Ashen Empires

Ashen Empires

Company:
Release date:
Platform:
Genre:
      Iron Will Games
January 2004
PC
Two-dimensional MMORPG

Personal enjoyment: 06/10


     
Sometime mid-2004 I started playing this game and enjoyed the hell out of it. After a few months I bought half a year worth of game time. After playing only a month or two of that time, the game was taken over by Iron Will Games. Unfortunately they didn't recognize my bought playtime, they said I simply had to buy it again! This angered me as I felt cheated out of my money. I logged onto my account and paid for one more month so I could say goodbye to the friends I'd made. After a few months I noticed that I was still paying for the game! When I checked the payment option I found that they automatically check the "keep paying" box, they had placed that out of sight so you might overlook it. Now I really felt cheated! So I logged-on one more time, dumped all my game-items on the ground in front of a group of random players and canceled the account.

At the end of 2014 I found that the game was free-to-play and I installed it once again. The basic game hasn't changed much in all that time and surprisingly there is still an active and helpful community. Currently I have a level 69 archer which is good at crafting but not much else.

Crafting


Like many I enjoy the crafting of items. Modern games take this in account by making the crafting process as painless as possible. While you still have to work for the materials and finding them can take hours, the crafting itself is usually somewhat automated. Ashen Empires barely has any of that automation which forces the player to perform a ludicrous amount of mouse clicks.
icons foragingstick < Click foraging-stick, click flower-patch > icons foragingarea  = Receive (cotton) seed
icons cottonseed = 2x clicks
icons shovel < Click shovel, click farmland >
icons farmarea = Create hole
icons hole = 2x clicks
icons cottonseed < Click cotton seed, click hole >
icons hole = Plant seed
icons planted = 2x clicks
icons cottonplant < Wait for cotton plant to mature >
icons cotton = Click mature plant, harvest cotton
= 1x click
icons cotton < Click cotton, click spinning-wheel >
icons spinningwheel = Receive string
icons string = 2x clicks
icons string < Click string, click loom >
icons loom = Receive cloth
icons cloth = 2x clicks
icons scissors < Click scissors, click cloth >
icons cloth = Select cloth item to create
icons tunic = 2x clicks
Depending on your skill in the various stages of creation your actions might fail, resulting in lost material. If you have no failures and want to make a tunic which requires 3 bolts of cloth then all in all it will cost 35 mouse clicks (not counting opening the bank, your bags or a vendors). This is why I advise anyone interested in crafting to use macro's even if it is not allowed and might get you banned when caught. I have a lot of respect for players that have leveled their crafting skills without macro's but I simply don't think a game is worth damaging your body (RSI).

Crafting Tips

  • Check or uncheck "Enable single item usage". When checked, this will convert 5 materials instead of one by one.
  • Try and choose items that require the least amount of material to create. More material used does not equal more experience gained.
  • Balance your crafting-leveling with your main weapon-leveling or you will find that it becomes hard or even impossible to kill monsters your level.
  • Tailoring; Tame a sheep and place it on "stay" so it won't walk around while you shear it.
  • Tailoring; Sheep that are being sheared make noise, try not to annoy anyone while doing this.
  • Wood, stone and seeds can be found in safe-zones, no need to put yourself in danger when harvesting materials.

Game tips


Useful Links
Ashenempires.com
Aedatabase.com
Dragoneers
Ae.wolfbound.com
      Official Ashen Empires website
Item database
Crafting information
Quest guide
Go to top