The team behind the upcoming MMO, Monsters and Memories, is excited to share progress on the development of two new zones, Tel Ekir and Sungreet Strand, among other developments.
In a blog post from Monsters and Memories’ Shawn Lord, the game’s progress is shared with fans. Tel Ekir, a dungeon region, and Sungreet Strand, an outdoor zone north of Night Harbor, are currently the focus of the development team’s work.
The team is also hard at work on other areas, such as squashing bugs, refining existing systems, and advancing player character work. Additionally, they’ve introduced new tooling to improve the overall experience for players. In a surprise move, an open stress test was conducted on July 4th to see how the game held up under increased player loads. The test ended up being a success, providing the developers with invaluable data for the future.
The character art and concepts have also seen significant updates. The first iteration of Halfling male & female characters was modeled and implemented, the Ogre rig was integrated, and a Deep Dwarf proof of concept was introduced. Other inclusions involve diverse backpack appearances, the setup of a cleaned old Bat model to LERP, and the introduction of a Skull Staff.
On the environmental art front, the first pass of Tel Ekir was completed, and work began on placeholder textures for the gray box geometry. Other zones, like the Quarry in Sungreet Strand and the Pyrmos Ogre Fort, have seen blockouts and terrain updates.
In terms of animation, existing player combat animations have been tweaked, and new animations for Ogres and Bards have been introduced. The design team also mentioned class and ability iteration, design work for two new game modes – Hardcore & Self-found, and zone designs for the next biome, hinting at it being green and located to the north.
Improvements were made in the general tech area with numerous features, including the addition of tabs to the user options interface, the ability to disable drop/destroy confirmation, faction, and HID data additions to the /stats command printout for npcs, among others.
Significant enhancements were made to statics tooling, with world objects now having attached zonelines, configurable directions, and scheduled state transitions by time of day. Several zonelines were converted to use the new system, and improvements were made to how characters are placed on geometry when zoning in along a zoneline.
In conclusion, the recent surprise stress test was a hit and fans are encouraged to check out the VOD on YouTube or Twitch. The team appreciates the continued support and is excited to see what the future brings for Monsters and Memories.