[the_logos]

Iron Realms Entertainment announces the end of its new Mud's ( Lusternia: Age of Ascension) closed beta period and the public unveiling of its website.With over 18 months of full-time professional work plus countless hours by dedicated community members, Lusternia is finally almost ready to open.

Those daring to enter the exciting fantasy universe of Lusternia will find themselves plunged into a multi-planar realm where factions struggle to amass reservoirs of magical energy simply to survive. Within the Basin of Life, an alien evil has corrupted much of the land and people, making Lusternia a broken and perilous place. With the return of those Elder Gods who escaped the ancient divine wars, a new age of uncertainty dawns. What power shall next ascend to dominate the world's limited resources?

FEATURES:

Power and Feats
The most spectacular abilities are known as feats and are regulated by a system of power renewal. Power is drawn from the nexus a player is connected to, and some skills require the power be drawn from a specific nexus.  

Player vs. Player Combat
Lusternia offers the same style of intensive player vs. player (PvP) combat that has been one of the signature features of the Iron Realms games, but with Lusternia's power and feat design, combat takes on a whole new level of strategy in the over 600 new abilities and spells available at release.  

Trade Skills
Each player may take one trade skill from among eight choices. Not only do these trade skills offer an avenue of income but also provide benefits beyond simple item crafting. A cook can pump up a crowd with a hero's fete! A jeweler can create the perfect gemstone that only you can handle! A poison expert gains the secrets of immunizing him or herself!  

Influencing NPCs
Skills designed to non-violently battle non-player characters, an alternative to the "hack and slash" method of experience gaining. If you are defeated in one of these ego battles, you will lose experience. If you win, however, not only will you gain experience but also influence the mob in some manner. Seduce the barmaid! Make the Captain of the Guards paranoid! Beg from the shopkeeper and maybe he'll give you his favorite smoking pipe or, better yet, some gold!  

Customizable Government
Leaders of major cities can choose a political structure and governing style for their cities. Could you be living in a despotic religious society? A benevolent government bent on world conquest?  

Influencing Villages
Just as players influence non-player characters, so too do the major powers influence entire villages. As players gain rank in their city, they will also gain special influence skills to sway villagers to their cause. Once a village is under a city's sphere of influence, it will be fixed for a period of time determined by the city's government structure and ruling style.  

Dynamic Economy
Dozens of quests will cause a village to produce greater quantities of the valuable commodities needed to craft items. Most quests are simple and straightforward. For example, leading the cow to the dairy will produce milk or killing the cow and selling it to the tanner will produce leather. Other quests will permanently effect a village's commodity output. For example, enslaving a farmer will cause the village the farmer was abducted from to produce less grain and the village the farmer was enslaved to produce more grain Villages that are under the sphere of influence of a city will tithe a portion of the commodities produced to their liege city. The amount of the tithe is determined by a city's government structure and ruling style.  

Conflicts of Power
By power, we mean the pure magical energies that energize the nexuses of power, which players need for their specialty feats and cities need to defend themselves. There are several ways to gather power, such as mages harvesting power on the elemental planes. Some methods of gaining power for your nexus will come at the cost of another nexus! Also, power is gained through villages that are under a city's sphere of influence. The amount of power generated by a village is, again, determined by a city's government structure and ruling style.  

Amazing Quests
One of the top quest designers in the field has spent a year developing hundreds of quests for Lusternia that range from the simple to the complex. Many of these quests require logic and deduction to unravel, head-scratchers that are sure to be a hit among those who enjoy puzzle solving. Also, some quests cannot be solved the same way twice--so beware those who think quests are easy to re-do! Can you solve the murder mystery at Stewart Mansion? Will you be able to match up the star-crossed lovers at Chateau d'Amour? How about designing the weapon that will pick the next Orc Chieftain of Acknor?  

Lusternia: Age of Ascension. Coming very soon! Website open now!

[Malap]

"Lusternia"? Is this one of those furry games?

(it had to be asked)

[the_logos]

Originally Posted by (Malap @ Oct. 06 2004,19:48) "Lusternia"? Is this one of those furry games? (it had to be asked)

Oh my god, no!

Out of curiosity, why do you ask that? Is there some meaning to the word Lusternia I'm not aware of? Lusternia is actually a fictional world one of our producers has been writing about for years with the intention of publishing about it eventually. As a volunteer, he and a partner approached us about creating a MUD based on it, and here we are! It's high fantasy with an emphasis on other planes.

I think it's going to be fairly popular. It's not even open yet and it's already in the top 20 here on TMS.
--matt

[Brody]

I'm guessing it's the Lust part of the title that made him think of furries, because of their reputation in that regard.

[the_logos]

Originally Posted by (Brody @ Oct. 07 2004,02:33) I'm guessing it's the Lust part of the title that made him think of furries, because of their reputation in that regard.

Ahhhhh. Heh, that's funny. Never even occured to us. I pronounce it "Loose-TEAR-nee-ah."

Heh, similarly, it wasn't for a couple years after starting Achaea that I realized my chosen God name, "Sarapis" sounded a bit weird. "Sara-****". Was a mythological figure so I never thought of it that way. I think this kind of thing is a lesson in how strongly imprinted a name can become in our psyche. For instance, you might start out Achaea and think, "Sarapis? Hahahah. What a stupid name." but once the context of the game has imprinted into your mind, you just associate "Sarapis" with a lot of power in the world.

--matt

[Brody]

Indeed - quite a few people associate my screen name with Jason Lee's goofy character in Mallrats, when in fact it's stolen fair and square from the police chief in Jaws who needs a bigger boat and lives on an island (but fears water).

It could be worse, I suppose. We could have opened a game called Clamydia.

[Sinuhe]

the_logos Oct. 07 2004,02:21

Originally Posted by It's not even open yet and it's already in the top 20 here on TMS.

I guess that tells us something about the reliability of that list.
Maybe it also tells us something about how the IronRealms games get some of their votes.

[Brody]

Originally Posted by (Sinuhe @ Oct. 07 2004,09:39) the_logos Oct. 07 2004,02:21 Originally Posted by It's not even open yet and it's already in the top 20 here on TMS. I guess that tells us something about the reliability of that list. Maybe it also tells us something about how the IronRealms games get some of their votes.

Oh, my. This is getting to the point where we should start a drinking game, or possibly just take wagers on how many posts after the_logos slaps his name on the boards that it takes for the attacks to begin - sort of like those old "How many licks does it take to get to the middle of a Tootsie Pop?" commercials.

Seriously, this is the Advertising for Players board. He posted an ad. Want to insinuate about his methods or flame him? Save it for the Tavern of the Blue Hand, or review his game . Unprovoked attacks just make you look petty.

[Estarra]

As the producer of Lusternia, I can tell you exactly where the votes come from in this case. When Lusternia was in its embryonic stage over a year ago, a few players began an MSN group for Lusternia, which I found out about and joined, to talk about its development. Since then, the group has grown to be about 450 members strong, many of whom were chosen to be testers for a closed beta period. Now as Lusternia is on the brink of moving to open beta, I can tell you excitement is hot heavy!

I never asked this community to vote at TMS (never even told them when the vote button on the webpage came active), so I was rather surprised to find out that they were voting to the extent that Lusternia moved into the top 20. Indeed, I am emotionally overwhelmed to see their support.

Anyway, if you are wondering where these votes are coming from, look no further than a community of very eager MUD enthusiasts who have been waiting for a year to play Lusternia.

[Auseklis]

Plus don't forget the more than 100 alpha and closed-beta testers who've already played the game.

[Keldar]

And even the game isn't running yet, the website is definitely worth checking out, and that's where the link in the list points to. So Lusternia certainly belongs there.

[the_logos]

Originally Posted by (Sinuhe @ Oct. 07 2004,09:39) the_logos Oct. 07 2004,02:21 Originally Posted by It's not even open yet and it's already in the top 20 here on TMS. I guess that tells us something about the reliability of that list. Maybe it also tells us something about how the IronRealms games get some of their votes.

It does indeed tell us how Iron Realms gets some of their votes: We make great games that many people enjoy. Sorry if that bothers you so much.

--matt

[KaVir]

Originally Posted by (Malap @ Oct. 07 2004,01:48) "Lusternia"? Is this one of those furry games?

Actually that was my first thought as well. Perhaps I've been speaking too much German at the Oktoberfest the last couple of weeks, but for some reason I read "Lusternia Website" as "Lüsterne Website" (which basically means "lustful website" or "lewd website"). I ignored it at first, thinking some porn spammer had just been posting and that it would get deleted quick enough - only read because it was still here a day later.

[the_logos]

Originally Posted by (KaVir @ Oct. 07 2004,15:41) Originally Posted by (Malap @ Oct. 07 2004,01:48) "Lusternia"? Is this one of those furry games? Actually that was my first thought as well.  Perhaps I've been speaking too much German at the Oktoberfest the last couple of weeks, but for some reason I read "Lusternia Website" as "Lüsterne Website" (which basically means "lustful website" or "lewd website").  I ignored it at first, thinking some porn spammer had just been posting and that it would get deleted quick enough - only read because it was still here a day later.

Heh. You know what else is funny? Lusternia has a race called 'furrikin.' Total coincidence, I swear!

--matt

[Jaewyn]

It is a very nice web site, but why is it listed on the "Resources" page? Just curious.

[Malap]

Yes, I was indeed thinking about the "Lust" part of the name when I posted. It seemed too bizarre. And, with "furrikin", well... case closed.

Anyways, here's to your continued success, Matt.

[the_logos]

Originally Posted by (Malap @ Oct. 09 2004,21:16) Anyways, here's to your continued success, Matt.

Thanks! It's doing better than we had expected. It broke 250 simultaneous players on its second day and has averaged, over the last 24 hours, 178 players online. We're f*cking thrilled! I've gotta say, it's a real lesson in the value of pre-release publicity and community building in terms of providing an immediate sizeable playerbase for a MUD.

--matt

[prof1515]

Personally, I didn't get any reference to "lust" from the name.  I simply thought it was a play on "luster", as in a glow or attractiveness ("the luster of a pearl").  When I first read the name, I thought it said Lusitania though (I was half-asleep) until I looked again.

Looked over the website.  While appearance-wise, it looks nice, I found it a bit lacking in content.  Given that the game's new, that's not surprising.

But the "lust" thing never crossed my mind until reading this discussion.

Take care,

Jason