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v1.61 Preview and General Progress Report

NEStalgia, Sneak Peeks, Upcoming Features

Feb 012012

As we continue to plug away on the big Monster Companion update, more and more of the supporting changes are going to start to make appearances on the live servers. The next version bump won’t bring companions, but it will bring us one more important step closer.

Forthcoming v1.61 Changes

There won’t be any earth shattering changes packed into v1.61, but there will be many small ones. Changes include the addition of a “Level Lock” toggle which will prevent your character from earning experience and leveling up. Another tweak: the “Plus Exp” and “Plus Gold” stats are becoming “Extra Exp” and “Extra Gold”, as both stats will now be added as a direct bonus to the Experience and Gold earned from battles, rather than a percentage increase.

My favorite change so far is something that I’ve been meaning to implement for a long time. Per modern MMO standards, all “Quest Giver” NPCs will have quest indicator icons floating above their heads in v1.61:

Exclamation Points indicate that an NPC has quests available; Question Marks mean that you have a completed quest that needs to be turned in to that NPC. The indicators are yellow for regular quests and blue for dailies.

These indicators are one of those random things that was surprisingly challenging to implement, which is why I hadn’t done so before now. With the companion update looming, the quest indicators finally made it to the top of my to-do list because there will soon be many more daily/repeatable quests scattered all over the world related to the new reputation system.

I’ll continue to add items to the v1.61 update notes as I work. The patch should go live by this weekend.

When Will Companions Be Ready?

I’ve been getting this question a lot lately, and all that I’m willing to say is that we’re making great progress on the update and that it will be ready when it’s ready. As soon as I have a public release date set it will be posted here on the blog/Facebook/Twitter in big flashing letters – I promise that you won’t miss it.

Being able to dole out most of the big code changes incrementally on the live servers has really sped up development as compared to the Skill Tree update, which had to be released in one huge chunk. It should also dramatically reduce the amount of time that we need to private test stuff.

Other News

As most of you know, some random script kiddie managed to topple our servers with a DoS attack last week. Turns out that he/she/it did us a favor: I switched over to a faster host with proper DoS protection and so far the results have been great.

In stark contrast to the crappy side of humanity displayed by our attacker, we had several community members step up and make big financial contributions in the past week. “Ninja O” (key: AdamSetzler) made an incredibly generous donation by teaching me how to setup a recurring monthly PayPal donation system and then subscribing to it. For as long as he decides to contribute, his monthly donation will be covering our server costs in full every month. Booyah!

Lumino also made a massive contribution this week by purchasing a ton of gift subscriptions for other players. He has gone on these gift subscription sprees several times in the past, making him our largest financial benefactor.

So, thank you very much Ninja O and Lumino! Between community members who open their wallets, to those who have contributed incredible artwork, put in countless hours testing/posting bug reports, or even just those who provide lots of moral support, I feel very humbled and grateful.

I’m going to wrap up this beast of a blog post before it gets any longer, but be sure to check in this weekend for v1.61 and keep your eyes on the blog for many more news updates this month.

Podcast: Monster Companion Q&A

NEStalgia, Podcasts, Upcoming Features

Jan 112012

With a standalone installer and the flash client on the way, 2012 is going to be a big year for NEStalgia. As we work to exponentially increase the NEStalgia’s player base this year, the game itself will continue to receive lots of awesome new updates and content expansions. The next big update in the works is the previously announced Monster Companion expansion that will enable players to recruit almost any monsters in the game to be their AI controlled allies. For this week’s podcast we did a Q&A about this new companion system based upon player submitted questions:

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You can find this and previous podcasts on the NEStalgia Podcasts page and also on iTunes.

Although lots of progress is being made, I won’t be making any big preview blog posts about Monster Companions (or the automated PvP Tournaments that Spiff is working on) until there is something worth showing off. As soon as I have something solid to report, all of you will be the first to know about it.

The Next Big Steps For NEStalgia

NEStalgia, Sneak Peeks, Upcoming Features

Dec 142011

NEStalgia received a mention in the latest issue of PC Gamer!

As most of you know, this past February when we publicly announced the release of NEStalgia we were not expecting to get even a fraction of the media coverage or hordes of players that we ended up receiving. Up until that moment both Spiff and I had always regarded NEStalgia as a fun hobby, but not a serious attempt at making a commercial independent game.

Needless to say, my idea of what NEStalgia was and what it could be changed significantly during the craziness of last Spring. The major changes that you’ve seen in the game since that time have all been part of our efforts to transition NEStalgia from being a hobbyist project into a full-fledged indie game. Although it took much longer than I expected, I’m really happy with where we’re sitting right now and I’m looking forward to what’s next.

AI Controlled Monster Companions

Gameplay-wise, NEStalgia’s last major issue is that partying with other players is sometimes necessary in order to progress through the game (not to mention the fact that solo grinding can be a bit of a drag). This was originally an intentional design decision, but as the game grows with future content expansions it will only exasperate the challenges for lonely solo players. We’ve already announced that the remedy to this issue will be a new AI controlled companion system, but up until now the details have been somewhat sparse.

So, here is an outline of how the companions will work:

Any monster that isn’t a boss can be recruited to become your companion.

Every monster is at least slightly different. Ex: Red Slimes will have different stats and abilities than Blue Slimes.

You can have up to two companions with you at a time when soloing, with some conditions:

Only one companion will join you for regular battles.
Both companions will join in for boss fights.

You can set the general tactics that your companions use, but cannot control them directly.
Monster companions will level up and feature their own limited skill trees. They do not have an inventory or equip gear.
When partying with other players, your companions will not be active participants in the battle but will instead bestow a variety of passive stat boosts and abilities to increase your power.

The passive boosts vary by monster, allowing you to customize your load out.
You will always be more powerful when grouping with other players than you are when soloing with your monster companions.

Your monster companions are shared between all of your characters, and can be accessed by any of your characters at any time.

You will not be able to use a monster that is a higher level than your character. No max level monsters for your fresh level 1 characters

Those are the basics, and I’ll be revealing more details and screenshots in the coming weeks. Remember that the multiplayer aspect of NEStalgia will remain the core of the experience. The primary goal here is to make the game more fun and more accessible for all players without over-complicating things or diminishing the multiplayer focus. Being able to solo through an area when you can’t find human party members is going to make a huge difference for everyone, not to mention the Pokemon-esque fun to be had in recruiting and leveling different monsters.

Becoming a Standalone Game

BYOND is truly an incredible toolset, but it was originally designed around the concept of having all games created with BYOND live within that ecosystem. Although it was a great way for us to get started, in order for NEStalgia to continue growing it needs to shed the BYOND trappings and become a completely standalone game. Luckily for us, the developers of BYOND agree and will be helping us to make that transition in the coming months.

What does that mean? Nothing from a gameplay perspective: the BYOND foundation will still power NEStalgia and the game itself won’t see any drastic changes. What it will likely entail is a standalone installer for the game which drops things like the BYOND pager, and the potential for us to distribute NEStalgia on services such as Steam.

We’re still working out the details, but I can at least assuage fears about one sticking point: NEStalgia won’t be split into a BYOND version and a separate standalone version – all of our existing users will be making this transition with us.

The Flash Client

The Flash Client is still being developed, and so far it works really well. The idea with the flash client is to make the game super easy to access without having to install anything; the client acts as a browser-based portal to existing NEStalgia servers. When it’s ready early next year we’re hoping that it will expose the game to tons of new players, including our neglected but not forgotten Mac OS X brethren!

Content Expansions

Last but certainly not least, we will begin rolling out new content and level cap expansions on a regular basis following the monster companion update. I know that many NEStalgia oldbies are dying for content updates, and I’m hoping that you’ll bear with us just a little bit longer. I’m confident that the results will be worth the wait.

I don’t want to give release projections for any of this stuff yet, but all of you will be the first to know here on the blog when release dates are set. I’ll probably be a bit less visible until January rolls around, but we do have a really cool holiday event in the works that should go live next week.

Although I’m still having a hard time thinking of myself as a game developer or wrapping my head around the fact that NEStalgia has become a real project, I’m incredibly humbled to have such an enthusiastic player base supporting us. As great as 2011 was for NEStalgia, I have a good feeling that 2012 is going to be even better.

v1.55 Releasing Saturday + More Notes

NEStalgia, Upcoming Features

Nov 302011

The previously discussed v1.55 patch (full notes) will go live this Saturday. Things have gone really well on the test server and I’m excited for all of you to check it out. From the wealth of new features to the much improved user interface design work, this is a great patch.

Whether or not v1.55 will include the balance changes that I’ve been meaning to implement is kind of up in the air at this point. I don’t want to delay the patch any further just so that we can include those changes (which are related to Ninja improvements, better itemization for all classes at various levels etc), so they may be relegated to a v1.56 update that would be released sometime next week. As a developer it’s very easy to fall into the trap of trying to cram everything that you want to do into one patch, and I’m going to try and avoid that for v1.55.

v1.55 also includes a complete revamp of the game’s long neglected F1 Help files.

No new podcast today, but we’ll be back next week with another one. There is also another official PvP tournament this coming Sunday, this time on Zenithia.

NEStalgia v1.55 Preview – Gamepad Mode, New Interface, and More…

NEStalgia, Sneak Peeks, Upcoming Features

Nov 222011

The next NEStalgia patch has grown into a bit of a monster. Spiff and I had a pretty decent sized list of goals for the post-skill tree patches, and somehow almost all of those ambitions have ended up coming to fruition simultaneously in this single massive update.

First and foremost, Gamepad Mode is finally here. Courtesy of Spiff, you’ll now be able to play NEStalgia using a gamepad/keyboard exclusively. This new option is a simple toggle from the expanded preferences menu in v1.55, and it comes along with its own interface setup specific crafted for mouse-less navigation:

You can click the toggle in the corner to disable Gamepad Mode anytime

Pressing the "A Button" brings up this navigation menu

Notice that the Main HUD itself looks a bit different as well, and most those changes aren’t relegated to Gamepad Mode exclusively. The old Party HUD and Invite/Attack buttons are completely gone, replaced with a much more intuitive setup. You can now see all of your fellow party members’ information on the Main HUD at all times:

…but the real treat is the new player interaction setup. I’ve created a short video meant to serve as a tutorial for new players in the future that also serves to show off these new features. In addition to demonstrating the new player inviting/attack interface, this video gives you a glimpse of the new Auto-Heal and Auto-Refill functions in action!

Last for today but certainly not least, Spiff has also prepared another highly-requested change: battle backgrounds. Those of you who read the forums might remember this topic in which the community helped us to explore the many possibilities for giving battles some sort of scenery. What we settled on are Lufia-style faded overworld backgrounds in battle, and they look great. If there are any NES purists out there, you’ll be able to disable these backgrounds and stick with the classic black void via a toggle in the preferences menu.

In this post I covered many of the new features and refinements that are coming, but it’s important to note that v1.55 will also include many balance changes for the skill trees. I’ll talk about those changes soon, but for now I hope that all of you enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday (or 4 straight days of Skyrim for those of you staying home this year). I’ll be back next week with a release date for v1.55 and perhaps even some juicy details on the forthcoming companion/content patch that is in the works.

Top Ten Previously Unannounced v1.52 Changes

NEStalgia, Sneak Peeks, Upcoming Features

Oct 172011

The new Guild Ranks HUD

I’ve talked a lot about the big stuff coming in v1.52, but there are loads of smaller changes included in this patch as well. Granted, “smaller” is relative here: in a typical patch almost all of the less touted features coming with v1.52 would be fairly significant news. Many of the items below have been documented in the patch notes for a few weeks, but I haven’t brought any attention to them.

Without further ado, here are the Top Ten Previously Unannounced v1.52 Changes (in no particular order):

1.) Frame rate and movement speed increases

NEStalgia’s current frame rate is about 10 FPS, but with recent upgrades to the BYOND system we’ve been able to bump it up to 16 FPS for v1.52. That doesn’t sound like much of a change, but it really does make a big difference in terms of the smoothness of the visuals and the responsiveness of the controls.

The new online players HUD

The big motivation behind the increased frame rate is that it allows us to actually bump up players’ overworld movement speed. The speed change is minor, but it makes a big difference. Characters no longer feel sluggish when moving around the map, and on the whole navigating the game just feels a lot better.

2.) Say goodbye to Soften, Harden and Speed Crystals

Spell Crystals were added to the game before any form of character customization existed (even before Milestone boosts!). With the advent of Skill Trees these crystals are no longer necessary, and their existence actually makes a lot of skill point investment decisions much less meaningful. Therefore, as part of the re-balance I’ve decided to ax Soften, Harden and Speed Crystals completely. Anyone who currently owns one of these crystals will be able to resell the now useless crystals for a full gold refund.

The Battle Spell Book

3.) Two new quests

Players can earn up to 38 Skill Points to spend. Most of those come from leveling up, but four can be purchased via the revamped Moon Blessings, and two can be earned by completing a couple new quests.

Found at the Colosseum, a new “bonus” quest giver rewards players a skill point for finding all of the treasure chests in the game. His second quest rewards a skill point for completing every other quest in the game. Now players ought to have a bit more motivation to shoot for 100% completion.

4.) Persistent battle status icons

This was a highly requested change: battle status indicators no longer disappear during the “action round” of battle. These indicators are now added and removed in real time.

Re-ordering Battle Spells

5.) Instant Kill abilities work on bosses and in PvP

Prior to v1.52 Instant Kill abilities such as CoinFlip and Judgement have been completely ineffective against bosses or other players. In the update all of that is changing, but instead of instantly killing a boss or player, Instant Kill abilities will do the spell damage equivalent of a critical hit.

6.) Ability re-ordering in a new Spell Book HUD

Not only is this an oft requested change, but with the introduction of Skill Trees it has actually become a necessary one. Players will now be able to re-order their spell lists for both battle and the overworld. Furthermore, clicking on an ability in this new HUD will show a brief description of what it does, and in the case of a “random success” ability actually indicates its base success rate.

The new Preferences HUD

7.) New HUDs for Guild and Social management

Previously detached from the game window and housed in NEStalgia’s external interface, the Guild and Social management panels have been transferred over to new game HUDs. This makes things much more streamlined, and in many ways these HUDs are now actually easier to use.

8.) The Preferences HUD

This new HUD is fairly straight forward, and is also mostly just a transition of controls that previously lived in NEStalgia’s external interface into the game window itself. However, there is one new little toggle that many people have requested – the ability to disable full screen spell flashes in battle.

9.) Charge status indicator

“Charge” type abilities such as Charge, JumpKick and Malice’s “Glow” move will now show a status indicator when they’re charging up. This should make it much harder for players to miss the warning for when these abilities are about to be unleashed.

10.) New Monster Sprites

We’ve had a lot of great artwork contributions to the game, and I’ve finally got around to swapping out some of the remaining to-be-replaced sprites for the v1.52 update. Midgard and Efrain have never looked better!