Mythos Guru

The Dutch website, Tweakers.Net has run an article about Mythos. There’s nothing particularly new in the article, and it’s entirely in Dutch, but hey…All press is good press.

I ran the article through Babelfish to get a rough translation, then worked with Fellow Guruer and Living Dutchman, RTB. Here’s a fairly loose (and quite readable) translation of the article:

Flagship Studios, the maker of Hellgate: London is working on the MMO, Mythos, w hich will be free to download and play. The game is defined as Diablo in MMO form.

Flagship Studios hopes to make hardcore and casual gamers comfortable with Mythos. Flagship tries to reach this target grroup by offering their game for no charge. Of course, Flagship hopes to earn money off the game through the sale of virtual items with which players can improve their play experience. This system of microtransactions is currently in use on the Asian MMO Market, but rather new in the US and Europe, according to Flagship Director Max Schaefer on C&VG. Paying players do not obtain exclusive items. All items that can be bought, are also obtainable while playing though, although it will take more effort for the player to get the better items.

Flagship is making the game based on its Hellgate engine, the engine for their first game, Hellgate: London. Mythos is being made by the new studio Flagship has opened in Seattle. Flagship is trying to match the gameplay to Diablo, the RPG from Blizzard Entertainment in 1996. Flagship was started by a group of people in 2003 who had left Blizzard. The founders of Flagship were the core team who had made Diablo for Blizzard.

Mythos takes place in the world of Uld, that exists in the aftermath of a long war. There are three races the player can choose from. Human, Satyrs, and Gremlins. The classes that can be chosen also fall into three groups. The Bloodletter is a physical class, with swords, axes, and the like. The Gadgeteer uses technical appliances that he himself makes. The Pyromancer uses spells to try and attack its enemy from afar. The three classes have several subcategories. Just like in Diablo, the game takes place mainly in underground dungeons. Those dungeons will be randomly generated by the game’s engine.

The game will not only be made up of the usual quests which can be done solo or with other players. Also, PvP will be possible, and it will take place in a separate part of the game world. The losing player in a fight will lose a random piece of equipment that the winner can take. To prevent griefing, Flagship integrated a karma system. If a player kills a lower-level player, his or her karma decreases. A lower karma means that more equipment will be lost as soon as he loses a fight. Karma can only be repaired by killing players of equal or higher level.

Meanwhile, the Beta test for Mythos, which is still accepting new players, continues to run.

The little tugboat keeps on chuggin’, buildin’ up steam. Enjoy.

~Sulfuric