Meridian Core Online - Development Blog!

I’ve been working on texturing the character model. Eventually the player will be able to choose from multiple skins, eye colors, hair colors, lip colors etc., but gotta take it one step at a time. BTW I didn't texture the feet because they won't be exposed. At least not from the start. I'll get to those as soon as I can.

Here are some screen grabs of what I’ve got so far.

 

Went ahead and painted some clothes directly on the model so we don't have to worry about having a naked chick in our screenshots going forward.

 

I”ll be finishing up the texture for the character’s hair, but in the meantime here’s a new skin tone I’ve been working on. We’re going to be making numerous variations to the characters in this game possible so we’ll eventually have a range of skin tones from Snow White all the way to Wesley Snipes. 0_0

 

Here's a new character concept. This'll probably end up being one of the outfits the players can choose from at start up.

 

New character concept.

 

Just spotted this, very nice guys! I like the idea for the project, I have always been big fan of MMORPGs but at some point i got tired of all the slow paced combat... I actually happen to be working on a Multiplayer RPG Myself NOT MMO though lol, thats a bit to ambitious for me...

So anyhow i would love to see something like this make it to completion! So I wish yo guys the best!

Can I be one of your Closed Alpha Testers PLEASE!! LOL! you can reach me at kuro@kuroato.com if you need any Testers!

Question, are you only working on Female Characters? what about male playable characters?

 

What networking solution have you guys opted for?

 

@ Kuroato - Thanks for the kind words! When we start the closed alpha testing we will let you know! For the time being we are working on the female character. It might be just the female model only for alpha testing. Swapping out the mesh to a male character is easy and we have it setup to either be male or female, we just have to actually create the male model.

@Glader - We're using Smartfox v2X. We got really good results from Smartfox 1.6 once you optimized it and Smartfox 2x is even better with the binary and compressed protocol. We were looking at Photon but decided with Smartfox instead. Although that's not to say we don't keep our eyes on other technologies as well.

 

We now have hair with accurate transparency, no more alpha clipped garbage and weird draw order errors. Worked on the item code and streamlined it, made it so you can equip armor and clothing, also changed the hair shaders to have a color chooser for hair color, instead of a texture map, allowing the player to pick any color they want and using only the texture map for alpha information and color variation. More to come, so stay tuned!

 

The environment looks great so are the concept arts. Good luck on the project will be following it No gameplay videos yet?

 

@ Stridervan - Soon! We are finalizing the fighting system at the moment, once that is in a place we feel comfortable showing this forum will be flooded with videos

 

Figured I would post a preview of some more hairstyles we have been working on. PastyWhite is texturing them as we speak. More to come so stay tuned!

 

Soooo...Here's some of the new hairstyle textures I've been working on. I went with two different texture styles for the same haircut. I'm not quite sure which one I like better.

 

This game looks better and better every time I look at it, keep up the great work.

 

Thanks Jared! Glad you like what you see so far.

 

Very cool, I like the way you guys have been posting the development process. From concept drawings to actual in game 3d models. The game is looking great I wish your team the best you seem very dedicated. What program do you guys use for the models? And what would you guys recommend to someone who wants to learn to make 3d models?

 

@ Musicapparatus - Thanks for the kind words! We use Maya for our modeling. As far as learing to make 3d models is concerned, it's hard to say. Most of the major packages offer some sort of Personal Learning Edition, which is either free or at a super discounted rate. Honestly I would try as many as you can and see which one you like the most. And of course there is always Blender.

My personal opinion would be to learn Maya. I started learning with 3DS Max, but ended up switching to Maya. Maya does have a bit of a learning curve though, but once you get past it, it's smooth sailing. Maya's modeling toolset used to be lacking, but as of version 2014, they have really put a lot of effort into the modeling toolset with NEX, so things are much smoother and streamlined now. Also something that can be accomplished with 1 click in Maya requires (on average) 3 or more clicks in 3DS Max. Maya is also easier to customize, and if need be you can write your own tools easier and quicker inside Maya. All this is my personal opinion and it comes from 13+ years of using Maya and about 6+ years of using 3DS Max, so take it for what its worth.

But, ultimately it boils down to what you feel comfortable using. Each package has it's strengths and weaknesses. I would recommend trying them all out and see which works the best for you.

Last but not least, get a Digital Tutors account! They are great and worth every penny. Lots and lots of info on there to get you up and running quickly!

Hope this info helps!

 

Looks cool, reminds me of Final Fantasy. I noticed the DX Studio comment, I think you made the right move going over to Unity (I am also transffering a game to it). Good luck.

 

Did you used Phantasy Star Online as an inspiration? Forest level, glowy portals, UI and birdy monster is what catches my eye. PSO is one of my very favorite games, so it is pleasant to see someone referencing them.

 

Guys, this project looks fantastic but I'm curious about what it's under the hood.

How many players will be on the same world / cluster / node at the same time? Is it really a massive online game or something like an instanced based game (more like Guild Wars franchise)?
As a possible player / customer, I'm interested in understanding what will make your game stand out from the other hundreds of MMOs?
What will be your attraction point?

 

@ Primus88: At this point we're uncertain exactly how many players will be in the same world at the same time. We're going to need to test that and see how much the system can handle. At this point we're working with a lobby system, so players will pick a lobby to join, and then from there will be able to organize missions. We're still not sure how many players will be able to join a mission but so far we're thinking 4 would be the absolute minimum and 10 would be the max. Honestly though it'll probably fall somewhere in between those two numbers.

As far as what will make our game stand out, I'd say what makes ours different is the heavy emphasis on action. Most MMORPGs that I've played have fighting systems that consist of rapidly left or right-clicking. We really wanted to make the fighting more interesting so we're going with a more Devil May Cry direction with it. The following is MCO's description from our indiedb.com page. I hope this clears some things up:

Meridian Core Online (from here on referred to as MCO) is an online MMORPG created by Ghost Mantis Games LLC, a new indie gaming studio. We just celebrated our 3rd year in development on this title this past November in 2013. MCO is a browser based game created with Unity that has a heavy emphasis on action. It features an original combat system (probably mostly similar to Devil May Cry but still unique to itself), fully customisable characters, an array of weapons as well as spells, and an original sci-fi environment. Although the world is large this is not a sandbox RPG. Players will also be able to adopt, raise, and train pets that will assist their characters on missions. MCO is our best attempt at taking the concept of great MMOs and merging them with the pick up and play fun style of gaming featured in old school Capcom games and Arcade classics such as Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, Rival Schools, the Soul Calibur series, and maybe even a little Astro Boy:Omega Factor and Guardian Heroes.

@Sageking: I think we're taking our inspiration from a lot of different sources but as someone who really loved my Dreamcast, and hell even my Sega Saturn, I'd say Phantasy Star Online has definitely inspired at least some of the look of this game. Glad you're interested in the project so far.

@sedativechunk: Thanks! I"m glad you like what you see so far!

 

Pastywhite just finished texturing up one of the new hair styles. Figured I would post it so others can see. It's a variation of the second hairstyle but with different bangs and different texturing on the sides.

 

How has the project been coming along, it's been awhile since you've posted? It hasn't hit any walls has it?

 

@Glader - We've still been working on it Granted, work has definitely got in the way a bit and slowed the pace, but this always happens this time of year because it is our busiest time at work, but we have still been making progress. I know PastyWhite has been working on boss monster concepts recently, perhaps he could post what he as been up to soon.

I've been cleaning up code and optimizing things a bit, plus figuring out new lightmap workflows which are pretty interesting and yield much better results than Beast Lightmapping. But, trying to find time to work on the game has been . . . difficult, to say the least. But, as I mentioned work has slowed down so expect much more activity and updates soon.

 

That was a quick and unexpected response =o. Well I'm quite interested, thus far it reminds me quite abit of PSO. Being that it's my favorite game any game similar to it excites me. Have you guys looked into UMA for character customization at all? I've found it's quite an amazing framework.

 

Ok ok ok. Here are some of the thing I've been working on. Just a couple of character concepts, and a landscape concept that I then converted to an in-game 3d map. The in-game version isn't nearly finished yet but it's getting there. I hope you like it.

 

It's been quiet on the updates, but for good reason! We were originally using Voxeland, which is great, but it didn't have all the features we wanted. So after addressing what is available in Unity as far as terrain creation is concerned, it became very obvious that we would have to write our own terrain editor to create the types of levels we wanted to create. So we did! We now have our own custom voxel terrain editor, and its FAST. Here are some screenshots of a quick test level:

 

Awesome ; looks gorgeous
Now you just got to bring exploration and combat, any videos planned ?

 

@ zenGarden - Thanks for the kind words! We actually have the combat pretty much done. We focused on the networking and controls for a long time to make sure everything was functional and playing smoothly before we started diving into the aesthetics of the game. We will be releasing videos, but once we get a little further along with the artwork and level design. This level is just a test bed to test out the terrain editor so when we have a playable level is when we will be releasing videos.

Here is a few more screen shots testing out different rock creation methods:

 

How do you plan to Monetize this game? I look forward to playing the Alpha/Beta Build! = )

 

@Fishypants :
You could also sell your terrain system as Ujnity plugin on asset store or when UT5 will be out to integrate some cool PBS. Im' sure many people would be very interested.
Terrain like that instaed of traditionnal looks really lot better
Can players jump on, the level ? with the voxel system this could lead to great platforming phase like we can find in Guild Wars 2.

 

@Kuroato - Thanks! As soon as we have the Alpha available we will let you know As far as monetization goes, we are still working that out.

@zenGarden - Yep, players can jump all over the level. The voxel terrain is awesome because you can carve caves and platforms, basically any shape you can think of. Was thinking about releasing it in the asset store once the game is playable, but not sure yet. We will see.

 

Cleaned up the Voxel Terrain Editor code a bit and streamlined things. Tweaked the rocks a bit. A bunch of small changes here and there. Pastywhite and I are also finalizing the layout of the first level, so hopefully we will have much more exciting (final) stuff to look at soon. In the meantime, a few more screens:

 

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know you can now support the completion of Meridian Core Online at https://patreon.com/ghostmantis . For those of you who support us, we'll be giving away goodies like C# programming tutorials, how to create a custome Voxel Terrain Editor, Photoshop tutorials, 3d Modeling Tutorials and more. We also have a new video featuring some early gameplay footage of MCO on the Patreon page so be sure to check it out!

 

Hey Guys! I really like where you are going with this... I would really love to Alpha Test your game when your ready. All the best, keep up the great work! ^_^

 

Thanks! We'll definitely be letting the Unity boards know when we release an Alpha. Also, just so you know, to celebrate the launch of our Patreon page we'll be raffling off a Playstation 4 so be sure to check out https://www.patreon.com/ghostmantis for more info on that.

 

Everything looks very impressive! I love the art and concepts

 

Thanks! We're still slowly but surely completing this project. We're fairly close to finishing up the first level so there should be some new screenshots in the coming weeks.

 

Th kullaz are hurting my eyez! jk
Great work. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

 

Thanks! Just for good measure, here's a 3d character sculpt I recently did.

 

Here's some more 3d sculpts I've been working on. The first one is some boots for the character. The second is a gorilla like creature you'll encounter.

 

That is awesome, Which Application did you use to make those models?

 

Thanks. I used ZBrush to do this latest batch of models. The plan is to create hi-poly models and then project them onto low poly models to help with performance but maintain a high end look for the game.