Adventure Land - The Code MMORPG

A big No. Why? Let me start by saying, the idea is really neat. Program your characters to automate doing whatever you want. Even if you aren't a programmer and are just learning, this can be very addictive. I say this as a new player that's nearing level 50 with my characters.

That said, in the game's current form.. you are expected to use scripts to the extreme, leaving your computer on 24/7 grinding away at enemies, automating item/gold transactions as needed, while even simple scripts use far too much CPU due to the unoptimized way the game (or default functions at least) does some things. Coupled with extremely confusing variable handling, such as... if a monster or party member entity leaves your vision or dies, the entity gets stripped of a bunch of variables immediately (ent.x or ent.real_x for example will instantly error your script), yet the entity itself still exists, so you can't just check if it exists. This causes your scripts to error like mad without absolute perfect entity clearing (spamming ent.dead/ent.rip/ent.visible checks to null them out, and spamming get_player to re-get.. players lol). This makes more advanced scripts annoying and inefficient. It also makes working with other players an absolute nightmare, as you end up being forced to send messages between characters to try and sync locations to move to and what not. I still haven't found a way to follow another player into a cave/zone without having them use a script to send my party a message to do so.

Oh, and these errors when you try to access a variable/function on a stripped entity? Unlike normal errors, these won't tell you which line in your code is erroring, so in a huge script you have no idea where you screwed up. I would chalk this up to me just not doing proper entity checking, but not being told what line errored? Brutal.

Going back to the grinding aspect, the main way you get better gear AFAIK, is to buy the same weapons/armor repeatedly, then purchase upgrade scrolls to make them stronger. You get +1 per attempt. The higher the number, the higher the chance of the item being destroyed gets. If you don't have a script to automatically burn your millions of grinded gold to do this, it gets very annoying very fast. Unless you're friends with RNGesus anyway. RNG based item upgrading has always been something I hated in MMOs. It removes the incentive of trying to get rare drops as when you do finally get something out of the ordinary, you have to risk destroying it if you wanna upgrade it to make it useful. Unless you get a thrill out of gambling, this is absolutely not a fun mechanic in my opinion, and just makes the grind more apparent.

As I mentioned, the game is all about botting to the extreme. However, there is also no incentive to make your bots do anything other than stand and attack weaker mobs, because attempting to make something more complex against stronger mobs usually results in a random error or pathfinding glitch getting you stuck, and you dying. Or you'll just straight up get slaughtered from the enemies not being kite-able (is that a word?). Even if you go with the flow and choose to set up a "stand and auto-attack" script then leave your computer on for a few days, you still run into 2 other problems. First is finding a spot to farm that isn't already taken. The safer the spot, the more likely someone's already farming there. This is partially due to the next point. Secondly, is rare mini-bosses that spring up randomly. Unless you modify the default get target function to filter out these boss mobs, or set your max attack on enemies to something only just big enough for the mobs you're targeting, your character can and will accidentally attack one and get murdered quickly. Even if you don't attack them, they can smack you if they get too close, and some of them like Green Jr. will kill you in only a second or 2. If this happens while your computer is unattended, you either just wasted hours of idle time, or your character gets stuck in a death loop after running back lol.

All in all, I really do like this game. But it's because I like it, that I can't recommend it because of just how many annoyances there are. It's early access. So who knows, maybe it will get better. But as for right now, I feel like I'm being punished for attempting to do anything other than stand->attack->stand->attack, and being punished for attempting to actually script myself instead of just lifting some public script. For a little context, I made a script that allows my party of 3 to wander the main map area, targeting mobs with a good hp to xp ratio (mobs level up the longer they exist and give better rewards). When I run out of targets, the party wanders to the next area. All the while, they will kite enemies in a circle to prevent taking damage themselves, and heal up each other as needed. This allows my group to kill much higher level enemies than they would normally, and my theory was... the increased xp and drops might offset the travel time. But in reality, I question if moving between target areas is actually less efficient than say, just standing in the crab area or similar (1.5 xp to hp ratio) and never moving. The latter would likely use a lot less CPU/network bandwidth either way, so what's my incentive to do anything fancy?

I also frequently run into problems with functions like can_move() or is_moving() telling me I can move or already am moving, when I'm actually not, so my characters get stuck thinking they're walking through a wall. Could be the fault of smartmove, but coding my own pathfinding would be tough. Trying to optimize by having 2 of my members follow a party leader, or having my party members follow another player, to reduce how much pathfinding is needed, has resulted in difficulties too due to the function stripping that happens when entities are no longer visible or dead. I'm slowly working my away around this barrage of obstacles, but it's getting less and less fun.

Anyway, this has already gotten really long, so I'll stop here. Short version, cool concept. Program your characters to win. But the rough edges are very rough. I've quickly lost incentive to... do anything really. I'm hoping the game will get better (Including Documentation!), and I'll update my review when it does.

Edit: Troll comments and comments telling me to "git gud" will be ignored and deleted.

I've been playing the browser version of this game since October of 2016, shortly after it was released to the public. I would gladly pay the game's cost many times times over. I can't recommend this game enough.

This is truly a one-of-a-kind experience that you won't find in any other game. The game's most key element is the ability to code your characters in JavaScript. This may be viewed as daunting to prospective players that don't know much about coding, but I encourage those players to give the game a try regardless. The game is an excellent learning tool - most of the game's player began playing with little to no knowledge of JavaScript, but learned and coded their own intricate scripts from the ground up. The community is very helpful towards those who need help coding their characters.

My favorite aspect of the game is automation. Any other MMORPG have boring quests and boring grinds. However, the code function in this game allows you to easily automate repetitive grinding, maybe in a party with your friends, and enjoy PVP, trade + other aspects of the game when you are not AFK.

Kaan ('Wizard' in-game) hangs out in the community Discord channel, where you can chat and provide feedback and new ideas directly to him. Adventure Land has a lot of potential, and with the game going live on Steam, I look forward to the strides the game will take in the coming months.

This game is essentially abandoned by the only developer, who seems to only check in every few weeks to make sure the servers are still up. Bugs are rampant and generally not fixed unless they start to become abused by more than a few players, item/skill balance is non-existent; and the paladin character was a work in progress when I started which is two years a this point. The entire economy is dictated by a group of ~2-3 players and due to the way item upgrades work you will likely never get your hands on any significant amount of some of the best items as you will always be outbid. Multi-accounting is against the rules but is easily bypassed by simply claiming someone else from your house is playing. Many of the in-game achievements are technically possible
but would require you to spend multiple years completing the same task. Many of the truly late game items don't even drop from monsters or have drop rates that require 6+ months of grinding. At one point there was no class restrictions for some items but this was changed a few years back; the old items that existed before this change remain with no restrictions as "legacy" versions which you as a new player will have no chance of obtaining.

I have had a lot of fun playing this game but it's been in a slow state of dying for several years now and without a significant amount of attention from the developer it's simply not worth investing your time into.