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

[Mblake1981]

https://twitter.com/cuppy/status/1401978326130958360
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[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."

[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

[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

Dungeon RPG Magazine Covers

Dragon RPG Magazine Covers

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