KickStarter Monomyth - A first person action RPG/dungeon crawler - now in Open Backer Beta

[Eisen]

Playing Kings Field 4 before this beauty releases in beta

 

[Gargaune]

RatTower, I was digging through my AppData folder the other day and noticed a CrashReportClient folder I wasn't familiar with. Checking through it, it's a bunch of logs that were generated by the Monomyth demo, they contain the OS username, user path and the computer name, though seemingly no other personal info. I don't know whether you're actively using this data for debugging or it's just UE4 doing its thing, but I thought I'd mention it.

 

[RatTower]

RatTower, I was digging through my AppData folder the other day and noticed a CrashReportClient folder I wasn't familiar with. Checking through it, it's a bunch of logs that were generated by the Monomyth demo, they contain the OS username, user path and the computer name, though seemingly no other personal info. I don't know whether you're actively using this data for debugging or it's just UE4 doing its thing, but I thought I'd mention it.

UE4 generates those logs. I have never selected any logging, so I'd assume it's a standard configuration.

RatTower For stealth: is there light and shadow gameplay (Thief/Splinter Cell style)?

Yes, Monomyth uses the distance between the player and light sources to calculate the player's visibility.

RatTower, minor quibble, but the bow aiming animation seems to obscure a lot of the centre screen with the arm, your actual target, maybe bring it down a wee bit?

Oh yeah, that's an old animation. I'll polish archery together with stealth.
I took a small detour this week, reworking the spell acquisition. Once I'm done with spells I'll tackle stealth.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Yes, Monomyth uses the distance between the player and light sources to calculate the player's visibility.

And it shows the visibility like it does in Thief or just numerical value somewhere in the stat screen?

 

[RatTower]

Yes, Monomyth uses the distance between the player and light sources to calculate the player's visibility.

And it shows the visibility like it does in Thief or just numerical value somewhere in the stat screen?

The crosshair's transparency represents the player's visibility (full transparency = invisible).

 

[The Wall]

RatTower

Let's dive into discomfort pool. How many genders/body-types will your game have? It is political message, either way. Let's stop pretending, and playing dumb-dumbs that it isn't


2 or 2,000,000? There's no middle

 

[Jenkem]

rls th gm

 

[mediocrepoet]

rls th gm

 

[Infinitron]

Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!



https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/836367155/monomyth/posts/3992889

State of the Game: Video Devlog 9.0 | Playstyles​

Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!

It's time for the last update of this year, and there is plenty to report! Numerous things have been worked on during the last few weeks and you can hear all about it in this month's video devlog. One highlight is the new magic system, which should be interesting for everyone who likes combining runes in Ultima Underworld. But, please, see for yourselves:

I just uploaded the latest patch to the Closed Beta branch and I am now completely focused on polishing everything for the Open Backer Beta. I hope to have it ready very soon.

As always, you will find the transcription of the video below. You will hear from me in the new year. Thank you for your continued support and

Best wishes,

Michael

------------------------------------------

Hi dungeon-crawling fans!

Another month has passed! Time just flies by as the year comes to an end. What is also slowly coming to an end is the closed beta of Monomyth. There has been plenty of progress over the last few weeks and we are getting closer and closer to the Open Backer Beta. So let’s take a look at it.


This month I continued polishing mechanics. Last time I mostly did things related to melee combat, so I thought I could as well arrange these polishing phases around differrent playstyles. Generally speaking there is a distinct playstyle for warriors, mages and thieves.

So I started this month by making some last changes to the warrior’s playstyle.

To keep it short and simple: I removed the shield-bash and added kicking.

I tried keeping it as balanced as possible and it strongly depends on your available stamina. Unlike other attacks its stamina costs are set to a certain percentage. So you will always require, let’s say, a third of your stamina when you kick. When the kick lands, your enemy either falls down or is pushed back, depending on your stamina. Of course, kicks are only really useful against humanoids.


Most of this month's work was focused on the mage’s playstyle. I reworked casting mechanics, spell acquisition, spell mechanics and I also gave some spells a visual workover.


Originally the player could cast spells at any time. You would press the “C” key and start casting a previously memorized spell. This system has been changed. It is now necessary to equip a spellbook to your weapon slot. You can then cast any selected spell with a mouse click.

This is much more comfortable than the original system - especially while moving and aiming at the same time. Using the “C” key in such a situation always felt very awkward. You can still easily switch between a readied weapon and a spellbook mid-combat thanks to the secondary weapon slots.

One element I wanted to have for the mage’s playstyle was some form of explorative spell acquisition. As you may remember, in both Arx and Ultima Underworld you had to combine specific runes to cast a spell. Monomyth does something similar, but it moves into a slightly different direction with its execution.

In order to cast a spell you first need to memorize it. The number of memorized spells depends on your character stats. In order to memorize a spell you have to activate a spell pattern on a pentagram. To do so, you collect “Echo Stones”, magic artifacts of divine origin, each representing a god in the world of Ariath. The stones are fixed on the pentagram. If you wish to memorize a spell, you have to activate the correct order of Echo Stones. If your character is intelligent enough the resulting spell can be memorized in one of your spell slots.

You will still find scrolls throughout the game, but these will just contain the required pattern for the spell. You can always memorize a spell once you have the correct Echo Stones. Once you find the correct combination, it is automatically added to your spellbook.


Many of the spells also have different levels now. The magic arrow spell was completely reworked both mechanically and visually. Once the player acquires deeper knowledge of the related school of magic the spell will gain additional projectiles and eventually start homing in on a hostile target.


To slightly nudge mages towards using specific armor sets, I introduced a weight penalty on focus. Which reminds me, I haven’t talked about focus yet. Focus is for the mage, what is stamina for the warrior. The difference is, stamina decreases once an attack is performed, whereas focus decreases steadily, as long as a mage is casting a spell. Different spells require different levels of focus making the decrease slower or faster. Once all focus is gone the spell either automatically releases or fizzles, depending on whether or not it was fully cast at the time. If a mage carries all plate armor, his focus will decrease much faster, due to the aforementioned penalty.

The final part of this month’s work was focused on the Thief’s playstyle. First I fixed a lot of issues that still existed with archery. I properly implemented various mechanics that depend on the corresponding skill, like the sway while aiming, zooming onto a target and the range of a shot. I replaced the archery animations and while the new animation isn’t as realistic you have a much better view of your target now. I also changed a few things about arrows and how their damage is calculated.

Another improvement was made to the stealth mechanics. I entirely reworked how audio stimuli are registered. Enemy reactions are now more realistic and, most importantly, their ability to hear everything through five walls has been was drastically limited.

Just like with magic there is a weight penalty on sneaking. The heavier your equipment is, the louder your character will be.

Besides all of this I implemented various bug fixes and a text log for the player to take notes in. Now that I have finalized most of the mechanical polishing I will move on to the more general things and mostly polish content and some visuals. Once this is done the open backer beta will finally start. With the start of the open backer beta all backers will receive their keys. I still have to work out some of the details concerning the method of distribution but you will likely get a retrieval link, for example from humble bundle or a similar site.

Until then, I’ll keep you updated and see you soon!

 

[Gargaune]

You can now look through keyholes.

Codex GOTY 2024.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/836367155/monomyth/posts/4017840

State of the Game: Video Devlog 10.0 | Demo​

Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!

We are already a month into the new year, so it is time for a new update! This time we will discuss the latest improvements and Monomyth's participation in the upcoming Steam Next Fest, starting on February the 5th, 2024.

As always you can find the video script below.

Best wishes,

Michael

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!

It’s time for the first update in 2024! Today’s update took a little longer than usual because I am currently preparing a demo to take part in the February edition of the Steam Next Fest.

So let’s take a look at the latest changes and the new demo! Over the last month, I have, again, largely focused on polishing. In fact, I only implemented one very small but interesting new feature.

Players can now look through the keyholes of closed doors. To do so, they have to approach the door while crouching and then interact with the door handle, respectively, the keyhole.

This way you can see what’s going on in the room behind the door and whether or not it is safe to enter.

I also improved loading times significantly during the last month. Initially, the persistent objects of a large area had a massive loading time of around 45 seconds. I finally found the time to improve this and now the loading time for these objects is not even a tenth of what it was before. Now you probably wonder, how on earth can this be? How could this take so long to load, and the answer is actually quite interesting:

The main reason for these massive loading times was how a certain data structure, to be more specific maps, work in UE4. I used this data structure to create a nested registry for each persistent object, mapped against the ID of each persisted level. The problem with the nesting is, that in UE4’s framework the access methods for maps copy the mapped content. Apparently, you cannot access nested contents via reference - unlike in an array, where this is possible. So if you access a nested map a hundred times with the find method, the nested content is copied a hundred times. And in this case, the nested content was the entire persistent object registry of a certain level - and copying that a hundred times, let alone for every object in the level, is a bad idea. So, I decided to pre-cache the mapped registry of the last loaded level, which made the repeated access on the nested map unnecessary. This was a very simple solution once the problem was clear.

Another thing I did to improve the loading times was avoiding unnecessary calls between the persistent objects and the registry. So, during loading, I simply passed the persistent object registry via reference, and each object just looks up its own data. Also, a fairly simple problem, once you tracked it down.

Now to get back to less technical things, I also polished the Heartlands. Plenty of sections in this area were reworked and received new lighting. Sometimes I just changed the geometry a bit, sometimes I added new ways to traverse the level. This was specifically beneficial to stealth gameplay. There are now more ways to infiltrate certain locations and finish quests in a more sneaky manner.

I also added some more level mechanics that take advantage of enemy factions and their potential infighting. This provides some possibilities for creative problem solutions.

Further, I worked on gamepad support. The game itself can now be fully played with the gamepad. For the menus, so far, I only added gamepad-controlled mouse inputs. So your analog stick will control the mouse. The gamepad’s front buttons act as mouse buttons. This was a relatively quick solution for full gamepad support, but so far it works surprisingly well. It still has to be improved somewhat, for example by adding navigation hooks, so you can jump from UI element to UI element by pressing the shoulder buttons.

But now let's come to the demo:
Right away, the demo area is still the Serpent’s Bastion, however, the area has been expanded and you will approach it in a different way. Some of you may remember, I mentioned in an earlier update that I had moved the Serpent’s Bastion from the beginning of the game to the middle. Correspondingly, you will start in a slightly different spot. There is a new quest, there are new sections, and also new enemies. Of course, the old demo was built on the old code base. So this demo will contain all the new features that I have spoken about in past updates, for example, the new spell system, free saving, combat improvements, and so on.

The demo will replace the old demo on Steam. It will be available at Steam Next Fest, which will start on February the 5th, 2024. The replacement is actually quite important, because I keep getting feedback for the old demo, and while I try responding to it all, it doesn’t really make any difference, because the current build of the game is already a different codebase. Patching the old demo would mean I would have to work on an old, abandoned codebase, which wouldn’t make much sense. Now, with the new demo and codebase in place, I can easily patch things that demo players suggested. I can even update the demo with the latest beta patches.
Which also means, that I will try, yet again, to be more active on the Steam forums. During Steam Next Fest anyway, but also afterward.

So, as I said, Steam Next Fest, will start on the 5th. Be there, try the demo, and please wishlist the game. I will probably upload the build a little earlier.
I’ll keep you updated about it all and I will see you soon!

 

[deuxhero]

I was wondering, if different weapons have preferred types of attacks, what's the point of using the other attacks? Is there a point in "stabbing" an enemy with a mace at all (longer reach or knockback for example), aside from enemy armor?

I think Morrowind had a best ideas (even if execution was lacking) for making weapons distinct. In it a weapon's damage range for the player isn't a random number, but its damage from a quick swing (tap attack) versus fully committing to the swing (hold attack then release). Daggers have high minimum damage, low weight (stamina cost to swing a weapon is based on its weight), and quick speed, so they benefit from rapid stabs, while most two handed weapons have high maximum damage but low minimum damage and high weight, so they benefit from a smaller number of full power attacks. Each of MW's melee weapon groups (blunt, axe, short blade, long blade, spear) felt distinct if you knew the mechanics and most had subtypes for variety.

The problem being MW execution was bad. One handed axes were just worse than one handed longblades in every way. The way strength damage works (it multiples damage the further away from 50 strength you are) and how HP scaled meant only single big hits were viable late game (150% of 6 damage is 9, but 150% of 33 is just under 50). The toughest "normal" enemies have less than 300 HP, and even the quickest stabs aren't 5x as fast as the slowest axe. The omniprecence of reflect makes the theoretical advantage with cast on strike weapons that daggers have less useful than the greater stagger/knockdown chance a big hit with a single strike has). Worst of all, none of these mechanics are ever clearly explained to the player.

 

[Gargaune]

Further, I worked on gamepad support. The game itself can now be fully played with the gamepad.

Ah, finally a game that treats console gamers the proper way - as an afterthought.

 

[Nikanuur]

Game of the decade—even in its demo form. In the very least. I am beside myself.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

HOLY FUCK!!
WATCH OUT!!

THEY BITE!!

 

[Jenkem]

who gives a fuck about a new demo RELEASE THE FUCKING GAME... (at least give kickstarter ppl early access keys or something at this point if the game is just bug-fixing/optimization, more eyes and rigs playing it helps you in the long run)

 

[King Crispy]

Shut up, Jenkem.

Moron.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I appreciate the demos others play that earn another bug fix. For when I do play, it’ll be bug free. I really need to play a game from the earliest developement and be part of the RAID team that catches bugs and vermin. Hell, a good er great game is going to get repeat plays.



Wait a minute….. I’ve played Hydlide like 30 times? WHY? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME!!!






…….. so uh…….


……… anyone know if there is an IOS iphone version of Hydlide? Hmmmmm???

 

[Eisen]

Hydlide

which Hydlide version should i play?

 

[NotSweeper]

who gives a fuck about a new demo RELEASE THE FUCKING GAME

You can't rush autism.
As the zoomers would say, let him cook.

 

[Viata]

It's ok, Cleve will fix these microissues.

 

[Viata]

Oh wait...

 

[Tyranicon]

Do we have a new revised release date? Steam page now just says a TBA message.

Excited for this regardless. One of the best solodev dungeon crawlers of this type that I've played.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Hydlide

which Hydlide version should i play?

There is a good PC version I posted about somewhere but AVGN videos are perhaps a better option.

HYDLIDE! LOVE IT OR HATE IT!

“this version”

 

[fantadomat]

Shut up, Jenkem.

Moron.

You seem upset......King Pedo.