Very Old Myth Interview With The Developers

[GodzFire]

I found this while going through uDogs HL:

Has Bungie considered expanding the Myth universe into other genres like an RPG or first-person shooter?
--Mark Nichols

We don't have any plans at this time to do an RPG or first-person shooter in the Myth world. However, we're really proud of the universe we've created, and certainly think it's complex enough to fuel great games in the future.

What units and unit types have you developed? Any completely new never heard of before units? Are all the old units going to be in Myth II?
--Howard Booker

What would a sequel be without new units? There are lots of new troops, including the Maul (a large club-wielding beast), and Warlocks (spellcasters which can shoot fireballs and cause confusion), Dwarven Mortar Units (dwarves who can fire a large explosive charge a great distance, but have a low rate of fire). The new units add some magical attacks to the mix, and greatly enhance the variety of gameplay.

You can bet that many of your favorite units (and some of your most dreaded foes) will return from Myth I. You can expect to control berserks, archers, and dwarves, as in Myth I, but they also sport numerous improvements. Every unit has been redone with double the number of frames of animation. In addition, archers now carry flaming arrows, dwarves are much more intelligent and are less prone to cause friendly fire casualties. In general, all the troops, including those returning from Myth I, will simply work better in Myth II.

Since Myth II uses a true 3D engine with free roaming camera, why use sprites instead of polygonal models for the units?
--Denaka Stuart

When we started doing Myth: The Fallen Lords, we envisioned large armies clashing in a true 3D environment. We were sure that our target platforms wouldn't be able to handle both a 3D environment and polygonal characters and give the frame rates we wanted, so we opted for sprite-based units. I'm glad we chose the 3D environment over 3D characters...once I saw arrows arcing through the air and debris rolling down the roof of a building, I never wanted to go back to the isometric games I once loved.

What are you going to do to appease the losers (like me) who thought Myth was incredibly hard? Will you give a more extensive tutorial? Make the levels easier? Or just let the computer mow me down like nobody's business?
--Wan1983

You're not the only one who felt this way. We got lots of user feedback telling us this, and we're making tons of changes to address this. First of all, we're going to have a tutorial again, and we're trying to make it more extensive.
Second, we're trying to increase the range of difficulty for the levels. We're still going to have 5 difficulty settings, but we want the easy and normal settings to be easier, while still keeping the hardest levels tough enough to intrigue the advanced gamer. And, as in Myth I, we're not just adding enemy troops to make the higher difficulty levels tougher. You may also see scenery on the map appear that wasn't there before, and troops may also react differently.

Lastly, we've made some dramatic improvements to the interface, while keeping it consistent for veteran Myth players. Units now remember what formation they were in, and they execute pathfinding better. We've added a control bar with buttons for the most commonly used commands, and you can rotate the camera by moving the cursor to the corners of the screen. Gesture clicking is no longer really necessary--if you want to turn units around, just select the units and drag in the direction you want them to face. To rotate a formation of troops about their center-point, you can use the arrow keys. You can right-click on the overhead map to send units to their destinations. The list goes on and on.…

With all these changes, I really hope people spend less time fighting the game's interface, and more time battling against Soulblighter!

After Myth II is finished what plans does Bungie have in regards to the real-time strategy genre?
--Anthony Alexander

We have a couple of other titles in development right now, and one is a 3rd person action game. The other one we're not currently talking about.

1. What exactly do you do on the Myth II project?
2. What phases do the games go through when in development--i.e. when writing a story there's the brainstorming phase, the rough draft, etc. Anything similar for games?
--Jeffrey Davis

1. I'm lead programmer. Konrad Sherinian is responsible for all the bungie.net and LAN networking improvements. Jonathan Haas is making our development tools suitable for public release. I'm responsible for the rest, which includes tool development and cross-platform game programming.

2. For us, a game usually starts with a bunch of us sitting around eating pizza. Once we get the idea of what to do, we read as much as we can about related topics. For Myth, we read lots of classical texts like Thucydides, Polybius, The Song of Roland, Epic of Gilgamesh, Sun Tzu, as well as books by modern authors like Glen Cook, Robert Jordan, and Fred Saberhagen. We draw on our background reading for inspiration when constructing the feature list for the game and the story.

Then we draft up the "Stuff That Rocks/Stuff That Sucks" List (which other companies call a design document) and see if the game sounds cool. Assuming that it's significantly different from what already exists in the market and is worth doing, then everybody starts doing their thing--level designers plan out levels, programmers madly code up an engine so they have something to show off by the Electronic Entertainment Expo, artists start doing cut-scene storyboards and character sketches, etc. After that, fueled by caffeine, popcorn, and pizza, everybody rushes to make the ship date. Then we lather, rinse, and repeat with another project!

Why are there no mounted units in Myth II? Don't you think it would be a cool feature to include?
--Case

We've all thought about this at one time or another. We don't feature it due to the limitations imposed by the sprite-based nature of Myth. For example, it's simply too hard to take a sprite-based horse and make it looks like it's really moving up the side of a 3D hill.

Will Bungie create and release new maps after the game is released? I hope so since it will add to the life and enthusiasm of this great product.
--Flatbread

Yes. We're hoping that lots of people start modifying maps on their own with the tools we've included, but we are also planning on releasing a few of our own.

How do you deal with the throngs of beautiful women who chase after studly programmers such as yourself?
--Kelly

One at a time... but I'll make sure I put you at the top of the list!

Is Bungie.net going to have a global ranking system (like Battle.net has with StarCraft) so players can see how good they really are compared to everyone else in the world?
--Dennis Wagner

Bungie.net, our free online service, already keeps track of worldwide rankings and it also features unranked rooms for the less competitive. As with other online services, players can meet and play games or just chat amongst themselves. Version 2.0 of bungie.net, which Myth II will use, sports lots of improvements like support for Orders (clubs of Myth fanatics, akin to Quake clans), nationality-specific rooms, easier ways to find friends online, and of course greater stability. I highly recommend that all Myth players check out bungie.net. Playing online is a great way to learn from experienced players, and it really adds to the replayability of the game.

I was wondering if you are gonna include some advanced scripting options into Myth II that would allow us to design our own "variant games" and actually script in the rules for the game. I think games like anti-captures and stuff are a lot of bloody fun, and I'd love to see them implemented on some maps.
--Blackbeard

Since we're releasing the Myth II tools for both PC and Mac, you'll have the power to change nearly anything in the game. That includes scripting your own single player maps, changing multi-player maps, and even modifying the behavior of units. Our map editor is running a pared-down version of the game engine, so our artists and level designers can move around the maps in 3D, raising plateaus and carving valleys in real-time. Trust me, you're gonna love it.