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Asheron's Call 2 : Fallen Kings: Expansion Coming!
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Turbine Entertainment announced today via GameSpot that they are going to be releasing a new expansion titled "Legions".Asheron's Call 2: Legions is expected to launch in Spring 2005 and will introduce a new playable race, the Empyreans, to the game as well as the continent of Knorr, and a new hero system. For more information (including screenshots) about the Asheron's Call 2: Legions visit this link.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
Comments
This is just hard to believe. They refuse to fix major UI problems they still have in game from the time of release but now will do an expansion. To top that off a expansion where its only purpose is to try and get people in game. At this time you are lucky to see 1400 on 4 NA servers at prime time. That is also being kind majority of time it is a little over 1200.
Game still broken.
Devs refuse to fix what was broke in beta.
Turbine is not run by its fans anymore.
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Bruce Lee
OMFG, excuse my language but this is ground breaking news for me! Well in a way it is, because the Turbine team did say they where making a expansion pack for AC1 then making one for AC2 right after they bought the franchise from Microsoft. But,... non thy less this is very shocking and I am optimistic to the games future and outcome...
to you Turbine 
(Akiraosc)
They are going to be fixing things like lag, etc in the months to come...read what Citan posted:
""By now you may have seen the two big announcements. If not, here they are.
We announced an expansion pack for AC2:
http://ac2.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=277
And we also announced a change to our update policy:
http://ac2.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=278
Please go ahead and check these out. Ill wait.
Okay! So now you can see what weve been working on. This first Expansion pack is a huge deal for us. We had to replace the Microsoft billing system before we could start, because the old billing system wouldnt support a new expansion. But were finally ready! And we can now bring on additional core engineering to get the kinks out of our game at an accelerated rate.
The bimonthly update schedule is a mixed blessing; we all like the rush of patch day, and this will mean it comes half as often. But we also hate when updates are buggy, incomplete, or small in content. We want to be proud of our updates, and we want to show you what we can really do. The new schedule will let us do just that.
However, the Expansion will make the timing a bit more interesting in the short term. Let me explain our schedule up to the time the Expansion launches. The next major update will be in November, and will include new quests, new ways to improve towns, and consignment vendors. That will be the last major content update for a while, as the live content designers will then be focusing their effort on Legions, along with the rest of the Expansion team.
After November, the next update is slated for January. There will be little content in the January update, but that doesnt mean it wont be big! Our extra engineers are helping us to fix bugs for January, and we expect to have the big four problems significantly addressed by then. Youve often asked us to take some time off and just fix bugs, so were going to do just that. But were sweetening the deal and adding new GUI features and game system improvements as well. So the January update will still represent quite a lot of development time but it will be engineering time, rather than content time. (If we get major bugs fixed before then, however, well certainly try to get them up earlier we wont hold back bug fixes if we can help it.)
We will not be doing a March update, as thats when we currently anticipate shipping the expansion.
To partially compensate for the lack of new quests from December to February, we will be increasing the number and variety of live GM-run events. You may have noticed that weve been doing new live events this month. In the later months of the year we will have a large variety of different events, and well be running them a lot more often.
One last thing you may have noticed that the Hero 2.0 feature is now slated to be part of the Expansion. This is a good thing. As we worked on the new systems, we realized that, to do this right, wed need a lot more time, play-testing, and manpower than we could muster in a live monthly environment. By making it an Expansion feature, were going to be able to do this right. Hero 2.0 will now include a new method of advancement, new passive skills, and a new multi-person chain combo system, among many other improvements. Hero 2.0 now represents an almost complete re-envisioning of post-50 game play. This is hugely important to AC2, and its huge in scope its so big that it deserves the extra attention and testing that can only really be provided by an Expansion Pack. The delay will definitely be worth it.
And just so you know, the screen shots we released with the Legions press release do NOT show Empyreans. Those are humans, showing off some of the brand new armor that will be available in Legions.
Im sure you have lots more questions. We have a FAQ prepared below, and Ill update it as you ask more questions.
Citan
AC2 Live Producer
A: Initially the expansion will be available on store shelves nationwide. We also plan to distribute Asherons Call 2: Legions in Europe; well make more announcements about this in the future.
Q: Will there be advertising for the expansion pack?
A: Absolutely. You can expect to see advertising and marketing efforts behind Asherons Call 2: Legions.
Q: Will the expansion pack contain the original game?
A: Yes, and it will also contain a free month coupon so that both new and existing players who buy the expansion will get a free month of play with purchase.
Q: Will I have to buy this expansion pack to be able to access the new content?
A: The new race and continent will only be available to people who buy the expansion. Most of the Hero 2.0 features will be available for free to all players, although the new Multi-person Combo Chains will only be available to players who buy the expansion pack (and complete a quest on Knorr).
Q: How big is the new landmass?
A: Knorr is a full size continent; its a bit larger than any of our other continents. The continent is broken up into five regions. The first region has content for level 30+ players; the fifth region caters to level 70+ players.
Q: Doesnt this Expansion just force us to pay more for the same content we would have gotten for free?
A: No, not really. The Expansion team is able to create far more quests and art than the Live Team alone would be able to produce in that time frame. Im sure the results will speak for themselves. The vast amount of new art alone is breathtaking.
Q: Arent you concerned about balancing a new Race and Classes, given the amount of rebalancing youve had to do for the existing classes?
A: As weve become more and more competent at class balancing, weve grown more confident in our ability to add new classes. Certainly there are risks involved with adding a new race, but we are certain we can mitigate those risks with considerable testing. (We will be asking for additional testers to help us out in a month or so.) Also, note that at launch the Empyreans will have three specialty trees instead of the more usual six. Weve done this intentionally to mitigate the risk of imbalance. Weve actually designed all six specialty trees, but we wont add the other three until later after the Expansion has shipped.
Q: Why are you adding a new race, rather than something else?
A: One reason is to help attract new and returning players. There are tons of retired Asherons Call 2 players out there, and we want to give them a reason to pick up Legions and think hey, maybe Ill make a fresh start with this new race. If someones been away for a year or more, it can be hard to jump back in. This gives a helping hand.
Q: Are there pictures of Empyreans?
A: No, we havent released any pictures of Empyreans yet. Watch for screen shots in the coming weeks.
Q: Will there be new content for the other races?
A: Of course! Knorr is full of quests for everyone, and the Expansion includes new armor and weapons for every race.
Citan
AC2 Live Producer
Q: What exactly are we getting in October?
A: In October we are creating a bug-fix update to address some bugs and quest issues. There is no content in the October update. The content that would have gone into October (including the new consignment vendors) will happin in mid-November instead.
Q: What about people who are already above level 70 when the expansion ships?
A: There will be content for even level 80 players in the expansion pack, but most of the content will be for lower level players, since most of our players are in the 50-70 range.
Q:I didnt see any pictures released with the Press release! Did I miss these?
A: I'll get you links to these very shortly.
What's exactly wrong with the UI? I see people complaining about it a lot, but it doesn't bother me at all. Nonetheless, you should be happy to know that it is on the list to be fixed "soon." Though you are right it should have been dealt with a while ago if so many people complained.
Also obviously the point of the expansion is to get more players. That's the a big point of expansions.
However, realize that AC2 hasn't been in stores for quite a while and had short run on shelves compared to most other games. So, the fact that AC2 has a low population isn't attributed purely to it being a bad game. I think the main reason the population is so low is because it's not available or visible to the mainstream. You can disagree but look at AC1, how severe the drop off in subscriptoins has been over the past 2 years compared to all other MMO's. Every other MMO, except for The Sims Online, is fairly stable, even older games like EQ and UO. I again attribute it to the fact that AC1 hasn't been in stores for a while. I don't think it is the case that AC1 and AC2 are bad games or that Turbine is ruining them, at least not anymore than Sony is ruining SWG and EQ with updates.
About the only thing that is majorly wrong with the game now is the lag. The quests are good, leveling is good, crafting is good, everything has been vastly improved since the horrible launch. Most people that complain about the game haven't played recently or are AC1 players still mad that isn't like AC1.
(Akiraosc)
Good luck Turbine!
I personally am wondering what business rationale lies behind this expansion. I mean, I understand the part of an expansion attracting new and old players, but it would help if there was a community to lower the threshold for getting the game going again. I tried the 15 day trial (after a 1 year break from the game) and I never experienced a poulation above 350 in that period! That was such a let down.
Now, timing wise, this must suck, with WOW and EQ2 being relaesed and all the hype 'n' all. Then therese DnL and GuildWars that blow AC2 away.
I can understand why DAOC keep up the expansion trend because they have a large community and population per server. What have I missed, I mean. what do AC2 really have going for it apart from some desperate attempt.
Again, If you succed, I'll take my hat off.
(Akiraosc)