Maloria - An Update
 

The following is directly copied from the original post on Maloria forums, apart from a few minor edits and additions. It is posted here as well for several reasons, such as serving as general information and possibly getting feedback of any kind.

Progress since change of Management (3 weeks ago, excluding server downtime):

Scripts

• Full fledged duping proof item system, and everything that comes with that.
• Skill system.
• Quasi-Intelligent baddy AI that,
  • Can equip/use any item (including potions!) that a player can with the same benefits
  • Can use any skill that a player can
  
  It also behaves differently depending on the situation, for example...
  • ... if it it has the melee skill, it will chase you until within weapon range.
  • ... if it has the ranged skill, it will chase you until within weapon max range, and if you come closer then weapon min range, it will move away from you and attempt to widen the distance. If it doesn't succeed with that, it will attack with ranged until you're in melee where it will use melee (assuming it have the melee skill).
  • ... if it has the magic skill, it will randomly use a spell assuming it have any mana left. Special skills like healing, dispelling, buffing etc. will only be done when needed.
• Combat system (currently only supports melee and ranged)
• Trading

While that alone might not sound awfully much, keep in mind that it's the very core systems a server can have, and the most difficult ones to get secure and lag free, rather then just operationable.

However, there's a tiny amount of weapons (and skills) added right now, even though it's extremely easy to add a large and varying quantity of them with these systems. The reason for it is that I'm going to implement more item variables soon, and I'd rather not have 30+ items to edit when that's done.


Levels

We're sticking with the overworld from v2, with minor detailing changes. There's a bunch of insides that needs reworks (without straying too far from their default looks), and a great deal of additions is needed.

We're also completely reworking the blob/flower/book dungeon to be an actual sewer dungeon. We plan on doing that to all dungeons within time. It will have the following monsters and bosses (yes, REAL bosses with different phases and everything else that they come with!):

• Mutated fish
• Rats
• Rat God
• Blobs
• "Slime balls"

Attachment 46559Attachment 46560Attachment 46561

We ARE looking for more help in the levels department.


Quests and Storyline

We want to have a lot more quests, both huge ones where you have to go do **** loads of stuff, solve puzzles, then get the reward and whatnot, but also minor ones that's located pretty much everywhere.
We also want to try and implement Worrian Order and Daednu Empire into the world.


I was going to post information about the mini bosses and the boss of the dungeon, but then I realized it'd be so much more fun to experience it in-game once it's done instead. :)

That's about it. We're just waiting for Stefan to transfer backups and we'll be back online, ready to continue working our assess off.

*shrugs* thats cool i guess.
When does the staff team become stable?

baddy AI interests me, I'd like to see it in action :(

I'd consider it stable (for Graal..) now.

Once Stefan is finished with the backups, we'll start filling the old dungeons with NPC's (while we work on reinventing the wheel) - it'll be seen in action soon enough.

Good to see updates, can't wait to get Mal back.

Thanks for the update.

Who did the puzzle? He must be a genius!

The baddies I'm constructing on Era do that exact same thing your arrow baddies do. I'm interested in how you went about this in comparison to me.

Uhm? I'm doing something similar on Crystia, just not exactly the same.. And I started on Crystia's baddies long before I saw this thread or Era's baddie thread (the one you made). I think it's more that, many players want more smarter baddies then the typical hack-n-slash baddies.

Was that witty post because I came off as a jerk or something?

Was Blonkt saying he stole the idea or asking how he went about it because it is always good to "share notes" on similar projects?

I can't beat your puzzle.


Both of the boxes that lead to "baddies" are labeled as "can only be walked through from above".

How did you do it compared to how did he do it.

Yeah, I noticed that flaw when I came back to look at it.
But you no doubt understand how it should work, right?
Or did you get hit in the head with a brick too often?

All the brick hitting taught me that working around the rules can get me hurt

We have the backups from Stefan back now, if you're still interested in knowing it Hachi, catch me on Graal and I'll demonstrate it if you want.

Rawr, moar update.

http://www.maloria.com/showthread.php?t=8387

While we might not be able to offer all too much this year, we ARE able to give out a unique Christmas Sword 2008 to anyone that logon. The item will remain permanent even through potential Development resets.

This offer will be active from now to the end of December.



Attachment 46810Merry Christmas Attachment 46810 from the Maloria team!

How come I always end up being the only one posting in my server project threads? :cry:

Anyways, since a lot of others are doing it, we figured we should give it a shot and see how it works out.

Hiring idlers!
http://www.maloria.com/showthread.php?p=219954

can I be an idler :D

Please post some levels!

Not gonna happen. This isn't a general server information thread, this thread is purely for announcing updates and news. If you truly want to see some levels, help yourself and logon.

Character creation, nations, statistics, combat (detailed floating text included!), skill system, mining, leveling, baddies, weather (temperature, humidity & precipitation included!), login screen, message system, profiles and targeting have all been completed since last.

I would like to urge people to log on, spend a couple of minutes doing this and that, and if any bugs are found - report them to myself, Ducky (DrakilorP2P) or Chompy.

:D

whelp, can't wait!

...You made a smiley...sometimes, for a bleak moment, the old ziro shines through your new personality. Will +rep later xD

Other than that, nice work on all of that! Can't wait to play myself! :3

http://wiki.graal.net/images/0/06/Cupid.png

We on Maloria will be releasing yet another very limited, and permanent, item in the shape of the Cupid's Bow! Along with it, you'll also receive 500x Cupid's Arrow. How to get it!? Just log on player! This offer is limited to February 22th.

During the next couple of days, the events system should be up and running, which means we'll try it out and possible give out some other misc. novelty items that will never be given out again.


We are also getting closer and closer to applying for a Classic inspection, however, the remaining work isn't some of the funniest things to work at. We're at a complete halt until we're able to find two/three dedicated and talented LAT's, that would be interested in tiling the sewer dungeon with our custom tiles.

So, if you're interested, please get in contact with Nate (bioboi) or Ziro (xXziroXx).

http://wiki.graal.net/images/0/0d/Powzer.png

I don't see anything different- am I on the old world?

The overworld will pretty much remain the same, except for a lot of additions that have yet to happen. It will also undergo major redetailing, which is in progress. It will also "come to life" with NPC's, townfolks, battles between Worrian and Daednu and so fourth.

Oh wow, that's cool! I can't wait to see it once it's finished. gg ^^

Updates sound neat, I've never personally played Maloria but I'll have to stroll over to look around sooner or later. Sounds like you guys are really working your butts off.

Opening up the server for everyone (as in you won't be stuck in jail) for roughly another... 24 hours.

Doing this in hopes of attracting another level maker, or better up, a ganier that knows how to work in Movie mode and who can produce quality ganis overall.

Level wise we're working on replacing the old levels with new ones, you can easily tell where we've done so by looking at the amount of detailing - if the grass is detailed with random tiles, it's an old level, otherwise it's one of the new ones (which basically covers west, center and east part of main island).

i logged on and i swear im going to play it once its out, i like the christmas sword but my cupid bow's arrows were erased.

Recent Updates:

• Main Island has gotten a huge facelift, and it's not long until the entire island will have gotten a whole new look while sticking to the original layout of it.
• A lot of graphics have been improved, and there's more to come of it!
• Rain, Snow and Thunder effects have all been fixed up and had their lag issues fixed. (apparently it's not a good idea to constantly stack emitter modifiers!)
• Wind has existed in the background a long time, but it has now gotten a visual effect to increase the effect of weather.
• Weather in general has had a revamp to behave more realisticly.
• Torches and leaves are affected by wind. Torches are also affected by rain.
• Player data storage have been converted from .arc files to SQLite database.
• Skill system has been completed, players can now properly add skill points upon level up.
• Boats are finished, you can currently rent them south of main house. Two players can use the same boat at once.
• Respawn system have been added, you now spawn at the nearest respawn point instead of spawning at the main house.
• Crafting have been somewhat completed, yet to be implemented though.

We would be able to produce a lot more gameplay content, but we're in desperate need of someone capable of creating quality ganis, as we currently have no one on the team who feel capable of doing them.

We could also very much use another level creater, but it's not as vital for our progress.

As Ziro has recently stated, there have been quite a few updates and we are continually working towards achieving our goal of revamping Maloria into the fun and memorable server everyone once knew. If anyone is interested in helping us achieve this goal, we are in need of a gani artist, and perhaps another level artist to speed this process up a little bit. If you feel you can be the one to help us do this, you can either log on to player and PM myself, Ziro, or Nate. Or just send us a PM via Graal forums. Thanks for your time and interest! ^^

i get to keep my cupid's bow right? because it's uber pwn. keep up the good work!

Maloria sounds pretty good so far :)
I'd want to gani on Maloria; too bad Graal's degenerative system disallows me to do so.

Maloria has been opened up for public, and will remain that way for unknown amount of time.

For those interested, devlogs of our work can be viewed here. Sadly not all the staff members keep one :(

We're also currently hiring gani makers.

Want to lend us a hand without actually developing?

Design a quest! :D

I hope this isn't a step towards trying make Maloria like every other generic MMORPG. Zodiac made this mistake and lost a lot of players :(

Look dude, I'll explain (and probably get banned for this, but it's worth it):

ZODIAC SUCKS

MALORIA DOESN'T

If Maloria doesn't suck why isn't it on the classic tab? Why did it die? Why did it have to rip off Val2003 and re-define itself from a Classic server based on chopping bamboo to a full fledged RPG server just to gain playercount? Most of you probably didn't play the original Maloria but while having a custom (recolored) tileset was the **** back then, it was a pretty awful server and died very quickly.