For various reasons, I have moved on from this game. Mostly due to the game being as unfinished as it is. Yes it looks very good, but that's where everything ends. I had to hide a lot to make these screenshots and I am simply sick of trying very hard to push a game for a group that does not care about their customers.
Plus what is left of the community is currently in denial, and it's very hard to have a solid conversation with them.
Eventually the money would dry up and the company would fold. That would be a very sad day for a game that could have done a lot. The community, the publisher and the developes should all be equal in the blame for the death of this game.
I will write more on this.
Friday, April 29, 2005
8:05 AM - Why have I not posted anything about Mourning recently?
Friday, April 15, 2005
6:02 AM - The human starter town
This is first of a series of four videos I'd be making of the different racial starter towns found in the game.
This first video is of the human starter town, the video starts off at the person that greets newly made human characters, he also gives a quest that gives basic weapons/armor. Next we move onto the combat training area, where various forms of combat can be trained, next the video goes into the tower with the magic schools.
This first video is of the human starter town, the video starts off at the person that greets newly made human characters, he also gives a quest that gives basic weapons/armor. Next we move onto the combat training area, where various forms of combat can be trained, next the video goes into the tower with the magic schools.
4:54 AM - A ruined fortress
I came across this ruined fortress (loc: 117 113) near a village earlier this morning, there is a bridge across the fortress to a nice little village. I shot some pictures of the village down below as well as a video of the fortress.
3:24 AM - Encounter with Supreme
The Orc lands can be both mysterious as well as breath taking. The endless deserts have so much detail and character that being lost would be yet another adventure in discovering the many hidden wonders of Mourning.
Thus, I came across a strange looking structure (loc: 107 120), and there I met my death...
Thus, I came across a strange looking structure (loc: 107 120), and there I met my death...
Thursday, April 14, 2005
3:23 PM - About the videos
A few people are having problems accessing the video files, specifically they are having a codec not found issue and video not loading.
1. Codec
I encode all videos in MPEG4 (Xvid codec), thus that's what you'd need to play these, they are all standard complaint MPEG4 videos with MP3 audio.
This codec can be downloaded from the following website. Specially you will need the decoder binary, unless you want to encode something.
2. Video not loading.
The videos are currently stored on putfile.com, who give 10 mb of free hosting per video. Which is pretty nice. My videos are usually around 10mb, thus that is a lot to download (from a moderately slow site). These videos are not streamed, but downloaded, so you will need to click the link to the video and keep that window open till the video is downloaded and windows media palyer starts to play it.
3. Keeping a local copy of the videos.
Put file doesn't allow direct links to the videos, but depending on your web browser you may already have a copy of the video on your harddisk (as long as you've viewed it once).
For Mozilla Firebird, the path were videos are stored is:
C:\Documents and Settings\[Your User Name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default.adm\Cache
Look through there for big files, drag and drop them into your media player, if they turn out to be some of the videos given here, just rename them to something.avi and everthing should work.
1. Codec
I encode all videos in MPEG4 (Xvid codec), thus that's what you'd need to play these, they are all standard complaint MPEG4 videos with MP3 audio.
This codec can be downloaded from the following website. Specially you will need the decoder binary, unless you want to encode something.
2. Video not loading.
The videos are currently stored on putfile.com, who give 10 mb of free hosting per video. Which is pretty nice. My videos are usually around 10mb, thus that is a lot to download (from a moderately slow site). These videos are not streamed, but downloaded, so you will need to click the link to the video and keep that window open till the video is downloaded and windows media palyer starts to play it.
3. Keeping a local copy of the videos.
Put file doesn't allow direct links to the videos, but depending on your web browser you may already have a copy of the video on your harddisk (as long as you've viewed it once).
For Mozilla Firebird, the path were videos are stored is:
C:\Documents and Settings\[Your User Name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default.adm\Cache
Look through there for big files, drag and drop them into your media player, if they turn out to be some of the videos given here, just rename them to something.avi and everthing should work.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
7:53 PM - A Journey into the Elven lands
The server was very stable the whole day. The last few days, during nights, we rarely got any stability from the server. But tonight the server is behaving pretty well.
I was in the human land, there I learned every single magic skill at the lowest ring, after that I went to travel the lands, having never explored the human lands much.
As I travelled North and East, I came across my different amazing mobs and structures that I've not seen before.
Then the land started to change, the green growing greener, the sky softening a bit, and a path cut out into the mountains, at the end of which stood an enchanted doorway...
This was the path into the Elven lands, I captured a video just at the entrance to give an idea of how the area look:
I was in the human land, there I learned every single magic skill at the lowest ring, after that I went to travel the lands, having never explored the human lands much.
As I travelled North and East, I came across my different amazing mobs and structures that I've not seen before.
Then the land started to change, the green growing greener, the sky softening a bit, and a path cut out into the mountains, at the end of which stood an enchanted doorway...
This was the path into the Elven lands, I captured a video just at the entrance to give an idea of how the area look:
6:41 AM - PvP Video
I know a lot of people wanted to see combat in the game. So this morning, I shot a PvP (consented and otherwise) video. This video is funny in that I chased Mongo for about 20 mins (edited out), he went all around the Orc lands, then ran into the town and all around the tents etc. I killed two people while chasing him :) Finally got sleepy and let him kill me. His Excuse : Lag ...
3:48 AM - The temple of the candle-nose deity
Today I revisited the temple from yesterday, in order to make a better video.
What happend yesterday was that I got lost and came back to where I started and my fraps quit on me cause of a full hard disk.
The video is 10mb, click on the link and wait for a few mins for it to load. Best viewed in full screen mode. Actual video was much longer, but I edited out the runs in the long corridors (I think 4 floors) before reaching the statue with a candle on it's nose. Video is dark cause the whole temple was dark. Also there were several aggro mobs nearby that nearly killed me when I ported near the temple.
What happend yesterday was that I got lost and came back to where I started and my fraps quit on me cause of a full hard disk.
The video is 10mb, click on the link and wait for a few mins for it to load. Best viewed in full screen mode. Actual video was much longer, but I edited out the runs in the long corridors (I think 4 floors) before reaching the statue with a candle on it's nose. Video is dark cause the whole temple was dark. Also there were several aggro mobs nearby that nearly killed me when I ported near the temple.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
10:20 PM - A ghost town
Once again I did a random teleport (from now on I'll write down my teleport numbers), and ended up on a highland area, with green hills and vallys. What caught my eye though was a distant building to the north.
As I moved closer it looked more like a turreted outpost than a small building.
But I was mistaken, this was more than a small out post. It looked like a fort or hold. It might even be one of those towns that is in store for the Lore Guild contest (check Mourning forums).
Amazingly, there were no guards or NPC's in this town. The town itself was as big as the starter human town. In the center of the town was a huge building with red regal drapes and a square staircase that wound up to the roof of the building. From there you can see much of the town.
After walking out of the town, I took this image (that does not do justice to the magnificent mountains on the back of the town).
This is one town any explorer of Krel should visit.
As I moved closer it looked more like a turreted outpost than a small building.
But I was mistaken, this was more than a small out post. It looked like a fort or hold. It might even be one of those towns that is in store for the Lore Guild contest (check Mourning forums).
Amazingly, there were no guards or NPC's in this town. The town itself was as big as the starter human town. In the center of the town was a huge building with red regal drapes and a square staircase that wound up to the roof of the building. From there you can see much of the town.
After walking out of the town, I took this image (that does not do justice to the magnificent mountains on the back of the town).
This is one town any explorer of Krel should visit.
2:08 PM - A lighthouse in the forrest
For some reason, I fell into the sea and was not able to walk back out. Thus, I tried a random teleport and ended up in a forrest area, the sky had turned dark for the night and I settled down to watch the scene.
The moon scene was indeed stunning and just after taking that screenshot, I realized there was a distant light seen on the horizon. Thinking it might be a town, I started walking in that direction.
This scene is very nice, but I did not like the purple hue the engine puts during the night. I feel this should be reduced as it gives a color that's unrealistic.
On reaching the building, I realized that it was a lighthouse like structure set in the middle of the forrest. The building structure was not the way Human buildings were made. It looked a bit elven, but I was not totally sure.
The moon scene was indeed stunning and just after taking that screenshot, I realized there was a distant light seen on the horizon. Thinking it might be a town, I started walking in that direction.
This scene is very nice, but I did not like the purple hue the engine puts during the night. I feel this should be reduced as it gives a color that's unrealistic.
On reaching the building, I realized that it was a lighthouse like structure set in the middle of the forrest. The building structure was not the way Human buildings were made. It looked a bit elven, but I was not totally sure.
10:02 AM - Spaceships over elven capitol are missing a texture
Elven scientists recently discovered several missing textures on the spaceships that appeared over the Elven capitol. This sudden phenomenon baffled the minds of the greatest thinkers of Krel, leading to many cases of sudden violence and sacrifice (in the case of the orcs).
The origin and purpose of the spaceships remain a mystery and thus opening a whole new area of adventuring.
The origin and purpose of the spaceships remain a mystery and thus opening a whole new area of adventuring.
9:13 AM - The day for Cartographers
This morning the game server was acting weird. The server was up, you can log in and run around, but apart from that nothing else worked.
Since it was not possible to play the game as it was ment, I started to explore the world of Krel. My first journey took me to a place that Spoonbender pointed out (at location 106,122). This area had cool Ogre like monsters in a desert setting.
The interesting thing here was an Egyptian like temple.
In the center of the temple there was a huge statue of a headless deity.
The walls of this temple are decorated in egyptian hierography mortifs. At the back of the temple there is a doorway leading down into into a much bigger area under the temple. This area has many winding corridors and rooms with nice tile motifs and many statues of various deities located through out the area. Missing were mobs.
I also made a movie of this area.
Edit: A better video of the whole temple was is in the Temple of the candle-nose deity post.
Since it was not possible to play the game as it was ment, I started to explore the world of Krel. My first journey took me to a place that Spoonbender pointed out (at location 106,122). This area had cool Ogre like monsters in a desert setting.
The interesting thing here was an Egyptian like temple.
In the center of the temple there was a huge statue of a headless deity.
The walls of this temple are decorated in egyptian hierography mortifs. At the back of the temple there is a doorway leading down into into a much bigger area under the temple. This area has many winding corridors and rooms with nice tile motifs and many statues of various deities located through out the area. Missing were mobs.
I also made a movie of this area.
Edit: A better video of the whole temple was is in the Temple of the candle-nose deity post.
Monday, April 11, 2005
9:40 AM - Mourning
This is a Blog where I'd document my travels through the lands of Krel in the game Mourning. I'm a beta tester in this game. The developers recently lifted the NDA, thus I am able to communicate with the world the many wonders that Mourning would bring to the MMO gaming community.
Thank you.
Bowie.
Thank you.
Bowie.