Imperator MMOG On Hold

Gamasutra has the word that Mythic Studios' Roman/Sci-Fi title Imperator has been put on indefinite hiatus. From the article: "All Imperator staff will be moved onto existing projects, such as a new Dark Age of Camelot expansion titled Darkness Rising, as well as the just-announced Warhammer-licensed online game, being created following the cancellation of a similar project at developer Climax. However, none of the developers that were formerly on Mythic's Imperator project will be laid off."

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[iced_773]

Mythic Entertainment, developers of Dark Age of Camelot and the upcoming Warhammer MMORPG, have announced the indefinite delay of Imperator, a third massively-multiplayer project announced in October 2004. The futuristic game, which also integrated elements of the Roman Empire and was originally scheduled to be released in June 2006, has been put under review regarding its future at Mythic.

All Imperator staff will be moved onto existing projects, such as a new Dark Age of Camelot expansion titled Darkness Rising, as well as the just-announced Warhammer-licensed online game, being created following the cancellation of a similar project at developer Climax. However, none of the developers that were formerly on Mythic's Imperator project will be laid off.

Nonetheless, the move will not come without a slowdown to proposed expansion plans: as a result of the delay, Mythic is holding off on establishing a previously announced European office until the 2007 release of Warhammer.

Since TA Associates completed a $32 million venture capital investment in Mythic in March 2003, the largest ever granted to any independent game developer, the company, which is privately held and does not need to publically report financial results, can likely support the added financial burden that this cancellation brings.

Speaking on the reasons for the postponement, Mythic CEO Mark Jacobs said: "Our team made a tremendous effort with the game and the praise it drew at E3 and in previews reflected their skill and dedication. But in the final analysis it just wasn't great enough to be a Mythic game at this time."

Article by Nich Maragos

Romans

[chamblah]

I can understand why they are putting this game on the shelf.

Romans in space just didn't seem very appealing at all.

Re:Romans

[KDR_11k]

In corporate logic that's "We've determined that generic fantasy and generic futuristic games sell more than original ideas!".

Re:Romans

[chamblah]

Also, there's no copyright attached the ancient Roman Empire. So there's no royalties to pay to use some one else's license.

Same with the King Arthur legend that Mythic uses as the basis for DAoC.

They are free to do whatever they want with the idea. And butcher it all to heck.

Re:Romans

[Haeleth]

Romans in space just didn't seem very appealing at all.

It worked for Star Trek...

Not Good Enough?

[Drakai]

Ouch!

Ironically, when I first read the concept I thought 'this will never work'. But as I read more I found myself warming to the idea. And now it's gone :P

And the idea of a game maker declining to produce a game because it failed to meet a arbitrary standard? Interesting but frankly it sounds like a smokescreen. I think a more honest appraisal would be 'Not good enough to take customers from other MMO's which is a must to cover the operational cost of maintaining a MMO.'

I think that is the unfortunate effect of these online games is that only a Game of the Year game can be banked on. Where as single player games can be sold one shot style with a slightly lowered price for reduced (intentional or otherwise) quality games.

Re:Not Good Enough?

[thelexx]

My initial reaction to 'Ancient Romans in Space' was like yours, then I thought about how Stargate (even just the first movie) managed to pull off 'Ancient Egypt in Space' and figured that if done well it could just possibly work.

karma be damned, mythic sucks.

[sinner0423]

5 comments... just about the same amount of people who give a shit about whatever Mythic is going to develop in the future.

DAoC was a total nightmare - a monthly fee on top of paying for expansions every 3 months, and terribly unbalanced realms left users with empty wallets and a sour taste in their mouth.

Signed,

Alb/Igraine/happily seperated from that miserable game for a few years now.

Re:karma be damned, mythic sucks.

[Salus Victus]

What the heck -- let's make it six comments.

I can see you hated DAoC. In the interest of keeping the facts straight, though, there are currently 5 expansions, and the game was released three and a half years ago. That's about 9 months between expansions.

Love it or hate it, DAoC made some strides forward in the genre:
= 3-faction RvR (2-on-1 teaming against the leader)
= positional & situational combat moves
= stealth system that relied on distance
= clever magic lines, such as Bladeturn and the Theurist "one target" pets
= PvP where ability to hit an opponent was independant of level (level 20 could hit a level 50 -- although they barely did any damage)
= massive scale PvP: 150 vs. 150 was not uncommon during the first year
= a stable release. They raised the bar for Acceptable Release Day Performance.

You can focus on the negatives, of course. If that's your karma, then it's your karma. I just want to get the record straight for anyone else taking the time to read comments here.

As far as Imperator: I thought the same thing ... wierd concept. But then again, Warhammer has Elves in Space, so ... meh. A game is fun or not based on gameplay, not on realism.

Given that Warhammer has a huge existing fanbase, and everyone looks at Imperator and says, "Romans in Space? Wierd." ... it makes sense that they would shift their development efforts away from Imperator and onto Warhammer. Mythic produces a polished product, and having Mythic acquire the Warhammer Online rights is a great move for everyone.

Re:karma be damned, mythic sucks.

[EvilIdler]

Yep, DAoC is very original in the way it does its form of PvP.
Still hate those theurgist pet spammers, though ;)

The expansions didn't all cost money, either. Two expansions have
been free; the New Frontiers RvR makeover, and player housing
(which is more than fluff - easier to sell and buy stuff now).

But about Warhammer: It's Warhammer FANTASY they're focusing on,
which in itself is a very original (well-developed) world, dark
as fuck. No space, though. That's Warhammer 40000.
The game is more Warhammer tabletop RPG than miniature battles, too.

Re:karma be damned, mythic sucks.

[Albigg]

Hey, fellow Alb / Igraine alumni here too. Had a Level 50 Minstrel & Wizard there before I woke up and said. I have much better things to do with my time.

Re:karma be damned, mythic sucks.

[Jaeph]

You talk like you dated the company for crying out loud.

Seriuously, if you played a game that long while hating it, you are to blame and not the game company.

-Jeff

Re:karma be damned, mythic sucks.

[blackicye]

eh..I didn't hate DAOC, it just left a lot to be desired.

During the time, it was IMHO the best mmorpg available. Doesn't mean it was perfect, some may argue it was horrid, but thats being a bit too harsh.

It had serious issues, but also many redeeming qualities.

I like watching Albs and Mids whining about Hibs whining, especially whilst AC. Fucking hypocrites :)

Re:karma be damned, mythic sucks.

[KDR_11k]

Knowing todays gamers they'll call Warhammer a Warcraft ripoff and WH40k a Starcraft ripoff...

Replacement?

[KDR_11k]

Dunno, "future Romans" doesn't sound that much different from the human Empire in WH40k so they might have decided it's too similar to have two different projects for that.

Re:Replacement?

[FinchWorld]

Space marines, for the most part, are Romanish, Imperial guard more like Russians, not to mention alien races and Human cults.

Re:Replacement?

[faloi]

I'd much prefer a WH40K style MMORPG to a Warhammer fantasy type. But frankly, I'll take what I can get. There've only been a few decent Warhammer-universe games, and I just don't have the time to paint and haul miniatures around like I used to.

2v1 RvR combat blew

[Rhys]

I played early on in DAoC's release and you're right the 2v1 RvR definatly happened. 2 winners (albion and midgard) versus 1 loser (hibernia). I seem to recall discussions around that time that there was no class the hibernians had that wasn't surpassed by a class in one (or often both) of the other two realms.

And it didn't so much work out that either of the other pairs teamed up with hibernia to take the other down. They stayed pretty even and played beat-hibernia-to-death.

For god sakes, they had people running around in our "non-PvP" area because they'd killed their way into it.

Re:2v1 RvR combat blew

[blackicye]

I'm going to have to concur with parent.

DAOC was an unbalanced, incomplete mess at launch and up to a year after launch, with Hibernians being the victims.

Dungeons in Hibernia were itemized the last of the three realms, and classes were not balanced, even up to 6 months after launch.

I never saw two realms cooperating against the dominant realm, ever. Actually I never saw anything except Albion and Midguard picking on the easiest target, Hibernia.

I played on Hibernia Igraine for about 2 1/2 years. 50 Ranger, 50 Druid, 50 Druid (Buffbot), 50 Warden on 3 accounts.

Re:2v1 RvR combat blew

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, Hiblets crying on /. It all depends on what server you play on. Each server has an underdog and it's not always Hib. I played on MLF for years and Mids and Hibs teamed up on the Albs all the time, it was great. It couldn't have been all bad if you played for 2.5 years. The point is, no matter what game you play, people always cry that their chosen race/class is gimp and everyone else is uber, especially in a PvP oriented game.

Re:2v1 RvR combat blew

[shadowcode]

New Frontiers balanced this out a bit. The problem with the Old Frontiers is that all the action focused on a single point; EMain. And then it just came down to hard numbers, so Hibernia always lost. You can hardly blame a developer for that, the same thing happends with WoW. You can't force people to join a side they don't want to join.

New Frontiers, now, that is a different story. Usually Albion still zergs the fuck out of everything and everyone, but mids and hibs stand a lot more chance because of all the tactical advantages. Bridges, towers, if there are hibs near, they own it. I recently renewed my account again, expecting the game to be dead and boring (I just got sick of all the arti's and wtfpwn gamers, so I left 8 months ago), but it was so much fun. The last couple of weeks the hibs had captured a coastal keep + towers, so they kept teleporting in our frontier. There were skirmishes and major battles almost 18h a day (yeah, we usually don't play at 3H). I've seen a lot of fair 1vs1 fights, 1 group vs 1 group fight, I've seen 2 groups steamroll over 1 group (hey, shit happends), but I've also seen 1 group ambush a zerg of 2.5 groups and handing their asses. (tactical advantage!)

So, yeah, at least on Prydwen/EU, Hibernia seems to have recovered.

Parent wrote:

For god sakes, they had people running around in our "non-PvP" area because they'd killed their way into it.

Yeah right. That must've been in the beta days. You can't enter an enemy realm now, and in the old frontiers you would get a message stating that you need to leave that area.

About class balance; DAoC sure does a better job, whereas with WoW everyone is overpowered by default, and now they're just constantly hitting classes with the Nerfbat until nothing is left.

In DAOC you can't always win and will die every now and then, that's just a given fact. Exactly the same goes for the opposing factions. Apparently a lot of people can't stand losing. Some people end up bitching about the game on online-discussion boards, some people take a break and start playing again. Some people do both.

Crickets chirping since 2002

[white1827]

This is the earliest posting I can see on the VN board created shortly after the initial announcement of the game by Mythic. The post dates back to June of 2002. For all intents and purposes, the game has failed to garner much of a following in over three years. I think Mythic was smart to pull the plug on this one. My only beef is that they should have done this much much sooner.

Why MMORPG?

[GrassMunk]

Why MMOs? This game sounded interesting, why could they have just made a game which had a story and you play through the game. I dont understand why every damn game out there has to be an MMORPG. Maybe because im older now and dont have the time to spend 6 hours a day playing a game, but damnit im not going to pay 12 bucks a month just for right to play a game i bought. Oh Well.

Mythic's Problem

[Anonymous Coward]

Mythic's main problem is their suckage.

The market has spoken.

Warhammer Online

[Pinkoir]

Can anybody tell me why Games Workshop thinks a Warhammer massive will work when they didn't think so a year and a half ago? Also how much of the initial work done on the first Warhammer game (which sounded pretty frickin' cool to me) will be recycled in this new one? The other one was very different from other massives on the market I'm worried this new one will be a same ol' same ol' WoW knockoff.

-Pinkoir

Re:Warhammer Online

[Catnapster]

Warhammer Fantasy, the tabletop battle game between two Enormous Characters of DEATH (and some lackeys), actually seems like it would be a good setting for a WoW clone, but then again it would still be a WoW clone.

What they should do, IMHO, is make a unique MMORPG incorporating aspects of the tabletop game. The majority of the game would be similar to traditional MMORPGs, where your character goes around and grinds monsters and grabs equipment and suchlike. Players who like that could choose to do that exclusively, but they could also do it to prepare their character for the other part of the game. This would be similar to a cross between WoW's Battlegrounds and the WH Fantasy tabletop game; players would sign up for the battleground, and the server would organize the applicants into an army. Low-level characters would be grouped into regiments of troops. Mid-level characters assigned to lead the regiments and fill squads of specialists. High-level characters would make up groups of elite troops and commander retinues, and epic-level characters would fill the roles of the general, heroes, magicians and the like.

Players would be able to sign up for different scenarios, which would use different army organizations. For instance, a relatively short skirmish might merely have a regiment or two of troops and a special unit, while a large battle a la Alterac Valley would use a full army. Some scenarios would pit the army against another player army, others against a server-controlled army.

The end result of all this would be an MMORPG where players of all levels could participate in a Battlegrounds-like PVP experience. And, if the battlegrounds were made the primary method of gaining levels while the traditional aspects progressed characters' equipment, skills, magic, etc., the end result might be an MMORPG with no grind.

If it was balanced, well-executed, and most importantly reliable, it could be a direct contender to World of Warcraft.