Meranthe 2.0: Preview

[Chance]

MERANTHE 2.0

After nearly a month of 1.9 going live, the development of 2.0 has been well underway. Initially this was going to be a smaller update (comparative to other patches), but given the milestone number, I was tempted to let it bake in the oven for a while longer. So that means it might take a little longer and will be more feature/content packed; right now we're not sure on a release, but we've made great progress on all fronts.

This teaser is mostly comprised of what's finished or close to, which means as we go into November you can expect more! Currently waiting on some sprite orders for map assets and spell effects!

RUSH DUNGEON
The foundation of the update, and what a lot of it is built around. There are roughly ten new dungeons being added, but these are 'waves of enemies' style. An open area where monsters blitz you wave after wave until the boss appears.

Unlike traditional Meranthe dungeons that give you EXP/coin and a chance at extracting valuable resources, these reward tokens and EXP. Tokens are a new type of currency as detailed in the PvE store with a host of new items.

Being defeated means you'll be removed from the dungeons, so be sure to bring a healer and/or a strong party! These are purposely challenging, with new enemy types and aggressive, bullet hell style play. 

The difficulty is marked on the mini-map. Green for easy, gold for standard, and red for extreme. The green types are aimed at newbies/low levels, and can only be completed once a day; the others are free game with unlimited uses. But the party leader does have to pay a coin cost on entry to fund the quest, which acts as another coin sink while also warding against endless grind.
 
PVE STORE
With the introduction of wave-style dungeons, tokens are now a thing and can be spent in the token shop. You can also purchase them with coin and even influence; the exchange rate for the former isn't too great, but influence is fairly generous (another faction incentive!).

In the token store, you'll find all sorts: a variety of familiars, mini-game kits (slots, blackjack), true flight, rebirth and swim potions, the treasure detector, dungeon keys, arcana exclusive packs, guild +EXP and more! But be warned, some things are purposely pricy, meant to serve as a high-end coin dump when the auction house isn't emptying pockets.

FAMILIARS
An elaborate familiar/pet system that focuses around lifeskills. They can be used in combat, and do have spells, but that's not their benefit or real use (given low HP); it's overcapping the lifeskills!

With a familiar, you can train it in a particular lifeskill (cooking, mining, farming, etc) and level it up. It gains EXP whenever a monster is killed by you, as well as just being around you, and there are also 'rare candy' style potions you can use on it for easy levels. 

You can roleplay as your familiar & yourself at the same time, take it over and even travel a short distance from your person. Familiars also act as a prelude to the faction NPC system, but that's for another post in the not so distant future. 

These are purchased on the token store and are high-end investments!

IMPROVED INFO BOX
As shown below, the right-click info box has gotten a makeover. There's now a 128x128 space for you to upload an image, and command buttons (ping, party, battle, examine, etc). The description setting menu has also been drastically improved, for disguises too!

SEASONS
Now the seasons will shift, and there is a flavor announcement when it does so (once per year, because fantasy climate). What this does has various world impact. You'll start seeing clumps of snow forming in the north during winter, for example, that you can interact with/destroy like trees, and piles of leaves that vary in color. As well as whooshing leaves in the forests colored to the current season; vivid green for summer, auburn for autumn, yellow for spring, grey for winter, etc! Additionally, there will be season specific spawns for herbs and creatures.
 
Expect more on this later, including visuals!

ARTIFICER RECIPE: MEMENTO
Ever wanted to craft say, a music box, or a good luck charm? This recipe makes 'flavor' items much more straightforward. You just set the name, description, and get to upload a sprite; so you no longer need to find a glamor potion and a gold patron to set something like a gift up. 

CHARACTER INSPECT
Now you can examine someone via the info box. This displays things like equipment they're purposely showing off, whether or not they were recently injured, etc. In the future we can do a lot with this.

MISC
➤ The tutorial is getting an additional 5 quests to steer new players along. As the game's mechanical depth continues to grow, this seemed appropriate.
➤ A 'markup' button in the RP window, displaying all available HTML.
➤ An 'Assign Rank' guild option, so you don't have to promote/demote multiple times.
➤ A /leave command for private battle spectators.
➤ Your character changes direction where you click.
➤ Custom sprite tuning now saves properly for Demons.

& more?! Certainly. I'll have a close eye on the game suggestions. It depends on how long we feel like baking for, but as you can see there's plenty of things to be excited about already! As always, thank you for making this possible via patreon and subscriptions, as well as just giving the game your time and hopefully some creative satisfaction in return! Much appreciated, and Happy Halloween!

 

 

[Chance]

Over the past weeks, we've finished up much of the above, and continue to add to it! Early December a lot of testing will be taking place. Some other additions to 2.0 now include:

COMMENDATION
Not to be mistaken with the current 'commend' spell (which will get a rename when this system goes live). Once per in-game year, a player can send a commendation and detail their positive experiences interacting with a character. This grants the recipient a small EXP bonus, sends them a private message with the details, and is permanently logged for staff and player viewing!

REPRIMAND
This is a warning system that the staff can use, similar to commendation except negative! Level 1, 2, and 3 warnings, docking the target's EXP, and leaving them a note for viewing.

COOKING CRAFTING TAB
All cooking recipes now display in a dedicated crafting menu rather than the general crafting.

UNLOCKING FACTION SPELLS
Rather than manually given, faction spells will now be unlocked once you meet the requirement. You must also be rank 3+ in your faction guild to use it.


Commander - 15+ dangerous/deadly battles complete
Master of Coin - 300,000+ earned in stalls
Head of Research - 100k+ artificer EXP


FACTION RECRUITER ACCESSIBILITY
Much like faction spells, this will no longer be handled by staff. Instead, the founder of a village or higher size settlement will have the option to spawn and customize their faction recruiter.

OFFLINE TICKETS
This is likely to come before 2.0, given the need for it, but staff will be able to open tickets with offline players (for replying to requests etc).

RUMORS
Players will be able to submit rumors for staff review. These are given a description and a duration, and will then appear globally as an option when interacting with a noticebard (Recent Rumors?). All rumors are displayed in your IC chat when you select this option.

CREATE-AN-NPC
Players will be able to spawn an NPC by paying a large sum of coin.

You can customize the name, appearance, description, what equipment they're wearing (by drag and dropping your own onto it). You can change where they spawn, and maintain their happiness to keep them around (by giving them coin or influence). 

You can even upgrade their spell kit and stats by training them for a sum and a year of time (they start quite weak!). Base spells are just pounce and an enhanced mana ripple, but they can be customized with a dozen or so options, though mostly damaging moves rather than debuffs.

Options include to have them follow you around/protect you (max of 2 at a time), or patrol on nearby land, keeping crops watered and animals fed in a designated space.

You can take over NPCs and roleplay as them/pilot them, if you're the owner. 

They can be attacked by others, which will leave blood stains identifying the person through witnesses; though they do rapidly regenerate HP (1k/s) so it takes a very persistent assault to take them out rather than a stray spell, and they cannot be damaged by ally faction members. It takes a few hours for the NPC to respawn and they lose 10 happiness from the assault (the same amount they lose with each passing year). At 0 happiness, they enter a corpse-like state and fade away over the course of 24 hours, but anyone in their associated faction can prevent this by paying a sizeable fee.

[Chance]

Scheduled for January the ???, 2024!

Let's start the New Year off with a bang! More information to come closer to the time.

[Chance]

For post-2.0's launch and only, if your character is: Lower than Level 180, and a faction member of the following- Prospera, Xuefeng, Serenity, Londo, Aegis, Dal'thala- you may ticket for a Level Boost to 180, woah!!!!

This is only applicable past 3PM EST today. This expires on the 17th of February midnight. 

yes there are no real hooks this time but there are plenty of settlements with their own themes/appeal for you to join!!!!!!!!!!

[Chance]

ADDITIONALLY, THE FOLLOWING RACES ARE PUBLIC/REBIRTH LEVEL OF 200 FOR A LIMITED TIME (A FEW DAYS). & A REMINDER THAT THE MAGICAL BEAST RACE HAS NO REBIRTH REQUIREMENT. THESE RACES ARE STILL STRINGENT TO THEIR LORE EXPECTATIONS.
THESE ARE NOT PERMISSABLE TO THE LEVEL BOOST MENTIONED ABOVE.

SPIRIT-WARD (WILDERNESS)
SYNTHETIC (FINAL FRONTIER/SILENT EXPANSE)
DEMON (WILDERNESS)
FACELESS (GLOOMLIGHT)