Monsters and Memories (Project_N) - Old School Indie MMO

GuardianX said:

Are there morons / mouthbreathers out there that fucking ENJOY twisting?

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GuardianX said:

Feel like it's easier to list the classes that can't solo.

Clerics, rogues, fighters, spellblade (not entirely sure but pretty sure).

Everyone else can solo with scaling degrees of success.

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I wanna ask here, the topic of bard twisting has been a hot one,

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That legit made me wonder: Do people who play bards "LOVE" twisting? I played a bard in OG eq and I thought of twisting as nothing more than a means to an end.

Are there morons / mouthbreathers out there that fucking ENJOY twisting?

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Quaid said:

Ya that was not my intent there. I was operating under the assumption that everyone here understands a bulk /played time in a classic era MMORPG includes everything from grinding efficiently, to corpse runs, to standing around shooting the shit, to tradeskilling, to idle LFG time, etc etc.

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Kirun said:

Right, and I get that. I don't think anyone here is pretending /played in a classic MMORPG is pure "active progression" time. Half the identity of games inspired by EverQuest was all the downtime, socializing, recovery, travel, and general world friction wrapped around the actual gameplay loop.

I guess my point is more about whether that structure still scales well with modern player expectations. Back in the day, the downtime was part of the content because the social layer carried so much of the experience. Sitting around a camp for 20 minutes chatting, doing corpse runs, waiting for boats, hanging out LFG, etc. That all felt more acceptable because online worlds themselves were still novel and social spaces on the internet were more fragmented.

In 2026 though, I think a lot of players evaluate games more through the lens of "how consistently engaging is my session?" rather than "how immersive is the downtime?"

That's why I'm hesitant to look at 450 hours and automatically say "that sounds fair." If a huge percentage of that time is friction rather than meaningful gameplay, I don't know that modern audiences are as tolerant of it anymore outside of a dedicated niche. And to be clear, I'm not arguing everything should become instant-gratification lobby gameplay either. A slower MMO absolutely can work. I just think games like Monsters & Memories are going to live or die based on whether the moment-to-moment experience remains compelling enough to justify that pacing.

That's also why I think the future probably leans more toward the "solo-forward but socially alive" structure I've talked about before. Games like Erenshor but obviously broader in scope are the future of the MMO market IMO.

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Flobee said:

I think there is value is having a rhythm to decision making, ~3 seconds in bards case. There is something enjoyable about it but I honestly don't think you really need to require the bard to click a song every 3 seconds for that to work. /Melody was a good solution to allow the class to remain how it was designed but removing the requirement to make that decision with a key press vs just letting it cycle, or breaking the cycle to change what is next.

I 100% get why they don't want /Melody due to bard bots, but I would be interested to see a design that keeps the spirit without requiring manual twisting constantly. I'll probably have a bard as an alt at least though because I enjoy the play style.

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Quaid said:

Seems like there's some traction for Spellblades getting at least a self-exodus from the community on their Discord. I think that's a great call.

If every class can't get a self-gate, which I do disagree with but whatever, I do think at least one class from every archetype should have an ability to end their gaming session on minimal to zero notice. As it stands only priests and casters have this ability in MNM. There's no reason for players who would prefer a melee DPS or tanking gameplay experience to have to give up this ability. It'd be bad for players who have variable lifestyles (unpredictable work demands, potential high wife agro, chaotic toddlers etc) to have to make compromises on their preferred gameplay experience, and therefore bad for the game itself.

Spellblade is a great candidate to have a self-only evac from a class fantasy perspective, so that covers melee DPS. For tank I'm not sure Paladin or Fighter makes a lot of sense with the protector vibes, but SK or Inquisitor may be good candidates. I'd lean towards SK and selfish self-preservation motivations for the ability.

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Sylas said:

Which class fantasy is that again? The bounty hunter / Witcher/Pokémon/blue mage thing that this game is calling SK?

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Quaid said:

Seems like there's some traction for Spellblades getting at least a self-exodus from the community on their Discord. I think that's a great call.

If every class can't get a self-gate, which I do disagree with but whatever, I do think at least one class from every archetype should have an ability to end their gaming session on minimal to zero notice. As it stands only priests and casters have this ability in MNM. There's no reason for players who would prefer a melee DPS or tanking gameplay experience to have to give up this ability. It'd be bad for players who have variable lifestyles (unpredictable work demands, potential high wife agro, chaotic toddlers etc) to have to make compromises on their preferred gameplay experience, and therefore bad for the game itself.

Spellblade is a great candidate to have a self-only evac from a class fantasy perspective, so that covers melee DPS. For tank I'm not sure Paladin or Fighter makes a lot of sense with the protector vibes, but SK or Inquisitor may be good candidates. I'd lean towards SK and selfish self-preservation motivations for the ability.

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