Asherons Call - Throne of Destiny About & FAQs

[Detomah]

To play Asheron's Call: Throne Of Destiny, you will need to meet or exceed the following system requirements:

One of the following operating systems:
Microsoft Windows 98 SE
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me)
Microsoft Windows 2000
Microsoft Windows XP

256 megabytes (MB) of random access memory (RAM)
733 MegaHertz (MHz) processor
2 gigabytes (GB) free hard disk space
32 MB DirectX 9.0 compliant video adapter with hardware T&L

The Portal to Dereth Has Opened!
Welcome to the online role-playing game Asheron's Call, where thousands of players inhabit a beautiful 3D fantasy world to make friends and seek out perilous adventure. Customize your alter ego with a unique appearance and balance of heroic skills, then enter a magical frontier of terrible monsters, breathtaking vistas, and fast alliances. With over 500 square miles that offer ever more wonders to explore, Asheron's Call gives you a world of unparalleled scope and freedom, the richest setting yet for creating your personal saga or joining your friends in an epic campaign.

Be sure to visit thier Monthly Events pages to get a glimpse of the ongoing storyline and ever-evolving world of Dereth.

Communication Reminders
To talk to everyone within earshot, click the chat box under the view window or just hit the RETURN key. A cursor will appear. Type whatever you wish, then send your message by hitting the RETURN key. Your words will be displayed to anyone who appears on your compass.

You can send a long-distance, private message to someone if you know his or her name. Use the Talk function described above, but type the following: /tell , . For example, if you want to send a greeting to your friend Foozle the Clumsy, you might type: /tell foozle the clumsy, Hi there Foozle! How are you?

You can easily keep up a conversation with a particular character no matter how far apart you may drift. First, select the character by clicking him or her in the view window or his or her dot in the compass. Then, click the Chat menu in the bottom left corner of the screen. A menu will appear. From that menu, choose "Tell to ." From that point on, everything you type will be directed at only that character. You can go back to speaking normally by using the same menu and selecting "Tell to All."

A similar function is available for easily talking with everyone in your fellowship, regardless of distance. Use the "Tell to Fellows" option.

The Friends List
You can determine whether your friends (or foes) are currently in the world with you by using the /friends command. Before you can make use of this handy tool, though, you need to designate some friends (up to a maximum of 20). In the chat window, type /friends add , where is the name of a character that you type: for example, /friends add Boffin. Then hit RETURN to add your friend to the list. Each of your characters has its own friends list. Friends lists are stored with your character information on our servers, so if you have to reinstall Asheron's Call or play the game on a separate computer, you'll still be able to access them.

Type /friends in the chat window to display a list of your friends. Each friend that is currently in the world with you will have "(online)" displayed after his or her character name. When one of your friends enters or leaves the world, you will automatically be notified by a message in the chat window.

To see only those friends who are online, type /friends online.

To remove a name from your friends list, type /friends remove ; to remove all the names from your list, type /friends remove all.

Preparing for Adventure
Enter the Training Academy portal near the site where you first appeared in the world. In the hall, double-click each signpost to bring up the sign's text in your right-hand frame. The training hall will show you how to move, attack enemies, use items, interact with vendors, and, if applicable, cast spells. It will also introduce you to quests.

Become familiar with the commonly used keys and mouse controls. Be able to move instinctively in the world. Consult the keymap, which you can find in your game manual.

Go to a lifestone just outside of town; ask your fellow adventurers where the closest one can be found. The lifestone is a blue gem revolving on a pedestal formed of three rock arches. Double-click the lifestone to use it. Thereafter, you will resurrect at the stone's location if you die. You can also return to your lifestone at any time by typing @lifestone.

Getting Around
By default, your character always runs when you use the arrow keys. To slow to a dignified walk, hold down the SHIFT key while pressing the arrow keys. If you'd rather walk by default and use the SHIFT key to run, click the Options button (the triangular button with the check marks on it) and unselect "Run as Default Movement" from the Character tab.

If you tire of the company in the local town, you might want to visit one of the other population centers. You can run to them, of course, but such journeys are hazardous for the beginning character, not to mention time-consuming. Look for an energy portal nearby instead -- usually just off the road or just outside of town. Before jumping in, click the portal once. Its destination will appear in the Selected Element Display in the lower right corner. If it names a friendly spot such as Shoushi, Yaraq, Holtburg, Yanshi, Samsur, or Rithwic, jump on in. If it names a not-so-friendly spot such as "The Evil Labyrinth of Death and Misery," maintain your distance until you've gained some experience.

Keep your eye on the compass in the upper right as you wander. Orange dots are creatures you may wish to avoid until you are ready to fight. White dots are other adventurers, and yellow dots are either talkative townsfolk or the more stoic merchants. Purple dots are portals.

Looking for a Fight
Dereth is swarming with nasty creatures. Close to your starting town you'll encounter the tamer scavengers and hatchlings, but the ****her away you roam, the stronger your foes become. Ridding the countryside of the feebler monsters near town might make a good first adventure, or better yet, enter the training hall. In any case, try to find some allies to join before fighting anything for the first time!

To find important information about quests, mysterious items, or groups of monsters, enter a tavern and consult (double-click on) a barkeep. As talk and drink tend to flow together, barkeeps are privy to important news and rumors about quests, dungeons, and other adventures in Dereth. See if your local barkeep will sell you directions to a dungeon portal.

The town criers found near the roads leading in and out of town can also provide information more recent than what the barkeeps may know about. Try giving them a coin or two -- they may reward you with a secret!

If you prefer to explore for yourself, try one of the portals by the side of the road leading out of town -- though be sure to take precautions before stepping into the unknown!

Creating and Improving Your Character
As you fight and quest, you will gain experience and grow as an adventurer. Practicing rigorously will improve many skills, but mainly you'll advance your skills by spending experience points on them or on your base attributes, which each affect the scores of a wide range of skills. Unlike many traditional role-playing game systems, Asheron's Call permits you to fully customize your character, pinpointing exactly those traits you want to improve. Furthermore, you don't need to see a teacher or gain a level before you can advance. Just click the Skills & Attributes button (the one with the flexed arm), and on the list that comes up, choose the attribute or skill on which to spend your experience points.

Because raising attributes is expensive, initially you are better off raising skills such as Melee Defense and your secondary attribute Health, so that you die less, and your primary attack skill (for example, War Magic or Sword), so that you can kill bigger monsters.

Improve those skills and attributes that seem to be hindering you the most. Identify the problems you are having and use the in-game Help to learn more about which skills and attributes you can raise to avoid those problems. Also ask other players for advice -- there's a great deal of collective wisdom out there.

It is said that it is possible for adventurers who have gained a bit of experience to "unlearn" skills, to specialize skills later in life, and to even transfer energy from one attribute directly into another! Once you have many levels under your belt, ask around -- a fellow player may be able to point you along this path.

Because raising attributes is expensive, initially you are better off raising skills such as Melee Defense and your secondary attribute Health, so that you die less, and your primary attack skill (for example, War Magic or Sword), so that you can kill bigger monsters.

Improve those skills and attributes that seem to be hindering you the most. Identify the problems you are having and use the in-game Help to learn more about which skills and attributes you can raise to avoid those problems. Also ask other players for advice -- there's a great deal of collective wisdom out there.

It is said that it is possible for adventurers who have gained a bit of experience to "unlearn" skills, to specialize skills later in life, and to even transfer energy from one attribute directly into another! Once you have many levels under your belt, ask around -- a fellow player may be able to point you along this path.

How Armor Works
Armor does not decrease the probability that you'll be hit; it decreases the damage a given body part sustains. To get better at dodging attacks, improve your Melee Defense and Missile Defense skills.

A particular monster will tend to attack you low, middle, or high, and each of your body parts within that region has a varying probability of being targeted. An attack passing through the middle of the body will be more likely to target a breastplate than a hand, for instance; however, don't neglect to armor every part of your body if you can afford it. Generally speaking, it's better to armor your entire body with mediocre armor than to wear great armor on your torso and leave the rest undefended. Note that shields afford no protection to the rear, so you'll want to avoid getting into a pack of monsters if you rely heavily on shield protection.

Some kinds of armor cover multiple body areas. A chainmail shirt, for instance, covers chest, abdomen, and upper arms, and will armor each of these body areas at the same armor value. If you try to equip your character with a given piece of armor and a circle crossed by a diagonal line appears, you'll need to remove some clothing or armor on the corresponding body region. For instance, you must remove sleeves before you try to use pauldrons or the aforementioned chainmail shirt.

Magical Weapons and Armor
If a magical weapon or piece of armor has spell effects, they are automatically activated when you wield or don the item, provided your character's Arcane Lore skill equals or exceeds the item's spellcraft score and you meet any other skill requirement listed. A magic item may also have a heritage-group or allegiance-rank requirement, meaning that to use the item's magic, you need to be a member of a certain race or have a band of followers that is sufficiently large (see The Allegiance Primer for more on allegiance rank). The spell effects of weapons and armor continuously drain mana, so you may want to keep a special sword or piece of armor in inventory and only equip yourself with it during a major battle. You may find it handy to keep special magic items and armor in your hotkey slots (located on the bottom right side of the screen) for instant use.

Other Magic Items
Some magic items, such as wands and enchanted gems, have instant spell effects that trigger a single time with each use rather than being continuously drained. Gems are destroyed after use. Certain wands contain a store of mana that limits the number of spells they can cast. Remember that you must have an Arcane Lore in excess of any item's spellcraft score to use its magic, as well as meet any other requirements.

Recharging Magic Items with Mana Stones
You recharge a magic item with a Mana Stone, a device you can purchase from most magic vendors. Regular, Lesser, and Greater stones all have the same function -- the name refers to the relative quantity of mana the stone can hold.

Many people get confused about the procedure for using Mana Stones and end up destroying valuable items with them, but they're really quite simple. First, select the stone and examine it, either with the E key or the magnifying-glass icon. If the stone has a mana score greater than 0, it will give that mana to the next magic item it is used on; if it has no mana, it will drain and destroy the next magic item it is used on. Mana Stones are sometimes destroyed when successfully used to give mana to an item, so use them to drain items with an amount of mana as close to their capacity as possible. If you use the stone to drain an item with more mana than the stone's capacity, you lose the excess mana from the item.

You can also use a full mana stone or mana charge on your paperdoll to add mana to all the items you currently have equipped.

Buying, Selling, and Trading
Certainly vendors are a good resource for turning items to pyreals and back again. Most vendors sell items in different categories. Look for the drop-down menu to view the full stock of various types of items you can purchase.

Shop around before purchasing supplies. Sometimes more than one person in a town sells the same item: for instance, there may be a blacksmith and an armorer, both of whom sell armor, or several people who sell health kits. Many times you can save a good bit of gold if you take a few extra minutes to see who has the cheapest prices in town.

Trade notes are by far the easiest way to carry wealth, and can be purchased from vendors in various denominations. You can sell a trade note to any vendor for its full value, but almost all vendors have a mark-up on trade notes that they will sell to you. They have to make a profit somehow!

Beware of biting off more than you can chew! While you maybe be able to acquire extremely powerful equipment early on, you'll find that without adequate strength and skill, you'll never endure a battle. Likewise, you may possess the most arcane item or know the most exotic spell in the land, but if your skills aren't high enough in the magical arts, your magic will fail you. Know your limits before buying or trading for valuable items or knowledge.

Trading with other players is your best method of gaining the most valuable and unique items. Players can access the Trade Initiation in their Social Systems panel to begin a trade.

Fellowships
We advise and encourage players to form fellowships to accomplish their goals. Experience points gained by the fellowship are divided among members based on their levels, which benefits everyone in the long run, ensuring that healers, for instance, get the experience they deserve for assisting the fighters who actually slay the monsters. You can also create fellowships that share experience equally, without regards to levels, although there are restrictions on who can join such fellowships. Often in your adventures, you will need people with skills you do not possess; thus, fellowships are especially effective if they hold a balance of warriors, magicians, healers, and rogues. Fellowships can be created and joined without cost, and last only for a single gaming session. Consult the in-game help (click the ? icon) for information on how to form a fellowship.

Allegiances
Sooner or later, you'll want to enter an allegiance. As a new player, you don't have much to lose by swearing to someone more powerful -- just make sure you get the help and direction you deserve, because your fealty is valuable! Before choosing a patron, you'll want to make sure that he or she agrees to give you gifts and assistance on an ongoing basis, but don't get hung up on small details. Remember that if things don't work out, you can always break your allegiance and take your services elsewhere. Consult the in-game help (click the ? icon) for information on how to form an allegiance.

How do death items work?
Could you explain how the game decides what you drop when you die?

First, how much you drop depends on your level:
- When you are level 5 or under, you don't drop anything when you die.
- From level 6 to level 10, you lose half your coins (not trade notes) and nothing else.
- From level 11 to level 20, you lose half your coins and possibly one non-wielded item (that is, something that you were neither wearing nor holding in your hands).
- From level 21 to level 35, you lose half your coins and some number of non-wielded items.
- After level 35, you lose half your coins and some number of items. At this point, you can drop items that you were wearing or holding.

Now, in those last two cases, I said 'some number'. Some number here is equal to your level divided by 10, rounded down, plus a random number between 0 and 2. So from level 21 to 29 you can lose between two and four items; from 30 to 39 you can lose three to five items; from 40 to 49 you can lose four to six items, and so forth. By level 126 you can be losing up to 14 items!

(One caveat here: if you were killed in a PK battle, you always lose items as if you were over level 35, although the exact number you lose is still determined by your real level / 10. In other words, PK deaths do not get the special protection from item loss that NPK deaths get under level 35.)

So that's how many items you lose on death -- but how do we determine which items are lost? This is where the categories come into it.

Each item in the game has a particular item type associated with it. The actual types (categories) are listed below. When we are deciding what items you drop on death, we make a list of all the items you are carrying, sorted by value (high value first). But we may adjust their values in two ways. If the item is not the most valuable item in that category, then we cut its value in half. And whether or not it is the most valuable item in its category, we randomize its value a little bit to mix things up. (To answer your first question explicitly, the cutting-the-value-in-half is not cumulative -- the second- and third- and fouth-most valuable items of one category all have their values halved, not halved and then quartered and then eighthed.)

Now note that we still keep these things in a list sorted by adjusted value -- so its possible to have your two expensive weapons listed first and second, if the value of the second weapon cut in half is still higher than the value of the third item. What I am trying to get at here is that we do not segregate the list based on item type; we only use item type to determine how we adjust the value of the item.

Finally, we go down the list and mark the first # things as dropped, where # is the number of items we have calculated that you are going to drop this death. For instance, if you are level 48, you will drop the first 4-6 items on that list.

The categories of items are:
- melee weapons
- missile weapons
- magic casters (like orbs & wands)
- armor
- clothing
- jewelry
- food
- gems
- components
- mana stones
- crafting ingredients
- parchments & books
- keys
- tradenotes
- miscellaneous

Time of Day and Months of the Year
Back in the world of Ispar, whence came the Aluvians, Gharu'ndim, and Sho, the great Empire of Roulea once spanned much of the land. Though Roulean influence has long since faded, the language now called "Old Roulean" has been taken up by traders of all nations. Here on Dereth, where the heritage groups have been thrown together in close proximity, Old Roulean has proven indispensable as a common tongue and measure of time.

Here is the Old Roulean system of measuring the hours of the day:

(6 a.m. sunrise) Dawnsong
(7:30 a.m.) Dawnsong-and-Half
(9 a.m.) Morntide
(10:30 a.m.) Morntide-and-Half
(12 noon) Midsong
(1:30 p.m.) Midsong-and-Half
(3 p.m.) Warmtide
(4:30 p.m.) Warmtide-and-Half
(6 p.m.) Evensong
(7:30 p.m.) Evensong-and-Half
(9 p.m. sunset) Gloaming
(10:30 p.m.) Gloaming-and-Half
(12 midnight) Darktide
(1:30 a.m.) Darktide-and-Half
(3 a.m.) Foredawn
(4:30 a.m.) Foredawn-and-Half

Here are the Old Roulean terms for the months of the year, and their English equivalents:

Spring:
Morningthaw (April)
Solclaim (May)
Seedsow (June)

Summer:
Leafdawning (July)
Verdantine (August)
Thistledown (September)

Autumn:
Harvestgain (October)
Leafcull (November)
Frostfell (December)

Winter:
Snowreap (January)
Coldeve (February)
Wintersebb (March)

Of Dungeons and Quests
In the lands of Dereth, the landscape above is not the only place to encounter fierce creatures or collect rich treasures. Adventurers setting out to experience the whole of Dereth should remember this: The ends to many paths hold very special dangers -- and rewards -- all their own.

Dungeons
Walk the wilds of Dereth, and such fearsome creatures as Golems, Reed Sharks, and Ursuin may be found. Yet by exploring only the world's surface, one will rarely, if ever, encounter Dereth's most fearsome denizens. To face such beings as the Lugians, Sclavus, and even Olthoi, heroes must delve beneath the ground -- into the dungeons.

Walk the paths between human settlements, and strange portals will often glimmer. Portals which lead not to any civilized town, but rather to underground lairs and ruins and even exotic cities beneath the soil. Before daring to enter such dungeons, adventurers would be wise to stock up on torches, recruit a fellow explorer, and find out all they can before blindly heading in.

Quests
Adventurers looking to fill their coffers with the gold and magic Dereth has to offer will be quick to learn -- not every treasured relic may be won by simply battling creatures. At times, a more heroic effort is required.

While coins and certain magic items can be readily found, in the pouch of a young Banderling or within the hollowed recess of a Mud Golem, the most powerful objects have been secreted away. . . and often kept by equally powerful guardians. Consider the legendary Sword of Lost Light, or Oswald's Dirk. Truly, such objects cannot be found without embarking upon some quest.

Housing
Home Sweet Home
With the release of Asheron's Call Dark Majesty, there comes a new dynamic to the world of Dereth: the house. This is to be a place where you can bring your characters, their friends, and allegiance at the end of long hard day to share stories, hang your trophies and keep safe all the spoils of battle. Below are the most important details for prospective, and new, homeowners to know.

The House
Houses come in three sizes: Cottages, Villas, and Mansions. Each housing type shares certain qualities with one another.

All houses:
Have a number of hooks to display items and trophies.
Have at least one, and as many as five storage chests, that can hold 26 loose items and one full backpack of items.
Can be recalled to by the house owner via use of a special command. (See Housing Commands later in this document.)
Require upkeep on a monthly basis (with the exception of Residential Quarters, which require upkeep every 3 months).
Have level restrictions, and/or allegiance rank restrictions.
Require at least one writ and one unique trophy item to make the initial purchase.

Residential Quarters:
Are found in various housing dungeons.
Contain 3 hooks: 2 wall hooks and 1 floor hook.
Contain a storage chest for keeping your items safe.
Require the purchaser be level 20+ to purchase.
Require 100,000 pyreals and 1 Writ of Refuge for purchase.

Cottages:
Come in 3 unique styles.
Contain 50 hooks for your items (25 can be used simultaneously).
Contain a storage chest for keeping your items safe.
Require the purchaser be level 20+ to purchase.
Require 300,000 pyreals, 1 Writ of Refuge and 1 trophy item for initial purchase.

Villas:
Come in 2 unique styles.
Contain 70 hooks for your items (50 can be used simultaneously).
Contain 2 storage chests for keeping your items safe.
Require the purchaser to be level 35+ to purchase.
Require 2,000,000 pyreals, 5 Writs of Refuge and 1 trophy item for initial purchase.

Mansions:
Have one immense and awe-inspiring style.
Contain 100 hooks (All 100 can be used simultaneously).
Contain 5 storage chests for keeping your items safe.
Require the purchaser to be at least level 50 and a Rank 6 monarch!!
Require 10,000,000 pyreals, 20 Writs of Refuge and various other trophy items to purchase.

Writs of Refuge
A new form of currency was introduced to Asheron's Call for the purpose of purchasing and maintaining houses. The Writ of Refuge is an item granted by members of the Zaikhal Arcanum for performing certain tasks or retrieving and returning certain trophy items to them. These tasks are geared roughly toward the level of the purchaser of the home at each level.

Arcanum Agents can be found in most cities and towns. Stop in and talk to one and he or she will tell you what items can be traded for writs.

It is also possible to obtain writs through certain quests.

Covenant Crystals
Covenant Crystals appear wherever there is a home. It is used to purchase and pay maintenance on the home. They link the character to the home and to everything that is contained within.

Housing Commands
There are a multitude of new commands used for housing. These are used to make your home more accessible or restrictive, more visually appealing, to facilitate returning and for general maintenance of your home. Below is a complete list of helpful commands for housing.

@help house--Brings up a Help menu with all the commands listed below.

Note: To find help on any of the following commands, type @help .

@house abandon - Abandons your house. Warning: Any items within your house will be lost!!

@house available - Lists the numbers and positions of houses currently available for purchase.

@house boot - Removes a player from your house.

@house boot all - Removes everyone from your house.

@house guest add - Adds players to your house guest list.

@house guest remove - Removes players from your house guest list.

@house guest add_allegiance - Adds your allegiance to the guest list.

@house guest remove_allegiance - Removes your allegiance from the guest list.

@house guest remove_all - Removes all guests from your house guest list.

@house guest list - Shows the current guest list.

@house recall - Teleports you to your house.

@house mansion_recall or @house alleg_recall - Teleports you to your allegiance mansion or villa.

@house storage add - Gives a player permission to use your house storage. Warning: Adding players to the storage list will allow them to remove any items that you have within any chests in your home. Make sure that you know and trust any individuals that you add to your storage list.

@house storage remove - Removes permission to use your house storage from a player.

@house storage remove_all - Removes all storage permissions from guests.

@house open - Creates an open house, allowing anyone to enter your home.

@house close - Closes your house, preventing people from entering your home.

@house hooks on|off - Makes the hooks in your house visible or invisible. In addition, there are several items that can be used while hooked. To use these items, your hooks must be off and invisible.