Category: Asheron’s Call 2

Cleaning Out

I have been gradually cleaning out my basement, where boxes and files can sit quietly for years. I keep looking at old things and papers and thinking, “This must have been precious once.” I spent a couple hours digging through an old hard drive for anything worth salvaging. Ah, memories. I am right now going through old CDs, boxes, and manuals. Some old friends never to be seen again:

  • Asheron’s Call: Dark Majesty
  • Asheron’s Call 2
  • City of Heroes
  • Dark Age of Camelot

I am still debating some old single player games. I have Bioware’s 2002 Neverwinter Nights, complete in the original box with the 200+ page manual and cloth map. Planescape Torment, I somehow have still never played that. My copy of WarCraft III came with guide books, those can go. (There are still game guides for sale in this internet era, my my. I don’t even buy physical disks for my games these days.)

I did keep the fold-out maps/keyboard controls for AC and DAoC. Some memories I need to keep.

: Zubon

Chris Carter, Joss Whedon, Google, and NCsoft

[Warning: there are some TV Tropes links in here.]

I have confessed to contributing to self-fulfilling prophecies: if you do not commit to something/one because s/he/it may not be around for long, s/he/it probably will not be around for long. So how do you invest yourself in something when the producers have a left a wake of unfinished and canceled projects?

Continue reading Chris Carter, Joss Whedon, Google, and NCsoft

…And Ye Shall Receive

In 2010, Ethic suggested that Tubrine bring back Asheron’s Call 2 under F2P. It’s not there yet, but there is a free beta available to Asheron’s Call 1 subscribers. Questions that spring to mind:

  1. Is any of the old AC2 team going to be on this project? A different set of developers yields a very different game. Granted, given the commercial success of the original, changes might not be a bad business idea.
  2. How do I go about reclaiming an Asheron’s Call account that has been lying fallow for perhaps a decade?

: Zubon
via Ethic via Massively

Engi Census

Playing the Steam free game of the weekend, I have come to wonder: how many games have an Engineer that builds a turret; how many games have an Engineer that does not build a turret; and how many games have a non-Engineer that builds a turret. (I think I will avoid counting Warhammer Online’s Magus and units/classes that “summon” rather than “build.” I’m unclear whether the Raven builds, summons, or do we count “deploy”?) Was there some first game that set the standard that Engineer = build a sentry gun? It feels like engineers and self-directed turrets have become a standard game item, but perhaps exploring some examples will reverse this. I keep finding near-hits, where perhaps they consciously avoided calling the turret-builder an Engineer in recent games. I wonder if non-builder Engineers are also intentional aversions? Inventory below the break, please contribute in the comments.

Edit: let’s see what happens if we add in enemies that do the same, some of which may mirror heroes. Continue reading Engi Census

Comment Spotlight

Our very own Ethic comments on LotRO going free-to-play:

Since we are going this way now, let’s get Asheron’s Call and heck even Asheron’s Call 2 running on the same model.

The return of AC2 is an appealing notion. If that happens, I need a way to reclaim an old account with just the associated e-mail address (not the log-in name). I never made that Lugian Tactician. I also have an old AC1 account in storage; I might remember the account name on that one.

: Zubon

Asheron’s Call 2 Screenshots

I pulled out a few of my old screenshots of Asheron’s Call 2 to share. I find these interesting because they show the user interface and you can see how it really was not that different from the MMOs that came after it.

The first one is of my Feral Intendant fighting a Squall Tyrant out in what we called the Tyrant Bowl. You can see my shreth pet off to the left. The boxes below my health bar are all my buffs and debuffs.

This next one is of my FI about to finish off a Storm Tyrant and a Squall Tyrant has noticed me. He is moving in for what he thinks is an easy kill, but I did finish him off too. Yes it was fun to feel like a hero.

The third shot is me standing where you first arrive in Dereth after the training, just outside of Arwic down the hill.

This final shot I included because it shows me just outside of Arwic and it also shows the inventory management system.

Hope you enjoyed these little peeks back into Asheron’s Call 2.

– Ethic

Dairy Heir

Another flashback of Asheron’s Call 2. You’re welcome!

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The following is a quest that a group of players (including me) in Turbine’s Vanguard program helped to create and which was put into the game. The Vanguard program was a developer selected group of players that were given early access to new content on the test server, as well as having a forum with direct developer contact for feedback.

They placed special Dillos in the game, which were named after the players that were involved in creating this quest. I was one of them, it was quite surreal to go see my NPC in the game.

Continue reading Dairy Heir