Hail, Adventurer!

Table of Contents

• System Requirements

• Register for an Account

• Download and Install the Client

• Create a Character

• Basic Controls

• The Interface

• Interact with Players and NPCs

• Get Directions

• Sell Your Wares

• Night and Darkness

• Combat and Groups

• Quests and MUD Actions

• Helpful Commands

• States

• Common Acronyms and Terms

Information regarding minimum specifications is fairly limited since we’re still optimizing the game, but here’s our current recommendations:

• 16gb of RAM

• A modern-ish CPU

• Any GPU or integrated GPU that supports DX11

We also have a few tips to improve performance:

• Type /fps [number] in the chat box to limit your framerate (e.g. /fps 60 = 60 FPS, /fps -1 = uncapped FPS), or use the sliders in the Options menu

• If you’re experiencing graphic lag, type /hidecorpse pc in the chat box to hide all player corpses except your own, or use a modified version of this command based on your preferences (see Helpful Commands)

• If you’re experiencing other performance issues or visual anomalies, type /reload in the chat box to reload assets and data on your client

1. Player’s health, mana, and endurance

2. Target’s health and mana

3. Player’s buffs and debuffs (i.e. beneficial and detrimental game effects)

4. Inventory window, stats, equipment, and experience bar

5. Loot window/inventory bag

6. Pet window with health, mana, buffs, debuffs, and commands

7. Interactions box (with MUD action selector)

8. Chat box

9. Hotbar (for macros, items, skills, etc.)

10. Ability/spell book

11. Empty slot (drag an ability/spell scroll from your inventory to scribe them)

12. Tabs to select between:

    • Skills (e.g. Fishing)

    • Abilities (e.g. Kick)

    • Spells (and spell books)

13. Ability/spell bar

14. Additional commands

    • Invite people to a group, accept an invitation, and disband from a group

      The group/groupmates window is not shown; it’ll show under (1).

    • The MUD action “/look”

    • The “/corpse” command (to drag your corpse)

15. Macros button (opens the Macro Editor so you can make your own hotkeys, for example “/sit” or “/attack”)

16. Options menu

You can unlock/move/resize windows by right clicking on the window’s edge. You can also create new chat boxes and modify them via a variety of filtering options. Feel free to experiment with the UI’s layout and filtering, as you can always reset the UI via the Options menu.

Much of our non-combat interaction takes place in the chat box. This includes talking to both players and NPCs (non-player characters), as well as interacting with the world via our MUD action system.

Keep in mind that you can always create new chat boxes and modify them via a variety of filtering options. Feel free to experiment with the UI’s layout and filtering, as you can always reset the UI via the Options menu.

Interaction Basics

• To speak with an NPC, target them and press H to “hail” them

• NPCs may respond to certain words, so if they say something of interest, try asking them about it in /say (they must be targeted)

• Take care not to hit Q while speaking with an NPC

• Right-click merchants or trainers to view their offerings

• Trade items of interest (e.g. your starter note) to the correct NPCs to start or complete quests

Chat Basics

• /say sends a local, limited radius public message

• /tell <playername> or /t <playername> sends a private message to the specified player that spans the entire game world

  Type /r or press R to reply to the last “tell” you received from another player

• /shout sends a zone-wide message to your current zone, typically used for more formal notifications

• /ooc sends a zone-wide message to your current zone, typically used for informal “out of character” notifications

  Each server sets its own standards for the distinction between /shout and /ooc in terms of how much speaking in or out of character matters

• /auction sends a zone-wide message for buying, selling, and trading goods and services

• /g, /group, /p, or /party sends a message to your group that spans the entire game world

• /gu sends a message to your guild that spans the entire game world

• /of sends a message to guild officers that spans the entire game world

As a general rule, you can determine the cardinal directions in an outdoor zone based on the movement of the sun or moons, which rise in the east and set in the west.

However, if you’re looking for more specific directions to a point of interest, we recommend asking a guard. Many NPCs are considered guards, not simply the ones standing outside city gates, so ask around.

To ask a guard for directions, ensure you target them first, then type a “keyword” in /say. Here’s some examples of keywords you can use:

• Cardinal directions (i.e. north, south, east, west)

• General districts (e.g. Necropolis, Sageside)

• Notable locations (e.g. Concourse of Souls, Night Market)

• Points of interest (e.g. bank, inn, Western Gate)

• Classes and class trainers (e.g. cleric, fighter, Fedamius Steele)

• Merchants and buyers (e.g. armor, drink, food, meat, pelts)

Our merchants can be a little more… discretionary with their purchases than most and won’t simply buy any old rock you pick up off the ground. Keep this in mind when you’re looking to sell your wares.

Most merchants only buy items that are similar to what they sell, so a butcher will buy meat, and a tailor will buy tailoring supplies. They’re also willing to pay a premium for these items, so it’s a good practice to seek them out if you want to turn a profit.

There are, however, some shady individuals who will buy just about anything. If you’re just looking to clean house, pay them a visit, but know that you might not get the best price.

If you’re looking to sell a particular type of item, try asking a guard (see Get Directions) or your fellow players!

Everything you and other players sell to a merchant becomes part of their inventory, so it never hurts to visit merchants regularly. You might find that someone else’s trash is your treasure!

Dangerous creatures skulk about Aêthoril at night… and when it’s dark, it’s dark. If you’re planning to roam outside the safety of your home city, you’re going to want to bring a light source.

All new adventurers start with a simple candle. Right-click it to light its flame, but be cautious, as the candle won’t burn forever! You should seek out a more reliable light source before you’re caught unawares.

Numerous merchants, including those of the shady variety, offer light sources for purchase. The cheapest option is a torch (which you can also craft yourself using the Survival tradeskill), but if you’ve gathered enough coin, a lantern is a worthwhile upgrade. The lantern can be affixed to your belt, so you don’t need to give up your offhand slot. When its light fades, you can simply replace the fuel to get it going again.

Beyond the torch, candle, and lantern, some races have the fortune of being able to select the Infravision trait. This will help you at night, though you’ll still likely want a light source.

If you’ve made your way to a camp with some companions, setting up a campfire is a great way to beat the darkness, mark your camping spot, and get an experience boost! See States to learn more.

• To enable auto-attack, target an enemy and press Q

• To use abilities and spells, you need to “scribe” them into your ability/spell book first

  1. New characters start with a few ability/spell scrolls in their inventory

  2. Press B to open your book, then click the scroll to place it on your cursor

  3. Move your cursor to an empty space in the book on the appropriate tab (i.e., spells, innate (abilities), and skills) and click it to begin scribing

  4. You can buy additional abilities/spells from merchants near your class’s guild hall

• After scribing an ability/spell to your ability/spell book, add it to your ability/spell bar to “memorize” it for use

  1. Click on the spell/ability in your book to place it on your cursor

1. Move your cursor to an empty space on the bar and click it to begin memorizing

2. Once memorized, you can activate it using the corresponding number key (1-0)

• Your spell book must be equipped in a belt slot in order for you to use it, which means it also drops on death

• When you kill an enemy, right-click its corpse with your mouse to loot its items

• Grouping is a powerful tool in our game and you’ll benefit from it even at the lowest levels

  1. Experience points, coin, and access to your enemy’s corpse is shared within the group

  2. You must be within 5 levels of the highest-level group member to gain experience until level 15; after that, you must be at least two thirds of their level (e.g. a level 40 can group with a level 60)

  3. Type /lfg on to notify other players that you’re looking for a group in /who searches

• When you die, your items stay on your corpse and you respawn at your “bind” point

  Your bind point can be changed via spells and other mechanisms

• If possible, when you are about to die, make note of any features in the environment to help you find your corpse

  1. Other players can also help you find your corpse through the use of magic

  2. Players may also resurrect a player corpse through the use of magic, with more powerful resurrection spells also returning some of the experience points lost

  3. Players can drag your corpse to you if you give them your “/consent”

  4. Take care to only /consent people you trust, lest they hide your corpse

Quests in Monsters & Memories have no indicators, so you’ll have to talk to NPCs and interact with the world in order to find them. Most quests start with a simple “Hail.”

• Target an NPC and press H to hail them

• Keep the NPC targeted and type your response in /say to trigger further dialogue

  NPCs only respond to specific words in their dialogue, so try including the words that stand out in your response

• Press J to bring up your journal, which contains a history of prior NPC conversations

• Hand quest items to an NPC by placing them on your cursor, then clicking on the NPC

  NPCs give back items they don’t want

• Quest item descriptions often provide clues regarding their use; if not, try asking the quest-giver

• Quest bags are typically designed to hold 1 item per slot (if you forget the quest requirements)

  Most quest bags require you to hit the Combine button at the bottom once full

You can also interact with the world via a system we call MUD actions—a nod to text-based multi-user dungeons. This system allows you to look for descriptions of the area you're in, inspect things you find, take or place objects, and even pry something open (if you have the right item on hand).

MUD actions share a global cooldown, so keep that in mind when attempting to use them back-to-back. Some actions may require you to be in possession of a specific item or items, but the description should make that clear.

Here’s a list of all the verbs for you to try:

• /break <thing>

• /insert <thing> (while holding an item on your cursor)

• /inspect <thing>

• /look

• /open <thing>

• /place <thing> (while holding an item on your cursor)

• /pour <thing> (while holding an item on your cursor)

• /pry <thing> (while holding a prying implement on your cursor)

• /pull <thing>

• /push <thing>

• /rub <thing>

• /smell <thing>

• /take <thing>

• /taste <thing>

• /throw <thing> (while holding an item on your cursor)

The system is similar to our quests in that some of the prompts, items involved, specific utilization of said items, etc., may be unclear, unwieldy, or otherwise require some experimentation. Our goal is to use this type of system to create interesting, fairly unique, and definitely retro-style interactions that keep the world feeling mysterious and interactive at a low implementation cost.

Enter any of the following commands in your chat box to activate them. You may find some of these particularly useful during testing.

• /help lists all commands available to you

• /bug or /petition opens a form to report a bug or request assistance

• /rewind, /stuck, or /unstuck returns your character to the last unstuck position (5m cooldown)

• /camp forces your character to sit for 30 seconds and then camp (out of the game)

• /lfg on <message> lets other players know you’re looking for a group in /who searches, with an optional message appended

• /chatfontsize <size between 1-20> increases/decreases the chat font size

• /random <dice count + dice size> or <value - value> (e.g. 3d6 or 1-18) rolls a dice with randomized results

• /note brings up a window that serves as a notepad

• /reload resets assets and data on your client to help with performance issues, memory leaks, and certain issues such as “ghost NPCs”, unusable skills, etc.

• /hidecorpse <option> hides corpses in the current zone, modified by replacing <option> with one of the following:

  1. all hides all corpses except your own

  2. npc hides all non-player corpses

  3. pc hides all player corpses except your own (recommended)

  4. group hides the corpses of players in your group

  5. nongroup hides all player corpses except those in your group

  6. allbutgroup hides all corpses except those in your group

  7. looted hides all corpses that have been looted (default)

Additional video optimization, mouse/input, and other options will be added as we go. Also, if you find yourself stuck during a play test and all of your options are on cooldown, feel free to submit a /petition and we’ll help you out as soon as possible.

States are a work-in-progress system in Monsters & Memories.

With states, you can receive a “rested” buff (+15% experience) by spending time near a campfire (Warmth of the Campfire) or inside an inn or tavern (Warmth of the Hearth). Currently, this buff is only applied by player-made campfires, but pre-placed campfires will likely be included in the future.

You can create a campfire using the Survival tradeskill while having eight pieces of wood in your inventory. Wood can be harvested from the many nodes located near trees in Night Harbor and Sungreet Strand.

To check how rested you are, try considering yourself (target yourself and press C). If you’re tired, you have no accumulated rest.

Warmth of the Campfire

• Accumulates up to 20 minutes of rest within the radius of a campfire (unless it's raining, then it must be in shelter).

• If you accumulate the full duration of rest (takes roughly 2 minutes), you’ll receive a message stating that you’re “fully rested.”

• If you leave the radius before accumulating 20 minutes of rest, you’ll only receive a partial duration.

Warmth of the Hearth

• Accumulates up to 20 minutes of rest within the radius of a campfire (unless it's raining, then it must be in shelter).

• If you accumulate the full duration of rest (takes roughly 2 minutes), you’ll receive a message stating that you’re “fully rested.”

• If you leave the radius before accumulating 20 minutes of rest, you’ll only receive a partial duration.

• While under the effect, you no longer consume food or drink.

Throughout your adventures, you’ll come across a variety of acronyms and terms, many of which might be unfamiliar. But don’t fret! We’ve provided definitions for some of these terms below. Take a look!

• Aggro - Drawing the attention of a hostile NPC

• AOE - Area of effect; spells or abilities that hit multiple targets

• Bind - A spell that sets the location where you will appear after death (or the “Gate” spell)

• Buff - A spell or ability that positively affects player and/or NPCs

• Camp - A location where players gather and “pull” enemies while leveling; or, the act of logging out of the game

• CC - Crowd control; the act of delaying a hostile NPC’s attack

• Charm - A spell that enthralls a player or NPC and compels them to follow the caster’s commands

• Con - Consider; a command that determines how favorable an NPC views you and an approximation of their strength compared to yours (typically indicated by a color)

• Corpse - The dead body of a player or NPC

• Corpse Run / CR - The act of returning to a place of death to retrieve a “corpse”

• Crack - Any spell or ability that increases the target’s mana regeneration

• DD - Direct damage (as opposed to “DoT”)

• Ding - Leveling up

• Debuff - A spell or ability that negatively affects player and/or NPCs

• DoT - Damage over time (as opposed to “DD”)

• EXP / XP - Experience points

• Gate - A spell that teleports the caster to their “Bind” location

• Fizzle - Fail to cast a spell

• FM - Full mana

• HP - Hit points or health points

• Inc - Incoming; typically used when “pulling”

• Kite - The act of fighting or “CCing” one or more NPCs by remaining out of their attack range

• KOS - Kill on sight; an NPC that will attempt to kill you if you get too close

• KS - Kill steal; the act of stealing credit for defeating an NPC

• LD - Link dead; to lose connection to the game

• LFG - Looking for group

• LFM - Looking for more

• LOS - Line of sight; being able to see or be seen by a target

• Lull / Pacify / Placate - Any spell or ability that reduces an NPC’s line of sight

• Mana - The pool of magic points used to cast spells

• Mez - Mesmerize; any spell or ability that incapacitates a target for a period of time

• Mob - Mobile; a monster or NPC

• MP - Mana points or magic points

• Named - An NPC with valuable items, often uniquely named and more powerful than normal

• Nerf - The reduction in strength of a player, NPC, item, or ability

• Newb / Newbie / Noob - A new and/or inexperienced player

• No Drop - An item that cannot be dropped on the ground or traded

• NPC - Non-player character

• Nuke - A powerful direct damage spell or ability

• OOC - Out of character (as opposed to roleplay); or, a zone-wide chat channel for casual conversation

• OOM - Out of mana

• PC - Player character

• PH - Placeholder; typically used to reference an NPC that, if killed, has a chance to reappear as a “named”

• Pop - Indicates that an NPC has appeared

• Proc - An ability that activates randomly

• Pull - The act of “aggroing” an NPC and returning it to a “camp”

• PVP - Player versus player

• Res / Rez - Resurrect; any spell or ability that brings a “corpse” back to life and replenishes some of the lost experience

• Root - Any spell or ability that prevents a target from moving

• RP - Roleplay, in character (as opposed to out of character)

• Snare - Any spell or ability that slows a target’s movement speed

• SoW - Speed of Wild; a spell that increases a target’s movement speed

• Taunt - An ability that draws the attention of an NPC

• Train - Indicates that one or more “KOS” NPCs are chasing a player to a zone line

• TS - Tradeskill

• Unique - An item that you can only carry one of at a time, often used in quests

• Unique Equip / “Lore” - An item that you can only equip one of at a time

• WTB - Want to buy

• WTS - Want to sell

• WTT - Want to trade