Tibia Library

Tibia History (As writen by Cipsoft)

The idea of writing an online role-playing-game emerged during autumn 1995, when we realized the great potential of the Internet. Unlike the text based multi-user-dungeons at that time, our game should have a graphical user-interface, thus giving the player a better impression of the world he lives in.


In the Easter holidays 1996, the project started with concrete plannings. We developed basic routines for handling objects and implemented an editor (MudEdit) for creating the map and the objects. Moreover, we experimented with sockets and the TCP/IP-protocol in order to set up a communication between two hosts. By August, we had a server program running on Linux and a client program running on Windows ready and could do our first steps with an avatar on a map created by MudEdit.


During autumn, the functionality of Tibia grew rapidly. The avatars got names and individual outfits. They could take, drop, and move objects, as well as talk to each other. In the Christmas holidays, we enabled object-using, implemented the user management including saving the account data, and created the first version of our homepage. We were ready to go online! Tibia's birthday was January 7th, 1997, when we launched a permanent server on rrws27.uni-regensburg.de at the University of Regensburg.


Only few users came to Tibia, because the only advertising were some entries in search engines. Our first guest was Albe on January 10th, welcomed enthusiastically by three gods. Besides that, the development went on. The first non-player-characters (Sam) and monsters (trolls, spiders, cyclopses) entered Tibia. Of course, it was possible to fight against the monsters. Moreover, the third dimension was introduced, at least graphically, and there were papers to write permanent messages. Enough stuff for an update to version Alpha 2.0 on June 3rd, 1997.

In the summer holidays Tibia made great strides: temporal effects, cumulable objects, liquids, a new fighting system, the automap, movement in all three dimensions, different times of day and light sources, and a complete move/use-system. Additionally the small map (160 x 160 fields) was replaced by a bigger one (512 x 512 fields) that contained the first buildings of Thais (the Temple, Frodo's tavern, Gorn's equipment shop, Sam's armoury, the Castle) and several dungeons inhabited by new monster races. This was worth another update: to version Alpha 3.0 on October 28th, 1997.


More and more players detected Tibia, mostly from Germany but also some from all over the world. Some were even so fascinated that they created Tibia-homepages of their own. The first was Yorin's Tibia Homepage, published on January 28th, 1998. Meanwhile we developed a system for magic, introduced skills and vocations, and implemented the Royal Tibian Mail and the depot system. Additionally, we changed our homepage giving it a modern outfit. Tibia seemed to have grown up. Therefore we decided to start the Beta phase on May 20th, 1998.

This update was a great success. People stayed longer in Tibia, and so there was someone online nearly at every time. As the server got too small for so much activity, we bought a server of our own (tibia.uni-passau.de) and set it up at the University of Passau on July 2nd, 1998.


Unfortunately, due to the rapid growth the source code had become very opaque and unmaintainable. It was nearly impossible to add new features without adding new bugs. Therefore we decided to swallow the bitter pill of completely rewriting the server! It took us nearly one year to fulfill this task. On June 18th, 1999, we finally succeeded in starting phase Beta 5.0 with the new server, more stable and open to further ideas.


After that, a lot of improvements took place, too many to mention them here. Many users helped us by designing areas of the even bigger map (1024 x 1024 fields), drawing new objects, writing stories, or taking care of the game as a game master. The average number of players online grew from about 50 in summer 1999 to about 150 in summer 2000, thus making Tibia the greatest online role-playing-game in Germany.

Stolen Graphics

All those graphics you see on this site from the early days where not origonal creations of Cipsoft. They where game designers and programers, not graphics artists or a company like Blizzard. So an early game had its graphics punked, and surprisingly this online game still attracts players. Ultima Online VI boasted many early renditions of Tibia's items, over time eventualy being replaced by the ingame players. Many item renditions where used over the years, most of the changes where preserved in our weapons, armor, and soon to be coming items list on this site. For whichever reason, Cip removed their project section that had the names of graphic artists and map editors that helped build tibia, so they have been relocated below to remember the many contributers to Tibia, without them Tibia would never of been a success!

Map Editors:
Aureus
Bullabü
Ciryon
Conaria
Karl
Knightmare
Lightbringer
Lord Harry
Lostboy
Maegwin
Morgan le Fay
Müsli
Virgel
Wastl

Graphics Artists:
Aureus
Elleshar
King Crimson
Mantus

Additional Graphic Artists:
Altar the Sage
Apoc
Conaria
Ghorkan
Graubart
Guester
Knightmare
Lomaxx
Night's Spirit
Praxus
Ralgar
Wastl
Wotan
Zionic

Story Writer:
Knightmare

here and here are a few links to some places where you can see Cip's borrowed graphics at work.

In Depth Look at Tibia's Stages

From the past early days of Tibia's creation to the hustle and bustle of todays multi-span servers, Tibia has changed a lot. This is dedicated to the varous changes that have occured at each step, the innovations that changed the landscapse, and the very heart of Tibian history.

First Steps: Alpha 1.0

January 7th, 1997 Tibia went online

Alpha 2.0

June 3rd, 1997 alpha phase two goes online

Alpha 3.0

Octorber 8th, 1997 the third phase of alpha goes online

Yorin's Homepage, the first ever Tibia forums came online for the first time January 28th, 98

Beta 4.0

May 20th, 1998 Tibia moves to Beta phase.

Beta 5.0

June 18th, 1999 the second beta phase goes online

Revamped: Version 6.0

November 3rd, 2000 Tibia version 6 goes online

Completely new client: Version 7.0

August 28th, 2002 Tibia version 7 goes online

Christmas 2003 Update

During the Christmas update of 2003, the skull system was introduced. Players could no longer kill too many people in an unjustified manner, within a short time span, without repercussion. However, players often complained about having a skull while training with their friends. Therefore, duel mode was released. In duel mode, players will see a green skull, which is invisible to people not in duel mode, on themselves and any other player in duel mode. However, high-level players soon began to abuse the duel mode to gain the privilege of killing other players in the mode for fun.

Consequently, party mode replaced duel mode, and is still active even today. Party mode, however, is also plagued with problems. New players are often tricked into entering party mode with higher level players, then killed for sport with no consequences to the aggressors.

Summer 2005 Update

Vocations could be switched entering a portal, this was the update for summer 2005.

Christmas 2005 Update

In the Christmas Update even more drastic changes occurred. Mana regeneration speed was increased by 4x, and experience level requirements (instead of magic level requirements) to cast spells were also created. The change has made it harder for druids and sorcerers to make money below level 23, as no worthy runes can be created. Also, changes were made to the in-game graphics.

Spring 2006 Technical Update

On May 18, 2006 the Tibia 7.7 version client was released. This was only a technical update, however. Changes included the white list, which allowed players to ignore everyone else except for characters in their white list and/or their VIP list. Players could also choose between either DirectX5, DirectX9, or OpenGL as their graphics engine. This led to a major increase in many players' fps (frame rates per second). During the test server, the trade channel also got a new look. Players would have to press an "advertise" button and type in what they wanted to sell. In the background, game protocol introduced encryption, which caused the number of protocol-based cheats and account thefts to reduce, due to problems with inserting and reading data that client and server were exchanging.

Summer 2006 Update

On December 15, 2006, the Pits of Inferno, as well as the famous 'Dream Challenge', were introduced. In the 'Dream Challenge', players can choose to join the Nightmare Knights and fight for good, or join the Brotherhood of Bones and help raise hell. Characters also have a quest log, allowing them to see information on major quests they have started or completed.

Houses were upgraded so litter bins and ovens were removed, providing players with the option of decorating their houses by shopping for furniture. In addition, window shutters were added to keep unwanted garbage out of houses. Banks were added in Rookgaard and all the mainland cities, located at the current NPCs where you change gold. A Rookgaard trade channel was also introduced to keep the selling and buying of items separate from the mainland.

New items and monsters were also introduced. Generally, most of the new monsters can be found in the Pits of Inferno with Nomads and Wyverns being the few exceptions. Nomads can be found roaming the desert of Darama while Wyverns can be found all over Tibia.

Finally, another feature introduced was when you eat food your character makes an eating noise ('Yum', 'Crunch', etc) which other players are able to see.

Summer 2006 Update

On December 15, 2006, the new Shattered Isles (12 islands total) were introduced; the infamous Liberty Bay being the main settlement for players from the 12 islands. Aside from the main city, there are numerous fascinating islands just off the shores such as Meriana, Laguna Islands and Treasure Island. A significant number of new creatures was introduced. Another major aspect of this update was the hotkey feature for items, wherein all usable items with triggers can now be set as hotkeys for one-touch instant actions. Also players are now allowed to shoot directly at people from the battle list; there is a built-in light intensity feature which made the light spell obsolete, plus new clothes and addons for outfits. A contentious inclusion is CIPs addition of tools which were previously illegal cheats but have now become standard. Some are opposed to the addition as it "ruins role-play" and takes away from the skill involved in player versus player combat. Others like the change for the obvious benefits, and because laggier players can now participate in combat more easily. The presumed goal is to bring all players on an equal playing field by giving everyone use of the tools.

Summer 2007 Update

On June 26, 2007, the second part of the long-awaited vocation balancing was introduced to the players. With the first move toward balancing 2005, Sorcerers and Druids were affected, making them incredibly strong at higher levels.

Christmas 2007 Update

In this update, Knights were made unable to use UH's (Ultimate Healing Runes) effectively, and were forced to use potions to heal instead. Knights were also given a new premium healing spell called "Wound Cleansing" that costs 65 mana. Paladins were also forced to use potions because of the massive decrease effectivity in UH's and in the "exura vita" spell. Sorcerers and Druids lost many of their old spells and were replaced with many new instant and rune spells. As of the update a weapon for sorcerers called the wand of plague was permenately changed to the wand of decay because of the fact that the poison damage type had been replaced by death.