Monster Crown News

--IMPORTANT--
The save file format has been completely revamped! It'd be easier to say you must start a new savefile, but you can indeed load your old one.

But first BACKUP YOUR SAVE FILES! grab em here:
C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\LocalLow\Studio Aurum\Monster Crown\Resources\Saves
Toss a copy in another directory.

Instead of pressing Z/Accept when your file is selected, if it's an old one press F1, the next time you save it'll be up-converted to the new format and you don't need F1 anymore.

Also, balance changes apply to newly generated monsters, anything you tamed from previous builds remains the same.
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v1.33 Fixes
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+Monsters can find an item for you while you're away (saved and shut off)
+Shaved 1.5 seconds off of file loading
+Prize monster duplication is fixed
+Can safely set new prize monsters and cancel after a battle
+Can re-enter online menu after a disconnect
+battle now progresses after save
+game now saves after winning or losing
+Save file internal data management complete rewrite, now supports encoding
+Reduced chance of save file corruption
+Changed how messges are split up to improve readability of textboxes (WIP)
+Teedon has been kicked out of the player's room and is now back where he belongs!
+Follow monster behavior improved (WIP)
+Fade to black texture no longer fails to cover the entire screen on higher resolutions
+Small visual fixes to new battle screen
+Can no longer walk on Dad
+Added item-get sound effect
+Default audio level reduced heavily
+Battle sound effects now reflect audio level
+If the opponent doesn't send a battle sync at least every 120 seconds the game will disconnect and end the battle
+Chance of encountering Harveskin when picking up a pumpkin after leaving home
+Prize monster returned safely after leaving online menu
+Buttons no longer linger after leaving online menu
+ID Challenge now functions properly
+Tamer list building bug fixed and now back into working order
+Tamer list sorting inverted as it seemed to list most toughness difference first
+Scanline flickering when moving between areas fixed
+Starter monster moves nerfed
+Walerus's HP boosted, attack nerfed. Battle should be long but not as punishing
+Various online fixes and improvements to move syncing
+Text of Battle UI revamped (buttons need visual resizing)
+Connection status is no longer visible until you connect and even then it's only a box that will show red if you lose connectivity
+Trade now does nothing at all rather than soft-locking
+Health bar now displays earlier
+Online losses no longer warp you home or take your items (still heals you)
+ID Challenge now availble but needs some visual tweaks
+Opponents now sorted by least power difference from you to most
+Leaving the entire online battle menu restores your prize monster to your team/box
+Item use in battle not available but defend now is, fast-switch remapped to cancel/X rather than TOGGLE
+Prize transfer is now happening as it should and monsters should not be lost or produce soft/hard locks
+Tamer submenu positioning fixed (Challenge/Prize)
+New Rodask, Domigon overworld sprites
+New minified sprites for oversized monsters for the exp/farm screen and inside houses, needs smoothing
+Balancing rework of starters
+Balancing rework of the beta overall
+Myrk no longer re-appears
+Gualchop power boosted to 120HP recovered.
+Major additions to the Beth meet cutscene, introducing a new story element (dream egg)
+Can no longer walk on Kiry tamer
+No longer check Kiry when speaking to healer
+Forced to enter store now to receive bag
+Called over from the street to learn about Kiry
+Some font fine-tuning
+Improved main menu button visuals
+File select screen visual tweaks to improve clarity/usability
+All monsters now have level 0 attacks to prevent moveless monster bug
+New font makeover for the entire game
+New battle interface and method of choosing actions that reduces clicks
+Full move details and information now available in battle

Hey everyone!

As you might know, Monster Crown has been in closed beta for a while now, but today we've started to expand it! This means that YOU can get your hands on a free closed beta key for Monster Crown! Go over to this website to claim your key: https://gleam.io/4ycXy/monster-crown-closed-beta-key-giveaway

Congratulations! You're now part of the Closed Beta. Please do make sure to join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/soedesco and check out the #monster-crown-closed-beta channel to join the discussion! We also have a weekly challenge going on in there where you can win a bunch of in-game items, every week!

I'll see you there!

-Marten

Just wanted to share some new official art, you'll start seeing some of our key monsters pop up in this style for articles, youtube videos, etc.

This first one shows the starters of Monster Crown, which will you pick? I tried to put as much personality into each as possible, from the grimly-mischievous Hooclaw to the stoic Dracoyle.



This second one is for an upcoming, unannounced monster that will play a big role in Monster Crown :D



Hope you enjoy and look forward to more updates on the core game soon!

Hello folks!

Just wanted to share a few of the fixes we've worked on since launching our closed beta on February 24th 2020, that some of you non-backers have been able to join thanks to the sharing contests.

The changelog is below, but I'd like to share a few gifs of the additional UI work we've been doing as well. Recently I realized Monster Crown's font was really holding things back. I couldn't reduce the size of the font any further at our native resolution, so I was forced to seek out a new font.

Since implementing the new font menus will be able to be much more concise, share more info, and take up less screen real estate. This new less cluttered look will spread across the game and you'll see it in action over the next few updates. Check out these gifs and be sure to let me hear your feedback!





As you can see full move info is now available just when you need it, in battle. The icons you see on the attack description panel are first, the move's type, and secondly, if its a magical or physical move. Also, to be a little subjective, I feel like the new look and font makes the game feel much more authentic to its 90s mongame roots!

I'm presently hard at work on online battling. Some of you may remember that this worked during the kickstarter but it actually was very buggy. I've completely revamped the UI and now I'm working on squashing the last of the bugs that lead to desyncs when playing online. As long as things don't get desynced, the game seems rock-solid online and the server I've built is feeling very responsive and has handled everything I've thrown at it so far (not that it can compare to potentially hundreds of people trying to get online of course, but we'll handle that soon enough!).

Here's that changelog:

Closed Beta Fixes (Week of Feb 24 2020)
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+Can no longer leave your party empty via the breeding menu
+Code menu no longer softlocks
+Returning from selling items at the shop now returns you to the menu properly
+Overworld monsters now appearing on linux
+Odd map spawnpoint removed
+breeding buttons-still-visible at party select issue fixed
+breeding stat calculation on born fixed
+baby monsters can no longer be born with exp
+NPCs should no longer wander toward the player
+Standing on an object you can not walk onto, will not prevent you from walking off of it
+Better choice text box highlighting
+Monster slots at the farm for the secondary parent changed to appropriate background symbol
+Typo in Mill Town NPC dialogue fixed
+New Breeding UI which heavily reduces clicks and looks much nicer
+New Shop UI which heavily reduces clicks and is pretty fun
+Fixed Storklift and bed dialogue options
+Linux launch option added
+Monsters now inherit stats using the proper formula
+Controller defaults now work so new players won't have headaches!
+Linux gamers can now load their older save files properly
+Dialogue choices revamped to use modern GUI format
+Brilliant monsters at the lead of the party do not break the load screen
+Can no longer accidentally auction off a monster by checking its stats at the auction
+Odd map fly point removed that could be reached by flying before selecting a location
+Can no longer breed eggs when the incubator is already full-size
+Controls now work on first boot on new systems
+Laz movepool fix
+Teedon movepool fix
+David now actually heals you after the campout
+Item "Use" no longer permanently changes "Check" or "Make Leader" option in Monster party view
+Dew Cave music no longer plays when taking the Mill Town exit
+Breeder menu exit delay removed
+"Make Leader" no longer exceeds the highlight on the party screen
+Missing tree top in Mill-Dew area fixed
+Player walking animation no longer sticks around after opening the menu in certain situations
+Can no longer leave the breeding barn through the wall to the left of the exit
+Player name entry now indicates to press the start button to complete (rather than trying with Z or accept)
+Added more detail to canoe received notification on usage
+Linux build now available
+Improvements to the Dew cave encounter areas
+Fixed stray sprite on the Walerus overworld sprite
+Cannot quick-swap to a defeated monster
+Fraust causing issues in RNG tamer, removed from RNG pool
+Added F8 indicator on the load screen for easy remapping of buttons/keys
+Meerlin quest fixed!
+Exp bar overflow/underflow on menu screens fixed
+Brilliants no longer cause farm box issues
+Volume can now be changed smoothly
+Various player animation adjustments, just as expected, from the master, Arex
+TENTATIVE: Dad's twin has taken a hike in our testing, but many scenarios affect Dad so please let us know if you see it again and where you were in the story.
+Various improvements to synchronization and selection in the farm box system
+TENTATIVE: No longer lose visibility of your monster after meeting Nicole
+New trade tamer dialogue and clearer requests
+New battle tamer dialogue and clear requests for trades
+Tanukrook now takes a hike if you reach a nice safe town.
+Cobreo forms fixed
+Post trading NPC dialogue fixed
+Party Experience gain is now the default
+Rodask level adjusted in tutorial to make more sense
+various text responsiveness fixes
+Can now hit enter at the Press Enter screen no matter what mapping you have configured
+Aloe leaf added to random pool for overworld spawns
+overworld item spawn rate increased to 4x a day (once at the change of each time of day)
+overworld item spawn rate decreased per-generation period
+Battle tamer can no longer softlock you in certain scenarios
+Party EXP toggle properly integrated into the options menu
+Renaming monsters now available on the info screen
+Taming success now tied to average of all your party's levels]
+One of the gangsters at the start of the game slid rather than walked
+Better music management, the wrong track playing after battle/flying should be fixed! let us know if you encounter a specific scenario that leaves the wrong track playing.
+Bed restored to interactable after redesign
+Updated player full-size images!
+Apo added to the overworld
+Tamed Primigon added to the Farm
+Tamed Rodask added to the farm
+Fix done on the loading screen to prevent loading issues when a corrupt save is present
+Laz movepool fix
+Teedon movepool fix
+Updated home interiors at the farm and Mill Town
+Can now change clothes at the wardrobe instead of a mirror
+New taming success calculation:
+1 point per party levels average above the enemy.
+1 point per 20% reduction in enemy health.
5 points = 100% tamed

Over the last week we've had tremendous support, bug-reporting and useful feedback from our players, here are some of the fixes we've done!

(the current version is 1.28)

Closed Beta Fixes (Week of Feb 24 2020)
-----------------------
+Improvements to the Dew cave encounter areas
+Fixed stray sprite on the Walerus overworld sprite
+Cannot quick-swap to a defeated monster
+Fraust causing issues in RNG tamer, removed from RNG pool
+Added F8 indicator on the load screen for easy remapping of buttons/keys
+Meerlin quest fixed!
+Exp bar overflow/underflow on menu screens fixed
+Brilliants no longer cause farm box issues
+Volume can now be changed smoothly
+Various player animation adjustments, just as expected, from the master, Arex
+TENTATIVE: Dad's twin has taken a hike in our testing, but many scenarios affect Dad so please let us know if you see it again and where you were in the story.
+Various improvements to synchronization and selection in the farm box system
+TENTATIVE: No longer lose visibility of your monster after meeting Nicole
+New trade tamer dialogue and clearer requests
+New battle tamer dialogue and clear requests for trades
+Tanukrook now takes a hike if you reach a nice safe town.
+Cobreo forms fixed
+Post trading NPC dialogue fixed
+Party Experience gain is now the default
+Rodask level adjusted in tutorial to make more sense
+various text responsiveness fixes
+Can now hit enter at the Press Enter screen no matter what mapping you have configured
+Aloe leaf added to random pool for overworld spawns
+overworld item spawn rate increased to 4x a day (once at the change of each time of day)
+overworld item spawn rate decreased per-generation period
+Battle tamer can no longer softlock you in certain scenarios
+Party EXP toggle properly integrated into the options menu
+Renaming monsters now available on the info screen
+Taming success now tied to average of all your party's levels]
+One of the gangsters at the start of the game slid rather than walked
+Better music management, the wrong track playing after battle/flying should be fixed! let us know if you encounter a specific scenario that leaves the wrong track playing.
+Bed restored to interactable after redesign
+Updated player full-size images!
+Apo added to the overworld
+Tamed Primigon added to the Farm
+Tamed Rodask added to the farm
+Fix done on the loading screen to prevent loading issues when a corrupt save is present
+Laz movepool fix
+Teedon movepool fix
+Updated home interiors at the farm and Mill Town
+Can now change clothes at the wardrobe instead of a mirror
+New taming success calculation:
+1 point per party levels average above the enemy.
+1 point per 20% reduction in enemy health.
5 points = 100% tamed


Next focuses: Map Collision, Storage, Pact success formula