Suggestions about grindingSuggestions about grinding
Ekitrina Desilfind
"Is perpetually confused"
Posts: 23
07/10/2013 12:47 | I'm still finding this game fun admitedly after a long absense, indeed far more fun than some more successful games which to me means at least there is a good point in keeping things going.
so, as grinding seems to be the problem here are some thoughts about how to hange the situation:
1: battle effects and special encounters.
The developer of the smugglers series, which can be [url=http://www.nielsbauergames.com/index.html]Found here'>[link] had a similar issue. Smugglers 4, a turn based space combat and adventure game had loads of great systems, the problem is people didn't get that much choice in combat, and the best method was just hitting and hoping, or finding one good ability to use and spamming it.
So, in smugglers 5 there are now combat specials. These change either the way the different properties interact, ---- eg, being close to a nebular disabling missiles, or having the enemy maneuver at a distance changing your hit properties, or are overall environmental effects like continual damage from asteroids, or risk of both opponents being stunned by local radiation.
Earthquakes, predatory plants, arena types that cause damage etc, it just gives an overall different effect to play with and stops players from becoming too complacent with the game, and there is already some evidence for this in things like the low gravity arener.
Environmental effects could play with energy, say fighting in the desert saps your monsters strength, with block, high winds pushing your monsters off balance, heck they could give advantages to the mob or you, (maybe some mobs surprise you and get some free attacks in).
2: more effect from party.
At the moment, even though you can explore with three monsters, only the one fighting has a practical difference. there doesn't even seem to be a way to swamp them out. It'd be great if monsters could have support and bench skills to activate, could earn some extra srp from the fight along with the main monster, but could also risk being damaged by mobs. combining this with environment, you could even have effects like fighting in a forest makes such support skills less useful.
3: more of the map.
At the moment the only things on the map are monsters and the occasional merchant, yet tthere could be extra challenges not involving combat. Perhaps you could find likely spots on the map where workers could dig for treasure, (providing they don't disturb the inhabitants), where evil monsters could thieve from honest travelers, or good monsters could heal, heck maybe cute monsters give you interactions with npcs. I'd love to see more made of item acquisition in this way, and maybe random quests too.
4: mixing up the mobs.
at the moment the mobs are all in given areas, well maybe there could be set challenges, such as dungeons where mobs are more randomized, this particularly for high level players, and providing a challenge outside quests especially if in dungeons there was more chance of better items.
I hope if the game is ever worked on again, some of these ideas might be considdered, since I still think Monbre would be a fantastic contender for a truly remarkable game, and one which (if vip status happened), people would be willing to pay for (heck I would), just with some expantion.
I also remember reading an old announcement about more automated combat, tthough to me this is a no no, since I've found games where you just equip your party and then click "fight" to be universally rather dull, combat already has plenty of options with energy, attacks etc, it just needs expantion so that players can get out of that grind heavy rut, or have a reason to go and fight in areas that test their monsters limits rather than playing it safe.
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There are three ways to do things, the right way, the wrong way and my! way.
My way is like the wrong way, ----- but faster! |
Mogu Digger 
"Hello, everyone!"
Posts: 11
07/22/2013 00:58 | Some good ideas but... about 2.
When you complete the quest in Mar Muras you get the srp share device that can give the srp to 1, 2, or 3 exploring monsters.
Second and third monsters can use skills to heal first monster while exploring and can have skills to boost the party.
mobs do have special attacks and extra attacks.
If you go to Mar Muras, there is an environment attack when the mob knocks down a monster there. Vael started to do things with the environment but...
This game is good but got dropped for supposedly a better one 
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Ekitrina Desilfind
"Is perpetually confused"
Posts: 23
07/23/2013 08:26 | Hi.
I'[ve not got the device you mention about srp, but that does help, however I disagree that using healing or buff abilities by secondary monsters is really what was needed, since that's still outside battle, and those monsters still don't get damaged or affected by combat really. Most npc abilities are good but don't really require you to change stratogy, for instance if the defense goes up it just means your constant attacking does less damage, where as if you say were fighting with two monsters these could be bought into prominance.
i agree Monbre has massive potential but it just never got developed, ---- and as for the supposedly murder city game I'm not even certain what happened to that especially since it seemed almost entirely automated and a far cry from monbre.
If you actually want a really good example of a game that does some of the things that monbre does, go to http://www.puppetnightmares.com/ that games ha a great battle system that has many of the effects I'd considder in monbre to reduce grinding.
Unfortunately it very much skips on descriptive text, has no exploring and using the ability isn't that interesting, there's no random robots self reparing or anything like that just "x uses x" likewise, there's no fun history and delivery quest, just a story concerning you fighting lots of dungeons, but as far as battle goes pn has a great idea it's just a shame the rest of the game doesn't quite support the system, especially when it comes to the world.
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There are three ways to do things, the right way, the wrong way and my! way.
My way is like the wrong way, ----- but faster! |
Vael Victus 
"See you, fantasy monster game."
Posts: 2200
08/09/2013 19:22 | Ekitrina, thanks so much for the effort you've put into your post. The truth is that, in fact, MonBre is still out of development and will never be in development again.  However, I do have plans for a spiritual successor to MonBre. Descriptive text, heavy narrative, a story; these have all been requirements for my games since I first started MonBre. You can follow the development of the GAM3 engine at: http://blackcoats.tumblr.com/
MurCity, after 1,000 hours of development, is no more. Domain cancelled. I was incredibly naive, had no real idea of how to make a fun game, and its scope was just ridiculous.
Regarding your suggestions, which are all fantastic: this would all be planned and more. If I were to recreate MonBre today without the GAM3 engine, you'd see twice as much map in a world half the size, with treasures everywhere to be found. Dynamic events to be completed within a certain time, breeders fighting alongside the monster, "unlimited" monsters fighting at the same time. It'd all be in. MonBre's had a great community and I thank you for playing - I honestly thank you, I'm glad some people did enjoy MonBre even if it did 100 things wrong. Remember that just because a game is fun does not mean it is a good game. MonBre had all the heart and no brain.
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MonBre is an unlisted game of Tinydark Studio.
Personal Website: vaelvict.us |
Mogu Digger
"Hello, everyone!"
Posts: 11
08/10/2013 10:34 | Guess I'm just ignorent about good games and gameplay.
I thought this game was going in the right dirrection and still enjoy it as it is.
But, it would probably be better to get a "good" game and just change the story and name of things and make it another great game!
Forget all about originality!
Every game has something that's wrong for someone, no game is perfect for all.
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Vael Victus
"See you, fantasy monster game."
Posts: 2200
08/15/2013 08:08 | Black Coat Studio games will always be original. Why are you concerned? MonBre's spiritual successor, if it does come, will have a more fleshed out and realistic world. Something I never managed to get across in the MonBre lore is that your job as a breeder is very important to the world because you're essentially part of the army. I'd really like to make an RPG such as MonBre again.
If you're convinced MonBre's such a good game, try to persuade me. Seriously, perhaps I am wrong. Tell me what you think it does right. Ignore the bugs.
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MonBre is an unlisted game of Tinydark Studio.
Personal Website: vaelvict.us
Edited once on Sunday, Jun 15th 0:33:42 2014 by Vael Victus |
Mogu Digger
"Hello, everyone!"
Posts: 11
08/15/2013 11:20 | Oops, my bad, didn't mean to be misunderstood.
I was saying that about the game that monber was supposed to change into, not about the spiritual successor.
sorry for the confusion and noone can make anyone feel what they don't feel, especially not me 
I really hope your efforts are fruitful, good luck!
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Ekitrina Desilfind
"Is perpetually confused"
Posts: 23
11/04/2013 09:25 | Okay, checking out monbre again and I'll take up the challenge: "what is good about monre"
1: World and story that interacts with the games' systems:
This probably sounds like a no brainer, but believe me from someone who has played literally hundreds of text rpgs, it's very rare to find someone that gets the most out of text.
Described monsters, described locations and an actual plot that does more than "go to dungeon x and kill lots of stuff for money"
2: Distinct encounters with monsters and bosses:
This again is similar to the first point. There are lots of games where essentially every enemy is the same, they look the same, they do the same things in battle. While Monbre needed a little more impact from it's stratogy the textual description of enemies who hide themselves with shield, cast magic, fly into the sky etc is just great and makes a massive amount of difference.
3: properly explorable map.
Big maps are good. admitedly I would like more encounters and more description of locations outside towns, but a big map gives you a real sense of space and makes travelling around the world actually feel! like travelling, not just clicking "go to next town" type of arrows.
4: Combat skills and abilities with descriptions.
While Monbre needed more in the system, giving you actual attacks with descriptions and different options in combat is a great idea. I personally hate! automatic combat which %99 of all games have, since I want a reactive challenge, something that comes up and does something and then! you need to choose your response, not a static challenge of just lining up all the big numbers and stats and then hammering the attack button. While Monbre does suffer from ineffective system, it's imho far better an ineffective reactive battle system than none at all.
5: a nice balance between offline progression and online play.
There are some games which are entirely time based. You set your production, set your character doing something then walk away. This is okay as far as it goes, it gives you a reason to log in each day, but doesn't mean you can play for long periods. Some games do the opposite, you go online, you play, but there is no reason to continue.
Monbre really got the balance write, worker monsters and food management to give you a reason to go on every few hours, plus full rpg dungeoning.
6: achievable progression. One of the crytical problems with many rpgs is exponential level systems. You start, it takes 100 xp to get to level 1, then 200 to level 2, 400 to level 3 and so on. Even though monsters give more xp as time goes on, generally you take longer and longer to get to higher levels. Monbre means that your rate of progression with splicing monsters is pretty constant, you can always be sure your getting somewhere and don't feel like your just spinning your wheels.
7: Reasonable pvp. A pet hate of mine is inforced harmful pvp. Your going along, working your way through the story and building your character when bam! someone comes along beats you up and knicks all your money. Yet on the other hand cooperative raids can be nice, and nothing is wrong with a little harmless competition.
Monbre again got the balance perfectly right here, (and so few games do). It's also worth noting that Monbre ass compared to many other games has a very good single player experience. So many games substitute community for content it's actually not funny!
8: Accessibility. Monbre is accessible to screen readers plus efforts are made to insure that it remains so (ie, the quest locations list).
Hope this makes sense and that if you make another game you'll considder all of these points.
Oh, and sorry for the really late reply.
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There are three ways to do things, the right way, the wrong way and my! way.
My way is like the wrong way, ----- but faster! |
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