A Tale in the Desert

Sandy99 writes "A Tale in the Desert is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (mmorpg) that has been in development for 4 1/2 years and goes live tomorrow. There is no killing in this game. It is all about cooperation to unlock the knowledge of Egypt. A basic overview is at the official site. Discussion forums are at atitd.net. Maps of Egypt and construction knowledge are at atitdmaps.com. Everything has been produced by a handful of independent developers and a bunch of volunteers. This is also the first mmorpg to debut with both windows and linux clients."

Another MMORPG is being made

[shadwwulf]

Vir's Odyssey [iceflow.net] is being made. It will have a Linux client before it has a windows client.

There is no killing in this game.

[ackthpt]

It is all about cooperation to unlock the knowledge of Egypt.

Shows the developers know nothing about what motivated explorers. Early egyptology was a cutthroat business, funded by people with huge egos (not to unlike how much of North America was explored by botonists seeking to bring back exciting new specimens for their patrons in the old world.)

A well. Should be fun, after all, you can have lots of fun with Settlers of Catan and it doesn't involve (much) killing.

A trully fascinating game

[alriddoch]

I have played a number of MMORPGs, work on the WorldForge project, and have been playing Tale on an off for well over a year now, and I have found it an absolutely facinating game. Above all else this game is about politics. The tasks that need to be done in order to make progress in the lang of egypt quickly get beyond the abilities of single players, and guilds become essential to achieve anything, and this is where the fun starts. True leadership is required to get a guild functioning effectively, and a guild can be made or broken by the effectiveness of its key members. The democtratic system in the game, which mean that the players can vote to implement almost any rule also leads to some interesting outcomes.

The various betas ran under wine long before the Linux game came out, so many friends who only play games under Linux have also been joining in. The arrival of the Linux client is most welcome though. I will almost certainly maintain a subscription to this game, and play it when I can, although free time is so hard to come by.

Interesting. Some thoughts on this game.

[Dolemite_the_Wiz]

This is a quote from the FAQ of the game site about what the game is like.

The game is a blend between city-building games and games of guile like Diplomacy and Illuminati. There's no combat - you must win by smart management and sharp-witted negotiation, not by weapons. The game has a plot that unfolds in response to player actions, and when the story is over, the game ends.

Illuminati eh?

I've got to give this game a look solely based on the creators being influnced by this game. I didn't think that anyone played this awesome game. Here's the link to the main Illuminati site [sjgames.com]. Illuminati is, wihtout a doubt, one of the best and most original games ever made.

IMO, ATITD's biggest problem will come from groups like this [bbc.co.uk] who band together to solve or easily master games such as this.

Dolemite

Re:Another MMORPG is being made

[t0ny]

Both will go out of business quickly

Note on Prices

[Caedar]

Since there's no box cost whatsoever, if you play for less than 50-60 months, it's actually the same price. There's a whole lot of ways to look at it, like: 50-60 months of game time same fee as EQ. (Even for me, a crazy 2-year beta tester of it, that's too much play time. :P) 4~ months of game time at $13.99 free. You save even more if you buy multiple accounts, etc. Plus, remember that you get free trials for it.

I played the ATITD beta a couple of times...

[Samurai Cat!]

... a couple of months back. While there's no combat - not even PvE (critter-whackin') - it's still a very, VERY involved game. It's the achiever's/tradeskiller's wet dream come true. I'd play it come release, if it wasn't such an addicting game. I don't *want* to be growing roots in front of my computer. :)

Don't knock it 'til you've tried it, gang. I believe there's going to be a free trial made available.

Free Trial Period

[darkwing_bmf]

In case you didn't know, there is a free trial period of 24 hours online time or 30 days of real life time (which ever comes first). I must admit this game takes some getting used to (be sure and read the game guids on atitd.net), but once you learn what to do, it can get pretty addictive. One of my favorite things is the tech tree... any technologies that are unlocked, are useable by all. Of course research takes enough resources to open that most can only be opened by a group effort, which I think is pretty cool in an online game.

Re:Is this a free game?

[Caedar]

A Tale in the desert will go live on Feb 15, 2003. There is no box cost whatsoever, and the monthly fee will be $13.95 per month.

Price $13.95 / month - No box fee

[darkwing_bmf]

$13.95 / month, no "box" fee.

Free trial - 30 days or 24 online hours, whichever comes first.

$14 sounds expensive, but consider you save $30 dollars by not having to buy a box.

It ends up being equivalent to a game that costs $12 / month that you buy at your local store for $30 and you play over a year.

German Version (Kemet)

[darkwing_bmf]

The German Language version of A Tale in the Desert can be found here [kemet-deutschland.de].

It's called Kemet and it is already live.

Forgot something

[Alari]

It's also one of the only MMORPGs that will be sold online only, no box necessary. So yes it costs $14 a month, but that's IT.

It also has a full-featured voting system, players can get laws put up for vote with enough signatures on a petition, and then get that law passed AND IMPLEMENTED by the developers (!) with enough votes. And yes, laws can have unforseen detrimental effects, or even be deliberately designed to cause problems. This game is REALLY political. ^_^

I've participated in the beta of this game...

[zorg50]

and I have to say that it bored me out of my mind. Be prepared to spend hours upon hours doing nothing but clicking on things over and over and over, and running for about 45 minutes to get to places. The whole game revolves around building things, and it takes a LONG time to get the necessary materials collected, grown, or made. That being said, there is a sense of satisfaction when you DO manage to build something impressive or complete a task.

I daresay you ain't got a K6

[Thurog]

If you had a Linux running on a K6, your boredom would have lasted about 0.094 seconds. That's the time the linux launcher needs to bomb out, thank you very much.

According to this thread [pluribus.org], the thing has been compiled with i686 optimizations, and is therefore utterly useless for us older AMD users.

I'm seriously disappointed. I was looking forward to this no killing type of game. Now I feel locked out again. Kemet is using the same client, so no luck there either.

CURSE YOU, LORD BRITI... Err.. wait...

Nice idea, so far not so great

[iamsure]

Okay, so I read up on it on both sites, got fairly interested for me and my fiancee.

I download the client, and run it. First choice: Official server or builder server. I guess official server. I create a player, and connect. Once I do, I get "This server is for builders, GM's, and Expert mentors". Hmm. Thought thats what the builder server would be for.

Okay, fine, so I do the dance for the builder server.

This time it says its only open to Builders. Ooooooookay.. back to the official server. By this point its 11:10pm EST (2/14/02).

This time I actually get in! Yay! I see the landscape, the players, and it looks pretty cool. I ask for a mentor, and I get one: "Bellah". WooHOO!

But wait. Bellah informs me that there isnt any mentoring that night, and that the server is going down. (huh?!) She says to try again tommorow. I look around, try out the interface for a few minutes, and then, just as she said, the server goes down, and no further connection can be made.

So I sleep, and this morning I attempt to login again. I get the same "only open for Builder's, GM's, and expert mentors", only this time, its totally consistent.

This, according to their website is their launch date. Great concept, but honestly, how the hell do they expect to get, gain, and keep players when the first 12 hours after a slashdot posting you cant even SEE the game?!!?

I'd love to play it..

Read the forum and stay tuned

[Anonymous Coward]

You connected BEFORE the release started!!!!