A Tale in the Desert 5 is going live tomorrow, August 7, 2010, at noon Eastern. It was recently revealed that the Tale 4 players elected Sami to ascend as Pharaoh in a server-wide election and, as a result, chose new player-invented technologies over player-designed tests to be programmed into Tale 5.
Included in the player-invented technologies are Foraging, which allows players to hunt herbs in new ways; Aquaculture, which allows cultivation of Papyrus, and the unusually named "Molecular Balance" to aid in crop genetics. The plethora of new technologies will significantly alter important aspects of the game.
In addition to these new technologies, Tale V introduces perhaps the most sophisticated fishing simulation of any MMO, and a mining system based on player, rather than character skill.
"Creating player-skills in an MMO is tricky, because there's a great difference in real-life skill levels. However, mining is so addictive I find myself "playtesting" it way more than necessary!"
A Tale in the Desert is free for the first 24 connected-hours and $13.95/month thereafter. Players interested in A Tale in the Desert today can download the client from http://atitd.com. Follow http://twitter.com/atitd to keep on top of all the latest happenings.