As planned, Ascension is built on the complete original game of Demise, released most recently in 2004. Since that time, there have been numerous additions, enhancements, changes, and bug fixes to the system -- this page provides a brief summary of them.
Dungeon Enhancements/Changes
* The dungeon's explorable area is more than twice the size of Demise (including 32+ dungeon levels)! Some new areas "open up" only after certain storyline goals are attained.
* New features include guild-specific areas, regions where companions are not allowed, doors that require keys, monsters that require items, areas that require an escort, flowing rivers, etc.
* Dozens of new items, including over 50 new weapons (total items now greater than 600)!
* Major weapon rebalancing. Some of your old favorites are not available so soon (like Murdering Blade and Cross of Domination), and some of your least favorites are now dramatically stronger.
* Dozens of new monsters.
* Major monster difficulty rebalancing, with primary focus on dungeon levels 25 and beyond.
* Dungeon repopulation rate is now faster in Single Player games.
* Many monster generation improvements, including enhancements to many monster "groupings". In addition, ALL monsters can now be found in the dungeon (either by normal pop, lair, or guardian trap)...no more "advertised" monsters which are never seen.
* Rotators now spin both ways (randomly).
* Over thirty minutes of new music, some available in only "special" areas of the dungeon.
Game Play Enhancements/Changes
* Substantial guild and race rebalancing, with new race-guild combinations allowed and revised race and guild attributes/abilities. 98% of characters will not be humans in Ascension (like they were in Demise)!
* Extended storyline with several new, creative, and difficult quests.
* Meaningful "attack" spell rebalancing, resulting in more useful and efficient mid-level spells.
* Improvement to the guild penalty calculation, with more careful consideration of the differing abilities and attributes of the various guilds.
* Reduction in gold required for guild levelling at higher levels.
* Item recovery possibility from thieving monsters who are killed before they escape. Previously players could only recover stolen gold.
* Increase in number of item slots for characters from 40 to 60.
* Melee swing speed (the small delay between weapon swings while fighting) is now faster, allowing players to move through long melee encounters more quickly.
* Multiple spell-casting companions may now cast in the same round of combat.
Character Creation and City Enhancements/Changes
* New Character Importer allows your existing characters to be imported from valid Demise installations, including the Demo, Artifact Entertainment, and Pharoah Productions versions of Demise.
* Character Importer also supports "import" of Ascension characters between Single Player and Multi Player environments, in either direction.
* Store, Confinement, and Tavern areas now show player's "Gold in Bank" for quick reference.
* Bounty board maximum increased from 30 to 60 bounties.
* New Tavern Keeper may actually serve some nice, refreshing beverages from time to time, and will occasionally buy and sell items.
Multi Player Enhancements/Changes
* Dungeon repopulation rate is now configurable on the server.
* Improved monster generation performance on server startup.
* Improved interface for character display (showing player items and statistics).
* Server Admin broadcasts can now be made to all users or a single user.
General System Enhancements/Changes
* Platform support for Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP.
* Installer no longer dependent on Microsoft .NET framework.
* Removed Polish language support...sorry!
Bug Fix Highlights
* Slot 1 spellcaster bug fixed (finally)!
* High-end spellcasters (like Lord of Wizardry) now casting, where they weren't in Demise.
* Portal closing stats boost error no longer occurs.
* Guardian traps now spring true guardians...and they should never be peaced!
* Reformatted Item Info Pane now allows all guilds and item descriptions to be visible.
* Guild "quest masters" now assign quests much more sensibly (and deeply!).
* Printed electrocution damage now taking player electrical resistance into account.
* Duplicate monsters (i.e. different monsters with same name) removed or renamed (e.g. Giant Slug, Brigand).
* Duplicate ring names removed. Now CSL rings are named differently than fixed spell level rings.
* Previously, no way to obtain new guild crest (if old one lost) for level 999 character. Now there is...but you'll have to figure out how!
* "Protection" ability from items now works (previously only Protection from cast spells worked).
* Morkal Restoration spell power increased to advertised value.
* Misspelling of "Dispell" fixed in lots of places.
* Negative X and Y offsets are now checked when teleporting or displacing.
* Incorrect "plural" for many monsters fixed.
* Mana generators and fountains now believed to be working throughout dungeon.
* Monsters which can breathe fire or cold previously always breathed fire. Now they may breathe either.
* Column 1 of automap can now be annotated.
* Lead Murderer is now a "she" (as always described), but still kicks butt!
* Chest trap difficulty was always based on dungeon level. Now based on monster level.
* Underwater "breath bar" moved up in window so that all monster groups are now visible.
* Multi Player library file "read" errors fixed
* Character File no longer "bloats" over time.
* No fractional cash in bank.
* Fixed problem in Single Player where carried dead body could get "lost" when carrier left party.
* When flying, no longer can add party member on ground below party.
* No longer get error deleting character (when character was guildmaster).
* A million other bugs fixed...most which had been introduced during the development of Ascension.
