The Ascension Atlas

I've just bought my Paladin's Paladin symbol and opened up the Ascension Atlas. Here's a view of the Paladin Atlas and the upper Atlas.




For a more in-depth discussion of the Ascension Atlas, check out this video from MMORPG.com.

On Becoming Immortal

Storyline

The premise of the game is that the god Aeli has gone missing and no longer protects the world of Aelion. Gods from other planets are attacking Aelion, while the Immortals and the gods of Aelion fight to protect the planet. You learn about The Reapers now have a leader, making them a threat. It's not clear who the Reapers are, except that they have powers and are tougher than normal people. It is unclear if they can return to life after being killed.

Your backstory is that you were a Templar, basically a soldier, sent out on a mission to rescue civilians being attacked. In the ensuing battle you die, but are restored to life with new powers. You are now an Immortal, though it is unclear how this happens. Even the gods don't know how one becomres an Immortal.

The above is revealed during a short mission which also covers basic movement, combat, and environment interaction.

A Couple of Important Gods

Herida

The goddess Herida will be your main quest giver and the main story driver, at least for now. She resides in the Divine Observatory.

Flavius

Herida introduces you to the god Flavius and sends you to the Research Center to learn more about your powers. The Research Center also contains the Training Hall where you can try out other classes.

Unfortunately the next tutorial mission happens before you can try out the various classes, meaning you are stuck with the class you chose when talking to Flavius. I didn't try to change classes after talking with him. At any rate, this means you need to know which class to take. It's not that big of a deal, but you do end up spending some currency on upgrading your abilities when running this tutorial mission.

Once completed with that mission, definitely go back to the Training Hall in the Research Center and try out the three initial classes and a few of the other classes to see which you would be interested in.

If you complete the training for a class, then you'll get some credits and the outfit for that class.

Character Basics

Quinta, The Stylist

Creation and Customization

Character creation does have a lot of choices, but they aren't extensive. You can customize head, hair, body type, skin tone, and tattoos. If you don't like the way your character turned out, or you want to change your look, you can visit Quinta, the Stylist, who is located in the Research Center off to the right before you reach Flavius. Note that your first make over is free. After that it costs money, though I'm not sure how much.

 Quinta is not a god because she lacks the hoop thing orbiting her head. It's not clear if she is an Immortal or just a regular citizen.

Movement
Movement is WASD. You can dash by double-clicking the WASD key you choose and you zip in that direction. You can only dash so much, and then you need to wait for it to recharge. The dash will work even if you are in the middle of an attack animation - very handy to get out of a jam or an area marked for damage.

Environmental Interaction
Environmental interaction keys:

• spacebar - pick up loot, talk to NPCs, use computers/consoles, etc.
• F - to collect reward from completing quests and missions.

Combat Basics

Combat skills are used via the left and right mouse buttons, keys: 1-4, and keys: Z, C, V. I'm not sure how good key rebinding is and I've read some people have had issues when rebinding the movement keys.

Melee characters tend to have combos, so you use different combinations of  left and right mouse clicks in order to complete various attacks. Definitely train with your class first.

As you whittle down your opponents health, golden health globes pop off and land around the area. You just need to touch them to get healed. 

The globes generally fall off after you take on level of health from a creature. This level is indicated by the yellow-gold bar beneath the medium orange health bar located above the creature. The number to the right of the health bar is the levels of health a creature has. Note that a red health bar hovers over the mob you are fighting, but is often hard to see because of the bigger orange and yellow-gold bars which mark the current health level of the creature you are fighting.

If you get close to killing an enemy, you can perform a kill action (finishing) by pressing E when the UI indicates. Each class has its own finishing move. The knight's finishing move is, by far, the lamest  - a roundhouse punch.

Definitely practice with your character in the Training Hall to be sure you know how their attacks work.

Here's a video of my character, a Paladin, doing the first part of a mission and the combat that ensues. You can see at some points where my character gets stuck in an attack animation, and the occasional appearance of the E prompt for a finishing move when I've not attacked anything. So definite signs the game is still in beta, or signs that I don't know what I'm doing. :)

The video does show me interacting with the environment and using the Paladin's finisher move on some robots. Some very bad robots!

Installing and Configuring the Skyforge and My.com Client

If you haven't already done it, download and install the Skyforge client. This download will also include the My.com client which is a launcher and responsible for keeping Skyforge up to date.

Just a reminder, this game is still in Beta and this information might go out of date as the game is developed.

In order to download the client you'll need to create an account on the Skyforge site, login, and then click the Download button. Once you've done that, install it.

I did some research and found some settings to tweak in the My.com client to help with the Skyforge experience.In your system tray, right-click the My.com client and select configure. Then change the following: change:

• Deselect Starts Automatically when Windows starts
• Deselect Continue seeding when download complete
• Limit upload speed to 1
• Limit max connections to 32 (which seems to be the lowest)

The other thing to do is to exit the My.Com client once you've connected to the Skyforge game and have entered it. I'll try to update the above instructions if they need changing.

If you have any issues with the game after making these changes, then you can click the default button to revert to the default settings.

In the beginning...

This is a blog about a new MMORPG game called Skyforge. It's a sci-fi/fantasy game about becoming a god, and it's being developed by Allods Team and Obsidian Entertainment. It's being published by My.Com.

 I'm doing some research into, and playing the game to help determine if a small game group I belong to will want to play it. If we decide not to, then I'll decide whether or not to continue playing the game and updating this blog. So this could be a short run. :)

The game is getting ready to go into Open Beta Testing (OBT) on July 9, 2015 @6 AM PST. 

I've only played the Stress Test day which was on July 7, 2015. I played the Knight and really enjoyed it. 

My understanding is that only three starting classes will be available: Paladin, Cryomancer, and Lightbinder. More classes will become available as you play the game and progress through the Ascension Atlas. The Ascension Atlas is where you buy new talents, skills; and to gain access to other classes.

 Some goals:

• Explain the various game mechanics: class selection, skill selection, combat, the pantheon system, market, cash shop, etc.
• Help provide any tips and/or tricks to various game play mechanics.
• Provide any tips/tricks to quests/missions that might be tricky or posing issues to players.
• Provide any resources that might be useful for playing the game, e.g. wikis, blogs, YouTube videos, etc.
• Play a tank, which is not my usual play style. I'm sure some humorous things will occur. :) 
• Try to be a benevolent god, assuming I reach godhood.

That's all I can think of at this time. If you have anything you'd like to me to cover, please leave a comment.

At any rate, we'll see how I progress from Human to an immortal to a god.