Knightmare (NPC)
Where to find them
Notes
Knightmare was first implemented with Update 9.44, on January 25, 2012, for the celebration of Tibia's 15th Anniversary and removed later. He was again implemented on January 5, 2017 for the celebration of Tibia's 20th Anniversary. During the celebration of Tibia's 15th anniversary, he would give you an Anniversary Backpack when you asked him for a present. Every player could get it only once. See also: Knightmare
Transcripts
200 linesPlayerhi
KnightmareHello Player and welcome. I guess you are here to talk about my job!
Playername
KnightmareI am known as Knightmare, though it was not my first choice of a name. The name I initially thought of was already taken. ...
KnightmareIn hindsight it's probably better to be known as Knightmare as my other choice seems rather dumb to me today. Dumb enough to not mention it at least <wink>.
Playerjob
KnightmareWorld-builder, god, sage, storyteller. All of it fits in it's limited way. I for myself would humbly settle for storyteller since this is what interests me the most and seems most important. ...
KnightmareA great deal of Tibia's background was created by me or based on my ideas. As far as the greater concept is concerned, there are still so incredibly many things to be told, I hope to fit them in one by one whenever possible.
Playergod
KnightmareI always felt that been called a god is a bit exaggerated. I could use some of my not-so-godly powers to get you out if you are stuck here.
Playersage
KnightmareWell I have not only created a great deal of Tibia but I have also witnessed all of its glorious and darker moments over the years. Have you ever known the story about urine? ...
KnightmareOr how about what happened to the Thaian drawbridge? Have you heard what problems the most early runes have caused? Or did you know about the evolution of monsters and how the level system changed over the years? ...
KnightmarePerhaps you might rather hear about the mysteries of ancient Tibia or would you rather learn about the old player houses? ...
KnightmareThen again you might not yet be familiar with the story about the Thaian east gate area or would like to hear about the gamemasters. We could also talk about NPCs if you like. ...
KnightmareI might even have a word or two to share about the cities of Tibia.
Playerurine
KnightmareOver the years some things changed and others remained the same. In the past we had no noses and no eyes, BUT we could pee! ...
KnightmareYou could use some empty container on yourself and would fill it with urine. Technically speaking player characters were walking urine containers. ...
KnightmareAnd even better! You would never run out of urine. If you had enough containers if you went for a pee, only the sky was the limit in a way! ...
KnightmareOf course people preferred the see-through vials as containers to proudly present the liquid gold they just created. ...
KnightmareOf course those days were not only that ... uhm golden. Urine attacks became more and more common. Mad men (and women alike) assaulted harmless bystanders with bottled urine and sprinkled it everywhere. ...
KnightmareCities were cluttered with urine vials and pools. With concern the gods saw their lovely cities slowly drowning in the yellow flood. So one day they decided to cut off ... the urine supply. ...
KnightmareIt was an astonishingly painless process and, after a first panic, theories of people spontaneously exploding from inner pressure could be dismissed. But the gods went a step too far. ...
KnightmareThey did not only stop the urine from flowing, they also changed all existing urine into lemonade - which was a bit disturbing, even though it was done with the best intentions. ...
KnightmareAlso now the dungeons were filled with odd rooms in which the monsters obviously hoarded and spilled lemonade. ...
KnightmareIt took some intervention on my part to finally bring back urine in some form. I could convince CIP to add back the urine for ... uhm 'flavour' reasons. And so at last the urine made its humble return into the world that it had once ruled.
Playerdrawbridge
KnightmareOnce upon a time the northern drawbridge of Thais was fully operational. Though it could be used to block at least one path into the city and annoy other players it worked quite well until the number of players grew. ...
KnightmareThe city became increasingly inaccessible from the north, but some players enjoyed hunting those responsible for lifting the drawbridge or even started to guard the lever. ...
KnightmareThe deathblow for the drawbridge came from an unexpected side though. It was the fishing that made the drawbridge inoperative. ...
KnightmareSince the server distinguished between fishable and temporally not fishable tiles, it was unable to reset tiles that were not fishable as it expected them to be. ...
KnightmareThat sometimes lead to holes in the bridge that were a rare myth for a while, but soon became more and more common. ...
KnightmareAfter figuring out that the bridge mechanics had to be changed in any case, it was decided to lock the bridge once and for all and to allow undisturbed access to the city.
Playerrunes
KnightmareRunes were originally introduced as a quick and easy way to target spells. Still, they were not as unproblematic as first thought and they caused several unforeseen problems. ...
KnightmareThe first runes worked in a quite simple way. The server was just told which rune was used on which target and it faithfully applied the effects. ...
KnightmareThis caused several problems though, since it assumed real players would use the runes in the real game as intended. ...
KnightmareOf course this was not always the case. First of all, though the server checked if there was a blockade between user and target it did not check for the proximity of user and target as well. ...
KnightmareSo a manipulated client could theoretically use a rune from one end of the world to the other as long as there was nothing blocking it. This was a clear exploit and was eliminated fast though. ...
KnightmareIt got more complicated when it came to using runes on another level though. ...
KnightmareIn the past it was possible to use runes on something you saw, that was not blocked and in range. That meant though, that you could use runes from a roof on some creature in the street. ...
KnightmareThe problems with this approach were numerous. Monsters could not target someone on another level and not even change levels. So it resulted in many easy or at least risk free kills of some of the strongest creatures in Tibia. ...
KnightmareThe demon in particular had quite often been the target of such attacks. It also became quite popular to attack other players using this method. Not only was the attacker not easily reached, the client would not display multilevel effects. ...
KnightmareThat meant you did not even see the attacks coming and only with some luck noticed your hit-points dropping while having a chat with a friend in town. ...
KnightmareThough originally a feature and not strictly a bug, the mechanic was deemed as too problematic and abusable, so it was dropped for good.
Playermonsters
KnightmareWith the introduction of magic and vocations several creatures entered the world of Tibia for the first time. ...
KnightmareWith the original player characters transferred to the new system the new monsters were quite a challenge with the characters being low levelled, untrained and inexperienced. ...
KnightmareMinotaurs, ghouls and the then differently named bonelords were really dangerous for the heroes of that time. Drama struck when high levelled and prominent players got trapped in a cave full of bonelords and ghouls. ...
KnightmareSome of the most experienced players were thrashed soundly by some minotaurs when they ventured too far into the depths of new dungeons. ...
KnightmareDragons, who were introduced along with them, were seen as only killable by a strong group of experienced players for a while and demons were seen as beyond the reach of ordinary players. ...
KnightmareBut the new monsters used the old AI and hadn't learnt any new tricks yet. ...
KnightmareThat lead to new and quite effective strategies that were sometimes dubious at least, as a common rat, a dragon or demon could be blocked or trapped by some chests or flower pots. ...
KnightmareTo make things even more easy, invisibility worked on all monsters, regardless of power. So soon you could see invisible mages kill the mighty demons en masse - well actually you could NOT see them of course but they did it nonetheless! ...
KnightmareSo, after a while new AI options were introduced and the balance of power was somewhat restored.
Playereast gate
KnightmareAfter the players adjusted to the new monsters it did not take long for the once challenging dragons to become more and more huntable for single players. More and more players joined the game and more and more reached higher levels. ...
KnightmareThe demand for opponents was high and the supply low. ...
KnightmareStill a student project, Tibia lacked the resources to add considerable amounts of land masses, let alone new dungeons. Even with the help of volunteers adding new land was painfully slow for several reasons. ...
KnightmareTo ease the demand for more monsters several new spawns were added. One of them should soon become infamous. Just east of Thais, not that far from the city-gate a considerable dragon spawn was added. ...
KnightmareGiven the number of high levelled players, none of the dragons that spawned there lived for long, ...
Knightmarebut some poor new players that in those days started in Thais most certainly ran right away into a hungry dragon on his first expedition at less crowded times. ...
KnightmareHowever the loot of the dragons in those days was considerable. As far as I remember, they dropped the helmet of the stars, magic plate armor and possibly even a magic longsword. ...
KnightmareAt least they dropped fire swords. Those were the most powerful items of that time. ...
KnightmareAlthough not a common drop, the sheer number of killed dragons lead to a situation where everyone had stored a few sets away in his depot, and no-one was willing to buy one of them. So together with dragon corpses those items began to litter the east. ...
KnightmareIf you created a new character, all you had to do was to run to the east and grab the stuff before you caught the attention of a dragon. For a while this was the status quo until the introduction of new areas brought a rebalance of monsters and items. ...
KnightmareThe aforementioned items were turned into junk or at least common weapons and armor. The new system made the more powerful items considerably more rare and introduced them to the game at a more reasonable rate. ...
KnightmareAllthough the situation described before might seem like the land of milk and honey, there was no big uproar in the player base since the change was obviously for the better. ...
Playerlevels
KnightmareWhen Tibia started there was not only a limited landmass but also quite limited number of monsters. I am quite sure we had snakes, spiders, rats, basic orcs, trolls and cyclopses. I can't vouch for wolves and deer. Maybe they where added later. ...
KnightmareBack then there were no health fluids or spells or classes. We had just our skills and our hit-points. Food though healed you instantly for a fixed amount. ...
KnightmareSince you needed twice as much experience as you had for each level, this with the low experience giving monsters added up to a situation where the highest levels where ... 7, 8 or 9. ...
KnightmareEach time you levelled up a random stat increased. We had, I think, 3 stats: intelligence, endurance, strength. ...
KnightmareWhat and how many stats there were is not that important, since they had no influence on the game at all. Only a few of the more active players reached the highest levels since it included grinding cyclopses at the few bigger spawns. ...
KnightmareBasically you were stuck at a certain level, advancing becoming a remote possibility. ...
KnightmareGiven the fact that the cyclopses soon posed no true challenge since your skills still raised as usual leveling even more for a minor boost was not seen as that necessary. Still, people flocked to Tibia and enjoyed the company of others. ...
KnightmareKilling a high levelled player was next to impossible, you would have to hit him several minutes without him eating anything. As long as no-one fell asleep while playing, the character was quite safe. ...
KnightmareGiven the punishment for death, this was rather a good thing since death meant you lost everything. ...
KnightmareIf you died, you lost every single skill advance and all experience you had earned and if I recall it right there was no depot for quite a while, so you had to rely on stuff you might have stored on a backup character. ...
KnightmareStrangely enough you were rarely bored in those simple days. After introducing classes the players were allowed to keep their experience and they were transferred to the new level system. This meant quite a jump in levels and power, or so we thought. ...
KnightmareThe newly introduced monsters soon taught us otherwise. The strengths and experience values were changed several times. After a while it became clearer what the players of certain levels where able to handle and what not. ...
KnightmareLeveling was seen as too fast and too easy. So the monsters strengths were better adjusted to each other and the experience values were set to numbers that seemed more appropriate. ...
KnightmareAdditionally some of the over the top items were removed from the game. The players who had used those better items on weaker, higher experience versions of the monsters did not feel right any more and so their experience was adjusted too. ...
KnightmareFor my character it was roughly a cut of half of my levels, for most others of lower levels it was slightly less. ...
KnightmareStill oddly enough there was not much complaining about it. The players adjusted and continued their adventures.
Playermysteries
KnightmareEven the old Tibia had some riddles and mysteries in store. ...
KnightmareOne of the first I encountered was the lighthouse south west of Thais. Together with a friend I made while fighting through the sewers and dungeons of Tibia, we acquired the treasure hidden there. ...
KnightmareI think it was the helmet of the stars in those days. ...
KnightmareAnother minor riddle was a key to the acient temple (aka the rotworm-place north of Thais). If I remember correctly, after finding the key and surviving the rotworms you got the magic plate armour. ...
KnightmareI think the firesword and or the magic longsword were available too but I cannot recall where they were found. Perhaps there was a weapon in the temple rather than the armor. ...
KnightmareI vaguely remember that my friend got a weapon and I a piece of armor in our first run - only to lose both when we faced a horde of orcs in one of the dungeons. Sometime later another treasure room was introduced. ...
KnightmareIt contained several items like rings and at least one spellsrcoll (which you used in those days to learn rare spells or spells not usually available for your profession). You could see the treasures from outside, but getting in was the real problem. ...
KnightmareIt was so exciting to come up with new ideas about where to enter the rooms. Every now and then we had a new idea and travelled to the treasure room to test it. We never succeeded - it was still fun and memorable though. ...
KnightmareThe room finally got breached by a bug, though without bad intentions. The room eventually got deleted and the items contained within found their way into the game through other sources. ...
KnightmareAt least one other treasure room not many were even aware of, was deleted without the public even noticing the existence of the riddle. Still, after all those years the hunt for these treasures is still one of the most vivid in my tibian career.
Playerhouses
KnightmareBidding on houses on the website and having owner rights and the like is a comfort that the pioneers of Tibia did not enjoy. ...
KnightmareThere were only a few houses available. They were distributed by a volunteer from the player base (one of the Gamemasters). ...
KnightmareIf you were chosen for one of the houses, you were handed a physical (well virtual tibia-physical of course) key to lock and unlock the rooms. ...
KnightmareYou had to think twice whom you admit into your rooms. You had to even think twice whether it was safe to get your precious key and enter your house without the risk of loosing it. ...
KnightmareEveryone could log out in a house and you had no chance to remove an unwanted guest save by force. The whole system was as fragile and vulnerable for problems as it sounds. ...
KnightmareWith more and more players, let alone worlds, it would have soon become intolerable. ...
KnightmareI can't retell after all those years if the system came to an end before an update changed it or what update it was that introduced houses as you know them. ...
KnightmareI guess when the premium system came we already had a bidding system, I vaguely remember adding rentable rooms, houses and shops when I created Edron which was the first pure premium area back then. ...
KnightmareHowever the key system that had been used in several minor quests, has fallen into obscurity more and more due to all the problems it is causing in a living and changing environment. ...
KnightmareWith all its rustic charm I highly doubt such a house system would even remotely work in our days, let alone the horror the support would have to endure due to lost or misplaced keys.
Playergamemasters
KnightmareThe first gamemasters were hand-picked players that were the most active in forums and in corresponding with CIP. ...
KnightmareI can not recall how many we were, nor all the names. Yorin and me were amongst the first ones. I am not 100 percent sure about the others. ...
KnightmareWith a growing player base more and more GMs were taken on and a system for finding new ones had to be introduced. The first guidelines for finding new GMs were a number of recommendations from other GMs and no GM objecting to them. ...
KnightmareIt was all quite rough and we had little orders what to do and how to handle things. All this stuff was established by learning by doing and discussing those topics on the forums. ...
KnightmareWe had to decide what behaviour was acceptable and how much player-killing was bearable and what was excessive. We had no counter or indicator though to see anything about player-killings at all. ...
KnightmareWe had only a few witnesses now and then and usually a supposed victim and the supposed murderer. It was impossible to see who was telling the truth and so a less strict policy was necessary. ...
KnightmareThe best we could do was to stop someone from running amok in Thais. ...
KnightmareAlso we had no separate GM-characters in those days. Although we could teleport to a player who reported a bug or a player-killer or whatever, we would not be invulnerable getting there which could easily get you killed accidentally. ... Knightmare: So the system was quite shaky and problematic but it built the foundations of the later GM-System with its rules and head GMs and even in some way for the customer support.
PlayerNPCs
KnightmareOne funny thing about NPCs is that they once could actually cast spells for some odd reason. When an NPC would say the words that belonged to a spell he would cast it as if he were a player. ...
KnightmareThat is how the innocent spell teacher north of Thais accidently murdered a few people who asked him for wave or beam spells until this was changed.
PlayerThais
KnightmareI have seen Thais growing from a tiny settlement into a busy metropolis. Most of its inhabitants are somewhat of my children. I created and rewrote several of them.
PlayerKazordoon
KnightmareKazordoon aka dwarf city was another project abandoned by its editor. I took it over and had to create the whole mountain on a plain and otherwise empty map. It was the most time consuming work I had done for Tibia so far. ...
KnightmareIt was important to me to add some kind of culture and specialities to the dwarves to really make them different from the humans in certain ways. ...
KnightmareThe name Kazordoon is not really related to Tolkiens' work but rather to the legend of Brigadoon, based on the idea of a city that hid its inhabitants from a terrible war.
PlayerCarlin
KnightmareCarlin was basically built by GM Maegwyn but left without a concept for NPCs and history. I created most of its NPCs and its culture and finally fitted it into Tibian history.
PlayerAb'Dendriel
KnightmareI took over Ab'Dendriel from its former editor after he abandoned the project. I think some undead cave is the only remnant of its former editor. ...
KnightmareIn my first draft the black pyramid of Dracoria was in the north of the town but as I needed more and more space I had to relocate it. ...
KnightmareThen the dragon cemetery as you know it came to be.
PlayerVenore
KnightmareVenore is based on an early draft I had for Carlin. I wanted to create a pyramid city in the water. ...
KnightmareAfter things worked out otherwise I used the idea for Venore but since I did not like to make it too similar to its real-life counterpart Venice I used swamp instead of water.
PlayerEdron
KnightmareEdron was the first premium area introduced and released with the premium system. Therefore it was my most important work till then. ...
KnightmareIt had to be really interesting and to suit all tastes and levels. So it was quite a challenge to handle that on a comparatively small part of the map.
PlayerLiberty Bay
KnightmareThe idea of a pirate themed update is something quite obvious. We tossed around ideas about it for quite a while. When it got into the planning phase, my first concept was drastically more magic themed. ...
KnightmareThe shattered isles should have been more fantastic with strong tie-ins to Irish mythology to intertwine with the pirates elements to make something new. It was decided though that a more purist approach would be more accessible and entertaining. ...
KnightmareWhen after a long planning the update was finalized and presented, it was around the time of the first Pirates of the Caribbean hype and again people thought we had borrowed our ideas there.
PlayerPort Hope
KnightmarePort Hope was the long anticipated add-on to the new continent Darama after 'finishing' Dramas desert theme with the addition of Ankrahmun. ...
KnightmareI used an ape theme and even added a giant ape god which was fun because when the update came out there was a king kong remake in the cinemas and people thought we got our idea from there - which was mirrored with Liberty Bay later.
PlayerAnkrahmun
KnightmareAnkrahmun was my first professional work as a CipSoft employee. ...
KnightmareWith Jan and his graphics we could finally create something really new and could really trump with new graphic sets and a host of new creatures, though some of the items and creatures were still done by external sources.
PlayerDarashia
KnightmareDarashia was part of the first new continent/greater landmass added to Tibia ever. It was quite a challenge to make it look different from the other areas in the game since I had only a few wall and sand tiles at my disposal. ...
KnightmareWhen the new continent was released players were confused first how to get there, as trasportation was quite limited. I remember getting many private messages asking me for hints. ...
KnightmareI broadcasted something like: Please stop asking me for hints! What do you expect? A red carpet?
PlayerSvargrond
KnightmareI can not recall what part of the isle I created, significant parts were made by Denson Larika, certainly he made the city itself, I remember I created the boss battle, probably the ice dragon isle.
PlayerYalahar
KnightmareYalahars first rough concept was that of a urban setting instead of the usual dungeon/wilderness themes. ...
KnightmareThe first ideas were about a city destroyed by a great war, perhaps the core of the city under constant siege of some evil force or something along the lines of the historical boxer upheaval in Peking of our real world. ...
KnightmareWe later settled for the concept of the decaying city of an ancient advanced race and integrated some of the former ideas into the concept. ...
KnightmareDenson and I did different quarters of the city following the ideas of my original draft and included a variety of themes and challenges.
PlayerFarmine
KnightmareFarmine serves as a tie-in to the Asian theme of Zao. It's a classic base in foreign and dangerous territory. ...
KnightmareThe idea to let the players actually see the progress things make based on their efforts is sadly not always possible and would be confusing and complicated on a grander scale ...
Knightmarebut I still like the idea to actually see some accomplishments of your adventures other than stuff that ends up in a depot.
PlayerRookgaard
KnightmareI can not recall when I created Rookgaard. I guess it must have been before I officially worked for CipSoft since I think it was after the entrance levels for professions had been normalised. ...
KnightmareI was strongly promoting the idea of a safe haven to learn how to play the game without interference of high level player-killers and the like. ...
KnightmareAfter it was decided that Rookgaard was to be added it was important to me to provide a fun game experience for new players and had an eye on the level of challenge that the players faced there. ...
KnightmareIn my first version of Rookgaard I intentionally used only a small part of the graphics set to make the main continent look a bit more splendid and amazing.
Playerpits of inferno
KnightmareA hell of a place, isn't it?
Playerexcalibug
KnightmareI'd tell you if you'd ask me in be ... uhm bonelord language.
Playersword of fury
KnightmareSorry, I'd like to discuss this topic only with Rookgaard characters. You are too high a level, the topic would only bore you.
PlayerCipSoft
KnightmareDon't we all love CipSoft?
PlayerKnightmare
KnightmareThat's me
Playerout
KnightmareDo you want to be teleported to the temple in Thais?
Playeryes
KnightmareUp, up and away!
Playergame
KnightmareAll I can give you is a game of dice. Are you interested?
Playeryes
KnightmareI will roll a dice. If it shows 6, you will get five times your bet which can be 1 to 99 gold. How much do you want to bet?
Player<0 or any number greater than 99>
KnightmareI am sorry, but I accept only bets between 1 and 99 gold. I don't want to ruin you after all. How much do you want to bet?
Player<any number between 1 and 99>
KnightmareAaaaand ... <a number between 1 and 5>! You have lost. That gold goes straight into my retirement fund. One more game?
Playeryes
KnightmareI will roll a dice. If it shows 6, you will get five times your bet which can be 1 to 99 gold. How much do you want to bet?
Player<any number between 1 and 99>
KnightmareWow, it's a 6! You have won <5 times the value you bet>, congratulations Player. Are you up to another game?
Playerno
KnightmareAs you wish!
Playertime
KnightmareIt's .
Playerbye
KnightmareGoodbye and have fun, Player.