Welcome Board Archive - Introducing Morrigan's Maze

From: Cap           Title: Introducing Morrigan's Maze       
Appends: 2          Posted On: Sunday, May 03 2020, 02:38AM
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morrigan, the Goddess of war and fate can be found south of Tara, offering 
players the opportunity to test themselves against the hand of fate. Accepting
this offer sends a player, or group of players to an instanced, procedurally 
generated run. Morrigan's Maze (or MM herein) is a roguelite inspired area
for 1 to 5 (or more) players.

Difficulty scales based on group size:
MM can be solo'd or run by a group of any size. It is balanced for groups of 
1-5 players, but there is nothing stopping you from taking a larger group in. 
If a grouped player leaves mid run, the difficulty scale does NOT adjust 
downwards. The chance of uncommon drops increases, the larger the group.

MM is NOT level restricted:
Players of any level can enter, assuming there is at least one level 50 in the
group. However, it is detrimental to take lower levels. Difficulty is scaled 
based on group size, not player level. The procedure treats all group members 
as level 50.

Mobs are random load:
Mobs load in appropriate Biomes (themes) but not every mob will load every time
you visit. The variety should keep things interesting on subsequent trips.

Random load items:
While the mud has been moving away from the use of random load items, it is a
roguelite feature I felt important to include in MM. I would advise against 
putting an item on a list if you don't already have it. 
(That way frustration lies).

Some items will not persist outside of the Maze:
Currency cannot be hoarded, it is taken from you when you leave the area. 
The idea is to sustain currency value from one run to the next. Other special
items may also behave in this manner. If in doubt EXAMINE the item for a clue.

Factions track your reputation:
Work your way up from a virgin to a (censored) of the Morrigan's Maze 
Explorer's club! You can even earn shiny whoises for bragging rights.

Hard mode:
Think you're a real badass? Why don't you try out hard mode? Morrigan will ask
if you want a real challenge, just say yes to her and you'll be thrown in at
the deep end. Hard mode offers more experience, an improved chance of uncommon
loads dropping, and players will progress through the various faction ranks
quicker when playing hard mode.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Append 1 of 2 from Cap  on Sunday, May 03 2020, 03:10AM
RE: Cap            Title: Introducing Morrigan's Maze       
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Roadmap Moving Forward:

Bugs and Balancing:
My immediate focus is fixing any bugs and balancing issues unearthed by your 
top tier stress testing. No matter how well prepared I am or how long we, the 
immortal team, spend testing there is ALWAYS stuff you break. 

For the first few weeks please accept that bugs can happen. If this is 
going to be a problem then I recommend waiting for a few weeks before 
entering MM for the first time.

As always, please report anything you think might be game breaking as per the 
code of conduct. 

MM is by far my most ambitious project to date. A number of brand new systems 
have been developed in order to make it a reality. I am open to all thoughts, 
opinions, and ideas from the player base. I may not agree all the time but 
your input is valuable and does inform my actions.

My thanks in advance.


Future Expansions:
The area is built with expansions in mind. The invite to build biomes is open
to all immortals on staff.

Other than the aforementioned bugs and balancing fixes, I have two options
moving forward; the first MM expansion is half built, as is a new area 
I've been working on in Industrial. Who knows what the future holds?

See the next append for some oddities you will encounter in the Maze.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Append 2 of 2 from Cap  on Thursday, May 07 2020, 11:45AM
RE: Cap            Title: Introducing Morrigan's Maze       
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Below is a list of behaviours unique to MM. They are not bugs.

1) If you want to go into MM grouped, you must be grouped before you say yes 
   to Morrigan's question.

2) Mobs with weapons can be parried, but their attack lines will look odd.
   They won't 'swing' their weapons in the same way a player does.

3) Grouped XP reward will look odd, you will receive a split of 0 XP and then
   receive your XP reward.

4) If you die you can return to your instance (ask Morrigan return), if you
   recall or portal out you cannot.

5) Please take care not to leave valuable items on the floor when you leave the
   area - once your instance is closed all items left inside of it will be 
   destroyed.