Monsters & Memories - An Old School Indie MMO

[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

[Zukan]

Originally Posted by Mblake1981 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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. 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

[Zukan]

Originally Posted by Mblake1981 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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

[Kaveh]

Originally Posted by Mblake1981 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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

[Mblake1981]

Originally Posted by Kaveh [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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.

[Mblake1981]

https://twitter.com/cuppy/status/1401978326130958360
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[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."