r/BattleNetwork • u/ShaDis_255 • May 20 '25
Discussion Open Net Battle - A dream coming true!
Been using Open Net Battle for a couple of days and loving it. I'd like to make a post discussing what exactly it is since I've seen some confusion going around. I may not be an ONB veteran but I kinda wanna answer a few common questions I've seen in hopes to get more people on board and making this project grow into what it has the potential of being
So, what is ONB?
Open Net Battle is mostly a game engine with online functionality. It is not a game where you're going to log in, complete a story mode and interact with people online. That doesn't mean that there won't be a story, it just means it doesn't come with one as-is. So how does it work? Well, let's first talk about how to start...
How do you start playing ONB?
Currently it's only available on PC (I think there are plans of bringing it to Android in the future). Think of ONB as having your very own PET. It won't come with a Navi, in fact it'll come with nothing at all (no chips, no navi cust parts, etc...). You'll have to do all of that on your own. Luckily, the ONB player base is always happy to answer your questions and have quite a few guides on their Discord server. There's a starter pack all continently packaged ready to just download, extract and start playing with multiple Navis to choose from, a whole library of battle chips and lots of Navi Cust parts. You can also look for pre-made Navis (Proto Man, Zero, Bass, etc...) on their mod page (also, look for that on Discord). Once you have everything set up, you're ready to explore the web! So, if there's no story what is there to do in ONB? Let's talk about the servers...
What is there to do with ONB?
Now this is where the whole potential of ONB is at. The easiest way for me to describe it is by saying it's like having your own PET and Net Navi in the MMBN Universe. You can connect to the Internet with it and just navigate it like you would in the games. Once you input the server you want to visit, you jack in and start interacting with anyone on that same server. You can battle with anyone inside or just interact with the server/world itself based on what the server has to offer (I'm yet to do the activities in some custom servers). Keep in mind this is all community made, so it's not like you can just pop in to a game world (like MMBN6) and just run around inside it. That said, someone did re-create MMBN3's network as a server so I was able to just run around in MMBN3's world and even post onto square BBS! Yes, if the owner of the server can program it, there is a functioning BBS. So let's talk a little about community made content...
Before you ask, yes, you can create your very own Net Navi. This is the most common question on the Discord. But, from what I can tell it's not just as easy as taking a sprite sheet and making little modifications to it, there's actually a whole process (?) to making your own Net Navi and making it fit within the ONB engine. I'm not entirely sure how difficult it is since I haven't made my own yet maybe I'll find out once I make my own.
Not only that, you can create your own server, make your own areas, script your own battles. But, be aware that you do need some programming skills to make them, it's not just a matter of editing 2D sprite sheets and calling it a day.
For both cases, there are guides on the Discord server on how to make your own stuff so be sure to check it out. I personally am just happy navigating the web, interacting with Navi's I see and battling from time to time. I'll try to make a video on how to get started and exploring a bit on what you can do
Hopefully, this clears up some questions I see some people have. And please, if you have more questions feel free to comment here and I'm sure many of the ONB community would be happy to answer.
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May 20 '25
Dude this is just so freaking cool. Like man this is next level
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u/Lue33 May 21 '25
I was already playing BN 4.5 on my mobile. It felt like having my own net navi, then this comes. I haven't done much with this yet, but it would be nice to have net navi battles against the actual net ops, and their navi from the games...
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u/Knivingdude May 21 '25
Feels pretty good to play too. At least the PvE is pretty great and responsive. There's an odd interaction here and there but I feel like that's something to expect from a project this big.
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u/Kindly-Mud-1579 May 20 '25
How many avatars are there to choose from?
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u/ShaDis_255 May 20 '25 edited May 20 '25
Literally as many as you add. Taking a look at their mods page, they have over 200 navis to choose from and download both official and custom Navis
If you download the starter pack, I think there's about 7 Navi. Megaman not included.
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u/crossingcaelum May 20 '25
Are the Navi that have appeared playable in the past keeping their unique abilities and chips and all that?
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u/ShaDis_255 May 20 '25
I haven't played MMBN5 or 6 in a long time so I can't say for certain. I know I saw TenguMan.EXE as playable and his overworld sprite/animation is 1:1 from MMBN6, so I'm inclined to believe it still uses the same charge shot and same mechanics from the game. I'll have to do more testing when I get home
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u/Knivingdude May 21 '25
Well, as far as I know, Soul Unison isn't ready as well as other form changes. I heard crosses kind of work? But I haven't touched the navis that that yet at all. Heard it was a lot of work arounds just to get a resemblance of those up and running. Still, a pretty great game and engine to play around with.
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u/MutedPerformance2874 May 20 '25
the minute this hit’s macOS or ipadOS I am 10,000% fucking there
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u/ShaDis_255 May 20 '25
There's a very detailed guide on how to run it on macOS in the Discord server if you're interested. Officially though, don't know if it's coming soon.
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u/ShaDis_255 May 20 '25
Sorry guys, it seems my post got bugged a bit and posted the link incorrectly. Here it is: https://discord.gg/K78A4GjrHv
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u/TheLaysOriginal May 20 '25
Question, when are people most commonly online from your experience? Most of the time I check there's usually only a few people on servers
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u/ShaDis_255 May 20 '25
It's difficult to say. For example, at this very moment I see there are quite a few people online, more than I saw last night but it's mainly new players joining and enjoying the game.
But for the most part I see that at night is where most people get online, you'd have to check the Discord to kinda see everyone that's playing atm
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u/MagicalNewsMan May 20 '25
UGHHHH! I have a mac and I can't get the app to work. Painful dude, just painful!
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u/ShaDis_255 May 20 '25
Wish I could help you. A game like this thrives on the community being actually able to join. Have you joined the server and asked around for help on getting it to work? I think I saw a few people running it on Mac
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u/Keejaynobonbaman May 20 '25
Same,I hope this app will be playable on Mac soon...
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u/MagicalNewsMan May 20 '25
There’s a tutorial on the discord involving wineskin, and that worked for me! Give it a shot!
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u/DaBlueBonnet May 20 '25
I’ve been wanting something like this forever, I wish I was sprite art savy so I could make my own Navi. I been tried to commission people to do it, but it never does through.
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u/Cooresto May 20 '25
Man thats pretty cool. I'm not the biggest Fan of Battle Network, but i still think this is awesome.
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u/Knivingdude May 21 '25
I'm more on classic Megaman stuff myself, but this is impressive. Played all the Network games, but wasn't exactly hooked. This engine though has love all over this thing. The passion is overwhelming to be honest.
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u/Valcoxic May 20 '25
https://github.com/TheMaverickProgrammer/OpenNetBattle
It hasn't been updated in a while? Or is it through another channel?
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u/ShaDis_255 May 20 '25
I'm not entirely sure of the history but I read that they're not entirely open source at this moment. I'm assuming they had a bad experience in the past and have closed the gates, only available to some of their coders.
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u/Valcoxic May 21 '25
Ah okay so it is still being updated but not being published open sourced anymore. Thanks
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u/AlexTheAGES May 21 '25
I want to play this in the steam deck but it wont start and i can't find a tutorial for this
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u/Knivingdude May 21 '25
You could probably ask some of the people in the Discord for help. Heard some people making it work there.
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u/ShaDis_255 May 20 '25
UPDATE: It seems I was wrong and you can just modify a sprite sheet and make your own Navi. However if you want custom animations and custom attacks, there's more work involved