| NOTE: Ascension does not allow Player
Killing in any way, shape, or form. But don’t worry, the monsters
will be happy to take on the job!
Below is a list of Active features:
Active Features
-
Multiplayer characters (includes encryption – so don’t cheat or you can’t
use them!)
-
General Messaging
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Giving items & gold to other players in area
-
Resurrecting other players with either a spell, or in the morgue
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Ascension Server List (public games)
-
Picking up & carrying dead players
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Ability to Rescue dead players
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Billboard for posting bounties
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Ability to cast spells on other players (resist, heal, etc.)
-
Sharing of Game data (store, dungeon data, monsters, news, etc.)
-
Ability to play together in parties
|
A Brief Summary
Ascension comes with a built in client that allows the player to connect
to Ascension servers on the Internet and play with other people. There
are a few differences between multiplayer and single player . First
of all, Multiplayer Ascension only allows you to run one character at a time.
If you want to put together a party, you must actually form a party with
other people on the server. That’s part of the fun. Secondly,
all of the dynamic information for Ascension is stored on the Server.
This includes things like the store contents, confinement creatures, game
news, and dungeon contents. Multiplayer characters cannot be played
in or directly transferred to single player environments. However, the new
Character Importer in Ascension enables characters to be transferred between multiplayer
and single player.
You, as the player, have complete control as to where you play.
It’s up to you what server you want to play on, and if you play on one
and don’t like the people, just find another one! Your multiplayer
characters are able to play on any Ascension server.
You can get to the Multiplayer section of Ascension by selecting Multiplayer
from the Main Menu.
NOTE: The Server Administrator cannot view your personal messages!
Click on picture for a larger image
|
Getting
Started
The first time you enter the Multiplayer Screen (by
choosing “Multiplayer” from the Main Menu), you will be prompted to
enter your Player Name and Password. This is similar to having an
‘Internet Handle’... it is not the name of your character, but the
name you will be known by when you play on servers. The Player Name is
shown on the left-center of the window in green.
The Master
Server
Current Master Server Address is dms.decklinsdemise.com.
In the top left corner is shown the current setting for the Master
Server Address. If this is different from the address above, change it
by clicking “Set Master Server”.
You can “Query” the Master Server for a list of active servers.
If the Master server is up and running, you will receive a list of these
active servers. By clicking on one of the server names and
selecting “Copy” (which appears when you click on the server name),
you can move the server to your personal address list
(in the top right corner).
Servers that are returned from the Master will display what version of the
game they are running, the number/max number of players,
and whether or not they’re password protected.
The Address Book
This is where the fun starts. Before you can connect to a server,
you need to know the tcp/ip address of the server. As mentioned
above, you can copy the address if the server is listed on the Master Server,
or you can check the website message
board for people who have posted their dedicated server addresses, or
have a friend start up a server and give you the address. You can
even start up your own server and connect to it and play by yourself simply
to build your multiplayer characters.
To add an address, click on the “New” button, and then type in the address
in the proper format (i.e. 123.45.32.23:26000).
Starting Your Own Server
If you'd like to start your own server and allow other players to play on it, you
will need your system IP address. You can find this by typing “ipconfig” from the
Windows command prompt. Combine this IP address with a dedicated port (default=26000) when
starting your server, and your server will then show up in the Master List. You can also
run your own server in “loopback” mode (which doesn't require an internet connection) by
specifying 127.0.0.1 as the server IP address. Note that other players will not be able
to connect to a server in loopback mode. Further note: if you'd like to keep your server
private, simply remove the Master Server Address from your Ascension server configuration.
Connecting to Servers
Once you have added an address, you can attempt to connect to the server
by selecting the server address and then clicking on connect. Now
when you connect to a server (or try to), one of six things can happen:
-
No response – no server. Are you sure you had the right address?
-
The server is full (keep trying!)
-
A message informing you that you have been banned from the server (naughty
player!)
-
A message informing you that you do not have the correct version to play on that
server (you need to have the same version of the Ascension system installed that
the server is running – no more or less).
-
You’re asked for a password. If you query the master server, you’ll see
“*PW PROT*” next to the server name, which means that you won’t be able
to connect unless you know the password (which is set by the server
administrator). If you know the password, just type it in; if not, try
another server.
-
You connected!
Once you connect to the server, you will see a list of the players on the
server, and have the ability to send and receive messages (by clicking
on the message window (at the bottom of the screen) and pressing Enter,
you can chat from the Multiplayer Screen). When you
are ready to play, exit the window (click on “Exit” or “Cancel”; they’re equivalent)
and create or load a multiplayer character and run them!
Getting Disconnected
by the Server
Depending on many things (like the quality of the connection or the
speed of the machine the server is running on), there are times that you
will become disconnected from the server. If this happens, a message
will appear, and the multiplayer screen will re-appear, giving you the
chance to reconnect to the server. If you choose not to reconnect
(or cannot), the game will exit back to the main menu.
Multiplayer
Issues
Putz vs. God
As you play on multiple servers, you will learn that some servers contain
more advanced characters, items, and storyline. Your level 50 Warrior
might be the most powerful character on Mike’s ‘Killer Ascension’ Server,
while on ‘Evul’s server of death’, you are nothing but a peon to the other
level 300+ characters. Both types of servers have advantages and
disadvantages. If you are a ‘god’ on one server and running level
20 when everybody else is up on 5, and you DIE on level 20, who is going
to rescue you? Just keep these things in mind when you’re playing
and be careful!
Being a
good Player
Many of you are aware of the problems that other multiplayer games
have encountered with the public: Player Killing, hacking, cheating,
even the crashing of servers for fun so that others can’t play. To
make a long story short, the problem is people. When you make a game
available to the mass public, you unfortunately get some folks who want to either
ruin everybody else’s fun or command and control everything in sight.
It’s sad, but it’s a reality.
As a player, it’s important to remember the the ‘owner’ of the Ascension
server you are playing on has complete control as to your access.
While they can’t kill you, or harm your character in any way, they can
kick you off the server and ban you for life. So, when you are playing
the game, please be considerate to others – and if you (and others) on
a server have a problem, report the player to the server owner so they
can deal with them directly!
The most recent version of Ascension allows the owner of the server to
monitor many aspects of the game. This includes messages, transactions,
etc. This means that a server administrator has the ability to track
down a cheater and ban them. You can report ‘cheaters’ and other
trouble makers to the administrator as well by going to the bulletin board
and sending a message to the Administrator.
More Messages?
When playing, you can double-click the message window in the lower-right corner of the screen
to pop up a resizeable message window that you can place anywhere on the
screen. This is very useful in Multiplayer mode since it allows many more
messages to be displayed at a time.
Have Fun!
Well, there you go! That should give you everything you need
to know to start playing Ascension over the internet! Enjoy!
For information on running a Ascension Internet Server, see the Ascension
Server section in this Online Information System. |
