A Tale in the Desert III Launches 23
Teppy writes "The third version of the unique Egyptian MMOG A Tale in the Desert is now available. Changes from previous Tales include the new Discipline of Harmony, a game-wide Events system, and 'Principles'. Principles consist of 49 snack-sized challenges that provide a gentle introduction to a hugely complex game. Other enhancements include regional chat, community-unlockable Tests, dozens of new and changed Skills, and of course the Legacy Tests designed by the Oracles of A Tale in the Desert II. Windows, Linux, and OSX clients are available for download."
2 Thumbs UP (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:2 Thumbs UP (Score:4, Informative)
Great Game! (Score:2, Informative)
Yes! Oh wait... (Score:2, Interesting)
Although I only played the trial version of ATITD 2, I always say that ATITD isp the best MMOG out there. It is about as far away from the traditional Hack n' Slash you can come today, and I loved almost everything about it (it's a little too expensive for my taste).
I want to see more games like this one! Although it is far from perfect, it shows that out-of-the-box thinking is not only possible, but successful. There is a market for social, intelligent games! It may not be big, but it is there.
Second L
Re:Yes! Oh wait... (Score:2)
If you don't buy a copy, and you love the game, then there really isn't a market.
Re:Yes! Oh wait... (Score:1)
BitTorrent (Score:2, Informative)
What's different since tale 1? (Score:4, Informative)
I didn't mind the lack of combat. There was plenty of challenge. I loved the ability to influence the game's design. However, finding a good spot always seemed a challenge, it seemed the good ones in the starting areas got gobbled up quickly, even given the relatively small playerbase... and the main frustration I had in time was the insanity of trying to compete in challenges with large well organized guilds. FOr example, I remember a challenge to make a tower taller than all in the area. The first one was easy, the next had to top that, and so on. In time it required weeks of resource collecting to top the next one, and people, once they were doing it, would routinely exceed the previous height considerably, taking out several tiers in the process. Your only hope was to find an area where no one had done so yet, and that quickly got snapped up...
The camel thing... that was another insanity. Whoever had the most straw in an open camel pen at midnight when the camels spawned got a free camel (which ate all that straw). Presumably the camel was then too fat to escape via the open gate. Because routinely insane amounts of grain, enough to feed the entire nation of egypt several times over were not enough to compete with guilds that had acres of harvesting combines all pumping straw into one pen just to outdo the others.
And these were relatively early things in my game experience, i never got near pyramids, optics, fireworks, lasers, and so on... I can only imagine how those went...
I tend to solo a lot in games. Its what I like to do. And I found the game to be solo-unfriendly. I don't want to get into the then-why-do-you-play-mmorpgs argument, I do like to interact, between long bouts of solo time. That's just my playstyle...
So, what has changed on this front?
Re:What's different since tale 1? (Score:5, Interesting)
Completing a Principle advances your level by one (yes, we have levels now), and unlocks new Principles/Tests, Skills, and Technologies.
It's still going to be difficult (impossible) to lead construction of one of the final 7 Monuments with a solo spproach, but you may find Tale 3 to be much more fun for your playstyle than Tale 1.
If you do decide to come back, play for a bit and then tell me if I'm on-track with this analysis. (In-game,
Re:What's different since tale 1? (Score:2)
Re:What's different since tale 1? (Score:2)
What do you like about a tale in the desert? (Score:1, Interesting)
From what I could gather, the game seemed to be recursive resource gathering/building in order to unlock higher tiers of items that could be built, along with challenges of increasing difficulty that could only be accomplished by having an army of people below you taking care of the base level resource gathering.
Seemed a bit too much like the opening of the gates
Re:What do you like about a tale in the desert? (Score:2)
I feel the same way, and I paid for a month a couple years ago, so I played for a bit longer. It is a nice change of pace from other games, e.g. creating artwork to be judged by others, but the primary goals of the game are way too repetitive for my personal taste.
Re:What do you like about a tale in the desert? (Score:2, Insightful)
For example, getting a camel. In the first week or two you'll be up against experienced, obsessive guilds. Whole regions. Chance of doing it solo? Zero. Three months in, your only competition is the unlikely other solo newb trying in your region that night.
ATITD is the bomb throwing
Re:What do you like about a tale in the desert? (Score:3, Interesting)
That's only part of the game. If you pursue the path of Body, almost everything requires zero resources. Instead, you will have to travel across all of the game world, to find people/items/locations. Or Worship (does the alignment test still exists? That one require you to find 4 other people "astrally aligned" with you) Then, you have the "basic resources" which is the highly repetitive part - but also the part that eve
Misleading labeling (Score:1, Offtopic)
And they recommend a PIII/700 or better. Sure makes it sound like this would run fine on a fast PPC or SPARC machine, doesn't it?
Bet you it won't though.
Re:Misleading labeling (Score:1)
so much about misleading...
Re:Misleading labeling (Score:2)