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EMERGENCE OF THE COMMUNITY The Myth series of games (collectively: Myth: The Fallen Lords, Myth II: Soulblighter, and Myth III: The Wolf Age) are renowned for their open-ended and extensible gaming engines that allow for great extensibility and customization. As the latter two titles shipped with functioning editors, and the original was quickly reverse-engineered by third-party hackers, these games allowed for a vibrant and devoted community of fans that pushed the engine to its limits and greatly extended the lifespan of the franchise. During the years 1997-2003, widely considered the franchise's zenith, literally thousands of third-party creations made the rounds on community sites devoted to their promulgation. In addition, many tournaments were organized, most notable the annual Myth World Cup. MYTH DEVELOPMENT HISTORY Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter were developed by Bungie, from v1.0 - v1.3.0 for Myth: The Fallen Lords, and Myth II: Soulblighter from v1.0 - v1.3.1. When Bungie lost Myth II. Take 2 decided not to make any more additions to the previous Myth games' development. Myth III: The Wolf Age was rushed into going gold, and only patches v1.0.1 and v1.0.2 were released by the original Mumbo Jumbo team. Myth Developers (led by Blades and Clem, shortened to MythDev) later aquired legal permission to add to the Myth series in Take 2's name. They had little interest in Myth games other than Myth III, but to help keep a fan-following (Myth III development was of little interest to a lot of Mythers) did a small amount of work on Myth and Myth II. A map-making group, Project Magma had a Myther called IronDuke join them. His interest in coding meant he wanted to take on the roll of continuing Myth development. Project Magma then gained permission to work on the three Myth games, provided all their work was 'Project Magma in asociation with MythDev'. As time progressed, MythDev worked on Myth III patches 1.1 (April 10th 2003), 1.1.1 (October 8th 2003) and 1.1.2 and then began working on Patch 1.2, very minor with contributions from members of Project Magma (not enough to be credited for in patch credits). Patch 1.2 was never finished. Meanwhile, Project Magma worked on Myth II v1.3.2 (March 14th 2003), then v1.4, v1.4.1 and v1.4.3 (June 14th , August 7th, August 30th). The 1.4.x patches added the vTFL (virtual Myth: The Fallen Lords) emulation. MythDev released a no-CD-crack Myth II v1.4.4 patch, which was said to cause many other troubles and was largely unused. Shortly after, MythDev released patch 1.4 (July 31sth 2003) for Myth: The Fallen Lords, which added OSX compatibility and made the game run much faster (apparently, most players noticed little difference) and also installed PlayMyth.net (MythDev's server) as the default Myth server, stopping Myth: The Fallen Lords players reaching other servers, like the popular MariusNet server. This produced great outrage, but was not changed. This project was undertaken despite MythDev's agreement to leave Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter development for Project Magma and focus on Myth III themselves. The patch was largely seen as an aggressive move by MythDev, and a pointless update. Shortly after this, MythDev disbanded. Project Magma was joined by ex-MythDev members to work on Myth II v1.5. Myth II v1.5 was released on June 4th 2004. Myth v1.5.1 was released March 28th 2005, with a remade version of the Myth II Demo updated to v1.5.1. Members from MythDev formed the Flying Flip group to develop Myth III v1.3.1 (June 25th 2004), with v.3.1 quickly following on July 2nd. Flying Flip also released Myth: The Fallen Lords v1.4.5 onOctober 03, 2004, for Mac OSX. It was incompatible with the most modern versions on other operating systems and proved unpopular, though Myth: The Fallen Lords play had almost vanished. Project Magma later updated Myth: The Fallen Lords to v1.5, for all operating system. Project Magma is currently working on Myth II v1.5.2. Flying Flip is 'dormant'. Myth development tools - history The original Myth title was not released with an official editor, though the developer versions of these tools were eventually leaked to the community some time after the game's release. Instead, enterprising hackers simply scoured the game's files searching for clues to its makeup and data structure. It soon became evident that these files followed a hierachal structure of "tags" that linked separate parts of data to one another and together comprised the separate levels of the game. With a little luck and intuition, one could use a hex editor to create bizzare but enjoyable hacks like barrels that exploded into dwarf heads and archers that never missed their targets. As the level of understanding grew, so did the complexity of these creations. Bungie was mildly surprised by these efforts, but rather than discourage their fans the company decided to improve upon its own tools and ship them with the next version of the game, hoping to sustain interest in the franchise and expand sales. With the release of Myth II: Soulblighter, Myth map-making became much easier and grew rapidly. Initially difficult and without any initial successes (in terms of popularity), the level of expertise required to contribute to the community was substantially lowered by Bungie's inclusion of their own tools, Fear (a "tag" editor) and Loathing (a "mesh" and level editor) meaning map-making skills improved over time. Updated to version 1.2 by Bungie the programs were then left to gather dust. Project Magma's Fear 1.2.3 update was the first in years. As part of Project Magma's 1.4.x updates, they added to Fear and Loathing. The 1.5.x updates made more changes to Fear and Loathing than to the Myth II game itself. Trouble with the Mac version of Fear running on Mac OSX means until recently there was no chance of a release. However, a Mac version of Fear updated to v1.5.2 will be part of the Myth II v1.5.2 update. Myth III: The Wolf Age had a rushed release, and the release of the tag editor Vengeance (PC only at release) was an imcomplete job. Myth map-makers had had involvement with creating Myth III and admitted they were also upset at what they had created. MythDev updates later ported it to Mac, but it received very little updating. With Myth III v1.3.x, Flying Flip re-invented Vengeance as Ballistic, updating it, adding new features and porting it to Linux (despite Myth III itself not running on Linux systems). Currently very little use has been made of the tool. NOTABLE THIRD-PARTY PROJECTS FOR MYTH II Partial and total convertions ''Projects with several completely new units are considered to be partial convertions. Even maps with completely new unitsets usually used recycled models, scenery, textures, and sounds; only two "true" total conversions were ever made. Due to the difficulty of importing new unit graphics into ''Myth'', only very few of the thousands of releases featured them.''
Outstanding non-conversions ''The ''Myth'' engine allowed for plenty of creativity apart from unit graphics. The following projects were all notable for their beauty, coherence, creativity, innovation, large scale, game scripting, humor, popularity, enjoyability, or some combination of these.''
Tournament maps ''Several multiplayer maps were so popular that they were frequently used in Myth World Cup and other tournaments.'' Vaporware ''Myth'' has it's share of Vaporware . The most notable, perhaps, was an early commercial project called ''Daimyo'', an ambitious total conversion set in feudal Japan, which unfortunately never materialized. ''WW2'' takes over Ranked Shortly after its release, ''WW2: Recon'' began dominating the game lists in the ranked rooms of bungie.net. Its sequel enjoyed similar success. While it is undoubtedly true that many were drawn to the unique gameplay of the mod, another large factor in its popularity was that, due to the way the ranking system was set up, a player who played only ''WW2'' could level much faster than a player who played only games of normal ''Myth''. This caused some resentment, and some players switched to the unranked rooms out of frustration. Many players have switched to playing only ''WW2''. Map-making teams
Map-making individuals
=Myth World Cup= These are extracts from the main Myth WorlD Cup article. Myth World Cup is an online, Double-elimination , 2-team ''Myth II'' tournament. "TFL98: Myth World Cup" was the precursor to this tournament. The tournament has shrunk as the game gets older. Regrettably, the finals of MWC05 were not played due to lack of effort on the competitors' part. Organizers decided there was no official winner. A large community rallying point, MWC has the most active Myth forums of the tournament season, and is known for its funny articles and reviews. It is so much more significant than any other tournament that it is as much an excuse for players to play Myth as it is a reason. Summer has become known not at MWC season, but now as 'Myth Season'. Prizes for MWC stopped in recent years, but MWC04 had a surprise USD 1000 top prize. During standard "MWC season," May through August, games on PlayMyth.net increase dramatically. Usually, many inactive players come out of retirement, and MariusNet players move to PlayMyth.net for the tournament. Some of the Myth World Cup websites have lost their original hosting and moved to Archive.org , and suffer from missing graphics and features. The number of teams is based on teams who registered before the beginning of QR. At least one MWC had an additional team register on the site (registration script was kept active) that was not an official team. This includes, however, teams who did not play after registering (forefit teams). MYTH TOURNAMENTS Myth has always had a variety of tournament types anually, the majority of which were for Myth II. Discussed in the main Myth II Tourmnaments Article COMMUNITY CENTERS Servers Bungie.net The original Myth series server. Bungie.net had separate servers for the Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter games, as well as demo servers. Slowest but most popular servers, they lasted from the release of the games until after Bungie was bought by Microsoft and had no further responsibility. The Myth: The Fallen Lords server closed in November 2001, and Myth II: Soulblighter's server closed in March 2002. Cappable of supporting all versions of the first 2 Myth games. Bungie.net GameRanger A widespread Mac-only games hosting group, Myth: The Fallen Lords v1.3 and Myth II: Soulblighter v1.3.x were both supported, and continue to be. Very little gameplay, and not considered a part of the greater Myth community. Lacked both order support and ranked play. GameRanger GameSpy The GameSpy company ran the official Myth III: The Wolf Age server. However, they refused to provide MythDev with the code needed to allow GameSpy compatibility in their future patches. Thus, Myth III v1.1 and higher lack support. The server, like GameRanger, lacked order support. GameSpy Mariusnet Fan-run server originally set up by Marius and Conner, who aimed to create a Bungie.net emulating server. Originally based around Myth: The Fallen Lords, quickly adding Myth II: Soulblighter support (and later Myth III, though it was largely unplayed), MariusNet was known for strict rules and a fast server. Both order and ranked suppport were added, and run by the MythForums.com server. MariusNet was always a very small community, but was the primary server for groups who rarely play but get together on a large scale occasionally, such as Clan Plaid. Also the primary server for Project Magma's testing. Recently added support for the Marathon games also. Currently ranked play and user accounts are disabled. MariusNet Playmyth.net Originally a Myth II: Soulblighter server, with support for Myth III quickly, this hybrid server now supports Myth: The Fallen Lords. Though the lead administrator (PMA Blades) has attracted much controvosy, it is the primary server for playing Myth games. Currently supports ranked play for Myth II and Myth III. PlayMyth.net General hubs ''The Mill'' Huge plugin-host primarily, this site became far more. The largest community centre in all of Myth's history, it became the only place a player would go for important news. Massive forums, as much free upload space for plugins as you needed and a fast service made this a huge success. When players would have to pay to continue using the server it ran off, the site closed and is (along with the closure of Bungie.net's Myth II server and the failure of Myth III) widely considered the reason Myth's community shrank, or in the eyes of many 'died'. ''The Galleria Mythica'' A photo gallery for players and ex-players of the Myth series. Anyone is welcome, and gets a summary profile space and links to any websites relating to them. Candidates should e-mail theelfoid_TFS {Link without Title} hotmail {Link without Title} com if they wish to be part of this. Over 300 photos at time of writing, and at least 320 people. The Galleria Mythica Mark I The original Galleria. Still maintained the presence of The Galleria Mark II. Features include a slideshow, thumnails of everyone on the Galleria, a page for additional photos and sorted mini-galleries for clans, girl-gamers, group photos. The Galleria Mythica Mark II Like the original Galleria, but with player profiles and useful links provided. Currently difficult to sort (players must click the archives to see previous sets, or the oldest posted on the 'previously posted photos' list). Galleria Mythica Mark III Currently under development. The plan is to link together all the player pages from Mark II and sort them by name, clan or any additional facts. Anyone willing to help with this should contact The Elfoid at the above stated e-mail adress. Other hubs THE LANGUAGE OF MYTH
Common short-names for units
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