Mythica WarCry Interviews the Devs

Micajah_WC: Hello everyone, and welcome to Mythica Warcry's first developer Chat

Lewt Remember to submit your questions /msg #mythicasub "your question without quotes"

Micajah_WC: I'd also like to welcome the large troop of Mythica Developers that have give us the privelege of showing up tonight.

Micajah_WC: If the Developers would like to introduce themselves....
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Corey Dangel: Corey Dangel -- Art Director

Jade Dragonfly: Lila Yee, Community Realtions Manager

Matt Lee: Hi, I'm Matt Lee, I'm a client developer, working on animation, special effects, and Havok physics.

Chris Lye: Christopher Lye, Mythica Product Manager
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Micajah_WC: And Hal is coming. He should be here shortly *grins*

Micajah_WC: Not to keep everyone waiting...we'll cut right to the chase.

Micajah_WC: Here's the first question of the night:
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Micajah_WC: Can you tell us more about character creation?

Chris Lye: It's an in-game element that is tied more closely to the story than the launcher.

Chris Lye: This is something we really wanted to do...bring story into the process from the get go...

Chris Lye: Decisions aren't made in a vacuum, giving you plenty of time and information before swearing yourself to a given patron.

Chris Lye: We'll be sharing even more over time, but aside from the standard look, feel, name, symbol and other options...

Chris Lye: We really hope to make Character Creation something that drags you in, as opposed to scaring the bejsus out of you.

Chris Lye: We'll be sharing much more over time! (Expect that answer a few times, tonight ;-))

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Micajah_WC: How many characters will a player be able to have per account?

Jade Dragonfly: We are allowing multiple characters per shard, but I'll leave the max number description to our own inimitable Chad Barry.

Jade Dragonfly: who isn't here at the moment :(

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Micajah_WC: Next question:

Micajah_WC: Does creating your character have any impact on your character down the road?

Matt Lee: Indeed it does...

Matt Lee: Picking which God you serve impacts the powers at your disposal and possibly the path through the mortal planes as you experience your player's story...

Matt Lee: Different mortals react in different ways to sworn of the various Patrons.

Matt Lee: That is to say, some humans might be wary of a Loki sworn coming to town.

Matt Lee: (i was speaking for Pulsifer there)
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Micajah_WC: In your 1Up interview, you seem to make it sound like the first part of the game is truly a single-player type experience. How much of your initial adventuring will be done solo?

Corey Dangel: Your very first adventure is solo, but you will find yourself in the public space rather shortly. I'll let Hal fillin the details

Corey Dangel: Of course he's having technical difficulties at the mo'

Matt Lee: i'm speaking for pulsifer (hal) again... he's having irc problems

Matt Lee: The first part of the game is paced in a way to avoid the whole "dropped in the fire" approach to MMPs we've seen.

Matt Lee: That being said, this isn't an experience that lasts for days.

Matt Lee: The game seeks to meld solo and group mechanics into a malleable structure that affords a player's choice of play style.

Matt Lee: This is really a guided experience that spans the first few levels of the game.

Matt Lee: So...you could spend an hour in this entry level experience or a day, it's up to you and your comfort level.

Corey Dangel: You can spend the first 10 levels in a private area, but you can leave as early as you want

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Tyfingr_WC Could we get more info on some of the other classes like the druids?

Corey Dangel: So practically speaking this could mean anywhere from 20 minutes to all day, until you're comfortable with the gameplay

Pulsifer: Soon, on our website. ;-)

Corey Dangel: We'll be talking about Druids soon

Pulsifer: Druids and Stormwrights are part of our Seidhr role

Pulsifer: Followers of Freya and Frey, they wield powers of magic and order.

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Micajah_WC: Is the penalty for death still an experience loss and ressurection sickness?

Corey Dangel: That's a very sensitive subject and one that we've spent a lot of time working on. We're still working out the right balance for this

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Xor_WC In previous conversation it was mentioned that players will begin to 'look' like their worshippers and players are able to gain worship from multiple factions. Will it be possible to look half Dvergar half Alfar?

Pulsifer: No plans at this time...We think it's going to be disturbing enough for our mortal races to be visited by the immortals and Gods so frequently, much less disturbing their whole sense of reality by creating a confusing mélange of hybrids.

Pulsifer: Seriously, we really want to maintain the integrity of the various races and allowing for too much faction mix and match somewhat diminishes the import of the mortal factions.

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Dagfari_WC: Will the "race" you become affect your ability to be a proficient class?

Dagfari_WC: Will Dvergar Pyromancers be totally unplayable?

Pulsifer: BTW on the death penalty question, we have some interesting online and offline mechanics that we're developing that we're almost ready to share with folks.

Pulsifer: On the race question...

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Xor_WC Will the race you become affect your ability to be a proficient class? Will Dvergar Pyromancers be totally unplayable?

Pulsifer: Dvergar aligned Pyromancers will be plentiful. :)

Pulsifer: The racial aspects you collect do not directly impact your abilities.

Pulsifer: However, the factions you focus on potentially enhance hidden or existing skills your character has.

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Micajah_WC: Is there a way to be hated by all three races? Or is that impossible?

Pulsifer: You can try...although it doesn't help your cause terribly much.

Pulsifer: Essentially...

Pulsifer: a player can be feared or loved by all the factions.

Pulsifer: but sometimes being feared gets as many results

Pulsifer: as being loved

Pulsifer: Being truly hated is rare, since mortals tend to watch their tone around immortals

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Tolkoss_WC: PvP has never been a crucial element to your game design. Will there still be ways to show that your Immortal is truly blood-thirsty, or downright evil?

Pulsifer: Alignment isn't jsut represented by smacking other players...the feared and loved angle covers that...

Pulsifer: But we are still working on ways for immortals to prove their strength and power to one another ;-)

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Xor_WC You've mentioned leader boards and stat tracking. What will the stats or rankings be of?

Pulsifer: I think Glitch could cover this in more detail...but...

Pulsifer: Stats and rankings will be represented in many ways...rest assured, if there's an action, stat, or other piece of trackable data exposed to us, then we're going to use it!

Glitch: Sorry, I'm still getting setup.

Pulsifer: :)

Corey Dangel: this ones for you Glitch

Pulsifer: hehe...For folks that don't know...Glitch is Chad Barry - Server Lead

Glitch: We're definitely lots of guild support.

Pulsifer: hehehehehe

Corey Dangel: Dev speak good english :^)

Corey Dangel: roflmao

* Micajah chuckles.

Corey Dangel: we waited soooo long for that one

Jade Dragonfly: lol

Glitch: We already have the basic guild system in place and are sorting through lots of ideas now on how to make it cooler.

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Tyrfingr_WC>: Will you support online marriages?

Corey Dangel: of course we will ;^)

Corey Dangel: I'm a lover not a fighter

Chris Lye: Bigamy was big in Norse culture!

Chris Lye: j/k

Corey Dangel: what's an MMP without marriages and huge community events

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Xor_WC Since you have focused so much of your effort into making Mythica a single player experience in a multiplayer environment, do you worry that players wont have the same social interaction they might in other MMORPGs?

Pulsifer: Mythica is an MMP and we do not lose sight of that.

Pulsifer: When we mentionsingle player experiences we're pointing towards the depth of interaction and story that has heretofore been relegated to offline or minimally multiplayer titles.

Chris Lye: Don't worry, for folks who love big public spaces, Mythica will have those

Chris Lye: but when you're ready to go off and have a deeper, adventure with just you and your party, you'll have that too

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Tolkoss_WC: How many generic items will there be (fancy clothes, interesting headgear, etc)?

Corey Dangel: we have a team of artists who are speacializing on building those assets as we speak

Corey Dangel: there are items that are practical and functional and there are items which are decorative

Corey Dangel: as to how many? we'll make as many we can in the time we have

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Micajah_WC: Will there be select weapons for each class or will you be able to pick up any weapon and use it no matter what class you are?

Corey Dangel: yes :^)

Micajah_WC: Super

Pulsifer: Kinda both, the way its set up is that any class can wield any weapon but certain skills will only work with certain weapons. This allows for sword wielding Sorcerers, but don't confuse that with tank mages. Proficiency is always important.

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Xor_WC Can you tell us anymore about the other planes, such as Muspelheim, etc?

Corey Dangel: Well most of what you've seen has been Midgard, the home of the humans

Corey Dangel: We've recently built out Asgard and it's just gorgeous

Pulsifer: Ahhh...midgard...Split in two with Humans and creatures alike fleeing the corruption that is boiling across the continent.

Corey Dangel: Mike Cahill and his team have really brought to life all the beauty of his concepts

Pulsifer: Nidavellir, the home of the Dwarves and their enemies the MAggots of Ymir is my favorite...

Chris Lye: Yeah, we haven't talked too much about Nidavellir to date, Warcy exclusive ;-)

Corey Dangel: Muspelheim is a vast wastelenad

Xor_WC :)

* Micajah cheers!

Corey Dangel: oh fine. Nidavelir, you want.

Pulsifer: Lemme give you alittle bit of the story behind Nidavellir...

Corey Dangel: ;^)

Pulsifer: Nidavellir was boiled from the earth when Ymir's bile spilled from his body and seeped through the crust.

Corey Dangel: It all begins with the corpse of Ymir and the bile that has carved it's way through the earth

Pulsifer: The maggots left in his corpse were raised up to be Dvergar by Odin and cast into the caverns below.

Pulsifer: However a number of maggots fell through the crust with bile and fell to the deepest depths

Pulsifer: evolving into a cousin race to the Dvergar.

Pulsifer: They have only recently made their presence known...

Corey Dangel: The Dvergar have evolved a complex architectural language

Pulsifer: Not to mention the bioluminscent creatures and flora that illuminate the vast caverns..

Pulsifer: I could go on forever about this plane...

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Micajah_WC: We're not stopping you.
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Pulsifer: heh

Corey Dangel: They aren't in love with the fact that they are forced to live underground and so they slowly, over the centuries, build over the underground structure of Nidavelir.

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Xor_WC We've seen video of what seems to be a warrior of the dwarvish persuasion using his hammer to produce a shockwave effect, will other weapons have similar abilities, or will each weapon have an exclusive power?

Corey Dangel: Further out from 'civilization' you will find dwellings and structures that resemble the natural forms under the earth

Corey Dangel: hey, I'm not done yet :^)

Pulsifer: bwahaha

Matt Lee: The shockwave effect and the camera shake effects are really cool.

Matt Lee: You'll see effects like that tied to specific skills, and possibly the weapons themselves.

Matt Lee: Things as visually exciting as the shockwave will probably be used for critical hits, or some other really important game event.

Corey Dangel: There are many weapons with many different abilities. Scooter is THE man when it comes to effects

Scooter: Hi! I'm Scooter, the FX artist. The effects you see coming off of weapons could be part of the skill that your character is using or a characteristic of the weapon itself.

Matt Lee: We use DirectX 9 features to do the shockwave effect - it's a framebuffer effect using pixel shaders. Lots of xbox games use similar techniques, but very few PC games so far do this.

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Micajah_WC: <Wildy> Can you give us any insight on skill advancement and how much diversity there will be within classes.

Iziuh: Ok so the skill advacement comes in with classes

Iziuh: as you know we have 8 different class each with their own set of skills

Iziuh: You will be able to pick different paths for each class

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Tyrfingr_WC: We've seen weapons such as the traditional axe, sword, and hammer, but what about the other weapons such as the spear? We know that the people of Mythica have developed articulated platemail, have they developed any types of weapons that their Real world norse counterparts lacked?

Iziuh: each path will lead you to different styles of play and you can pick between the paths or spec in to one

Iziuh: but no path between classes will overlap so each class will feel different and unique

Pulsifer: We do indeed have spears and many other weapons...Advancements on bows and crossbows, staffswords, and some more exotic Dvergar weaponry.

Pulsifer: It's important to us that all the weapons make sense, aren't arbitrary...the Trickster gets some really interesting stealth and surprise weaponry.

Corey Dangel: Tyrfinger, do you mean things like scramaseax and such?

Chris Lye: Corey, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?

Corey Dangel: Yes we plan to have spears, and so on. :^)

Corey Dangel: kissy kissy

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Tyrfingr_WC: I might, but I'm afraid I have no earthly idea what that is.

* Tyrfingr grins

Micajah_WC: Tyrfingr can't answer because he's so offended by that language.

Micajah_WC: His virgin ears are burning.

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Micajah_WC: Wildy Asks: "To what extent can we control and interact with our worshippers and their villages?"

Pulsifer: Followers that you gain during the course of your adventures may or may not key into larger dramas.

Pulsifer: In order to attract the worship and faith of followers you will need to hear and answer their prayers, proving yourself to them.

Pulsifer: Realms, hunting, adventures, quests, all of these things garner you more and mroe fame...drawing more and more followers to you.

Pulsifer: After you gain them, you then have a great deal of control over your followers...but that's for another time...

Pulsifer: ;)

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Micajah_WC: Ravor asks: Regarding the old leveling treadmill. Alot of people really dislike this concept because it feels like work and not fun. Have you done anything to smoothen it out to some degree so its not nearly as painfull as it tends to be in most other games?

Pulsifer: One of the problems with the treadmill is the reward structure...we're making certain that there are many goals you are shooting for not just one big level ding. And that the level ding doesn't always bring the same reqrds...a series of stacking goals and objectives tied to a myriad number of systems should keep the advancement process fresh. :)

Pulsifer: err reqrds=rewards...

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Micajah_WC: Beregar asks: Devs have asked about combat spew on Mythica Realms and MythicaHQ forums. Has there been any indication yet as to how it will be implemented?

Glitch: We actually had a big meeting about combat spew yesterday. We're going to use the animation and FX systems to great effect so players will have a good idea of what's happening during combat just by watching the fight. Our UI team is also investing a lot of time on the skill bar to make sure it provides lots of feedback about skill activation. For the players who like detailed numbers during combat we'll also have the standard chat spew t

Glitch: Less dev speak this time. :)

Jade Dragonfly: Another 5 mins or so folks :)

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Micajah_WC: Scarne asks: do lakes and such have fluid shorelines?

Matt Lee: our water team is currently investigating water/shore interaction

Matt Lee: it will look very nice

Pulsifer: hehehe

Corey Dangel: hehehehehe

Corey Dangel: weeeeeee

Matt Lee: oh, BTW, our water research team is in Microsoft Research in Beijing

Pulsifer: They rule.

Corey Dangel: it's a whole team devoted to our water

Corey Dangel: we love them

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Tolkoss_WC: Eldgrim685 asks: Would the developers happen to have a list of books they used to read up on the Norse, and their mythology?

Corey Dangel: many, many books

Pulsifer: There are two really good books (a bit thick, but wonderful) I can recommend...

Chris Lye: Thor by Stan lee! j/k

Pulsifer: For the best modern translation of the mythis I'd turn to Kevin Crossley-Holland's The Norse Myths

Corey Dangel: Nooooooo!!!!!! Chris!!!!!!

Pulsifer: Medieval Iceland (Jesse L. Byock) is a hard history book that is deeply facinating

Pulsifer: Chrislye has now been sacrificed.

Corey Dangel: I'm reading "the Sagas of the Icelanders" at the moment. It is very thorough

Chris Lye: By my troth forsooth

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Micajah_WC: I loved the blonde hair. Ammy asks: Have you taken many creative liberties regarding Norse mythology, or have you tried your best to stick to the actual myths?

Corey Dangel: RK Post ran off with all my pciture reference books (curses!!!) so I can't give out any of their names atm

Micajah_WC: The next question is the last question of the chat.

Pulsifer: In order to pay themost respect to Norse culture and history we have moved the game's setting off of Earth circa 700 and moved it to another reality side by side with ours...

Pulsifer: The story on our website establishes that in the myth section.

Pulsifer: WE've adapted the elements that support,

Pulsifer: modified the elements that were too limiting...

Pulsifer: and expanded them throughout 3000 years of conflict

Pulsifer: to build up more technologies, crises, enemies, sagas and stories

Pulsifer: from which we will build the initial and ongoing content for the game.

Pulsifer: There is nothing but the deepest respect for the legacy we're building off of and we hope we represent that

Pulsifer: in as many elements as possible.

Corey Dangel: and how

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Micajah_WC: Last Question:

Pulsifer: *whew*

Pulsifer: :)

Xor_WC :)

Micajah_WC: And I think it's one all of us want to know

Micajah_WC: <Tidus-MR> Is there any update on the Alpha or Beta stages?

Corey Dangel: drum roll please....

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* Tyrfingr starts beating on his snare
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Chris Lye: We're going to start inviting folks into the Alpha and Beta stages early next year

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* Micajah dies.

* XoR_WC drools
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Chris Lye: The best way to get invited is to sign-up for the newsletter on Mythica.com

Pulsifer: PLUGMASTER

Corey Dangel: master of style for your plugs

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* Micajah laughs
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Chris Lye: We're going to be inviting folks to fill out a survey that will help us determine which phase to bring folks in

Chris Lye: So don't LIE! :)

Chris Lye: done
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Micajah_WC: Excellent

Xor_WC Thanks for your time guys
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Pulsifer: My pleasure!

Corey Dangel: our pleasure

Chris Lye: Oh one more thing
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Micajah_WC: Well, I'd just like to extend a community thank you for your time and utter amounts of patience.

Chris Lye: WE'LL BE AT GENCON!!!!
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* Micajah cheers!
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Corey Dangel: woooohooooo

Chris Lye: THE SECRET PASSWORD IS "FENRIS"

Pulsifer: (GenCon SOCAL)

Jade Dragonfly: Dec 11 - 14th
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Micajah_WC: Time to turn off the moderation
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