[Role Playing Game] Monster Master RPG II: The 13th Gate

[Deathly_God]

It might just be me, but more than anything I'm super excited for the new monsters, and the stat growth system. Although, I hope there is a system that can tell you the average, or min/max stat growths of a certain type of monster, so you can tell if the monster is to your tastes stat-wise, versus if you just got an unlucky roll on it and it ended up getting horrible stat growths but could actually be amazing.

Also the large-scale end-game's idea is great in terms of keeping someone like myself, who likes to be a perfectionist's attention. I hope though that for the end-game breeding, that there are items to hold a monsters stat growths where they are, or a select number of them for the breeding, since it would be frustrating if you had say, 2/3 of the stat growths be ideal, but the 1/3 were just horrible and you bred it with another good stat-growth monster, and you ended up getting only 1/2 of the stats being above average/perfect. With 100 levels, the minor changes in stat growth (I'm not sure how much Seth was planning on making it vary monster to monster) could build into something semi-significant.

I know Seth was planning on stat-growth-held items for monsters, would that simply alter the base-stat growth, or add an extra supplement (i.e. boost it to max-stat growth, or if you were already at the max, would it boost it by a flat rate, like +.2 agility per level).

 

[hopop201]

It might just be me, but more than anything I'm super excited for the new monsters, and the stat growth system. Although, I hope there is a system that can tell you the average, or min/max stat growths of a certain type of monster, so you can tell if the monster is to your tastes stat-wise, versus if you just got an unlucky roll on it and it ended up getting horrible stat growths but could actually be amazing.

Also the large-scale end-game's idea is great in terms of keeping someone like myself, who likes to be a perfectionist's attention. I hope though that for the end-game breeding, that there are items to hold a monsters stat growths where they are, or a select number of them for the breeding, since it would be frustrating if you had say, 2/3 of the stat growths be ideal, but the 1/3 were just horrible and you bred it with another good stat-growth monster, and you ended up getting only 1/2 of the stats being above average/perfect. With 100 levels, the minor changes in stat growth (I'm not sure how much Seth was planning on making it vary monster to monster) could build into something semi-significant.

I know Seth was planning on stat-growth-held items for monsters, would that simply alter the base-stat growth, or add an extra supplement (i.e. boost it to max-stat growth, or if you were already at the max, would it boost it by a flat rate, like +.2 agility per level).

well Deathly_God I think Seth has already covered most of it. I am pretty sure that the stat-growth items were just gonna be flat-rate add x points to stat y per lvl. I am also pretty sure that each monster will have a base stat growth like in MMRPG1.

But, I have an interesting idea for stat growth for bred monsters. I think that the stat growth of parent monsters should increase the stat growth of the offspring monster.

Here is an example:
Monster A stat growth per level is +3 for stat a, +5 for stat b, +2 for stat c.
Monster B stat growth per level is +4 for stat a, +4 for stat b, +2 for stat c.
Monster C stat growth per level is +3 for stat a, +2 for stat b, +5 for stat c.
Monster A and Monster B breed to produce Monster C.
The stat growth for this bred Monster C is +4.5 for stat a, +4 for stat b, and +6 for stat c.
While a normal caught Monster C has weak growth for stat b, this bred Monster C has average growth for stat b, and also gets a small boost to the other stats growth.

Now stat growth "passed down" would not be based off the current stat growth of the parent monsters, but the base stat growth for the parent monsters. If it worked like the first method you would pretty easily get monsters with really overpowered stat growth. That is my input on this topic, and hopefully we see alpha release by this time next week (end of the month).

 

[sethmachine]

Monster Master RPG II Alpha v1.0 TONIGHT

Hi everyone,

Many thanks for all your patience and continued support, especially when both my Windows machines went out of commission and I was only able to do minimal work on the project for a few weeks.

That milestone has been passed, and I am very happy to announce that the Alpha version will be released tonight. I know everyone has been hyped for it, and also finally getting hands on with the current state of the project. I am also anxious for feedback as well. That being said, here are some details about how the Alpha version will be released.

Where: Join me on battle.net on channel Shadow in the USEast gateway (Azeroth).

When: 10:00 PM East Coast time I will make a post/thread update about an hour or so before. Should expect me in channel Shadow no later than 10:00 PM East Coast time.

What: Monster Master RPG II Alpha v1.0, of course ^^

Who: Everyone, including me! The game allows for up to 10 players, which means there will be nine open slots for the very first game/test.

After making sure there are no serious game breaking errors, and everything works as expected, I will then upload Monster Master RPG II Alpha v1.0 to makemehost.com and also this thread, so that anyone can try/test it out.

Once you've played around in the alpha a bit, please send me feedback/comments/questions/criticism. Post on the thread, send me a PM, email me ([email protected]), or even chat with me on battle.net (sethmachine@USEast).

If things go well enough, I will work on continuing to develop the project and attempt to release a new Alpha version every week or so. With each new version release, the map will have bugs fixed, added features, terrain improvements, and eventually approach a Beta version.

Now to address everyone's questions/posts ^^
*************************************************

since each monster can be either male or female, for breeding purposes will there be an easily accessible item to make sure they turn out one way or another?

I do not think there will be any sex/gender changing items. Instead there will be an Egg Evaluator, who will be able to change the gender of a Monster Egg before hatching it, for a premium of course.

If you need to change the gender of a monster, you will have to breed it, make sure the offspring is the same species, and then use the Egg Evaluator to make sure it's the appropriate gender.

Monster Master RPG 0.59s (the original version) has been taken down

Many thanks for letting me know this! I uploaded it to makemehost.com, it is under the name of "MM-RPG-v0.59s.w3x."

a system that can tell you the average, or min/max stat growths of a certain type of monster, so you can tell if the monster is to your tastes stat-wise, versus if you just got an unlucky roll on it and it ended up getting horrible stat growths but could actually be amazing.

For knowing species specific average stat growths, there will be a Monster Librarian who will give you information on the average growths for each stat if you have recruited/bred that Monster species.

Some monster species might have very stable growths, others might have more erratic ones (higher risk = higher reward).

But, from the information from the library, you can sort of deduce the individual stats (IVs, like Pokemon), which are unique to every Monster. The librarian will be put in at some point when it becomes relevant to knowing stat growths and such for team building. At some point perhaps there will also be a manual on the hive detailing each monster's stat growths as well.

stat-growth-held items for monsters

These will simply augment the stat growth for a certain stat each time the monster levels up. It will be a very small amount, but it can prove to be significant after many levels. You could think of it like EV training in Pokemon--it allows your Monster to sort of help strengthen a weak stat, or make a strong stat even more overwhelming.

the stat growth of parent monsters should increase the stat growth of the offspring monster.

This is a good idea, and it's crossed my mind before. The problem is that it would sort of potentially make any monster species have really good stat growth. That kills diversity of monster species in a way.

Right now what can be improved via breeding would be the IVs, which will in some way be inheritable from the parents. Special breeding items might be used to allow the player to select which IV to inherit for which stat, etc.

This is a good discussion that will be helpful when the breeding system is implemented, though it is a bit far off at the moment.

 

[hopop201]

Nooooooo, i have to spend the weekend with the family and may not even be able to play tonight. Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!
Guess I'll just hang out on channel Shadow on Azeroth and hope somebody shows up.

 

[sethmachine]

The alpha will be released on makemehost.com and also available on the thread.

Enjoy the weekend with your family, the alpha is not going anywhere.

 

[hopop201]

The alpha will be released on makemehost.com and also available on the thread.

Enjoy the weekend with your family, the alpha is not going anywhere.

I know, I just am pissed I will miss the first public testing. But I will hopefully be hosting a game every day next week at about 2pm PST. Have fun tonight guys

 

[sethmachine]

Hi everyone,

I will host the alpha at around 10:00 PM tonight (U.S. East Coast time).

Where: Join me on battle.net on channel Shadow in the USEast gateway (Azeroth).

When: 10:00PM East Coast Time. I will make a post/thread update about an hour or so before. Should expect me in channel Shadow no later than 10:00 PM East Coast time.

What: Monster Master RPG II Alpha v1.0, of course ^^

Who: Everyone, including me! The game allows for up to 10 players, which means there will be nine open slots for the very first game/test.

 

[PachaXD]

Hi everyone,

I will host the alpha at around 10:00 PM tonight (U.S. East Coast time).

Where: Join me on battle.net on channel Shadow in the USEast gateway (Azeroth).

When: 10:00PM East Coast Time. I will make a post/thread update about an hour or so before. Should expect me in channel Shadow no later than 10:00 PM East Coast time.

What: Monster Master RPG II Alpha v1.0, of course ^^

Who: Everyone, including me! The game allows for up to 10 players, which means there will be nine open slots for the very first game/test.

waiting here! lol

 

[L0n31y43v3r]

Could u use hostbot to host the game? I and my brother want to try this, but only have 1 CD-key.

 

[Noxx-]

I don't see anyone in Shadow other than Pacha. I am on USeast, where is everyone?
edit: i was just too early.

 

[hopop201]

I don't see anyone in Shadow other than Pacha. I am on USeast, where is everyone?

I had to leave. The family fun was beginning. You guys have fun. I will be able to join you starting Monday afternoon

 

[sethmachine]

The map is available on makemehost.com now, under the name "MonsterMasterRpg2.w3x"

I am also currently hosting it on makemehost.com and will be throughout the night.

gamename at the moment: Monster Master RPG 2 ALPHA!

As long as you have a b.net account you can join from any gateway.

Cheers!

 

[Iguanasaur]

Been playing it a bit and so far some stuff I've seen includes.

Leather Armor (+1) tooltip is wrong. The tooltip says it gives 5 armor and 1 health, when that is reversed, 5 health and 1 armor.

A big bug I saw was the vulture's Attack (Q) damage is way off. My vulture with an attack of 2-2 was doing 109 damage with his Q when the formula is (5 +.75 * attack power). So he should be doing about 11.5 damage or 11-12 damage with it. Dune worm's damage was also off, he was doing 191 with his Q.

My slime's damage was following the proper damage calculations however.

Edit: New bug found. My dune worm died while I was out in the desert. I went back to Greatbark to try and revive him, and he would not. So I went back out and purposely let my other monsters die. I went back to Greatbark and tried to revive them. My slime and vulture both revived, but my duneworm remained dead. I decided to try the priest in the desert town. When I tried to revive my dune worm, he told me that my monster was alive and well, despite it being dead, the icon being greyed out and having no dune worm in my possession.

 

[Noxx-]

Been playing it a bit and so far some stuff I've seen includes.

Leather Armor (+1) tooltip is wrong. The tooltip says it gives 5 armor and 1 health, when that is reversed, 5 health and 1 armor.

A big bug I saw was the vulture's Attack (Q) damage is way off. My vulture with an attack of 2-2 was doing 109 damage with his Q when the formula is (5 +.75 * attack power). So he should be doing about 11.5 damage or 11-12 damage with it. Dune worm's damage was also off, he was doing 191 with his Q.

My slime's damage was following the proper damage calculations however.

Edit: New bug found. My dune worm died while I was out in the desert. I went back to Greatbark to try and revive him, and he would not. So I went back out and purposely let my other monsters die. I went back to Greatbark and tried to revive them. My slime and vulture both revived, but my duneworm remained dead. I decided to try the priest in the desert town. When I tried to revive my dune worm, he told me that my monster was alive and well, despite it being dead, the icon being greyed out and having no dune worm in my possession.

Were you looking at their attack points through the ESC stats display? It goes off of that, not the basic WC3 attack. It's a little confusing and I didn't catch it the first time around either.

The bug you found is being fixed though, it's something like if your monster dies, he still gains exp, so when he levels up while dead, he gets health and is thereby recognized as alive by the game, throwing the revive system off.

Thanks for listing the leather armor one, I noticed it but forgot to say anything to seth.

 

[Deathly_God]

So, after playing the alpha for about two hours, I think I've formed a fairly solid impression. So here goes.

Ultimately, I think it is a great alpha, of course the terrain is rough and there are some sticky glitches, but that's to be expected. What first stood out to me is the interaction system, while I might have preferred a spell-based system, the double-right-click method worked perfectly fine, and really is a matter of personal preference. The quests at the beginning, if I hadn't been told that it was there, I would have completely missed it.

Most of the quest givers were identified only by an individualized name, which I would have liked to see some character differentiation, but that's easily something for a later version (maybe a ! above the head or something).

I also liked the custom stats-per monster, which added a lot of fun variety when making your team, as currently they were pretty easy to spot (generally had +1 to their stats above other monsters, or things like that). It kinda gave a fun feeling in the fact that, if you found say, the secret monster in the zone, it may still be a pretty crap monster if it's stats were all 1's and grew at a snails pace, even though it was pretty strong on its own.

Things that I'd like to see, personally, before anything else is super added into the game, is the ability for a primitive save/load system, it can be phased out later (like how Robbepop did, with his specific versions that could load either an old-code, or a new one), or just wiped out later anyways. Alternatively/Additionally, a boss or a little bit longer of the quest change would be a fun addition, but not really NEEDED for the game-play at this stage. (Also just fixing the Desert Flower quest would be nice as well.) Additionally, I'd have liked to see the zones be identified with some sort of text-marker, like "Now Entering ____, Monster levels 1-3" or something like that. Also, monsters trying to join your party with that chat window is sometimes dangerous if you're talking while killing. Maybe adding a third option (for the very top) that does nothing, so you don't accidentally accept when it's a crap monster or just some spam. Alternatively (and more ideally in my opinion) if you added them to a menu list (like when you hit esc, one of the options popping up would be 'Monster Recruitment list') and it might store the last 3 monsters that wanted to join your party. You might be able to check it's current stats and recruit one from that window, instead of spamming people like with the pop-up window. I realize recruitment rates will be dropped later, but that was just my food for thought. Additionally, you could add a game message saying like, "Dune Worm was added to your Recruitment List!" to signify it made it to the list. Also, I'd have liked to see the % increase in recruitment that Apples and Pork Chops give when trying to recruit.

I suppose as a slightly longer-term goal (as in outside of a week-span perhaps) getting a tier or two of fusions, or simply the most basic fusion system off the ground would be the next thing I'd like to see (along with maybe another zone, but both seem like they would/could take some time.)

Overall: I'd give this a two-thumbs up! Even with a few tool-tip issues (like the Harpy's feather spray saying it does 0 dmg), and a pretty big revival bug, this game definitely met my expectations for a first version, and was a LOT of fun to play! I look forward to trying out later versions as they come out!

On a side-note, I noticed a lot of monsters would spawn outside of the map, between the Mountains and the water, and sorta just pile up. Not the biggest of deals, and obviously not a permanent problem if you end up wiping your current map-terrain and size. Also the number of villagers in that little town in the desert could probably be toned down, since they ended up distracting from the quest lady, for me at least since she blended in with them.

Once again though, Great job Seth! I'll be waiting eagerly to see what you do next! And hopefully there will be more game-nights with you on a new-version's release!

 

[Dracofall]

The Esc stats display is creating a lot of confusion.....Is it is tiring to check the Esc stats again and again when u get new monsters...

Is the Esc stats display premanent ? (Please don't ....)

For Alpha testing this is pretty good.
Waiting for the release version..
+1 for Deathly God's recruitment idea

 

[Deathly_God]

Also, a few side thoughts that occurred to me this morning. I think that, for balancing sake, the base damage increase should probably be nerfed if you want to keep the health/armor/dmg reduc stats in a reasonable range. Also, I do strongly feel that your Monster Master should be given some sort of base spell damage reduction and possibly an armor boost, possibly dependent on the number of monsters you have out currently (idea courtesy of Noxx-). I also think that the hidden monster should have heavy armor or something to that effect, rather than unarmored. That way it's a little more resilient, as it's type suggests (I'm trying not to give spoilers on what it is, because I'm not sure how big of a secret Seth wanted to keep it).

Also, building on my previous post from last night, while I definitely enjoyed the version and thought it was great, the replay-ability of it is rather lacking (mostly due to the lack of a code, making it more like a one-and-done sort of style at the moment) and so I will probably be waiting for a slightly future version before I begin my mass-hosting of your game for both publicity and to get people interested in it's formation. That being said, I'll probably go back and replay it a couple of times as well to test out some other possible bugs, but this version seems more like an almost-closed alpha, to get the basics off the ground and as a sort of early-access to the game, more just showing the idea(s) of the map and it's possibilities. It's a great first version, I just don't know how well the average player would take it, considering some of the bugs this version had.

I also was wondering if tiers were even going to be implemented, or if it was going to be set up more-like Pokemon, where it simply is whatever it is.

Finally, I was wondering about the breeding system, if there would be something like, say, a Copy-Cat Slime, which would act basically like a Ditto, in that when you breed something with it, it simply acts as the opposite gender monster, and gives you back what you put in regardless. In terms of first-time players who are randomly fusing, and then say, finds a cool monster fusion tome or something for a very specific monster, and they end up having the wrong gender monster that they bred themselves, it would be a very useful sort of tool for them.

As I said before though, once the game progresses to the point where average Wc3 players would find some re-occurring reason to rejoin the map, like when they can save and there is some further content, then I will begin hosting the map regularly through Makemehost.com.

 

[hopop201]

Ugh, so much stuff about bugs and the map. I can see everybody is enjoying it. Can't wait to join in on Monday. I have been readings all the posts and seems my expectations were filled, and will confirm if they really are on Monday. Deathly_God I know that in posts from a couple of months ago or so we were talking about items. We talked about there being that would make the new offspring to be the same type of monster as the parent that held the item, to address your idea of a "Ditto" monster. Look at me, giving input before I have even played it yet, lol.

 

[sethmachine]

Updated to Alpha v1.1; changelog

Uploaded an updated version with several bug fixes and also improved Quest interface mechanics.

Changelog

Bugs fixed

-Fixed the Leather Armor tooltip. The tooltip was reversed with respect to the health and armor bonus. It should be correct now.

-Fixed semi-common revive bug where you could not revive a monster if it leveled up while "dead." The problem was monsters could still gain exp while dead. Exp system now checks if the monster is dead before adding exp. Hopefully this fixes this rather deadly bug.

-Fixed a bug with the quest "Flowers for Al-Jernan," where it was impossible to continue after collecting 3 Desert Flowers when going to talk to Isaiah, who would only keep crying. The quest is now completable. The problem was the raw code for "Desert Flower" was written in as 'f001' when it should have been 'f000.' Try it out ^^

-Fixed a bug where when refusing to accept a monster recruit, the name of the monster was not displayed in the notification. This is because the monster was deleted before its name was displayed (therefore you saw an empty name). The monster is now deleted after the notification.

Bugs not yet fixed (to be done for next update)

-There is a dialog issue with Isaiah, where her dialog becomes that of the Royal Chaplain from the Tutorial quest half away through. This is only visual and doesn't effect Quest completion, but very annoying, especially if you are curious about the actual story/plot. I will get to fix this next update.

-Some monster spawns do not start at the correct level. For example, in the area right next to the warp gate, you will always see level 1 or level 3 creeps, but NEVER level 2. If you see a level 2 monster (or note the lack of), write on the thread and let me know!

-Did not yet fix Fan of Knives tooltip.

-Some monsters may still spawn in unreachable places.

-There may be some stat gain bugs (reports of obscenely high Attack Points)

-others to be discovered

Changes

-Changed the cost of revival from a Priest from 100 gold x monster level to 25 gold x monster level.

-Increased Monster Master base hp to 125.

-Increased Slime's intelligence growth rate (on average 1 intelligence attribute per 3 levels now, before it was close to 1 intelligence every 5 or 6 levels).

-Added several new items to the Item Vault. Check them out ^^

NEW FEAUTRE!

-Added a new ability to the Monster Master called "Quest Path." When activated, it will ping the location of your active quests' goals. Very useful for completing Quests and not getting lost. Very useful for finding those Desert Flowers now ^^

Now I will do my best to respond to everyone's feedback / questions ^^

the quest givers were identified only by an individualized name, which I would have liked to see some character differentiation, but that's easily something for a later version (maybe a ! above the head or something).

All the unique NPCs (quest related or not) have unique names. However I agree they should stand out a bit more. At some point I'll do the Exclamation mark system. That should make it easy. Also, be sure to read what they say to get an idea of their "character" (especially Isaiah, she is more than what appears on the surface D.

a primitive save/load system

I will consider this at some point. it would be good practice anyway to start the prototype save/load system.

the zones be identified with some sort of text-marker, like "Now Entering ____, Monster levels 1-3

This is a good idea, and something I had also been thinking about. I am not sure about sharing information about the creep levels. But giving names to the zones yes, and notifying the player too. The problem is most of the over world is the same, so it's hard to find identifying names (e.g. Northern Desert, Western Desert, etc.).

monsters trying to join your party with that chat window is sometimes dangerous if you're talking while killing

In the future the recruitment rate will be vastly lowered..it's at 10% right now for all monster species (though there is one monster in the alpha who has a 100% recruitment chance, and it's not Slime :O).

I am not sure it's too dangerous to recruit a monster accidentally? The party holds three, and the farm holds 10(=total of 13 monsters). If you accidentally recruit a monster you don't want, you could always go back to town and release it (are you worried about not having enough space for a rare monster or something?).

In the future there will be an option to release a Monster from the farm or party if they are full but you want to recruit a monster.

if you added them to a menu list (like when you hit esc, one of the options popping up would be 'Monster Recruitment list'

This seems a bit silly It's not like you're Uncle Sam on a recruitment drive and monsters sign up hoping they get called back haha. Or at least it seems unrealistic (to me).

You might be able to check it's current stats and recruit one from that window

At some point this feature will be added too (checking the stats of a possible recruit, before deciding if you want it or not).

Monster Master should be given some sort of base spell damage reduction and possibly an armor boost, possibly dependent on the number of monsters you have out currently

The Monster Master is only a (puny) human, and is meant to be very mortal and very squishy. This is done to contrast it with the Monsters, who aren't so squishy, and hopefully break any sense of invincibility. I was frustrated myself when my hero got sniped many times by those nasty Carrion Swarms. There will be changes to make it harder for that to happen (e.g. reducing the carrion swarm base damage). But I think managing the position of your monster master is something that players should be aware of (it is more realistic).

At some point there will be items and even skills to help protect your hero.

this version seems more like an almost-closed alpha, to get the basics off the ground and as a sort of early-access to the game, more just showing the idea(s) of the map and it's possibilities. It's a great first version, I just don't know how well the average player would take it, considering some of the bugs this version had

Well this basically summarizes what an alpha is, and what it isn't. And this is certainly an alpha. This Wikipedia article summarizes it well I think.

A development status that usually means an early version of a program or application, that is most likely unstable, but is useful to show what the product will do to, usually, a selected group. Sometimes this stage is referred to as a preview version. Sometimes no more features are added after this release, but bug fixes continue. This release comes after a pre-alpha version and before a beta version. As opposed to a beta version an alpha version is usually not feature complete.

I suppose we could have called it a pre-alpha, but the point is to show the features and what the map will do and things to expect. But yes if we wanted to consider it a full game it wouldn't get very far. There wasn't a strong reason to keep it closed, and there's a bunch of in game text that clearly states it's an alpha and very far from a beta or being complete.

if tiers were even going to be implemented,

Robbepop used tiers in MMRPG I as a way to make the coding and organization easier, especially for his fusion system (which was their real function). The original DWM did not have a tier system AFAIK, and I don't like the idea of it because it instantly says this group of monsters is better than that group, which kills diversity.

However, without tiers, it makes balancing all the monsters very very hard. So that is a downside.

a Copy-Cat Slime, which would act basically like a Ditto, in that when you breed something with it, it simply acts as the opposite gender monster

It is funny you mention "Copy Cat." That is an actual monster from DWM which acts just like Ditto in Pokemon. There will definitely be such a monster, and also perhaps a breeding item as well, that basically makes the offspring the monster species of the monster which wore it.

the hidden monster should have heavy armor or something to that effect, rather than unarmored.

Which "hidden" monster ?

Well the armor types / damage types aren't set in stone. They are going to change, definitely! In fact I would really like discussion on how they should be done, or if I should just keep it at hero armor/damage for every Monster. Damage/armor type was to add a bit more diversity to the game.

That was a long post ^^.

Let me know how the updated version goes, especially with completing the second quest ("Flowers for Al-Jernan.") and the Quest Path ability.

Cheers ^^

 

[hopop201]

Wow, surprised to see that there has already been a version update. Also Seth, I like your reference to "Flowers for Algernon." It is a really great story.

 

[sethmachine]

Also Seth, I like your reference to "Flowers for Algernon." It is a really great story

Haha you are the first who I have heard mention the reference ^^

 

[Deathly_God]

I mentioned Copy-Cat Slime precisely because it was in the original DWM game! Also, in my personal experience Hero armor is a dangerous armor type to have, since it has built in Wc3 code that reduces spell damage (it does 150 spell damage? Well it actually hits for about 110 or so) or things like that. I think that the armor/attack types would be an interesting addition, but right now it's kinda an extra thing that I think should really be implemented later, since due to it things like Scorpion are ridiculously strong purely because of the armor type. I think that it would just be a future feature for added diversity (i.e. finding a tanky monster who has a good armor type). I'm not saying dont put in Hero armor, but make it a very, very hard type to find if you do. I think for general purposes until the rest of the balancing is sorted out, having everything as like, normal dmg and unarmored armor would be ideal.

I was wondering about the tiers precisely because it gives the players a little bit more of a sense of accomplishment when moving up the tiers (although on the flip side I've noticed a lot of new players focus too much on tiers, and not the monsters themselves.) If no tiers are added, maybe add a rarity scale to the monsters in their description? Things like Dune Worms and Harpies could be "Common" and the 'end-game' monsters, or the really hard to breed ones could be like "Legendary", "Extinct", or "Impossible!" rarities. Maybe something like that?

I thought that the list of the last three would he helpful from the players perspective, because what happens if you're at say, a boss, and you feed it 6 Pork Chops, and finally get it's recruitment window, and you end up being full because you accidentally hit 'enter' on a monster that you killed on your way there? I think the list would be more of an ease-of-use sort of thing. Also, if the monsters really wanted to join you, they could just be 'following' you, if you wanted to work it into the story somehow. It would make sense that a monster that admires you might follow you for a ways in hopes that you accept it into your group. That's just my take on it though

On a side note, have you talked to like, Robbepop about how he structured his save/load code for a general idea? Or do you have your own ideas? And were you still going to do the write-to-your-hard drive style of coding?

Finally, if I recall correctly, Dragon Warriors Monsters had an implied tier system, with certain monsters only moving up through this system to more complex/better stat'd monsters. Ultimately you realized the final 'tier' by hitting the ? family. Maybe this more indirect tier system would work better though, since Robbepop's was a bit overt and made everyone obsess over it over more important things, like FL's and items.

 

[hopop201]

Haha you are the first who I have heard mention the reference ^^

That is interesting. I had read it in my 8th grade English class. That is where I knew it from, and I am actually surprised I remembered the name. Probably reading the name jogged my memory.

 

[sethmachine]

Edit2: I believe the stat growth bug is fixed. Was a problem with not cleaning up old space correctly. Many thanks to Noxx- for testing the map out and helping find out what caused the bug.

Edit: I fixed the gender display bug.

 

[hopop201]

To all who have not been reading my posts, tomorrow my delightful weekend with my family ends, and I can finally get my not so grubby and not so little hands on the alpha. I will be hosting the game as often as I can so if anyone (including you sethmachine) would like someone to play the alpha with I should have a game that you could join. I have my planned hosting schedule for the next two weeks already figured out.

On weekdays I have a summer photography class and so will not be hosting in the morning then. My class ends at about 1:30 (PST) and get home between 15-20 minutes later. So at 2:00 I will jump onto the Shadow channel on Azeroth (USEast) and make a post here telling people I will be hosting soon. I will be waiting on the channel to see if anyone will show up. I will actually host the map on makemehost.com at 2:30. This should happen every weekday for the next two weeks.

When I host at other times I will first make a post here and wait for 10-20 minutes on the Shadow channel on Azeroth before actually hosting the game. I will delete the post after the post after the game has successfully started so that the thread will not be cluttered with all of my posts about hosting and so people will be confused about possibly seeing 3 almost identical posts in a row. I will leave and host a new game when I am the only one left or there are more people that want to play than there are people in the current game. You can pm me or post if you want to know when I will be hosting a new game. If I am in a game I will be checking the thread and my pms every 20 minutes or so so don't be mad if I don't reply to you within 5-10 minutes.

Well that was a lot of typing on my phone just laying here in my bed. Hope to see some of you guys tomorrow.

 

[sethmachine]

Answering some questions + information on next update ^^

I mentioned Copy-Cat Slime precisely because it was in the original DWM game!

In the original GBC games, there is no Copy-Cat Slime. Copy Cat is a Zombie--a spirit that reflects anything or anyone. Hence why breeding with it is like Pokemon's ditto, more or less. Note also that Copy Cat existed before Pokemon Breeding (DWM I came out after Pokemon Red / Blue, but before Silver / Gold). Here is the original sprite for some nostalgia ^^

finding a tanky monster who has a good armor type)

When the balancing is done, my hope is that this kind of monster won't exist. You might find a tanky monster, but is its armor type correct for the situation? That will depend on what monsters you are facing.

until the rest of the balancing is sorted out, having everything as like, normal dmg and unarmored armor would be ideal

That's been the plan, but I'm definitely going to change unarmored, because piercing demolishes it at the moment, and it just so happens almost every monster you've seen is pierce/unarmored.

And yes some monsters do have hero armor (very, very few) and some may even get Divine armor (I'm thinking it will be like "Ghost/Ethereal/Spirit" armor).

a lot of new players focus too much on tiers, and not the monsters themselves.

Aye that's the problem. It makes team building a single minded drive.

Just because Dune Worms are very common doesn't make them the Rattata or Zubat of MMRPG II. In fact if you raise a Dune Worm, it has a very high attack and agility growth, which makes it excellent for DPS. Plus it gets the rare critical strike as well. The downsides? Well it's pretty squishy and its armor/damage type isn't the best. But it does have a role, and right now it's the highest dps monster that people can access in the alpha, and it will likely stay one of the highest dps monsters in the game (counting critical strike of course). Also, Dune Worm has one of the fastest run speeds.

I say this because I want demonstrate how each monster can have a role to play, no matter how "rare" it is. Obviously harder to breed monsters will have more interesting perks or abilities (you get what you pay for so to speak), but it comes at a cost, and the difference won't be as drastic as the tiers in MMRPG I.

a boss, and you feed it 6 Pork Chops, and finally get it's recruitment window, and you end up being full because you accidentally hit 'enter' on a monster that you killed on your way there?

Aye--what I thought you were eluding to before. In the future you'll have an option to kick out a monster from the farm or party even if they are full, so you will be able to recruit any monster, provided you can make space.

save/load code

It hasn't been a top priority, because frankly there isn't much to save, and also the exp / gold system / recruit system isn't balanced. I consider the game on "easy" mode right now, and most of the content can be done / accessed under a half an hour (from 1.1).

At some point I may add a primitive load/save system (string based)--it would only save your 3 party members and possibly quest progress.

write-to-your-hard drive style of coding

Ultimately this is the plan. A string based load/save system would require a massive string--it would require entering maybe 10-20 strings in order to load your save. That would mean 10-20 trips to Notepad or the clipboard to copy and paste each part of the save.

This is because stat growth is random, so it means the exact stats have to be saved. With 13 monsters, this is a lot of data. Plus quest progression has to be saved, along with items, gold, etc.

I would not expect the full save system until the beta release.

Ultimately you realized the final 'tier' by hitting the ? family

More or less that is true--the most powerful monsters generally were the ones which were most time consuming to breed. But in MMRPG II, those monsters won't necessarily be the end all be all (powerful, but balanced).

I will be hosting the game as often as I can so if anyone (including you sethmachine) would like someone to play the alpha with I should have a game that you could join. I have my planned hosting schedule for the next two weeks already figured out.

Thank your inviting us all to play with you ^^, and offering to host the map ^^. Count me in ^^.

If you can, I recommend hosting it using makemehost.com. The map name is listed as "MMRPG2…" or "Monster Master RPG 2 v1.1.w3x."

However, I am going to try release an updated version (v1.2) some time later today. It fixes a few important bugs and also it will add some more content (a new city + a new quest hopefully). Be on the look out for that as well.

 

[hopop201]

Sethmachine I did say that I would be using makemehost. So I guess I shouldn't publicly host until you release the new version then. That will give me some time to play it before I start hosting.
Also should I expect you to join me today sethmachine?

 

[Deathly_God]

Personally, I felt that having the harder-to-get monsters be at least slightly stronger than previous monsters gives a sense of accomplishment to fusing. Imagine going through Pokemon and having Caterpie be one of the best sweepers in the game. There would be no point in catching a Dratini then and going through it's annoying-ass phase to get a super cool/better stat'd monster. I feel that the DWM approach was good because although the stat growths were fairly gradual, the farther up this unofficial tier list you got, higher the rates were. MM RPG 1 did a fairly goid job in my opinion as well for it, since if you had two level 10 tier ones, and fused them, the resulting tier 2 would only become equal in power to one of the tier ones at around level 6 or 7, depending on which tier 2 you made. It gave a purpose to the fusion, or breeding for the player. Why swap monsters if one of the best for something is right at the start is my point I guess.

Also, I'm not saying starter/unbred monsters should be worthless, but I think in general the stat growths (or base stats maybe if you wanted that route) should increase to give players an incentive/feeling of accomplishment for their breeding efforts.

 

[sethmachine]

I shouldn't publicly host until you release the new version then

Just woke up unfortunately (slept in 3 hours), so the new version probably won't be ready until much later (maybe not till tomorrow morning).

I would go ahead and host v1.1--but actually I will release 1.2 in about an hour, it just won't have any new quests / characters per se.

Imagine going through Pokemon and having Caterpie be one of the best sweepers in the game. There would be no point in catching a Dratini then and going through it's annoying-ass phase to get a super cool/better stat'd monster.

I agree players should be awarded for their efforts spent to breed rarer monsters (accomplishment as you would call it).

In any case, I will release 1.2 later tonight in 1-2 hours. Just a few bug fixes, balancing, and terrain changes. New quests will be in 1.3

 

[Deathly_God]

I agree players should be awarded for their efforts spent to breed rarer monsters (accomplishment as you would call it).

I think I understand what you were going for, with each monster being able to fufill a niche, but I think that the general flexibility of MM RPG 1 was something that a lot of people enjoyed. Like, depending on how you itemed a Monster, their usage and general quality would change. Take Mirudoras, it had the highest AGI in the game, but if you built it with the Mage damage items (Crystal Blade and Natural Wonder) it would still be able to use it's AGI for damage, but became more spell-casting oriented. Otherwise you could just build straight damage on him and he could be your ranged DPS character.

I think that leaving it more to the item combo's for balancing/making niches would be a better method than having to hard-stat monsters into roles. That's just my outlook on it though, I understand you want to make this not just a newly terrained MM RPG 1.

 

[hopop201]

I think I understand what you were going for, with each monster being able to fufill a niche, but I think that the general flexibility of MM RPG 1 was something that a lot of people enjoyed. Like, depending on how you itemed a Monster, their usage and general quality would change. Take Mirudoras, it had the highest AGI in the game, but if you built it with the Mage damage items (Crystal Blade and Natural Wonder) it would still be able to use it's AGI for damage, but became more spell-casting oriented. Otherwise you could just build straight damage on him and he could be your ranged DPS character.

I think that leaving it more to the item combo's for balancing/making niches would be a better method than having to hard-stat monsters into roles.

Yea, in MMRPG 1 you could use items to make various different teams while using the same monsters.

 

[sethmachine]

Updated to Alpha v1.2; changelog

Releasing a new updated alpha version to makemehost.com and the thread's OP.

The map name will be both "Monster Master RPG 2 v1.2a.w3x" and "MMRPG2 Alpha v1.1.w3x" on makemehost.com.

Changelog

Bugs fixed

-Fixed a bug where a monster's gender would not display correctly in the ESC stat menu. The problem was gender was being randomly assigned by an integer and not taking into account the monster's gender by name. The genders should now display correctly.

-Fixed a bug where a monster's stats (notably Attack, Agility, and Spell Resistance) were obscenely high for its level. The problem was an issue of deallocation of space, but it should now be fixed. Thanks to Noxx- for testing things out and helping me to find the problem.

-Fixed a bug where the "Quest Path" ability would be triggered by any spell. It should now only ping the current goals when using the "Quest Path" ability, and not any other spell.

Changes

-Gave Deadnite an actual stat growth.

-Reworked the town of Kalka, making it smaller and more compact + easier to naviagate.

New feature(s)

-Added the city of Cazbar. Players can visit it now.

I'll be hosting the game in a few minutes on makemehost.com as well, in case anyone wants to play or chat.

 

[hopop201]

Well Deathly_God and I have spent the last hour or two testing out the alpha, him playing while I have been making observations and generally just chatting with him. We have been enjoying it and like the addition of the second town and item shops in the towns. Deathly_God enjoys the stat gain on the Deadnite and we both agree that for the alpha that he is the best monster currently and that is good that you can only get one of them. The number of different monsters is good for now. One of us will prob make a large post about the alpha so far.

 

[Deathly_God]

So I've noticed that the despawn trigger has been a little buggy. A few times I'd be mid-battle with a monster, or about to attack it, and it would suddenly poof. The time period for it was also a little odd, because at one point I had a King Cobra, and I had stopped all my monsters from attacking it. After about 20 seconds it despawned. Also, the path between the starting lvl 1-3 zone, and the lvl 3-7 zone is a little buggy with ambushes, as they can sometimes double-proc there, causing 6 or more monsters to attack your party.

 

[sethmachine]

The despawn trigger isn't buggy as far as I know.

So how the spawning works is that everyone spawns their own monsters per se. If you are fighting a creep that spawned because of another player, and that player left that zone, that creep will be removed.

Also for the King Cobra, if your monster master ran out of the zone, it would start despawning it as well.

However what I can do is check to see if the creep is in combat before despawning it. That should make that less awkward.

For ambushes, there is only one zone where it is possible (albeit not too common) to get ambushed by four creeps at the same time.

The other zones are capped at three ambushes.

An ambush always has a message: "MONSTER AMBUSH:..."

Are you seeing more than 4 of those at once? If so then it's a bug.

 

[Deathly_God]

What I had was a double-ambush message most times, rarely it would just be a single message with 6+ monsters attacking me.

As for the despawn trigger, I was the only one in any of the zones, so I don't know why it would despawn for another player (I was player Red, if that helps at all). In fact, I was feeding the Cobra when it despawned, so my master couldn't have been out of the zone from it (I was actually near the top-middle of the area). It wasn't just the Cobra, every so often when I was watching carefully, a monster would just go poof with me standing near enough to see it. Quite a few Scorpions got away because they despawned before I could kill them.

 

[hopop201]

What I had was a double-ambush message most times, rarely it would just be a single message with 6+ monsters attacking me.

As for the despawn trigger, I was the only one in any of the zones, so I don't know why it would despawn for another player (I was player Red, if that helps at all). In fact, I was feeding the Cobra when it despawned, so my master couldn't have been out of the zone from it (I was actually near the top-middle of the area). It wasn't just the Cobra, every so often when I was watching carefully, a monster would just go poof with me standing near enough to see it. Quite a few Scorpions got away because they despawned before I could kill them.

If it helps I was also in game but I was playing for about 10 min then for the rest of the time my master was just sitting in GreatBark

 

[hopop201]

Well today I took a break from the alpha and played some other games today, but I still have a substantial post to make. I want to talk about this map's second influence. I am talking about the one that is apparent as soon as you visit this thread's front page, Dragon Warrior (Quest) Monsters 2. I am glad to say that sethmachine has so far delivered in basing this map off that game. Two of the aspects in both the game and this map are visible on the main thread post: the same 11 monster families, and the monster library. Although both also have breeding, sethmachine has described a different breeding system for the map compared to the game, but both have the same concept, put in 2 monsters, and get a single monster back.

Sethmachine has also somewhat replicated a lot of stuff from the game in the map. You can only have 3 monsters with you at the time while the rest stay on a monster farm on a small island next to the main world/city. In DWM2 the main city you always return to is called GreatLog while sethmachine has dubbed his counterpart GreatBark. He even took sounds from the game itself. Also, as soon as I saw the map I compared the first world of Agon, the oasis world, to the first world of the game, the Desert world, which is accesed with the Oasis Key. The two cities in the worlds are also similarily sized and placed. It also seems that the first "dungeon" of the map will be similar to the first "dungeon" of the game. I won't spoil what it is but if you look around at the details of Agon you may figure out what it is.

Now this instantly brought memories back to me of playing DWM2, the version I had being Tara's Adventure. I can not remember not having the game and a Game Boy Advance to play it on. I gladly took my brother's Game Boy when he gave it to me and DWM2 was easily my favorite game to play on it. (I had no Pokemon or other Game Boy games you would expect someone to have.) I had gotten pretty far in the game for my age of between 7 and 8 (towards the end of Ice world for those who played), when I gave up the Game Boy for the shiny new Nintendo DS. Now, I never sold, gave away, or lost my Game Boy and copy of DWM2 and may still have them somewhere lost in my house. At about the age of 12-13 I rediscovered my Game Boy and DWM2 and got back into the game right where I left off. It was then that I used a helpful breeding guide to breed myself a Niterich from almost scratch. I felt so good when I cracked open that egg and found a armored skeletal Niterich.

Now I hope that when this map gets close to official release I will be able to get the same sensation. So that is all from me for tonight and I hope that everyone is enjoying the map so far.

 

[sethmachine]

What I had was a double-ambush message most times, rarely it would just be a single message with 6+ monsters attacking me.

Whenever a monster ambushes you, there is a warning message. If there isn't a warning message / sound, and it looks like a monster is ambushing you, two things are possible:

1. the ambush is for another player, and your hero / party is in the way

2. the other monsters happen to wander into your party during an ambush

I did some extensive testing the creep spawning system long before the alpha, but not with more than 2 players. When I played the alpha versions, I did not run into excessive ambushes, but there could be a bug. Just need harder evidence.

s for the despawn trigger, I was the only one in any of the zones, so I don't know why it would despawn for another player (I was player Red, if that helps at all)

The player slot doesn't matter for the most part (well alright player 1 can turn on debug mode, but it's not too useful at the moment).

As for the despawning, I changed it so if a creep is in combat, it won't despawn. What does this mean? Well if a creep is chasing you, and you haven't attacked it once, it isn't in combat. But as long as you hit the creep occasionally, it won't despawn (roughly one attack every 60 seconds).

And actually I was wrong about what I said earlier. Creeps will only despawn if all the players vacate the region they came from. So what could be happening as well, is if those creeps originated from a one region, moved into the region you were in, and then of course they disappeared since nobody was in the region of origin.

It might sound unlikely, but players can't see the region boundaries, and it's very possible this could be what happened. The region where the cobra spawns is very tiny compared to the rest.

I still have a substantial post to make. I want to talk about this map's second influence. I am talking about the one that is apparent as soon as you visit this thread's front page, Dragon Warrior (Quest) Monsters

Thank you for this really nice review hopop201.

Tara's Adventure.

This is the one I got too. Coby's Journey was sold out Amazon.com when the game came out (I guess everyone wanted to the be the boy and not the girl).

But I ended up liking Tara a lot more--Coby was frankly annoying.

I hope that when this map gets close to official release I will be able to get the same sensation.

My hope as well! It won't be exactly the same, and shouldn't, but there's no reason why I can't try to make it so.

Now with regards to the course of the map development…

I've been making a lot of efficiency changes to the organization of the map code (which eventually means more time on adding content and less on copying + pasting).

The next version will be a much bigger update than the last two. It will (hopefully) feature three new quests, and if things go well by the end of the week, also at least one boss battle.

There probably won't be any save/load system added yet. That will most likely be done in another major release afterwards.

Anyway look forward to the update at the end of the week!

 

[hopop201]

Well if a map based off a game I have played brings back really good memories of that game and I can easily compare the two I am gonna talk about it. Also I was thinking that maybe instead of the complex breeding system you are thinking of implementing, you should go with a breeding system like the one in DWM2. There is a monster for each generic family combo and a whole lot of semi-specific and semi-generic combos, you know what I mean since you played the game, and of course there are specific combos to get the rarest monsters. If you want some reference dragon's den (woodus.com) has great breeding charts. And of course I would put an fl requirement on most of the breeding recipes.

Edit: I think I should explain what I meant when I was talking about the breeding for those that have not played DWM2. There are about 4 different types of breeding in DWM2. The most basic of these kinds is the generic monster from family f + monster from family m = monster t. There is also the specific monster z + monster g = monster l. The other two are interesting types of breeding are very interesting and I refer to them as semi-generic and semi-specific. Semi-generic means that one or more specific monsters + any monster from a family = a specific monster. Semi-specific means that any from a list of monsters + any from another list of monsters = a specific monster. Now different breeding recipes overlap so there are levels of precedence for the types of breeding. Generic has lowest precedence, then semi-generic, and semi-specific and specific with highest priority. (I am pretty sure there are no overlapping semi-specific and specific recipes.) Hope this was of help to any who were confused.

 

[Deathly_God]

Well, I for one am looking forward to the update! Has there been any terrainers looking into this project? I'm just curious, because a lot of the terrain now clearly seems pretty temporary.

 

[Noxx-]

Well, I for one am looking forward to the update! Has there been any terrainers looking into this project? I'm just curious, because a lot of the terrain now clearly seems pretty temporary.

Honestly, it's decent for the purpose it serves. Of course, an experienced terrainer would be nice, though. Also getting hyped for the update.

 

[hopop201]

Hey guys, just wanted to post an update about my hosting schedule. I will not be hosting the alpha everyday that those of you that constantly check the thread will know. I have decided to only publicly host the alpha soon after every new update. This will mostly be that I only want to test each new update with a large amount of people a few times per update. I will host private games with those that ask to play with me. Just wanted to let people know I will still play with them if they ask me.

 

[sethmachine]

In regards to the breeding system, I originally planned to do the DWM system.

When I add in a breeding system, it will actually be just like you described. I won't make things complex yet, though there will still be FL (+ levels) requirements for some breeding.

Has there been any terrainers looking into this project?

Back in the winter there were two terrainers on board. But it did not really work out with either them, as they wanted to drastically change the game/did not really understand the map's scope. Also while I didn't dismiss any of them, they sort of just fizzled away and didn't end up contributing anything.

So no terrainers yet and likely . As things stand I'll need to probably learn a bit about terraning (which I am attempting to do) to make better terrain.

a lot of the terrain now clearly seems pretty temporary.

I suppose that could describe it. I don't like using this as my crutch/excuse, but it is only an alpha. The map's best features are certainly not its terrain.

The priority right now is to lay down the foundation/API for future work in the map, which unfortunately cannot always be visualized (like terrain), but will pay off exponentially, especially if new project members join, or at some (hopefully very) distant point in the future I decide to retire from the project.

The terrain will improve, though very slowly. Although, because the map is based off of DWM, I do try to make the terrain look like. If you look at the desert world, that is essentially how terrain was in the gameboy game.

getting hyped for the update.

I have added three new quests, though only one of them is complete (i.e. can be finished). The second might be completable, and third definitely won't be completable.

Also, there will be a dungeon (similar to basically a portal in Robbepop's map), though not sure if the first boss will make it in. And of course there will be different species of monsters available in the first dungeon.

 

[hopop201]

Will the first boss be what I think it will be sethmachine? Also currently playing DWM2 cause nostalgia.

 

[Cokemonkey11]

I played the latest version of this map. It seems quite nice, I am pleased. I made a few notes that might be interesting.

• Some map hosting websites like epicwar.com automatically parse the map description (the text before you start the game lobby) - therefore I suggest leaving your email out of the description. That being said, your email was repeated in maybe 10 places in the map. I think one quest that says "contact" with your email is more than plenty
• You might consider using a URL shortener like goo.gl to reference your project. Saying "Google Monster Master RPG II 13th gate" is kinda silly, in my opinion.
• If selecting your character gender is the first thing you see, you should make it aesthetically a bit nicer. Maybe just have a boy master and girl master standing nearby, and when clicked a dialog box could ask you "You want the boy character, Terry?"
• Credits quest is missing a spacer literal (' ') near the bottom. #grammarnazi
• The "player stats" tool inside backpack doesn't seem to work properly.
• When teleporting via some waypoint or exit, you should issue a stop or stun command to the monster master, because currently they begin walking which is distracting.
• Some dialog responses like "Hold on... I need some time to myself" are clipping the box UI.
• Dialog-style responses to a backpack are kind of funny. I think "Okay" and "Exit" are more intuitive than "Ok." and "Nevermind."
• I'm surprised you didn't at least re-use the old terrain for the MMRPG. You might consider looking for a terrainer to save you time.
• "Vulture"s projectile offset makes his attack look quite funny.
• Experience is extremely slow compared to the original MM game
• Food doesn't seem to do anything, even 3x ribs on one level 5 unit.
• If a monster is the selected target of a shop, and the player buys an item, maybe move the item to the owner instead of just dropping it and writing "monsters can't buy items"

Nice work overall, looking forward to how this progresses.

 

[hopop201]

All's quiet on the Monster Master front . . . for now.

 

[Deathly_God]

All's quiet on the Monster Master front . . . for now.

For now...

 

[sethmachine]

Update on incoming update

Hi everyone,

There will be a new version released this week, at latest by Thursday.

The new version will include two new quests, a dungeon, a few new monsters to capture, and also a boss battle. There will be some minor bug/interface fixes as well.

Will the first boss be what I think it will be sethmachine?

There are some similarities, but the overall answer is no.

I played the latest version of this map.

Thanks for your comprehensive list of notes, Cokemonkey11. This is really nice and helpful.

I suggest leaving your email out of the description.

AFAIK it's not uploaded to epicwar.com yet, but I am a little confused why it would not be good to have the email on the site, unless that is a bad thing?

consider using a URL shortener

I'll likely put this in the next update then, thanks for showing me this tool. Though my one grudge is that it's harder to memorize a URL than to memorize the name of the map and google it, though that's my opinion.

selecting your character gender is the first thing you see, you should make it aesthetically a bit nicer.

At some point I should probably do this. At the moment I've just been going for functionality (my first vJASS project after all).

Credits quest is missing a spacer literal (' ') near the bottom

This is fixed...I believe it was no space after a comma.

When teleporting via some waypoint or exit, you should issue a stop or stun command to the monster master

I've tried using the stop command, but it doesn't change the unit behavior. I will try out stunning it, that will probably solve this.

Dialog-style responses to a backpack are kind of funny.

This is because the backpack's dialog is inherited from the general NPC dialog. At some point I'll make this change, since backpacks aren't animate.

I'm surprised you didn't at least re-use the old terrain for the MMRPG

At times I've referenced the terrain to help me do my own terrain, but the terrain itself isn't really usable in this project, since Robbepop's map was literally a series of dungeons. This project has both dungeons and overworlds, and the first dungeon's theme wasn't in any of his gates.

You might consider looking for a terrainer to save you time.

I've put this request out several times (recently too). There were two terrainers, but they either ended up not actually doing anything or attempting to take over the project beyond the scope of just terrain.

Once the first world is done, I'm going to spend time developing API for random world/dungeon generation. Hopefully, after a stronger version release, some terrainer will be convinced the project has enough merit to be worked on ^^.

Experience is extremely slow compared to the original MM game

MM game as in Robbepop's map or the gameboy color game? It's definitely slower than gameboy color, but I believe it's faster than MMRPG I, because at the moment exp per monster is not split (it doesn't matter if you have 1 or 3 monsters out, they all receive the same exp). Right now of course it's far from perfect, and the parameters are being adjusted. Exp gain is set at 10 * the level of the creep that was killed. If that's too low for alpha testing, I can increase it, to maybe a factor of 20-30?

Food doesn't seem to do anything, even 3x ribs on one level 5 unit.

I neglected to give a visual impact on the monster that's been fed meat, but in my testing it does have an effect. The monsters in the map have an automatic recruit rate of 10%, and each rib increases it by exactly 10%. Which means your monster had a 40% recruit rate.

 

[hopop201]

So the first boss will not be the angry beaver we know and love from the dungeon that is also a LoZ:OoT area?