Trials of Ascension

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Trials of Ascension
Developer(s)	Shadowpool Studios
Publisher(s)	Shadowpool Studios
Release date(s)	2007 or later
Genre(s)	Fantasy MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Platform(s)	Windows, Mac OS X ???
System requirements	???
Input	Keyboard, Mouse

As of December 8th, 2006, development of this game has been halted indefinitely due to a lack of funds. However, development may start up again if funding is obtained. The announcement can be read here.

Trials of Ascension is the charter MMORPG produced by Shadowpool Studios. While still in alpha development, the game has an active fan base. Shadowpool has been understandably quiet about the release date, while the fans estimate anywhere from an overly optimistic one year, to the opposite extreme of never. However, the general consensus is that the game is about one to two years away from beta. Internally, the release date was revised in 2004 when Shadowpool switched graphics engines.

Shadowpool will be using the SpeedTree engine, developed by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc., for trees and plants.

This game proposes to fix what many MMORPG players think is broken about current games. Quite a few choices that Shadowpool has made are controversial, two of the most being permadeath and dragons being a playable race. The ways that they have proposed to make these choices and others work are innovative, but the actual release of the game is the only way to know if they will become a part of the mainstream MMORPG culture.

1 Features
2 Geography
3 Settlements
4 Permadeath
5 Dragons
6 Links

[edit] Features

Notable features include:

A truly large game world
Player created settlements
Player run scarcity-based economy
Level-less and class-less skill based character progression
Hoardable technological innovations and refinements to skills
Complex, A Tale in the Desert-like crafting system
Twelve playable races: Arrwic, Doppleganger, Dragon, Dwarf, Elf, Gargoyle, Goblin, Gryphon, Human, Minotaur, Orc, Pixie
Artifacts created on player death
Open-ended religious system with four different deities
Fourteen different in-game languages
Interactive terrain and weather
50% player skill/50% character skill system
Permanent character death
Active "Content Moderators"
Full worldwide PvP

The game is also notable due to its exclusion of certain features that are common in other MMOGs:

Communication between players is heavily restricted: it is only allowed if the characters are within shouting distance of each other and speak the same language.
Teleportation is impossible except for powerful mages. In order to get to a different part of the gameworld, it will be necessary to actually travel there. This may take considerable amounts of time.
There is no way to judge the relative strength of another character.
Characters are not labeled with unique names; each player can label each of the characters they meet for later recognition, but even then it is possible to disguise a character so that it cannot be recognized.
Magic will be uncommon and very dangerous to learn.
"Uber items" will not be a factor. Magical items will be very rare, and powerful ones extremely rare.

[edit] Geography

The game world is known as TerVarus and consists of five known continents: Parador, Athia, Jedar, Damar, and Tretheren. Shadowpool has provided the world with a detailed history encompassing three ages, the Age of the Ancients, the Age of Emergence, and the Age of Shadows. The game takes place at the beginning of the fourth age, the Age of Ascension.

[edit] Settlements

Trials of Ascension will have a number of starting locations, possibly including player run settlements.

The forums play host to several excellent sources of information, as well as several sub-forums dedicated to player run settlements. Currently, the list of player settlements which have dedicated forums is:

Allegoria
Darkstone
Dun Islay
Greenfort
Haven
HearthForge
Ishundar
Karsiz
Lucia
Virkhal

There are also a number of "petitioning" settlements, or settlements whose charter has been officially approved.

[edit] Permadeath

The permadeath of Trials of Ascension is based on "Life Counters" (LCs). Characters lose a life counter with every death and when the counters run out, the character is removed from the game. The current, pre-beta number of life counters is 100, and will most likely be adjusted during the beta to provide characters enough time to learn how to play while making sure that character turnover rates are reasonable.

Some players are for this feature, some against, and others want a different method of determining life counters. Shadowpool has also stated that one of the four initial servers will be a one life count server, similar to Diablo II's "Hardcore" mode.

In the context of the game, the soul of the player is permanently marked at each death, gradually weakening the soul, until it is finally destroyed.

[edit] Dragons

Probably the most controversial decision made by Shadowpool was to include dragons as a playable race, especially since the dragons would be extremely powerful. The potential problem is that since they are so powerful, how do you make sure that the servers are not overrun by dragons, preventing the other races from being played because they would be immediately killed? The developers feel that they have solved this issue by requiring the player to walk the dragon through its whole life. While other player races start out as fully mature creatures, dragons are played from the moment they are hatched. These "hatchlings" are the weakest of all the races by far, and according to the developers, "may be able to give a rabbit a go for his money." Quote by developer Brax, 2002 There are other mechanisms in place, such as a severe penalty to skill gain and aging while near any sentient species (including a permanent effect as well), not being able to participate in the religious system, and the "Dragon Wars," an in game reason for other players and NPC's to kill dragons on sight.