A Tale In The Desert IV Public Beta

[sidereal]

starts right now

Come play the best crafting tech demo ever devised

Client at http://www.atitd.com/

[schild]

crafting tech demo

[bhodi]

I'm in! I have some slate and I can't figure out how to rotate the camera!

Edit: figured it out. I also figured f6-f8 gives different views.

[Nebu]

Fun game for a few weeks IF a) you've never played it before and b) you REALLY like crafting games and chat.

[sidereal]

Forgot how much I loved this game.  Grindalicious as hell, though.

[Numtini]

Yeah, I can feel the addiction except I know last time I played the hell out of beta, bought a year sub, and played an hour during it.

What region are people in?

[Slyfeind]

Ugh. I still can't get over the khakis and polo shirts. Let me know when we can run around shirtless again.

The new compound design is nice though.

[Quinton]

Downloading the client.  Wish I was getting better than 50KB/s.  Is there a mirror somewhere so I can start my grinding sooner than 45 minutes from now?

[DeathInABottle]

I just started up in 7L, which is now being called Shabbat Ab.  Player name Ouroboros.  Not sure if I'll stay on, but there's a reasonable chance.

[sidereal]

Started out in Kush, but I'm heading over to Fool's Paradise, or whatever they're calling it now

[Demonix]

After trying to plant flax in several areas and failing due to poor soil, this got uninstalled right quick.

HINT:  if you are going to force people to do something, don't make it such a pain in the ass.  make good soil increase yields, instead of punishing people trying to work through your newbie requirements.

[Nebu]

After trying to plant flax in several areas and failing due to poor soil, this got uninstalled right quick.

HINT:  if you are going to force people to do something, don't make it such a pain in the ass.  make good soil increase yields, instead of punishing people trying to work through your newbie requirements.

The game is meant to be a problem solving game, not the typical MMO.  It is full of many roadblocks intended to provoke problem solving.  Fishing, vegetables, etc. all follow this model.  It may be best to get out now if the flax situation irritates you.  It only gets worse as people mine, irrigate, etc.

[Demonix]

After trying to plant flax in several areas and failing due to poor soil, this got uninstalled right quick.

HINT:  if you are going to force people to do something, don't make it such a pain in the ass.  make good soil increase yields, instead of punishing people trying to work through your newbie requirements.

The game is meant to be a problem solving game, not the typical MMO.  It is full of many roadblocks intended to provoke problem solving.  Fishing, vegetables, etc. all follow this model.  It may be best to get out now if the flax situation irritates you.  It only gets worse as people mine, irrigate, etc.

It doesnt irritate me for things like mining, herbalism, etc.  but if you are going to require something for citizenship, don't put in silly cockblocks that you cant get the answer to.  Ecology skills are needed to solve the problem and as far as I could find ecology skills are not available to non-citizens.  To become a citizen, you need to harvest flax, so its a matter of finding a good spot without any sort of visual cues. 

If you were unable to plant the seeds, or the plant appeared to grow differently, if you got some sort of feedback it would be a puzzle.  Without them its a cockblock.

[Nebu]

It's pretty easy once you figure out that you need to plant only on grassy areas (i.e. not on sand, clay, etc.).  Unless something has changed, flax can be grown with varying degrees of success on grassland.  I don't think that's a tremendous cockblock. 

Edit: I'm not playing in this beta so I may be out of line here.

[Big Gulp]

There were Tale in the Desert 2 and 3?   

[sidereal]

Yes, you just plant it on grass.  In most starting areas there will be 30-40 other people wandering around planting Flax to ask.

[Demonix]

i'm pretty certain that I planted on grass, given that I was collecting grass to dry while growing the flax.

Meh, not like it really matters.  Wurm online does crafting better.

[Signe]

Wurm Online is really really ugly, though.   

[NiX]

Sounds like someone PK'd ur flax!

[Slyfeind]

i'm pretty certain that I planted on grass, given that I was collecting grass to dry while growing the flax.

Yeah, that's weird. You shouldn't even have the option to "Plant" unless you're standing on grass.

But yeah, if that wasn't to your liking, best to get the hell out now. It only gets worse. Teppy's wanted to make the game more forgiving, and give more cues as to what you're doing wrong, but hasn't gotten around to it yet. Personally I like the cockblockery. That was one of the allures of ATITD for me, that it took a lot of experimentation to figure out things.

[Yegolev]

The problem-solving is all well and good, but I was never able to solve the Everyone Else Is An Asshole puzzle.

[Nebu]

The problem-solving is all well and good, but I was never able to solve the Everyone Else Is An Asshole puzzle.

I've found the decent/asshole ratio to be much higher in this game compared to an MMO.  The problem this game suffers is the cliques that have been established since Tale 1.  They are very hard to break into. 

[Yegolev]

Maybe I just didn't find the right people.  I felt like Rick Moranis in Space Balls.

[Nebu]

The thing that makes the game helpful is that players can be members of an unlimited number of guilds.  A guild is little more than a chat channel.  The guilds you belong to act as nice Q & A channels for questions and most veterans of the game really enjoy helping with advice and suggestions.  Of course many will just send you to the wiki for help... not to be mean, but to give you the most complete guide.

[Slyfeind]

WIKI NUB! My favorite thing to do is ask a random question in chat, then when nobody answers, make up some answer and count how many people who are quick to correct you.

[sidereal]

That's awesome.  Even better would be to have two accounts (presumably a buddy.  Who duel-boxes atitd?).  One to ask the questions, and the other one to give shitty answers.

[Slyfeind]

You'd probably get exiled by the Demi-Pharaoh for being wrong.

[Numtini]

I got involved with a guild, The House of RA, last time around in beta and really, they adopted me quickly, it was one of the nicest friendliest most helpful group of people I've ever gamed with. I think as long as you come in at the start, you make out pretty well. Getting back in the middle, you just have a lot to catch up on.

[Yegolev]

Apparently I was doing it wrong.  Downloading.

[Numtini]

I'm putting in an agreement on the flax. Apparently very large areas are polluted. I eventually just teleported to another region.

[sidereal]

Ooooh, the shitty soil problem.  Yeah.  Forgot about that. 

Just go to Fool's Paradise

[Numtini]

I guess the game starts Saturday at noon? Good idea to keep the beta short, provided they actually finish up some of the rough bits.

In any case, I'm going to stake out a little plot on the less fashionable side of the Nile somewhere and give it a shot at playing casually rather than hardcore.

[Demonix]

I guess the game starts Saturday at noon? Good idea to keep the beta short, provided they actually finish up some of the rough bits.

In any case, I'm going to stake out a little plot on the less fashionable side of the Nile somewhere and give it a shot at playing casually rather than hardcore.

Heck, maybe I'd join you, make a loose confederation of crafters, etc.

Nice to see some validation on the flax issue ;)  Yes, I've calmed down about it.

Also, heard that outdoor chests are not going to be allowed, that such things will have to be kept in warehouses.  thoughts?

[Numtini]

It's funny, when I saw my first chest that was one of the big things that hit my nostalgia gene. I can't imagine the game without them. Teppy posted something about making them decay over two weeks, but I also heard someone in regional bitching about how much the big ones cost to make, so maybe he's just economically nerfing large ones to try to get people to build warehouses?

I'm Numtini in game and I'm thinking somewhere near 7 Lakes since it seems to be fairly busy and I'd have the most opportunity to meet people. Though I know a fantastic place in UE if I want to live in the middle of nowhere.

[Mrbloodworth]

How are the new terrain, avatars and other graphics?