Tomes of Mephistopheles Alpha pre-order available (Now at v0.09a)

[getter77]

http://tom.kot-in-action.com/

The first Alpha gameplay sample trailer from the Early Dev boards:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py7HJiOeJjw   More vids on the Youtube channel.

Live chat link embed onsite to apparently converse with the dev and other players---a nice touch and probably handy given the project.

Intro:
Before being imprisoned for eternity, Mephistopheles, the Lord of Darkness, put his sinister knowledge into several tomes which were scattered across the land. Many wicked souls were corrupted by the Devil and spent their lives searching for the wretched Tomes of Mephistopheles, to gain the knowledge of their unholy power. It has been foretold that the beholder of the Tomes will possess the greatest power known to mankind and will rule the world, but will corrupt it and leave it in ruins. The secret society known as the Deputies of Uriel dispatched its most skillful members to find the Tomes and destroy them at any cost. Will you fulfill your duty or succumb to the corruption of the Dark Lord ?

Description:
Tomes of Mephistopheles is a first-person action-RPG dungeon crawler. With its fast-paced fluid combat, a multitude of medieval and magical weapons, an in-depth custom spell system, and randomly generated persistent worlds, ToM is a pinnacle of the genre.
Seeking the sinister Tomes, you will forge a path through the dungeons using anything that becomes available to you, while attaining skill and power along the way by exploring, questing, and crafting unique equipment and tailoring spells for yourself.

Features:

    -Crawl through vast, procedurally generated dungeons and overworlds.
    -Use explosives or other means to create your own path through a destructible world.
    -Crush your enemies in visceral, fast-paced, collision-based melee and spell combat.
    -Immerse yourself in a dank, dark ambiance.
    -Battle intelligent enemies that evade and surround you to claw and slash you to death.
    -Use intuitive casting mechanics that allow casting of rapid-fire or big powerful spells on the fly.
    -Combine interchangeable runes which control all aspects of your spells. Spells can be customized as far as the way they move, how they are controlled, the area they affect, how they fork or chain, and of course, what the effects are at each stage of the spell designated by specific combinations of elements.
    -Pick up real world objects. Chests and other containers do not use menus, but instead have actual items inside.

System requirements:
OS: Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Linux OS
CPU: 2.0 Ghz+ dual core
Video: GF 8600 or Radeon HD 2600 with 512 Mb of VRAM
RAM: 2Gb of RAM

Disclaimer: Some of the features mentioned above are not present in the current alpha release of the game. As we continue development, we shall venture further into the dungeons where these features lurk. The hardware requirements are preliminary and are not final.

Price is $10 USD, for now at least only direct through their existing digital distro store with Amazon handling the file hosting and whatnot.

This is an alpha funding project. By purchasing Tomes of Mephistopheles right now, you will be getting at at the lowest price possible, you will be able to download early alpha version immediately after the purchase and will be granted all future updates for the title for free, including final release of the game.

Thank you for your support.

By pressing the "Continue" patch of parchment, you will be redirected to the e-Shoppe, secured by SSL, where all seekers of the Tomes of Mephistopheles can get their sacred alpha-Tome. Currently we support Dwolla, PayPal and credit/debit cards (processed through PayPal).

In a characteristically candid move, given their past dev history, they've state that the first target is 3,000 copies sold to secure further fulltime development.


I personally hope they can make it onto Desura in the Alpha funding initiative as I can't imagine that the greatly increased visibility that would bring should make the goal more attainable, especially since I believe their earlier game project is on there as well for I know it is at least on Steam as that's where I got my own copy and subsequently discovered this project in the first place.

[getter77]

The site has updated to be more informative:

02/22/2012

+ polished AI to react more responsively when attacking and dodging
+ decreased skeleton pain chance
+ added crosshair images for "use/grab" and "grab all" actions
+ fixed some bugs with light flicker position including choppy updating which was causing shadows to look bad

02/21/2012

+ decreased brightness of player light to match torches
+ added pillar tiles and pool tile
+ torches spawn around pillars
+ added a new area type
+ added pools to the 9 tile square area
+ changed player start area to small 4 tile area
+ added hall center tile with "pool" in it
+ added hall perimeter tile with 1 column
+ fixed texture alignment on the 2 column hall perimeter tile
+ added hall perimeter tile with 2 columns
+ decreased player movement speed
+ AI spawn slightly more often (chance isn't reset when it fails)
+ polished ai strafe movement and impact velocity handling
+ increased skeleton strafe velocity/distance
+ AI now try to dodge melee attacks
+ spells apply more appropriate impact velocity
+ spells can now impact objects such as gibs or items
+ objects such as gibs and items now toss further on damage impact
+ velocity force is now based on the amount of damage compared to 20% of max health
+ resisting pain now lessens impact velocity less
+ improved impact velocity of melee weapons

In Works:

Architecture:
2 column tile - done
1 column tile - done
pool tile - 60%
GFX:
crosshair variants - done

Currently 90 copies sold of the first 3,000 goal.  Also, now it is clarified that said amount will be enough for them to secure the next 5 months of full-time development pace.

[getter77]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mS23S4LXJk

Dev commentated Alpha gameplay video #2, showcasing a bit of the upcoming improvements.

[getter77]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ_YYiAIwOE  Alpha gameplay #3 that goes over some of the latest changes to land

Said changes/progress since last time:

* PATCH #3 *

--------
03/07/12
--------

AI:
+ added small lights to High Mages, and particle effects for each different mage
+ AI now only have a 20% chance of attacking each other intentionally after accidental friendly fire
+ AI now react to weapon impact sounds at 600 units instead of 1200
+ AI now react to door sounds at 600 units instead of 1000

Player:
+ added idle anim for player
+ added sword to external player model
+ when using 3rd person camera, HUD VWep is no longer drawn
+ view and weapon bob/tilt no longer apply when using 3rd person camera

HUD:
+ decreased size of HUD text
+ added weapon name to the HUD
+ added HUD size for 1600 x 1024 resolution

Spells:
+ decreased light radius of spells
+ decreased max draw range of spells (they had way too big of a range before)

Bug Fixes:
+ attempted to fix a bug that was causing AI to spawn stuck in walls/objects
+ slightly increased accuracy of ai and object spawn rate

--------
03/06/12
--------

Graphics:
+ added ambient color to the world

AI:
+ heavily increased the performance of ai to allow for a much greater number of ai to exist and interact with the player at once as well as decreasing ai bandwidth usage to a near negligible amount when moving.
+ added the ability for ai to cast spells using delivery types from the rune system. direct spells generally fly slower than the player versions, and guided spells act a little different so that they don't just home in, but move in relation to the ai's angles
+ added ai type skeleton mage, casts thrown fireballs, 75 health
+ added ai types skeleton high mage 1 and 2, cast direct or guided fireballs, larger in size, 150 health, only spawns with groups
+ added group ai spawns that spawn up to 2 melee types, 2 lesser mage types, and 1 high mage type
+ ai now assist other ai if they are facing them (this still happens when an ai is facing away because the sound of the other ai makes them turn around and look)

Spells:
+ guided spells now fly considerably slower and fly toward a pinpoint target allowing for missed spells to come back and hit your target in the back

Menu:
+ odd resolutions no longer appear out of order on the slider when selecting windowed resolutions

Tweaks:
+ updated strings used in the minimap related to conchars to allow for more customizable user localization packs

Bug Fixes:
+ ai no longer investigate multiple sounds at once
+ attempted to fix a bug that causes an extra non-solid door to appear. report if this still exists.
+ fixed some divide by zero instances
+ fixed a bug that was alerting ai of player cast sound in the wrong location
+ removed a torch that was spawning in an inappropriate location in one of the large rooms
+ fixed a bug that was causing spells to not be able to damage their caster (use direct spells with caution)

--------
03/01/12
--------

Controls:
+ mouse inversion is now off by default
+ added mouse inversion and sensitivity settings in the control menu

* PATCH #2 *

--------
03/01/12
--------

Additions:
+ config file versions are now checked and updated when necessary instead of requiring the player to manipulate config.cfg

Bug Fixes:
+ fixed a bug that was causing key modifiers such as SHIFT, CTRL, ALT to not register

* PATCH #1 *

--------
02/27/12
--------

AI:
+ AI now investigate sounds while not in combat. This applies to footsteps, doors, bouncing objects, spells, pretty much any sound that is out of the ordinary to the AI. Each type of sound has a different radius depending on how loud it is.
+ AI now only spot targets if they are facing within 105 degrees of it
+ increased skeleton sight distance

Bug Fixes:
+ fixed a bug that was causing attacks to not be able to hit targets with low fps

--------
02/24/12
--------

Items:
+ increased overall item drop rate chance
+ increased bomb drop rate chance

Dungeon:
+ added several variations of area types that spawn with dual pillar tiles instead of only single pillar tiles

--------
02/24/12
--------

Doors:
+ doors now randomly generate as locked (use bombs to get around for now)
+ added message to left of screen when attempting to open a locked door

--------
02/24/12
--------

Dungeons:
+ implemented pillar models for room corners and single pillars and hallways
+ pillars can now have a random chance to spawn
+ added single pillar versions to all room types (will have alternate variations that use double pillars instead soon)
+ longer hallways no longer generate by repeating single entrance tiles but instead occur when a hallway type specifies that length
+ added 2 new area types
+ improved accuracy of torch spawn rate

HUD:
+ reticle now changes when player can interact with objects, implemented reticles for grab and use functionality

Gameplay:
+ player now starts in a special room type designated as the start room (just a generic 9 tile room but w/o the pool in the middle)

Bug Fixes:
+ gibs no longer spawn inside objects when a corpse is gibbed while sticking into an object

[getter77]

0.04a

Objects:
+ increased large chest spawn rate to match small chests

Graphics:
+ increased AI line of sight check speed (reduces pop in)

Sound:
+ doors, chests, and dirt floor/walls now make sounds when you hit them with your weapon (some sounds are placeholders)

Spells:
+ doubled mana cost

Bug Fixes:
+ melee attacks are no longer effective through objects such as doors
+ several optimizations, stabilizing bug fixes

Player:
+ player skeleton model now displays a hood

Gameplay:
+ added multi-player support for dedicated servers
+ other player's names and menu/talk status are now displayed over their model
+ added first clip of voice acting for when the player starts the game

Player:
+ vwep, tilt, and bob are now updated more smoothly when updates to the client are slow

AI:
+ added packet loss handling for AI
+ added pain and death animations to the player

Spells:
+ re-increased spell light radius

Menu:
+ added a multi-player menu with player name input and ip:port connect box

HUD:
+ added chat sound

Bug Fixes:
+ fixed some bugs with AI sound detection
+ fixed a bug that was causing some pillars to not spawn correctly and cause floating torches to appear in one of the area shapes

Player:
+ added player packet loss handling
+ player light radius is back to where it was before last local change:P

Bug Fixes:
+ fixed a bug that was causing player vweapons to animate when any other player attacks

Player:
+ implemented attack, idle, run, walk animations for the player
+ implemented animation blending for the player so that different animations can be played on different portions of the model at the same time. an example would be running while attacking.
+ moved torch light down and decreased radius
+ player HUD weapon no longer casts a shadow, but instead the external player model's shadow is cast

AI:
+ AI now run in combat
+ increased spawn chance of Arch Fire Mage from 30% to 50%
+ AI now check to see if objects are in the way before reacting to sound

Objects:
+ chests can no longer be closed
+ decreased chest spawn chance

Performance:
+ implemented some LOD and LOS culling for AI (increased FPS on some machines)

HUD:
+ slightly increased font size on the left text
+ increased width of health/mana bars
+ weapon name is now displayed on the HUD

Bug Fixes:
+ fixed a bug that was causing spells to not remove completely after impact and still cause damage when touched

[getter77]

0.06a

AI:
+ Pain Elemental drops from 5-7 items on death
+ increased AI turn speed

AI:
+ pain elemental no longer spawns until 5-8 minutes of game time has passed from the start of the game and at least 10 ai have been killed
+ pain elemental respawn time is now 2-8 minutes instead of 2

AI:
+ AI no longer follow sounds far past their spawn point
+ AI home/spawn point is set to new position after stopping movement and hanging out for a while

Performance:
+ debris is no longer allowed to exist in huge numbers, old debris is removed first
+ reduced time till debris is removed

Bug Fixes:
+ fixed a bug that was making ai not turn toward a sound if they are close enough to their nav point and far enough away from the sound

AI:
+ added new type of AI that are made of particle and can be scattered across rooms with attacks, but will attack back with body parts from range, for example with spells, and will reform to continue fighting.
+ added new behavior for AI: Hunting. AI that are designated as hunters are very sensitive to hearing, and will begin searching for you from across the map if they sense you. They will immediately begin heading toward the location of the sound, and will be able to continue to track your movement as long as you're making enough noise for the hunter to hear you at your distance. Hunters will take the most direct path to you, though walls, and even through other AI that get in their way.
+ New AI Mini-Boss: Pain Elemental - A powerful elemental that is made of particles, is designated as a hunter, wields a sword in one hand and casts spells and punches from another. High health, devastating spells, the ability to break walls with melee or multiple at a time with spells, and the ability to open doors with telekinesis. Only one Pain Elemental will spawn at a time, and will not spawn again for another 2 minutes after death or de-spawn. (also has special effects when dying.)
+ ai now move out of the way of other moving AI
+ ai are now much better at navigating around things and not getting stuck
+ ai can now open doors by touch or telekinesis. even locked doors

Bug Fixes:
+ particles no longer build up when paused
+ tons of bug fixes and optimizations for AI (too many to list effectively)

[getter77]

http://www.desura.com/games/tomes-of-mephistopheles/videos/tomes-of-mephistopheles-alpha-006a-gameplay-trail

Nicely frantic and lively new video, don't know if the rockin' metal'ish music is intended to be properly ingame or not---but one can hope!   

[getter77]

v0.07a

Finally, players can begin to feel some sort of progression in game play now that world saving and loading has been implemented. Name your world when generating, and never have to generate it again. Everything saves as you play and when you exit the game so that you can rejoin your world at any time with all of it the way you left it. Generate a world of any size and the next time you load it, it will load instantly. Now you have a reason to generate a 50,000 tile world! You can also generate as many worlds as you like and load them from a list from the main menu. Even run a dedicated server using any of these generated worlds. An example of how to specify which world to run on a dedicated server will be included in the server.cfg file.

Here is the full change log, short, but sweet:

04/17/12

World:
+ added world naming, saving, and loading. Worlds save automatically during game play and when players quit.

AI:
+ AI now have the ability to jump over objects and out of pits

Objects:
+ added a new door type, metal grated doors that slide up like a gate

Technical Notes:
+ the directory where worlds are saved is now located in data/worlds/

Bug Fixes:
+ fixed a bug that was causing particles for AI such as the Pain Elemental to spawn in the wrong location on the client

[getter77]

v0.08a

Player:
+ characters can now be created (and named)
+ characters save at one minute intervals and upon client disconnect. this includes current and max health and mana, inventory, and quick bar slots. (spell books are currently static but there is saving capability for the future when more/custom spells are available and/or when they must be earned.)
+ any character may be loaded into a single player or multi player world and will still save in multi player (later changes will include the ability to set servers to only allow characters that are created on that server. these characters will be saved to that server.)
+ maximum health and mana are currently 400 each (new characters start with 100)

GUI:
+ added a status window which currently displays character's inventory and spell book. these modes are toggled by clicking buttons on a small tool bar at the top of the window.
+ the status window can be toggled to the left or right of the screen by clicking a small button in the upper right corner of the window
+ added a quick bar
+ each quick bar slot displays the first key assigned to activate it
+ holding the reticle over an item in the world or holding the mouse cursor over an inventory item, a spell in the spell book, or a quick bar slot will display information and a description for that item or spell
+ items and spells can be assigned to the quick bar by dragging the icon to the desired quick bar slot
+ quick bar slots can be unassigned by dragging icons off of the quick bar
+ items and quick bar slots can be arranged by dragging the icons to new slots
+ inventory items are stackable, and can be split or combined by dragging to new slots or over other stacks of the same type of item
+ the inventory displays stack amounts (per stack) and the quick bar displays total items of that type from the entire inventory
+ items can be used by left clicking in the inventory or pressing an assigned quick bar key
+ spells can be selected by left clicking in the spell book or pressing an assigned quick bar key
+ items can be dropped to the world by dragging from the inventory to the world
+ quick bar slots are maintained when running out of an item so that the item does not have to be re-assigned later when more are obtained
+ icon dragging can be canceled with the right mouse button
+ changed the map background to be darker to give it more contrast

Controls:
+ keys 0-9 now activate quick bar slots by default
+ tab toggles the character status window by default
+ a cursor is active while the status window is displayed
+ holding right mouse while the status window is displayed will allow mouse look

Menu:
+ upon starting a game players are prompted to select or create a character before being prompted to select a dungeon

Bug Fixes:
+ fixed a bug that was causing jumping AI to become unresponsive
+ fixed a bug that was causing an error to print when AI perform a certain combination of attacks

[getter77]

v0.09a

07/25/12

Menu:
+ added intro splash screens
+ updated main menu and sub menus
+ added several video options
+ added audio options

Spells:
+ added base spells for earth, wind, water, and electricity

Art:
+ all new environmental textures

06/19/12

Spells:
+ added spell creation including splits, chains, and area runes

Player:
+ spells are now saved to the spell book on exit

Items:
+ runes now spawn in the world

Bug Fixes:
+ fixed a bug with item info display in the world
+ fixed some bugs with spells becoming stuck

Tweaks:
+ changed the format of item pickup messages to allow for better translations by users

The new GUI/Texture works look pretty nice.    http://www.kot-in-action.com/content/

[Nachtfischer]

Yeah, looks like it's coming together slowly but steadily. With more content in the future this can really become a very enjoyable (and replayable) experience, I think.

[getter77]

New dev video summary as to the current state of things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p3oglX1lL0