The folks at A Tale in the Desert have announced that the forth incarnation of the game, A Tale in the Desert IV, will begin open beta testing on December 6th.

After one month of Alpha testing, and one week of Private Beta, we are very
excited to announce an Open Beta starting on Saturday December the 6th!
Anyone can download A Tale in the Desert IV and play it for free - no Credit
Card required. This Open Beta will last one week, followed by the long
awaited Official Release on Saturday December the 13th.

This new Tale in the Desert will be a new experience. Brand new graphics
(see attached screenshots), new tests (our equivatent of quests), new
people, new events, and much more. If you already played one of our three
past Tales, this one is worth the try!

The Tale changes, but the concept remains the same: like you have never seen
in any other Online Game. No swords or shields - your words are you weapons,
your reputation is your shield. No quests or planned scenario - the
community is in total control (you don't like something? Just write a law
and change it). Looking for a deep and complex technology tree and crafting
system? Then you might want to give it a try (more than 80 technologies and
40 skills to discover).

Have you ever wondered what you life would be like in Ancient Egypt? Find it
out now in our free public Beta!

Read more here.

Wow.. Cool!

I'm gonna try this out. I tried A tale in the Desert 3 for a little while and it was fun to try out. Can't wait to see what is the next step. it's been years in making =)

Please please PLEASE link to the article, and not just the sites home page.

Hmm very interesting have to give it a try.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Please please PLEASE link to the article, and not just the sites home page.

There isn't an obvious article on the site. The 2 most recent site-news posts don't even contain that text. It was probably sent out by Teppy to be used as-is.

For once (heh), it wasn't the News Poster's fault. :P

Originally posted by Myrathi

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Please please PLEASE link to the article, and not just the sites home page.

There isn't an obvious article on the site. The 2 most recent site-news posts don't even contain that text. It was probably sent out by Teppy to be used as-is.

For once (heh), it wasn't the News Poster's fault. :P

Yes it was, because its a forum topic in the news section that he copied and pasted. They do this all the time, and the reasons you say its not his fault, is the same reason they need to directly link to the article.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth 

Yes it was, because its a forum topic in the news section that he copied and pasted. They do this all the time, and the reasons you say its not his fault, is the same reason they need to directly link to the article.

I didn't say it wasn't on the site - I said it wasn't obvious. :P And the forums aren't the front-page news reports.

Regardless, I agree, thoroughly, with you that more direct links should be posted to topics.

It just didn't look like Sz's fault, this time. :P My bad. I should've known better. ;)

Originally posted by Szark

After one month of Alpha testing, and one week of Private Beta, we are very
excited to announce an Open Beta starting on Saturday December the 6th!
Anyone can download A Tale in the Desert IV and play it for free - no Credit
Card required. This Open Beta will last one week, followed by the long
awaited Official Release on Saturday December the 13th.

 

 

Now that's quality testing.

Originally posted by Zorvan

Originally posted by Szark

After one month of Alpha testing, and one week of Private Beta, we are very
excited to announce an Open Beta starting on Saturday December the 6th!
Anyone can download A Tale in the Desert IV and play it for free - no Credit
Card required. This Open Beta will last one week, followed by the long
awaited Official Release on Saturday December the 13th.

 

 

 

Now that's quality testing.

They have done this 4 times before. Are you sure you know how ATITD works, and whats its about?

http://atitd.mondespersistants.com/?rubrique=98

Screenshots

It's about time ! :D I am looking forward to trying ATITD 4. :)

grats to the guys running this game, nice to see that something genuinely original can succeed.

Originally posted by spades07

http://atitd.mondespersistants.com/?rubrique=98

Screenshots

link please

edit - nevermind - not worth the effort

honestly, these screenshots show improvement over atitd III?

Originally posted by gatheris

Originally posted by spades07

http://atitd.mondespersistants.com/?rubrique=98

Screenshots

 

link please

 

edit - nevermind - not worth the effort

honestly, these screenshots show improvement over atitd III?

Go play Age of Conan? Seriously, you really expect more quality art out of a game being made by such a small developer? They strive for great gameplay and fun over eyecandy, as do more small development teams. State of the art graphics cost an insane amount of money and it's not cost effective for a small title.

Edit: To add to the thread, the Graphics actually look really good and use a pretty nice art direction. I'm glad ATITD is still around and pushing forward.

I'm Teppy, Lead Designer of ATITD. Thanks for the kind words.

Graphically, early Tales had been sort of clown-pants in places. So a big focus artistically  was creating a softer, more consistant look.

I've also made a big push to streamline gameplay, and give the game a faster pace. So, simple things like run speeds are much quicker, and complex things like Principles of Art and Thought Tests now have multiple pathway to complete. (Quick primer: ATITD has 49 Tests, which are the main challenges in the game. Each Test starts with Principles, which is an easier introductory challenge in the spirit of the associated Test.)

And of course as in all new Tales, I've made changes to many systems. Some changes are minor, and some are total rewrites.

Anyway, definitely give Beta a try - although you can join ATITD at any time during a Tale, it's especially fun if you get in on the start.

Now if we could forget Z ever happened...

After personally playing ATITD 1 & 3. Number 4 is definately a massive push from t1. The game is going in the right direction (t3 was way too long :P) and it's constantly being updated with good, solid content. 

Teppy is very active in the game community and I think that shows alot. Play it before you knock it

Being a player of T2 and T3, when those new screenshots came out on Mondes Persistants, a good bunch of us sat there in awe.  Also, another thing that hadn't been mentioned were several thinktank sessions that happened before the official alpha happened, where you got to talk with the developers in the alpha server about specific issues (only paying T3 folks that were issued a key could do this). I have never seen someone like Blizzard give invites like this to the playerbase to raise concerns about game mechanics before. 

So far, the beta has been just as fun as a game of its type should be, and I'm having fun rediscovering the changes in the world I am used to from T3.  I hope those that are interested are not discouraged by the combat gamers that try to put this game down. 

...Heck, come to Khartoum and find Sedjet (that's me) and we can hang out. :-)

Signing out!

Sedjet (Elder of Mixed Nuts, the Khartoum Public Works guild)