Minions of Mirth

[Peregrine]

I know this game was mentioned in some shareware threads a while back, but I stumbled on it and played it a bit tonight. Wow, I have to say I'm impressed. Basically it's a very small company's MMORPG, which can also be played in single player mode, but there's so many good ideas here that you don't see in the "big boys." You start up, make a character, and load it into a party. What, a party? Is this Wizardry? Well apparently so, the game is set up so that you can play a single character or a party, I didn't really mess with the parties, but from what I gather, you still have a single avatar who is the character you select, and who might get bonuses from quests etc, but in fighting all your characters fight, there's a lot of macro support so that you can time all your spells to land in the right order.

Walking around the land, it's obvious that something like the original Everquest is what they are shooting for, but the graphics are very well done from a small company, there is neat weather, and being able to talk to merchants and get quests from NPCs was about what you'd expect. There are various classes, fighters fight, mage types (one I tried was called a Revealer) blast enemies with spells, etc. I definitely recommend checking out the manual on the game web site, because some things can get a bit confusing.

Well, too many features to name, a great scalable map, a tracking window with a little wolf on it that points the way you should go to find someone, a journal that not only tracks your quests but also crafting info, etc.

Did I mention that as you kill certain monsters you unlock them and then they can be played as characters in a monster mode, rampaging around? If that doesn't sound cool to you, then we're not on the same wavelength. Even Cubby the Black Bear Cub was fun to play in this mode!

It's definitely worth a look, and I've barely gone beyond the starting town. Best of all, you can play the starting version for free, and the premium version is a one-time $30 charge which gives you access to the evil realm and its races and classes. No monthly fees.

http://www.prairiegames.com/

[Antmeister]

Wow! Thanks for the review. I added it to my freeware/shareware lists at one time afte toying with it, but I didn't realize it was this deep. I have to check this out again; possibly this weekend. I didn't realize it did even half the stuff you mentioned.

[sabotai]

I go to the GarageGames.com website a lot, and I'm pretty sure this game is made with their Torque Engine. I've always meant to check it out.

EDIT: Ah, I remember it now. You can also mod and host your own server for the game, I think.

[Peregrine]

Yeah from what I read you are free to make and add your own content and then use it on a private server.

I've experimented a bit more with parties, they are fun but a bit hard. Also, you can only use them in the single player game, when you're online with other players it's one character only.

Here's a screenshot of my two person group looking at the starting tower in some ominous weather.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/krm123/mom.jpg

[aran]

Hmm. This looks like it isn't complete crap.

Perhaps worth a try.

[Peregrine]

Another neat feature of the game that I've always wanted in other games, pets have a full inventory, you can give them armor and weapons that you find, and they can just carry extra things for you. If I'm a necromancer, I want to get some work out of those skeletons!

[Bee]

Excuse me while I go all jbmagic on your ass:


Can you play in "monster mode" in multiplayer or is that just in single player?
Is there PvP?
I saw you mention you can set up your own server, but are there default servers?

I downloaded the demo when it first came out, but at that point there was major lag even when playing the single player game. Has that been resolved?

Thanks

jbmag...err Bee

[Peregrine]

Excuse me while I go all jbmagic on your ass:


Can you play in "monster mode" in multiplayer or is that just in single player?
Is there PvP?
I saw you mention you can set up your own server, but are there default servers?

I downloaded the demo when it first came out, but at that point there was major lag even when playing the single player game. Has that been resolved?

Thanks

jbmag...err Bee


Well keep in mind I've only touched the game a little, but from what I understand you can play in monster mode in multiplayer, though I think from what people have said that regular players can kill you. You can also level as a monster and do quests.

Not sure about PVP, I heard mention of some kind of PVP server but I think it's a private one and not sure about it.

There are default servers for multiplayer for both the free game (limited to level 20) and the premium version.

I haven't had any lag issues so far, but it may vary.

[Peregrine]

Further info after more play, there's definitely a RVR (PVP server) but it's premium only, meaning you have to buy the game. Also the population seems very low. I have had a few lag issues but not too much. Overall I'm still loving this game, especially as I explore more classes, I'm really liking the bard and necromancer so far.

[hukarez]

Here's that original thread from Yellow5: http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?p=1032954#post1032954

I knew the name rang a bell awhile ago, I completely forgot what it was that happened back then after my demo run... at least, after I kept getting chased about by some skeletons.

I think I still have it installed on my desktop's hard drive prior to the crash.

[Peregrine]

Interesting Hukarez. I think the game has come a good way since release, they seem to be actively making fixes and adding content with each patch. From my few days of play, I'd advise the following for anyone trying the game:

1) Max out the gamma. Maybe this was just me, but the game can be very dark, particularly at night (makes sense.) You can buy torches that help some in town, but after I moved the gamma up a lot, it really improved my game experience.

2) Read the manual on the website, but don't expect too much. It's a work in progress.

3) The encyclopedia is your friend, it's one of the options on the main bar, right next to the journal. It's not all that user friendly, basically a big database, but it has all the information about what your spells do, when you get certain skills, quest info, crafting recipes, etc.

4) There is a useful system for getting basic help via the mom command in the help channel. It's not always up, but if it is, you can /h mom strength (or whatever) and it will give you a basic description of what the strength attribute does.

5) Make money by selling things to higher level players. The main things that sell are the stat potions, and poison ingredients. There are many buyers for both, and you can get much needed cash for getting your secondary class, for example. You can advertise in the /o Off-topic channel. One player Citrine will always buy all poison ingredients for a platinum a pop.

More as I think of them.

[hukarez]

Interesting Hukarez. I think the game has come a good way since release, they seem to be actively making fixes and adding content with each patch. From my few days of play, I'd advise the following for anyone trying the game:

1) Max out the gamma. Maybe this was just me, but the game can be very dark, particularly at night (makes sense.) You can buy torches that help some in town, but after I moved the gamma up a lot, it really improved my game experience.

2) Read the manual on the website, but don't expect too much. It's a work in progress.

3) The encyclopedia is your friend, it's one of the options on the main bar, right next to the journal. It's not all that user friendly, basically a big database, but it has all the information about what your spells do, when you get certain skills, quest info, crafting recipes, etc.

4) There is a useful system for getting basic help via the mom command in the help channel. It's not always up, but if it is, you can /h mom strength (or whatever) and it will give you a basic description of what the strength attribute does.

5) Make money by selling things to higher level players. The main things that sell are the stat potions, and poison ingredients. There are many buyers for both, and you can get much needed cash for getting your secondary class, for example. You can advertise in the /o Off-topic channel. One player Citrine will always buy all poison ingredients for a platinum a pop.

More as I think of them.

That's something that threw me off when I first played the game -- all those messages from people on channel in that window to the bottom right, and I was under the impression that I was on the "same server" as they were, despite playing locally. I think I was trying to run around and find folks to save me from those skeletons that chased my newly created character at the time.

Just to clarify -- you've dished out the $30 or so fee for this already, I presume? I think Yellow5 did awhile ago, and I never got around to spending much time on this game back then. Also, that was prior to new hardware coming into play for me, at which point I'll probably want to revisit this in due time.

Only thing I'm kind of curious about is if there are folks actually playing on multiplayer servers, or are still kind of going 'solo' with that whole global chat thing working in the background..

[Peregrine]

Yes I've bought the game. There is a decent sized (for a small game) population in multiplayer, I usually see around 25-40 people on the premium server, and about the same or a bit more on the free server. There are also people playing single player, of course I don't know how many. And yes it can be confusing because it's all in a single chat, especially so because not only can you be chatting from your single player game, you can be chatting in game through IRC when you're not even playing (though those people are identified by |irc after their names.) I pretty much play exclusively in multiplayer, at least so far.

One thing to note, your single player characters are not transferrable to multiplayer (because the single player game has tons of cheats you can use,) but your multiplayer characters can jump back and forth from the premium servers to free servers to player servers, they aren't assigned to any particular one.

[hukarez]

Ahhh...

Now I remember why I didn't get much of a chance to delve more into this game. My old laptop's (I've grown fond of playing on laptops these days, more so than my desktop) videocard wasn't up to par, and I had rather atrocious results.

Now that I've got new hardware, perhaps it's a chance for me to delve back into this.

[hukarez]

I thought I'd re-visit this thread again, being that it's a Friday and I'm just waiting for work to be over with.

Any other interesting tidbits about this game that you've uncovered so far, Peregrine? I'll have to wait until I get more funds flowing into my account, but I'm pretty much gearing up to give the free edition a spin on the new system.