Halloween Sale 33% Off! + Exclusive Pumpkin Head Cosmetic
Halloween is upon us, and M.EXE is 33% off during the time of the sale.
Also, all players who create their in-game M.EXE Accounts before November, will receive the exclusive Pumpkin Head Trainer cosmetic.
Once Trainer customization is fully in the game, the Pupmkin Head will be waiting for you to equip whenever you're in a spooky mood :)
Patch v0.0.51, Projectiles Nerf at Close Range and Battle Camera Changes
A quick follow-up patch from the recent v0.0.5 patch.
Patch notes for v0.0.5 can be found here: https://mdotexe.com/2016/10/26/do-the-dugo-patch-v0-0-5-exclusive-halloween-cosmetic/
Nerf to Projectiles at Close Range
All projectile abilities now take 30% more time to cast if monsters are within 500 units of each other(close distance). This was done to nerf projectile abilities which were just too good in too many situations. Projectiles are still great abilities, but up close they will be slow enough to be countered by melee abilities.
This really changes up lots of things, since a move like Fireball which does 25 damage(damage required to cause a knock-down) was way too safe of an ability due to being reasonably quick and armor not being a threat. Now even a Rock Punch can out-speed a close range Fireball.
Some faster projectile abilities should still work fine up close but this will overall encourage projectile abilities to be used as a distance tool, and not as a response for any situation. 500 units isn't very much distance so Projectiles can still be used effectively when relatively close to the enemy.
Changes to the Battle Camera
The battle camera has received a few changes, but the main one being that it helps players by letting them know when they are withing 500 units of the opponent. This isn't really something that should be relied on, but it will definitely help players develop a feel for the distance. Below are the specifics.
The battle camera isn't so stiff now which overall makes battles look a little smoother and more cinematic I feel.
The battle camera is now generally further away from the battle, allowing you to see more of the battlefield. This is especially useful in 2v2 battles, but overall makes the game feel more open.
The battle camera used to move closer as the distance between monsters became shorter. Now the camera won't go closer than a certain distance until the monsters are within 500 units of each other. Once within 500 units, the camera will zoom in a significant and fixed amount which will let players know that they are within this distance.
Do The Dugo Patch v0.0.5 + Exclusive Halloween Pumpkin Head
The next patch is finally here, after a long time dealing with annoying bugs, I finally squashed them and Dugo is here, along with other goodies.
New Monster Dugo
Dugo is available in both a Water and an Ice variant. This makes Dugo the first pure water monster available. But that's not the only thing that makes Dugo special. Dugo is the first Diver monster, meaning that Dugo's Recharge ability is replaced with a new Dive ability.
After using Dive, Dugo will no longer regen Stamina and will instead regenerate Mana when being passive. Dugo will also gain a 1.5X speed multiplier while submerged. So while Dugo is a very slow monster, if you invest some points into speed, Dugo becomes one of the fastest monsters after using Dive. Using Dive while submerged will take Dugo out of the water again, removing the speed multiplier and allowing the regen of Stamina.
Dive is not a pure Water type exclusive thing. Ice Dugo is a Diver as well. Dive has a cast time during which Dugo is left vulnerable.
I will be looking at the Dive ability closely to determine how strong it is and balance it appropriately in a future patch.
Exclusive Halloween Cosmetics
Halloween is almost here, and to celebrate we got the Trainers all dressed up in Orange and Green colors. Customizing your Trainer's outfit colors is something that is coming soon, but in this patch everyone will be dressed for Halloween. Also all Trainers will have Pumpkin Heads.
Players that bought the game before or during this Halloween will receive an exclusive Pumpkin Head cosmetic once Trainer customization is available in an upcoming patch.
New Wilds
The Wilds has been replaced with a new and simpler version. The portal is now at the end of a linear path, so no more feeling lost. Before getting to the portal, you have to face 2 challenges. After winning the two challenges you proceed to the next level. This Wilds is also much more friendly to lower end PCs. The initial level of the Wilds will depend on your monster's current level so if you lose you won't have to start from the beginning. The new Wilds also has 1v2 scenarios(with lower levels and AI difficulty) in the later statges so check that out. Lets see who can get to the furthest Wilds level.
In the future I might not call this the Wilds anymore and might bring in a new mode that fits the Wilds name better.
Monster Display, Skins coming soon
The new Monster Display is here which will give you a 3d view of your monster rather than only showing you a picture. This allows you to have a better view of your monster in order to view Hue changes properly. In Style menu, you will see the Hue options as well as a new Skin option. There are no Skins in this version but they will be coming soon once we get some more database work done. You will be able to combine Skins and Hue options to create some cool results.
Xbox Controller Friendly UI
It's not perfect, but the UI is much more Xbox controller friendly now, so you should now be able to go through most of the game with your xbox controller. There are some exceptions but 99% of the game should go smoothly.
Bug Fixes
-Fixed a bug where abilities were not appearing for clients from time to time(so annoying....)
-Fixed a bug where Brydon's health wouldn't show up in battles sometimes
-Fixed a bug where Brydon would follow the enemy monster after the battle was over instead of returning to you...
-Fixed a bug where Trainers would change gender when in battles
Balance Changes
-Mind Warp, decreased cast time, big higher cost
Reason: Mind Warp wasn't very viable in most situations because the enemy had too much time to react. Now it will be a bit harder to interrupt Mind Warp, but its high cost will limit its use.
-Rock Punch, decreased cast time
Reason: Rock Punch was too slow and too easy to dodge. It is still slow but at least now it can be used as a counter move due to its armor.
-Poison Fumes, increased damage from 3 to 5 each tick
Reason: It was often not worth using with that low damage. Poison moves want to bring the enemy down over time while avoiding combat while the poison ticks are still going down. Poison Fumes encourages you to stay aggressive but 3 damage wasn't much incentive. 5 damage might do the trick.
Miscellaneous
-Starting battle positions are further apart now.
Reason: This is a starting point for some changes coming in the future, but right now I just feel it looks better with the monsters having more space between each other. This makes it harder to engage with melee attacks right away, even armored ones. A side effect right now is that Charging attacks like Tackle can now be instantly performed at the start of the match or after resetting positions. Charging attacks have received many nerfs in previous patches however, and with the extra distance it shouldn't be too strong. I will keep my eye on this though, but Charging attacks are going to see a cool change coming soon.
-AI Spawner gives AI Martial Arts Belts
Reason: I'm laying some ground work for customizing your monster with accessories. Right now the belts will vary in color depending on AI difficulty. AI in the Wilds and in AI Spectate won't have the belts. Only AI spawned through the AI Spawner(red machine) in Arena maps.
Muddy But Fair Patch v0.0.4
Main features:
Auto Level to 10 for unranked Arena. Ranked multiplayer will be introduced some time in the future, but what this means right now is that when you create or join an Arena, your monsters will be temporarily leveled up to 10. This was done in order to make playing with others much simpler without having to worry about level differences making matches unfair. This means access to all available abilities and stat points in Arena matches.
Alternative Battle Camera: Pressing Tab while in a battle will toggle the new camera mode on/off. This camera was added to simulate the Trainer's perspective in battle. While in this mode, your Trainer character will be invisible and you will see the battle from behind your monster. WASD movement is also remapped for the new perspective to make moving feel natural. This will not be considered the main camera view for the game since competitively you are at a small disadvantage not being able to judge distance as easily, but it's a cool addition if you want to feel more like you're there in the battlefield.
More Mud abilities which will help Whomper feel like a much more complete monster.
Lots of BIG bugs fixed, new abilities and balance changes. For the full list of changes, check out the Full Patch Notes.
Full Patch Notes: https://mdotexe.com/2016/09/21/patch-notes-v0-0-4/
To post problems, ask questions, or discuss the game:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mdotexe/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/mdotexe
Steam Community: http://steamcommunity.com/app/496510
Contact me for support:
Email: mdotgame@gmail.com
Steam: steamcommunity.com/id/pzea
FIX: Game Not Starting Up?
If you installed the game but it won't start up then this could be why.
Thanks to the help of Sovereign, we figured out that some people may not have all the prerequisites installed to run the game correctly.
This is something that should be done automatically when the game installs, but for the meantime here are links to the prereqs that should get the game running.
For Windows 32bit:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/onnbovqa9qiiuh5/UE4PrereqSetup_x86.exe
For Windows 64bit:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/eeqs6xoaa16abz3/UE4PrereqSetup_x64.exe
If this didn't work for you then let me know.
Additional Fixes
The game was just updated to fix the bug where monster's would sometimes perform melee attacks outside of melee range. It was happening often enough that I felt I should put a new build up quickly so here it is.
This build also fixes up the difficulty settings which weren't set correctly since the Multiplayer fix due to some changes in the battle system code. Easy and Normal difficulties should be tuned down to match the difficulty that they were at before.
Another bug was fixed where Stamina would still regen while monsters were performing long duration abilities such as Mud Shower. Stamina will no longer regen while performing such abilities.
There are also some additional minor art updates to exterior and interior environments.
Multiplayer FIXED! + Performance Boost in Battles
The bug is fixed and multiplayer works again. Eliminating this bug, which was always present but dormant until recently, also resulted in a good performance boost during battles. Depending on your machine, you may notice some improvements.
Many other bugs have been fixed, including a bug where your monster's abilities would reset to default after using a portal.
There is a new bug in 2v2 where your camera won't switch when you switch targets, but that'll be an easy fix. Now that the game has 1v1 online working well I can focus on adding content and fixing up less serious bugs.
There has been some new content added while I was working on fixing the multiplayer bug, but it's not much. I will try to list them in a more detailed manner in the next patch notes once I fix up and add a few more things and officially release the next version of the game.
But if you want to see some of the content added, then you can look at Whomper's new Mud abilities, and the new Snow Ball ability that Bricedon has access to. Now that Whomper has a few more moves, the higher tier Water moves are also not accessible anymore until I add a real Water type monster in the near future.
These are happy times. With this huge hurdle out of the way, the game can get back to growing again.
Multiplayer Is Experiencing Major Issues
Something bugged after the upgrade to the new Unreal Version and Multiplayer is now having major problems. Basically, once a battle starts the client will start lagging like crazy. This is not at all related to ping.
I'm still looking into how to fix this. I'm sorry that it's taking some time.
To speed up fixing this I might keep posting small updates to the game without making announcements about it. Hopefully I get this resolved soon and then I can make a post about all the things that got added in the meantime.
v0.0.3 Hotfix 3: Fixed Abilities & Stat Points Resetting, New Unreal Version
So this hotfix is more than just that. While there isn't any real new content, there have been some big changes and this update may be much larger sized than previous patches.
Shortly after v0.0.3 Hotfix 2 was released, I ran into a major problem in development after Unreal crashed and decided to corrupt my files. It took a while to recover but many good things came out of it. The main thing is that I was able to upgrade the Unreal version of this game which solved quite a few bugs I was experiencing on the development side.
Because of this there might be lots of new bugs that may pop up. I got rid of the ones that I could find but I'm going to need your help to make sure I catch em all.
So here are the changes in this hotfix:
Ability Move Sets and Stat Points should no longer get reset in multiplayer matches. Let me know if anyone still experiences this so I can fix it quickly.
Borderless Windowed mode is now the standard. Before upgrading Unreal this wasn't possible and resulted in terrible graphical glitches. Now you can Alt+Tab without any trouble. I will work on getting true Full Screen mode back as an optional setting but for now Borderless Windowed mode is replacing it.
Game is now in Shipping mode instead of Development mode. Which means:
The game is no longer pausable, including multiplayer matches, which was something most players didn't know they could do. It was pretty messed up so I'm glad that's gone before anyone really found out about it... phew.
The console is gone. If there was anything cool that you enjoyed doing with the console, let me know. I may add that feature into the game without the console being directly accessible to players.
Again, please let me know if any problems come up so I can look into it. Now that the main technical hurdles have been overcome, I can focus on improvements and adding more content. Expect some content patches soon after I make sure this build is stable.
For anyone that is curious, the bug only affected the level of the host's monster form. Whenever another player's monster would spawn into the arena or change forms in the M_Changer computer, the host's monster would get its level set to that monster's level. The xp was never reset though so you could always go to the Wilds and have 1 battle to reset back to your original level.
Let me know if you encounter a similar issue so I can get to fixing it right away.
Also again, anyone who has any issues with levels getting reset, please don't hesitate to contact me so I can reset everything back for you.
