- Exile .15 Patch Notes - 7 April 2020
Greetings players! I’ve got a few new changes for both beginners and veterans to have fun with! Read below to see some fixes and some new features! Fixes: • Mortar and Pestle and Shovel are officially added to be crafted! Check your workbench and human crafting window! New features • The first part of a magic system has been implemented! Can you tame the energies of TerVarus? Read below for more info • Double the resources for double the fun! We have increased the spawn rate of all types of resources! Get molting, building, and other things twice as fast now! Magic! Tame the elements of TerVarus by reaching out to an energy to attune yourself to it, then to capture it! In order to even see the elements though you’ll need to craft special rings which you can find in the forge! Get your crafting on as you’ll need nuggets and special gems to craft a ring to contain the magics in the land!
- Exile is back online! - 16 December 2019
As always I don’t want to over-promise, I’d rather over-deliver. Straight to the good news, everyone, Exile is back online! Also, for a limited time, Exile will be on sale for $8.99 starting December 17 before moving to a permanent price of $9.99! And those that have already purchased Exile will not have to purchase it again-you're free to play it already! After emails, Discord DMs and message ravens, I’ve had more feedback than expected about Exile and I hear you all loud and clear. Those who bought or wishlisted Exile want the game brought back online, post haste. I’ve made some time to do just that and am hosting a master server. With that said, the news is bitter-sweet as the future development of Exile is still going to be touch and go while I focus on Trials of Ascension, though if continued support and requests continue I’ll place more focus on Exile. All purchases of Exile will…
- Open Letter to the Purchasers of Trials of Ascension: Exile - 6 December 2019
Hi All, I’m Parthuin, the owner of Dragonfire Entertainment and the new holder of the Trials of Ascension intellectual property rights. I’ve written, re-written and written again this letter and after a lot of thought, I decided it’s best to be honest and somewhat blunt. Over the past two decades, Trials of Ascension has changed from an idea to a game in development, then that development was canceled. The project was resurrected, altered, compromised and yet again canceled. Reasons for those changes and eventual demise of the original Trials of Ascension are many and beyond the scope of intent for this letter with the initial founders of the project selling the IP to me with heavy hearts. With that short history and explanation, I want to rip the band-aid off about Exile. The development of the game will resume at some point if there is sufficient demand. Those of you who bought the ga…
- Ringing in 2019! - 5 February 2019
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33188050%2F8948b617f1013e528ec60bde438586a8c49b5605.jpg What a rollercoaster 2018 was for us! Just six months ago we Early Access launched ToA: Exile, and it has been an exciting journey since. In that time we have welcomed new team members, parted ways with a few others, and received a great deal of fantastic feedback from our community that has helped us improve the game as well as determine where to focus future development. The team would like to share the departure of two team members with the community. Michael “Dyer3D” Dyer, one of our 3D artists, has decided to start down the hard road of creating his own studio. Meanwhile, one of our programmers Jesse “emrys90” Norris accepted the opportunity to pursue his passion for VR programming. We wish them both the best of luck and thank them for their contributions to the…
- Build .12 is Now Live! - 23 October 2018
Build .12 is live and pushed to the official servers. Remember to backup your database if you host a server before you update! As always please report any bugs that slipped through testing in our official forums at: http://trialsofascension.com/forum/forums/bug-reporting.26/ Feedback on the new features and changes are always welcome. Thank you for your support as we continue to grow and improve Trials of Ascension: Exile! Full patch notes can be read at: http://trialsofascension.com/patchnotes
- Build 0.12 is in Beta! - 2 October 2018
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33188050%2Fd0eaf20ba2cde4ad5746c01bc0c45d8f3e8dbe3b.jpg The focus of the last two builds was on improving overall gameplay, fixing quality of life issues that rose up, and on laying the groundwork for the dragon improvements we have planned. But since most of that work is very programming-centric, the art team has been working on what they do best; models and animation! They started with new customization options for the raknar and dragons, giving our players more eye and skin colors to choose from when they create a new character. My personal favorite is the green skin for the raknar and the charcoal color for the dragon. I’m still undecided on my favorite eye colors, though onyx does look good with the charcoal. The hatchling animations received a lot of love from the animators in this build, and dragon players will noti…
- Forged Chaos is Expanding our Team! - 24 September 2018
The team here at Forged Chaos is looking to expand with two new positions. We are looking for a programmer with experience in C# and is familiar with Unity. We are especially interested in someone who has AI or networking experience. We have also posted a position for a game designer. Their focus will be on adjusting existing game data to improve the play experience and hammer out the details of new features for implementation. You can read further details about these positions on our Hiring page at: http://trialsofascension.com/hiring.
- Build 0.11 is Now Available for Beta Testing! - 25 August 2018
Our latest build is available for beta testing through steam. It will not require a server reset, however you should back up your server database before updating if you plan to switch back and forth between builds! You can read more about this build in our official forums at: http://trialsofascension.com/forum/threads/0-11.10862/
- Build 0.10b2 is Live! - 6 August 2018
With our first Early Access patch just pushed out as we speak, I thought it would be a good time to go over what it is we have been working on since we launched a little over a week ago. This patch brings many quality-of-life changes for players, along with a very important database update! While I am going to review the biggest additions that are included in this massive patch, there is still more for you to find in it! To view the full change log for this patch, visit our website at: http://trialsofascension.com/patchnotes. The biggest change that players will notice is the new options for death penalties in the game. Dragons have had a death penalty in play since day one, where their molting progress was reset every time they died. It really wasn’t fair that only dragons got death penalties, so we added them to the humans and raknar too. Now when a human dies, they lose the progress…
- Taking a Look Ahead: What we have planned for ToA: Exile - 26 July 2018
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33188050%2F93f013844504c3c58966a8a74cd57cca72cd3b20.jpg So we have pretty much covered everything that is currently in the game through this article series. At least enough for our followers and those just finding us to get a feel for what the game can offer them at this time in development. But what we have planned for the future is at least as important as what we have already achieved. We’ve updated our website this past week, and along with it we’ve added a new roadmap of what the team wants to achieve before we consider development complete. While it is still a rudimentary list, it does clearly show what we want for ToA: Exile. This list is by no means definitive; more may be added to it over time. But it does include all of our must-haves. Once we have all the details worked out for each new addition we will expand o…
- Dragons: From Hatchling to Ancient - 25 July 2018
In Trials of Ascension: Exile, players get to experience the harrowing and triumphant life of a dragon in its entirety; starting with the humble hatchling and eventually growing into the boss-level ancient. Dragons face their own unique challenges, and their growth in power doesn’t necessarily mean that survival gets any easier for them. If you can overcome the trials of life as a hatchling and beyond, you will be rewarded with the strength of the most powerful character in the game. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33188050%2F289cb3c20476085c8eb3e283a2f1a9749c5b3994.jpg As the ancient breeding ground of the fire dragons, the Lost Isles are ideally suited for a growing hatchling. Food is plentiful and predators can be avoided if the player is cautious and attentive to their surroundings. The size of a small cat, hatchlings possess few hit points and what…
- The Evolution of the Raknar - 24 July 2018
Raknar are a species of giant arachnids. Though they are similar to spiders, they lack pedipalps and their front limbs have adapted over time into specialized striking weapons, aptly named Strikers. They are a predatory species and voracious hunters, feeding on anything that they can capture or kill. They were driven underground centuries ago by ancient humans with the aid of fire. Trapped in the caves beneath TerVarus, they adapted to their merciless prison and sought out a way to return to the surface. Now that they have emerged they are ready to renew the hunt of their ancient enemies. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33188050%2F1d3005a018dfd159d4f237168c58468c3eec9e15.png Players will find that raknar start with all their natural abilities unlocked and ready to begin hunting the creatures of the Lost Isle, and any other players they find along the way…
- How to Train your Human: Skills and Disciplines - 23 July 2018
Human progression is handled through our skill system. There are currently twenty-four skills across four categories; combat, crafting, gathering, and survival. As you probably guessed, the combat skills deal with various types of weapons, the crafting skills are associated with specific trades, gathering skills include harvesting resources from the surroundings, and survival skills encompass aspects of basic survival. Humans begin the game with zero mastery with all the skills and they earn experience for a skill by performing a related action. Each time they rank up a skill, the tasks related to that skill become more successful. This is especially true for crafting skills, where increased skill lowers the overall crafting difficulty of the related items. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33188050%2Fd9d082521c0dd653d593aad2dc5875ad3c2bc134.jpg As humans…
- Made from Scratch: Crafting and Construction - 22 July 2018
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33188050%2F454c2b92e3df250fadcf8fdfd0a496eebb9574d3.jpg Unlike the raknar and dragons, humans start the game without any weapons or armor. Using resources they gather from the terrain and plants, they can craft various tools, items, and equipment that they will need to survive on their new home. While the bestial races will be able to craft and construct a few things for themselves, they don’t require equipment and so we will focus on how crafting and structures are used by the humans. The crafting process starts with gathering resources from the terrain. This includes raw stone from boulders, logs from trees, sticks from bushes, sand from the beach, skins from animals, and so on. Primitive items, like rope and stone tools, can be crafted without other tools or stations, but more advanced tools, like iron blades or leather…
- Combat is a Balancing Act - 20 July 2018
When it comes to combat in Trials of Ascension: Exile, we’ve aimed for a realistic feel and pacing, so that most fights will not end within just a few seconds. We do not have hit-chance, auto-attack, or auto-avoidance variables in the game. Instead, we use real-time on-demand attacks that the player controls with their mouse-buttons. Attack success requires the weapon hit box to collide with the character’s hit box. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33188050%2F8b1c3a3e5f19a06d8c4db2c390ec016d53aa6e22.jpg Where the weapon strikes also matters, as the character's body is made up of several parts, each with their own armor rating based on the equipment of the character. Feet are protected by boots, legs are protected with pants, hands with gloves, and the arms and torso guarded by the shirt or chestpiece. Players also need to protect the heads of their charac…
- Making Death Matter; Why we offer perma-death - 19 July 2018
Death is is a fairly common feature in video games. It is ubiquitous in RPGs, adventure games, tabletop games, MMOs, fighting games, shooters; it’s the universal punishment for failing to keep your character’s life above zero. It is the impact that death has on the player that varies from game to game. Some treat it as a resource-sink and minor inconvenience; it damages your equipment so that you must spend your hard-earned currency to repair it or you respawn away from where your character died and have to start back at the beginning of the dungeon/map. Other games swing to a harsher consequence with inventory loss, so that you must recover your original body to regain your equipment and possessions, or even progression loss. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33188050%2F7119fcf30a19fb2ad0968a28d2e029ee844334d0.jpg For Trials of Ascension: Exile we wanted…
- Designing Conflict and Competition - 18 July 2018
Many games offer campaign stories or quest lines to immerse the player and help them to feel connected to the game world, but the result is that every player experiences the game in nearly the same way. The really good stories, the ones that players share with their friends and tell over and over again, are the ones that the players spontaneously create for themselves. Sometimes these are the result of cooperation by the players to overcome challenges, but just as often it is a result of conflict and/or competition. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33188050%2F7119fcf30a19fb2ad0968a28d2e029ee844334d0.jpg Competition occurs in game environments that offer performance-based rewards or control of non-infinite resources to the players. Conflict arises from competition when players disagree on the allotment of such rewards and resources. How competition and con…
- Less is More: How Removing Elements Adds to the Game - 17 July 2018
At first glance, some people might think that our game is missing several features that players have come to expect in modern video games. As standard as these elements are, we believe that leaving them out actually adds to the gaming experience. Map/Minimap - You won’t find a miniature map hovering in the corner of your screen in ToA: Exile, nor can you press a key to bring up a screen that displays where you have already explored and where you are currently standing. By removing these tools from the players, we force them to really look at the world around them to determine their location. The sun, moon, and stars all move through the sky, allowing the player to orient themselves to the cardinal directions. Landmarks become vital for longer expeditions from base camp; choose poorly and a player will quickly find themselves lost. Even getting lost can be its own adventure, as the playe…
- Build 0.9b2 - A Hot Fix, And More... - 16 July 2018
Hey Everyone! We've noticed an issue where young and juvenile dragons couldn't interact with anything. We consider that a game breaker for dragons so we've put out a hot fix. We're piggy-backing a few extra tidbits into the update as well, most of which stems from feedback from our testers and streamers. Keep that awesome feedback coming! ~~~ Fixed - not being able to harvest things as a young or juvenile dragon. Fixed - caves being too dark for even creatures with night vision. Fixed - crafting unfired clay brick not giving empty mug back Fixed - footsteps not playing if holding a torch. Fixed - deer animation twitching during sleep and unconscious loops. Fixed - characters thinking they are in cave which affected sounds and visual settings. Fixed - unfired clay mug trying an error when trying to fill it. Addressed scrollbar inconsistencies in the UIs. Volume of the intro music has bee…
- Welcome to the Lost Isle: Flora, Fauna, Terrain, and Weather - 16 July 2018
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33188050%2F3be5c2a3bf0c773ad56427bfa6e8be8f0aae26ff.jpg Whether you play as a shipwrecked human fleeing from the mainland invasion, a exploratory raknar separated from the Hive, or a newly hatched dragon struggling to survive, your story will unfold on the first of our islands; the Lost Isle. Roughly 3km2 in size, the Lost Isle is a temperate forest biome rich in all manner of flora and fauna. There is also an abundant supply of mineral sources such as iron and stone, along with trace amounts of copper, silver, and gold. Occasional rainfall ensures that the local plant life is productive and constantly growing. The warm days and cooler nights make this island an ideal paradise for all three races. Both rain and thunderstorms occasionally occur on this island, impacting the temperature and visibility conditions. Seeking she…
