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Archive for the 'Flagship Studios' Category
As many of you probably heard on Hellgate Guru and countless other websites, it seems Hanbitsoft has fired all FSS employees and is now in ownership of the I.P. of both Hellgate: London and Mythos.
While we have yet to read an official statement from both parties involved, the work on HGL and Mythos is obviously halted. No one knows yet if, when and how it will resume its course.
While Hellgate had its share of problems, Mythos has received positive reviews from dozens of previewers, which would probably indicate Hanbitsoft will keep on developing it.
In the meantime, wait and see.
This was posted on the official forums a few days ago, but I must have missed it then.
Sorry everybody - as the title of this thread states the overworld is going on hold for a bit. My guess is till the middle of next week. We have just been running into multiple issues with the new overworld that we thought we had hammered out.
Trying to get it pushed out today could leave people with a pretty bad impression of the world and well that’s the last thing we want to do.
Again, I’m really sorry. I know everybody has been waiting patiently and well … this just sucks.
Just below that post is also a compilation of current things that devs have said about what’s to come in the future, so it’s an interesting read.
Enjoy 
Horned’s dungeon has a new interview up on their website with Max Schaefer.
It goes through a variety of questions about game features and what is to come in the future of the game.
Mythos will finance itself about so-called item-stores. In which prize area will these stores move?
Max Schaefer: You will be able to buy items and services from vendors using the in-game cash currency in each town. They will work very much like the regular vendors, only instead of gold, silver, and copper, they will take the cash currency.
Will there be for fans like me sometime maybe a collector edition? Lineage 2 has demonstrated it here and after 2 years has thrown on the market a collector edition.
Max Schaefer: That’s a little ahead of where we’re thinking right now, but I like the idea. If we are successful in launching Mythos, we’ll do something like that for our fans!
[...]
Thank you Mr. Schaefer for this Interview. I hope Mythos would be a great Game.. No, I know that Mythos would be a great Game. Im a big Fan of this Game. And if, nevertheless, you want to make liable to pay costs one day. I think here the fans pay with pleasure monthly. A survey of us confirms this that the people were ready to pay.
Max Schaefer: There really is no good way to get money from customers, is there? If only we could get a government subsidy and provide the game for free to everyone, then everyone would be happy! Seriously, a huge part of our market is the Asian territories, and they are almost 100% using the item store model. Since our team is as small as our budget, we can only support one financial model at this time, and are going with the item store concept worldwide. We think it provides the most flexibility, and the best option for those who cannot pay any cash to play.
There are more questions on their website, so go check them out!
Enjoy
This article was mentioned on the official Mythos website.
The interview comes fromBinary, which is a gaming blog, which has a preview of their gaming experience in Mythos:
The game starts quite smoothly with no long tutorials or cutscenes. You are quickly tasked with going into a vestry to return the undead to the soil from which they crawled and once complete are sent to the castle town, Stonehill. This is the primary world hub, where you can get new quests, buy/ sell and upgrade items, and access your storage chest.
[...]
My biggest concern with the game is that there’s a lot to take in for first time gamers. For a normal rpg I wouln’t think this is a problem - but since this is free it has the potential to attract a much broader audience. Hopefully, since this is a beta, the extra dev time will allow them to improve the tutorial/ docs. Being a massive multiplayer game you can always ask if you get stuck, however currently the world is quite empty. I am not sure if this is due to the fact the game is a closed beta or that the game has been designed this way.
Enjoy
Gamer’s Hell has released four video trailers from Flagship on their website two days ago. The first three videos we have already seen, however they are now available for download in their High Definition versions. They talk of Mythos in general and also showcase the classes.
The fourth video is however the one to look at, as it’s a new trailer of the Mythos Overworld. The video previews the area and hints at an upcoming open beta!
Enjoy 
IGN’s website, RPG Vault, has started a new section recently titled “Focus” where they invite a few leading industry developers to talk about an issue. While there isn’t anything strictly Hellgate or Mythos related in the article, one of the developers invited is from Flagship Studios.
Today, the “focus” discussion was about RPGs and the genre that certain games belong to, as well as how RPGs have changed over the years. The two industry developers today were Steve Bauman, the associate producer at Gas Powered Games, as well as Max Schaefer, who is the Co-Founder and COO of Flagship Studios.
In 1993, Max Schaefer, brother Erich and friend David Brevik co-founded Condor, which became Blizzard North when acquired in 1996. He served as Vice President of Blizzard North and a Director of Blizzard before the same trio plus Bill Roper and David Williams started Flagship Studios in 2003. Some of his credits include Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Hellgate: London.
The article talks about Max’s previous games like Diablo as well as other games in the genre.
The very first test we did at the beginning of the Diablo project was to make a guy with a mace, a simple dungeon, and a skeleton. We set it up so if you clicked the on skeleton, the guy would walk over and whack him one. It was a “lightning in a bottle’ moment, and there was no question we were on to something big. Instead of instructing my character to hit something, I just did it with my mouse click. Everyone could enjoy this! It’s a theory we’ve continued with our current title, Mythos, an action RPG if there ever was one.
So for me, the term action RPG was invented to refer to those games that concentrate on the visceral, graphic imagery and action of the genre. The emphasis is more on battle than lore. All the trappings can be there - the leveling, the stats, the magic loot, the crafting, the questing… It’s just that there tends to be less emphasis on dialogue, story or role-playing.
[…]
However, take the example of the 500-pound gorilla in the room, World of Warcraft. People generally agree it’s a classic RPG, but in reality, it’s also an action RPG: playing it takes a good amount of dexterity, there’s a decent amount of action, and there’s more an overall context than there is a specific story. But if there’s any title that defines the RPG market, and influences how developers must approach the genre, it’s World of Warcraft.
While many have tried, it’s probably futile to try to be a WoW-killer. Not only did the game have great talent with a virtually unlimited budget and timeline, it has also had many years of well-subsidized development post-launch. No publisher in its right mind would commit the resources necessary to beat it at that game. It’s just way too risky.
Steve’s discussion can be seen on page two and talks about his views of the genre.
The whole discussion is a very interesting read and provides some insight on how the genre has evolved.
Enjoy
Written by Sp3tSn4z on May 4, 2008
Yes, finally, a new update for Mythos’ Beta is available. As usual with Mythos, the list of new features is longer than a longcat:
- PvP: The Shadowlands, a war-torn copy of the usual Mythos world, where everyone can attack each other ! Dueling is back too.
- Mail system !
- Crafting system: a series of quest and a new panel let you access hundreds recipes, along with three skill trees for crafting !
- The Cyclops are now available as a race, and all races now feature racial bonuses !
- Countless (really) tweaks and improvements to the UI, skills, graphics, options, controls, zones, etc.
The full patch notes are available on our forums.
Flagship better brace for impact, because when this game enters open beta, it is gonna be hugely successful !
Au revoir 