What does Early Access mean for Monsters & Memories?

Monsters & Memories entering Early Access will be the first commercial launch of our Indie MMORPG. Players will be able to subscribe to the game, level to 60, and benefit from the full live service experience.

This will take place in a subset of zones, with a subset of the races that we plan for the full 1.0 version of the game. More info on that below.

Why are you choosing to go into Early Access instead of just finishing the game?

We have a volunteer team working on Monsters & Memories. MMOs are large, expensive, and difficult to make. By supporting us through Early Access, the hope is that we can scale our art and environment production capability, allowing us to accelerate development to where we can have a more fully fleshed out game world. As our subscriber base grows, we can also begin to pay some of our team members.

Our focus during the Proof of Concept phase has been to prove out all of our core systems and gameplay.

The goal with Early Access is to scale the content that was built on the foundation created by our Proof of Concept. 

Is Early Access a head start launch?

No, we will not be selling “head start” services, in which you pay an additional fee to play early.

Will there be a character wipe after the Early Access period ends?

No. As stated above, Early Access is not a head start, and all players will have the opportunity to start playing Monsters & Memories at the same time, for the same subscription fee. Players who want to start after the Early Access period will have the opportunity to begin on fresh servers. More info on that below.

What content will be available in Early Access?

The majority of Early Access content will take place on the continent of Aêthoril, in the mysterious desert region of Szuur. Players will be able to start in Night Harbor, the crown jewel of the west. From there, adventurers will set out on their journey to explore the outer reaches of Szuur.

Players will experience a fully fleshed out 1-60 leveling path which takes you through cityscapes, outdoor zones, dungeon zones, overland dungeons, and ocean zones.

For Early Access launch, Szuur will contain the zones of Night Harbor, Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane, Shaded Dunes, Sungreet Strand, Tel Ekir, Glass Flats, Fallen Pass, Fallen Watch, Shallow Shoals, Vale of Zintar, and a mysterious island expedition.

To the north of Szuur lies the enchanted lands of Calafrey, home of the Elves. Wood Elf players will be able to start in Faelindral, the City in the Trees. The zones that will be available as part of Calafrey include Evershade Weald, where Faelindral resides, and Keepers Bight.

Below the surface, the dark depths await. The newly redesigned Deep Dunes zone will serve as the player's first opportunity to enter the Deep, our underworld in Monsters & Memories. As development continues, more of the Deep will be uncovered, as well as new Deep races to play.

The races available in Early Access will be Humans, Ogres, Gnomes, Dwarves, Goblins, Halflings, and Wood Elves.

All classes will be available.

What features are available in Early Access?

• Multiple Player vs Environment (PvE) server rulesets

• Free-for-All (FFA) Player vs Player (PvP) server ruleset

• Groups

• Guilds

• Quests

• Factions

• MUD action system

• Monster cities

• Hardcore mode

• Self-Found and Solo Self-Found modes

• Boats (Taxi)

• Charter a boat to go on an island expedition

• Mounts & pack animals

• Caravan running

• The Deep

• Weather

• Moon cycles

• Encounter First-to-Engage (FTE) mechanics (on specified server rulesets)

• Earthquake system (full world repops)

• Blood Moon (PvP earthquake)

• Camping mobs

• High-end encounters

• Mid-end encounters

• Low-end encounters

• Consignment bags

• Inn rooms

• Housing

• Campfires

• Rested state

• Traits

• Stat allocation

• Fully fleshed out text command system

• Macros

• Swimming

• Fishing

• Foraging

• Crafting skills

• Gathering skills

• Thousands of items

• Over 1000 abilities

• Over 1000 crafted items

• Over 1000 recipes

• Over two dozen NPC models

• Dragons

• Merchants

• NPC trainers

• Player trading

• Spellbook system

• Belt attachment system

• Unique music for each zone, including ambient atmospheric and area tracks

• Light-source gauge system

• Auto-follow

• Corpse dragging

• …and more!

 Read our Development History and Roadmaps pages to get a feel for where we’re at with these features.

Would anything make you delay Early Access Launch?

It's feasible that we might push the Early Access launch date if we felt that the content, gameplay, performance, stability, or our ability to maintain the service weren't ready to go live. But, just like we're doing now, we'd be very open about the state of things and our plans to fix the issues.

Early Access isn't meant to be the time where we're just testing and figuring things out. Our goal is to go live with a stable game and with a level of quality that we're happy with, which we can then continue to grow during the course of Early Access.

What features and content are you planning for later versions of Monsters & Memories?

• The full continent of Aêthoril

• Additional player races, such as deep elves, deep dwarves, deep gnomes, high elves, lizardfolk, and trolls

• More content of all level ranges

• Fresh start servers

• Additional PvP rulesets

• Additional PvE rulesets

• Project NPC (play as an NPC)

• Additional expeditions beyond and below Aêthoril

• More class/race combo unlocks

• Player controlled boats

How can I subscribe to Monsters & Memories? How much does it cost?

You can sign up for an account on our Account Management page. Once we launch Early Access, we’ll charge a $15 monthly fee for access to the game, per account. You can also sign up for 3, 6, or 12 month intervals at discounted rates.

Can I gift subscriptions to other players?

Yes, we support gift subscriptions.

What should I expect as a player after Early Access begins?

Besides providing a Live Service experience in the form of customer support, operations, and live events, we’re planning both major and minor game updates (modules) that will flesh out Aêthoril to its full 1.0 state.

This includes new zones, abilities, items, bug fixes, systems, and of course, entirely new biomes to explore.

The first of these updates is currently slated to be “Descent into the Deep,” a deep elf themed module that we’ll begin production on prior to Early Access launch.

Plans, names, themes, etc. may change between now and launch.

What if I don’t want to play until the game is further along? Won’t I be far behind?

We realize that a number of players would prefer a fully fleshed out game world before they start their adventures in Monsters & Memories. Coinciding with certain major content releases and/or other milestones, we will be releasing a fresh server or servers where all players can start off on equal footing.

These servers may one day merge with the original server or servers, but this will depend on a number of factors including server population, global population, and player feedback.

What all needs to be completed for Monsters & Memories to reach “full release” ready? How will you detail it?

We want all the racial cities to be online along with release ready regions to support them.

We’ll be creating a new roadmap, or updating our current one to detail the development process to reach 1.0.

What server rulesets will be available?

We’re committed to providing two standard PvE server types on day 1 of Early Access, allowing for environments where you can play with or without the presence of boxing:

• Standard PvE: Boxing allowed; Play Nice Policy* enforced; FTE encounter system**.

• Standard PvE (no box): Boxing not allowed through IP and GM enforcement; Play Nice Policy enforced; FTE encounter system.

*The Play Nice Policy is a set of guidelines that will be released by our team at a later date, which sets standards for in-game activities like camping, kill stealing, training, etc. Game Masters and other Customer Service Representatives will be on hand in-game to make sure that the Play Nice Policy is enforced.

**While most mobs in Monsters & Memories will use the “Most Damage Done” kill credit mechanic, the FTE encounter system uses a “First to Engage” kill credit mechanic, where the first player or group to be on a mob’s encounter list will earn credit for special encounters and multi-group content. Additional mechanics and Customer Service support will exist to help prevent any exploitative gameplay which seeks to abuse this system through botting or macroing.

We’re also committed to providing one PvP server type on day 1 of Early Access:

• FFA PvP: Free-for-all PvP; boxing allowed; limited Play Nice Policy; no FTE encounter system (DPS race/Most Damage Done); standard language, harassment, and other rules unrelated to direct gameplay still apply. Additional details of this ruleset to follow as they become available, such as for leveling ranges and player looting.

We’re also highly considering, based on game population, polling data, and community feedback, providing some of these server rulesets at or slightly after Early Access launch, or sometime later on:

• Standard PvE (no rules): Boxing allowed; no Play Nice Policy; no FTE encounter system (DPS race/Most Damage Done); standard language, harassment, and other rules unrelated to direct gameplay still apply.

• Standard PvE (no FTE): Boxing allowed; Play Nice Policy enforced; no FTE encounter system (DPS race/Most Damage Done).

• Standard PvP (no box): Boxing not allowed through IP and GM enforcement; limited Play Nice Policy; no FTE encounter system (DPS race/Most Damage Done).

• Roleplay: A true roleplaying experience and non-traditional server with special rules, mechanics, and systems.

We’ll poll the community before launch in order to gauge feedback and help guide us to make a decision on whether we will provide these or other rulesets, or modify any rulesets.