Ascend Online (Ascend Online, #1)

by Luke Chmilenko

Primer last night. Six hundred pages long, it detailed an incredible wealth of lore and background to the game world – without revealing a single scrap of information when it came to mechanics, gameplay or even what to expect from the game itself.

Worked to reduce metagaming

The first thing that the Primer explained to us was that Ascend Online didn’t use the traditional Virtual Reality (VR) as we understood it. We wouldn’t be expected to throw on a VR headset, place a few sensors on us and play.

New type of vr

Ascend Online was pioneering Full Immersion Virtual Reality (FIVR) technology, which thanks to the recent advances in nanotechnology, we would be able to experience a video game directly – without having to rely on a screen, headset or computer. All the information would be fed directly into our brain through the use of Nanobots or Nanites while our physical bodies were placed into a sort of artificial hibernation. From our perspective, our new reality would be one of the game world.

Similar to sword art online

Society as a whole was in the middle of a massive overpopulation crisis, with close to ten billion souls now clinging to life here on Mother Terra, which only exacerbated an already rampant unemployment problem as very few of the ‘Millennial’ generation was choosing to retire.

Our kids generation playing the game.

In the last ten years since Nanotechnology became commercially available, modern science had been working overtime to catch up on the last six decades of promises. Things like cancer, heart disease, and even obesity were starting to be ailments of the past. Some early studies were even predicting that we might be able to get a few extra decades of life with the right mix of Nanites in our blood - if you could afford to pay for them of course.

Nanotechnology

Subscriptions were classified into Daily, Weekly, and Monthly durations with both Short-Term and Long-Term play options. Short-Term play was geared more towards the casual market – play for a few hours a week with frequent logins and logouts.

Subscription type

The reason for this ‘rest period’ was to ensure that the brain maintained an appropriate baseline and to allow for proper non-stimulated rest.

Memories of using game logic

The recordings could even be posted publicly - the only stipulation being a ten-day delay between when the video was recorded and released.

Delay content- help combat metagaming. Also delay emeny factions from spying on them.

“Before we can complete the log in process CTI’s legal team requires me to remind you that by signing the Terms of Agreement papers you have fully agreed to all aspects of CTI’s Terms of Use Policy which outlines your rights and responsibilities as players. Furthermore, you have agreed not to seek legal action against CTI or its holdings due to in-game experiences that are of a non-technical nature. This includes but is not limited to, pain, torture, dismemberment, burning, drowning, and repeated simulated death. Also any emotional and/or psychological harm incurred by playing Ascend Online is taken at the player’s risk. In the event of a mental break or descent into sociopathy, CTI is happy to provide PTSD, grief counseling, personality editing and limited memory wipes, at a nominal fee.”

Terms of Agreement

Jenkins, Ritt

Npc Smith/militia captain , merchant

House Denarius

Queen/House first mention

Peter chose Constantine; Deckard chose Drace; Zach chose Caius; Heron chose Halcyon, and Misha chose Sierra.

Friends real life name and character names

Did the five-second rule apply in virtual reality? I

Fun quote

Bending down I grabbed the stick to pick it up, only to have a paw reach out from the bush and slap it back to the ground with a growl. Blinking, I saw an even larger puma’s face poke itself from out of the bush, in its mouth it held a piece of meat I had previously skewered on the stick.

Meet his familar for the first time

Nemesis Added Your actions have marked a [Young Puma] – level 6, as a personal enemy! Your Nemesis will continue to gain strength and hunt you until it is defeated! Beware!

Nemesis added

Tutorial – Choosing a Base Class Congratulations on nearly completing your novice class! The Ascend development team hopes that you have managed to experience a wide variety of play styles in order to make an informed choice about your Base Class. Once a Base Class is chosen you will not be able to change your class in the future. Proceed carefully! Note: In order to prevent excessive meta-gaming, specific class abilities are not shown in this Tutorial. Based on the detected playstyle your recommended Base Classes are: Mage Monk Rogue Scout Spellsword Warrior

Base class

Ascend has a branching class system.

At level 10 I would choose my Base Class, and again at level 30 I would have a chance to branch into an Advanced Class, and eventually at level 70 into a Prestige Class.

Peter, now known as Constantine, looked to be a pale-skinned half-elf with long dark hair. Armed with a single Shortsword and a backpack, he walked confidently without a single care in the world as his eyes took in the village. Misha, having chosen the name Sierra, caused my heart to skip a beat, flame red hair flared behind her as she moved with unearthly grace – there was no doubt in my mind she was a full-blooded Elf. In her hands, she held a bow, making her earlier threat much more believable to me. Zach, chose the name Caius, and was also a half-elf – though, in contrast to Constantine he was dark skinned and almost unhealthily thin, I idly wondered how he would have followed through with his desire to strangle me; he barely looked strong enough to stand up under the weight of his clothes! The only item of note I saw on him, was a plain wooden club. Heron, taking the name Halcyon, was human through and through, tall, dark haired with a full beard I was confident that he took the same regional specialization as I did. He didn’t seem to have any weapons on him – just a single backpack slung over his shoulders. Deckard, now known as Drace, was an absolute mountain of a man, standing taller than everyone else in the party, including me, looked to be human, but I was fairly sure chose some sort of sub-race due to his size. He had a backpack strapped to his shoulders as well, in addition to a plain wooden shield and Shortsword.

Players and classes

Ascendant Emperor was apparently obsessed with the idea achieving Godhood, and the entire empire was built around the near fanatical belief that the Emperor was a god.”

How we get the name Ascend

“So naturally you told them to suck a bucket of dicks,”

Quote- bucket of dicks, ingame banter

Graves quest- what people will do

Is that thing controlling him?

Graves real name is Daniel

Spread the world through real life to get everyone to hear his pitch

Catman intro