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[Asheron's Call] Nov. 2, 1999 -- Jan. 31, 2017

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Posts

  • eelektrikeelektrik Southern CaliforniaRegistered User regular
    With two licensed fantasy MMOS on their plate I'd actually love to see SSG do a spiritual successor to AC as an original sci-fi IP. An exploration heavy classless sci-fi MMO could be amazing.

    It's just disheartening to see Warner Bros throw AC under the bus like this without seeing the reasons why.

    (She/Her)
  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    eelektrik wrote: »
    With two licensed fantasy MMOS on their plate I'd actually love to see SSG do a spiritual successor to AC as an original sci-fi IP. An exploration heavy classless sci-fi MMO could be amazing.

    It's just disheartening to see Warner Bros throw AC under the bus like this without seeing the reasons why.

    I always dreamed of an AC-like MMORPG where you played as AI that possessed various robots of shapes and sizes. Modular body parts would replace the armor of AC -- so instead of Platemail, you may have an "Aluvian Industries Torso Module." Instead of Yoroi you might have a "Sho Multinational Arm Unit." 3 general overreaching styles -- American (Industrial), Japanese (Mecha Musume - think PSO's Cast/Caseals), European (Animalish). Something akin to Scratch and Grounder in the old Sonic cartoon.

    Vitae would be "de-synchronization" - the idea being that if you "died" your AI's "soul chip" was restored from backup, but not perfectly.

    The hook, as it were, would be that not all "body parts" would have the same capabilities and slots as others. For example, imagine a replacement head with great stats -- but lacking certain UI elements like a color camera, or the ability to gauge enemy HP bars. Imagine a torso module with low stats but the ability to equip 4 arms. Tank Treads instead of legs that would increase speed but nerf jumping. That sort of stuff. No, it wouldn't be perfectly balanced -- but neither was AC. There were pros and cons to everything, but by endgame there was two builds that mattered -- Archer + Summoner, or Mage + Summoner.

    Another "hook" would be that not all parts were the same size. So you had Medium, but then Small and Large, and beyond that Extra Small / Extra Large. Maybe even "Mecha" for absurdly huge bodies. Stats and the like would scale differently for the various sizes -- a Small Mech would have much lower HP and Str than a Large one, but much higher Coord/Quick. You could equip parts 1 size up or down - Normal Torso, Small Arms, Large Legs. And there would be size requirements for various areas -- Dungeons that were just too small to enter if you were XLarge, or alternate paths you could take if you were Small.

    Storyline... Something happens that leads to the "Progenitors" (Humans) vanishing pretty much overnight, leaving automated factories to keep pumping out war machines. After a few thousand years of strange malfunctions, automated improvements and the like, the first AGI droids come out, to start investigating and reclaiming the world. Explains respawning enemies too -- teleported in from whatever automated factory is still pumping them out millennia later.

    But, yeah, pipe dream. The industry apparently can't handle a game like AC. Theme park MMOs are the rule of the day.

    KiTA on
  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    How do we say goodbye to AC?

    I know, lets have Darktide shitheads crash then DDOS the server the last weekend it's around.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/AsheronsCall/comments/5qeodx/servers_down/

    DT shitheads single handedly ruined PVP for me in all future MMOs. Imagine the toxicity of League of Legends combined with Barrens Chat, forever.

  • Fartacus_the_MightyFartacus_the_Mighty Brought to you by the letter A.Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    KiTA wrote: »
    How do we say goodbye to AC?

    I know, lets have Darktide shitheads crash then DDOS the server the last weekend it's around.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/AsheronsCall/comments/5qeodx/servers_down/

    DT shitheads single handedly ruined PVP for me in all future MMOs. Imagine the toxicity of League of Legends combined with Barrens Chat, forever.

    DT was fun during AC's first few years. But now? Yeah. It's a buffet of terribleness, and the community doesn't seem to be any less terrible outside the confines of the server.

    Fartacus_the_Mighty on
  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    Auth servers are coming in and out as they do some trick to cause them to crash. If you're in game you can still play, otherwise...

    FrostFell is where all the DT kids went when DT started getting really bad a few years back -- there's an item dupe bug based on crashing the server at the right time, which made it unplayable -- and apparently they're taking out their hate on FF right now, making it completely unplayable.

    This is all in retaliation towards the game getting PvE content the last few years of it's life (Tier 8, Legendaries, Loot Sets, etc) that made old DT builds obsolete, or somesuch crap.

    And, of course, there's a level of channer / SA style "lets fuck it up because other people want it" goonery involved, too.

  • Fartacus_the_MightyFartacus_the_Mighty Brought to you by the letter A.Registered User regular
    KiTA wrote: »
    Auth servers are coming in and out as they do some trick to cause them to crash. If you're in game you can still play, otherwise...

    FrostFell is where all the DT kids went when DT started getting really bad a few years back -- there's an item dupe bug based on crashing the server at the right time, which made it unplayable -- and apparently they're taking out their hate on FF right now, making it completely unplayable.

    This is all in retaliation towards the game getting PvE content the last few years of it's life (Tier 8, Legendaries, Loot Sets, etc) that made old DT builds obsolete, or somesuch crap.

    And, of course, there's a level of channer / SA style "lets fuck it up because other people want it" goonery involved, too.

    It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the server which enables players to easily frustrate and annoy each other tends to draw the kind of people who love doing exactly that.

  • Kai_SanKai_San Commonly known as Klineshrike! Registered User regular
    I was a part of the deepest depths of the community on DT for ACs first 2 or 3 years. I ended up in Blood at one point because my friend had basically become best friends with its longest standing core members. He had an exp chain char that hit max level back when that was near impossible otherwise.

    The server was EXCELLENT back then, but only if you considered that Blood was the bad guys and they didn't 100% own the whole server. They may have done that at some point and basically overwhelmed it with that kind of attitude. Their higher ups WERE pretty horrible obnoxious people. I never actually got up there cause I couldn't fit in with that crowd.

    I ended my AC days playing on MT with a real guild. It was some good fun but I lost the name of the account (I had done a lot of account trading so it was hard to remember the name and unrecoverable because it wasn't originally mine) and thats around when I lost interest.

    The first oh, 6-9 months of DT though? Before Blood began taking over. They were the best PVP experience you will ever have in an MMO. Likely cause no one could even attempt to emulate that anymore. It was a rare situation where levels of power existed, but actual knowledge and some skill could carry you much further than you would ever even think of happening in any game now. So you could like, grow in level and gear like in WoW PVP but it never felt like you were completely outclassed kind of like a non gear progression mmo. Oh and the politics. There were factions without factions - the PLAYERS made up the good side (anti PKs, people who defended against random killing) and the bad guys (PKs, or those who random killed). So while you always had a side that was controlled with, well, survival, but since it wasn't hard coded into the game you could be a true rogue against the system. You could backstab someone. You could form alliances or not. It all worked. People "owned" towns. Raids were had to take ownership of towns. Oh god I could go on and on.

    It is a shame to hear what came of the server, but I think that has more to do with it being an old game with a small playerbase. It is easier for those groups of people to prey on smaller playerbases.

  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    It is easier for those groups of people to prey on smaller playerbases.

    It doesn't hurt that the game has no active staff and hasn't for years. Sev could only do so much, and with the SSG guys being gone there's literally no staff left.

    The DDOS continues unabated today. What's the worst thing is not only are they targeting the Auth servers, but also the in game servers. Frostfell has been completely unplayable since this idiot started. The others basically reboot every 10-20 minutes when he swings through and targets them.

  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    edited April 2017
    In case you ever wanted to hear me ramble for 90 minutes outside of Mumble/Teamspeak:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVCBxHVUQr0

    And, in the end, there was only one place I could end it. Holtburg tavern, right next to the lifestone.

    K3xPmH7.jpg

    Here's hoping they have something to announce on Wednesday.

    KiTA on
  • citizen059citizen059 hello my name is citizen I'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
    I'll be logging in from my desk at work today and hanging out in Holtburg (Morningthaw) until the end.

  • Kai_SanKai_San Commonly known as Klineshrike! Registered User regular
    My son just saw this huge pic on my screen when I checked this post. He said "I want to play that game"

    There.. wasn't much I could say :(

  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    hahha, I just noticed... after all that effort, the damned video is halfway off the side of the screen due to OBS being weird as shit.

    No time (literally) to redo it now, either.

    Ah well. I'll remake it tonight if the servers survive.

  • citizen059citizen059 hello my name is citizen I'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
    takllbxoz6xx.jpg

    Final watch in Holtburg begins.

    This was as far as I got in terms of levels.

    I regret nothing.

  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    It took me almost 2 weeks of 24x7 grinding to get from like 258 to 275. The game really did have a soft cap, you're just not supposed to do that last bit.

    Edit: Setting up OBS to record the final 2 hours while I'm out.

    KiTA on
  • eelektrikeelektrik Southern CaliforniaRegistered User regular
    None of my old characters still exist. I have a sub level 10 dude hanging out in Shoushi that I made this month. I should roll up a new character in Yaraq and kill some Aurochs for old times sake.

    (She/Her)
  • citizen059citizen059 hello my name is citizen I'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
    Immortalbob of Morningthaw is streaming the end on Twitch.

  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    Broadcast from System> ATTENTION - This Asheron's Call Server will be shutting down in 2 minutes. Please log out.

    Forums -- the entire AC presence on the web -- are gone. They didn't even keep the domain name up with a simple "this was AC" type page. Nothing.


    IDkyiFd.png

    Snowreap, 27 PY

    The last portals to Dereth have closed.

    No one knows the fate of the brave heroes of that land. All contact has been lost.

    But we can rest easy knowing that the world of Auberean remains in good hands, watched over eternally by the brave men and women that heard, and responded to, Asheron's Call.

    Asheron's Call
    November 2th, 1999 - Janurary 31st, 2017


    (I summon thee, gods of cringe. How many years have I suffered saying something sentimental only to have things turn out differently than I expect. YOU OWE ME.)

    KiTA on
  • citizen059citizen059 hello my name is citizen I'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
    c8ijvccm5bgz.png

    *sigh*

  • Fartacus_the_MightyFartacus_the_Mighty Brought to you by the letter A.Registered User regular
    I've only played off and on these past few years, and never got super involved or attached to other players.

    And yet, there was a sense of presence in Dereth. I don't know if it's because I've played for so many years, or what, but even on a deserted server there was something there.

    Unless WB/Turbine has a pleasant surprise waiting for us, they're going on the list. Bumping NCSoft down to second place, even.

  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    They even killed the Facebook page.

    https://www.facebook.com/TurbineAC/

    All official media for Asheron's Call has been purged from the web, except a mention on turbine.com.

    What the hell is going on? The forums, the official AC facebook... Why in the world would they want to silence their playerbase so abruptly like this!?

    KiTA on
  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    An admin or advocate or something snuck on in the final minutes.

    MDs2Sdu.jpg

  • citizen059citizen059 hello my name is citizen I'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
    KiTA wrote: »
    They even killed the Facebook page.

    https://www.facebook.com/TurbineAC/

    All official media for Asheron's Call has been purged from the web, except a mention on turbine.com.

    What the hell is going on? The forums, the official AC facebook... Why in the world would they want to silence their playerbase so abruptly like this!?

    It really is strange. It'd be nice if someone could give us more answers, but everyone seems to be under strict orders to say nothing.

  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    As someone in discord said, it could just be that they consider it an embarrassment or failure and want everyone to forget it as fast as possible.

  • Anon the FelonAnon the Felon In bat country.Registered User regular
    If it was a failure, that was only because it was allowed to fail.

  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    edited February 2017
    If it was a failure, that was only because it was allowed to fail.

    Between Sony sabotaging Turbine's attempts to find a publisher...

    ... To Microsoft trying to force their shitty Zone ("It's an AOL killer!") stuff on the game and preventing Turbine from dealing with botting when it was crucial ... ("They're paying for 10 accounts, so don't you dare stop them.")

    ... To the push to make an AC2 to compete with Sony losing their minds with EQ2 rather than updating AC1 ...

    ... To Microsoft disabling in game chat in AC2 because they had decreed that their self-developed Mythica would replace AC2 ...

    ... To Warner Brothers buying Turbine literally just because they worked with Dungeons and Dragons / Lord of the Rings IPs and wanted to toss a licensed IP at the MOBA bubble ...

    ... To killing that licensed IP off early and letting Turbine take the heat for that ...

    ... To WB deciding to chase Mobile games rather than focus on their profitable mmos and PC games ...

    ... To promising we'd get the servers and then deciding in early 2016 that we wouldn't, but not telling anyone in time for an emulator to be created ... (As unveiled in the recent interview with SSG...)

    ... To announcing the shutdown on fucking FACEBOOK and preventing anyone from buying new accounts to return for the end ...

    ... To completely purging the web of anything AC related ...

    Turbine, the AC IP, and ultimately the AC playerbase got fucked over a lot over the years.

    Now Turbine is a shell of it's former self, with all it's talent gone replaced with a new group of Mobile game developers, it's name being farmed out because some bean counter at WB thinks we give a shit about licensed mobile games and Turbine's name somehow adds goodwill when everyone knows Standing Stone Games is the "real" Turbine.

    KiTA on
  • Blood DriveBlood Drive Registered User regular
    As I can't seem to find the proper wording for how I feel im going to quote something out of a reddit thread.

    fvdcsxaz
    I feel like an old friend died.
    Same here. Like you, I've barely played the past ten years. I was thinking on my way to work "would the shutdown of another game affect me like this?" and I don't think any could. I had great times in other games, to be sure; hell AC isn't even my most played MMO of all time. But something about it just lingered in my memory even when I wasn't playing it. If I ran into someone else who used to play AC we could get into huge conversations about how this game got so many things right, and how we longed for the days when it was at its highest.
    Even if this game didn't go anywhere I doubt I'd ever play it again, at least not for any significant length, but I still liked knowing that it was out there. With it gone, I feel a small part of my young adult life has gone as well.

    And thats it right there. Ill dearly miss the game. I really hope the tight lippedness is a precursor to something great and not just WB wanting this dead and buried. I swear to god if I ever won the lottery I would do everything I could to release the AC IP.

  • citizen059citizen059 hello my name is citizen I'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
    If we get any official information it's going to have to come from within WB. From what I understand, those on the outside who know what happened are restricted from saying anything about it, and that restriction is not a short term one. The gag order is going to last quite a while. Secondhand and incomplete information, I know, just what I've gathered from context.

  • GnomeTankGnomeTank What the what? Portland, OregonRegistered User regular
    I was never a big AC guy, but I'm always sad to see the death of an MMO people loved (e.g. City of Heroes).

    That said, the cloak and dagger confuses the hell out of me. AC was never that popular (I don't mean that as a slight, I'm just talking pure numbers when compared to it's contemporaries like EQ and DAoC), and certainly has not been in the popular consciousness of the average MMO gamer for years...why the sudden secrecy? It's just very weird.

    Sagroth wrote: »
    Oh c'mon FyreWulff, no one's gonna pay to visit Uranus.
    Steam: Brainling, XBL / PSN: GnomeTank, NintendoID: Brainling, FF14: Zillius Rosh SFV: Brainling
  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    And now there's a Facebook account for the main lore NPC.

    XsHXYKX.png

    I swear to god if we all just got marketing punked I'm gonna be pissed, to say nothing of the thousands of players who logged in to empty out accounts and the like.

    Edit: All mention of AC is gone from turbine.com now. All official content from Asheron's Call has now been officially purged from the web.

    This, btw, is what we lost AC and damn near lost LOTRO and DDO over:

    https://arkhamunderworld.com/

    (It's not even on the Android store.)

    LOTRO and DDO were spun off to SSG because WB wanted to stop updating LOTRO and DDO in lieu of dev resources being used to update THAT abomination, and it's upcoming Game of Thrones clone.

    KiTA on
  • Fartacus_the_MightyFartacus_the_Mighty Brought to you by the letter A.Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    KiTA wrote: »
    And now there's a Facebook account for the main lore NPC.
    XsHXYKX.png
    I swear to god if we all just got marketing punked I'm gonna be pissed, to say nothing of the thousands of players who logged in to empty out accounts and the like.

    Yeah, I was trying to tell people to not do stuff like delete characters or dump valuables on the ground, on the off chance that everything's not gone forever. From the in-game chat, it didn't seem like there were too many people deleting characters.

    edit: it's being implied that the Asheron account was just a lucky name-grab by a player

    Fartacus_the_Mighty on
  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
  • Anon the FelonAnon the Felon In bat country.Registered User regular
    Man, those final forced logouts.

    Plus Maggie's voice, I haven't played with her in years.

  • Blood DriveBlood Drive Registered User regular
    FEELS, DAMNIT THE FEELS.

  • Kai_SanKai_San Commonly known as Klineshrike! Registered User regular
    Oh god I haven't played the game in 15 years but I knew that was Maggie.

  • citizen059citizen059 hello my name is citizen I'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
    This was posted to the Save AC facebook group today. This group was, as far as I know, the most organized effort to either lease or aquire AC or the IP.

    eiqmzyfigdp1.png

  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    edited February 2017
    Tossed all my screenshots I have available up:
    http://imgur.com/a/4nGg8

    I used to have a plugin that took a screenshot every time I dinged, but I can't find that old folder. Might be lost to time.

    KiTA on
  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    edited February 2017
    rq17rGt.png

    We'll just make our own goddamned Asheron's Call.

    deHvBNG.png

    With blackjack!

    EjtAdlh.jpg

    And hookers!

    6bKTMEL.jpg

    Actually, forget the hookers.

    So there are two AC Sever Emulator projects now. PhatAC and ACEmulator. I am not fully up to date on the differences, but I believe they were both older emulators that have been taken out of mothball.

    There's also AC2D, which is an Emulated CLIENT. There's another one I can't find as well that's been taken out of storage as well. They were originally designed to be used by buffbots and the like.

    It's interesting to watch them go -- basically, AC is back in alpha, with a 3rd party devteam doing their best to recreate things.

    Here's where I see things going.

    * AC Server emulator gets up to a point where minimum functionality is restored - NPCs, Mobs, Items, Spells, etc.
    * AC Client emulator gets to a similar point.
    * Convergent development occurs - they take the Emulated Server and Emulated Client and smooth each other out so they can talk to EACH OTHER perfectly fine, even if they couldn't talk to the original AC Server and Client.
    * Ta da -- Recall is now decoupled from the original AC and can be polished and upgraded by the community at will. (The IP may need to be pulled off at this point, depending on C&Ds, DMCAs, etc.)

    So, what are the odds they'll be able to do any of this? I think pretty good - they've gone quite a bit in the short time since the game shut down.

    Here is PhatAC latest update.
    Hey guys!
    We will be doing our play test tonight at 8 PM EST. Join us on Discord here:

    https://discord.gg/ve6uAKt

    Play tests are daily during the week at 10 PM EST, weekends 8 PM EST. All you need is a valid Asheron's Call installation, preferably with mostly full data files. It's lots of fun!

    Screenshot of last night's play testing! http://i.imgur.com/6bKTMEL.jpg

    And the night before! http://i.imgur.com/EjtAdlh.jpg

    PS. There are two separate emulators under development. PhatAC is one, ACE is another. Each have their own Discord. I want to help clear any confusion on the subject.
    Hope to see you tonight!

    So, yeah, active and rapid development going on. But, do they have enough information?

    mmmmmaybe?

    pkOpl8w.png

    Every red dot is a spot where a player uploaded a packet from the packet sniffer. How many?
    Hey everyone,
    I wanted to share some information about the incredible amount of data that all of you -- the dedicated AC community -- were able to collect in the final month of AC.
    Together we captured over 71 million packets containing over 103 million total game messages. Many of these messages contain valuable information such as object placement, item stats, quests, portal locations, action sequences, vendor inventories, and more, that are extremely helpful for preserving the true AC experience. Among that data is roughly 200 newly created characters, 600 recalls to lifestones, 3,700 player deaths, 80,000 defeated foes, 700,000 cast spells, 2.2 million item identifications, and 5.4 million game objects. Wow!

    To show just how much coverage we achieved, all the red areas on this map indicate player positions:

    http://imgur.com/pkOpl8w

    REMEMBER: It's never too late to upload your captures, and every bit helps! Please upload pcaps, txts, and mag logs to http://aka-steve.com/uploads/

    The fine folks working on emulators such as ACEmu have already started putting this data to good use to authentically reconstruct AC, and are extremely appreciative of your efforts.
    It is truly amazing what this community was able to accomplish in the final month of Asheron's Call, and I sincerely thank everybody for their help in preserving Dereth.

    KiTA on
  • DarmakDarmak RAGE vympyvvhyc vyctyvyRegistered User regular
    Lol, they're gonna get shut down so hard

    JtgVX0H.png
  • Anon the FelonAnon the Felon In bat country.Registered User regular
    Yup, being this public is foolish.

  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    Possibly.

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