Basket just got into the closed beta of Monumenta, a server that calls itself a CTM MMO, and is streaming the first session live. The plan is to have fun and also flag anything that looks like a bug or needs a tweak. First stop is the tutorial.
The Forgotten Halls
The title on screen reads "Monumenta, Prologue: The Forgotten Halls." The signs at the entrance explain the rest: this is a small tutorial dungeon, and items and levels gotten here will not carry over to the main game world. It's a private instance, just for Basket.
Basket expects to know most of what it teaches, after a lot of MMOs and CTM maps, but treats it as practice anyway. Old habits from Untold Stories don't all fit. Sprinting is limited here. Basket also thinks having chat show up inside the tutorial might confuse new players.
Primed spawners
A tip in chat says lights slow spawners down, but breaking them is the only sure way to make an area safe. So Basket breaks them and takes the torches back. There seem to be no natural spawns, which Basket guesses means a mushroom biome. A spawner that looks like a creeper spawner turns out to be zombies.
These are primed spawners. Get near one and it spits out a mob right away, so running straight in is a bad idea. The first chest has gear, some arrows, and a note: use bows to weaken enemies before getting close. The zombies drop zombie meat that's really rabbit flesh.
A creeper and a fall
The area past the mushroom biome has natural spawns again. "Oh god, that's not what I want to do at all." Chat reads "BasketMC was blown up by Creeper," and Basket's things are left behind. Basket is glad of that. Keeping your stuff on death wouldn't be very realistic. The run back to collect it happens with the spawners still producing.
A little later Basket takes another accidental fall. Further down, the ladders stop short of the bottom, which is worth remembering. "I didn't mean to fall. That wasn't on purpose, in case you're wondering." Chat isn't convinced.
Scoti, maybe, later
Between spawners Basket talks about the plan. Scoti and Basket are going to play on this server at some point, though Basket doesn't know yet whether Scoti is in the beta. There are side quests, wolves and player housing, and Basket wants a balance between playing together and adventuring alone.
A trap chest with nothing in it
One chest is marked as a trap. Behind it a redstone torch and a ladder lead up to a command block that won't open. The trap itself is empty, so Basket opens the chest anyway. "A trap! I should be more careful next time." Nothing happens.
The next rooms are more spawners, all primed. The method is to step in, wake them up, drop torches and fall back, then go in and break them. One creeper goes unaccounted for. Basket runs out of clownfish and moves on to bread. Spider and skeleton spawners guard the last room, and without a shield a sword can't block.
The Masked Man
The last chest holds a quest item. Taking it ends the tutorial. A Masked Man speaks up: "Hah! I never expected someone would beat me here. Now hand over that Crystal or die." Then, "On second thought, just killing you either way is the best option. Good bye, adventurer."
Basket wakes up in a new spot, in the real game. "That was the tutorial. That's how you play Minecraft."
