Well now that version 1.05.11a has been released it’s time for me to explain it all and use this blog properly, right? So let’s begin. This time I have quite a few updates in a short period of time, so I’ll be going through each and every one of them, and explaining them. Sound boring? Don’t worry, I’ll try to be as interesting as possible.
First up is the new maps. I didn’t comment on Mt. Larkmuir so I’ll be doing it here too. Because Act 1 of Misthalin Memories acts as a tutorial, it slowly introduces game features. I’ve tried to have the map designs incorporate this and slowly introduce things such as obstacles in dungeons and scale. Mt. Larkmuir was my attempt at increasing the scale by having a larger map, largest one I’ve made so far, complete with a settlement, three dungeons and collectible items. I still want to push it further though. I want even bigger maps, but I’ll see how that goes. That’s why the settlements are in the fields in the first place, to be places to rest.
I’ve been stuck for a while now, what to make the main collectible items. The CRYSTAL Shards. What use would they be? I ended up using them to explain the technology in Misthalin, so they slowly lost their purpose. They were still going to be used to resurrect Kuilimarth, a sixth generation being, but I didn’t know how. That’s when I thought of the “Memory Shard” idea. You can unlock new spells, techniques, areas, equipment, traits and other things through collecting Memory Shards. A pretty awesome replacement, if I do say so myself. What are memory shards? Essentially stored memories of course!
So that lead to my first dungeon to put them in. The Ancient Corridor in Mt. Larkmuir. It was to play around with switches, see what I could do with them. I think it was well done, but it feels empty and simple without obstacles to get to the switches. Do that, and I think I have a solid dungeon design.
With some obstacles set in stone, I decided to go back and re-design earlier dungeons. First was Nessver Mines. In the original design you had to figure out a switch was in the statue straight away, and I thought that wasn’t clear enough. This time I added in a switch to access that area, thus emphasizing it’s importance and showing the player how switches work. The room with the statue is practically empty and so the next thing to go through a player’s mind is, “check the statue”. It works, at least in theory. We’ll see how that goes, but that also introduces the idea of hidden rooms.
The next area to change was Kintyre Woods. This was where I started to play with the location name being displayed. When entering an area, the name of the area will be displayed. It’s an idea I’ve been playing with for a while. Locations are important, bounties hide amongst loads of other things. Considering the size of the game and the free roaming aspect, it’s important players can tell where they are.
After looking at Kintyre Woods, it’s too small for what I want. But I’ll keep it at a smaller scale for the Strathbryde region. Hopefully at a later point I can have four or five maps connected together, with a settlement and a couple of dungeons too. Really make a big scale, promote exploration. For what Act 1 promises, a smaller scale is fine, but when it comes to the full game I need larger areas. I mean, I need to hide bounties and hunts, have places for you to go for missions and quests, have places to explore!
Another addition to Kintyre Woods was the inclusion of Bandit’s Cove. Bandit’s Cove is a small dungeon, a hideout for the local bandit’s. I decided to use this dungeon as a means of introducing more obstacles, but to signify the dungeon I had to add a story.
The protagonist is traveling through the woods, when a bandit steals his purse. He must go get it back. A simple plot for Kintyre Woods, but a suitable one. I included a hidden passage as the first obstacle, but made it obvious by having the next room visible (which means the entrance and exit is visible). The next room showed that not all statues have switches, and some ordinary objects may have switches instead. This will give the player the idea that they must examine objects, use their mind and think about things. The next room had two switches (well, one is a lever) to access the next room. Unfortunately, one’s a fake and results in you being poisoned. This teaches that not everything is as it seems and you may be in danger. Examine the objects first.
You get the idea. I’ll be adding a sort of commentary on each map and feature and stuff as I release them, but they’ll be mentioned in the introduction. I’m not going to go too in depth here, this is just a general gist of everything new.
I understand that this post is extremely late, so I will be ending it here. For Misthalin Memories 1.06a I’ll release a better Blog Post on it’s information, so stay tuned! Version 1.06a is due out by Friday 25th.
