Mythica [PC]

[Michael Bluth]

http://www.gamespy.com/previews/april03/mythicapc/logo.jpg

Platform: Windows
Game Type: MMORPG
Developer: Microsoft
Publisher: Microsoft
Release Date: 2004

Imagine an MMORPG where you are already immortal. You died on the battlefield in valor and are whisked away to meet your god. In turn, he sets you on a truly epic quest where you are one of many trying to prevent the final apocalypse. You don't start as a low-level character fighting your way through snakes, bunnies or other woodland creatures that have just as much chance of kicking your ass as you snuffing theirs.

Welcome to Mythica, a new massively multiplayer game from Microsoft that pulls from the rich and epic background of Norse mythology. And we can tell you right now, this game is going to be big ... not just in terms of potential, but also in scale. Imagine you and your pals going toe-to-toe with a giant that stands more than 10 times your size or a creature so large that it encompasses the world. We mean BIG!

Matt Wilson, executive producer on the project, said the game will revolve around a Norse storyline because that mythology is what basically started it all. "I think it is a great basis for what we're all familiar with and what we have enjoyed over the years, be it Dungeons & Dragons or The Lord of the Rings. It is such a rich mythology with a lot of cool stories that have been told before that we can pull from to present inside of our game."

You're in the Army Now!
The story begins with the player -- already a great Viking warrior -- being carried lifeless from a battle by the Valkyries to Asgard and a meeting with Odin, the leader of the gods. With new life, you learn that the final cataclysm of Ragnarok -- the end of the world and the gods at the hands of the dreaded Fire Giants -- has been foretold and Odin wants no part of it. He is calling up an army of immortal heroes to prevent it. You have just been drafted.

"Mythica is all about earning your godhood," said Hal Milton, senior game designer. "Overcoming the challenges of the world, fulfilling the quests from your patron and answering the prayers of mortals, while all the while preparing for the final fight in Muspellheim where strength, stealth, craft and cunning must combine to stop Surt and Sinmora's Fire Giant brood. The important question the players get to have fun with is: What kind of god do you want to become? Loved? Feared? You'll have plenty of opportunities to try out different approaches."

Before you leave Asgard, you must choose from one of 12 patron gods, all based on the Aesir and Vanir gods from Norse mythos. Each god represents a character class and provides you with your power and energy. The classes derive their abilities and skills from four "energies:" Physical, Magical, Order and Chaos. Each class has two energies.

If you are familiar with Norse legends, you may be able to guess the gods that will be making an appearance, but only four classes and gods are being unveiled at this time:

• Berserker: Thor is the patron. This class is all about massive offense. As a berserker gains power, he starts losing armor and gains tattoos and symbols, each with their own inherent power. You'll know berserkers by what they look like and how much armor they wear. Energies are Physical and Order.

• Pyromancer: Holla is the patron. This fire-based class draws on magic and makes for an amazing siege weapon, focusing on area of effect destruction. Spells provide a big area of effect, making it easy to destroy buildings and tear down walls. Energies are Magical and Chaos. "The Pyromancer seeks to master and control fire and heat," Milton said. "They wouldn't be effective against Fire Giants if they just threw flames around. They have a series of abilities focused around using fire against fire."

• StormWright: Frey is the patron. This class is all about controlling the elements. Cold, wind and rain are all available to create huge amounts of "crowd control damage." Energies are Magical and Order. The name was originally the Storm Druid.

• Huntress: Skadi is the patron. This class is all about spells and critical shots. It is derived from stealth and can utilize backstabbing and poisons. In certain areas of the game, experience will be rewarded when classes such as the Huntress find unique ways to solve problems. Energies are Physical and Chaos. "Skadi is the Goddess of Winter and the Winter Hunt," Milton said. "Her form preserved after the IceBlood Gale was unleashed on the Frost Giants 3,000 years earlier. But that's a whole different story."

Wilson said that one of the role-playing aspects of this game involves the energies. Players can combine energies to create greater effects. So a Huntress and StormWright could combine all four of their energies (or four classes could combine one energy each) to create tremendous spells with varying results.

The goal, Wilson said, is to make players feel powerful right away. "We've all gone adventuring where the first three to four hours are spent killing snakes or other small creatures to level up. Now, imagine if Thor is your patron and you get a hammer from him with an Earthquake ability. Slam that hammer to the ground and enemies fall at your feet. That is Power!"

Enter the Realm of Mortals
From Asgard, you will descend to the three mortal realms, which are already under attack by the Fire Giants. After visiting the factions, you must decide on which faction you wish to try to gain worship and following from. "An Immortal's deeds gain them worshipers amongst the mortals. What deeds you perform dictates which mortals love you and which mortals fear you. As more and more mortals worship the immortal, his power grows."

The mortal realms are:

• Midgard
The home of the humans. Known for their skill in combat, the humans are looking for a hero and a god to aid them in their daily lives. The realm is set in a Scandinavian-style countryside with farming and fishing villages. There are also islands to travel to, providing you complete a quest for a magical longship crafted by the Dwarves and patterned after a similar one made for the god Frey. In the western reaches of Midgard, the giants have already begun to corrupt the land.

"The humans excel at physical combat," said Joel Manners, Mythica's lead game designer. "They fear magic, preferring to rely on steel and muscle. As you gain power from amongst the Humans their worship will enable you to perform greater and greater feats of physical combat and raw physical force."

• Vanaheim
The home of the Alfar, or elves. Known for their magical abilities, the elves rely on crystals to channel their power. The realm has been terraformed by the Alfar magic. Most everything there is in organic or fractal like shapes. The Alfar gain their power from the chaos of the natural state. The more untouched and raw an area is, the more the Alfar's power grows. Deep in the heart of the jungles of Vanaheim their power is supreme. The Alfar use the crystals to help them focus this magic, but they are not the source of it. As the Alfar move from the jungles into areas where nature has been tamed or destroyed they need the crystals to help them re-seed the spirit of nature. This is where they need help, for the crystals are formed deep within the earth in the dominion of the Dvergar, and the dwarves make you pay heavy tolls for anything taken from their realm.

"The Alfar are mortal enemies of the humans," Manners said. "Steel is poison to them, and the human's many farmsteads and townships are viewed as a blight that is slowly wiping out the natural way. The Alfar use magic, disguise, and dark stealth to combat the humans' physical might and their steel weapons. They worship those immortals who stem the ravaging of the world, and who disregard the ways of steel for the ways of magic."

"Vanaheim is the former home of the Vanir gods," Milton added. "The Alfar here are refugees from their home, Alfheim. The Fire Giants disrupted the energies connecting the two lands leaving the Alfar stranded. The Alfar need to gain access to their old world while securing their future in the new."

• Nidavellir
The underground home of the Dvergar, or dwarves (but don't ever call them that). Known as the master craftsmen, the dwarves have no gods and are desperate to worship anyone willing to help them. The gods are not recognizing the dwarves. Legend has it that the realm was created when a Fire Giant died and as its corpse rotted, the bile ate away the caves that became the home of the dwarves. They build great cities underground to impress prospective buyers of their goods. They store many of their magical creations in these beautiful cities. They cannot come to the surface in the day time because sunlight turns them to stone.

"The Dvergar are the master craftsmen of the universe," Manners said. "Even the Aesir immortals know that the Dvergar can craft the greatest weapons, structures, and works of art. Because of this, many of the immortals seek to learn the secrets the Dvergar harbor for infusing magical life into their creations. In return, the Dvergar respect and worship immortals who are themselves creators, those that practice the same arts that the Dvergar respect most of all."

"Although formally aligned with the Aesir and Vanir gods," Milton said, "the Dvergar have been known to deal with Hel and her Dead (in the immortal realm of Niflheim). They are least scrupulous with Fire Giants. The Dvergar can't help themselves: they must build the best and profit the most."

[Michael Bluth]

You are What you Eat (or Align With)
These three realms are where the player will spend the first third of the game. The key during this part of the game is to solve problems for these races, complete quests and do things that increase the level of worship (and followers).

"As the player begins the game as an immortal, not many mortals will know of him or will worship him," Manners said. "However, as word of his feats and successes begins to spread more and more of the mortals will begin worshipping the player, and this is when the energy of his followers will begin to flow into the player, giving him more and more power. Players gain worshippers from the mortal races by doing deeds that the mortals like. As word of the immortal's actions reach their ears, more and more mortals will send prayers and sacrifices to the immortal."

As the player becomes more and more in tune with a particular race, they unlock ways to change their appearance to more closely match that of your worshippers. Skin color, features, height, weight and other characteristics can be chnaged so you eventually can look like a dwarf, elf or human.

"Just as the three mortal races have different abilities and different strengths, the power the immortal receives from those worshippers will be focused to represent them," Manners said. "For example, humans will worship the player as the epitome of humankind, imbuing the player with the ultimate human traits on a godlike level. As the mortals worship more and more, the immortal will gain the ability to actually take on the shape and visage that his worshippers are imagining, looking more and more like an immortal of that race. Obviously, an Alfar priest will picture an immortal with Alfar traits, an immortal with Alfar abilities on a godlike level, and an immortal that looks like an Alfar god."

The Plane of Asgard
Another realm that players will be able to visit regularly is Asgard. It is a huge city that is the home of the gods. Wilson said this area is where players can come for fun and games, visit guilds or get quests or goals from their patrons. You will also be able to view the other realms from Asgard.

Since players are immortal, the concept of player death is handled a bit differently in Mythica. "When you are immortal, what do you do for fun? You go up to Asgard and have kill fests," Wilson said. "The immortals would all get together and have massive battle with one man left standing. Then everyone would be resurrected and there would be a huge party with lots of merriment and drinking."

Manners agreed. "The Battleplains are a huge part of the lore of Valhalla (the Hall of the Slain). This was the reward for dying heroically in battle. You got to go to the Battleplains in the morning, hack each other to pieces all day, and then return to Valhalla in the evening to be served drinks and food all night by Odin's Valkyries. The dead were brought back to life the next morning to go again! The Norse gods were CONSTANTLY pounding on each other, to train for Ragnarok."

So in the game, a player doesn't die, they fall. Fallen heroes ascend to Asgard and receive appropriate penalties when they are resurrected. "An immortal's physical form can be destroyed," Manners added. "As an immortal, you always have the power to restore yourself, but this requires a great deal of energy and will leave you weakened for a time. If the area is too dangerous for you to return in a weakened state you can always choose to return your spirit to an Aesir temple to re-form without the massive drain. Of course, many of the immortals have the ability to restore other immortals, using their energy to bring back the fallen immortal at full power."

If players want to go at each other, Wilson said the fun and games of Asgard -- which includes dueling of the Battleplains -- will allow a certain sense of PvP action within a controlled environment. "Mythica is more about cooperative play than PvP," he said, adding that they have not ruled out expanding it to a separate shard at some later date.

Also, guilds will be an important aspect of Asgard. Wilson didn't go into too much detail, but said they would be available, and that players can form their own guilds. If they get powerful enough, they will earn a place in Asgard.

One feature that Wilson and his team are particularly excited about (and will be discussed in more detail tomorrow) is the concept of private realms and "playscapes." These areas will be available in every realm and are open to everyone, and give players (or selected group of players) an incredibly complex and reactive world to play in. Two players will probably not have the same experience in these realms unless they are in the same group. Wilson said there will be "plenty" of these scattered throughout the game world and provide players with a chance to roleplay and interact with friends, without anyone crashing the party and ruining the experience.

"We want to promote people working together," he said. "We won't be forcing them, but promoting the fun of it. The idea is to get the group to accomplish similar goals. Certain skills and magic can work well and more efficiently together."

"We are designing our character classes so that they are extremely good at some things, and extremely lousy at others," Manners said. "We don't want to create a whole bunch of classes that are carefully balanced so that every class is equally as good at everything as every other class. This destroys the reason to have classes. When a character class is in its element, it should be way more powerful and effective than the other classes. Conversely, when a character class is out of its element it needs to be in serious trouble. This means that some classes are better at going solo than others, such as stealth-based classes, pet-based classes and others. Some classes are much better in groups than others. However, when we are designing our world, we never want to be creating a situation where we REQUIRE a group or REQUIRE a solo to succeed. What we want to do is create tactical situations, where certain classes can excel in certain ways."

Big ... Really Big!
The epic nature of the game is not just translated into the large realms you will visit, but also into the monsters you will face. According to Wilson, Vikings stand about six feet tall. The standard immortal is 8-10 feet tall. The giants players will face off against will be 30 to 100 feet tall.

And not only will there be giants. Wilson said Norse mythology is full of terrible and beautiful creatures, and one of the largest creatures in the world -- perhaps even larger than the world -- is Jormungand, a serpent that resides outside of Midgard in the oceans. Wilson said that fighting this beast is in the game and could entail several quests. It may even become its own realm.

Another one that will show up is the Fenris wolf. As a bit of background, the Fenris wolf and the Midgard Serpent are actually siblings and the offspring of the god Loki. The wolf is so large and ferocious that no chain could hold it. There is also Nidhogg, a great lizard/dragon that lives in Niflheim.

"As an immortal, your only real foes are other immortals, the giants and ferocious demons who inhabit the extremes of the universe," Manners said. "Mortals? No mortal could possibly challenge your power! Even the greatest hero could not stand against you. It is only when they come at you in their hordes that they might overwhelm you with sheer numbers. This is basically Mythica's philosophy for challenging you in battle. Mortal units you can throw around, but they may wear you down with their numbers ... scores of them trying to pull you down. Immortal foes? They are huge and powerful, worthy opponents in stature and force for your godly might."

In addition, each plane is its own biosphere with its own fauna. There is a large variety in how the realms look and each will have matching monsters.

The Immortal Realms
Once players have achieved certain goals, they earn a rite of passage to three new realms in the middle third of the game. These are the immortal realms, where the different races of giants reside, including the ultimate evil, the Fire Giants.

"The beginning of the game is for the characters to gain worshippers from amongst the mortal races," Manners said. "This is the font of their power, the energy rising from the prayers and sacrifices made to them by their worshippers. Once the character has enough power being channeled into him he will be able to challenge the immortal foes of the gods: the giants. Here is where the second phase of the game begins -- when the characters have the power to begin to fight in the final battles of the gods. This is where the player will discover that the petty wars and rivalries between the mortal races pales in comparison with the battles between the gods and the giants, where he must use the powers his followers have bestowed upon him to tilt the war in the favor of the gods."

[Michael Bluth]

The three new realms are:

• Jotunheim
The home of the Frost Giants and "spine of the world." It is filled with gigantic mountains, mountain passes and lots of chasms. There are also numerous fjords and ice areas. It borders the mortal realms "anywhere the mountain roots push down into the plains," Manners said. "The giants and their minions fight bitterly with the mortals, snuffing out their settlements and fortifications violently whenever they descend from their lairs. Only the bravest and most powerful mortal heroes dare to cross the border to seek revenge on the giants."

• Niflheim
The home of the greatest of the Frost Giants, including the mighty Storm Giants. This area is the source of all winds, all rivers, and all deadly poisons, bubbling to the surface in evil black pools. Here, the source of the world's rivers slides by as a sheet of jagged ice cut into the form of millions of sharp weapons. In a corner of Niflheim is Hel, the realm in which all those who died a dishonorable death labor to construct the mighty war machines of the Fire Giants for use in Ragnarok.

• Muspellheim
The realm of the Fire Giants, and the location of the castle of Surt, the Fire Giant king. The Fire Giants are the ultimate enemy of all creation. They exist only to destroy the universe and everything in it. They are fated to bring fire to everything in the final battle of Ragnarok, where even the gods will perish in flame. All Odin and the other gods can do is to fight to delay that day for as long as possible, throwing the Fire Giants back to their fiery realm over and over again.

It is in these areas where players learn more about the epic quest they are on to thwart Ragnarok. It is also here where they begin to earn even more experience that will take them to godhood, and the final three realms of the game. Wilson said he didn't want to divulge the whole scenario, but did say that eventually, players will come to see creatures that were originally enemies (such as the Frost Giants) as more allies for a common goal. However, that won't become apparent until much later in the game.

Just the Facts
As with any MMO, Mythica is a huge undertaking, already in development for two years, there is a team of 30 actively working on the project. Wilson said each shard will support up to 3,000 concurrent players, and the number of shards will be determined by how many people sign up for the as-of-yet undetermined monthly fee. Wilson said they are already exploring a way that all the shards can be combined for the final epic battle.

Time to venture to a few islands! The various realms will be anywhere from 12-20 kilometers wide to 12-15 kilometers deep and that is just for the open areas. The private realms will be large and integrated into the game world. There will be no load screens between realms, however, there will be cinematics for players as they enter the private realms.

Wilson also said there will be thousands of handcrafted and unique items in the game, worth a lot, worth quite a bit of in-game money (translation: no selling stuff on eBay). Players will have plenty of things to collect, and the game will actually encourage players to collect items.

"Equipment, crafting, and loot are together one of the most critical elements of Mythica," Manners said. "Collecting items for your character is one of the most compelling and rewarding endeavors that the player will embark on, and we want to make sure that his passion is matched by our creativity and depth. We have professional crafters, amateur crafters, living weapons, slotted weapons, suits, equipment combining, quest uniques, class uniques … it goes on and on. The goal is to make sure that the player ALWAYS has something he can collect, search for, or make that will make his character more powerful, more unique, and more capable."


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http://www.gamespy.com/previews/april03/mythicapc/

[=NukeBlaze=]

Sounds interesting..Unfortunetly I am not really into Online RPGs.
Nice preview though.

[TheOverlord]

SOnds really cool. I would have read the whole thing but I'm out of time.

[nigelfloe]

nice pix