Mystic Land: The Search for Maphaldo - Old school RPG inspired by W7 and EoB

[SirBlabsAlot]

Liked and subbed

Also, is the artist who designed the portraits and UI (I'm assuming they're done by the same person) in-house or a contractor? Asking for a friend

Both contractors.
I can give you details as soon as they're done with the tasks for Mystic Land

You working on something interesting?

Probably! I'm just toying with some ideas atm (mainly in tabletop), but I'll bug you if more of the idea gets concretised

Cool.
Shoot me a PM if it comes to that.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I honestly thought we were to look for Malphado.
Very mad about the lack of barbarians but good luck nonetheless.

 

[lvl 2 Blue Slime]

How far along is it development wise?

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

How far along is it development wise?

Honest answer would go something like this:

Mechanics wise, the game is about 60-70% done.
There is still work to be done on battle, lockpicking and quest systems/NPC interactions.

Movement, maps, objects... about 90% of the programming done (but we need assets to fill the areas of course).

Story is finalized and all main quests are known.

Graphics/animations for the first areas are 80-90% done (those include areas that will be in the demo as well).
Monsters/objects about the same. Almost done for first few areas.

Sound/Music - more or less basics and placeholders.

I think that's about it.
I do think it's realistic to target release in 2024 (but the q3 or 4 not before).
We will, however, not release the game if we feel it's still unfinished.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

A question for you all.

We just talked about a few special items in the game and we came to the following dilemma:

An item that is rather "special", is needed for access to a room or area that rewards you with some nice loot and/or gold, but is NOT a quest item in the sense that you cannot finish the game if you lose it.
So, this kind of item.
Do we let players sell/drop it or should we "babysit" the player in this case as well (like we do with 100% needed quest items that cannot be sold or dropped).

So? What would you rather see we do in this case?

 

[Abu Antar]

If it is an item/key that helps you get to secret rooms/places, please do not make it possible to **** over by dropping/selling it. Do a key ring or something similar.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

If it is an item/key that helps you get to secret rooms/places, please do not make it possible to **** over by dropping/selling it. Do a key ring or something similar.

How about (for example) a normal item - let's say a weapon, though rare (only one to be found in the game) that is a completely normal weapon used by your fighter in battle, with all the normal characteristics, but can also be used a "special" way to solve a side-quest puzzle (not needed to finish the game)?
The dilemma is that if we don't allow drop/sell of such item, it will be pretty obvious what item can be used in a quest puzzle by going through all items and trying to "drop" them (you CAN pick up what you dropped for some time).

 

[Sacibengala]

So? What would you rather see we do in this case?

Let them drop it. But do something that makes it clear that the item is special somehow. the color, the description, etc. If the item can't disappear, I don't see a problem. Maybe put a genie somewhere that recover some of them if the player pays a fortune or do him a quest of whatever.

 

[Abu Antar]

That's more acceptable if it can be dropped.

Possibly give a vague hint at something, but no specific details.

 

[Melan]

You should be able to drop non-quest items. If they look distinctive and have interesting names, players can get a hint and keep (or stash) them. Having an option to stash items somewhere should be a feature, if it isn't already.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

So? What would you rather see we do in this case?

Let them drop it. But do something that makes it clear that the item is special somehow. the color, the description, etc. If the item can't disappear, I don't see a problem. Maybe put a genie somewhere that recover some of them if the player pays a fortune or do him a quest of whatever.

OK, this one is interesting.
Will consult with others on how we could approach something like that. Thanks!

 

[Nortar]

So? What would you rather see we do in this case?

Let them drop it. But do something that makes it clear that the item is special somehow. the color, the description, etc. If the item can't disappear, I don't see a problem. Maybe put a genie somewhere that recover some of them if the player pays a fortune or do him a quest of whatever.

OK, this one is interesting.
Will consult with others on how we could approach something like that. Thanks!

Would not it be even more cool if you make an extra homage to Wiz7 by adding a party of NPCs who hunt for treasure and artifacts. If you discard such a key item it will eventually be collected by the said NPC. So if at some point you decide to recover it, instead of trying to remember where you dropped or sold it, you'll have to hunt down and deal with the rival to by combat or negotiation.

 

[Sotomonte]

As was mentioned already, if you make it possible for the item to be sold/drop, it would be best to put some kind of "clue" that makes it fairly clear that the item has a special purpose.

For example in the description: "A beautifully carved dagger/sword/ring/whatever of great craftsmanship, its construction is so unique that it is clear that it was forged for a special purpose... but which one?"... or something like that.

 

[negator2vc]

Do we let players sell/drop it or should we "babysit" the player in this case as well (like we do with 100% needed quest items that cannot be sold or dropped).

I think the best solution is to allow these items to be dropped or be sold but
allow the player to recover them by either going back to the place he dropped the item
or buy the item back from the NPC.

 

[GandGolf]

So? What would you rather see we do in this case?

Let them drop it. But do something that makes it clear that the item is special somehow. the color, the description, etc. If the item can't disappear, I don't see a problem. Maybe put a genie somewhere that recover some of them if the player pays a fortune or do him a quest of whatever.

OK, this one is interesting.
Will consult with others on how we could approach something like that. Thanks!

What about making it so that the game keeps track of where you drop items so you can quickly back track to get them back? Though this should probably only apply to somewhat unique items and not things that you can find multiples of. Maybe even have dropped items show up on your minimap if your skill is high enough.

 

[Jaesun]

As was mentioned already, if you make it possible for the item to be sold/drop, it would be best to put some kind of "clue" that makes it fairly clear that the item has a special purpose.

For example in the description: "A beautifully carved dagger/sword/ring/whatever of great craftsmanship, its construction is so unique that it is clear that it was forged for a special purpose... but which one?"... or something like that.

This. I'm a fan of rewarding players that read and pay attention.

 

[:Flash:]

The title of this game always makes me think that I have to google "Maphaldo" in order to get more information about it. Shouldn't it be "The Search for Maphaldo"?

 

[mediocrepoet]

The title of this game always makes me think that I have to google "Maphaldo" in order to get more information about it. Shouldn't it be "The Search for Maphaldo"?

I've never read it that way, but I get it now that you say that. Very interesting.

Either way, "Mystic Land" is a brutal title imo. Did someone already trademark "Generica"?

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

The title of this game always makes me think that I have to google "Maphaldo" in order to get more information about it. Shouldn't it be "The Search for Maphaldo"?

Hm, you are the first to mention this.
And I will be the first to admit that nobody in MegaVision is currently from English speaking country, so it could be we made a mistake there.

Anyone else shares this opinion?
It's not hard to add "The" to the subtitle of the game anyway, so if the consensus is that there should be "The", then we will do so for the final version of the game.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

The title of this game always makes me think that I have to google "Maphaldo" in order to get more information about it. Shouldn't it be "The Search for Maphaldo"?

I've never read it that way, but I get it now that you say that. Very interesting.

Either way, "Mystic Land" is a brutal title imo. Did someone already trademark "Generica"?

Mystic Land was the title back in the early 90s when we started the project for the first time, and although I do realise that "Mystic Land" is not the most original title today, we decided to stick with it.
It's got a subtitle anyway, so it's not just "Mystic Land"

 

[Jaesun]

Mystic Lands: The Search for Maphaldo

That does sound better in English.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Mystic Lands: The Search for Maphaldo

That does sound better in English.

I'd go further and suggest that that sounds significantly better, to me at least.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Mystic Lands: The Search for Maphaldo

That does sound better in English.

I'd go further and suggest that that sounds significantly better, to me at least.

Well, Mystic Land (without s) will stay - as the land (the map if you will) itself is called that - The Mystic Land
But I'll suggest to others that we add "The" into the subtitle.

 

[Dorateen]

I always equated the title with "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock". So, yes, adding in The is probably a good call.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I always equated the title with "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock". So, yes, adding in The is probably a good call.

The article "the" makes it apparent that "Search" is a noun describing an action that is being taken or that was taken rather than a verb being used as an imperative.

(This post is more to satisfy my own autism than a suggestion that you didn't understand that, Dorateen.)