he past few months have been very busy and productive.  The first item to note is the release of our community portal, My.AgesofAthiria.com.  This web portal is custom-designed specifically to meet the needs of Ages of Athiria players.  We could have just installed some off-the-shelf forum software, but as development continues you will see why a custom-built solution was the only way to go.  Make sure you drop by our forums to introduce yourself, and/or participate in one of the many Role-Play threads currently active.  Is there a feature of AoA that you really like, or dislike?  Have a great idea that you would like to see in game?  Feel free to discuss it in our Design Discussion forum.  Throughout the development cycle, important game and community information will continually be released.  Check there frequently for updates to important topics such as playable races, game mechanics, beastiary, story, and much more.

ther eventful news includes the addition of a new developer to help us finish our re-designed demo.  His name is Chris Deatrick, a local DirectX developer who goes by the name of "Taylor" in our forums.  Last, but certainly not least, we have lined up a couple of investors to hear us pitch our re-designed demo within the next few months.  Stay tuned to our official forums for pertinent updates.

e have big plans for our new portal, and hope you enjoy using it to keep up with the news and events of Athiria.  As an added bonus we have included nine new concept art sketches on the portal.  Below you will find a couple of samples.  Login to MyAoA to see the rest.

- Kressilac

was going to detail the knowledge-skill system in this newsletter, but for some reason I could not put together a short article without leaving massive holes unanswered.   So, I decided to delay the knowledge-skill article for a time when I can put together a multipart article.   Instead, I will add to our FAQ from some excellent questions found in our forums.

Player vs Player
s usual, our approach to player conflict and PvP continues to generate questions from new users we get on the boards.   Our first couple of updates will answer a couple of recent questions about murderers, and show how it relates to our permadeath strategy.

Can murderers form guilds, villages, cities and kingdoms or is that option reserved only for non-murderers?

Being flagged as a murderer because of your desire to participate in non-consensual PvP doesn’t directly prevent you from participating in any specific part of the game.   What it does do is make that participation harder because your character could be subjected to the laws of your victim’s city/cities.   The most important aspect to remember about non-consensual combat is that a murderer has no authority over the laws they become subjected to.   That is entirely based on the laws defined by the victim’s city. Even if a group of murderers travel together, a group of justice seekers will always have the advantage of re-spawning after death, whereas the permadeathed murderer is gone forever.   Still, murderers can form guilds and cities of their own.   Maintaining such an organization will be just as difficult as, if not more than, being a murderer by itself.   Adventuring/hunting/mining for resources is made more difficult as well, because justice can be enacted regardless of how the murderer dies.   As permadeaths mount, your city population decreases making maintenance and growth more difficult.   Eventually the group of murderers will be small enough that justice seekers can more easily hunt and exterminate them.   Once permadeathed, you create another character for non-consensual PvP, but you will have to re-invest the time required to make it skillful enough to provide a challenge to other mature characters that are not subject to permadeath.   The life of a non-consensual murderer is not intended to be an easy one.

When you kill a murderer do you gain full loot privileges on their corpse?

Looting rules do not change when you kill a murderer.   The player’s uninsured items are available for looting.   Permadeath causes all of the player’s personal items to vanish into the Ethereal Plane as the magical insurance energies binding the item to the person dissipate.   Rules for political, business, military and other leaders that are permadeathed have not been decided upon yet and will be released when the issues relating to other game play systems have been worked through.

How expensive will insurance be, and will there be a cap on how many items can be protected?

How expensive insurance is will be determined in beta.   It’s one of those parameters that cannot be stated with certainty until people are actually playing the game.   The only cap on how many items you can insure will be the funds that it takes to insure them. If you can afford the maintenance, then you can insure your items.   This is subject to change if testing shows that casual players are being unfairly targeted by this system. Insurance costs shouldn’t make up the reason why you are online most of the time.   Insurance is necessary because without it we would have a full looting free for all where players had no real recourse against losing items when they die at the hands of another player.

Weather Systems
his next question will start a new category on our FAQ page. I’ve seen the question come up more than a few times, so we feel it justifies its own page as a starting place for more information to come later.

What will the weather system be like in Athiria?

Weather will play a part in travel and if the server resources are available we would like to expand the weather sub-system into something more fluid than the random rain/snow patterns commonly found in the genre today.   Some of our ideas for weather systems link the prediction of weather patterns to a player skill.   If this occurs there needs to be a use for this skill, so we will probably make weather play a minor role in spell crafting, foraging, and other trade skills.   At the very least weather will play a minor role in travel, such as slower travel during rain as opposed to when there’s no rain. There are many potential ways that weather could impact game play.   As of right now nothing is set in stone, though there is a good chance that some of what I mention here will get implemented at some point in the future.  

Story & Racial Conflict
couple of questions about races, racial conflict and other miscellaneous items have been posted and I’ll answer those here.

Will the game encourage racial conflict?

Racial conflict will exist, and be encouraged, but not very much for the four standard races (Leaman, Querca, Silar, Subadi) we have already introduced.   It is entirely possible for any single member of one race to hate one, two, or all three other races (depending on how you want to role-play them), but I'm not intending these four races to be constantly at each others throats.   Yes, this does mean there will be additional playable races. They will be introduced by story released either via newsletter or some other form of content on My.AgesofAthiria.com.   Most playable races will be free to be "good", "evil", or "neutral" and to join with other races as their players see fit.   However, certain races will definitely be introduced in such a way that they are known to be enemies (or even extraordinarily neutral/ambivalent) to other races.   Where appropriate, in-game mechanisms will exist that reinforce those situations.

Will players be able to have journals?

Players will be able to have journals. Journals are in-game items that, if not insured can be looted.   Characters subjected to permadeath will leave behind their journals for all to see and read.   By making a player’s journal an actual in-game item, we hope to facilitate the fact that players can leave a lasting and permanent impression in the game’s persistent history.   Being able to read another character’s journal adds color to an otherwise static world.   Will player’s actually record things if the journal can be taken from them? This remains to be seen.   It’s an experiment that we’re not quite sure what the outcome will be.

Magic
he magic system also generates a fair number of questions. I’ve attempted to clarify some of the wording in the FAQ with additional questions that were recently asked on our My.AgesofAthiria.com forums.

Does the fact that spells are cast from vellium scrolls mean that we will have to carry a scroll for each spell we wish to cast?

You will need to have a spell on a page in your spell book.   Scrolls are one time use spells and can be scribed into your spell book for longer keeping.   Scribing a scroll stretches the Ethereal energies from the original scroll into the spell book and can cause normal wear and tear on the effectiveness of the spell.   It is possible with a good enough scribing skill and the right conditions to scribe a scroll into your spell book that is an exact copy of the spell on the scroll.   The attempt to scribe the scroll will consume the scroll itself as the vellium is not strong enough to survive the process.   As a caster, this means that you have the choice to cast the scroll or scribe it. Either way, you’ll use the scroll in the process.

Will there be spell components and will they be needed at the time the scroll is created or each time the spell is cast?

Yes there will be spell components. The higher the quality of the spell component used in the crafting process the better chance that the spell is easier to cast, more damaging, longer lasting, etc.   The component may or may not be used up during the crafting of the spell. The component provides the physical vessel for the calarite to flow onto the vellium page.   When crafting a spell, an option exists to attach a component to the spell in exchange for an improved crafting roll.   If a spell is crafted that the crafter indicates needs a component then you will need to have that component in your inventory at casting time to succeed.

Will a magic user stand a chance at casting a spell while someone is trying to attack or will the mage be vulnerable if alone facing swordsman?

Casting a spell while under any form of attack requires a concentration check using your willpower attribute to avoid a target number increase that would make the casting success check more difficult.   The spell will go off as normal, but the possible increased target numbers will affect the degree of success and may even cause the spell to outright fail if no successes are generated.   The short answer is that being under attack is only a modifier to your target numbers and not a hard rule that says, "You shall not cast…"

 he Andwir Mountains are one of the most dominant geographic features on all of Athiria.   Stretching north and south along the entire eastern coast of the largest Athirian continent, the Andwir features the tallest snowcapped peaks on the planet.   The rugged terrain is home to a few hardy species, but mostly the Subadi. Andwir’s foothills are much less harsh, providing sustenance to a variety of plant and animal life.   The jewel of the Andwir range, however, is the largest peak, named Rol Wegir.   Within is the home of the Subadi capital city of the same name. The Subadi have made their home within Rol Wegir ever since the first exodus from Caluvia, taking the knowledge learned from Kitrus and Aravaine to build themselves a self-sufficient home and legacy.   The Subadi mastered living among the mountains, and eventually expanded out from Rol Wegir with outposts along the entire length of the Andwir range.   Nothing traveled an Andwir mountain pass unnoticed by the Subadi.

ne such outpost was Truskar, far in the south of the Andwir range.   As with all outposts, Truskar was originally a natural cave, sculpted and expanded as necessary with expertise typical of Subadi stonework. Manned with a commanding officer and several veteran hunters, each outpost was secluded, defensible, and had a varying complement of personnel.   Messengers were always coming and going, keeping news and supplies flowing throughout the entire mountain range.   Few amenities existed, but everyone was guaranteed a cot to sleep upon and plenty of ale.

rinking one of those ales was Hannar, recently returned from a patrol with his partner Raugin. Hunters usually traveled alone, except during times of conflict or when they were training a new hunter.   Hannar was a hunter-in-training, but almost at the end of his apprenticeship to Raugin.   Hannar had a natural aptitude for hunting and tracking.   His parents, both hunters themselves, were very proud of him. When combined with Raugin’s excellent leadership and training, he was highly thought of and would soon be on his own.   Thus, nobody was surprised to see him return early and alone from his patrol.   The news he brought, however, was very surprising.

To view the rest of this story and the other Athirian history, click here.