Hi, I’m just wondering why more games like Myth aren’t made (I said Myth and not Myst :D ).
I mean there seems to be countless AoM/WC3 type games where there is resource gathering involved one way or another. Where you can seem to just keep cranking out units for as long as possible provided you have enough resources. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with those type of games either.
How come there isn’t more games being made that play like the Myth style. In Myth, you start out with a finite amount of points in a multi game which you can use to purchase certain units. Every player has the same amount of points and units to choose. Certain maps as well as the gametype being played favor certain units better. While the game is being played, once you lose a unit, its gone unless you turn on a thing called Deathmatch which respawns your units. Some of the gametypes are bodycount (try to get most dmg), king of the hill (try to hold ball/flag for longest), lmoth (be the last man at flag/ball when timer ends), and ctf (where you try to take the other players’ flag). You could probably do a Google search for a more indepth assessment of how the game plays and I’m also sure a few of you have play the game as well :) .
Could try Gound Control which is basically a futuristic Myth. Though not as good imo. Also I haven’t played the recently released Blitzkrieg, but its a non resource point system multiplayer game, like Myth. Supposedly its ‘deeper’ in its tactics compared to most rts games on WW2… and thats about it. I would also recommend Battle Realms since its resource model is really simplified that it almost runs itself.
Also, don’t forget about the MechCommander games. You have a lot more options as far as configuration before missions, and in MechCommander 2, you can assign special skills to your pilots as they level up.
MC2 is probably more accessable, and is signifigantly easier than MC1, but I still think MC1 has a much nicer visual style and is more fun overall, despite a couple of truly horribly designed missions.
Both games have multiplayer modes that range from deathmatch to defend/destroy bases, to king of the hill and more. The primary interface to play them online is the heinous Microsoft Gaming Zone, however. MC1 was popular on MPlayer back in the day (I even won a shirt from a MC tourney they had), but after getting absorbed by GameSpy, those players didn’t really move to GS Arcade.
Neither game is a spectacular 90%+ review worthy title, but if you are a fan of the genre or of the battletech universe, you should get a kick out of them.
But to answer the question from the original post - I don’t think these games sell all that well. I think what drove most of Myth’s sales were the fact that it was one of the only games in town for Mac owners. Ground Control was fun, but not deep. I ran a fansite for it for about a year and a half, but I really didn’t play the game that much after beta ended. Artillery was way too powerful and easy to use, and they never really corrected the problem. I’m not sure of the numbers, but I’m guessing Myth 3 tanked, because I saw it in the $20 bin only 2-3 months after it came out.
Myth III tanked because Take 2 shuffled its buggy ass out the door with little or no marketing after a roughly 12 month development cycle, then immediately fired nearly everyone at Mumbo Jumbo, ending any hopes that the game might get patched to a level of playability. It was an impressive game, given the circumstances, though they screwed the pooch on multiplayer (which in turn pissed off most of the existing fan base).
A group of users have actually patched the game up and added new features, apparently.
I probably played more MP Myth than any other game ONLINE. Ever. I used to ask all the time why no one had tried to copy/rip off Myth. It may not even be possible I have decided.
Every time a discussion arises about why there is no decent re-make of MoM, X-Com, et.al., I want to say, “hELL, developers cannot seem to duplicate the successful formulas of games they made 2 or 3 years ago; much less games made 10 or more years ago by a completely different team.” Multiple factors outside and inside of development have to come together to make an innovative classic. Those factors and that magic simply does not happen all that often it would seem.
Myth was one of those games, like most other classics, that was original and captured a bit of fun that no other title that had come before it captured. We may have to be happy with these first iterations and avoid pining for something like it. Spend that time on the look out for the new classics. Like Empire of Magic.
Of course not!!! The new patch makes me totally forget about the game EoM was when released. That patch happens to be oddly titled Rise of Nations for some unknown reason, but whatever.
I can only be serious in a post for so many lines before I must spoil it with something stupid.
I feel sorry for the Mumbo Jumbo guys, but they agreed to the deal to make the game in that time frame. Look at it from Take 2’s point. They probably didn’t want to do a Myth 3 unless it could be done for $X amount. It’s not Take 2’s fault Mumbo Jumbo thought they could do it in that time frame. If anything, Take 2 should have had more sense and never greenlighted the project from the start.
As to why there aren’t more games like Myth, I don’t think any of them were big sellers, whereas games like AOE sell rather well.
Myth 3 struck me as an expansion pack for Myth 2 after reading some of the initial dev progress reports. I pretty much lost interest (and any hope in them taking the game anyplace) right about then.
For reference, you can find the Myth3 fan update project here. I admittedly haven’t tried the mod yet, but I did manage to pick up a dirt-cheap copy of Myth 3 from a bargain bin recently.
Yeah, I was one those people who had gotten Myth 3 when it came out. Though it was buggy, it wasn’t as bad as it was made out to be, the game was still quite playable. Besides what you stated, there were afew other problems that plagued the game. One, it wasn’t made by Bungie so some hardcore fans weren’t willing to give it a try. Also near the start of release, there was a virus scare because some anti-virus scanners were giving false reports of a virus on the disc. The lack of support also killed the game afterward since only one official patch was ever released. People also hated the Gamespy server.
The group of people who were given the source code is called Mythdev. They run a server called Playmyth that lets you play currently Myth 2 and Myth 3. The patch (v1.1) that they released for Myth 3 did add some improvements but it mostly switched the servers from Gamespy to Playmyth. You can find out more at Playmyth.net
Another group called Project Magma, are working on a Myth 2 patch (v1.4) that will allow users to play TFL on Myth 2 by clicking on an option called vTFL which enables Myth 2 units to act more like Myth 1 unit. A lot of other fixes will be incorporated into that patch as well. The patch is slated to release on May 30th, 2003. More info can be found at Projectmagma.net
Currently a tournament is being held called MWC 2003. Its for Myth 2 and tourney games can be played on the Marius or Playmyth servers.
As to why there aren’t more games like Myth, I don’t think any of them were big sellers, whereas games like AOE sell rather well.
You’re probably right about that, but I heard somewhere that Myth 3 sold at least 300-500k copies. I don’t think thats too bad for a PC game. Of course probably most copies were returned :D
Btw thanks for all the input on the varius games that are similar to Myth. I’ve tried Ground Control before and I’m waiting on GC2. I’ll check out the websites for Blitzkrieg, Battle Realms, and Mechcommander to see if any of them would give me interest. Thanks again :)
Asside the absolute bile of bugs Myth 3 was, they didn’t get the atmosphere correct. If it had been a playable game it would’ve been crucified for that.
Another gaming franchise that might interest you is the Total War series. The resource management is handled on a turn-by-turn basis. That is, each province you own produces so much of the resource per turn. The only strategy involved with resources is - do you spend a few turns on constructing farms to improve a province’s agriculture and thus boost its resource output, even though that will prevent you from building an army or military-based buildings for the duration?
Total War doesn’t switch to real-time strategy until the actual battles begin, and at that point resources aren’t a factor - it’s all about how skilled your generals are, the size and quality of your troops, and how good you are at tactics.
(And admittedly, with Shogun, the final factor is how good you are at wrestling with the parts of the interface that are never explained to you.)
Another one that no one has mentioned yet was Warhammer: Dark Omen, that was released on the PC and PS1 (I only played it on the latter, and can imagine it was much easier with a mouse :shock: ). Play-wise, it lands somewhere between the Total War games (sans the strategy layer) and Myth. 3d Landscapes with sprite-based units, you usually had more units than in Myth, but not nearly as many as TW. There is no resource gathering, but before each battle you do have a certain amount of points to spend on units- the campaign mode had you slowly building up a band of followers, getting experience and better equipment and spells for them etc. Suppossedly, multiplayer on the PC version works over a LAN or direct IP connect but has no game-browser. I occasionally see used copes for sale, or they seem to go for cheap on eBay every once in a while.
I know I did. Myth had one of the best multiplayer lobbies I’ve ever seen, in any genre of game. The Gamespy lobby in Myth III was, like most Gamespy lobbies, sucktacular.
Another decent little Myth-ish game (well, as much so as some we’ve tossed out here) is Takeda - sort of like Total War Lite, without the turn-based wrapper. Well worth a peek, and damn cheap these days.
Dark Omen is bloody hard though. Hard in the sense that I’ve never managed to finish the game. If I had to play it without a mouse I’d probably have given up after the second mission.
I saw Myth II : Worlds for five dollars the other day, which includes the updated Myth II and a bunch of community mods which I haven’t tried yet. While looking for the latest patch, I found that a new patch for Myth II is only a few days away…
As to why more games like Myth aren’t created, I think people enjoy the building phase of these games as much as the combat. There’s something satisfying about creating (or destroying) cities, empires, wonders or fortresses that just isn’t present in Myth.
