Good to know

Jobs

Players start with all jobs unlocked and at level 1. Players are also not required to unlock their subjob.

Best job on Caldera

No job specifically is "king" on Caldera. Since Caldera emphasizes functionality any job that seems to have a distinct advantage will hit a wall somewhere. There will always be a content fight that humbles any job.

EXP differences

Players that are more than 20 levels apart will not receive exp for kills. Caldera has a functional ilvl system in a way most other private servers do not. If you find yourself meriting and another character is getting less EXP than you, check your equipment. ilvls are treated as real levels for the sake of EXP and will reduce the EXP giving to non-ilvl characters.

Trusts

Trusts are a nice Caldera feature early on. Players will get their trusts through the Institutions book on the wall in the Library or the !addalltrusts command. These trusts are the only available trusts on Caldera, and players will be unable to get more trusts through their retail acquisition path. At this time dev staff has no intention of adding more trust, due to it not being in line with our ideals for the server. Some support staff has offered to write more trusts. Once these scripts are finished, they are vetted by dev staff for functionality, and if they pass they will be added either to the library, or through an alternative acquisition means. There is no timeline or guarantee that more trusts will be added.

iLVL Difference

Players coming from other private servers will notice an accuracy penalty from trying to fight monsters significantly higher level than them. This becomes extremely apparent at ilvl where a player using a i109 will suffer a 10% greater accuracy penalty against a monster at level 125 than a player in i119. The penalty for level difference is 2% per level.

pDIF

pDIF is the variable in damage where one entities attack stat is placed against another entities defense stat. This variable has an upper and lower limit threshold. Any stat that falls outside the threshold will be automatically defaulted to the lowest or highest value, until the player enters the threshold. This is especially important for tanks and physical DPS, as the player needs to be aware of the monsters DEF and ATK stats. Players seeking to maximize party and alliance damage should ensure bonuses are dispelled and that JAs/WSs/Spells are being used to lower the monster's defense stat in order to optimize their damage. Tanks should look to raise their DEF significantly above the monster's attack stat to ensure that monster pDIF is floored. If a tank is unable to break this threshold on their own, parties should consider enfeebling monster attack over defense, as a dead tank holds hate off noone.

Nuke Wall

Nuke Wall is a retail mechanic that imposes a 60% damage penalty on elemental magic damage used within 6 seconds of the same element of spell. This prevents players from spell spamming, and also forces BLM teams to be more deliberate in their selection of spells when casting in unison.

Treasure Hunter

Caldera Treasure Hunter works very similar to retail. Take a moment to read it.

Missions

Upon interacting with institutions in the Library players will automatically complete COP and ROZ. Players may use !rankup to set their city rank to level 10. RoV is not enabled at this time, but players may begin RoE to generate sparks and have access to sparks NPCs, however there is no progression beyond the initial.

One size does not fit all

Caldera is focused on diversity. There will be content where your preferred job or strategy is not the ideal build. It is encouraged that if you fail a fight you adjust your party composition or strategy and try again. Different methods of damage, debuffing, buffing, and tanking options can often make significantly difficult fights much easier.

DT MDT PDT SDT

DT refers to "Damage taken" and effects all forms of non-direct damage. Direct damage being attacks like Spirits Within. DT is applied as a direct % reduction of the final damage calculation.

PDT refers to "Physical Damage Taken" and effects most attacks and TP moves. Final PDT is calculated by adding your base PDT from equipment with your DT from equipment. This % reduction is capped at 50% (will reduce total incoming physical damage by half)

MDT refers to "Magic Damage Taken" and effects most spells and any magic based TP moves. Final MDT is calculated by adding your base MDT, DT, and Shell. This % reduction is capped at 50% (will reduce total incoming magic damage by half.

SDT does not follow the same rules as above, and is a key factor towards the mechanics of Rune Fencer. SDT is primarily granted by Rampart, Valiance, and Vallation. SDT is typically restricted to magic damage, but provides a reduction beyond base MDT. Once damage has been calculated and MDT applied, SDT is applied to the final damage and reduced further. If a player has -50% MDT and -50% SDT, damage will be reduced by half by the MDT, then reduce by half again by SDT for a final value of 25% of the original damage. Since SDT is multiplicative with MDT, it becomes stronger the less MDT to you have, but reducing your base MDT will increase the overall final damage.