Minions of Mirth ramblings

[crpgnut]

I've been dabbling with the demo of MoM for a few days now. I started with a ranger but the ranger is extremely wimpy compared to a Paladin and has no option to heal himself outside of resting. This makes the ranger unfeasible in a single character, Single Player campaign. It takes too long to heal naturally and you waste a LOT of time just standing around. After a few days with the ranger, I switched to a Paladin. The Paladin hits much harder and starts with better equipment.

I've played the first 8 levels with several characters. It only takes about an hour to reach level 8, once you know the proper sequence of quests. The problem is that the game really doesn't have a level 8-11 area. You're forced to sit in a few areas and wait for creature spawning. This is really boring to the SPer. I think that MP players are used to this monotonous "tactic". Loot is random and is hugely responsible for how powerful you are. I have one Paladin that has found good treasure and another that has had crappy luck. The former is WAY more powerful than the latter.

The game isn't great but it's not bad either. The combat is fast paced and there's a lot of territory to explore. There needs to be some random loot generated and hidden in the terrain. This would give a reason to explore areas. I think this would be doable but I haven't seen any evidence of it existing yet in the game. It'd be nice to have certain rocks, trees and mounds of dirt turn green when you mouse over them. You click on the green and a container pops open with loot inside.

The game is in need of writers. I'd love to see some of the Morrowind modders tinker with it. Josh has done a great job with the engine and just needs some inspired helpers to take a solid game and make it shine. It really doesn't meet the needs of SP people yet but I think that it could easily be made more SP friendly.

The journal and documentation need a lot of work. There is an encyclopedia but it doesn't give much detailed information. This is just a matter of moving everything you learn from different sources into one location. Right now, you need a good memory or a notepad when it comes to some of the quests.

 

[yipsl]

The game isn't great but it's not bad either. The combat is fast paced and there's a lot of territory to explore. There needs to be some random loot generated and hidden in the terrain. This would give a reason to explore areas. I think this would be doable but I haven't seen any evidence of it existing yet in the game. It'd be nice to have certain rocks, trees and mounds of dirt turn green when you mouse over them. You click on the green and a container pops open with loot inside.

The game is in need of writers. I'd love to see some of the Morrowind modders tinker with it. Josh has done a great job with the engine and just needs some inspired helpers to take a solid game and make it shine. It really doesn't meet the needs of SP people yet but I think that it could easily be made more SP friendly.

I played it for a few hours and will go back to it over the weekend. My problem is that I couldn't figure out how to heal my characters in combat and my Ranger died while the cleric, mage and thief didn't seem to be doing much. The next time I play, I'll see if I can get my Ranger resurrected, if not I'll start over.

My major complaint is that it has one character animation for the whole party and I'd prefer a Might and Magic style setup where you don't see your characters on animated in the game world, but listed on a bottom screen. That's always been better for party based games, IMHO.

It certainly has the old school mob of monsters all attacking at once, the skeletons had good death animations, but I wasn't sure if I was hitting the skeletons or the giant rat.

Graphics wise, it's classic, but there's no collision box for the monsters, your character merges into them quite easily. The bears kept respawning and I didn't know if I'd completed that dwarf's quest since I just kept getting the same message "Albert has asked this question the permitted number of times" or something like that.

I'll buy it and take a look at the source code, but I'm a lousy programmer. Redwoodtreesprite asked if there was an editor, but I said, no just source code and she's never taken a programming class. It would be nice if shareware programs like this had editors. That way, more modders could work with it.

I'd rate it a 7 out of 10. It's one of the better shareware games I've tried this past year and the one I'll likely buy.

 

[JRitter]

My major complaint is that it has one character animation for the whole party and I'd prefer a Might and Magic style setup where you don't see your characters on animated in the game world, but listed on a bottom screen. That's always been better for party based games, IMHO.

You can go first person with the comma key or by using the mouse wheel.

I do want to simplify the healing process. Check out this thread for some healing tips. You can also target another character by right clicking on their portrait or shift F1-F6.

If you play one character, the game auto-targets you for heals. Also, there are party and (multiplayer) alliance versions of healing spells.

-Josh Ritter
Prairie Games, Inc

 

[yipsl]

My major complaint is that it has one character animation for the whole party and I'd prefer a Might and Magic style setup where you don't see your characters on animated in the game world, but listed on a bottom screen. That's always been better for party based games, IMHO.

You can go first person with the comma key or by using the mouse wheel.

I do want to simplify the healing process. Check out this thread for some healing tips. You can also target another character by right clicking on their portrait or shift F1-F6.

If you play one character, the game auto-targets you for heals. Also, there are party and (multiplayer) alliance versions of healing spells.

-Josh Ritter
Prairie Games, Inc

Thanks, I was going to go to your site this weekend to read up on tips, controls and game mechanics. Do monsters have collision boxes in the full version, or is that something you're working on right now?

I'll definitely get the game in January because I want to support the shareware community. My wife mods for Morrowind, but she doesn't code beyond some simple scripting and I work with mainframes, is there any chance of an editor like the Elder Scrolls CS that will import models and meshes?

 

[LlamaGod]

Most good MMORPGs have ditched the 'sit around and wait for respawns' crap.

 

[Rune_74]

Good constructive Crit

Hmm lama...there is always ways to improve things.

Alot of us are working on adding things to the game, dungeons, quests and classes etc.

This game can be great with alot of people adding to it, not to mention really burn SOE and EA

Alot of us are willing to answer questions and listen to suggestions, also constructive crit is much better then just crit.

Rune

 

[JRitter]

Monsters have collision boxes, that's why you can select them when you click on them. There isn't collision between monsters and players by choice. I find it annoying to be blocked or bumped around by monsters.

Btw, we just upgraded our PrairieWorld online server to a Dual Xeon 3.2 ghz on a 100m/sec uplink tonight. It's quite sweet.

-=Josh Ritter=-
Prairie Games, Inc

 

[yipsl]

Monsters have collision boxes, that's why you can select them when you click on them. There isn't collision between monsters and players by choice. I find it annoying to be blocked or bumped around by monsters.

Btw, we just upgraded our PrairieWorld online server to a Dual Xeon 3.2 ghz on a 100m/sec uplink tonight. It's quite sweet.

-=Josh Ritter=-
Prairie Games, Inc

Okay, I just found it odd when my halfling character got lost in the midst of a black bear.

 

[HardCode]

I find it annoying to be blocked or bumped around by monsters.

Couldn't you make it so Strength detemines who pushes who around in combat? That would be neat. You wouldn't get blocked by lower strength monsters, but higher strength ones would push YOU around.

 

[Psilon]

In Soviet Russia, monsters push YOU!

 

[Micmu]

I find it annoying to be blocked or bumped around by monsters.

In some cases you should be blocked by monsters (i.e. narrow corridor, passage they are protecting, etc.) and they should be able to surround you and not let you escape. Just my 2 cents.