Flagship Studios has diligently been building
style="font-style: italic;">Mythos, a
free-to-play action-oriented massively-multiplayer
online game (MMOG).
Mythos
features frenzied combat and imaginative races and classes. After
coerving Mythos in a series of Beta Journals (previews), Ralsu crafted
a Q&A with Flagship Studios to discuss some of the featues of
Mythos as the team looks ahead to open beta. Travis Baldree and Max
Shaefer fielded the questions.
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Travis Baldree, Lead
Developer of Mythos
Q: Will Mythos
get a fifth race before launch? Could it be a bird race?
wont be a new race by launch, but new races are definitely in our
future plans! Our development schedule is fairly flexible. We look at
the game periodically and decide what to make next based on what feels
lean at the time. Right now the biggest need isnt a new race, but that
will bubble to the top eventually. I cant say what the next race will
be, but I like the bird race! :) Actually, back in the style="font-style: italic;">Diablo days we
tried bird characters, and its next to impossible to make it not look
like a man in a bird suit.
Q: Is there a limit to character slots? Will players be able to buy
more slots?
There will be a high limit to character slots. Right now its 24. We
may make character slots available for purchase, but as style="font-style: italic;">Mythos is a free
game, you can also just make a second account.
Q: Talk about ingots some. How will you introduce items that are good
enough that players want to buy them while still making sure that
players who do not spend money can get the best items in the game? Can
you give us an example of an item that we might purchase with ingots?
Every day we come up with new things that players could purchase. Our
rule of thumb is that it should be cool, but it shouldnt be necessary.
And we wont just sell the cool items. The sort of things well sell
are potions that give a boost to experience, or a shared account stash,
or cosmetic items that make you look cooler than anyone else. Down the
road, well add guild houses, hopefully player housing, but thats the
direction were taking. We dont think that buying the coolest items is
fun for anyone. We want you to have to earn your loot, whether youre
paying or not.
Q: Can you confirm what the maximum party size will be at launch? Will
groups be able to join together to form raid parties?
It will be five at launch, but as we add raids, competitive modes and
games well change it as necessary.
Q: Will crafters in Mythos be popular? That is, will their items be as
good as drops or better?
The best answer to that is that they should be different, but neither
better nor worse. Of course, such perfect balance is impossible, so the
realistic expectation should be that crafters will be a bit better in
some areas and worse at others. We think crafting will be popular,
especially for the more hard core players who invest a lot of time in
building their characters.
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Max Schaefer, COO of
Flagship and Executive Producer for
style="font-style: italic;">Mythos
Q: What does Flagship Studios intend to do about spawn
campers in PvP?
We are aware of the camping in the PvP Shadowlands and are turning the
rate down so its not as efficient as regular hunting. Most
of our important bosses are in instanced areas that dont respawn, so
spawn camping shouldnt be a problem. Where span camping is possible,
we make sure the monster spawns only offscreen in random locations.
Q: What is the plan to deal with gold spammers and other griefers?
Well try to design systems such that gold isnt the be-all, end-all
that it is in some games so theres less incentive to farm. There will
always be griefers, but weve tried to design our game play such that
theres just not that much griefing that you can do. Plus, we have
ignore lists so you can immediately tune out the obnoxious, and good
CSR tools so we can police complaints.
Q: How many servers will there be at launch?
Plenty! Weve been preparing by adding servers, and also optimizing the
network code so more can fit on a server. In any case, we can handle a
lot of people, and have the flexibility at our data center to rapidly
add hardware if necessary. We want as many people as possible.
Q: When is Open Beta?
Open Beta will begin very soon. We wont set a date because our
criterion is not when but what. When were satisfied were ready,
well open it up. I can say that were looking to do that very soon.
Q: When will Mythos
launch?
Again, its more of a what than a when, but it will be this year
for sure. It wont be too long before were able to give better and
more accurate answers, but it sort of depends on how the Open Beta
progresses. We have an aggressive schedule of additions and
improvements wed like to have in place.
Q: Anything else you want to add?
Anyone whos been in the beta for a long time knows that we throw in
surprises every now and then. Were working on some stuff right now
that I think will surprise and delight our players, and cant wait to
unleash it on the public. Were having a blast making this game and
interacting with our community!
Ten Ton Hammer: Thanks for your time!
Schaefer: Thank you!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Mythos Game Page.
