User:An Adventurer/Early Story and Game Development

Overall Development

Various sources have put the total development time for Asheron's Call at 40 months (plus 8 months of beta), 4 years, and over 4 years.

The beta test concluded at the end of October 1999. With an 8 month duration that would have put the start of beta testing at March 1999. Presumably, earlier testing was conducted by Turbine and/or Microsoft staff. In an article dating from September of 1998, developer Christ Foster wrote of play testers.

The Beta was divided into multiple phases. There are multiple references to Beta 0 and Beta 2.^{[Citation Needed]} There is also an unconfirmed reference to Beta 3. Presumably, there was a Beta 1.

Beta 0 was private/confidential. This phase of beta was available to Microsoft Core Group, which was a group of external testers ran by Microsoft to beta test many of their games. If our estimates above are correct, this phase started in March of 1999. However, the files on the Asheron's Call Beta 0 disk image have dates in the mid April 1999 range. A player was once quoted as having started in April 1999 in Beta 0.

According to the Turbine beta site archive, open beta was planned to start in May 1999 During this phase, there was a character wipe on June 2nd, 1999.

Beta 2 was from August 3rd 1999 to October 25th 1999. Starting on on October 18th, it was open to all, with an installer freely available for download.

During beta the game placed in a code freeze, with only major bugs being fixed.

Beta Worlds:

The following information comes from Servers:

Beta World Red was the Beta 0/1 server - the first world to be be brought online for the Asheron's Call Beta.

Beta World Green was the Beta 2 server. It was online from 08/03/99 to ?? and was announced as having "many new features" over the previous red world.

Beta World Blue was the Beta 3 server and was open to the public. It was online from 10/18/99 to 10/24/99 and was using the new September game build.

More details on the early days of Turbine and development of Asheron's Call may be found at:

http://www.mit.edu/~jonmon/ (Flash required)

Additional infomation may be found at:

https://web.archive.org/web/20001202123100/http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000525/ragaini_01.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20001202133800/http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000525/ragaini_02.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20001214045500/http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000525/ragaini_03.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20001202141400/http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000525/ragaini_04.htm

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/257659/Classic_Postmortem_Asherons_Call.php (same article, functional location)

1994 - 1996

Turbine was founded in 1994. Founder Jon Monsarrat became the first employee in January 1995. By the summer of 1995, they had completed enough development to be able to give real demos of Asheron's Call. By this point, Toby Ragaini had been hired as a game designer, and he built the backstory for the game.

1997

Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 1997

"Microsoft also announced at the show it will charge daily fees for two multiplayer fighting games on the otherwise-free Internet Gaming Zone. "Somebody's got to pay for all this," said Marty Taucher, a marketing manager in Microsoft's Interactive Media Division, gesturing toward the company's spacious booth on the show floor.

The Internet Gaming Zone has a three- tier strategy. Customers can play certain board games such as backgammon against each other for free. Or they can buy a Microsoft game, such as Microsoft Golf, and play against other Golf users for free. Or they can pay a daily fee for playing multiplayer Internet fighting games.

Taucher said Microsoft is likely to charge roughly $1 to $3 per day to play Fighter Ace and Asheron's Call, two "premium" online fighting games to be released this fall."

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"Microsoft Corp. today announced that it is on a roll with its popular Internet Gaming Zone ( http://www.zone.com/ ). Topping the news about the Zone, Microsoft plans to expand the site by introducing its first two premium games, Microsoft® Fighter Ace and Asheron’s Call. Both multiplayer games will be previewed at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E 3 ) trade show June 19-21 in Atlanta (Booth 2616 in the West Hall, Georgia Congress Center)."

"The second premium game, Asheron’s Call, is an epic role-playing game that will support thousands of players simultaneously. The fabric of this fantasy game, including advanced combat, health, magic and allegiance systems, allows players to develop characters and interact in a variety of ways that provide infinite depth and capability for replay. The rich first-person perspective immerses the player immediately in the dynamic gaming universe. Asheron’s Call, scheduled for release during the first quarter of 1998, is being developed by Turbine Entertainment Software Corp. of Westwood, Mass. Both Fighter Ace and Asheron’s Call will be free for download (connect-time charges may apply) and carry nominal daily or monthly usage fees."

July/August 1997 Issue of FamilyPC

"In an effort to bring online games to the masses, Microsoft is launching Empyrean (code name) this winter at its Internet Gaming Zone. This fantasy, real-time, role-playing game takes place in a 32- by 32-mile virtual world and supports 3000 players simultaneously. If you're nervous about taking the plunge with the hard-core gamers, don't be -- newbies are considered assets, so they aren't killed off right away. Note, however, that while most of the games in the Internet Gaming Zone are free, Empyrean will charge a fee. But it will likely be worth every penny."

1998

Gamepen Interview with Toby Ragaini and Jon Grande

"We have a lot of backstory that we are going to incorporate into the game world. I don’t want to give away too much of the story, since part of the excitement will be from players discovering this secret past themselves. I will say that the player’s characters are being brought to an island that was formerly inhabited by a mysterious race of people that the humans now call the Empyrean. The Empyrean were very advanced in magical and arcane lore, however, they seem to have all disappeared. Where did they go and why? No one has answered that question, although most suspect that the magical portals which dot the landscape are somehow involved."

"We are dedicated to making player characters the main focus of the game plot rather than predefined AI roles or scripted characters. To this end, the storyline going forward is less defined than the back story so that we can incorporate players into the ongoing plot. Plans that we have include monster invasions, catastrophic events that add new areas to explore, and other changes that alter the content of the game world."

"One interesting aspect of the game is that NPC monsters won’t all be identical. They will have skills, attributes and specialties just like players. This means that the King of the Olthoi will likely be more powerful than the average Olthoi warrior."

"Right now there are 14 major types of monsters. Each of these will have many variations that will increase the total types of monsters to over 50. For example, the tumerok is an evil raiding humanoid monster. In Asheron's Call, you will find tumerok warriors, tumerok scouts, tumerok chieftains, etc. each with unique abilities of their own."

"We're trying to effectively do two things: 1) continue the trend that Ultima started of boosting the production values of on-line games to rival that of retail games and 2) focus the design of game-play on the interaction between players. Playing with and against other real people is always more challenging and interesting than playing against AI controlled opponents. That's something that we've all learned from playing games like SubSpace and Ultima On-line. We're really trying to build role playing universe that rivals the depth of the AD&D games that we all used to play in college. That's an incredible elusive goal, but one that we continue to chase."

"We're planning on starting our beta in the summer and shooting for commercial release this fall. We are counting on getting a great deal of user feedback in our beta and have scheduled ample time to respond to the feedback that we receive."

Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 1998

"Asheron's Call: An Epic Online Adventure
Asheron's Call(TM) online multiplayer game, which is scheduled to arrive on the Zone in early 1999, draws together thousands of players within a dynamic, 3-D online world. Players can create truly unique characters, with varied combinations of visual appearance, attributes and skill sets. The setting for the game is a 24-by-24-mile island with all types of terrain, including mountain glaciers, desert wastelands, swamps and subterranean dungeons. The game immerses players in an intense fantasy role-playing environment where they must choose to compete against or cooperate with thousands of other real players. An extensive system of allegiance and influence greatly enhances social interaction. The story line in Asheron's Call evolves dynamically over time based on the decisions and actions of the Asheron's Call community. The game is being developed by Turbine Entertainment Software."

1999

Microsoft GameStock 99

"Evolving Story Line Asheron's Call provides an engaging back-story equivalent to 4,000 years of game history for players to discover. On-line game administrators will be actively working to advance the overall story line based on the decisions and actions of the Asheron's Call community."

Microsoft Gaming Zone Interview with Toby Ragaini

"Asheron's Call takes place in a mysterious world called Dereth. People began magically appearing on Dereth about 50 years ago but were quickly enslaved by the vicious, insect-like creatures called Olthoi. Thanks to the heroism of Elysa Strathelar, the humans rose up in righteous fury, and were able to overthrow the Olthoi.

The game takes place about 10 years after this victory. It is a dangerous and exciting time. Olthoi and other monsters still lurk in their dark domains. Humans have carved out a few small towns, and brave individuals have found the artifacts of a mystical race of people called the Empyrean, who once inhabited Dereth. Is there a connection between the Empyrean and the magical portals that dot the landscape? Many mysteries like these have yet to be solved."

Later Dev Quotes

"We all work using backstory developed years and years ago, mainly by Toby."

"When writing 'The Reign of Alfrega' in beta, I worked out the reigns of a number of Aluvian rulers."

"At ship, we had a few pieces of lore and a handful of overview docs - not much beyond that. The Empyrean development of portalspace, for example, amounted to three line-items: Asheron uses portal magic to trap BZ, Asheron creates a stable portal, Asheron brings in the bugs."

"the original vision has it that he was surprised and overwhelmed, unable to close the exploratory portal to the Olthoi world before thousands had already come through. Kellin II, his usurpation of the throne, and his desire to use the Olthoi as weapons are entirely my reworking. I wonder what Toby thinks of it all..."

"There's about 40,000 years worth of historical outline in our database. It is, however, only an outline. While all the major players, major events, and chains of cause and effect are covered, the details are left for us to fill in as we go."

"the fates of Atlan and Maila were determined long ago by Toby's fiction. In fact, their doom was wrought back when AC was called Empyrean. The fact that Atlan's squire survived was also established. However, the details of Atlan's last march, the name of the squire, and Maila's twilight reminiscences I made up on the spot."

"The person I *think* had the most infleunce was Toby Ragaini. Toby created Asheron and Bael'Zharon (originally named Aiden and Yservius Pentecost), the Empyrean, and lots of other things we take for granted today."

Pre-Beta and Beta Screenshots

The following section lays out various iterations of the Asheron's Call user interface. The order is presumptive based on design elements, with the lowest numbered iteration being least like the retail UI and the highest numbered iteration being the most like the retail UI.

Sources for the screenshots include:

• Zogblaster Archive/Screenshots
• Zogblaster Archive/Screenshots/Screenshots Archive
• Microsoft Games Archive/Visuals/Screenshots
• Announcements - Asheron's Call Beta#Call to Arms Recap - Screenshots
• Announcements - Asheron's Call Beta#Campaign Against Wardiel

UI Iteration 1

These screenshots are presumably the earliest ones to exist, since they feature a UI that least resembles the UI that existed at release.

In terms of UI, the only elements from this era that survived to release are some of the iconography. In the world view window (the 3D rendered space) some dungeon models and textures, the Olthoi model and texture, and player character models and textures from this time made it to release as well.

These images feature the following character names in the chat window: Cyril, Ian, Joe, Mike, Sean, and Zach. These would presumably be the following Turbine developers: Cyril Van der Haegen, Ian Wilmoth, Joe Angell, Michael Ferrier or Michael Sheidow, Sean Huxter, and Zach Shukan. If the dates on Turbine Developers are accurate, that would put these screenshots in the 1997 to 1999 range.

• Early Development Screenshots
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UI Iteration 2

These next screenshots are presumably later than the previous group, but older than the following groups, based on the appearance of the UI.

The UI much more closely resembles the release UI, but there are some differences. The following is a breakdown of how this UI differs from retail:

Character Creation

• On the Appearance page, there is no 'interior of building' background behind the preview of the character.
• On the Appearance page, there is no descriptive text at the top.
• On the Appearance page, there are facial feature textures that were not present in retail.
• On the Attributes page, the points pool to spend on attributes is labeled available credits rather than attribute credits.
• On the Attributes page, secondary attributes are listed as health points and mana points rather than health, stamina, and mana.
• On the Attributes page, there is no secondary attribute listing for stamina. Instead, magic resistance is listed.
• On the Appearance and Attributes pages, the rotate left, rotate right, zoom in, and zoom out buttons are in a different location.

Top bar

• The vital bars have no heart (health), sword (stamina), and snake (mana) icons.
• The order of the vital bars are in the order Health, Mana, Stamina.
• All status icons (e.g. vitae) are present at all times, though they seem to be greyed out if not active. There are 9 status icons.

Inventory

• The inventory backpack icon differs from retail. The icon is a closed tan backback with a green bedroll attached. When the inventory is open, the icon glows.
• Scroll bar in inventory differs from retail.
• Paper Doll shows wielded weapons.
• Items do not fill the next available inventory slot, instead, items can be placed anywhere in the inventory.
• Various item icons differ from retail, e.g. food items do not have an icon background.
• Various inventory UI elements differ from retail.

Main panels

• Of the 5 main panels, all icons are the same except for the map. It is a quill and line, rather than a compass rose. It is possible it was not the map panel at this time, and was perhaps a journal, or some other feature.
• In the Skills tab of the Attributes and Skills panel, a skill called Linguistics is present.

Chat

• Scroll bar in chat differs from retail.
• Background of the chat window has a burlap/canvas texture.

3D Game World

• No 3D accelerated graphics.
• Portals use the older non-transparent graphics.

These images feature the following character names: Anderian, Angathnar, Beldane, Elinara, Giorlo, Glorian, Hiro Protagonist, Kira Slovak, Laridas, Marlee, Mustafa, Petra, Qalifa, Reiley, Saud Valient, Torstrim, Ulaysha, Uthweald, and Walsh.

Some of these images feature the Aluvian settlement located at what would later be Tou-Tou. In the captions, this town is called Cragstone. The chat in one screenshot mentions an unknown location called Rothdael. Another screenshot mentions the unreleased playable heritage group called Rennaj.

• From Turbine's beta site Screenshots Archive
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  "Character Generation -- Appearance Selection"

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  "Character Generation -- Attribute Assignment"

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  "A street in the town of Cragstone"

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  "Portal to the Direlands"

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  "I smell a thief!"

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  "Looking for fellowship"

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  "Scene from a pasture"

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  ""En Garde!""

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  "At the summit"

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  "Dead before dinner (or maybe for dinner?)"

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  "Ragnar of the dungeon"

• Other screenshots from this era
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  Image from original Credits

UI Iteration 3

The UI incrementally looks more like retail. The following is a breakdown of how this UI differs from retail:

Top bar

• The vital bars have no heart (health), sword (stamina), and snake (mana) icons.
• The order of the vital bars are in the order Health, Mana, Stamina.
• All status icons (e.g. vitae) are present at all times, though they seem to be greyed out if not active. There are 9 status icons.

Inventory

• The inventory backpack icon differs from retail. The icon is a closed tan backpack with a green bedroll attached. When the inventory is open, the icon glows.
• Scroll bar in inventory is the same style as retail, but the buttons are green.
• Various item icons differ from retail, e.g. weapon items have a diffent color background.
• Various inventory UI elements differ from retail.

Main panels

• Of the 5 main panels, all icons are the same except for the map. It is a quill and line, rather than a compass rose. It is possible it was not the map panel at this time, and was perhaps a journal, or some other feature.

Chat

• Scroll bar in chat is the same style as retail, but the buttons are green.

3D Game World

• No 3D accelerated graphics.

• From Turbine's beta site Screenshots Archive
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  "Cave Dungeon"

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  "After a run-in with a drudge clan"

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  "Battle with drudge clan"

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  "Battle viewed from above"

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  ""En Garde!""

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  "Beware the desert"

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  "a Tusker wants a little lovin’ -- be sure to ready a weapon"

UI Iteration 4

Features of this era of UI include:

• Release style scroll bar in chat and inventory windows, but colored green.
• The vital bars have no heart, sword, and snake icons.
• The order of the vital bars are in the order Health, Stamina, Mana.

• From Turbine's beta site Screenshots Archive
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  "The Stone Golem is thick skinned"

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  "Running across the wild green yonder"

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  "Banderlings: 1; Humans: 1"

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  "Meet people at the tavern"

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  "A perfect place to pick off casual castle-goers"

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  "The Undead fight better than the dead"

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  "A prayer"

UI Iteration 5

One of the screenshots from this era includes the build information:

00.00.07.1320.r Portal:compiled Thu Feb 04 12:38:18 1999 : Release

Features of this era of UI include:

• Release style scroll bar in chat and inventory windows, with the reddish-brown used at release.
• The vital bars have icons, health's icon is an anatomically correct heart.
• The order of the vital bars are in the order Health, Mana, Stamina.
• Portals use the older non-transparent graphics.
• Spells are cast from the hotkey bar, rather than the spellcasting UI.

• From Turbine's beta site Screenshots Archive
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  "A Reedshark Pup thinks he can hold the fort"

• From Turbine's beta site New Screenshots
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  "The Castle, Besieged"

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  "Shallowssharks! To Battle!"

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  "Gathering On the Savanna"

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  "Acid Blasts Blister the Enemy"

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  "A Tumerok in Trouble"

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  "Olthoi, Death and More Death (Oh My!)"

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  "Can You Spell Olthoi?"

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  "The Moss Dungeon Awaits"

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  "Yaraq at Twilight"

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  "A Fine Night for Adventure"

• From Microsoft Games Asheron's Call Visuals
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UI Iteration 6

One of the screenshots from this era includes the build information:

00.00.10.2142.d Portal:compiled Tue Sep 14 13:10:24 1999 : Debug

Features of this era of UI include:

• Release style scroll bar in chat and inventory windows, with the reddish-brown used at release.
• The vital bars have icons, health's icon is a heart.
• The order of the vital bars are in the order Health, Mana, Stamina.
• Spells are cast from the spellcasting UI.
• Melee and missile combat UI is similar to retail, but the High / Medium / Low buttons are green.

• From Microsoft Games Asheron's Call Visuals
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Pre-Beta and Beta Maps

Early Dereth Map

This first map is perhaps the oldest known map of Dereth. Maggie the Jackcat's site calls it Beta Map of Dereth.

As far as physical geography is concerned, this map features an Osteth that mostly matches the Osteth seen at release. However, some of the mountain ranges in the northwest quadrant of Osteth appear slightly different. The northern area of the Direlands also appears to match the terrain seen at release, but the mid Direlands, south Direlands, and southern landbridge are very different. Lastly, Asheron's Island is different, and much further east.

The map also labels geographic areas and Isparian areas.

The geographic areas are:

• Dereth Island (the whole map)
• Lake Cragstone (Lake Blessed)
• River Prosper
• Naquet Desert (A'mun Desert)
• Land of the Tumeroks (Direlands)

The Isparian areas are:

• High Kingdom of Aluvia
• Gharu'n
• Sho Empire
• Viamont

Pre-Beta / Early Beta Map

This next map is from an early promotional screenshot. This screenshot includes the map panel being viewed. Rather than the map panel seen at release, this map is down in more of a sketch style. There are also no point of interest markers on it.

This map does feature a marker for each town. On the map are:

• Aluvian: Arwic, Cragstone, Dryreach, Eastham, Glenden Wood, Holtburg Lytelthorpe, Rithwic.
• Gharun'dim: Baishi, Hebian-To, Lin, Mayoi, Nanto, Sawato, Shoushi, Yanshi.
• Sho: Al-Arqas, Al-Jalima, Khayyaban, Qalaba'r, Samsur, Tufa, Uziz, Yaraq, Zaikhal.
• Misc: Bandit Castle.

Additionally, there are markers around the following locations:

• Edge of Direlands north land bridge, Osteth side
• Edge of Direlands southland bridge, Osteth side
• North side of Lake Lithaenean
• Northern Osteth, very approximately at 75 to 80 north, 30 to 35 east.

Missing from the map are:

• Crater Lake Village, Fort Tethana, Kara, Neydisa Castle, Plateau Village, Stonehold, Wai Jhou

It is unclear if this map ever actually existed. The map panel places the character near Shoushi, and the compass has them facing northwest, but the terrain visible does not match that area. Also, according to the 1999/9/17 Build Notes from beta, that build added both the points of interest to the map and Lin, Tou-Tou, and other towns. This map contains those towns, but no points in interest.

Early / Promotional Map

Not much is known about this map, but it appears to be promotional art.

Beta Site Maps

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  Early Aluvian Realm from Zogblaster.com

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  Early Gharu'ndim Kingdom from Zogblaster.com

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  Early Sho Nation from Zogblaster.com