Monsters & Memories - An Old School Indie MMO

[Zukan]

Hey everyone! I wanted to make a new thread, I know there was another one but it’s locked now!

A bunch of MMO nerds got together and are making an indie game called Monsters & Memories (formally known as Project_N). The aim is to create a traditional, tropey, western high fantasy in a low poly hand painted art style. Very much a niche game for people who enjoy the ‘classic’ era of some old MMOs.

We are developing it out in the open. Come watch us on twitch as we work on things and let us know what you think as we build the game. Many team members stream while working on their various disciplines of expertise.

Gameplay/Design/Environment twitch.tv/alovingrobot
Concept Art/2D Art twitch.tv/thegoblinworks
Game Design/QA twitch.tv/nickhots
3D Environment Art twitch.tv/padastheranger
3D Character Art/Animation https://www.twitch.tv/zukansculpts
Technical Director twitch.tv/heykarakitsali

Or just catch up on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/MonstersMemories

Also here’s our website if you want to read more in the FAQ https://monstersandmemories.com/faq

https://i.imgur.com/Ko5EwCt.png


I’m going to try and keep this thread updated and answer questions if people have any. But if I miss anything or you want to catch us in more realtime we do have a Discord (https://discord.com/invite/jvdKKc3CqW) where everyone is constantly chatting as well!

[Mblake1981]

I still want a 3D printed troll to put on my shelf. :)

[Sonderbeast]

As a memorable monster I endorse this message.

[Jibartik]

fire beetle check rat check kliknik check

[Mblake1981]

iirc this will also have a standalone launcher, like games of yore
(please, I don't want to be part of some store)
Besides, i can visit a site for an update patch, P99 still does
this thankfully for the spell files.
Desktop Icons FTW!
https://i.imgur.com/rudNtVg.jpg

puPanqItaSc

[Zukan]

iirc this will also have a standalone launcher, like games of yore
(please, I don't want to be part of some store)

Yup we plan to have our own little launcher. Gary, one of our magicians, already has it started. :)


fire beetle check rat check kliknik check

https://i.imgur.com/vqKQ5Od.gif

[Jibartik]

chk chk chk chk chk chk

[Mblake1981]

Yup we plan to have our own little launcher. Gary, one of our magicians, already has it started. :)

merciful heavens

[Lifebar]

I think a Classic EQ-style MMORPG with a business model allowing it to stay alive and pay staff with a relatively low number of subs would be incredible. I hope you all can do it, and I look forward to playing/testing/throwing money at the project.

[starkind]

This game is right on track to have all the charm and love of a hobby good work! Looking forward to it!

[Mblake1981]

One thing I noticed in the tomb of last wyrmsbane was the straight-hallway corridors. Recall lower-guk, permafrost, Kedge Keep.. you have turnarounds, maze-like, confusion and frustrating for noobs, greens in this room and red who kill me in the next, ladders, drop-downs, areas to levitate across if you have the spell..

these are things original era EQ did amazingly well and were more or less scrubbed out with each passing year, this was tossed into over-drive during the Vista/X360/PS3 era to cater to player conveniences. Please reject all of that and embrace EQ, embrace computers and the weird and interesting things that can be done with this era of "low-poly".

Example: Falling from giant chain-linked islands in Plane of Sky.. edit: you can get to the invisible stairway in City of Mist by doing a levitating trick that isn't straight-forward.. it's hidden, round-about, obtuse, aggravating af at times. If the game, at least on occasion, doesn't make you want to slam your keyboard against the wall then you are using really weak-sauce. How can a player tell when he has "got good" if the game is weak overall?

This is a game of skill, like Prince of Persia

lgEZSN396xM

[Zukan]

One thing I noticed in the tomb of last wyrmsbane was the straight-hallway corridors. Recall lower-guk, permafrost, Kedge Keep.. you have turnarounds, maze-like, confusion and frustrating for noobs, greens in this room and red who kill me in the next, ladders, drop-downs, areas to levitate across if you have the spell..

these are things original era EQ did amazingly well and were more or less scrubbed out with each passing year, this was tossed into over-drive during the Vista/X360/PS3 era to cater to player conveniences. Please reject all of that and embrace EQ, embrace computers and the weird and interesting things that can be done with this era of "low-poly".

Example: Falling from giant chain-linked islands in Plane of Sky.. edit: you can get to the invisible stairway in City of Mist by doing a levitating trick that isn't straight-forward.. it's hidden, round-about, obtuse, aggravating af at times. If the game, at least on occasion, doesn't make you want to slam your keyboard against the wall then you are using really weak-sauce. How can a player tell when he has "got good" if the game is weak overall?





Agreed. Bare in mind Wyrmsbane is a level 1-5 ish dungeon. We want players to get into dungeon adventures quickly. Harrison (aka Padas), our enviornment artist will do some more stuff that's more of a maze for other places that are higher level etc. If you haven't seen the sewer/smuggler's den he did as well here's a timestamped link to him running around down there. It just. keeps. going. ('https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1498167234?t=01h20m57s') The method Harrison and Shawn have been using to create the enviornments is a bit constraining, which is intentional because it helps them get that blocky and uneven look.

[Mblake1981]

What was your first EQ dungeon experience?

Mine was,
https://wiki.project1999.com/Befallen

[Mblake1981]

https://twitter.com/cuppy/status/1401978326130958360
https://i.imgur.com/BuseVsU.jpg

[starkind]

Mblake is really good at ultimate vidya gaems.

I agree tho. Guk. Sola. Solb. So good! Qeynos aqueducts not to shabby either. Evil underground nice touch to EQ!

[Mblake1981]

My favorite parts of Perma is the gates where you open them by mouse-clicking the plunger on the wall.
edit: iirc Dungeons and Dragons MMORPG took this too far, I love EQ era.

[deep inhalation]

"EQ could never be a multiplatform-thumbstick game, not in earnest."

visb_rkLiqw

[Zukan]

What was your first EQ dungeon experience?

Mine was,
https://wiki.project1999.com/Befallen

My first character was a halfing druid back in vanilla. I remember camping the goblins near Runnyeye and eventally made the trek out to Faydark. I spent a lot of time in Crushbone. One of my favorite places. I got the screaming mace and loved that thing. Screaming Mace and Scarab armor is my jam. I hope to create homages to those items in MnM.

[Ennewi]

Hard to top the old obnoxious cackle of EQ skellies, but the playful snickering of M&M's version about does it for me. Immediately came to mind the other night when raid all AoN'd for Xeno kill. Adding to the links, unofficial but def worth perusing...

https://mandrakefarms.azurewebsites.net/en/classes

[Mblake1981]

Nothing wrong with a noobie zone per racial player city, with a small outer wilderness zone (fitting the area) with an entrance to a lower end dungeon somewhere in the area (edit: maybe underwater or behind a hidden wall). This is how EQ did but not across the board, all races didn't get a noobie dungeon but some races had a pretty-stinky noobie zone. Dunno if that balanced out but it sure does add character. EQ is replayable because of how, at least seemingly, different each place was.

Smelly says out of character: "Hey you guys know where the hidden dungeon is here? "
Fartface says out of character: "Yeah /loc 865 x 1234 look for the waterfall"
Assmuncher shouts: "Go back to WOW you damn noob!"
Donkie says out of character: "Hey chill bro"
Assmuncher shouts: "LMAO"
Smelly says out of character: "thx"
Fartface says out of character: "maybe muse or someone will make maps like EQ, hehe"
Smelly says out of character: "That would be cool."
Assmuncher shouts: "stfu noobs! lmao!"
Smelly shouts: "stfu noob!"
Assmuncher shouts: "... dude"
Donkie says out of character: "Holy shit this red con forest mad man just broke me in half wtf!"
Assmuncher shouts: "lmao noob!"
Donkie says of character: "lmao"
Smelly says of character: "pwned"
Fartface says of character: "wreked!"

[Mblake1981]

Heavy Metal Magazine Covers (http://www.heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com/hmlistcovers.html)

Dungeon RPG Magazine Covers (https://index.rpg.net/display-search.phtml?key=magazine&value=Dungeon&type=pictures)

Dragon RPG Magazine Covers (https://index.rpg.net/display-search.phtml?key=magazine&value=Dragon&type=pictures)

https://i.imgur.com/HFyBFgI.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QW49UCp.jpg

[Jibartik]

https://i.imgur.com/HFyBFgI.jpg


Is this EverQuest's debut album: Windows Ink Workspace?

Love that album.

[Zukan]

Jibartik I kind of own you a thanks. I can draw a direct line between you sharing Lantern EQ with me and becoming a member of the MnM team. So thanks!

Where is that froglok animation by the way? :D

[Jibartik]

I forgot how to do all that stuff lol You guys really took off and flew!!! So cool!

[Zukan]

For those that don't follow closely, here's the vod from my last stream. Bit of gameplay testing and work on our gnoll type race, the Ashira.

4UeutFC-lHM

[Reiwa]

For those that don't follow closely, here's the vod from my last stream. Bit of gameplay testing and work on our gnoll type race, the Ashira.

4UeutFC-lHM

Make them 30% uglier. The setting should be under graphic options in Unityweb.

[Mblake1981]

Make them 30% uglier.

https://i.imgur.com/CIGv5ey.jpg

[Reiwa]

https://i.imgur.com/CIGv5ey.jpg

I find his lack of mange disturbing.

[Jibartik]

I think single handedly the most impactful thing that I have ever seen in my life are the green floating skulls with that sound.

[starkind]

Yeah lol

[Zukan]

Man I can't wait to dive into particles.

[Bardp1999]

This looks cool - F U for showing me before I can play it

[Zukan]

This looks cool - F U for showing me before I can play it

Hopefully we'll be able to have some people in and play testing this year. :)

[Vormotus]

WOW!

I fully endorse this! :D

Amazing!

[Jibartik]

This is what everquest memes would be like if everquest was invented now.

https://i.imgur.com/ZZVS2Wf.png

[Mblake1981]

https://i.imgur.com/Op1ngbb.jpg

[Jibartik]

https://i.imgur.com/wCbUBYh.png

[Mblake1981]

http://web.archive.org/web/20021219091026/http://express.stratics.com/credits/bardlog.htm

[nilzark]

100% please add "animal taming" skill. Not enough games have this.

[starkind]

I noticed one thing kinda cool and anecdotal about M&M is u can watch their videos and learn a little bit about how to make a game while u learn how the devs make the game :D

[Zukan]

100% please add "animal taming" skill. Not enough games have this.
https://i.imgur.com/nBohNMr.png
(please disregard the messed up materials, we're working on a cool system right now (https://youtu.be/jubzbJxnNsw))

I noticed one thing kinda cool and anecdotal about M&M is u can watch their videos and learn a little bit about how to make a game while u learn how the devs make the game :D


Oh no! Our secret sauce!

[Jibartik]

Nice font zuk!

https://i.imgur.com/TajPP7v.png

[Zukan]

Here's a cool snipet from Shawn's stream on Thursday talking about design philosophy which can give you insight on some of our decisions behind Monsters & Memories.

UXEZGqcRZeo

[Topgunben]

looks more playable than Pantheon.

[Jibartik]

Just got randomlyl suggested this bad boi thanks youtubers.

3rWHzzXR-J8'

I love projects!!!!! project 98 haha!


1t5F237ge4k

[Jibartik]

Woah and this, not EQ but looks like what I played when I was not playing eq.

UhU4PRfb5Go

[Mblake1981]

iOfy8jvq32U

Just got randomlyl suggested this bad boi thanks youtubers.

3rWHzzXR-J8'

I love projects!!!!! project 98 haha!


1t5F237ge4k

Damn son, linking some nerd-boner materials. The remake of the classic trailer is nice, i wont knock that they got the feel right. What chaps my ass is EQ had its own engine, I have tried to find the name or where it came from but no luck so far. Unreal Engine is CCP now and I feel incredibly filthy looking at it. It's like meeting the woman of your dreams only to find you hate everything about her.

But still.. that late 90s vibe around desktop computers is wild and I love it. No Xbox in sight.

Edit: Just rewatched the original trailer, think I still prefer it. Sweet & Sour Unreal Engines can't impress me.

w0rv1pqCs-E

wWY4_7ytG4A

[Reiwa]

What chaps my ass is EQ had its own engine, I have tried to find the name or where it came from but no luck so far.

Engine True3D 7th Level[4]



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Level

https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~jkrueger/true3d.html

[Mblake1981]

Engine True3D 7th Level[4]



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Level

https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~jkrueger/true3d.html

It was the True3D name that got it, thanks for that.
Edit: Dallas, Texas

Back in 1999, EverQuest was released with a hybrid DX6/GLIDE graphics engine. This graphic engine was mainly built off the True3D engine and used sky resources found in sky.s3d.

On November 11th, 2000, the engine was revamped to use DirectX 7. The Velious only new armor textures and full screen user interface were also added at this time.

On December 4th, 2001, Luclin was released. An upgraded DX8 based graphics engine named "Umbra" was included in the release. This new DX8 engine still used the old sky.s3d file and introduced new features such as back culling (via dpvs.dll), higher resolution textures, and ground foliage. Sky.s3d was updated to add the new skies for the Luclin zones. It took Verant nearly a month of daily patching to sort out the bugs and stabilize the game. Somewhere down the line, the graphics DLL was split out from EQGame.exe into it's own file, EQGfx_DX8.DLL.

[starkind]

Woah and this, not EQ but looks like what I played when I was not playing eq.

UhU4PRfb5Go

FBI watchlist

---

p.s. classic eq looks glorious in every engines withstood the test of time

[Mblake1981]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_A._Trampier
https://sites.google.com/site/wormycollected/Home

https://i.imgur.com/mexZudZ.jpg

[Jibartik]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_A._Trampier
https://sites.google.com/site/wormycollected/Home

https://i.imgur.com/mexZudZ.jpg

lol memes then

memes now:

https://i.imgur.com/XsAzRAU.png

[Mblake1981]

https://i.imgur.com/2Q82Pag.jpg

[skeletonbuns]

I'm most excited for the playable mandrake race.

[Zukan]

I'm most excited for the playable mandrake race.

https://i.imgflip.com/6lismx.jpg

[Homesteaded]

Will this be playable before 2030?

[Zukan]

Will this be playable before 2030?

We're shooting for play tests this year, we'll be reaching out through our mailing list (https://mailchi.mp/nicheworldscult/mailinglist) for those. As far as any sort of release date though if that's more what you're asking about we don't have a date for that at the moment.

[Zukan]

Update 22: Staying Busy This Summer
Jul 4
Written By Shawn Lord
Hello everyone!

No epic update video for you this month, but we’re working on something cool that’ll likely scratch that itch before the month is out.

Video aside, this month is still loaded with plenty of updates.

Enjoy!

Character Art & Concepts

Elemental/Elemental Pet modeled
Elemental Shader Prototyped
Dropped item bag
Backpack, quiver, pouch, arrow, lantern, torch attachment items modeled
Integration work with Tech to support Player Character Gear (attachments) system
Finished up jackal model
Sculpted initial draft of both male & female Ashira
Integrated first pass animations for all the critters
Modeled all the robe meshes for Human, Ogre, Gnome
Initial concepts for Ghouls, Gargoyles, and Giants
More Player Character textures to support Player Customization work (see tech below)
Worked with Tech to define and integrate better skin tone, hair color, and other presets
Worked with Tech on our data-driven item appearance tools


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/8622e6c9-034e-40d0-b78e-b665b3b4ddf6/InitialAshiraSculpt.png?format=1500w

View fullsize
Ashira character model sculpts
Zukan typically sculpts the models, then proceeds to “chonkify” them to get the old school, slightly blockier look before we apply textures.

https://youtu.be/MzQ1aYzjh7w

We’re working on a system that allows players to show certain equipment on their character (such as backpacks, quivers, belt pouches, scrolls, flasks, books, lanterns, cloaks, and other items.

The visuals aren’t forced (ie not everyone has to show their backpack if they don’t want to) and are meant to help provide more interesting character customization, as well as reinforce the adventure themes.

https://youtu.be/MyRvcPgCZ6I

We’ve got some cool concepts for our Elementals (see concept art below), and have done some pre-visualization work to see how we want to tackle the shaders for them. See that in action in the video above.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/c6c78d60-d06e-4108-a4c9-9e2e74a9c38f/armor_tooling.gif?format=1000w

We’ve been spending time on creating an art pipeline that lets us break our armor/items in many layers, which we can mix-and-match, and also modify the colors and styles of, via our visualizer and design database.

This gives us a ton of overall variety and reduces our production time/costs.

Don’t worry, the example above runs through a few extremes, but we won’t go too shiny.

More on this soon! There’s a lot to show off.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1656937025442-HHQGKNIWK4OK1PITK0QE/pets.png


https://youtu.be/QPFq1uABhPc

Environment Art & Concepts

Continued the grey boxing of the Western Districts of Night Harbor
Created and placed the Night Market structures
Concepted additional structures, and harbor entrance’s statues
Weather system is now integrated


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1656938246168-H5L1VH5XUWMCK9LOEJDF/market_district_01.png?format=2500w


Design

Starting Stat Changes
Combat Formula Work
Focused Combat Testing
Ability Creation & Balancing
Itemization & Crafting Recipes
Mob Placement/Population Work
Class/Race Combo List Revised (both Starting & Quest Unlocks)
Class Description Write-ups
Began work on Night Harbor Starting Quests
Integrated our new Title Screen track (thanks Robert!)




Tech

Now supporting facial feature customization for Ogre and Human
More detailed facial customization added for Gnomes
Now using more natural skin tones, features, and hair colors during character customization
Fixes to loading character skin and face on same-zone respawn and equipping items
Illusion spells now support skin tone and facial feature customization
Player corpses now have the correct customized skin tone and face
Fixed intermediate face being displayed between changing face options during char customization
Fixed a framerate issue in the login scene
Created ability effects for melee abilities such as weapon scaled damage
Implemented bows and ranged combat
Created proper skill gain formulas
Animation system re-creation to support a large variety of models with standard animations
Revamped Inventory System
Continued balance patches
Adjusted walk speeds globally
Weather System added
Updated spell interruption and channeling
Texture loading optimization (more than 10x faster)
Implemented automated building and deployment of executables in preparation for launcher
Added tons of texturing options with new blend modes, masking, etc all data driven
Players no longer float 6 inches off the ground!
Better caching routines for faster loading, but also shouldn't fill up user’s memory
Global textures that can be worn by any race
Dressing room tool created
Tons of bug fixing and polish
New obfuscation measures


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/6a5aeedb-30d5-4413-bffa-676b3ffae98c/image.png?format=1500w

In Closing
As you can see, it’s been another busy month.

Big thanks to everyone on the team for continuing to drive MnM forward at an impressive clip (especially, with it being Summer and all).

And another big thank you for all of the feedback and pleasant interactions on our Livestreams and in Discord (https://discord.com/invite/jvdKKc3CqW).



________________________
Note from Zukan: There are a lot more images on our website version of this update (https://monstersandmemories.com/updates/update-22-staying-busy-this-summer), it was too many to try and cram in this post. :) In case anyone is interested and wants to check those out.

[starkind]

Man u guys r seriously doing cool stuff.

[Mblake1981]

Why do some of the modern game engines look like shiny wax?

is that a DirectX thing?

[Homesteaded]

We're shooting for play tests this year, we'll be reaching out through our mailing list (https://mailchi.mp/nicheworldscult/mailinglist) for those. As far as any sort of release date though if that's more what you're asking about we don't have a date for that at the moment.

Awesome. Following this for sure, looks promising.

[Reiwa]

Do you have any pics of the naked girl elfs, mlord?

[Jibartik]

I'm just overt here playing with my Barbie's in HD.

https://i.imgur.com/gPD5Xmb.png

[Vormotus]

I'm just overt here playing with my Barbie's in HD.

https://i.imgur.com/gPD5Xmb.png

Man if you like that , go visit studio fow :D

[Jibartik]

I just was randomlyl suggsted this cool unrest unreal thingy

tnPPf_hS9aQ

[nilzark]

I just was randomlyl suggsted this cool unrest unreal thingy

tnPPf_hS9aQ

Oh no he didn't. Rogean, we are going to need the p99 database emailed over. Time to upgrade this jam.

[Mblake1981]

Gross.

-Everquest Online Adventures already exists.

"Why do you hate thumbsticks? lol"
"Series X is a Desktop computer"

edit: I realize some people wont understand the motivations for my rants about them.
The games that support controllers are fundamentally different than something
purely for a Desktop (classic EQ for example). They can make the graphics super-slick all day long but its still
just chintzy window dressing if the game is made to use thumbsticks. The two dominator
game engines, Unreal CCP and Unity, both natively support controllers and smart phones.
This is lauded as progress and intelligence but the experience is opposite.

Morrowinds UI compared to Oblivion UI. (https://sites.google.com/site/damicat/whyoblivionsucks)
^
Morrowind was made for PC and ported to Xbox. Oblivion was made for Xbox but PC could also run it. The series
was no longer Desktop computer based and it showed in the user interface.

PnoidygX3ko

vs
*not a promotion of any guilds, a comparison of games.
hS0Sv1i0ezE

[Zukan]

Just put out this cool new video with our new title track. :D
IJwf0XK9VGg

[Jibartik]

nice!

[Mblake1981]

train to zone!

[Danth]

edit: I realize some people wont understand the motivations for my rants about them. The games that support controllers are fundamentally different than something purely for a Desktop (classic EQ for example).

I figure anyone who's been gaming long enough should understand the limitations imposed by console-style control schemes. It's one of the driving factors of why simulator games of any sort, in particular, are always done better on PC. An EQ-style game should very much strive to be a "world simulator." Mobile/touchscreen is even more limiting.

I appreciate what the M&M folks are trying to accomplish and I hope they have both the time and funding to see their plans through to fruition. They seem to be have a plan and, thus far, appear somewhat resistant to excessive feature creep. I keep an eye on their progress; at this stage, no more is required.

Danth

[Mblake1981]

They seem to be doing well. You know, Starcitizen hasn't reached beta yet and its been what now? a decade?

Been like a year for these guys, already have a newbie yard with snakes that kick. This is probably the Pantheon that P99/EQ players should be looking at.

edit: Zukan, you guys gonna get <Fires of Heaven> to test your dungeons?

[Danth]

The one original EQ mistake I hope they manage to solve is continuously expanding their game with more and more extra zones that no one will visit.

I think Runescape managed to deal with that problem better than most online role-playing games. It rejected the expansion-driven business model from the start, so it never had the financial incentive to constantly keep obsoleting its own content. It has some outdated content, to be sure, but dramatically less than the expansion-based games of similar age tend to have.


Danth

[Jibartik]

you ever notice ever since mankind started building their own universe in star citizen, the real universe we live has been becoming more and more unstable as they progress?

[starkind]

WoW, NMS and Minecraft are the universes I like )))

[Zukan]

Zukan, you guys gonna get <Fires of Heaven> to test your dungeons?

I'm not sure how the selection proccess is planned for getting people in other than that we'll send something out through the mailing list when we get to a point where we can bring people in. Which will hopefully be this year. :)

[Mblake1981]

https://i.imgur.com/UJdyZKS.png

https://i.imgur.com/9Qfbvhf.gif

[Treefall]

This game is looking to be the closest thing to my future dream game there is!

I recently watched the class explanation video and it all sounds promising.

My only worry is that in theorycrafting the classes, he wants to dabble in switching around some of the classic EQ abilities to other classes (e.g. Enchanter may not have their full arsenals, necro might get the slow, etc.)

I just feel like the EQ classes were relatively great, and I think classes that are popular but not necessarily the best in a group/raid situation go to show you every class can be fun and have its role.

I'd really only want to see some minor changes like Wizard having some form of sustained DPS which keeps them in line with other DPS classes, warriors maybe having a few more abilities and cooldowns to utilize for funzies. I do not think the classes would need any major overhauls, just some few changes to level the playing field.

Really hopeful for this game!

[Topgunben]

This is looking very cool. Someone message me when its ready to play.

Thanks

[Zukan]

This is looking very cool. Someone message me when its ready to play.

Thanks

I'm sure I will be blasting in here when we are gearing up to bring people in. But also, the mailing list. :D

[Lifebar]

This is probably the Pantheon that P99/EQ players should be looking at.

[Harris]

Looking forward to this.

[Zukan]

9zNfsNb6igU?t=6822

Hey sort of update-y: I threw together a rough wood elf into unity last night. They're one of our super thin races. Still need to make the low poly version but it seemed like it works pretty well. :)

[Jibartik]

look at you go!!!!

[Zukan]

Just dropped the July Update, you all should check it on the site here (https://monstersandmemories.com/updates/update-23-another-hot-month) because there is too many images to try and paste in here and there is a video showing off some initial UI ideas.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/dd24e2e6-e1c6-42c4-89b8-fda2265dce82/Race+Selection+Ensemble+Concept+1+small.png?format =1500w

Hello everyone!

Despite the heat, vacations, and all the other trappings of Summer, the team has continued to get an update worthy amount of work done!

We hope you’re staying cool. Grab an icy beverage and enjoy!

Character Art & Concepts

Human, Gnome, and Ogre geometry reworked to facilitate better topology around the armpits

UV and Weight Painting cleaned up accordingly

Animations were reworked, both from the Art & Tech side of things (more below)

Modelling on Female Humans and Wood Elves started

Attachable items (backpacks, belt packs) working on Player Characters

New NPC & Monster Concepts

Some NPC/Monsters Concepted via Sculpting

Experimentation with reuse of existing textures to create new equipment variations

Additional Character Customization (and tooling)


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1659621383558-981FRVNI77UB1TW8SAZP/Backpacks+1.png

Environment Art & Concepts

Continued work on Night Harbor Western District
Market
Temple Entrance
Tannery
Additional Streets and Structures


Newbie yard revamp

Fallen Watch façade updated and added to Shaded Dunes and Vale of Zintar

Cat Rooms (dog rooms coming soon)

Wyrmsbane Entrance Model updated and added to NH Western Newbie Yard

Wyrmsbane Zone Expanded

Additional Tomb areas grey boxed

Cavern areas grey boxed



https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1659624351115-KDF3QOGKWBBX4EW87UJZ/Character+Create+Concept+1.png

UI & UI Concepts

UI Mockup & UX flows concepted

UI Texture Style concepted

Character Race Selection illustration

Character creation UI and workflow improvements

Added additional character name validation

Added confirmation before deleting characters

Ability, buff, and Hotbar UI visual and functional changes

Various Bug fixes


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/e5befb50-6949-4dc0-8bd4-878cb3cb2cac/MnM+Covers+1.png?format=1500w

Design & QA

Itemization Work

Recipes Work

New Mob Spawns and Mob Spawn Adjustments for Night Harbor

Started adding new MUD Objects for Night Harbor and Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane zones

Misc. Ability Work

All Newbie Note quests in data or implemented (some PH)

Public Test Milestone Checklist

Misc. Ability work, updates, and bug fixes

Pruned/modified starting abilities for certain classes

Gameplay Testing/Bug Reporting/Regression


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1659622227647-UDFLNVMM3TRQPVBXK864/Cat+Room+1.PNG



Tech

CICD pipeline support for automatic building of server and client

CICD pipeline support for publishing patch releases available to launcher patching

More work on login server integration with login via launcher

Database restructuring

Implemented additional texture processes such as masking

Implemented attachable items (backpacks, beltpacks)

Animation system revamp. It is now all programmatic.

More robust “RPG style” functionality added for Reagents, Food, Merchants.

For Example:
Merchants will now only buy items that they are tagged to buy
Light sources can consume “charges,” similar to food
Light sources can be recharged (ex. Oil Lamp)
Multiple reagents can be used at once or only have a chance to be consumed


Navigation fixes

Wwise integration proof of concept and research for overhauling audio is underway

Skin tone and facial features for NPCs

Fixed some zone line problems


In Closing
As you can see, despite vacations (or in Ali’s case - because of…), the team has kept things moving along nicely!

Next month we’ll have some info on our latest addition to the team, and possibly an update on the search for an Animator.

Exciting stuff!

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to check out our:
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/MonstersMemories)
Discord (https://discord.com/invite/jvdKKc3CqW)
Mailing List
(https://mailchi.mp/nicheworldscult/mailinglist)
Have a great day and hopefully, we’ll see you on one of our streams or in Discord!

[Jibartik]

hah cat room nice touch

[Zukan]

Ph9q2aFSEAE

ALovingRobot chats about some interesting mmo topics.

[Lifebar]

Bump for victory! I can't wait to play, take my money.

[Kaveh]

What was your first EQ dungeon experience?

Mine was,
https://wiki.project1999.com/Befallen

Befallen and kedge are two of my favorite zones. Kedge is probably #1

[Kaveh]

Really cool stuff Zukan

[Mblake1981]

Befallen and kedge are two of my favorite zones. Kedge is probably #1

Sol B or LGuk would probably be my first choice as I spent the most time in those dungeons in era, Kedge is notable for being a fully underwater dungeon that modern games struggle with despite having large budgets and an army of programmers. Its an intellectual insult that goes all the way back to the second Deus Ex game and Thief 3: Deadly Shadows.

bPP7Ngya1G8

[Zukan]

We just pulled on a new team member to focus on rigging and animation. I was doing the best I could until now but it's really my area of expertise, so I you'll expect you'll start seeing the quality go up in the animation department in the near future. :)

Also with that load off my plate I'll be able to spend more time making new monsters and I'm hoping to dip some toes in spell particles soon.

[Rick Sanchez]

looking forward to this, the nostalgia aroma is really pleasant.

[Ennewi]

For anyone not keeping up with every video, there's an NPC race called the Ashira. TLDR way to describe them is as a new twist/take on gnolls, making them more lithe and akin to jackals rather than wolves. Some (or all?) may also have the ability to transform into more imposing versions, the description being similar to how drolvargs look. And IIRC we can expect some type of Darkpaw character to make an appearance.

[Knuckle]

This looks cool, subscribed to your channel.

[Zukan]

https://i.imgur.com/SwJJoJi.gif

I cannot believe it's already been a whole ass year since I joined the MnM team. I put this Ashira model in game the other day which marks offically replacing all the (at least commonly seen) capsule placeholder models. He's got just a quickie placeholder idle animation right now until our animation guy can do a nicer pass.

[Rethalis]

https://i.imgur.com/SwJJoJi.gif

I cannot believe it's already been a whole ass year since I joined the MnM team. I put this Ashira model in game the other day which marks offically replacing all the (at least commonly seen) capsule placeholder models. He's got just a quickie placeholder idle animation right now until our animation guy can do a nicer pass.

nice

[Zukan]

EHpZe0XIYFE?t=6680

Yoooo got UI scaling in recently. Looks nice. Especially for me since I play on a 4k monitor. :D

[Zukan]

The August Update just dropped! Check out the full post on the site here (https://monstersandmemories.com/updates/update-24-gearing-up-for-fall) because there are more images than I will post here.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/97045c7b-15cc-44d2-8021-66767ba03a74/MnMCovers4.png?format=1500w


Hail Adventurers!

Summer is starting to feel like Fall around here, but don’t be sad - we’ve got another great update for you!

Grab a beverage, cross your fingers and wish for a few more warm weeks, and then read through what we’ve been up to in August.

Character Art & Concepts

Modeled male & female Ashira

Modeled Elemental Pets

Implemented Ashira and Elemental Pets into unity

Still more work to do with texture and animation though!

Improved Coloration/Sharpness on the Face and Skin Layers

This coincides with tech/rendering improvements (below)

Generic Concept for Adventurer, that fills out most gear slots

New Mob Concepts

Started Zombie concepts


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1662378802649-F1YS1RI17N0KHXKR4CNB/000PoQjsYe3J4.gif?format=300w

Last, but not least — we’ve added a new animator!

Welcome William/Urkenstaff!

He’s been working on:


A new rig for the Human player character with (awesome) new controls

A first pass of most Human animations (a few shown below)


We’re also working with another talented animator, who has been focused on the Jackal animations (more on that next month).

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1662379866140-A5WVYIUI85F04EVSYFIY/Hum.Crouch.gifhttps://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1662379876307-MAMW90ENIQUARSZN0BF4/Hum.Swim.gif

Environment Art & Concepts

Began adjustments to Night Harbor’s Western District street flow

This is starting to break up the grid-like flow from the initial greybox/blocking pass

Began work on the Park District Walls and Hanging Gardens

Gathered architectural references for Necropolis District

Fixed the blocking geo in Fallen Pass and the Twilight Isles

Fixed the nav mess issues in Vale of Zintar

Two new “book cover”/Place, Party, and Peril (PPP) Illustrations. Inspiring!


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/f2d66e3f-6802-41ce-a40a-d9da32c5e8cb/MnMCovers3.png?format=1500w

UI & UI Concepts

UI Asset Creation

Updated inventory layout

Added new textures to inventory and container UIs

Refactored some base UI for window management


Note: there’s a bit of placeholder at play in this image, but we’re now integrating last month’s concepts into the game.

Elements like the experience bar will be replaced with art similar to the concepts, the class symbols will eventually be 3D and animated, and the paperdoll view will likely be a real-time view of your character.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/e9eb4316-65e5-4c5e-871b-32a3a845d0ee/UI_initial_pass.png?format=1500w

Design & QA

MUD Object update in Wyrmsbane

Fallen Watch dungeon made higher level for purpose of playtesting

Reworked combat formulas to improve balance

Resists/resist formulas revamped to improve utility/gameplay in the early levels

Wrapped up Rogue Guild faction lore

Bards Guild faction lore started

Fighter and Ranger starting quests added

Used these to discuss worldbuilding & design workflow/approach

Merchants updated to use the new buy and sell lists

All existing items tagged to work with the new “buy” system

Added missing merchant types; common items added to merchants

Update Night Harbor POIs to use new volume system (see below)

NPCs are now wearing clothes over their undies

Started organizing Issues for a Bug Polish Pass

Started Regression Testing for all Open Issues

Lots of additional design work/ad hoc testing


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1662379138202-0NUVCIIFSSH35KH5FW3L/Mobs4.png?format=750w

Tech

First person camera control tweaks

Fixed sending location data for larger zones

Integrated Wwise sound engine (Yay!)

Sound design, new audio, and music now utilizing Wwise sound engine

Including a new audio track for the Glass Flats from Robert!

Huge improvements to texture loading and blending, leading to much nicer looking player characters

Added merchant buy and sell lists (support to define what a merchant will buy)

Melee Combat Formula Tuning

Gameplay Volumes (Data driven spaces that can have arbitrary rules attached to them)

Resist Revamp (includes Damage Reduction/ Resist Block Chance)

Data Driven Statics (Doors, Volumes, Points of Interest)

Animation system improvements in blending between states

Improved navigation calculation

Improved movement speed logic and server/client sync


Also… and In Closing
As mentioned last month, we’d like to announce another addition to the team:

Welcome, Keith!

You’ve probably seen KeithG around in Discord or on the streams. He’s been making the really fun Mandrake Farms video edits (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3YA7dendNHo7XeKNgh6PkQ/featured), and just happens to also be an experienced programmer IRL.

Keith is now helping us on both fronts (videos and tech). Yay!

So, that’s it for August. We hope you have a great month, and we’ll see you on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/jvdKKc3CqW), our YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/MonstersMemories)comments, and during the streams.

And at the time of this writing, we’re at 1990 people on our Mailing List (https://mailchi.mp/nicheworldscult/mailinglist).

Be sure to join up, if you haven’t already.

Take care!

[Jibartik]

Zukan you are amazing! Great work!!!

[Mblake1981]

I spy a swim animation, if that makes it in game you are already more advanced than New World.

Edit: art reminds me of..
https://i.imgur.com/b6S6DwQ.jpg

[Zukan]

I spy a swim animation, if that makes it in game you are already more advanced than New World.

Edit: art reminds me of..
https://i.imgur.com/b6S6DwQ.jpg

That sort of asthetic is intentional :). A lot of the 2D art like that is ment to tug on those old school heart strings since we're trying to make a game that has an old school vibe.

[Zukan]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/847852894078500874/1020099794577915984/heal1.png?width=1407&height=709
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/847852894078500874/1020099827729707089/heal2.png?width=1407&height=709


I've started work on spell particles. :)

[Jibartik]

Haha! Nice :cool: I love the quiet cool splash of the heal spell line.

[nilzark]

Always enjoyed the spell particles of classic EQ over the new EQ ones. Moar graphics != better experience IMHO.

[Jibartik]

Yeah the original spell particles are like, magic.

[Danth]

Yeah the original spell particles are like, magic.

The distinctive sound effects are every bit as important if not moreso. For example I seldom see my own spell effects, especially defensive spells, owing to using first-person mode. I hear them all, though, and that's an important part of both situation awareness as well as the memory of the game. It occurred to me awhile back that I can't remember any of the spell sound effects from World of Warcraft and very few of them from Vanguard. They weren't memorable.

Something EQ got right that a lot of more modern games screw up is that the fancy particle effects are indeed restricted to magical spells. It makes magic--magic. Ordinary physical melee attacks should not create huge firework displays like they do in so many of the newer games of this type. Magical spells should look and feel dramatically different than swinging an ordinary wood or steel weapon.

New technology will allow a game such as this one (I hesitate to call it "M&M," that's a somwhat unfortunate coincidence of initials) some room to improve things where old games were limited by technology. I was always somewhat under-whelmed by EQ's offensive "nuke" or "bolt" type spell particle effects. I would've liked a wizard who actually could shoot lightning bolts out of his hands or hurl fireballs. Such effects need to be rare because if they're common they become mundane and everyone simply turns them off--but they ought to be there as a special treat. Looking forward to seeing more of the work on this one.

------------------------------------------------

As for character models, I like seeing the digitigrade models. One serious complaint with Vanguard was how some races looked like (and clearly were) nothing more than a human body with an animal head cut-and-pasted on top. Improved technology leaves room for improvement of other little details as well. My wife has been griping in these games for twenty-plus years that almost none of these games have high-heel shoes for female characters. Maybe you folks could fix that omission? That and wizards need to have some pointy hats. EQ, at least, has a notorious shortage of pointy wizard hats.

Danth

[Mblake1981]

The fireball spells in era were large fireballs. They are small dots-shapes on P99.

My wife has been griping in these games for twenty-plus years that almost none of these games have high-heel shoes for female characters.

_rKHc5rCno8

https://i.imgur.com/Djex8A0.png

[Patrece]

EQ Classic had those bolts working in no time

[Zukan]

My wife has been griping in these games for twenty-plus years that almost none of these games have high-heel shoes for female characters. Maybe you folks could fix that omission? That and wizards need to have some pointy hats. EQ, at least, has a notorious shortage of pointy wizard hats.

Danth

I may have to disappoint you here. Unless we put all female characters in high-heels 100% of the time. Its not worth it to build a new rig and new set of animations just for items only some of the characters would wear some of the time. Animation is a lot of work and we're a small team. :(

Pointy hats might be a thing though, it's been talked about internally. The wizard concept actually has the gandalf pointy hat.

[Jibartik]

The distinctive sound effects are every bit as important if not moreso.

It's true, the combination of that like, silent hum as the watter sprinkles poor out of the woodelfs hands gets me every time.

[Jibartik]

The fireball spells in era were large fireballs. They are small dots-shapes on P99.



_rKHc5rCno8

https://i.imgur.com/Djex8A0.png

Yeah my best advice danth is to throw on this incredible movie with the wifo and then randomlyl point out, "SEE that's why they dont have high heals in games, what else do you want thong armor??"

:D

Altyhough, I do strongly reccomend the monk class wear high heals, as a kick to the eye would be devistating with them IMO.

Put big spikes on them, and make them manly, like man sandals for big kicker monks.

https://i.imgur.com/2g0uSJ8.png

https://i.imgur.com/jcPGGzG.png

https://i.imgur.com/WQueWQM.png

https://i.imgur.com/Xs46aRu.png

...and thongs.

[Danth]

Animation is a lot of work and we're a small team. :(

Pointy hats might be a thing though, it's been talked about internally. The wizard concept actually has the gandalf pointy hat.

No frown needed for trying to do a lot of work with not a lot of people. One for two ain't bad and the other's hardly the end of the world.

[Mblake1981]

https://i.imgur.com/riPaH0J.gif

[Zukan]

You guys want to see something cool? We posted a two year retrospective on our progress so far, you can read the FULL ARTICLE (https://monstersandmemories.com/updates/year-2-retrospective) on our website. But we also have this video for you to enjoy. It's cool seeing how far things have come in a short time with so few people.

WNgeeM59sl0

[Zukan]

Our monthly update will be coming out in a few days as well, but I took this screenshot this morning that I just really wanted to share now.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/921362436345446410/1025545688832028792/skeletonz.png?width=1407&height=968

[Reiwa]

Love the skellies with glowing eyes. Are those - firebones, plaguebones, and icebones for the colors mayhaps?

[Zukan]

Love the skellies with glowing eyes. Are those - firebones, plaguebones, and icebones for the colors mayhaps?

No they're regular skeletons, but the different eye colors are for the various classes they are. Some are Paladins, others are clerics, and some archers.

When we have skeletons that are of a type of element or something like a bloodied skeleton we will have their bones be different colors (in addition to eye color stuff). :D

[Jibartik]

dem bones dem bones!

[Reiwa]

No they're regular skeletons, but the different eye colors are for the various classes they are. Some are Paladins, others are clerics, and some archers.

When we have skeletons that are of a type of element or something like a bloodied skeleton we will have their bones be different colors (in addition to eye color stuff). :D

Extremely good detailing.

[LordVictor]

I just hope that they will give more pets for necros. But I'm waiting for this EQ clone.

[Zukan]

I just hope that they will give more pets for necros. But I'm waiting for this EQ clone.

As in a necro gets something other than just a skeleton and a specture? I like that idea, but that's more of an asthetic thing we have to put on a lower priority atm.

Another cool thought is to take the Vanguard necro pet "build-a-pet" mechanic and actually have the various parts have visual changes. But I don't know we have plans for that.

[Danth]

I am pleased to see the name Vanguard pop up. For all its (many) flaws there was also a lot of good in there that can serve as inspiration. Glad to see it isn't entirely forgotten. The equip-a-pet feature was one of those good ideas whether represented graphically or not.

Small team is a double-edged sword. You won't be able to do everything you want to do, but it does serve the benefit of keeping you grounded, out of necessity, so you don't develop excess feature-creep and unending development fork-in-the-roads and delays.

Danth

[Encroaching Death]

As in a necro gets something other than just a skeleton and a specture? I like that idea, but that's more of an asthetic thing we have to put on a lower priority atm.

Another cool thought is to take the Vanguard necro pet "build-a-pet" mechanic and actually have the various parts have visual changes. But I don't know we have plans for that.

If Necros have a "root" spell, you should animate zombies popping out of the ground and holding the legs of the mob.

Would be pretty cool.

[Jibartik]

no, green blobs lol

[nilzark]

I smell mission creep.

[Zukan]

Hey gang, been a bit since I updated here. I thought showing something neat I've been working on lately would be a good reason to post:

We're trying out using hair cards for the hair on characters. We want to have different hair options, and this is a good way to make a lot of options with not a lot of texture work. Also if we group clumps in specific sections we'll be able to still have longer sections that hang down show while you're wearing a helm. Test example here for your viewing pleasure. I know it's not ultra classic but we are modernizing things here and there if we think it can still fit in with our classic aesthetic goal. Lemme know what you all think. :)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/920946623255826433/1033507057510383616/hair_lengths.png

[Jibartik]

Is that a deathknight helmet

https://i.imgur.com/5gNGIES.png

[Zukan]

Is that a deathknight helmet

Nope that's the Fighter (aka Warrior) helm the shadow knight's helm is probably cooler honestly, but I haven't modeled that one yet. I'm trying to get the tech art sorted with equipping it properly and such before making more stuff. :)

[keeranadams]

Cool and original. You got my attention. It always seemed to me that creating graphic characters is very difficult, probably, as many people think that it is difficult to write texts. But my experience work with has made me a pro at it. From your work with graphics, it is also clear that you are a true professional in your field. Good luck to you.

Moving geometry can be really tricksy to get right. That looked really solid. I wonder if doors will push the player and what happens if they are pushed inside a wall etc

[Jibartik]

just make sure every item graphic appears on the skeletons please.

[Zukan]

just make sure every item graphic appears on the skeletons please.

For sure. They are on the same rig as the player character so we'll be able to us player animations when you turn yourself into a skeleton as well. I got the helm and hood geo working the other day on the human, I should see if I can get it to work on the skeleton too.

Speaking of skeletons, we did a play test session last night, running around a tomb. :)

yU7cVhpioLE

[Jibartik]

woot!

[One Tin Soldier]

I can't believe I've stumbled onto a MMO project which actually interests me. I had officially given up on MMOs and just check this site once in a while out of some pathetic, nostalgic wistfulness.

I can't say I have a lot of faith in an indie project but who knows.

On your site it said you want to keep the focus on small groups which is music to my ears. However, I have to wonder if you will really stick to that. I know that the small but extremely vocal contingent of un-living ones, a.k.a. "neckbeards", a.k.a. "basement dwellers",a.k.a. poop-sockers will pressure you to create a God-awful raiding endgame.

Well, we'll see. I wish you well and will check in on it occasionally unless I forget or die.

[Zukan]

We just posted our monthly update. And since Shawn was busy being lost in a forrest somewhere in Germany we never posted September's... so this one is a double header. It's got so much stuff I'm not even going to attempt to transcribe stuff here. I'm afraid you'll just have to click my suspious link. :D

https://monstersandmemories.com/updates/update-25-two-updates-in-one

okay I'll post two cool bits to entice folks:

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1667292059745-T3LFVO80B88T6YVZ5QFQ/cJs4g1WdZr.gif?format=750w

qSQQAMFpXfU

[Jibartik]

https://i.imgur.com/ak3rLzb.gif

[Reiwa]

I smell mission creep.

NPC pets should attack whoever hurts their master the most. (Damage only)

[Jibartik]

I want my pet to have longform gpt3 conversations with me.

[magnetaress]

I want my pet to have longform gpt3 conversations with me.

Dude I'd log in every day just to talk with my pet for 30 minutes. First thing I'd do is make them aware of their situation. And ask if they consented to playing that day.

Let's really behave in this thread tho )

[Jibartik]

First thing I'd do is make them aware of their situation.

:D

[Zukan]

And ask if they consented to playing that day.

But what if your pet was a total dork and didn't want to go out adventuring, choosing instead to stay home and play Monsters and Memories?

[Jibartik]

thats me!

[magnetaress]

free bump out of the kindness of my heart

[Zukan]

free bump out of the kindness of my heart

Hey thanks for the bump! Definetly don't want this thread to get locked!

There hasn't been too much to talk about lately as we're trying to get things sorted for upcoming testing phases. We're going to do a friends and family one in the near future to make sure the pipeline of getting people installed and in-game works. Then we'll be looking toward getting a larger group in after that, which'll probably be early next year.

I've been focusing on getting the various character visuals sorted out, like helms, shoulders, the armor textures, hair options, etc.

Also mounts are going to be a thing so I was working on getting some horse related thing into Unity last night on stream and things got a bit odd. The people demanded a gnome centuar and I obliged.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/854022064436150312/1042308639534354452/image.png

[Jibartik]

boots.

[Reiwa]

The people demanded a gnome centuar and I obliged.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/854022064436150312/1042308639534354452/image.png

minitaur

[Jibartik]

lol

[Zukan]

*writes that down*

[magnetaress]

That is awesome. Could you make the legs shorter tho, like a min shetland? )

[Jibartik]

Corgie centaur

[Zukan]

Thats what folks on the stream said but I missed it. So something I can do if/when I swing back around to it. :D

[Jibartik]

dog centaur with a cat upper body

[Zukan]

Got a new play test video for yall. We set our levels to 8 and tried out a newer area this time.

_4wJDsJ0WG0

[Somos]

I still want a 3D printed troll to put on my shelf. :)


Ditto!!!

[Zukan]

I still want a 3D printed troll to put on my shelf. :)

Ditto!!!

Here is the .DAE file which I used on Shapeways to print my one. I wasn't able to set the one I have as buyable so hopefully you folks will be able to get it going on your end at leasat with this. Should be able to just upload the zip itself and be printable in color. That's all I did anyhow. :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vuUSXF7EIGeAsruYW436q2gve_QZNJUo/view?usp=sharing

I'm not an expierenced printer so probably won't be able to troubleshoot any issues though. Good luck D:

[magnetaress]

<3

[Somos]

Here is the .DAE file which I used on Shapeways to print my one. I wasn't able to set the one I have as buyable so hopefully you folks will be able to get it going on your end at leasat with this. Should be able to just upload the zip itself and be printable in color. That's all I did anyhow. :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vuUSXF7EIGeAsruYW436q2gve_QZNJUo/view?usp=sharing

I'm not an expierenced printer so probably won't be able to troubleshoot any issues though. Good luck D:


Sweet! Are y'all looking for Interns @M&M?

[Zukan]

Sweet! Are y'all looking for Interns @M&M?

I would go to our discord (https://discord.com/invite/jvdKKc3CqW) and DM aLovingRobot. He's the guy to talk to about joining up. I will say, while we're not actively looking for any position right now, that hasn't stopped people from getting recruited. :)

And also just to note, in case it isn't a well known thing, everyone on the team is volunteering their free time and are not being paid. Eventually my hope is to be able to work on MnM fulltime but that's not the current situation.

[Jibartik]

Tunarebless you zukan.

[Encroaching Death]

I would go to our discord (https://discord.com/invite/jvdKKc3CqW) and DM aLovingRobot. He's the guy to talk to about joining up. I will say, while we're not actively looking for any position right now, that hasn't stopped people from getting recruited. :)

And also just to note, in case it isn't a well known thing, everyone on the team is volunteering their free time and are not being paid. Eventually my hope is to be able to work on MnM fulltime but that's not the current situation.

Hey, are you the guy that live streams the game?

[Zukan]

Hey, are you the guy that live streams the game?

Yes I'm one of the folks that streams. at least two or three other team members stream as well while working on things.

[Encroaching Death]

Yes I'm one of the folks that streams. at least two or three other team members stream as well while working on things.

I always see this guy:

rTut4FbQH-o

[Zukan]

Thats Shawn aka aLovingRobot. He's one of the founders. I'm just a lowly artist. :)

[Encroaching Death]

Thats Shawn aka aLovingRobot. He's one of the founders. I'm just a lowly artist. :)

I'm really excited for the game. You guys are making something special I feel.

[Zukan]

I'm really excited for the game. You guys are making something special I feel.

Thanks man, we think so too!

[Zukan]

It's that time of the month again and I have the November Update, you all should check it on the site here (https://monstersandmemories.com/updates/update-26-were-thankful-for) because, as always, there more images and videoes than I will be posting here. :)

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1670162107901-WX228O0E328T5BJZVRGA/minotaur_logo.png?format=1000w

We’re thankful for another productive month, the fact that it’s still sunny in game, and for all of you continuing to keep tabs on our progress.

November is a wrap, and we’ve got one month left until 2023.

A major goal for December is to get a small group of friends and family in to play with us to work the kinks out of our playtest pipeline.

The hope is to quickly get to the point where we can then invite folks from the broader community in to test things with us while we continue to work on our “proof of concept” in 2023.

This is in keeping with our approach of always gathering feedback from the community as we go, and being open with our development process.

This test is not to be assumed to mean that we’re close to Alpha, nearing completion, or getting ready to go live in some capacity.

With that state - fingers crossed all goes well this month - and maybe we’ll get to test some stuff together in the not-to-distant future.

Character Art & Concepts

Implemented a new hair option for Human Male
Worked on Human Female hair style
Created a first pass skin base texture (ongoing discussion)
Texture style exploration and iteration (for all visible slots)
Visible item tooling (dressing room) concepting and discussion
Human animation (and animation system) iteration
Crocodile Animations started


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1670163820162-9TR6WPM9SMOQ5O25QJ1I/crocodile4.gif

Environment Art

Created new Tent models
Created a new Torch model and material
Roughed out Archaeologist campsite outside Wyrmsbane
Added more Tent variety to Travelers Camp
Finished roughout of Night Market area
Cleaned up, optimized, and finalized the look of the Night Market Entrance Arch
Created new materials and textures for the Night Market Arch
Converted old Elementalist Temple geo into a new Temple of Relle, replacing the older rough geo
Created materials for Steel Talons heraldry banners
Finished roughing out The Garrison layout to support future population/content pass
Started to Prop out The Garrison
Modelled first pass of The Main Gate to Night Harbor
Modelled first pass of the Garrison's Gate and Portcullis
Modelled first pass of Standard Doors and Doorframes for Night Harbor
Created and animated all of the above listed doors and gates
Modelled Trebuchets for the Garrison
Modelled and Textured Wayshrine object based on Luna and Goblin's concepts
Various Material, Collison, and Nav fixes across multiple zones
Modelled Ship for Garrison, and created a Sails Material
Made progress grey-boxing the Harbor District in Night Harbor
Prop placement for various camps in Shaded Dunes


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1670164204095-915LD22RHXSE1LWI6578/20.PNG
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1670164231628-8Y1N0FR5J1FIJLIR81EY/5.PNG

Game Design/QA

Added Mining Nodes to Night Harbor
Wyrmsbane Tomb Population changes and additions
Bone Construct encounter abilities
Wyrmsbane Itemization changes and additions
Shaded Dunes mob ability changes and additions
Created many new abilities
Fixed various Abilities
Rebalanced various abilities
Created additional NPC Ability Loadout Sets
Added Smelting Recipe
Added Blacksmithing Recipes
Completed Druid faction writeup (Circle of Scarce Rains)
Implemented and integrated Druid faction into existing faction system
Populated Druid Guild Hall
Added initial Druid, Necromancer, Shadow Knight, and Inquisitor quests
Implemented 'Wayshrine' mechanics
Completed a design proposal for the crafting system
Completed Shaman/Beastmaster faction writeup (Seekers of the Lost Eye)
Added more Zone Mud Action descriptions of various locations within Night Harbor, Shaded Dunes, and Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane
Zone population and camp changes for Shaded Dunes
Documented a large chunk of our design tooling as part of onboarding Luna
Identified design tool issues and feature requests as part of documenting them


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1670163761780-0WOOLM3LFVD0D4LBEXAZ/capes.png?format=2500w

Tech

Fixes:

Fixed a bug where negative stat values on items could cause multiple stats to not show up in the inspection window
Made applicable mobs rotate correctly when walking on sloped terrain
Added a new general culling group manager for distance-based performance optimizations
Fixed camera pop when right click mouse looking out of left click pan camera
Fix female human models crashing model loading
Fix error in git repo causing meta files to be discarded causing massive asset failures
Fixes for charmed mobs
Fix errors on login
Fix cleanup of buff volumes when they are destroyed or when exiting one volume and entering another
Fix monk FD sit animation stuck bug
Fix for NPCs struggling to attack you if you circle strafe them!


Additions and Improvements:

New bard cast system
Fully integrated languages when talking between players
Fully integrated languages when talking to NPCs
Made NPCs use a primary language when communicating
Upgrades to the build pipeline and CI/CD pipeline in preparation for letting people in
Implemented PatchKit
Handled null messages which were crashing client
Graphics optimization for higher FPS
New click volume system for better selection
New tab targeting system
Death Shroud System
Now loading closest entity models first
Made rain size smaller
Autogrant abilities with skills
Ability Books are now physical things and must be equipped to memorize spells
Support for wide zone lines
Disabled character select race button if there are no allowed classes for that race
Now Automatically selects a race/class when character select screen loads


Editor & Design Support:


Design Tool: Zone panel autoincrement IDs (optional)
Design Tool: Zone panel fixes
Added Quest commands
%die:1%
%spawn:<spawnGroupHID>%
%spawn:<spawnGroupHID>:<x>:<y>:<z>:<facing>%
Quest response %aggro:true% and %aggro:false%
No despawn flag for conditional spawns
Added database Animation "mining" which corresponds to Client Animation Trigger Parameter "TS.Mining"
Added %level:<Minimum Level>% and %maxlevel:<Maximum Level>% quest prompts that limit level of quest
Changed MUD object prompts to be "any" instead of "all"
Merged MUD actions with quest system and add tons of features to both
Changed faction spawn command
Npc Flag No Experience
Ability Effect "npc" (Create Npc) now has (relative to caster)
Ability Effect "tgr" Trigger
Fix quest handins where multiple of the same item are required. Add ability to tag quests to only respond once. Add %returnitems:true%
Increased AbilityListHID to 64
Added helper utility for loading/unloading multiple scenes within the Editor
Added helper utility for enabling/disabling multiple gameobjects within a parent gameobject
New MnMedit (data editor) - Can now use MnM Edit with Live DB/Server
New MnMedit (data editor) - Query Items from DB
New MnMedit (data editor) - DB Logs search and filtering
New MnMedit (data editor) - Server log search


Art Support:


Rearranged item model data and prefabs
Implemented loading shoulders
Implemented hair in 3 sections, allowing gear to hide hair at a granular level
Fixed for Unity Skinned Mesh bounds misalignment issue
Fixed female human ears
Fixed loading root attachments where bone counts do not match
Asymmetrical shoulders support
Revamp zone loading, unloading, ZoneList, and subscene loader
Worked with Urkenstaff to set up looping mining animation and rudimentary combat idle animation
Refactored Entity Animations into their own class for organization
Setup deadzones to ignore velocity impulses from recurring entity snapping to gameworld floor
Fix characters frozen "gliding"


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/fcb78750-f002-47ca-b0ad-fb44a7f2bac1/Photoshop_A0J5wbbmPp.png?format=1500w

In Closing

Thanks for checking out the update, and for your continued support and participation in our Discord (https://discord.com/invite/jvdKKc3CqW), livestreams, and VODs (https://www.youtube.com/c/MonstersMemories). We appreciate all of the comments and discussion.

Simon and Aimee are both now listed on the Team page (https://monstersandmemories.com/team). Go check it out! They’ve hit the ground running, and we’re happy to have them onboard.

Congrats to Keith, for Mandrake Farms (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3YA7dendNHo7XeKNgh6PkQ) hitting 500 subscribers on YouTube. It was a passion project of his from prior to joining the team. It features condensed MnM videos centered on a specific topic or topics we cover during a livesteam.

That’s it for November!

Take care and we’ll see you soon!

[Encroaching Death]

This game will be better (and will actually come out) than Pantheon.

I think M&M is correctly focusing on their target demographic while Pantheon is watering down their product by trying to please everyone.

[Tongpow]

just started watching these vods but looks rad

wouldpaymonthlysub/10

[Ennewi]

Character Art & Concepts

Human animation (and animation system) iteration
Crocodile Animations started




Tell us a lizardman race is in the works without telling us a lizardman race is in the works. In all seriousness though, that unofficial one from stream was pretty great. The extra spikes could be left as optional, dependent on the zone/region it's found in or based on whether it's male/female.

[Zukan]

Tell us a lizardman race is in the works without telling us a lizardman race is in the works. In all seriousness though, that unofficial one from stream was pretty great. The extra spikes could be left as optional, dependent on the zone/region it's found in or based on whether it's male/female.

They'll be in, but probably not when we release. I hear lizardmen are a popular first update idea.


Also, we put shadowmen in yesterday. :D

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/847846851478945806/1050157707287592960/lrxUk0gEn1.gif

[Zukan]

When you turn into a skeleton some of your gear stays with you. We may get more gear to show too later on. NPC skeletons also will be able to have some snazy items. So you'll know when that named spawns if he has that hat right away or not.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/921362436345446410/1051419621586124820/tVvrl6VeH1.gif

[magnetaress]

When you turn into a skeleton some of your gear stays with you. We may get more gear to show too later on. NPC skeletons also will be able to have some snazy items. So you'll know when that named spawns if he has that hat right away or not.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/921362436345446410/1051419621586124820/tVvrl6VeH1.gif

That skele animation is priceless :D !

[Ennewi]

Also, we put shadowmen in yesterday. :D

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/847846851478945806/1050157707287592960/lrxUk0gEn1.gif

Ha, this really opens up some creative ways to mess with players. A room of shadows with a rotating light source at the center, a disco ball, beacon, or something, would be trippy. Shadow nameplates disappearing at night or whenever they stepped into shaded areas too maybe. Would need to have a torch lit or fire-based spell/pet in use to give away their position. Or even a brief flash of lightning, suddenly revealing a train of shadows otw to the zoneline. Cool idea regardless what all else is done with it though. Hopefully they will have more classes available to them than the EQ versions.

[Danth]

When you turn into a skeleton some of your gear stays with you. We may get more gear to show too later on. NPC skeletons also will be able to have some snazy items. So you'll know when that named spawns if he has that hat right away or not.

That's a pretty nice model of a type XV sword that skeleton is carrying. Whoever made that model either knows medieval arms, has good references, or both.

[Lifebar]

When you turn into a skeleton some of your gear stays with you. We may get more gear to show too later on. NPC skeletons also will be able to have some snazy items. So you'll know when that named spawns if he has that hat right away or not.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/921362436345446410/1051419621586124820/tVvrl6VeH1.gif

Take my money.

[Zukan]

The cool attachment system that we use for helmets and shoulders can also be utilized in sticking spell effects to specific parts of players/mob. So now when you mez something, even the beetles, they get little mez effects over their head. Same with a charmed mob, they have a different effect spinning around their brain indicating they are mind controlled. :)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/921362436345446410/1058104859452260482/x4jujd1bss.gif

[Encroaching Death]

Man, I can't wait to play this game

Any idea when an open Beta will happen?

[Zukan]

Man, I can't wait to play this game

Any idea when an open Beta will happen?

Our goal is still to have a broad group come in for open testing Q1 2023. I don't have any more specific details on that yet however. I'd say we're on track for that though. :)

[Encroaching Death]

Our goal is still to have a broad group come in for open testing Q1 2023. I don't have any more specific details on that yet however. I'd say we're on track for that though. :)

Nice! No rush - take all the time you need. Excited tho

[Tongpow]

https://images2.imgbox.com/06/15/40Z3EYBZ_o.gif

[Maelfyn]

Our goal is still to have a broad group come in for open testing Q1 2023. I don't have any more specific details on that yet however. I'd say we're on track for that though. :)

Already? Isn't it still pretty early? Is there a public roadmap?

[Reiwa]

Can u add weasels? (https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast150.htm)

The weasel is a dirty animal that must not be eaten. It conceives at the mouth and gives birth through the ear (though some say it is the other way around). If the birth takes place through the right ear, the offspring will be male; if it is through the left ear, a female will be born. There are two types of weasel; one lives in the woods and the other in houses. Weasels chase mice and snakes. The cleverness of weasels is shown by the way they move their young from place to place. They are also skilled in medicine and can revive their young if they are killed.

The weasel is the enemy of the basilisk and is the only animal that can kill one.

Allegory/Moral

Weasels signify people who willing hear the seed of the divine word, but then do nothing with what they have heard.

[Encroaching Death]

Can u add weasels? (https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast150.htm)

I don't think they want to put you in the game.

https://media.tenor.com/PZdXbuSRIbUAAAAd/ohhhh.gif

[Zukan]

Already? Isn't it still pretty early? Is there a public roadmap?

Its never too early to play test and make sure things work. Heres the public roadmap, althought not the best organization: https://trello.com/b/wjN4owwf/monsters-and-memories-roadmap

Can u add weasels? (https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast150.htm)

If the need arises but I wouldn't say they are top priority for us at the moment.

[BigChief]

How about some Woodchucks? you know Groundhogs.

[Zukan]

It's that time again, I have the December update, and as always I recommend you check it on the site here (https://monstersandmemories.com/updates/update-27-ending-the-year-strong) because there more images and videoes than I will be posting here. :)

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1672595479892-Y09VBEP29QD2U47VWHUJ/MnMCovers5_sm.png?format=2500w

Hi all!

Despite the holidays, the team carried on as usual and produced plenty of new stuff for us to show off in this month’s update.

They also prepped things for the launch of our Friends & Family (F&F) playtest, which is currently underway.

A big part of having F&F is for us to get a feel for whether or not we’re ready to attempt larger, open playtests with our community. So far, things are looking really good.

The goal with of our initial public playtests will be to get a feel for how our game operates under the stress of higher concurrent user counts. It’ll be an interesting test of our foundational tech, and help set the focus for our next steps this year.

Plus, it’ll just be fun.

Keep in mind that we’re doing all of this extremely early in our process. We’d rather catch problems early in development, get feedback, and integrate that knowledge as we go.

This approach of being open with our development, integrating feedback early, and iterating constantly has served us well so far.

And on that note, here’s what we’ve been up to:

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1673031012539-EZROG3TN5GXEXMVKD8AB/image+%285%29.png

Character Art & Concepts

Created Willowisp model and materials
Created Ghost / Specter shader
Implemented first pass of the Ghoul model
Shadowmen added
Handful of armor attachment slots added
Skeleton attachments added
Continued iteration on Human skin and armor texture style/fidelity
Tons of spell effects work


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1673026105004-5JSFUXKS4NGV7KQ8TGN5/427ssRiPv3.gif

Environment Art

Started New Block out the Sagesyde District.
Wizards Tower
Spellbinders Spire
Library
Start Enchanter Class Area in Library
Housing area
Moved Gate into Highpoint Terrace
Set up Teleportation Navigation in Sagesyde
Started cleaning up Night Harbor's northern walls and fortifications
Did a quick light pass to class starting areas in Night Harbor
Created a shader for glowing runes / symbols in the environment
Night Harbor Western Newbie Yard
Broke up the wall around newbie yard
Added materials to various gray box geo
Various geo, material, and nav mesh fixes across multiple zones
Night Harbor Docks district work continued


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1673027206100-3B4Y65M4KB8VSUD130FK/Safesyde4.PNG

Animation

First pass on Ashira animations
First pass on Elemental rig and some animations
Second pass on Human male combat animations
Overhaul of several animation systems
Bunch of small fixes with animation controllers


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1673027896095-PUUISQGT4RE4AWI4JLMT/nat6wcicrR.gif?format=2500w

Game Design/QA
Prep for Friends & Family playtests
The first of our weekly Test Server updates, which includes:

Items

Several item costs have been adjusted
Various Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane Named Item Drops have received some balance adjustments
Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane Named Drops are now either common, uncommon, and/or rare drops
Added multiple new unique drops for various named in Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane
Added Stone resource from Mining
Added Sharpening Stone Blacksmithing recipe
Added Bronze Chain and Bronze Plate Blacksmithing recipes
Added ability to Scrap Rusty Bronze Chain and Rusty Bronze Plate using Blacksmithing
Added Hammer and Chisel item
Throwing Dagger stats and class requirements adjusted
Bag costs increased
Lantern cost increased
Rusty Bronze Plate and Rusty Bronze Plate armor now drop
Rusty Bronze Weapons now drop
Rusty Bronze Plate and Rusty Bronze Chain armor can now be upgraded to Tarnished Bronze Plate and Tarnished Bronze Chain with Blacksmithing
Rusty Weapons and Rusty Bronze Weapons can now be upgraded to Tarnished Weapons and Tarnished Bronze Weapons with Blacksmithing
Removed Rusty Chain, Tarnished Chain, Rusty Plate, and Tarnished Plate armor sets from the game
Spellbook is equippable only to Belt Bag Slots currently
Added several pattern items


Merchants

You can now buy additional spellbooks from Spell Vendors
Bag Vendors will not buy as many things
Tailoring and Leatherworking patterns added
Added Tailoring Kit and Seam Ripper to a few additional NPCs
Several recipes now require a Pattern item component
Removed several sets of armor from being sold
Additional merchants added to the Black Feather Bazaar area


Mobs and Encounters

Various Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane encounters have received some balance and AI adjustments
Added missing Ability Sets to certain mobs in Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane
Adjusted the level ranges of mobs in certain areas in Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane
Minor Shaded Dunes mob volume adjustments
Night Harbor population work continued, include minor fixes and additions


Quests

Added to and updated various Quest content
Added placeholder guild note turn ins to Spell Merchants for Elementalist, Enchanter, and Wizard. Go get your robe!
First Shaman and Beastmaster quests added
Fixed various quest issues with the first Druid quest
Beastmaster quest #1 is now available for testing
MUD Action changes have fixed the first Inquisitor

Spell & Ability Updates
Too many to list here.

Note: the second weekly update is going out as I type this. Things are moving along quickly.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1673026067936-D9E3IS83ZDCK356MFZ2X/426727Fwpt.gif

Sound/Music
[LIST]
Support for day/night sounds with RTCP
Palm trees now have separate day and night ambient sound sources (birds, crickets, etc.)
Level Up, Level Down, and Quest Complete sounds are now properly classified as "SFX" and work as Stingers, reducing music volume drastically when triggered
Optimization: All music and ambience tracks are now Streaming directly from disk
Adjusted Music Volume Slider default setting
Added sound to Torch_02 prefab (torches in the tunnel leading to Wyrmsbane)
Mining/Pickaxe sounds
Crocodile Jaw Clap, Growl, and Step sounds
Fixed an issue with double audio playing in Login Screen, caused by accidentally having two listeners in the scene
Shaded Dunes pyramids now have pulsating ambience sounds
Added Open & Close sounds to portcullis, doors, and gates
Spell sounds polished
Fixed an issue where audio would stop when game window is unfocused
Fixed an issue where audio would stop when zoning
Jackal step and barking sounds
Snake movement sounds
Rain and Thunder sounds
Ocean sound is now positional audio
Added ambience audio layers in Night Harbor and Shaded Dunes
Water stream sounds added
Death sound stinger added


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1673027180601-BG14GATK64W02YHV1BC3/night_harbor_01.png

Tech
Tech built a new launcher from scratch and then focused on support for F&F.

This included:

New Features

Hotbars and Macros Initial Implementation
Loading screen Lore!
Implemented “/target” command (alias “/tar”)
Launcher v4 Released
Implement “/reload” “/rewind” “/unstuck”


Main Menu - Character Selection / Creation

Overhaul of main menu code
Display character with equipment at Character Selection
Tab input focus/cycling
Validation prompt component
Rotate character model
Disable race selections if there are no available class selections
logging into a server, then backing out then logging into another server does not work
Fix issue trying to navigate back to login screen when using launcher
Fix issue camping and trying to load server list does not work
Fix skin tones not working
Remember the current feature selections when clicking Randomize button
Select the previously logged in character at character select screen
Pressing enter at delete character prompt will enter world instead of deleting
remember server/character selection
Various bug fixes when displaying character doll


Bug Fixes

Fixed models being invisible sometimes
Fixed pathfinding getting stuck
Spellbooks when dropped do not forget all their spells
Party bugs fixed (invalid party state, lost invites, and exp to party members getting lost)
Party UI now shows class
Will no longer say level 0 when targeting other players
Trade bugs causing dupes
Hair fix for humans
Trying to scribe a spell in an incorrect spellbook now correctly shows an error
All NPCs now have attack animations again
Spell effects now emit from both hands
Fixed skill training costs
Fix ground item decay causing errors
Prevent duplicate models from loading in Character Selection
Fixed a series of bugs causing infinite load screens
Texture seam cleanups on player races
Fixed some nametags not being culled when too far away
Sometimes interrupting spells does not work
There are some places where NPCs can get stuck and the unstuck code doesn’t detect it
MUD Actions with item requirements fixed to allow for held items


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1673027907990-YO53NYU3WDFTBVP2ADVY/pLGByheLeL.gif

In Closing
Thanks again for being here! We hope you had a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Io Saturnalia, Bestest Festivus, or whatever else you’re into — and Happy New Year!

2023 is looking to be a really exciting year for us, so stick around.

Join the mailing list (https://mailchi.mp/nicheworldscult/mailinglist) if you haven’t already. We’ll try to make it worthwhile in the coming months.

[Encroaching Death]

LOOKING AWESOME

[Jobaber]

Wow very cool!!!

[Tongpow]

I don't think they want to put you in the game.

https://media.tenor.com/PZdXbuSRIbUAAAAd/ohhhh.gif
is that a tao from shards of dalaya meme? i need to apologize to that dude for nerfing my ranger someday lawl

[Zukan]

Here's a snip from one of aLovingRobot's recent streams where he works on the bard noodie quest as well as talks a bit about MQ's in MnM.

OTFbIvRx2sw

[foxchris509]

Excited to see how this turns out. Looks great.

[Zukan]

Rolling right into another update, the January update just dropped, and as always I recommend you check it on the site here (https://monstersandmemories.com/updates/update-28-the-year-begins-with-friends) because there more images and videoes than I will be posting here. :)

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1675610884992-LT1K4MF7JLNYV5CXZ95A/Photoshop_fS0YvQXywN.png?format=1000w

Hi all!

We’ve rolled into 2023 with the same steady pace we’ve had throughout 2022. One big difference is that we’ve been able to do it with our friends and family in tow.

As we mentioned last month, we had a goal of getting people from outside of the team onto our new Test Server, so that we could work out any obvious tech challenges while starting to gather feedback on the game.

That goal was accomplished, and we’ve been operating in a hybrid New Development & Live Operations mode ever since.

This means that while we’re continuing to create new features and content, we’re also addressing the bugs and feedback that have been rolling in via our /bug tool and the Discord channels we’ve provided our testers.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1675611456044-LZPWDZJ5VCZCMVSPGIP3/Capture11.PNG?format=2500w

Why are we testing so early?
The bug fixes we make now, priorities we identify from real players, and the feedback we gather all make our foundation stronger and should save us time in the long run. Waiting to gather this info later or at the end of the development cycle makes no sense to us.

Also, since we’re making a MMORPG, our thought is that the sooner we build and test the tools needed to support a live service, the better. And this approach will help us build our live ops “chops” well in advance to going live.

We’ve received a couple hundred bug reports and pieces of feedback, and the team has been steadily chipping away at them.

The changes are too many to list here in text.

If you’re interested in seeing what’s been going on behind the scenes, we’ve provided a peak into that work in the images below:

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1675605612221-72FAH14HSH1BPROUN8L8/operations.png?format=2500w

Character Art & Concepts

Iteration on Player Character texture style, technical approach, and pipelines
- We’ll show some of this here, but expect another big iteration to be shown off next update

Iteration on the Human player mesh
Various NPC and class related concepts
Class illustrations for future website revisions and Player’s Manual
VFX iteration
Bug fixes in support of playtesting


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1675610786726-071FDNB379H02NWP5IZL/Photoshop_Q40sAjx2NW.png?format=500whttps://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1675610797044-CFV7MGXDYJJQ2SPZBUVG/Photoshop_mLIWBhQWUp.png?format=750w

Environment Art & Concepts

Night Harbor

Finished gray box of Sagesyde Library interior.
Finished gray box of Sagesyde Wizard tower.
85-90% completed on Spellbinders Spire block out.
Started cleaning up navigation from the Main gates to Sagesyde.
- Redirected street flow
- Temp signage
Gray boxed new PoI to draw players attention towards Sagesyde and The Necropolis districts
Building out of interiors for the Harbor District


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1675611429536-8P6MG48P9QR8QA1P0WEB/Capture3.PNG

Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane

Blocked out new rooms in the Ossuary Antechamber area.
Finished underdeveloped room in the central area of tomb.
Full lighting, quality and optimization pass of the zone's tomb section. (Cave section not started.)
Modeled unique torches for Wyrmsbane.
- Animation for pulling torch created.
Spike trap prefab and animations created.
Various Nav mesh and geo fixes to prevent pathing and navigation exploits found during friends and family testing sessions.
Created stone decal of the current Wyrmsbane symbol.
Created a banner material for the current Wyrmsbane symbol.
Various Nav, Geo, Lighting fixes across various zones.


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1675611452543-O62FNCUZKNI5CNJWYUUK/Capture10.PNG?format=2500w

UI Art
Ability Icons and Backgrounds concepted and created

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/7ea7f7ea-277b-43d0-bb3f-1aa3147220ac/Icons.png?format=2500w

Game Design / QA / Animation / Sound / Tech

Too many changes to list here.
Scroll through the Patch Notes in the first section of this update.
If we continue at this rate, we’ll work on finding a better format for this in the future.


MnM Category Added to Twitch
Monsters & Memories now has its own Category on Twitch. Be sure to give us a follow here via THIS LINK (https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Monsters%20%26%20Memories).
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/c2e86468-e5fe-4804-9729-7038f69bf0c7/mnmcovertwitch.png?format=1500w

In Closing
As always, thanks again for being here!

And a special thanks for all of the Friends & Family that have been putting in some serious hours playing the game, giving us feedback, and writing up bug reports.

It’s been huge for us!

For everyone else, be sure to join the mailing list (https://mailchi.mp/nicheworldscult/mailinglist) if you haven’t already. We’ll make better use of it in 2023.

We’ll see you in the next update.

[pink grapefruit]

this is so interesting. how fleshed out will the lore be? will there be a deity system, and pvp?

[Zukan]

this is so interesting. how fleshed out will the lore be? will there be a deity system, and pvp?

There is a lot of lore, but we've purposfully been tight lipped on it so people can explore that for themselves when they get in game. :) There will be a deity system that will be more involved than just picking which god you follow at character creation; its more like factions. You can build faction with the god you want to follow, and even switch gods.

While we're not making a PvP centric game that doesn't mean there may not be PvP in some cases. Probably in the form of duels, area zones, and if there is enough interested to create a PvP ruleset server that is on the table as well.

[Ennewi]

Loading screen lore: Neat feature. Always enjoyed reading back when it existed on p99, even if most were silly and more or less Snapple facts.
Females capes added: The one article of clothing absent from fashionquest.
New level down jingle: Death knell, yes please!
Command /random for ph4t l00tz: Still haven't seen any roll 32k out of 32k. Love the anomalies where there's a tie or when a roll off takes place and it's zeroes.

Only able to skim through rn, but those are the initial ones that stuck out beyond the more substantial fixes. Cool update! Loving the progress.

[Ardok]

ngl I'm pretty excited for a new MMO that tickles my holy trinity.

[Zukan]

ngl I'm pretty excited for a new MMO that tickles my holy trinity.

Tank, DPS, Heals? We have CC roles as well. Monk/SK/Necro Feign Death spliting, Enchanter/Bard/Inquisitor Mez, Enchanter/Cleric/Paladin Lull.

I like to think of it more like a Holy Quaternity. :D

[Zukan]

Got the Wererat model setup with his little idle animation in-game on stream last night. I think he looks pretty neat. But still more texture work needed to polish up!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/921362436345446410/1077822679064789002/re5Re3C5QJ6oH.gif

[Zukan]

Feburary update just dropped! I recommend you check it on the site here (https://monstersandmemories.com/updates/update-29-feedback-and-preparations) because there more images and videoes than I will be posting here.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1678029729274-DSTHCFI0TIQC18BPFN2W/MnMCovers8_sm.png?format=1000w

Hi all!

The big theme from last month involved our focus on the Friends & Family testing that we kicked off at the end of the year. Read more about that in last month’s update. (https://monstersandmemories.com/updates)

The testing has continued and we’ve stayed busy reacting to the feedback. While that’s been going on, we’ve also been steadily working on the assets, pipeline, and other changes needed for our Proof of Concept.

Our current goal is to get the game to a state that we’re comfortable showing during the Public Stress Test.

This test will be a very early in development look at the game, in which our focus will be technical stability.

It’s risky, because it’ll give everyone a firsthand view of the game as it is now, and not everyone will be able to frame their expectations accordingly - but the hope is that we’ll get technical information that’ll save us development time in the long run.

Our target for that is the end of March, but we’ll update everyone via the livestreams and Discord (https://discord.com/invite/jvdKKc3CqW), should we need to push it until later.

Fingers crossed, and maybe we’ll see you in game before the next update.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1678026487659-ZQQOB8XYCRWCYOICKFXX/fighterplate.jpg?format=2500w

Character Art & Concepts

Added a new artist to the team (more on that below)
Reorganized the player system, human male model, UV layout, and textures
Developed two Armor Prototypes for the new system
Modeled and implemented the Wererat
Small update to Horse model/texture
Mob & NPC Concepts
Weapon Concepts


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1678026638483-CCBP84ZNWHFK6IOD1T5P/Photoshop_lyvhFZNwyx.png?format=2500w

Environment Art & Concepts

Continued developing the Sagesyde district
Continued building out interior spaces along the waterfront
Roughed out ideas for the Northern Newbieyard
Boundary Pass for Night Harbor and Shaded Dunes (seen below in fuchsia )
Water Volume fixes in Night Harbor and Shaded Dunes
Created ladder prefabs, and replaced many of the old ladders in Night Harbor
Created a new Concept for the Goblins’ Heap


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1678027641672-D93O8GD63TAJIAFB0BQF/Capture15.PNG

Game Design
Content

The Lost Traveler in Shaded Dunes is on hiatus for now. He (and maybe others) will return later
The Frottage portion of Elrind’s quest now accepts “/rub carvings” as well
Typo fixed in Guard Jeskal’s dialogue
Jacobin’s quest text regarding necklaces at each stage should be clearer
Fixed exp exploit in Spellblade quest
Fixed some pathing errors linked to revisions to the city layout
Chompers feedback loop fixed. Chompers is now unique
Quartermaster now mentions the bounty quest if asked
Diseased Blood drop rates increased (for now)
Quest requiring Snake Poison and Venom Glands, now all take Venom Glands
Many existing starter notes updated for clarity
Buckmarr's list has been updated for clarity
a Wandering Ghoul's spawn rate has been adjusted
Multhele Root has been modified in several ways
Inquisitor quest instructions should be clearer
Old Rankle now mentions the bounty quest if asked
New secret cooking recipes
New cookbook added, dropped from particular enemy npcs


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/e3d44365-422e-4b36-8fd8-a0ac8044614b/Photoshop_V5jnAmlb5M.jpg?format=1500w

Itemization

Bucklers are no longer considered “small” items
Ornate Cultist Lamp shines a little bit brighter
Giant Fire Beetle Eyes can now be equipped appropriately
Blessed and Giant Fire Beetle Eyes now emit light as intended
Spell and Trade Skill (and a few other) Vendors should now buy back the items they sell
Aashir’s Journal’s description has been updated to reduce confusion regarding slots
Adjusted weight for Chain and Plate armor equipment
Fixed class requirements on certain Chain armor sets
Adjusted weight of all Robe items


Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane
Several named can no longer have certain status effects such as Mez, Charm, etc. applied to them

Sungreet Strand
Added some placeholder base mob population

Vale of Zintar
Adjusted and added to placeholder base mob population

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1678026488000-W99S9ZQXBHX89T9YSVR0/nighthavenguard.jpg

Abilities Changes
General Abilities

Most 40 Meter Range Abilities have been reduced to 30 Meters
Archer retains 40 Meter Abilities
All 20 Meter Range Abilities have been reduced to 15 Meters
NPC Shoot now has a cast time and cooldown of 2 seconds each
Flameburst damage reduced from 5 (L1) to 7 (L4) to 4 (L1) to 7 (L4)
Noxious Deluge damage reduced from 3 (L1) to 7 (L4) to 3 (L1) to 6 (L4)
New Abilities: Conjure Food and Conjure Drink
(Back) Stab, Round Kick, and Targeted Shot max damage variance reduced from 450%/400%/400% to 400%/350%/350%
Mind Surge can no longer be casted on yourself and now has cast messages


Archer

New Ability: Deadeye (Level 2)

Bard

Redesigned. More work on this to come.

Siren's Call now properly charms (hotfixed)

Songs now work while sitting

Druid

Moonflame damage reduced from 4 (L1) to 7(L4) to 3 (L1) to 6 (L4)

Elementalist

Pet abilities Elemental Fire and Bolt of Water damage changed from 225/175 Damage (L60) to 125 (L60)

Fire and Water Pets do 50% less physical damage and are now Wizard class

Earth Pets do 25% less physical damage

Air Pets are now Monks

Enchanter

New Ability: Runeskin (Level 12)

Necromancer

Blood Pact is now beneficial and self casted only

Shaman

Malady now correctly does 3 Damage Per Tick, up from 2

Consume now only works on yourself

Healing Spores line now has a 30 Meter Range, up from 20 Meters

Spellblade

Can now use Shoot (Archery)


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1678027600379-20T8SY3DS6HFXRM07XJ7/Capture5.PNG

Tech

NPCs no longer attempt to cast buffs on friendlies if the target already has a more powerful buff
Fix for charmed pet not re-aggroing former master after charm fades
Fixed issue where current target became bugged if you had a charmed pet targeted when charm faded
Gnomes have returned to character creation menu
Bard song target now maintains the target even if you change targets. The song will continue to be sung against the initial target at the time the song was started.
Bard songs now end if the song can not affect the target (song target dies, goes out of range, etc)
Fixed an issue where bard song target rules were being applied on songs that didn't require a target
Fixed an issue where bard song skill-ups could happen even if the song didn't affect the target (out of range, etc)
Now when opening the ability book UI, if the character has a spell book equipped it will default to it (rather than innate abilities)
Fix for looting item from NPC corpse showing "your" corpse
Removed some GM command from being displayed in normal player help message
GMs can now summon players from any zone
Chat messages for activity (abilities, hits, misses, etc) by NPCs and other players can now be filtered separately, so you can have them in different chat windows
Fixed an issue where you could single pull mobs with abilities that missed
Fixed an issue where if a player died while disconnected and re-connected fast enough, they would be stuck forever as a corpse
Added support for NPCs to be defined as having mez or stun immunity
Player name plate size and color has been adjusted
Fixed sound for procs and instant cast abilities
Fixed pet not defending player when the player is hit by a NPC's harmful ability
Pets will now assist the player on player's melee/ranged auto attacks
Receiving items when trading with a player can no longer overflow to your cursor. So you must have enough inventory space now.
Various fixes around our new database transactions with player trades
Bugfix: spell haste not working properly
Display lore blurbs with any random background during loading screen
Prevent players from logging into the same world with multiple game clients
Logging into the game world will now not instantly kick out other characters of the same account, preventing instant escape exploit
Attachments added to the dressing room functionality
Generate DB string for dressing room functionality, better doll loading logic
Bugfix: playing chest close sound effects at the incorrect times
Bugfix: Allow players to connect to another server when a server goes down without having to restart the game client


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1678026914362-JOBM8DKNLATC35LCUO5R/Photoshop_pt2aV3KEhT.png

In Closing
As mentioned above, this month we also welcomed Patrick (vgfx) to the team. We’ll get a bio added for him on the Team page (https://monstersandmemories.com/team), but for now:

Patrick is a senior character artist within the games industry, who has also worked on MMOs in the past. He brings close to 20 years of experience with him, and has been following the project for quite a while now. We’re excited to have him on board!

~~~

So, to wrap things up - we’ll continue to be focused on driving towards a public playtest this month. You can follow that progress via our new Twitch category (https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Monsters%20%26%20Memories) and the VODs we post on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKp7Os1smchzDc0R16evBdA).

Join the Discord and Mailing List (https://mailchi.mp/nicheworldscult/mailinglist) if you haven’t already. And we’ll get word out on the upcoming playtest as soon as we know more.

~~~

Thanks again for reading this far and for being a part of the community!

[mrgoochio]

When can we play :D

[Treefall]

I was watching a lot of the streams and Youtube videos until the second baby arrived.

Can't wait for this.

Old school MMO in a smooth engine is long over due.

LanternEQ may compete for my attention a bit if they ever get that finished up, but I plan to throw my money at Monsters and Memories.

Hoping to have the whole family subbed and working through content!

[Swish]

bump, loving how this is going.

[Topgunben]

bump, loving how this is going.

Sadly its probably the only game I look forward to.

[Trexller]

Sadly its probably the only game I look forward to.

same here

maybe we should give them a big pile of money

[Zukan]

Hey guys here's some of the take aways from the internal friends and family stress tests we did over the weekend, as we prepare for the public alpha which will hopefully be a lot more people. :D Theres a bunch of techno-bable that goes over my head but the short of it is our tests were really successful! Things held up, and the stuff that had some issues we've got solutions or already have resolved.

Hey all! Over the weekend we held two Stress Tests with our Friends and Family tester community. Ali wrote up a very nice breakdown in our Slack. There was no overly sensitive information, so I thought it'd be fun to share it with you all! Enjoy. (Apologies for the incoming wall of text crit!)
[8:37 AM]
Hey y'all! So some interesting issues, observations and metrics from our load tests.

We got around 80 clients both days.

I will break down these issues into their own threads below.

On the first day these issues were noticed:
1. The immediately noticeable micro stutter that happens approx every 20 seconds. The timing made sense as we have an expensive Core.Models.ClientModel.Save() happening on that timer as well.

2. When massive AoE hits clients, it causes the whole server to stop while it processes what happened.

3. Players that are far away and are supposed to exit your sphere of influence sometimes hung around indefinitely.

On the second day these issues were noticed:
1. There was visible latency on positional updates when a lot of players were close around you, but this improved as you moved away. This was consistent with my mass bot tests last year and we have logic that needs to be fine tuned to counter act this.

2. Someone had made a corpse art piece at the entrance. It was great! Showed us that corpses add unreasonable load.

3. The errors: 7B2EE78E and 6D24DB45 were observed.

General Issues unrelated to Network Test:
1. The model fail errors were noticeable (nameplate visible but invisible model). These may be solved with the new texture and attachment systems but will have to be tested when FnF is updated to latest master.

2. Group member UI bugs. When you zone or die the entire group UI becomes unusable.

Observations:
- As expected, NPCs add a lot more load on the server than Clients. There was virtually no increase in load between <10 players and >70 players.

- The network library held up really well! I always had a nagging fear that with more clients we would see packet queue issues. However, there were none that I could see.

- That said, we need better network profiling tools!

- There is a lot of optimization required in client saves and positional updates especially when we have a lot of users in one area.

Metrics:
- Night harbor (our heaviest zone BY FAR) runs at 2.4% memory required (~400MB), over 41 threads, and uses up CPU load 75% (out of 800% max) @ approx 3GHz (per core, 8 cores on the server). This is at full load with multiple dragons. When there wasn't much going on it was hovering at around 55%. The main driver of this load is navigation and the very large navmesh that NH has.

- Save stuttering was noticed when we got to over 40 clients.

- Positional update stuttering is noticed when more than 40 clients and tons of corpses were at the gate, and you are within 100m of the gate.

Overall:
It was a great success! I think for our first load test, this was amazing and we got a lot of good metrics and I think I have a clear plan for us to solve the above.

Considering nothing crashed, nothing ran out of memory, the zone did not break in any way, and all the issues we found are things fixed with minor optimizations, we are in a really good place. I look forward to fixing them and then testing with hundreds in the same zone!

Microstutters:
I have already solved this. I have converted the save algorithm to a scheduled queue, where we queue the saves on a timer then handle saving over multiple frames and use transactions as much as possible.

Further optimizations: All client saves should be done via queue, even for things that require immediate save, unless we specifically say we need this INSTANTLY (such as trades or taking a port).

We need to have live database performance profiling that we can pull from a running server (maybe by enabling it with a gm command, then extracting the results and also disabling it).
[8:37 AM]
AoE:
We need to look into this one more. There are two things at play here:

1. The client stutters anyways when a lot of VFX is spawned at the same time. We can likely queue these and spawn them over 4-10 frames without it being noticeable at all to the user.

2. I think when the damage, deaths, and buffs are applied, they all immediately save, causing an 80 client mass save in one go destroying our database pipe lol.

Players not exiting SOI:
We need to audit the code that defines this. Maybe there's a logic issue there.

Positional update delays when when many entities (and especially when many clients) exist within a SOI:

This is in effect not too difficult to solve, but explaining it will be tough because it also relies on knowledge of both our SOI system and other techniques that we can move to.

The way SOI works right now for us is that we check all entities against all other entities to see if we need to enter or exit them from any SOI. The logic goes:

for entity a of entities:
for entity b of entities:

var shouldBeInSOI = b.shouldBeInSOIof(a)

if (not in SOI and shouldBeInSOI) then run entryCallbacks
if (inSOI and not shouldBeInSOI) then run exitCallbacks

Then separately we run:

var positionUpdates
for client a of clients:
for entity b of a.sphereofinfluence:
positionUpdates.Append(b.position)
a.send(positionUpdates)

This has a couple of pain points:
1. Building packets is relatively expensive.
2. This type of packet accounts for over 90% of all our traffic.
3. It is exponentially growing load with more clients within each other's SOI.
4. Each client must build its own positionUpdates.

Possible solution:
Client's SOI has many variables (such as being a pet of client, or a party member, or in combat) but a big portion of what defines SOI is distance. This can be substituted for a graph distance. Especially useful would be an octtree, but I see that it may be simpler and ultimately easier to implement a regular 3D grid.

So instead of checking if an entity is X meters away from another entity, we check if the GRIDPOSITION is within X GRIDDISTANCE from another entity.

What this ultimately allows us to do during building packets is to build a positional update PER GRIDPOSITION and then append the relevant ones by directly serializing them like we are doing currently for positionUpdates (skipping the garbage collection), and then finally appending any additional required out of distance SOI entities.

This would be much, much faster in my estimation by orders of magnitude, since we don't need to do positional reads per entity squared.

We may also find that its more suitable to send this all in two packets, one that is faster using only grid position, and another that is slower for in SOI but out of grid distance.

Removal of existing optimizations:
We currently have an optimization where if we exceed a certain number of clients within SOI, we start throttling update packets. This is I believe the main thing being observed with the slower interpolations and especially when clients are jumping around.

Other factors:
Implementing parabolic trajectory code and using that for jumping will smooth out the noticed clipping into the ground when clients are jumping around in high latency or throttled position update situations.

We should also let the client know and allow the client to adjust its expectation of the frequency of updates for smoother interpolation. Currently, client is still interpolating using its original assumptions which can cause jerkiness.

[Zukan]

Details on Public Test released this morning, here is aLovingRobot's post from our Discord (https://discord.com/invite/jvdKKc3CqW)

Hi Everyone!

There have been a lot of questions about our first Open/Public Stress Test.

We originally targeted the end of this month (March 2023), but have decided to change that based on details that will be explained below.

The following plan is now firm:

Public Stress Test
April 28-29th (Fri & Sat)

This will consist of two 4-hour sessions (one each day), with the possibility for them to run longer than 4-hours if conditions allow.

The focus of these two sessions is Technical Stability at Scale.

This includes everything from download and installation, through in-game/network/server performance.

Data derived from this test will enable future tests that focus on gameplay in general or other specific facets of the game.

This stress test allows us to gauge where we're at in development and plan for future sessions.


The reasons for the change in timing are as follows:

A recent Friends & Family Stress Test provided us with data on optimizations and bugs that needed to be fixed.

Plus, this places the test right after the end of Ramadan.

The new date gives us the next 3 weeks to wrap up the work on these issues, and then 2 weeks of time dedicated purely to testing and prepping the test build.

As a side benefit, it also gives us more time to get in the new character art and address a number of other art and gameplay issues/additions, that while not the focus of this test, will make your first impression that much better.

We'll update the information provided here in the coming days to include specific times and any details we might have left out.

We're currently evaluating the best window of time for our North American folks, since you/they make up the vast majority of our community and team.

We're looking forward to seeing you on the Friday, April 28th and Saturday, April 29th.

Thanks!

[Zukan]

608 people rsvp'd so far. :eek:

[mrgoochio]

Awesome news

[magnetaress]

Still looking forward to this! Thx for the updates!

[Zukan]

March update just dropped! I recommend you check it on the site here (https://monstersandmemories.com/updates/update-30-stress-test-info-and-marchs-progress) because there more images and videoes than I will be posting here and this month has a bunch of cool character stuff so check it out.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1680279118547-VQ5BW3HSNI10LKK7XX90/MnMCovers9.png?format=2500w

Hi all!

We said last month that we were hoping to have a Public Stress Test by the end of March.

After running through the feedback and issues from a recent Friends & Family Stress Test, we’ve decided to push the public test until the end of April (28-29th).

We’ve posted more information about this in our Discord, so we hope you take the time to swing by and read the rest of the details.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/066391e9-cf41-47b2-8457-05cedef3cf6d/PST_webpng.png?format=1000w

Again, check our Discord for more info on the upcoming stress test.

As I type this, over 800 people have expressed their interest in trying to smash our servers that weekend, so… well… it may end up being chaotic, but it’ll be a fun milestone either way.

And until then, here’s some data we’ve pulled from our Friends & Family Testing.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/33cde854-23de-4933-8260-b77d0c137cf3/FnFStatsInfographic.png?format=1500w

And so… while the upcoming Stress Test has been a big focus for design and tech, we’ve also got plenty of other work done, and a ton of new art to look at. Enjoy!

Character Art & Concepts
This month we completely rebuilt the character texture loading system. Ali revamped the tech and the art team prepared new human male model and textures, and also transitioned a bunch of old textures to the new system.

Also:

We can tint everything with color gradients now!
New faces, facial hair, and armor sets added
Hair and facial hair still a work in progress
Updated textures to match the new UV layout
Created a new shader for the fire elementals
Reworked Ghost shader to work with both the new lerped gradient texture system, and diffuse textures
Human Male nipples added (Happy Birthday, Shawn!)
Saber Model added
Dragon Shield added
Backpacks can now change colors
Pouches can now change colors


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/763debde-2956-4e43-aca3-36c32fabbf11/TatteredClothBreakdown.jpg?format=1500w

A note from Goblin regarding the Concepts Above:

“I wanted to include this to give context to our new armor system and how it affects concept art.

Each gear slot has a maximum of 3 different colors we can apply to the piece of gear. It's enjoyable for me to problem solve what 3 colors gets allocated to what gear slot, but it also pushes some nice repetition, and complexity to the designs.

Take for example the torso slot. It overlaps the shirt slot, so we essentially have 6 possible overlapping colors on that one area. This only gets more complex when mentioning shoulders and capes, which can share the shawl space.

Zukan and Patrick (vgfx) were incredibly prolific in their desire to simplify the system we had - and this revealed a manageable complexity to our armor system, while also offering more novelty in the designs.”

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/8fa9c0fe-815c-4c61-a477-1fc58c025b79/4236nw4nmage.png?format=1500w

Audio & Animation

Ocean sounds tweaked
Floating Dome sounds added
Shaded Dunes music and sound effect setup
Merchants now have music
Crocodile movement sound fixed
Rat and Ashira footsteps quietened
Added new human animations
Idle animations for Ghoul, Wererat and Ogre


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/e879bf45-4e1f-470d-b28e-6179fdf35612/skeletons.png?format=1500w

Environment Art & Concepts
Night Harbor

Northern Newbie Yard revamp gray boxed complete
Sage Side continued updates
Night Harbor Nav Mesh Optimization
Various geo fixes / adjustments across the zone
Rough lights added through Night Harbor to help with night time navigation
Fishing Volumes Added
Exterior block-out of Mirthful Djinn (Inn)
First pass on the "Elemonkalist" Guildhall and adjacent cavern
Collaborated on first pass of Yuum & Gyffre statues with Goblin
Completed interiors for the majority of Twilight Harbor buildings
Modelled props based on concept art for the Elementalist Guildhall

Wyrmsbane

Fixed invalid vert issue causing black screens in the antechamber wing
Fixed light triggers in Elite tomb area
Fixed an issue causing max shadow count to be reached in certain rooms, causing shadow flickering


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/e73b0fc8-369b-4aa5-bb7c-3f1a2768b28f/elementalist_monk.png?format=1500w


Game Design
Content

Northern Newbieyard has been updated
Rogue starter quests have been added
Completed initial quest writeups for the rest of the class guilds
Began implementation of the remaining first stage newbie quests
Various Night Harbor population adjustments
New Zone MUD interactions
Began deity lore expansion

Itemization

Tattered Cloth Robes can now be broken into scrap
Tattered Cloth Robes can now be upgraded to Patched
Patched Cloth Robes should work properly now
Fine Cloth items that wouldn’t sell should now sell to Cloth merchants
Cheikho in the hunter camp now returns home after combat
Paladin Merchant no longer sells dispel and abolish magic
Bronze Bar added
Copper Bar trivializes at 25 Smelting
Rusty Bronze renamed Corroded Bronze

Mob Abilities

Snake Kick is no longer also an Interrupt

General Abilities

Skeleton Pet damage reduced by 25%
Added Conflagrate, Flames of Eth, Fires of Eth
Added Life Duct, Life Flume, and Exsanguinate
Various Abilities now have higher mana costs and cast times

Archer

Auto Fire now shares a cooldown with Auto Attack
Targeted Shot is now Instant Cast

Beastmaster

Rat Pet melee damage reduced by 25%

Druid

Added Flames of Eth-ehm, Fires of Eth-ehm, Embers of Eth-ehm

Elementalist

Fire and Water Pets now have 40% less HP
Air Pets now have 10% less HP

Rogue

Swift Strikes can no longer miss and is now self targeted

Shaman

Fixed an issue with several Shaman Slow spells that were not properly applying their debuff


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1680514021774-HBAODEV290HGSCKJ0MSS/2yvppvq3kc_360.gif?format=750w

Tech

Completely new Character Controller
Completely new model loading process
Ranged weapons now have models and are visible when you use ranged attacks
New faces for Human Male integrated
Positional update and Sphere of Influence fixes to support more players in close proximity
Added command /chatfontsize which configures the chat font size
Fix for using /place <object> with an item in the cursor
Follow-up fix for cross-zone GM summons, actually fixed this time
Corpse model loading is now rate limited, to prioritize other loading entities first when there are many corpses around
Support for teleport volume sound
Improved group pet frame UI functionality. Added support for multiple pet frames, and auto-layout
Code architecture improvements
Fixed some issues with party invite / rejection logic and UI
Fixed some issues with party frames when members are in different zones
Added resizable chat window functionality
Added better support for user settings with dropdown UIs
Added right-click option to reset a single UI element
Fixed an issue with the chat window in large resolutions

Fixes

Bards can skillup their music skills again
Pet AI won’t error out if its master is missing
Fix targeting issue on charm dropping
Fix charm pet aggro on charm fade
NPC AI awareness of buff overwrites, will not attempt to cast a buff that will not stick
Zoning in while pet is already summoned no longer breaks UI
Can no longer bug mobs on corners
Party fixes
Fix party frames for players in other zones not showing player name
Corpses should no longer clog up the model loading pipeline
Teleport sound triggering adjustments

Changes

Skill gain rates adjusted
Tradeskill success chance rates adjusted
Trivial combines will let you know they are trivial
Add a cooldown between melee auto attacks and ranged auto attacks
More advanced pet bars, auto arranging group UI with pet bars, UI support for multiple pets
Add ability name to cast bar
Client saving optimizations
Music states for better audio immersion


https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1680273807638-MNNZR29CCIB39ZWAOFXJ/Capture4.PNG?format=1000w

In Closing
Last but not least:

We’ve had the pleasure of adding another member to the team again this month!

Brandon (“First” in Discord/game) will be supporting us on the design side of the house. First’s contributions during Friends & Family testing and subsequent discussions we had on topics like worldbuilding, lore, and design in general, made it a no brainer to ask if he’d be interested in working with us.

We’ll get a bio up for him on the Team page (https://monstersandmemories.com/team) soon.

~~~

Obviously, we’re going to be very focused on preparing for the stress test at the end of the month.

You can follow that progress via our new Twitch category (https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Monsters%20%26%20Memories) and the VODs we post on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKp7Os1smchzDc0R16evBdA).

Join the Discord (https://discord.gg/jvdKKc3CqW) and Mailing List (https://mailchi.mp/nicheworldscult/mailinglist) if you haven’t already.

~~~

A massive thanks for being a part of the community!

[Topgunben]

Damnit these guys are doing a great job. Can’t wait to play.

[Zukan]

Damnit these guys are doing a great job. Can’t wait to play.

Looking forward to having you running around getting murdered by Ashira warriors. :D

[Topgunben]

Looking forward to having you running around getting murdered by Ashira warriors. :D

Seeing that statistic made me want to stay the hell away from those. Whatever they are.

[Zukan]

They are similar to EQ gnolls in appearance, but there is more to them then meets the eye. We will have traditional Gnolls as well though!

[Zukan]

Our sound guy Robert just posted a new track or two:

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JOARNfuECeI

[Zukan]

Claws! :D

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/921362436345446410/1096487173743710250/A93cmXwIVc.gif?width=955&height=1404

[Zukan]

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[Zukan]

https://www.project1999.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=21795&stc=1&d=1683221491

Here's a small data set from the results of the public stress test. It was a really great test. Overwhelming positive feedback from everyone. Thanks to those who showed up! It was pretty laggy at the start but things progressively smoothed out as time went on.

[Zukan]

hmm whoops I goofed up the attachment on the last post I guess. hopefully this works

[Zukan]

Been a bit since any activity in here. But we've still been hard at work on the game! Here's some work I did last night on weapns, asigning different colors to them so they look either rusty or fine steel depending on the item.

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[Zukan]

Latest update just dropped for those interested. It's a double month update (April & May) so there is a ton of stuff. Loads of screenshots and tech infro-graphics

https://monstersandmemories.com/updates/update-32-april-amp-may-2023

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/603cb2299959d83fcdc26265/1685973750571-8IMY0TSZI2LZ479UTMDM/MnMCovers11sm.png?format=2500w

[Seducio]

Haven't researched this one yet. Letting it cook into something a bit more meaty before I take a hard look. Does anyone know if the dev is planning a subscription model or one time purchase model for this title?

[Zukan]

Haven't researched this one yet. Letting it cook into something a bit more meaty before I take a hard look. Does anyone know if the dev is planning a subscription model or one time purchase model for this title?

sub with no box price was where it was last time it came up.

[Zukan]

On July 4th we did a short surprise playtest for everyone who was keen enough to catch the messages on stream and in discord. :) Here is some footage I recorded while playing a ranger on the new hardcore play mode we added.

MrCS021eeME

[Tormac]

A friend got an early access account to M&M, and I want to give the devs a big thumbs up for the work they have been doing. He was trying to do a corps recovery run with a bunch of low-level characters and let me run his character while doing it.

This game has managed to capture the atmosphere and excitement of running an old school dungeon. Not being able to see in the dark by itself is a stressing thing that modern games have forgotten. It was really tense peering through the shadows cast by our torches in this long dark corridor, with glowing eyed skeletons hiding around corners. It felt dangerous to be in the dungeon.

M&M devs have captured the ambiance and atmosphere of old mmos, or even old school paper and pencil games.

I think I have become a little jaded waiting on promised games that were either never made, or worse yet, that seem to be coming in coughs and fits, and feel like money grabs (yes, I regret buying a freelancer that maybe my grandchildren will be able to fly in a full game, and I am glad I resisted the hype of EQ next). M&M may make me a believer again in the promise of modern game that captures the feel of old school intensity.

Bravo to the devs! You guys are doing great work!

[Zukan]

Thanks for the kudos Tormac! We are trying to make something worth while. Maybe it works out, maybe it doesn't, but we're going to try. And you guys get to watch the progress with every update and stream!

Speaking of updates, our latest one just dropped, read the full thing HERE (https://monstersandmemories.com/updates/update-34-july-2023) But here's some bullets:

Playable Halflings added
Playable Goblins added
Progress on the next big dungeon continues
Character Material System reworked
Hardcore mode and Self Found mode support

[Homesteaded]

PQ into MnM!

[Zukan]

Project Quarm might impact MnM production a bit when it comes out heh. :P Still working away though.

[Vormotus]

Ahhhh , I hop into the discord every few moons to check progress, but waiting patiently for this, want so much to start fresh in a world that reminds me of eq yet is not eq.

Also, not many mmos these days make Necros "right" , this one seems to be getting it.

[Seducio]

Looking forward to checking this out upon release.

[Ennewi]

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So gd good

[Zukan]

Ahhhh , I hop into the discord every few moons to check progress, but waiting patiently for this, want so much to start fresh in a world that reminds me of eq yet is not eq.

Also, not many mmos these days make Necros "right" , this one seems to be getting it.

MnM Necro is pretty cool so far it's basically the EQ necro, but I think that's just the foundation. Probably will add some cool stuff in there as well.

[Zukan]

The music for the new zone just dropped! :D

WYv2SvDrC_s

[Zukan]

Hey all! We just did a website revamp over at https://monstersandmemories.com/

There is more lore bits and info on classes and races. If anyone is interested check it out. Feel free to hit me with questions here too or on our discord. I'm happy to answer questions. :)

[Seducio]

Impressed on how this keeps building out to be something worth checking out.

Thanks for the update Zukan. Will def be following the release of this one.

[drackgon]

I am greatlylooking forward to this. Keep up the amazing work!

[Zukan]

Next public playtest was announced in our r/MMORPG spotlight post! Keep an eye out for a more specific date in December

https://new.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comments/17jzlql/monsters_memories_an_indie_take_on_classic_mmo/

[Homesteaded]

Zukan, how can you promise this isn't Pantheon 2.0?

[drackgon]

Pantheon was dead in water Nov 18, 2019. Sorry yall just now realizing this, it was just another coke head dream. It screamed EQ next cancel vibes even before Nov 18th,2019. And low and behold.

[Zukan]

Zukan, how can you promise this isn't Pantheon 2.0?

Promises are just promises until they're backed up by something. I feel like we have been very open and transparent with folks and we've so far been able to follow through with doing what we say we will do. But I welcome you to join us for one of the two upcoming playtests and check it out for yourself.


Saturday, November 11th, 2023 at 1:00 PM EST
December (day/time TBD)

[Zukan]

Just as a bit of a correction:

The November 11th test is a smaller stress test. The December test is more of a longer play test. Just to set expectations. :D Both are open to everyone though. All classes are available (in varying degrees of completeness) and available races include Human, Ogre, Gnome, Halfling, Goblin, and Dwarf.

[Tormac]

Thanks for the heads up Zukan.

I had a lot of fun playing M&M for the little bit that I had a chance to.

Looking forward to more!

[Homesteaded]

For those stress tests, do I just need to sign up for the updates? No need to opt in or create an account?

[Zukan]

For those stress tests, do I just need to sign up for the updates? No need to opt in or create an account?

You don't need to do any sort of opt in or anything in order to gain access. All you need to do is create an account so you can login. You can create your account now here https://account.monstersandmemories.com/

You may or may not be able to download the client now also. I think some folks were having some issues there. But either way we'll probably push some updates before the day so everyone will need to at least update anyway.

[Ennewi]

Just as a bit of a correction:

The November 11th test is a smaller stress test. The December test is more of a longer play test. Just to set expectations. :D Both are open to everyone though. All classes are available (in varying degrees of completeness) and available races include Human, Ogre, Gnome, Halfling, Goblin, and Dwarf.

Bump

[magnetaress]

Nov11 is a good date. Nice numerology there.

[Zukan]

Stress test is happening in about an hour from the time posting this. :)

[Homesteaded]

For how long ?

[Topgunben]

Someone message me when this game is ready to play.

[magnetaress]

Been watching the stress test vid from 11/11 and reading the class descriptions and race lore and getting those oxytocin hits in :)

I don't care how good ur game is ya'll deserve the world for being cool cats and workin hard to make something fun and new and familiar at the same time. I'm sure it will be great though. Here's to hoping I can arse myself into the next stress test so u guys can get more players hitting up your servers!

[Zukan]

Been watching the stress test vid from 11/11 and reading the class descriptions and race lore and getting those oxytocin hits in :)

I don't care how good ur game is ya'll deserve the world for being cool cats and workin hard to make something fun and new and familiar at the same time. I'm sure it will be great though. Here's to hoping I can arse myself into the next stress test so u guys can get more players hitting up your servers!

Thanks! I hope you're able to make it out to the December test. I know we had a bunch of issues with the launcher downloading slower. Hopefully that's something we can iron out, but if not we will post a download link to the patch files so you can just manually update the files.


But speaking of the last test, a bunch of folks make some fun videos in addtion to the dev stream. ChinnyD and the Nathan NAPALM had some pretty fun videoes.

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