Hey folks,
There's this game I used to follow. I heard about it 10 years ago when it started development. I was a fan until they closed shop in 2006 due to lack of investment money... but now the developers are back, developing a pitch for their imminent Kickstarter campaign. Let me tell you why I love...
Trials of AscensionTrials of Ascension aims to be a dynamic world, driven by the actions of the players, where every character has a unique story with a beginning and an end. It has sandboxy features like skill-based character advancement, full loot PvP and player-driven economy and politics: a system where all items are player-made, (using an extensive crafting system) and all settlements are player-run. But I think it stands apart even from other sandbox games like Darkfall, Mortal Online and EVE online, because of a bevy of unique features. Here are a few:
Permanent Death [See article here]In ToA, each character has 100 lives. Then that's it. This feature keeps many from even considering investing any time in the game, but I think it's the most important feature of the game, the one that makes everything work. Permanent Death has been tried only a handful of times in an MMO, and never in a game that wasn't hampered by numerous other gamebreaking issues. As the developers explain in the linked article, permanent death changes the way you play the game. Particularly, it changes the decision-making calculus that precedes any risk you take. Night is approaching.. do you circle your caravan and fortify for bandit attack, or do you press on, torches in hand, hoping to reach your destination before you are waylaid? So much more rides on every choice. It makes the game come alive.. defeats hurt more, but you can be so much more proud of your successes!
Also, permanent death kind of removes the focus from an individual character - who will eventually pass on - and shifts emphasis to communal endeavors that will live on, like settlements or player projects. Community is a necessity in a game with permanent death.
There are many other arguments for and against permanent death.. this is just the perspective that inspires me most.
Dynamic Ecology and spawns.Creatures and plants won't appear at set spawn points, but will spawn throughout suitable environments based on ideal totals for that biome. Plants and trees are harvestable.. and creatures will act in accordance with the situation, prey animals running away, pack animals avoiding you if they're not hungry or if they don't have advantage in numbers. GMs can place special spawns that develop over time... for example, an orc scouting group, which if not checked will soon become a camp, then a small base with a warleader, then start raiding nearby villages. Dungeons are also placed in the world by GMs, and change over time as they are delved into (for example, you might find an unexplored cave one day and empty it of monsters, taking home a small haul of precious stones... then the next person in the cave might find the ceiling collapsed, opening up a passage down to an old temple filled with inscriptions that they can copy down and get translated.) The goal is to allow GMs to actively provide a dynamic experience for the players where the world is changing daily.
Innovations [See article here]While practicing a skill, characters have a very small chance to discover an innovation to that skill. Innovations are new techniques or new craftable items that, once discovered, are removed from the available pool: only one character can discover a certain innovation. Once you've discovered an innovation, you can choose to keep it to yourself, or teach it to whomever you want... but be aware that anybody to whom you teach it can spread the knowledge further! This is one of my favorite ideas in ToA; innovations will introduce some real differences between settlements and set some fun politics in motion. (Spies... trade deals... resource wars!) Innovations are also an organic way to introduce new features to the game... boats, carts, siege weapons, these things can be discovered and disseminated by player characters rather than suddenly being available to everyone via a game expansion.
Magic [See article here]Magic is not just another character path in ToA. Trials of Ascension offers players a bargain: High power comes with high risk. A skilled and lucky mage can destroy a rank of warriors.. but you must fight for that skill tooth and nail, wresting knowledge of arcane sigils and spells from eldritch beasts. Also, the more powerful the spell, the more skill it takes to be reasonably certain that it won't backfire, potentially immolating the caster and her friends. The system is designed so it takes both luck and skill to become a master mage without permanently dying on the way... most will not make it. The same higher reward= higher risk equation carries through the whole game. In the same way that it feels better to have a high-level character in Nethack than in WoW, the rewards that accrue to your character are meaningful because you fought for them tooth and nail, against the odds.
Trials of Ascension is just beginning to ramp up for their Kickstarter, which will begin in the coming months once they've got some more interest. There's not much media yet, but they're using the HeroEngine and have already started limited development once more. I hope you guys will check the game out, even if one or two features strike you as being totally unreasonable. I think the developers have done a good job of putting together a cohesive design that's more than the sum of its parts.
More articles:
InterrogationHealingNavigationMiningStructuresSettlements series:
