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Zelek
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[2d MMO] Merchant Seas (screenshots inside) - 2009/06/15 15:30

Hello all,

My name is Mike and I've been developing an MMO largely inspired by Uncharted Waters over the past year while I work on my Master's degree. I'm calling the game Merchant Seas:
http://merchantseas.com/

It's currently functional and stable, and I'm continuing to update artwork and music before I make an initial version publicly available. I plan to limit the initial version to the Mediterranean Sea and without combat, but can add and expand as needed from that point on. I suspect my current server setup will support between 50-100 simultaneous users, though I haven't been able to test it with that many.

I've been working on things pretty much on my own up to this point, but it would be nice to work with a couple people who have a similar love and nostalgia for the old Uncharted Waters games. If anyone is willing to help out, I can always use additional artwork and music, or even just someone willing to create new towns for me using my existing artwork components. All you'd need is a basic understanding of working with layers in a graphics program such as Paint Shop or Photoshop. If someone has experience with MySQL and XML, I'm getting ready to create NPC ships and would certainly appreciate assistance with that.

If you'd like to contribute to my project in any way, you can reach me at mike@merchantseas.com.

Some screens from the website (click for full size):






Some example portraits:


Some of the ships:


Resources:
Many of the icons I'm currently using are from RPG Maker XP, as well as the placeholder towns that you can see in the screenshots on the website. The world graphics are from RPG Palace [www.rpg-palace.com]. I am using XNA (C#) for development.

If you have any questions or comments about the game, feel free to ask or contact me at mike@merchantseas.com.

Post edited by: Zelek, at: 2009/06/15 15:35
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Zelek
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Re:[2d MMO] Merchant Seas (screenshots inside) - 2009/06/24 19:18

I may be able to put out a testing release this weekend. If you'd like to test an early version of the game, just create an account at http://merchantseas.com/

I just finished up with new versions of the towns, screenshots below. Any comments would be appreciated, including constructive criticism:

Click for full size:







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Zelek
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Re:[2d MMO] Merchant Seas (screenshots inside) - 2009/07/03 12:25

I recently sent emails to everyone who had created an account at the website. Here's the info if anyone else would like to try out the current testing version:

You can create a new account here:
http://merchantseas.com/createaccount.php

And then download the client here (just unzip the files and run setup.exe):
http://codecommode.com/release/MerchantSeas_10137.zip

There's a quick-and-dirty introduction here:
http://merchantseas.com/introduction.php?section=install

Post edited by: Zelek, at: 2009/07/04 12:18
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JtiksPies
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Re:[2d MMO] Merchant Seas (screenshots inside) - 2009/07/15 07:56

Just by looking at it, this is what I would say,

* It dosen't look as in-depth as UWNH
* It has fewer ships
* The maps arn't as big
* the 3D towns seem more confusing to me, since I grew up with Final Fantasy 5 and such

When it comes to graphics, I like the older versions better because its simpilar to read quickly. But for some of the new stuff, it has great graphics, but still is easy to read. Don't get too caught up in making it look good.

And now for some things I wish they had on UWNH that
you might be able to put on yours;

* Being able to attack Ports with some melee combat going on
* being able to use the trade commodities on board the boat (ie use wood to repair boats, or cheese as a backup food source)
* more ship types
* map editor (that would be so cool)
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Schneider21
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Re:[2d MMO] Merchant Seas (screenshots inside) - 2009/08/08 12:28

I created an account and will be giving it a spin up when I get home in a couple weeks. The internet runs like garbage here in Iraq, so I'm not even going to bother yet.
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Yukchan
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Re:[2d MMO] Merchant Seas (screenshots inside) - 2009/11/03 14:58

Well, I'm only working on my bachelors degree in IT science right now, so you may have a lot more of experience.
But I work at a software company part time and I think that I'm not that bad of a coder, even if I may lack some experience.
Also happen to be a huge fan of UWNH and started working with XNA a couple of weeks ago.
So, please let me know if I may be of any assistance to you.


Greetengs from Switzerland

Yukchan
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