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Role Playing (Games)

Imperator MMOG On Hold 29

Posted by Zonk from the sorry-lum dept.
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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Imperator MMOG On Hold More

Imperator MMOG On Hold

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  • Article Text (ICOS) (Score:2, Informative)

    by iced_773 ( 857608 )

    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

  • Romans (Score:3, Insightful)

    by chamblah ( 774997 ) on Thursday July 14, 2005 @11:41AM (#13063462)
    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 (Score:2, Insightful)

      by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
      In corporate logic that's "We've determined that generic fantasy and generic futuristic games sell more than original ideas!".
      • 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 (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Haeleth ( 414428 )
      Romans in space just didn't seem very appealing at all.

      It worked for Star Trek [wikipedia.org]...

  • Not Good Enough? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Drakai ( 828042 )
    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 unfortunat
    • 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.
  • 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. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Salus Victus ( 801649 ) on Thursday July 14, 2005 @12:46PM (#13064123) Homepage
      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 [darkageofcamelot.com], 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.
      • 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 tablet

      • 2v1 RvR combat blew (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Rhys ( 96510 )
        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
        • 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 Ran

          • Re:2v1 RvR combat blew (Score:1, Informative)

            by 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.

        • 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

    • 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.
    • 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
      • 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 :)

  • 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.
    • Space marines, for the most part, are Romanish, Imperial guard more like Russians, not to mention alien races and Human cults.
    • 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.
  • This [ign.com] 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 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 (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Mythic's main problem is their suckage.

    The market has spoken.

  • 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
    • 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 e

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