IMG: Project Magma's maps have always boasted great attention to detail and impressive presentation. How does this apply to your port of the TFL maps to Myth II? Do the solo levels include storyteller introductions and cutscenes as in the original Myth: The Fallen Lords? Iron Duke: These were ported as-is. Most of the TFL colour maps are beautiful, and look even better in the Myth 2 engine. We saw no need to fiddle with them, although the rather bland Force 10 from Stoneheim map was tempting. The difficult parts of porting TFL solo maps to Myth 2 are the scripting and the unit/scenery placement. Doing it manually, each level would take a hard-working developer at least a month, after which he'd be a burned out wreck, and there'd be no guarantee of the conversion being exact. So to avoid this, we analyzed the structure of the TFL and M2 mesh files, which contain all the scripting and placements, and were able to write a simple program to do all this work for us. From start to end, it now only takes about 3 hours to port a level, plus additional time for testing and fixing any bugs that might have crept in. And yes, the storyteller introductions are included, as is the music. If the player owns TFL, they can place the cutscene.gor file in a folder under their Myth 2 install and the TFL cutscenes will be displayed.Also, this feels like sacrilege, but ... the TFL solos and multiplayer levels can all be played in standard Myth 2 mode as well. That's the beauty of being able to choose your prefered gameplay with the flick of a checkbox.
IMG: When is the solo level pack expected to be released?
Iron Duke: At the moment all my spare time is occupied with completing 1.4.1. Once that's out the door and I can put the code away for good, I've got another large project needing finishing touches (Blue & Grey), then I can get stuck back into the TFL solos, so... my guess is end of July. No, end of August to be safe.
IMG: What can we expect from version 1.4.1?
Iron Duke: Bug fixes. Unfortunately most projects as large and complex as 1.4 will have bugs that sneak through unnoticed until after release, and ours is no exception. 1.4.1 will be the final patch, although there's talk of a 1.5 in a year's time. I don't want to think that far ahead.
IMG: Even though Myth II 1.4 is without doubt your most popular project at this moment, it is far from being the only one. What other projects have you brought to the Myth community?
Iron Duke: Two plugins with solo levels (Ephor of Myrgard and The 7th Legion Nightfall), both building on unexamined tangents in the TFL or Myth 2 story. One made it onto Myth Worlds, which I was pretty happy about. The other is Blue & Grey that I mentioned before. Its the 3rd US Civil War plugin for Myth, but with totally different gameplay. I've been working on it for over a year now
IMG: What is the future of Project Magma? Are there any other projects in the works?
Iron Duke: We've all been way to busy with current things to discuss it. In the past, Magma made several popular variations on TFL levels such as Shadow of the Mountain, and we'll certainly be doing the same for 1.4. Beyond that I can't say.
IMG: Is there anything you would like to tell the Myth community?
Iron Duke: Sure. I'd like to see everyone who's ever played and loved this game to come back and get into it again. I'd also like to see floods of new players sweep in. I'd like to see the two servers, Playmyth.net and MariusNet, totally full of people for the next ten years. And just once in a while, I'd be really happy if someone would let me win a game of Grave LmotH :)
Project Magma's official web site can be found through the link below, in which visitors will find their latest projects along with some information on the dedicated people who, through their inhuman efforts, made it all possible. Our hat is off to them.
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