide.

The Market/The Herbalist:



This is the market. Once you’ve collected items from the orchard and herb garden, you’ll want to take them here to trade them in for Silver Shards, the in-site currency. The amount you get depends on what kind of items you’re trading in.

Honeycomb:



Honeycomb can be found in the orchard, by clicking on the beehive. Be careful, though! You’ll want to gather in the beehive last, after you’ve used up your other turns, because if you don’t find honeycomb, you’ll get stung and lose the rest of your orchard turns for the hour.

Honeycomb is extremely valuable, because you can use it to attract Hibbaru, the site mini-pets, and other valuable items.



Here you can see that I found some Luna Earrings!

The General Store:




The General Store has two sides- one for spending Gold Shards (Aluriya's USD currency), and one for spending Silver Shards (the in-site currency), with plenty of items in each!



Here I've dressed up one of my aethers with accessories I bought from the Silver Shards section of the General Store!

[Calypso]

[SPRITES]



This is an Elemental Sprite. They can be found anywhere in the orchard or herb garden- even in the beehive! There are five different kinds of Elemental Sprites- Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, and Dream. Sprites are valuable as well, because they have a large range of uses.

Hibbari:



This is the page where you can use sprites to attempt to create Hibbari, the mini-pets. Occasionally the attempt fails, and the user will lose their sprites.



Above are just a few examples of the Hibbari.

Doppelgangers:



Sprites are also used with Silver Replicant Sprites to produce Doppelgangers. Doppelgangers are a copy of any custom aether, the site pets, that you own. Silver Replicant Sprites can be harvested from any custom aether.

Creating an Aether:



This is the page where you create the site pets, aethers. Each aether ‘recipe’ requires a certain combination of three sprites. When aethers are first released, the recipe is unknown, and each user can try different sprite combinations every half hour until it is discovered. Failed attempts allow the users to get all of their sprites back. The person who finally discovers the recipe is the breed ‘founder’ and gets a shiny breed trophy! After that, the recipe is revealed for everyone to see and use. To create the aether, you simply select the breed you want to make, make sure you have the required sprites, and select ‘Use These Sprites.’



This was the trophy given to the founder of the Arabi breed!

[Calypso]

[AETHERS]

Aethers are the site pets. New aether breeds are released every two months.



Here I made a Storm Wolf! (For instructions on how to make aethers, see above post.) You’ll want to start making aethers as soon as you’ve got enough sprites. You can harvest special sprites from any aether you own. Each aether can be harvested once per day. Upgraded users can harvest 15 aethers per day, and regular users can harvest 10 aethers per day.



To harvest an aether, simply click the ‘Harvest’ link, just below the link to reset the Aether’s image.



Here I harvested a Gathering Sprite! Gathering sprites are used to reset your gathering turns in the orchard and herb garden. That means that they let you have ten more turns per half hour if you're upgraded, or per hour for regular users!



This time, I harvested a Wishing Sprite.



Wishing Sprites can be used to find Silver Shards and other goodies on the Treasure Map, including Cash Shop items and Gold Shards, Aluriya's USD currency!



…and a Games Sprite! Game Sprites can be used to enter raffles for custom Hibbaru, as well as allow you to play games to earn Silver Shards.



And from one of my Panthiras, I harvested a Panthira Breed Sprite. Breed Sprites are combined to create hybrids breeds.



This is one of the Hsulara, a hybrid between the Hsulan dragon breed and the Arabi horse breed.

Silver Customs:



Here's a picture of the custom demo. You don't need an account to use the custom demo, and you can play with it HERE. Silver customs on Aluriya are just 15 Gold Shards, and you can customize any aether you own. Simply select a breed from the dropdown menu and design away! In addition to markings shared by all the breeds, each breed has three special markings that are available for you to use that are unique to each breed!



This is my custom Panthira, Bali. ^^

[Calypso]

[COMMUNITY]

Aluriya has a fun, upbeat community that welcomes all new members. They'd be happy to answer any questions you all have about the site, as well as offer some friendly advice and tips.



This is our live chat. If you're ever in the mood to talk, have any questions, or just need general assistance, this is the place to be. Notice that I got everyone to say hey, just for you guys. Aluriya also has numerous active forums, as well as a PM system.



This is my profile. ^^ The profile system is really easy to use- you can completely edit the modules (you’ll notice I use a lot of them ) and drag and drop to rearrange them the way you want them to look.



And if you like CSS, you’ll be happy to note that the profiles are fully customizable.

[Calypso]

[MISCELLANEOUS]

Aluriya has a TON of other features that would take too long to into in great depth in this thread. However, I thought there were a few things worth mentioning.

Aether Blending:

Aethers on Aluriya don't breed, as on normal pet sites. Instead, using Blending Sprites, ANY two aethers can be 'blended' to produce an aether similar to each. Because of this system, you don't have to worry about gender when blending aethers. And blending aethers with dissimilar markings won't lessen the value of their blend, because marking color and strength are not displayed on an aether's page.

Gold Custom Aethers:

These are one step up from regular custom-demo customs. Each gold custom is HAND-DRAWN by Hibbary. You can even have a Hibbaru turned into a gold custom. Rather than try to tell you about all of them, I thought I'd just show you a few examples out of the dozens of gorgeous customs out there.



Custom Design Contests:

Every month when the new breeds come out, the admins hold a silver custom design contest, open to everyone on the site. When it is over, the contest is judged, and two winners receive their silver custom aether! Third place will also get 10 Gold Shards to help them purchase their custom design.

[Calypso]

[FAQ/Q&A]

Hopefully this gave you all a bit better idea of what the site is like. ^^ However, I know there was a LOT of material there, and I know I couldn't have possibly covered everything. So if you guys have any questions or anything, feel free to post them here! I'll answer them and repost them here for others as they come in.

Hope you enjoyed! Again, please post here if you have any questions!

Q: Will Aluriya always be pay to play?
A: Aluriya isn't your typical pay-to-play site. There is only a one-time $10 fee to purchase an account. After that, owning a regular account is completely free- there are no recurring fees at all.

Q: I don't have the money to purchase an account, but I really want to play! Do I have other options?
A: YES! Aluriya realizes that for whatever reason, maybe you don't have a paypal or access to a credit card, that sometimes people cannot afford accounts. Because of this, it's been made possible for someone else to purchase an account on your behalf. So if you have a friend that can buy your account for you, or if you can work out a deal with someone on another site, they can get the account on your behalf.

Q: So Aluriya offers upgraded accounts, too?
A: They sure do! Upgrading is completely optional- you might decide to pick and choose which months you want to upgrade, or decide not to upgrade at all. It's totally up to you. For those of you who were wondering, here are the current upgrade perks, although as new features are added or expanded upon this list may change a bit.

-special free monthly item (**note: when this feature is implemented)
-double the gathering turns, so double the items/sprites per playing time
-an extra 5 harvesting turns per day
-participate in upgraded-only raffles and giveaways
-have a signature in the forums

As you can see, upgrading generally boosts regular game-play, so even if you decide not to upgrade, you'll still be able to enjoy all the aspects of the site.

Q: Other than PayPal, how can one make payment arrangements?
A: Payments do have to be made through PayPal, however, you can make a payment through PayPal without having a PayPal account if you have a credit card. You simply enter the credit card information instead of logging in when it asks you to log into PayPal. If you don't have a regular credit card, you can also purchase a VISA or MasterCard pre-paid gift card from places like 7-11 stores. Or you can pay another person in art or site currency to buy you an account, and just have them enter your email address when they buy the account instead of theirs. The registration code would then go to you.

[cpvr]

Looking real nice!

[Calypso]

Thank you very much. ^^ I believe it is about all done, now.

[ça]

Good luck Calypso