Upon downloading and attempting to decipher the source code, I realized quickly that this game's core mechanics were inefficient and poorly executed. Not that it was Xerse's fault, because he never intended to make a full release of the project. It was just something he was fooling around with and people soon began to join him. They demanded more content from the beginning, his simple one town, one cave version. He added spell after spell, continent after continent and began to develop a playerbase.
His leveling up system was modest, but much to his surprise, it only took a couple of weeks for the first player to reach level 200. Many skills and abilities and even areas are named after his players.
Now, I have began to reconstruct this project completely. The programming is poorly executed and rather out-dated. The (lack of) interface is getting an overhaul. And the single-color monsters in the original will be replaced, keeping only some turf tiles and a few key character sprites.
As of now, I have completed the inventory system, the Saving/Loading system, the monster AI and combat basics are finished and the framework is laying down nicely. Here's a few pictures of what I have so far.
Here you have the town square statue
Found in the first town of your journey, the statue is praised for bringing water in a time of drought. It is said the stream sprang up from nowhere after the statue magically appeared.
The first continent
This is where you will find yourself upon completion of your small tasks and tutorial in the first town. This is where your journey truly begins. Venturing further than the first town will bring mini-quests and plenty of opportunity for rare items and medals.
Well, I really don't know how many of these sprites and tiles I plan to keep, but until I make a final decision, they serve as nice placeholders.
As soon as I finish the first continent's quests, I plan to get a titlescreen made for it (due to my failness at ANYTHING art)..
Thanks for listening to me rant!