Mythos EU Is No More (Finally)

The time has come, at last, for Mythos Europe to bite the dust. The servers were closed earlier today, and the forums will die off tomorrow (28 Oct 2011). Many of us knew this was coming; some vocalized it more than others.

To those of you who made it a fun run: Thanks!

What to do now?!
It seems a few EU players are migrating over to the Russian server, run by Belver. The site can be found here. I recommend using Chrome for easy translation. Their version is reported to be slightly different from what Frogster was running. I can only assume that to be a good thing.

If anyone wants to play a good, free hack-and-slash ARPG, check out Path of Exile. This new game is the polar opposite of what Mythos turned into. The devs listen to all feedback, and take the time to respond in person. The game follows in the footsteps of great ARPG's like Diablo/D2 and Titan Quest, with a few unique systems tossed in such as itemized skills and coin-less, consumable currency. The graphics are realistic and gritty, not cartoonish and bright. It's probably one of the best-looking F2P titles you'll find. The devs plan on having around 100 skills and 1,000 passives by the time the game is released. There are 6 classes, although skills, passives, and items aren't restricted by class. It's entirely free to play, and the cash shop will only sell cosmetic and aesthetic items. You won't be forced to pay to win, or even tempted to pay for a slight advantage. It's currently in closed beta, but anyone who registers an account can be invited. The game should go open beta (soft release) in January. I have a clan going here, and anyone is welcome to join, beta member or not.

Mythos Point Hits 5,000 Views

Today, this meager blog had its five-thousandth visit. There have been hits from the US, Germany, the UK, Poland, France, Italy, Romania, Spain, Belgium, Croatia, Hungary, Taiwan, Latvia, Bulgaria, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, and China. Not a bad achievement, considering how small the blog is and how active the game's community is.

I hope everyone found something useful here.

Free Crafting Materials

As I no longer play Mythos, I feel I should give away my crafting mat stockpiles. Just post here with your character name and what you want, and I'll try to send it to you if I have it.

I have a little bit of everything, but it varies based on level. Please don't ask for anything tier 9 or 10. No Flasks, Animas, or Aethers.

Please, don't ask for any type of item other than mats. All of my good items, including skill recipes, level 48+ gear, gems, and all other high-level goods were all on my main account, which was banned.

 If you're in the Mythos guild, you get a special bonus!

What REALLY Ruined Mythos

The obvious reasons for the failure of Frogster's Mythos release aren't even Frogster's fault. Lack of development, lack of updates, lack of technical support, and ignoring the community's input can all be blamed on Hanbit. The only things we can blame on Frogster are the lack of news and a poorly-moderated forum. I find it unfortunate that I spent so much time and effort helping people and trying to improve the Mythos community. Now I'm on the other side of the fence: I love what the game should have been, but am totally lost for a reason to play it in the current state. Hanbit and Frogster need to reorder priorities and fix major game mechanics before I'll play again.

With that said, here is a non-comprehensive list of conditions and events that brought about the current decline in players' give-a-shit about Mythos:

• Beta testing did not implement any useful changes. It only had one major patch for months of testing.
• No bug reporting system, other than the public forum.
• Beta testing limited players to around the first half of the game.
• Translations: incomplete and incomprehensible. An American game turned Korean, then German/English.
• No manual for playing the game, other than a poor introduction area and simply reading the controls menu.
• No online database, other than a poorly-updated German fansite (mostly community's fault).
• The developers decided to push an update almost immediately before release that entirely changed the combat mechanics of the game. No player testing was involved. This update also restructured the experience-to-level curve, drawing out the leveling process into a sort of horrid bell-curve that went from fast/easy to slow/grind, then back to fast/easy at later levels.
• Crafting is always a few levels behind the areas that drop the required materials. Many crafting options don't work correctly. Chance to successfully craft useful items is very low.
• Level requirements were added to items.
• Item drops were changed drastically upon release. Available properties were changed, many completely removed. Max properties and sockets were lowered. Numerous "useless" items are still available (bows, crossbows, pistols, spears).
• Chance to add sockets is extremely low, and doesn't vary based on items' level or quality.
• The community was split into language-specific servers, and these servers were further split into town instances and chat channels. Players have no way of switching chat channels.
• Early item shop transactions took up to two weeks to process.
• At release, there was an obvious glitch that allowed a player to "dupe" stackable items. Having a full stack and a partial stack, one could simply sell and buy back the full stack to create two full stacks. Therefore, 20+1 potions would become 20+20 potions. 101 of the same crafting material could turn into an infinite supply. Worst of all, 101 Runestone Powders could quickly become in infinite supply of Magical Runestone Crests. Players were duping items to sell for gold, and using this gold for everything from enchanting high-value items to ranking up guilds. To combat this exploit, Hanbit and Frogster did... nothing. (I only know of one player to get banned for abusing this glitch, and I got banned for sharing his IP. The abuser only got banned because he went to the forums to brag and flame the developers. That's one legitimate ban, out of dozens of players who exploited the glitch).
• Numerous bugs and glitches that were reported months ago in the beta testing still haven't been fixed. Most reported since aren't fixed, either.
• The developers seem aimed at adding content and features, instead of fixing the multitude of broken features and mechanics.

Overall, the game has had more negative changes than positive.

Guild Safe Exploit

Back in April, I made a post warning guild members to avoid depositing into the Guild Safe until the money was ready to be used. Here's why:

The developers have yet to fix a bug I reported back in the closed beta test that allows any guild member, regardless of permission, to withdraw from the Guild Safe. It's yet another glaringly obvious bug that is simple to exploit. When a guild member without Withdraw permission clicks on the Guild Safe tab, the "Withdraw" button is visible for a very short time before disappearing. All one has to do is click it before it goes away, and withdraw the guild's savings.

The fix is to run the permissions check before displaying the guild panel, not when opening the Safe tab. This easily-exploitable glitch is yet another that appears low in the priority list for fixing. In order to raise its priority, I suggest people exploit the hell out of this glitch. Maybe enough honest guild leaders and members will make enough noise to get it fixed.

T3 needs to step up their efforts to fix the content that exists, instead of trying to appease the portion of the community that's begging for PvP and level-cap adjustments. If they had done this up to this point, they wouldn't have a failing game that has been losing its audience since release.

MrLo's Skill Gem Info

Since the good folk over at Frogster decided to delete an informative post for no fair reason (and ban the posters), I've decided to post MrLo's information here. There is no reason this info should be banned from the public eye. It is simply data on items in the game that would be discovered eventually. It was found in the game, not by digging through files or anything of that sort. Obviously, there was some cheating involved to get the required items, but Frogster/Hanbit did nothing about the slew of players who exploited the glitch that allowed these items to be made. Only now, when MrLo brings his discovery to light, is anything done (and only to the people who shared info).

These are the skill gems that MrLo made. Each gem requires the proper recipe and four Magical Runestone Crests. Most of the gems have the same name as the corresponding recipe. You can only receive five extra points per skill.

Gadgeteer (Recipes: Blueprints)

8 Gems

Bloodletter (Recipes: Parchments)

9 Gems

Pyromancer (Recipes: Scrolls)

10 Gems

Here's a list of the gems shown above, along with the skill recipes that create them:


Scrolls
Fire Flower Embroidered Scroll          Fire Flower Embroidery
Blackened Embroidered Scroll            Blackened Embroidery
Burning Lava Scroll                             Burning Lava Embroidery
Scarlet Embroidered Scroll                  Scarlet Embroidery
Burning Flame Scroll                           Burning Flame Embroidery
Red Sun Scroll                                    Red Sun Embroidery
Flame Pattern Scroll                            Flame Pattern Embroidery
Wild Dragon Embroidered Scroll        Wild Dragon Embroidery
Burning Golden Embroidered Scroll    Burning Golden Embroidery
?                                                        ?

Parchments
Warrior's Parchment                          Warrior's Black Pearl
Abysmal Parchment                           Abysmal Sapphire
Grey Parchment                                 Grey Opal
Bloody Parchment                             Bloody Ruby
Judgement Parchment                        Judgement Diamond
Frozen Parchment                             Frozen Topaz
Screaming Parchment                        Screaming Amethyst
Explosion Parchment                         Explosion Lightning Stone
Forgetful Parchment                          Forgetful Topaz

Blueprints
?                                                            Battlefield of Blindness
High-Pressure Piston Blueprint               High-Pressure Piston
Lightning Screw Blueprint                       Lightning Screw
Electrocuted Brainwave Bulb Blueprint   Electrocuted Brainwave Bulb
Anger Management Valve Blueprint       Anger Management Valve
Lightning Driver Blueprint                       Lightning Driver
Tightening Chain Blueprint                      Tightening Chain
Driving Wheel Blueprint                         Driving Wheel

If anyone has managed to make any of the gems missing from this list, please let me know and I'll add them.

Update: Added text list of recipes and the gems they create.

Update 2: Today, July 12, a new community manager for the forums "announced" the "new" skill gem system. Good thing we beat them to it by over a month. This post has had over 300 unique page views, which is probably more than the official forums are getting these days.

Banned from Mythos!

I am fully disappointed with the way the Frogster/Hanbit teams handle accounts.

Today I attempted to visit the forum, only to receive a message stating my account  has been banned. There was no explanation, so I started talking to my friends, and I think I have it figured out.

I share my wireless network with a handful of neighbors, and I got a few of them playing Mythos. One of them recently started posting on the forum as MrLo, and alternate account. He put up two threads: one detailing the early release client's stack duping glitch, and another showing screenshots of his extensive skill gem collection, which was made possible by duping Magical Runestone Crests. Both of these threads have now been deleted, and he is also banned. It seems Frogster doesn't want the community to know about glitches they knowingly released into the game, or about content that exists in the game and is meant to be used!


I tried to think of why I got banned along with him (he was an admitted cheater in one of his threads). Besides myself, MrLo is the only one out of the six people sharing my router's IP who got banned, so they didn't do a full IP ban or even a comprehensive check in that area. The only other thing we have in common is that I also posted in both of his threads. I have information about both of the topics, so I was able to share this information. I believe they assumed myself (WhiteBoy88) and MrLo are the same person, using two accounts. I also find this very insulting, if it's true. As an experienced vBulletin forum admin, I know that you can look up a user's registration IP, as well as every IP he's posted from. I would not be dumb enough to use the same IP on different accounts. It's far too easy to use a proxy. Obviously, everyone who uses my wireless router all have the same external IP: my cable modem's.

I reported the stack-duping glitch to Arkathos, so I obviously know about it, how it works, and when it was patched. I did not exploit the glitch, and there is no reason I should be banned for it.

I  have a few skill gems, but I'm not the only person who does, so that shouldn't cause a ban. I made mine legitimately, from long hours spent farming. Myself and a few other players put a lot of effort into discovering the secrets of skill gems, only to see that MrLo had duped up enough crests to make almost every gem in the game. I was very surprised and proud when I found out I had one of the few gems the cheater didn't have. I won't mention the names of those I worked with to make the gems, out of fear they will be banned as well. We spent a lot of time farming powders, pieces, and crests to upgrade. We also spent our gold buying them from other players. I had the intention of using the information we gathered to share the knowledge with the community (people might have noticed that I do this... a lot).

I've talked to MrLo, who also expressed astonishment that I was banned. He knew it could happen to his main account, hence the use of  the MrLo alt. What he apparently didn't foresee happening was the assumption that I was his main account. His main didn't even get banned, and it's loaded with duped items and gold!

So, Frogster and Hanbit... I'm disappointed, and will no longer be attempting to play Mythos Europe unless my account ban is lifted. This isn't just a ban against me, but a ban against the spread of information. I was one of the most helpful people on the English forum. I spent hours of my personal time helping others (take my achievement list as an example). I was in the process of creating a fan wiki and data center, containing information that is constantly requested on the forum.

I'm sure I can find another free game to play...