Turbine and Asheron's Call developers have announced that the December update has been deployed. The latest game version includes a new playable race, the Olthoi. In addition, there is a new school of magic, a new hunting area, new quests and more. Players can update their games simply by logging in.

Playable Olthoi: Players can jump right into the PvP action as an Olthoi! The evil race of bugs that started it all is now in players hands. Starting out on Olthoi Isle, players can get all the action and excitement of PvP right from the start, playing as an Olthoi Soldier or as one of the winged Spitters.

New Race - Empyreans: The fourth new playable race added this year, Empyreans were once the masters of Dereth and beyond. Asheron had sent them to Portal Space to protect them from the Olthoi, but now some have managed to free themselves and have returned to Dereth.

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So cool this game is still being updated. Temped to go back again...

Ahhhh the good old memories.

please tell me this is some sort of April fools joke.  I never thought id see the day my beloved "first MMO" would do something as stupid as this.

Turbine do us a favor and build a new AC3 based on the same model as AC1 with 2011+ graphics.  You would make a ton.  Dont use your engines that was used for LoTRO or DDO though, its not as fluid as some other game engines.

looks like they are doing monster play from their lotro game lol

They are, and on Darktide it is a DT vs. Olthoi/White Server game now... really fun actually.  At times, the bugs will push the lifestone at Dark Isles, but then we will push them right back. But, there is nothing scarier than having a buncha bugs chasing you; they are faster.  However, they are also weaker on an individual level.

There has not been this much PvP action in Darktide, and it is a lot of fun.  Nothing more thrilling than bunkering down in a building and trying to fight off the olthoi as they try to push into the building to kill you!

Now if they'd only update their antiquated network code, I could play again.....

Tempted to go back myself :P

Amen Einherjar_LC - I'd be back in a shot if I could get through the dreaded "update vial not filling"....

this game really has sub? damn.... it looks awful, no offense to ac lovers, im just shocked with another awfully looking game that wants money per month

Graphics aside - they are 14+ years old - everything else about the game puts most of today's offerings to shame. There will always be something with better graphics - there will very rarely be a complete package that comes close to the original AC.

rojo6934, remember the game is over 10 years old and still going.... Says a lot imho.

Originally posted by maxtlion

Graphics aside - they are 14+ years old - everything else about the game puts most of today's offerings to shame. There will always be something with better graphics - there will very rarely be a complete package that comes close to the original AC.

Exactly!

The game play offered in AC1 was second to none except maybe UO.

The character development, the original fully fleshed out lore, the wide expansive and seemless world....it was awesome in it's day(and still is to many, myself included)and if it hooked you back when it was the hotness, it never lets you go.

Originally posted by maxtlion

Amen Einherjar_LC - I'd be back in a shot if I could get through the dreaded "update vial not filling"....

No doubt my friend!

I've been trying for several years to wok it out through Turbine and my ISP directly with no luck.  Knowing that many have this problem and are willing to give them money to play the game, it boggles my mind why they won't address it unless the fix costs significantly more than would be recovered by re-subs.

It has a lot to do with your NAT/NADT (believe that is the acronym for them) settings.  You can easily go in your router/modem and change the settings for those so that your modem works with AC.  If you have a router you will also need to setup your port forwarding.   I suggest looking at support for your modem, see how to switch to the appropriate NAT/NADT setting, and then you should be good to go.

Btw, I had this same problem until I switched my modem over.

Looks like shit.

I think they should re release these games for iphone and so forth. I mean I know the phone can handle it.

Yes, the game is 11 years old and as such the graphics are far from cutting edge (they have been slowly updating textures and objects but besides updating the landscape textures all at once it isn't being done on a mass scale, just slowly over the months). If your main focus in an MMO is graphics then you shouldn't go try AC, you should continue to jump to each new MMO every month or two as they are released and constantly have no fun/depth of gameplay.

This updated added the PvP Olthoi, which to be honest have been a blast. Watching 40 player battles in multiple locations on Darkitde at once are so much fun. Seeing 5 olthoi chase down a regular player trying to finish them off is always exciting. It really is a great addition. About the only similarity between LotRO monster play and being an Olthoi in AC is that they are monsters who aren't friendly. Olthoi can go anywhere in the world, they can kill each other, they can kill red players, they can be upgraded. It is a blast.

They added Void Magic which is a fun new school of magic that plays very different from War Magic. There has been a lot of positive feedback on this so far.

They added the luminance which allows you to make your top level players stronger through a method of XP that you earn and then spend and then earn again. It is basically XP combined with currency.

They brought in Gurogs from AC2 which are a cool looking creature to fight.

Before this they added Tailoring which lets people change the look/style of their armor to other types of armor which allows a lot of variety in people's looks. They added an in-game barber so people could change their faces/hair.

They've upgraded a ton of old quests, added a new starting experience that gets you up to about level 50, added a new easier to use travel system.

Truly they have been doing a ton with this game over the past year and it really is incredibly fun. But, as I said up top, if all you care about is graphics then you probably shouldn't bother with trying it.

There is a 14 day trial which you can turn directly into a sub without having to buy the game as well.

Originally posted by Dethnoble

It has a lot to do with your NAT/NADT (believe that is the acronym for them) settings.  You can easily go in your router/modem and change the settings for those so that your modem works with AC.  If you have a router you will also need to setup your port forwarding.   I suggest looking at support for your modem, see how to switch to the appropriate NAT/NADT setting, and then you should be good to go.

Btw, I had this same problem until I switched my modem over.

Deth,  I have tried everything they've suggested.

The problem is AC communicates via loose packet protocol(don't recall the exact acronym atm), and many ISP's do not use that antiquated network protocol anymore.  It has nothing to do with my router/modem. 

Trust me, I spent the entire 30 day trial of the last expansion trying to get it to work.  I had a dedicated tech from my ISP working with me that entire 30 days as well as a couple people from Turbine with no luck.  I have tried it several times using the 14 trial as well with no luck either.  I get to the updating game vial but it never fills and eventually the connection is lost.  I'm not a noob to AC (was there all the way back to beta on the red server which eventually became Leafcull-hence the LC in my screen name)so I am used to finagaling the game to get it to work.

There are numerous people having this issue so it's not just an isolated incident or just a few people having the issue.  Turbine is aware of it and have supposedly made a few adjustments to help but it has not solved the issue, at least for me yet.

I'm hopeful something gets done about it though.

I was "Tombo" in AC2, my first MMORPG.

What a wonder it was to me.  Egads, that was a live PLAYER that just ran by me!  :)  Got inspired, met many friends, made some enemies and honored opponents on Darktide, wrote some stories, did too much whining about things I didn't like (but, I've aged some now, not quite as whiny :)  ).

Always wondered what AC1 was like.  Might take a quick looksee sometime.