All The Tropes

Asheron's Call: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Asheron's Call (view source)

Revision as of 14:37, 13 July 2021

74 bytes added ,  2 years ago
m
Reverted edits by Gethbot (talk) to last revision by Robkelk
VisualWikitext
m (→‎top: clean up)
Tag: Reverted
m (Reverted edits by Gethbot (talk) to last revision by Robkelk)
Tag: Rollback
Line 4:
It revolves on an island in an alternate universe called Auberean, [[After the End|after the world is destroyed]]. The titular Asheron, while researching dimensional portal magic, accidentally let loose the Olthoi, a race of [[Hive Mind|insect]] monsters that very, very quickly took over his world. The entire game of ''Asheron's Call'' takes place on a small island called by the original people, Ireth Lassel, and is the site where Asheron's research took place. Before the start of the game, the portal experiment, which had ran wild after opening the portal to the Olthoi homeworld, opened random portals to a world with 3 (later 4) human races, Ispar. The Isparians come through and are quickly enslaved or killed by the Olthoi, but a later rebellion allows them to overthrow the Olthoi and, in killing the Olthoi Hive Queen, free the land, which they rename Dereth, for colonization.
 
A noteworthy feature of ''Asheron's Call'' is its relative lack of [[Expansion Pack|Expansion Packs]]s—in -- in over a decade, only 2 have been released. Instead, as part of the standard monthly fee, Turbine adds ''Monthly'' content patches to the game—overgame -- over 100 to date. In addition to adding new dungeons, quests, enemies, and so forth, each patch also advances the game's ongoing storyline, which plays out in a series of year-long [[Story Arc|Story Arcs]]s (barring some occasional [[Schedule Slip]]). Recent years have seen major overhauls of the game mechanics, including new races, new methods of character advancement, and most recently (2012) a complete revamp of the combat system.
 
The player, when created, is considered to be a new arrival to Dereth from one of the random portals to Ispar. Character customization does not use the typical class system that most MMORPGs use, instead allowing a character to pick a number of skills using a points based system, and allows the player to buy more skills as he or she levels up. Experience does double duty: XP levels up characters, earning points to buy new skills, but is also is put into a pool where it is spent to improve stats and skills directly. Character builds, called Templates, are often discussed in and named by the community, for example, a "3 school melee" (a melee character with 3 magic skills), a "Og Mage" (named after a particularly successful PVPer), or a "Pure Archer" (Bow or Crossbow, Melee Defense, and no magic).
Line 10:
It spawned the first MMORPG sequel in history, ''Asheron's Call 2'', which after [[Screwed by the Network|years of mis-management by Microsoft]], was also one of the first major name MMORPGs to end.
 
The original game is sometimes considered a [[Franchise Zombie]]—while -- while monthly content updates continue, the active ''Asheron's Call'' player base has been shrinking for years. Many theories abound to why this is—mostis -- most people agree that at least one of the 100+ monthly updates fall under [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]]—but -- but the answer may be more marketing than anything else. Whereas ''[[EverQuest]]'' released its expansion packs as new titles (thus keeping it eternally inside game stores) ''Asheron's Call'' instead chose to release its expansion packs as free downloads. As such, the game propagates mainly by word-of-mouth, and not much by that since a lot of things are showing their age nowadays.
 
Regardless, ''Asheron's Call'' remains one of the most unique MMORPG experiences in the genre. There are rumors that they are planning on porting the game to consoles and/or launching "AC 1.5", a re-envisioned version of the original game with updated graphics in the upcoming year(s).
 
{{tropelist}}
* [[Absurdly High Level Cap]]: The original MMORPG example—experienceexample -- experience capped out at 4 ''billion'', or around level 126, with requirements going up logarithmically. Players could continue to gain experience to max out every skill, with a similar cap of 4 billion, without actually increasing in level. A later update changed this, creating 275 levels in the game. Add in alternate forms of advancement such as Augmentations and Luminance, and it quickly moves [[Beyond the Impossible]].
* [[Acronym Confusion]]: In this game, [[UST]] is a [[Punny Name|punny acronym]] for Universal Salvaging Tool, and also means "That which reduces" in Empyrean. It was introduced in-game like this:
{{quote|'''Town Crier''' tells you: ''Do you have an UST already?''}}
Line 41:
* [[The Caligula]]: One of the later villains turns out to be the rich son of the former king, who intentionally screwed up Asheron's portal experiments in an attempt to get him killed. [[Complete Monster|This resulted in the deaths of 95% of the population, the only ones surviving being the ones Asheron managed to trap in stasis between dimensions.]] He's not amused that Asheron managed to survive and that the majority of "his" subjects are trapped in stasis.
* [[Canon Discontinuity]]: By [[Word of God]], some or all of lore and future history told in ''Asheron's Call'' 2 might not be canon anymore.
* [[Cast from Hit Points]]: A Life Magic spell lets you turn your hit points into mana. The other routes are also available—Manaavailable -- Mana to Health, Stamina to Health, et cetera. This is a primary reason for taking Life Magic, as it allows a mage to cast magic effectively nonstop.
* [[Character Level]]: Interestingly, it's almost entirely cosmetic, due to the [[Point Buy System]]. Level only affects the ability to enter certain areas, use certain items, and turn in certain quests.
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Ulgrim the Unpleasant. Notorious drunken sage, self-proclaimed best mage of Dereth and maybe every bit as good as he says. At one time he managed to split himself into ten different selves by miscasting with an splintered wand.
Line 53:
* [[Deal with the Devil]]: Bael'Zharon is a product of one of these. Virindi are a major source of these, too.
* [[Death Course]]: Gaerlan's Fortress. It includes a [[Corridor Cubbyhole Run]] and a [[Solve the Soup Cans]] room.
* [[Death Is a Slap on The Wrist]]: At the time it had one of the kindest death penalties in [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]]s: a penalty to skills and attributes ("vitae") that went away by gaining experience, and leaving on your corpse a number of the player's most valuable items (defined by their vendor value). This lead to the unusual practice of D.I.s (Death Items), expensive but useless equipment carried around solely for the purpose of dropping it on death instead of the day-to-day working tools.
* [[Designated Victim]]: Until 2002 (when it was finally found and fixed), players with the dreaded "Wi Flag" gained aggro instantly. The game used an ID number randomly assigned at players during creation to select aggro when no other considerations were in effect, meaning that monsters drew a bee line towards Wi-flagged (an unusually low ID) players as soon as they entered a new room or there was a respawn.
* [[The Dragon]]: Isin Dule to Bael'Zharon, at first. Despite their [[Villainous Friendship]], he eventually became a [[Dragon Their Feet]] when he realized Bael'Zharon was [[Brainwashed and Crazy]].
Line 124:
* [[Portal Network]]: The main mode of transportation.
* [[The Power of the Void]]: The Shadows' power source.
* [[Randomly Drops]]: Some enemies are known for specific drops, however—Golemshowever -- Golems, for example, randomly drop specific types of spell components, the 2 foot tall dragons drop caster items, undead typically drop jewelry, etc etc.
* [[Rat Stomp]]: The rats have a breath weapon, just for variety.
* [[La Résistance]]: Thorsten Cragstone's original band of escaped slaves that managed to kill the Derethian Olthoi queen.
Line 143:
** Ulgrim the Unpleasant tells you, [[Army of Darkness|"Strong...weak. I'm the one with the wand."]]
** @[[Sdrawkcab Name|atoyot]], an [[Emote Command]] referencing a series of old Toyota ads.
** The various kinds of [[Sdrawkcab Name|Knathteads]], [[Blob Monster|jelly-like monsters]] whose model resemble the tanks of the vintage Atari ''Battlezone'' game, all bear the [[Sdrawkcab Name|Sdrawkcab Names]]s of past Turbine staff.
** By [[Word of God]], Hoshino Kei, a canon character, got her surname from [[Martian Successor Nadesico|Hoshino Ruri]].
** [[Douglas Adams|Don't Panic. Do you know where your towel is?]]
Line 175:
* [[Twenty Bear Asses]]
* [[The Undead]]: Sentient undeads are the norm in Auberean, not the exception. Skeletons, mummies, and your regular walking corpse are typical examples; you can come across typical ghosts, too.
* [[Underground Monkey|Underground Monkeys]]s: In the literal sense, and the trope sense too. (Tusker Island is filled to the brim with monkeys in caves; most monsters are part of monster "families" that consist of pallet swaps, size changes, and slight cosmetic modifications.)
* [[Video Game Tutorial]]: Optional. Not recommended to skip.
* [[Volcano Lair]]: Aerlinthe Island.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/1912298"