Rampancy

Matt Soell over at bungie.net has answered a few questions they have been receiving about the upcoming Halo launch party. You had better head over and read the details if you plan on attending because Bungie needs to know who is going as soon as possible so that they can prepare for the event.

Concerning Mat Cauthon T's initial impressions post in which he claimed the units moved too slowly, Blambi, who was a tester for Myth III, replied with the following:

this is the exact same feeling I had when I first played, and when I asked about it here was the answer:

In M2, regardless of how fast the unit is actually moving, his sprites keep whirring away at a blinding pace. In Myth 3, each foot has to be placed before the next one comes off the ground, creating a very deliberate feel to each step and turn. Nevertheless, [the] units are moving at exactly the same or slightly tweaked speeds when compared to M2.

Another funny thing is how fast units move... proportionately to the units, Myth maps are very small. To counter this, units move very slowly. Think of ghols, that you visualize as speedsters near-flying across the ground... the MJ team converted their speed from M2's world units to the real world's miles per hour, and that ghol is really only moving at about 8 mph. That's an easy jog for most reasonably fit people. Dwarves are cranking along at some 2mph. M2's units, with their never-slowing-always-fast-sprites, give the appearance of moving quickly without actually moving that quickly.

That's some interesting stuff. It seems like Myth III's approach was more realistic while Myth II's was more accommodating to the engine.

UPDATE: Blambi talked to an employee of Mumbo Jumbo today who told Blambi that units were speed was actually modified a bit more than he thought:

On HL a MJ guy who saw my first post tonight said that unit speeds have actually been tweaked quite a bit to compensate for the slow-down effect, so much that a M3 zerk runs at roughly the same speed as a M2 Trow.

Got something to say? Get it on the discussion.

The Myth Village forum is littered with it doesn't work with Windows XP posts, but scroll a bit and you will find some content worth reading.

rojay posted his very first impressions, which were generally positive.

The options screens, btw, are very nice. The whole feel of the initial interface is well done. What little music I've heard so far is good, and the first cutscene is nice.

I've played through the tutorial and the first mission. The game is very, very pretty IMO. The screenshots do not do justice to watching your units move. The new animation for the dwarven cocktail is very nice.

Hwed also posted his impressions:

First of all, it's beautiful. I mean BEAUTIFUL. Explosions are great, fire looks good, maps have great texture, water looks like water. Even with 100 units on the screen in a big creep melee, I didn't notice framerates going down, and it was quite smooth.

Pathfinding: It sucks. TFL all over again, watch in frustration as your heron guard moonwalks and orbits your trooops trying to heal the guy next to him. Watch your units get hopelessly tangled in small passes as they try to push through. Makes you remember why they went with clumping in M2.

Drivers: Had some problems with sound before I dl'ed DX8 and my newest sound card drivers. I thought I was pretty up to date, but make sure to get the latest.

Battle: I don't know what it is, but it lacks a Myth feel somehow... it's hard to tell which unit is attacking which, and when they're hit... the green circles at the bottom of selected units are obtrusive and make it hard to distinguish the green bars when you have a cluster of units selected.

I could have done with a basic box and a solid color health bar, myself. Instead, you get a lavalamp hovering by your unit.

Johnny Law also posted his two cents:

- The interface and bits and extras are quite polished. Really makes this look like a triple-A title.

- The visuals are amazing. I have basically everything cranked up and my GF3 handles it with no problems at 1024x768.

- The pathfinding is, unsurprisingly, between that of Myth:TFL and Myth 2. So far it doesn't bug me, and I appreciate the lack of clumping.

So far so good then! I'm having fun. If the rest of the game goes as I expect -- say, with a good variety in the environments and some opportunities to control larger numbers of troops -- this will be a very nice addition to the Myth series singleplayer, more than holding up the tradition.

I have only selected a few highlights from the posts cited. It's recommended that you read all three posts in their entirety because they offer much more information.

Halo: The Fall Of Reach by Eric Nylund is now available in book stores.

Of course, you can order it online from Amazon.com or your favorite online store.