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Happy Holidays from Petroglyph

A new look for the new year

 

It is my pleasure to present to you this new site and forums! What a ride in development it has been, but here we are. Everything is in place, though we will of course be tweaking and enhancing areas as the need comes up. Hopefully you will help us spot those areas that need additional attention.

 

Since you've had a few days to look over the site proper, I'm sure you have some immediate comments on those pages, especially when it comes to browser compatibility issues. The forums have had quite a bit changed. While content remains the same, here are some of the things we've adjusted in order to give you more tools for discussions:

 

* Upgraded the forums from IPB 2.x to IPB 3.x and added a new skin
* Adjusted some of the categories and forum locations
* Re-organized the Usergroups. We have cleared the "Community Leader" group. If you are a community leader, please see this thread.
* Implemented the new rules & guidelines

 

That's about it! Lots of changes in a few key areas. I hope you like what we've developed for the community. We're all ears on your suggestions for improving the site and forums. Again, browser compatibilities and other small issues are bound to come up, so we appreciate everyone's patience while these are cleaned up.

 

We'll be sending out an official announcement and contests as soon as you've settled in. Happy Holidays from all of us at Petroglyph!

 

- Berek, Community Manager

 

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Mytheon Q&A

The Syndicate asks about Mytheon

 

The Syndicate: "A good many of games with the "Free to Play" title don't do so well in the North American and European market. Why will Mytheon be an exception to what seems to be a fairly common trend these days?"

 

Petroglyph: Mytheon was built from the ground up as a high quality and production value title offering a full gaming experience, much as one would expect from a retail product. Most free to play games miss the mark on both of those points. The gameplay in Mytheon is quite different than the standard grind-and-level RPGs that flood the current the free-to-play space. You have stones at your command that can be used in combat to summon intimidating companions, structures, or power spells.

 

The Syndicate: "Can a player be competitive and really enjoy the game without participating in any micro-transaction purchases? If not, would the recommended level of purchases to be competitive be on par with a typical monthly subscription fee based game?"

 

Petroglyph: Anyone can play and enjoy Mytheon whether or not they buy anything in the game with real money. Most item loot that can be purchased has an equivalent item that can be found in the game's normal loot drop system. The majority of the items purchased offer convenience not advantage. For example you can buy Experience boosting potions, bag space, UI quick slots, resurrection potions, etc.

 

In addition, we want players who pay for things to be able to share their purchases, so most of the items that give boosts affect all members of your party as well. So really, you can play through the game without any money being spent at all, but if you want that little boost or want a different look, you can spend a few bucks and look cool without actually gaining an in-game advantage over other people who didn't spend money.

 

The Syndicate: "The mythology that Mytheon is based around is very rich and deep and should offer a wealth of interesting content for players. Can you tell us one particular encounter, quest, story line etc... that the development team thinks is a good example of what will compel players to do "just one more quest" or play "just one more hour"?"

 

Petroglyph: Much of the mythology of Mytheon is based on a "what would happen if...?" mentality. We take Mythology that people are familiar with and continue it past the end of the original story. One of the first major names players will run into is Arachne. Her pride caused her to run afoul of Athena and end up being transformed into the world's first spider. We continue the myth, allowing Arachne's rage to build, transforming her from the small spider weaver into a monstrous Shelob-type monster. When the war between mankind the gods begins, Athena offers Arachne freedom for her curse if she will eat all of the Stone Casters trying to make their way to Argos (our Greek-based hub city). The first encounter with Arachne is pretty startling for most people that have tried the game so far.

 

The Syndicate: "So logistically, how does the game work? When players think of an MMO they tend to think of a large world with thousands of players online milling around and doing stuff. When you venture out into the wild you may come across many players off doing their own thing or competing with you to achieve the same goals you are. Is that that the mechanic that Mytheon employs or is there more of a Diablo type feel where you can team up with buddies (or go solo) and adventure in basically your own instance of the world?"

 

Petroglyph: Mytheon is closer to a Diablo or Guild Wars setup. The hub cities will be open to all players and will serve as the social location to visit merchants and the broker house, meet with friends, form guilds, and get a group together to go out and adventure. From the hub, the group leader and three other players (or the solo player) can pick an adventure instance from the world map and travel to that location.

 

The Syndicate: "Collectability is a big aspect of Mytheon with terms such as "hundreds" of different power stones being possible to collect. One of the most common player complaints in games that revolve around "collecting stuff" is a lack of storage space for everything they find and want to keep. Will players be limited in how many they can own and store?"

 

Petroglyph: A player's stone collection is infinite in size and can contain multiple copies of every stone available in the game. Storage space for loot items is more limiting; you will be able to increase the bag space via micro-transaction. The free bag space will, of course, be large enough to not be an inconvenience for most.

 

The Syndicate: "Also on the topic of power stones, will there be a limit to how many a player can have easily accessible at once? If so, is it on par with the typical sized 'action bar' present in many MMOs?

 

Petroglyph: Your stone collection contains all of the stones you have found or purchased with your character. From this collection you select a battle set, which contains all the stones used in an adventure instance. When you enter an instance, six active stones are randomly activated from your battle set. You cast your stones from the six available, and as you cast one the slot is refilled from your battle set. Once your battle set is empty, it automatically renews. So at any one time you will have a set of six stones to choose from. You can have five stones active on the field at one time; stones "time out" eventually, the length depending on the type of stone (Structure, Companion and Spell).

 

The Syndicate: "The minimum specs for Mytheon are extremely reasonable and achievable by the vast majority of gamers today. Will the game play well at the minimum specs? Or will you be sacrificing a good deal of the 'eye candy' to get good playability at the low end?"

 

Petroglyph: Like any game, you will lose some of the bells and whistles as you get closer to the min spec. This will include things like shadows, particle effects, specular, anti-aliasing, etc. However, the game looks great at min spec anyway, and it will still play great!

 

Petroglyph: Thanks for the questions regarding Mytheon! To learn more about The Syndicate, head over to their official site.

 

 

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