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So... Anybody here ever play Asheron's Call?
Because Blizzard was having problems getting WoW back online, and I was bored, and feeling just a bit nostalgic, I decided to re-up my old Asheron's Call account. It was kind of nice, they gave me a free month to try it out again, and all my toons were still there, after 3+ years gone.
Man, talk about a difference.
Oh, the things that have changed in the game....
Drudges (one of the monster races) have built a fort, or at least a palisade outside of Cragstone (a player city) that can apparently be attacked (you can target sections of it). I may well go back and see what happens when I attack.
Some of the towns have changed. New buildings, and other minor changes.
I'm looking forward to something other than WoW for a short time. There are storylines that when I left had never been resolved, such as the siege of Dryreach. (a town that had been under siege since the game went life in '99 and nobody seemed interested in doing anything about it beyond running food down to it and selling it for profit)
New islands to explore. I don't know which ones I'll be ready for at my level, but
it's only vitae...
Overall, this brought back some real nostalgia;
*when you died, you dropped a certain number (based on level, the higher level you are, the more you dropped) and lost 5% of all skills/stats until you earned a certain amount of experience. This is called a "vitae" penalty, as well as the name of the group I hung with a lot from the game, called Vitae Rising.
** Lifestones were where you would bind yourself and res there when you died. There is no resurrection in AC like we have in other games. When you died, you immediately portaled back to the LS with vitae loss.
Eric the Grey
Because Blizzard was having problems getting WoW back online, and I was bored, and feeling just a bit nostalgic, I decided to re-up my old Asheron's Call account. It was kind of nice, they gave me a free month to try it out again, and all my toons were still there, after 3+ years gone.
Man, talk about a difference.
- I kept right-clicking to try and turn while I ran.
- I completely forgot how to get into combat mode and attack things until after I managed to die 3 times.
- I had forgotten how to work spells (similar to combat, but there are tricks to regaining mana quickly when you buff).
- Less than an hour in game, and I have a 15% vitae penalty* on my highest-level character.
- I noticed that my best suit of armor is missing. I suspect it was in the chest in my house when I unsubscribed, so is now in the hands of someone else (if they even still play).
- Seems that my highest level toon, which was only 1 level shy of max, is now not even close. He's 79, and I saw a few 100+ people in the marketplace.
- The Marketplace is empty!
It used to be one of the hottest places to go to meet people and buy stuff from other players. - People are talking about epic armor. There was no such thing last time I logged in (as far as I remember at any rate)
Oh, the things that have changed in the game....
Drudges (one of the monster races) have built a fort, or at least a palisade outside of Cragstone (a player city) that can apparently be attacked (you can target sections of it). I may well go back and see what happens when I attack.
Some of the towns have changed. New buildings, and other minor changes.
I'm looking forward to something other than WoW for a short time. There are storylines that when I left had never been resolved, such as the siege of Dryreach. (a town that had been under siege since the game went life in '99 and nobody seemed interested in doing anything about it beyond running food down to it and selling it for profit)
New islands to explore. I don't know which ones I'll be ready for at my level, but
it's only vitae...Overall, this brought back some real nostalgia;
- Dying at a lifestone**, only to reappear at the same place, to be killed again, and again, and again...
- Portal space! You got a nifty-cool animation when you hit a portal, which would take you into a dungeon, or to another location far away. There were no zones, so you could run from town to town, but portaling was quicker, and the animation basically hid the environment download instead of a loading screen.
- 1999 Graphics! - Even with the higher resolution graphics, it's still 1999.
- Fast! - Running speed was a stat that you could raise like any other stat. Man, my toons run fast compared to WoW.
- The Guard! My old Alliance still exists. I suppose since they don't actually delete dormant characters, my old Monarch Fafhrd is still there, even if he no longer plays. I may have to look up the web site and see if it's even still there. It's cool to see a message when I log in.
*when you died, you dropped a certain number (based on level, the higher level you are, the more you dropped) and lost 5% of all skills/stats until you earned a certain amount of experience. This is called a "vitae" penalty, as well as the name of the group I hung with a lot from the game, called Vitae Rising.
** Lifestones were where you would bind yourself and res there when you died. There is no resurrection in AC like we have in other games. When you died, you immediately portaled back to the LS with vitae loss.
Eric the Grey