Steampunk "Gear Knights" Join Asheron's Call

vansau

Mortician of Love
May 25, 2010
6,107
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Steampunk "Gear Knights" Join Asheron's Call

Turbine has revealed its June Update for Asheron's Call, and the biggest change is the introduction of a new character race known as "Gear Knights."

Asheron's Call has been around for over ten years, making it one of the longest-lasting MMOGs on the market. Since Turbine took over the game's development in 2004, the studio has provided regular content updates for the game's faithful fans. The latest addition sounds particularly epic because, amongst other things, it includes a new playable race of steampunk-esque clockwork humanoids called "Gear Knights."

The Gear Knights sound like an interesting race: Aside from just looking cool, they also use equipment differently than other characters do. Essentially, they don't wear armor, they absorb it into their being to become more powerful.

"Gear Knights do not wear traditional armor," the <a href=http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=578-gear-knights&catid=81-2010&Itemid=68>race's info page explains. "Instead, they can take the pieces of armor they find and transform those pieces into Core Plating to strengthen their forms. To do this, Gear Knights use a device called the Core Plating Integrator to transform their findings into a piece of plating that covers the same locations as an armor piece. The Core Plating Integrator uses Aether magic to create the Plating, which can then be installed onto the Gear Knight in the same manner as a human might wear more conventional armor."

The new race isn't the only new content coming to Asheron's Call this month. The other big addition is the launch of the Town Portal Network, which also sounds mighty spiffy. That said, I'm pretty sure players would've just been happy with getting to play as clockwork warriors.

Below is the entire list, as provided by Turbine:

The newest playable race Gear Knights, have been added to the game. You can read the introductory fiction here, and read more about the Gear Knights functionality here.

The new Landscape Textures are in the game. When players first log in, their settings will default to medium. When turning up the graphics, players may notice some hitching on the higher settings, depending on your computer setup

The Town Portal Network has been created. Read here for more information

With the addition of another playable race, a new character slot has been unlocked for all players!

Negative Atheria spells should work on the creatures of Dereth

The Chapterhouse rings now include the two handed weapon skill spell

Some changes have been made that we hope will help those who experience the graying out of the landscape on ATI cards

Impious Staff quest has had the xp gained from the quest increased

The monthly killtask has been updated

The Viamont Staging Area is now more user friendly and has had an XP increase

Players now have the option of turning on Landscape Fog.

Players now have the option to turn on Visual Slots on the inventory screen

Several Typos have been fixed

Source: Massively


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JourneyThroughHell

New member
Sep 21, 2009
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Wow, this game is actually still alive?
I thought the sequel murdered the series. Oh, well, I guess it's pretty awesome that the game still receives updates.
 

Gildan Bladeborn

New member
Aug 11, 2009
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JourneyThroughHell said:
Wow, this game is actually still alive?
I thought the sequel murdered the series. Oh, well, I guess it's pretty awesome that the game still receives updates.
Well the sequel perished in flames, but it appears the original game is still alive and kicking, much like how the original Everquest which just will not die.
 

The Ambrosian

Paperboy
May 9, 2009
487
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I've never heard of it but ten years ago makes me four at it's release, so no surprise there. Nice to see an old game with faithful fans though.
 

HK_01

New member
Jun 1, 2009
1,610
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Should I have heard of that game?

OT: The knights look pretty cool.
 

Altorin

Jack of No Trades
May 16, 2008
6,976
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Asheron's Call was my 3rd longest running game.. First is an old MUD called Darkover, second is WoW.

It's interesting that they're still kicking.
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
5,630
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Wow...taking me back years here. I didnt even know this game was still going strong!

Well, great to see they are still doing updates and keeping life in it!
 

xyrafhoan

New member
Jan 11, 2010
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Every time I went into EB I thought that this game was totally defunct. Apparently it's not. I guess I was confusing it for the sequel.
 

Virgil

#virgil { display:none; }
Legacy
Jun 13, 2002
1,507
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xyrafhoan said:
Every time I went into EB I thought that this game was totally defunct. Apparently it's not. I guess I was confusing it for the sequel.
Yeah, the sequel died, but the original is still kicking.

Of course, after the recent Lord of the Rings Online announcement, I'd say it's probably only a matter of time before they make Asheron's Call free-to-play as well.
 

richtaur

New member
Aug 11, 2009
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Phew that knight looks awful, like the inspiration was, "quick, throw some gears on him so we'll appeal to steampunk fans!" Sheesh.
 

SmugFrog

Ribbit
Sep 4, 2008
1,239
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My first MMORPG - and it was a blast. I can't believe it's still around after all these years.