A Tale in the Desert IV *yay*

Taken straight from my mail

Citizens of Egypt,

As I write this, A Tale in the Desert III is coming to a close, and the next chapter in Egyptian history is about to open. I am happy to report that all 7 monuments have been successfully completed, a feat not achieved since our original Tale in the Desert.

A further feat was accomplished by Orchid - she has become the first player in ATITD's five year history to earn the rank Pharaoh's Oracle of Seven. To do this, she passed all fourty-nine Tests in the game. To give an idea of how difficult this was, nobody reached Pharaoh's Oracle of Six, and only three players reached Oracle of Four or Five.

I would like to announce the schedule going forward. We'll have two betas, each lasting for one week. The first beta test will be a private session for existing ATITD subscribers:

Saturday, Nov 29, 2008, 12:00 Noon EST (GMT-0500)

We'll then open the beta up to the public. I haven't determined yet if we'll have a server reset following the private beta - we can all discuss that during the week. The public beta will begin:

Saturday, December 6, 2008, 2:00 PM EST (GMT-0500)

Then finally, the long-awaited release of A Tale in the Desert IV:

Saturday, December 13, 2008, 12:00 Noon EST (GMT-0500)

One event not yet scheduled is "Amnesty", an ATITD tradition. Amnesty is a sort of behind-the-scenes look back at the Tale. This will be the final event on the ATITD III server, and I'll announce the date and time in our next newsletter.

As always, there are a ton of new things to discover in our next Tale. You'll notice significant improvements to the user interface and graphics. The mining system is all new: Mining Iron is now very different from mining Copper, Copper is quite different from Gold, or Silver, and so on. Ecology now plays a more prominent role throughout the game. The cooking system, perhaps already the most sophisticated in any online game, has been further refined.

And there are tons of little touches that you'll notice - a whole new system for the use of character stats, dramatically faster run speeds, and new approaches to many Principles.

And finally the Tests. Seven all-new Tests, designed by our Oracles, and released throughout the Tale. Many of our old favorites will be making a return, often with some new twists. Also, expect additional technologies, surprising events, and whole new challenges.

I'm looking forward to our best Tale yet.

On the Nile,

Teppy (Pharaoh)

Standard Stuff:

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Note: As of the time I'm sending this email, hitting "Reply" will not

work. Our email provider is working on the problem, but sending to my

normal email address is a sure way to get through:

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oh and, ATITD is never dead!