We're excited to release another MEs version 2023.5.1 to you budding creators. We think there are several updates this release that you'll love. Here are the details:
MEs Early Access is now available for Mac users on Steam!
Discover three new seed worlds, including Gallery 001, Altered Path, and Senkai.
Improved patch placement will make it easier for you to position patches exactly where you want them.
Data validation has been added to help prevent errors and ensure that the game runs smoothly.
We've also added a crash report system to improve our bug-fixing capacity.
We hope that these changes will make MEs an even better tool for you. If you have any questions or feedback, please don't hesitate to let us know on Discord or through email at info@o-me.io. Thanks for continuing to use MEs!
Welcome to the map of N-Age Online: Awakening, an expansive and diverse landscape filled with danger and wonder. Explore multiple Cities, battle monsters and bosses, and have an adventure of a life time! Get ready for an unforgettable adventure in this thrilling MMORPG.
Map Guides:
The Four Cities
Borbon City
"Bourbon City" is the earliest town built among the five "basic life circles" in the N-age world. The whole city is filled with a youthful atmosphere. The bustling streets and business districts everywhere make people raise their lips involuntarily, feeling the vitality and freedom of the city. Not only that, but the residents here are kind and gentle. For novices who have just set foot in the new world, Bourbon City is a city that is very suitable as a starting point for adventure. But in such a thriving town, there are also dark corners. The stronghold of the dark group is hidden in the depths of Bourbon City. Long ago they drove the good people who lived in this place out of the city and took their dwellings for themselves. As long as this dark groups is in Bourbon exists, there will be no real peace. As a hero who embarks on a new world, I hope you will help Bourbon City usher in real peace with your strong will and strength!
Liberty Land
With a large number of towering modern buildings, clean, spacious streets and various large billboards, Liberty Land can be said to be both an economic center and the latest fashion hub. "Liberty Land was originally a new town built brick by brick by the people of the Shanchuan tribe. It is also said that these people who created the capital of freedom came from the distant city of Bourbon. Because their residence was occupied by greedy outsiders, they were forced to move here and reclaim their new homes. However, in the hearts of the Shanchuan people, there is always a shadow of fear whispering: "If even the last city is taken away, where should we go?". In order to defend their homeland, they urgently need the forces that can protect the city to join. Now we need your help full of justice and bravery!
Airbonne City
Airbonne is a beautiful coastal city. There are large and small cafes, parasols, and beautiful rows of coconut trees along the beach, attracting tourists like Miami's beautiful beaches. The sunny and bright sun all year round makes this city with blue sea and blue sky reveal enthusiasm everywhere! But it is also the last military capital on the New World Continent with heavy troops stationed there. There is NAPD in the city to maintain law and order, and outside the city there is also an exclusive army of Lotto City guarding it day and night to resist possible foreign enemies. There is such a high-security military force in order to guard against the "Tali Committee" that brought the new world to the brink of destruction. For the sake of greed, they have launched many wars, turning the originally thriving basic life circle into a sea of flames overnight, millions of people were displaced, and countless people lost their lives. The Tully Committee has coveted the prosperous and stable Lotto City for a long time, and often sneakily conducts shady incitement and espionage operations inside and outside the city. The tense atmosphere that is about to come makes the residents of Lotto City panic. Airbonne City is in dire need of new heroes who are willing to step up and fight against the ambitious Tully Committee who are trying to pollute what is left of the quiet beauty!
Centerville City
Centerville City has a total area of 1,000 square kilometers. In terms of city area alone, Centerville City is the largest city in the reborn mainland. It is an "electronic city" built according to urban engineering and managed by a supercomputer named "Lisa". The biggest feature of Centerville City is its "solar energy development system". All the buildings in the city are equipped with solar panels on the surface, which provides a huge "solar energy" for the whole city, and can generate tens of millions of kilowatts of electricity every year. Therefore, Centerville City is also known as the "City of the Sun". When rebuilding human civilization, with the backing of sufficient energy in Centerville City, human beings successfully built the existing four basic living circles and eight areas where people can live freely. Therefore, there is a saying that "losing Centerville City is equivalent to losing everything", This shows the value status of Centerville City in the hearts of the N-age generation.
Field Map
Forgotten Forest
Suggested level Lv.18 ~ 45 From Liberty Land, you must pass through Airbonne City, and the other side borders the deserted city. The "Forgotten Forest" is inhabited by local aborigines. Because travelers often disturb their tranquility, they will sometimes actively attack people to defend their sovereignty.
Big Bear Valley
Suggested level Lv.18 ~ 45 Borbon City must pass through to Airbonn City, and the other side borders the deserted city. The terrain of "Big Bear Canyon" is steep and extended, and if you are not careful, you will lose your way. It is recommended to turn on the GPS at any time to confirm your position when moving in this area.
Wasteland
Suggested level Lv.38 ~ 70 "Wasteland" is a product of the Fifth World War. Walking on the road, you can still see broken tiles and ruins of buildings that collapsed under the ruthless war. The center of the map is the crystal cave. The monsters inside are very powerful, so don't approach it if you have nothing to do.
Centerville Park
Suggested level Lv.28 ~ 50 Centerville Park" is located in Central City. The Tully Committee has developed various security robots in order to maintain the order of Centerville City, so that residents of Centerville City can live with peace of mind.
Abyss Cave I-II
Recommended level Lv.45 ~ 89. It is said that the underground water source in the Abyss Cave" is rich in energy, making the nearby elite monsters entrenched here for a long time. 2F of the cave also has a powerful boss, it's better not to approach if you don't bring enough supplements!
Lost City 1
Lost City 1, 2F: Recommended level Lv.62 ~ 95 A city that's a victim of the Great War, the Lost City" is a history that has been completely erased. As the most prosperous city in the continent, it is no longer remembered by people. It was isolated by the high wall of Central City, and now only forgotten residents are left wandering in the dark city.
Sodom I-II
Sodom 1, 2, 3F: Recommended level Lv.88 ~ 99 "Sodom" is a city that cannot be found on the map, it is located underground in the Lost City. The alien races took advantage of the human war to build their own underground bunker here, the bunker is indestructible, and the BOSS is waiting for you in the deepest part.
The ability system is one of the main pillars of Steel Hunters gameplay. It significantly affects the way players interact with each other, with abilities adding to the entertainment factor. Admit it: isn't it exciting to have something other than just your weaponry to turn the tide of battle?? Abilities are highly effective at motivating players to create all sorts of challenging encounters in the arena, offering a constant source of positive feedback that keep players engaged and invested in the game. A well-timed ability can give you an edge, but opponents can neutralize your advantage with a timely counterattack – that's where the thrill of the battle lies.
Certainly, there are other ways to get players involved in fights. In the battle royale genre, shrinking zones (rings that get smaller over time), and limited resources are often introduced. In the race for top loot, players are ready to use their characters' bare fists to tear everyone apart. In classic shooters like Battlefield or Call of Duty, things are even simpler - players are forced to engage by capturing base flags or collecting team points. However, in Steel Hunters, we’ve introduced a different ruleset, where abilities play the pivotal role.
The use of ability mechanics is not the only way to approach player motivation in our game, but it remains the backbone of every character. After all, these are mostly the abilities that define Hunters' playstyle. For example, Taurus bears little resemblance to Heartbreaker. The differences are not only visual but also in the range of unique weapons, basic stats (HP, shields), and skills.
In general, our team develops each Hunter as a combination of various systems, distinctive appearance, a many other features. However, we believe that abilities are paramount: they greatly impact players’ perception of the characters, especially in terms of gameplay.
How Are Abilities Developed?
The process begins within the pure imagination of our game designers. Trust us: they always have cool ideas up their sleeves. A collection of these early concepts can be referred to as the "primordial soup" - everything that could hypothetically be implemented into the new Hunter design, including possible abilities, weapons, systems, and mechanics.
In case the team decides that an ability needs to be reworked for an existing Hunter, the priority is to ensure that it fits their playstyle. In fact, this process is currently happening with Ursus. She is undergoing a complete gameplay overhaul.
Previously, Ursus was getting mixed reviews. Her appearance, the quadruped nature, and the Glacial Armor ability made her more suitable for close-combat situations. However, her homing missile was capable of very distant targeting (in previous updates). More so, she had a highly accurate main weapon – the Beam Cannon – with a low fire rate. As a result, this Hunter was best suited for long-range engagements, but had a defensive ability intended for close combat – this combination caused confusion among players.
A Revision of an Existing Ability
Let's take a closer look at the abilities’ revision routine based on Ursus' example.
Given the role Ursus fills in gameplay, the team collectively decided to reduce focus on her range potential. This meant that both the main weapon and the missile had to be changed.
Previously, Ursus fired missiles that looped, which required her to make a certain number of hits with the main weapon before locking onto a target and launching the missile. This made the missile a wide-range extension to her main weapon, which was effective at medium-to-long distances. As a result, Ursus's capabilities were more long-range, like Heartbreakers. This didn't seem right for the character.
Now, Ursus will have a new Rage meter, which accumulates from the damage dealt and taken. The Rage is then spent on launching her missiles. To unlock their full potential, Ursus now must be in the center of the action to quickly fill the Rage meter and be able to deal more burst damage.
When Ursus activates her missile ability, she switches to a special firing state with extended rocket modules and an alternate sight. The missile is no longer an add-on to the Beam Cannon, which is hidden when a player enters the missile aiming state.
Another difference between the new and old missile behavior is its range, which is now close to medium, rather than long. Additionally, the target acquisition system has been reworked to allow players to lock onto opponents instantly. This eliminated the necessity to hit enemies with the Beam Cannon first.
The team conducted internal playtests to gauge the revamped launch and aiming mechanics. Based on the feedback, they are now focusing on preparing a cleaned-up version of Ursus’s abilities. Her playstyle became much clearer in terms of positioning, allowing players to strategize better and utilize the abilities more effectively.
After game designers ensure that they have created an ability that fits all parameters, the pre-finishing phase begins. During this phase, the team focuses on the following tasks:
Creating an appealing user interface
Setting up visual effects, such as flight trails and explosions
Adding voiceovers for all important events
Animating all parts of the Hunter
Finally, when everything is ready, the polishing stage begins. During this stage, all the work is double-checked, 2D art is created, and descriptions are written.
As you can see, getting Hunters and their abilities ready for release is a very time-consuming process.
What About a Brand-new Hunter Ability?
The creation of a completely new Hunter ability is not significantly different from improving an existing one. However, there is more creative freedom for the designers as they are not bound to predetermined Hunter characteristics. This freedom allows for more fun and imaginative ideas, even though some of them may not make it to the final release.
Using their creative and technical skills, the game designers build a prototype for the new Hunter. This includes designing a specific weapon, defining the Hunter's appearance, and establishing a set of abilities that complement a predefined play style. At this stage, the Hunter model is not yet animated, so playtesters must use their imagination to help bring the Hunter to life.
The process requires significant effort and creativity from the game designers. Through collaboration and careful design, a new Hunter ability can become a unique and exciting addition to the game.
Abilities' Attributes
As previously mentioned, coming up with a relevant ability is essential, but there are other requirements to consider:
Scalability is crucial – abilities must have a set of parameters that players can improve over time, allowing them to obtain new modifications to enhance it.
An ability in use must have distinctive visual effects, not only for the player who uses it, but also for their opponents. For example, if Ursus activates her shield or enters the missile launching state, it should be evident to her opponents.
The ability must be able to be rebalanced when necessary. This is critical for PvP battles where balance is vital and prone to change.
The ability should be enjoyable to use, visually appealing, and make the gameplay more interesting. The goal is to enable players to perform cool tricks on the battlefield.
These are all subjective aspects, and playtesting is often required to determine whether an ability is enjoyable.
Let's explore these requirements in more detail.
Designing Ability Progression
Our designer’s first step to introduce an ability progression is to create a list of all the parameters that can be potentially upgraded.
To use the Ursus example once more, they addressed her missile ability, with parameters such as Rage gain and target lock-on speed, number of missiles in a volley, and possible perks after the ability is activated. Afterwards, several versions of the ability are proposed, each with three different passive effects. This forms a matrix of all the stats that can be modified within a particular Hunter’s ability. These variations are then internally discussed, allowing for improvements and redesigns. Finally, the proposed drafts are created and sent to our programmers, UI designers, and animators for implementation.
Enemy POV in Ability Design
When designing abilities, the team considers the enemy's perspective: how they will anticipate the flow of the fight, including the timing, the outcome, and overall damage dealt using the abilities. A powerful ability must attract attention so that enemies will notice it. The more devastating it is, the louder and brighter its activation should be. For instance, Weaver activating the minigun is immediately noticeable due to its sound and visual effects, even before the player activated it. With these effects applied, enemies know when a certain ability is in use and they’re more likely to take cover successfully or prepare a counterattack.
Balance Is Essential
Maintaining balance is the most crucial aspect of ability design. Our team follows a rigorous process to achieve this goal. Firstly, we go through several design stages, starting from concept creation, prototyping, playtesting, and finally evaluation. We repeat these stages until we find the most effective version of an ability.
Next, we meticulously work to calculate the stats and iterate endlessly until we achieve a satisfying balance. It is vital to keep a record of all changes, to avoid unintended consequences.
Overall, we strive to ensure that every ability is considered fair and enjoyable to use. Fairness is determined by comparing the impact of one ability to another. We also take notice of the learning curve, because the more lethal abilities should also be harder to achieve and master. Conversely, some abilities are less dangerous and can be used more often or have multiple charges, such as Razorside’s grenade.
Now, to the Entertaining Part
Now, let's talk about the most entertaining part – player engagement, as everyone rocks their own playstyle. Some enjoy wreaking havoc on the battlefield, while others prefer effective positioning and area control to prevent enemies from slipping through their territory. There are also those who prefer stealth and dealing damage from a distance while remaining undetected. Taking this into account, our team is dedicated to creating a diverse range of abilities, so that every player can find the Hunter that best suits their playstyle and have fun.
Final Word
All in all, Ability creation is a very complex process. Our designers rely on their creativity and in-depth knowledge of our game to offer you a pleasurable Hunter experience. We subject all Abilities to rigorous testing and balancing before releasing them to a wider audience.
The true measure of our success, however, lies in your capability to recognize and respond to the audiovisual cues that indicate when enemies are using their abilities. If you're able to counter them with a well-timed response, it's a sure sign that our team has done its job well!
We're excited to announce the release of version 1.2.0 , which includes new bomb patterns, bomb spawn chance and rebalanced final boss fight. We also added more dialogue for our lovely, fluffy Silvare! We appreciate all of your support and feedback as we continue to improve the game.
Patch Notes
Added new bomb types and patterns.
New bomb pattern will be generated at deeper levels of the mine.
Added new dialogue for Silvare.
Added notification bubble for Silvare when he comes with new dialogue.
Combo ore rotation around the player will now be hidden when the player is in the gem girls' room.
Final boss fights now have a chance to drop Health Restoration as rewarded for slaying moles during the combat.
Remove low-rewarded patterns in deeper levels.
DLCs will now be shown in the main menu and directly linked to the game's downloadable content store.
Improved some in-game UI.
Minor bug have been fixed.
New bomb!!💣
Bug Fixes
Fixed: Framerate now will be accurate with Screen Resolution in Option Menu. Fixed: Player cannot move during the combat for certain situation.
Happy digging, discovering, and dating in GemCrusty, The Explorers!
Chronicles of 2 Heroes: Amaterasu's Wrath - mallendary
Hi heroes! 👋
You may be reading this because you think Chronicles of 2 Heroes has appealing pixel art and fluid animations. However, our game's visuals and mechanics have changed a lot before they look like they do now.
Take Kensei's parry, for instance. It's one of his signature moves along with his dash, so we put a lot of effort into making it smooth yet powerful.
We thought slow motion could add more intensity to the parry, so that became a staple from the very beginning. The same happens with the sparks from the first two versions.
Nevertheless, many testers pointed out that this effect didn't fit with the pixelated graphics. It looked a bit too realistic and disconnected from the overall aesthetic. That's why we replaced it with two handmade effects.
When Kensei parries, his sword slashes from bottom to top. A tiny, yellow, curved line appears near the arrow when you hit it. Then, a different explosion effect changes the trajectory of the projectile. The final result is a more powerful-looking parry with exclusive animations and effects for each phase.
Do you like how it looks now? Leave a comment if you enjoy this "how it started vs how it's going" type of article!
