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Here is the latest news from A Tale in the Desert, which announces a new playing session today. I can recommend trying this game out, while it is still in beta, to all those players who like roleplaying. Maybe we'll even meet eachother there :).
Everyone,
Welcome to all the new players - we're now up to 2867 beta testers. If this is your first time in Egypt, log in using any username and password. Your username will also be your character's name.
The next play session will be:
Thursday, March 7 from 7:00PM EST until 11:00PM EST (GMT-0500)
During the last session, Tugament 2002 was held. The winner was Hirak, with Haggis coming in 2nd. The final game had a nice sized crowd gathered to watch. After that, everyone headed to the Mountain Market for the awards ceremony, and an exhibition game between me (Pharaoh), and tournament winner Hirak. He won the match, raising his rank to 48. Other Tug players with exceptional ranks include Komodo(65), Stormcaller(54), and Sekhmet(49).
We've added some new agricultural activities over the last week. Growing the new crops (leeks, garlic) require nothing more than a visit to the Great University of Worship to get some starter seeds. Each crop type has it's own quirks, so there is a lot to discover in this next session.
We have also added the ability to raise sheep, which like to eat onions.
The Bug Tracking system has been completely rewritten. When you submit a bug, a new menu appears on your character under "Utility/Bug Tracking". You can review the status, including developer comments and questions, from that menu. Whenever a developer examines or fixes the bug, you will be notified in a new "System" information channel that pops up alongside your chat channels. Finally, when a bug has been dealt with to your satisfaction, you can mark it as resolved, and you can set your bug filter to show only the remaining active bugs.
Perhaps the biggest change in this session is an experimental one: as an attempt to combat the accumulation of "junk" - woodplanes, box kilns, brickracks, and other low-level buildings, we have introduced item decay. Initial reaction to this from people in the IRC channel was *BAD* - nobody liked the idea. So, before I explain the mechanism, let me just promise: If *after* everyone has gotten used to the system, if you still think it makes the game less fun, I will remove it and come up with something different. Here's how it works.
- Items dropped on the ground (mud buckets, etc) are removed after 24 hours.
- Player-built buildings decay over a 30 day period.
- Buildings decayed below 50% are not usable.
- Repair costs are as follows, assuming no skill in Structure Maintenance:
Condition Cost to repair (L0)
100% --
90% Free
80% 10% of structure cost
70% 20% of structure cost
60% 30% of structure cost
50% 40% of structure cost
40% 50% of structure cost
30% 60% of structure cost
20% 60% of structure cost
10% 60% of structure cost
0% 60% of structure cost
- Players with Level-1 Structure Maintenance skill are able to repair buildings that are 5% more decayed. For instance, at Level-1, you can repair a building that has decayed down to 85% for free, and repair one decayed down to 55% for 30% of structure cost.
- For this beta test, the 30 day period is accelerated to 24 hours, and the 24 hour dropped-item period is accelerated to 1 hour. I'll adjust this if it feels too harsh.
- Examples of repair cost for a player with Level-1 Structure Maintenance who misses a 4-hour beta session:
Structure: Approx Cost:
Dromedary Pen 1 Board, 7 bricks
Student's Loom 2 Twine
Small Distaff Free
Pottery Wheel Free
After missing two 4-hour sessions in a row:
Structure: Approx Cost:
Dromedary Pen 9 Boards, 73 bricks
Student's Loom 22 Twine
Small Distaff 1 board, 3 bricks, 1 wood
Pottery Wheel 2 boards, 8 bricks
Again, if this makes the game less fun, we'll remove it and come up with another solution to the "random abandoned junk" problem.
Standard Stuff:
Visit our official chat channel before the session: irc.stratics.com port 6667 channel #ATITD.
If you didn't play in either of the last two sessions, be sure to install the latest version of the client from our web site (www.ataleinthedesert.com, Downloads section).
On the Nile,
Teppy (Pharaoh)
Josh (Nekhmet)
James (AmenRa)
Dave (Orpheus)
Joe (SickJoe)
Ed (EdTut)
Jeff (JeffTut) |
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A Tale in the Desert Playing Session
