Are we there yet?

Kyokai · Post by **Kyokai** » 08 Jun 2005, 19:35

It's been awhile since I really gave a serious look at the mana world. For those of you reading the post who don't know me, I'm Kyokai, who wrote most of the systems that aren't being used yet for the mana world.

I wanted to say that it really seems like the world isn't turning anymore. Everyone is content with this RO clone we have. I always believed in the promise that we would have a real Secret of Mana MMORPG, complete with realtime fighting and deep, customizable character systems. An endless, changing world that players could turn into whatever they wanted.

I know things are still crawling along somewhat, but are we going in the direction that we want? I for one don't see any changes (except maybe some good story development) that are moving TMW toward the kind of game that I would be interested in playing. After version .13, we still have: our RO clone server, only 1 town, no magic, no skills, RO stats, no classes (or any semblance of a class system, except that we're still using RO-style skills). In a few words: blah. I don't like to complain, but it's something that's been bothering me, because I feel the game is being subverted from what I believed it was into a cheap clone.

Elven, is this what you wanted? I don't believe you intended all this either. It's up to you to make sure things happen the way you envisioned. I thought we had the same vision, or was I wrong the whole time?

Bear · Post by **Bear** » 08 Jun 2005, 23:08

well, i too fel tat this game has took a wrong turn..., for one.. graphics, im not saying theyr bad! they are exclent! BUT i would rather stick with Secret Of Mana Graphics, also for skills and all... those can wait cant they?

well, maps need some work :p

But overall i think the game is going too far off of its original goal

Post by **Bjørn** » 08 Jun 2005, 23:22

Maybe you fail to understand how much we are in pre-alpha stage. Or planning stage if you want, or proof of concept stage (at least with our own server this is). Maybe your priorities are different, too. We are currently doing the best we can, there are lots of things that need to change. Did you just skip the change log?

For 0.0.13 among other things I focused on getting rid of all OpenGL rendering issues, also the much complained about 100% CPU usage, and I've upgaded TMW to the new Guichan release. Meanwhile Mra finalized his efforts to make trading between players possible (a necessary feature you'll admit), Javila added an ingame help window (which has also been requested for quite a while) and item descriptions (the icons were not enough) and Elven made initial steps to adding auto-attack and worked on adding a bit more content. While this list is hardly exhaustive, I think it shows that we are listening to our community and also that we are doing quite a bit despite all of us being involved in this in part of our spare time.

Pardon the bit of speech, but you just go away for like two months and then come back and call the game stagnant and crawling along. I see it as a rude occusation, and it seems mostly based on the fact that we didn't get around to implementing your systems yet.

Post by **ElvenProgrammer** » 10 Jun 2005, 18:31

Kyokai: The biggest problem with being a RO clone is that we can't do much better using eAthena as a server which is a RO server emulator. That should be clear. We had to solve some urgent issues client side that's why we concentrated on client development while server development it's a bit stagnant.
Only one town? -> If you can draw nice tilesets and create the new maps in one month we will add them of course.
No magic? -> We first have to draw the magic attack frames for the playerset, then draw the frames for the magic attacks and then of course we have to cope with eAthena to use magic. It's my intention to add spells only after the switch to the new server.
RO stats -> again...do you remember we're using a RO server emulator?

Is this what I wanted? No and it's not what I still want. Just give us some time or try to help us to get where we want, or try to find someone who can help us. Our team is growing every day, so I hope to speed up development. We just need to be patient and as Hammerbear said we're in early pre-alpha stage, so you can't expect a complete game at this time.

Bear: I know you and many others complain about the graphic switch and TMW not being a SoM clone anymore. Well we want TMW to have a future, that's why we're trying to avoid legal issues such as copyrights. Maybe having low res graphics as before could help us in keeping the soft look of SoM graphics, but we will try to keep the style of drawings as much as possible similar to that one. It's just a matter of finding talented artists (which is a very hard task) and try to find the best ideas.

Hope this answer your questions, if not please reply, I'd like veryone to be satisfied by this project, so you're ideas are very important to me

Kyokai · Post by **Kyokai** » 10 Jun 2005, 20:22

BjÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â¸rn wrote:Pardon the bit of speech, but you just go away for like two months and then come back and call the game stagnant and crawling along. I see it as a rude occusation, and it seems mostly based on the fact that we didn't get around to implementing your systems yet.

Yeah, you're probably right. I just get burnt out on things if they don't move at my pace (which is faster than most people care to work at). I do sort of feel like I did alot of work for the game, yet none of it is really getting used... I know we can't do most of the aggressive things I had intended while still on eAthena, but I still can't really get excited about the game until I see that some of what I've done is being used.

Once it's time to put the systems into place, I'll reappear and make sure it all balances appropriately. Until then, I'm going to spend some more time with my own projects. I do intend to come back and finish implementing everything that I wrote for the game, so I'm sure we'll meet again in the future. Until then, goodbye.