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Ashen Empires Preview
by Marty Graves

What do you get when brilliant and talented people like Jason Ely (Ultima VIII, Crusader: No Remorse, Crusader: No Regret), Andrew Hofmann (Ultima VII: The Forge of Virtue), Doug Gesler, Denis Loubet (Ultima III - Ultima IX, UO: Third Dawn), Matt Sheffield (Ultima VIII, Ultima Online) and Jeff Dee (Ultima VI, VII and IX) team up? Asylumsoft and Ashen Empires.

What's Ashen Empires you may ask?

Ashen Empires is an Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) of medieval fantasy adventure. Create your character by choosing from among nine different races and twelve different professions. Enter the world of Ashen Empires with a few minor skills and possessions and set forth to seek your destiny! Master dozens of skills. Explore dark dungeons seeking wealth and magical artefacts. Battle great mythic beasts and uncover ancient secrets. Hunt down and dethrone evil tyrants. Along the road, you'll meet and interact with thousands of other players as well as non player characters (NPCs).

Ashen Empires gives players something they long for... The chance to be a Hero!

Graphics

Ashen Empires Some Months Ago...

Some of you may have beta tested Ashen Empires when it still looked a bit like a crossbreed between Ultima 4 and Ultima 5. Jason "Lothgar" Ely and the rest of the Ashen Empires team have revamped the look and feel of Ashen Empires over the last several months.

Not surprisingly, the graphics look very similar to Ultima Online. Not just the art itself, but the whole visual impact is a cross between Ultima 7, Ultima Online, and Baldur's Gate. Even if Ashen Empires resembles these game in some aspects, there are also a some noticeable differences. The monsters and characters seem to move more smoothly in Ashen Empires and the perspective is quite different from Ultima Online or Diablo; it is more reminscient of Ultima 7's perspective. And while the graphics are not as state-of-the-art when compared to some 3D-shooters, they are still nice to look at and leave enough to the imagination when you first enter the world of Ashen Empires. Plans are in place for some major improvements to Ashen Empires's graphics once the magic system, which already has a lot of nice particle effects on the test server, has been fully implemented.

Interface

The new look of Ashen Empires

Ashen Empires's interface is not much different than other MMORGs you may have played. It is pretty easy to get a hang of, and once you get understand of the basics it should be pretty easy to understand most aspects of the game. The interface is a good mixture of keyboard commands and a mouse-driven interface.

Where do you go from here?
Once you have a created a character in any game, the question one always asks is "now what do I do?" Ashen Empires offers a large variety of things to do from the get-go. Ashen Empires has a variety of skills that you can choose from, such as cooking, farming, wood working, mining and others. The game also offers a dynamic quest system, which will provide players with the opportunity to make their living and earn experience, without relying too much on their combat skills. And if you choose the "warrior's way," there is a large variety of different monsters and creatures out there for you to test your skills and explore the lands of Ashen Empires.

Skills

Skills

Skills are a big part of Ashen Empires. Almost everything you can do in game, be it monster-bashing, mining ore, baking bread or farming, has a corresponding skill which raises when you train that ability. But not only do you raise your skill, you will also gain experience points, which means your stats will raise once you have gathered enough experience points for the next level. This gives you the option to not only participate in monster-bashing, but also gives you the opportunity to performs some of the more peaceful skills. Ashen Empires, then, caters to a variety of playing styles.

Additionally, raising skills is quite easy. You simply have to perform the skill. For example, I have been training my combat skills almost constantly and it is quite nice to watch them raise when you go from opponents like bats and spiders to others like undeads, kobolds and spider queens.

Leveling

Damn you bad bat!

Levels are raised by gaining experience points as you progress through skill usage. As your level rises, you have the ability to raise your stat levels. Your stats are: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Constitution. The higher your stats, the better off your character is, as it is with most MMORPGs or RPGs. While you might start with 100 hit points or less, they will increase constantly when your stats raise. Unlike other MMORPGs, leveling in itself isn't that boring since you can always switch to another task when if you start to get bored. And even when you start a new skill, you will see that the effort is worth it.

Things to come

A Tundrian Warrior

The good thing about the Ashen Empires beta is that there is a lot already implemented in the game that you can try out. However, a handful of the things that should be in the finished game are not yet available, understandably.You can only choose between three races (Humans, Elf and Orc) at this time. Ashen Empires is scheduled to have nine playable races to choose from when it launches. Those races will include some unique races like Brimlock, Granition and Tundrian.

The magic system is currently in an early test status on the server and shows some very promising particle effects. The magic system itself is quite different from those games that use some kind of "mana" as the energy for spells. Magic is Ashen Empires is based on rune stones embedded into magical devices such as staffs. Using these spells drains the power of the runes as well as your stamina. While it's a bit different from other magic systems you may be used to, Ashen Empires's magic system is easy to understand and use.

Welcome to the shop!

Another feature the development team is working on is the ability to own your own land. Not only will you be able to own your own land, you will also be able to shape it at your will. Do you want a town, a city, a castle or a dungeon? You want it, you'll get it. If you choose to create your own town, you can also populate it with NPC's and, according to the dev team, a player-created town will not be different from NPC towns the dev team builds.

Other features like a government system and an advanced guild warfare system are also in the planning stages, but at this time not much is known about them. All in all I can't wait to see more of these features get into the game.

Final Thoughts

Since I am a real Ultima fan I may sound a biased here, but I think that Ashen Empires has a huge potential. If things get implemented like the ability for players to buy their own land and change it the way they would like to have it, as well as the government and guild systems and other features, this game might appeal to an even broader market than it currently does. Ashen Empires will also feature servers that will cater to a variety of playstyles as well. And since the dev team is constantly adding new features and expanding on current features, you will certainly see me in the world of Ashen Empires quite often. Just keep in mind the game is still in a beta stage, and don't get too attached to your character for now.

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