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[Sensei]

Trials of Ascension

Well, it purports to be a lot of things. It's an MMO, with permanent character death (after you use 99 lives, is the latest plan). A plan for it has existed in one form or another since 2003 (yes, really). Players will explore a large open world with a lot of ambitious and interesting ideas. There will be settlements, a crafting system where you have a very small chance of learning knowledge (an "Innovation) which you can then spread to other players, bizarre playable races such as a PVP-oriented race of giant spiders, dynamic ecosystems which GM's can modify live, and more. There's even plans for a magic system where you can only learn spells by slaying powerful monsters. It's best you read about it on their website, they go into great detail on every subject they have planned and their enthusiasm is infectious.

The project has seen three - Bay12 - threads, a failed kickstarter, another kickstarter, (but it takes more than that to stop them!) and now it's finally here in its earliest playable form, a stress test. I have no idea if this game can reach its ambitious goals, but I'm sure along for the ride. I don't think most of the features are implemented yet, but now's the time to find out.

June 16th Stress Test:

NOTE: As this is an open invite you WILL be accepted into this one time event (assuming you have successfully followed the above instructions).  We do not know the response we will get so we may or may not have room for everyone.  The room we do have will be filled in a first-come, first-serve basis.  That is to say, when we open the server(s) those that join first are in.

1: Make a forum account
2: Complete a survey
3: Sign their NDA (yes really, even though they're letting as many people in as possible)
4: Join their Discord channel

Do that and you're in.

If you want to discuss the many details of the game, go ahead, though most of the systems are likely to change still, I'd expect. Hopefully we'll know a lot more about what the game actually looks like once the test starts.

[Crowe~]

"The event will take place on June 16th at 9am Pacific Time / 12pm Eastern Time and last for roughly three hours"
"Nor does participation in the ToA: Exile Alpha Stress Testing guarantee access to future testing or testing events"
"A link to the download will be made available an hour prior to the event through our forums"

Worth to point all that out.
You got 3 hours only to play, you also got 1 hour only before to download the game. How big is the game to DL?

No offense intended, but hardly seems worth going through that check list/signing NDA's etc without a good day or two to play imo.   

[ChairmanPoo]

I dont see the value on going into a game whose main selling feature is that you will either get locked out of it, or the game will get less and less interesting as less people play.

I daresay this is not a "real" game as much as a novelty project... the gaming equivalent of those people who dump random paint in a canvas and put it for sale in order to "prove something"

[Sensei]

Eh, I think some of the features could interact in interesting ways, like having to pass on your character's knowledge before dying. And most MMO's are more interesting with more players.

But, you're right that this game is made by crazy people. I never thought we'd see a playable version, which is why I'm so curious. However it has occurred to me that the exact time of the test is when I'm getting on a plane anyway, and only lasting 3 hours I won't get to check it out.

[Shadowlord]

You can't roll a new character after running out of lives? How exactly are they planning to make money? By selling the opportunity to roll a new character?

[Vivalas]

Wait so it's actual permadeath not just making a new character and starting over permadeath?

[Urist McScoopbeard]

#weak

[E. Albright]

Wait so it's actual permadeath not just making a new character and starting over permadeath?

Unless it's changed since their Kickstarter, no, you can re-roll when a character burns through their hundred lives; they were pretty clear that was how it would work.

[a1s]

If you want to discuss the many details of the game, go ahead

Geez, man, you just signed an NDA saying you would not do exactly that.

[Sensei]

Well, considering there's an enormous amount of writing on the game features which is publicly available all over their website... uh, no? The NDA pertains to details of the test itself.

[Paul]

100 lives seems kind of arbitrary. You still completely kill PvP for anything except characters built for it and griefers, as nobody wants to lose the lives on their main character. And it opens a huge possibility of griefing, especially with the respawn mechanics putting you nearby where you died. I foresee groups of players who roll characters, train them to competence, and roam around killing everyone repeatedly just for shits and giggles. Because they know they're making those people lose lives on their main characters, whereas their characters are throwaways. Same kind of stuff people do in games like Eve, going after big ships even if they have no cargo in high security space with a bunch of throwaway ships even though they know they'll be killed by the system defense just because they know it hurts the other player.

Yet it's a high enough number that it doesn't really feel like permadeath until your lives start getting low, at which point people will probably just give up on the character because why put time in a character who is almost permanently dead?

[Shadowlord]

It's nice that you aren't, like, banned from making new characters after yours dies permanently.

However, if your character is, at some point, going to permanently die and you'll have to start over, the game would have to be incredibly compelling for it to be even worth getting invested in it.

[MasterCyria]

For a game that took $90,000 from their supporters in 2014 to not make the MMO the promised and had a bunch of other lies / scam like qualities, I'm surprised that they keep receiving support.

[PTTG??]

It's nice that you aren't, like, banned from making new characters after yours dies permanently.

However, if your character is, at some point, going to permanently die and you'll have to start over, the game would have to be incredibly compelling for it to be even worth getting invested in it.

I've got some bad news for you....

[Yoink]

So... it's described as "permadeath" but it isn't actually permadeath at all? Weak.

I wonder if this is the same pipe dream of a game I remember getting all excited about years ago, just under a different name. Though I think that one was going to be RP-enforced.