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Max Schaefer, operations chief and co-founder of Flagship Studios, is forthright about the mistakes made on Hellgate: London. In a lengthy interview with eurogamer.net he explains how that game tried to be too many things to too many people, and ended up being rushed to market without being 'kept in the oven long enough.' They simply took too much on for a fledgling studio without any existing technologies to cope with.

Flagship is now working on a brand new MMO, the free-to-play microtransaction-driven Mythos, which is nothing like as 'hardcore' as Hellgate. Resemblances to the likes of Diablo or WoW are justified by Schaefer in terms of the relief they give players; the idea is to cultivate a sense of 'familiar novelty', in which the gameplay is comfortable enough to welcome a player in and get them settled, but innovative enough to excite and keep interest.

If it's Tuesday, it must be time for more news of Flagship Studios' upcoming free-to-play MMO, Mythos. Lead developer Travis Baldree tells German fan site Online Welten more about their plans for Mythos' future, Coming up are another class and another race. Travis also explains what sorts of things you'll be able to get with their RMT system, such as more slots for your "stash", and the ability to share your stash among other characters. Mounts are coming soon -- hope they're more unique than (yawn) boring horses. Information about new guilds, puzzle boxes, wedding rings and naked foot-races -- it's all there, in elegant English or glorious German -- your choice.

In his latest "Almost-a-blog", Travis also talks about their first epic quest-triggered Overworld boss. Everyone who helps take it down gets loot, similar to Warhammer Online's public quests. There's news about particle effects, Zone 2 progress, the consignment house and crafting. There also seems to be a lot of talk about open beta on the forums.

We have to concede, we were probably won over by Mythos, Flagship's free-to-play hack and slashers, months ago. We're not sure whether it happened before our interview with Max Schaefer or after they implemented the fairly ambitious Overworld, it's hard to say exactly. In any case, we're aware that not everybody is as excited about the title as we are, which is why we recommend taking a look at Eurogamer's new glowing hands-on report of the game.

Among Mythos' many design choices, the author seems most impressed with the way Flagship has managed to make even the simplest of level one fireballs feel both satisfying and significant. For our part, we're still baffled that they plan to offer this as a free title, because the spit shine and polish they've been putting on this thing is more typically befitting of a full retail release. Then again, World of Warcraft was planned as a free title once upon a time...

Flagship's forthcoming free-to-play MMO Mythos, patched their closed beta with lots of bug fixes and new features. The camera has been completely re-done; it now has four-options -- Isometric Style (the original, far-overhead view); Isometric Orbiting Style, where the camera turns with you; MMO Style, which is the over-the-shoulder view common to many MMOs, and MMO Outdoor Only, which reverts to isometric view when you enter a dungeon. Ambient (non-attackable) creatures have been added to the Overworld to make it more lively; other Overworld creatures have had their aggro range increased and respawn time decreased to make the Overworld more ... deadly.

Why not take a look at the full patch notes, after the break?

While we wait for Mythos to enter open beta so we can all play in the action-MMO inspired by Diablo II's fast, furious and inviting gameplay, we were thrilled to read this interview with Mythos' Project Director, Travis Baldree. This is one of the guys with his arms elbow-deep in the code. If you've been following Mythos' sometimes-funny, sometimes-frustrating struggles toward release on Travis' "Almost-a-Blog", then you already know that Mythos is a game that definitely proves the old canard that change is the only thing you can depend upon.

Read about the most unbalanced crafted item ever made, consignment houses, new classes and races, and when Open Beta might start ("Soon". Oops. Spoiler!)

[WarCry]

Flagship Studios' action-adventure MMO, Mythos, will be free to download and free to play. How will they ever make any money off the game? Sure, they have an item shop, but will that be enough? In this interview, Mythos' Executive Producer Max Schaefer explains how they will make the game profitable through the economics of free, bringing a World of Warcraft-ish game into a MMO market that already has a WoW, and the rise of indie games.

There's not a lot of new information in this interview, We might have asked why they didn't release Mythos as it was, and then release the Overworld as an expansion along with a lot of new content? How would they distinguish themselves from the rumored Diablo 3? What kinds of questions would you have asked about Mythos? If you can propose some really hard ones, we'll send them along and see if we can get some answers.

What do you call it when the developers of a hotly anticipated free-to-play Diablo-esque MMO decide at virtually the last minute to entirely redesign their game? You could call it crazy, or unwise, but developers of the upcoming title Mythos went ahead and did just that. Many of Flagship Studios' beta players said the game was more than ready to ship as it was, but it wasn't good enough for the developers. They combined all the instanced, single player overland zones into one massive continent, shared among all players. Instead of being reached by maps that led players through narrow paths to dungeons which looked identical from the outside, the devs placed the dungeons, Oblivion-like, through the world.

For the past week, the folks at Flagship promised the Overworld Real Soon Now. A deathwatch was kept on the forums. It was going to be the next day, or the day after, or in a few hours. Players gathered on Mythos' IRC channel where devs tossed out tantalizing hints of what was to come. Then around 9pm EST dev Taylor Balbi advised everyone to re-patch and log in to the Test Center to see the Overworld. He gave some advice as people hurried to be the first into the new world.

1. Test Center will be a separate server.
2. Test Center and Beta Server will be online at the same time and require the same client.
3. To tell which version you currently have, the login screen screen will make it obvious (two different ones).
4. Test Center will start lagging after like 800 people, Mythos Beta won't.
5. Taylor Balbi is Awesome.
   

We think the other Flagship devs are pretty awesome as well. Though there were more than a few glitches with patching, we were able to eventually get in and take a quick run around some of the Overworld, its dungeons, the villages outside Stonehill, and the city of Stonehill itself. All we have left to wait for now is the open beta, expected in the next several weeks.

Flagship Studios sends their regrets, but the mega-update to Mythos that would turn their heavily instanced over world into one seamless land spattered, Oblivion-like, with dungeons has been delayed. Due yesterday, it now looks as if Mythos beta testers will have to wait until next week to run naked and free ... through Mythos' world of Uld, at any rate.

To tide us over while we wait, player Kirent has compiled a list of all the interesting snippets of developer responses to questions about the delay. Characters won't be wiped when the Overworld goes live, but they likely will be wiped when the test server is folded into the live beta server, after which open beta will likely begin. Zones 2 and 3 (mid and high level areas) won't be enabled initially, but we knew that. The pressures of pushing the Overworld out the door means that new monsters, dungeons, and quests won't be in in any significant way. Most of the crafting changes will be on the test server, but the balancing of the heraldries (temporary buffs applied to crafted items) will not be. Special armor sets, a new class (!!!) , retirement (here you voluntarily retire a high level character to start a new character with some sort of advantage) and any sort of endgame are all taking a back seat to the Overworld. However, it sounds like Epic weapons will be in.

Mythos is currently slated to release late this year. It will be free to play, but with an item store where you can buy items for real money, though you will be able to see and do everything in the game without paying a cent. Bored with waiting for the update? Kanthalos at MMOre Insight has been writing a series of articles about the best character builds for maximum wtfpwnage -- check it out!

Mythos might have released as it is today -- a fairly small, but fun, MMO in the mold of Diablo 2, by the original creators of that legendary game. Overhead gameplay, point and click, talent trees, but more free form -- no plot aside from that given by the quests. You played Mythos a dungeon at a time. Mythos is almost entirely instanced. You'll hardly ever see another player outside of a city -- very rarely at one of the hubs in the countryside.

They're changing all that. The countryside will no longer be randomized; it will become a static world as in World of Warcraft or EverQuest. In old Mythos, you got a quest for a dungeon, and that dungeon would suddenly appear on your map. You'd walk to it and have it entirely to yourself, finish the quest, and the dungeon would disappear. Now, that dungeon will remain a fixed part of the world. The random dungeons that you could previously buy maps for, will now be accessed through special runestones that will teleport you and your party straight to it.

The old adage -- if you want something done right, do it yourself -- has never been more true than in Flagship Studios' Mythos. You can find excellent weapons and gear from monsters or treasure chests, but if you want something uniquely yours, crafting is your best bet. By focusing on certain crafting trees, master crafters can make gear with stats that dwarf that of dropped gear. Further, crafted items may be adorned with temporary buffs called heraldries. The monsters won't know what hit them. In the Shadowlands, nobody will be able to touch you. That's the power of crafted items and the heraldries that mark them.

Crafting itself is simple to pick up -- just hit R and spend points in the crafting tree. You'll see that it is impossible for a single crafter to become an expert in more than one or two skills. The skill trees themselves are oddly split -- training in Swords and Axes gives you no abilities to create Spears and Polearms. Master the crafting of chest armors, but that will do you no good when it comes to making shoulders and helms. Focus on becoming the best cobbler in Uld, but don't expect that skill to carry over into the scribing of Heraldries.

Here is a brief overview of the crafting quests and the process of crafting itself. You can read a more detailed list of the benefits of crafted items over on the official Mythos forums.

Farewell, Bangladesh. The Mythos closed beta was not made for you. And best wishes to Japan. Really, though, the Mythos closed beta was meant for North American audiences, and we have discovered that North America is not where you are. So we must say ciao to China as well. We're about to open up the beta to far more people, and those of you in Eastern Europe and Asia just won't be getting the kind of localized experience we really want to provide. Even though English is your official administrative language, we must say so long, Singapore. We can't have you on American servers when we're shopping Mythos to overseas partners, and thus, we are leaving Lithuania.

While the news that Flagship Studios' Mythos is drawing very near to open beta is good news, the reaction on the Mythos forums has been muted disappointment. Some wonder why the non-English speaking countries of Western Europe were allowed to remain in the beta; others wonder if this decision had something to do with the gold farmers who flocked to Mythos as they flock to all MMOs. We prefer to feel that their last listed reason, that they are looking for a publisher in these regions, is the real one, and that there will be news of localized versions of Mythos in the near future.

At this stage of the game, it really feels like we've culled absolutely every bit of information that Flagship Studios has to give about their upcoming dungeon crawler Mythos. We've already found out about the in-game mall, email system, group content, mini-games, the class differentiation, and what color sherbet Max Schaefer prefers on a particularly hot day.

As it turns out however, there's always more minutiae to mull over! In the latest interview, the Flagship boys are asked about a bunch of things that you likely didn't even think to ask in the first place. What's going to be done about farmers, griefers, and spawn campers? (Something) How awesome will crafting be? (So awesome!) Will there be a bird race? (Like Big Bird? Maybe...) And as to the elusive question of whether and when the open beta is going to start, they still wouldn't give a solid answer. While that disappoints a little bit, at least their release date isn't set in mud, because we all know what that meant.

We've written once or twice about the upcoming free-to-play game action-MMO Mythos. It will rock you, sock you, completely demolish you and keep you coming back for another round of its point-and-click gameplay. Well, that's the theory, anyway. Can any game ever live up to all its hype? As Miguel Lopez points out in his Mythos preview, you have four races, but there's really not that much difference between them. Eventually, you'll run out of quests, and the only thing that will keep you coming back is the prospect of more fairly similar dungeon crawling.

Mythos shows the most creativity in its classes. Your characters must choose between one of three classes, but the talent trees can turn them into almost any variant on those you can think of. Want your caster to tank and melee? You can do that. Want your gadgeteer to let his pets do the fighting? Entirely up to you. Your character can be uniquely yours in every respect. This might come in handy when you meet someone else in the FFA PvP world of the Shadowlands. They won't have any idea what you can do... and you won't know anything about them, either. Will Mythos have the staying power of Diablo II? That's a tough call, but the developers at Flagship Studios are definitely hoping its addictive gameplay, casual setting, humor, and low price (can't beat free) will give them a hit after their miss with Hellgate: London.

IGN has a preview of Mythos up (littered with as much gameplay footage as the game has loot) that takes a pretty good look at the upcoming Flagship Studios Diablo-like title. An interesting subject that the preview touches on is the addition of future classes. The only bit of information we're given is that the new classes will focus on some of the weapon-types that have no optimal class already in-game for them. We've got a couple guesses as to what sort of classes we may see, so buckle up!

On their latest video podcast, the folks at 1UP had a chat with Flagship Studios' COO and executive producer of Mythos, Max Schaefer. He talks a little about Mythos' raison d'être as a sort of technology demo for last year's action MMO, Hellgate: London. It's taken on a life of its own since then to become the kinder, lighter action MMO, brighter and more just plain fun. In keeping with their more social goal for Mythos, there is full guild support, and they'll be adding in email, minigames, group-oriented content and, yes, an item mall. Following the lead of the Asian casual game market, Mythos is free to download, free to play, and though you may want to buy certain things to help you along the way at their item mall (though nothing overpowering -- you won't find the best swords or armor at the item mall), you will be able to see and do everything without paying a penny.

Schaefer calls this new philosophy "Triple-A casual" -- top flight production values using the latest tech, but keeping development time short and focusing on the fun. We've been hearing a lot about Mythos lately; here's hoping they start their open beta soon so that we can all play.