Quests are a major part of most MMORPGs. Instead of forcing a completely linear storyline, quests allow multiplayer games to let players focus on different tasks, and give them something to work for while leveling up. Old school RPGs contained all sorts of different quests, some of them related to the main storyline, and some of them completely optional. NEStalgia follows this formula and also provides players with a more modernized system for keeping track of these quests.

Quests in NEStalgia come in all different forms, although I've avoided the annoying "Kill X number of this type of monster" quest. Like all quality RPGs, NEStalgia is story-driven. When you are on a quest it should feel like you're working towards advancing the plot, not simply checking off an arbitrary goal.

One of the characters you meet early on in NEStalgia is a weird guy called Gar who lives in a basement with his "Slime Army" (slimes are one of the early types of monsters in the game). When you speak to him, the Quest Giver HUD will popup. Clicking on the quest will show the description, which in this case spans two pages. Apparently Gar needs some new recruits for his slime army, and would like me to capture a red slime.



I accept the quest and as instructed I head outside of town to look for a Red Slime. As shown in this screenshot, Gar has given me a "Red Slime Cage" to use.



After running into several different groups of monsters, I have finally come across a Red Slime! The quest description stated that I need to weaken the monster before I capture it, so I start out with an attack...



With that round over, it's time to put the cage to the test. As this is an early quest, the difficulty is fairly low, and I manage to capture the slime on my first try:



Heading back to Gar, you can see that I now have a "Captured Red Slime" in my inventory. Clicking on the item gives me a brief description of it.



Gar is pleased, and I'm going to get a small reward in gold. Furthermore, after I click the "Finish" button, it turns out that Gar has another quest for me. You'll have to eventually play the game for yourself to find out what it is...



This is fairly basic stuff (and only one of the many "types" of quests you'll encounter), but every little piece of the puzzle adds something to the whole. As with Acheron's Awakening, I've tried to make NEStalgia as polished a product as a solo developer can muster. The NEStalgia quest system is a great way to develop the story while giving players measurable goals and worthwhile rewards for progress.

Last fall I was feeling a bit nostalgic, and a feeling came over me that I hadn't felt in years: the urge to work on Dragon Warrior Online.

While that immediate urge quickly passed, I realized that what I really wanted to do was to create the type of game that DWO was intended to be: an online RPG inspired by the gameplay mechanics of classic console RPGs. Instead of creating a fangame and sticking as close as possible to the gameplay formula of a specific series of games (like Dragon Warrior), why not create an original project inspired by all of them?



NEStalgia takes everything that I love about old-school console RPGs and translates all of it into an MMO environment. Simple graphics, clunky menus, turned-based battles, the thrill of "leveling up", and a formidable level of difficulty, to name a few. The DWO 1.90 "preview" gave everyone a glimpse of the potential of this concept in action; and with NEStalgia I intend to fulfill that potential.

In the coming weeks I'm planning using this blog as a developer's journal for NEStalgia, just as I did with Acheron's Awakening. The difference this time around is that testing is already underway, and I'm confident of the game's impending release. As with the AA developer's journal, I'll be fielding questions, taking topic requests for journal entries, and trickling out more and more information as the release date nears.

For now, feast your eyes on these screenshot and enjoy :)

So apparently Proelium II has been broken for awhile, due to a BYOND Bug introduced in one of the recent updates. Thanks to the always resourceful tenkuu, Proelium II v.43 is now live, and has been altered to work with the latest compile of BYOND.

tenkuu deserves all the credit for this one, because if it were up to me I'm sure that I'd put off fixing it for another few months!

Thanks to tenkuu, you can now create and play custom maps in Proelium II!

Anyone can create maps using tenkuu's amazing Proelium map editor, but saving the map requires a subscription.

tenkuu is also behind the latest version of Proelium II released today, version .40! It adds custom map integration and fixes a variety of bugs.

See you in the game!

http://www.byond.com/games/tenkuu/ProeliumMapEditor

I have currently updated the Proelium Map Editor to 2.0 with support for making Proelium 2 maps. The editor still supports the editing of Proelium 1 maps, though.

For saving either Proelium 1 or Proelium 2 maps you need either a Proelium 1 OR a Proelium 2 subscription.

Integration of custom maps into Proelium 2 is not ready yet, however.