tain.totalcodex.net

Doobie wrote:for anyone interested, projectmagma's bandwidth usage has more than doubled since the announcement about gametap and the subsequent digging. Hopefully some of that traffic translates into new players

No, I just downloaded every plugin a hundred times for fun.

Apparently it's been up since Thursday (March 22). They're using 1.5.1 according to Wikipedia.

http://www.gametap.com/home/gameDetails/000228550

EDIT: Also:

“The recent release of Myth 2 on GameTap warmed many Bungie hearts,” said Harold Ryan, Studio Manager at Bungie Studios. “Now Myth 2 is going to be more accessible for contemporary gamers who will get to enjoy one of the most fun and addictive real time strategy games ever made, if we say so ourselves.”

Now we just need to get them to make account on PlayMyth and join the carnage.

EDIT: Apparently, according to the wikipedia article again, it seems that players CAN connect to metaservers, but cannot install plugins. :\

How does that work? Surely if they're using 1.5.1 then the myth executables they're distributing must be magma's, in which case how would they prevent plugins loading?

EDIT ... OMG I'm killing myself laughing here! Just followed the gametap link Myrd provided above, and as I'm not in the US or Canada I saw the following:-

We apologize but the GameTap service is currently only available in the United States and Canada. The GameTap service will be expanding into additional countries in 2007 but no release dates are available at this time.

If you are located in a country where the GameTap service is not currently available, but are interested in playing the GameTap Original title Myst Online: Uru Live, it is available to residents of certain countries. For more information about the game and the list of supported countries please visit http://www.gametap.com/mystonline.

Myst!!!!!

That's odd Iron. I _am_ in Canada, and the link goes to a Myth 2: Soulblighter page. Don't worry, it's not false advertising

What's wrong with MYST, Iron? I'm a big fan!

I followed Myrd's link too. I got a Myth 2 page. I'm in New Zealand.

WTF's going on with AUS's net connect???

-Oro

iron wrote:How does that work? Surely if they're using 1.5.1 then the myth executables they're distributing must be magma's, in which case how would they prevent plugins loading?

I'm not sure. They might be setting up an environment for it (copying stuff to a temp directory & such) when its launched from their launcher app, and removing it afterwards or something. I don't know the details, since I haven't tried this service...

Or maybe the directories are just hidden away somewhere deep inside where normal users wouldn't to look for them.

I just signed up for the service to see how it's setup. It's only 99 cents for the first month, so I'm just going to see how they install Myth, to see if we can help their clients get plugins and such. It's downloading Myth II right now (only a 185meg download - I'm guessing compressed and no cutscenes).

Sounds like a Small Install without cutscenes etc, actually.

I recently sent Gabba the full set of Tags (just the tags, no apps, no plugins.. just tags), and zipped down they came out at 300.4 mbs.

185 sounds like some mighty powerful compression system...

Oroboros wrote:I followed Myrd's link too. I got a Myth 2 page. I'm in New Zealand.

WTF's going on with AUS's net connect???

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. Click on the Play Now link (if you're outside Canada/US).

So after some experience with this GameTap thing, here are my findings:

The download process is very smooth and comfortable. Your select a category, get a visual rack of games, click on the one you want, and you can read about it, and select it to download, if you want.

While you download, you can browse other games and read information about them, or about the game you're downloading. Here some screenshots of their write ups on Myth II (seems like its their original text... they like to refer to units as 'heroes' a lot, and seems they only played Willow Creek and Tutorial from the screenshots):

http://www.projectmagma.net/~myrd/gametap1.png
http://www.projectmagma.net/~myrd/gametap2.png
http://www.projectmagma.net/~myrd/gametap3.png
http://www.projectmagma.net/~myrd/gametap4.png
http://www.projectmagma.net/~myrd/gametap5.png

After the download is done, everything else is terrible. When you launch the game, you have to wait while they show you various ads in movie format (presumably, you're downloading the encrypted app as this is happening... also note: one of the ads was a new ad they did for Myth II and III on GameTap, but since it's streaming, I can't post it here).

Once the ads are over, you can click "Play", which opens a crappy launcher:

http://www.projectmagma.net/~myrd/gametap6.png

This launcher either opens Myth II 1.5.1 if you click Play or Loathing (Bungie's old version) if you click "Editor". From this point on, everything is really buggy, and doesn't work half the time. With Myth II, I was able to get into the game, but launching any other level afterwards crashes it. Also, if I leave their "launcher" app, GameTap will say "Myth failed to exit properly... GameTap will now check its integrity" and subsequently freeze. Then, it has to be force quit, and re-started before playing again, which will go through the whole terrible process mentioned above (the downloaded data is saved though).

It seems the Myth II data files are completely encrypted, and the application runs in a wrapper that intercepts filesystem calls, and maps them to memory or encrypted data - as I couldn't find any traces of actual files used by the game. Not even a myth_log.txt. Also, it comes with a standard Myth II 1.5.1 install, so a user would have to click on "Servers..." and select PlayMyth before being able to go online. I was able to log on, but haven't tried to play online.

Obviously, since everything is encrypted, there is no 'plugins' folder to be found to install 3rd party stuff, and I am really disappointed with the overall experience of this service.

Well that sucks. One of the best things about myth is the community and the ability to make and play third party maps.

yea it does suck, but we just need to figure out how to show everyone whos trying to play myth2 on gametap that they should give up on their buggy implementation and come over to playmyth.net

Myrd: is it really 1.5.1 and not 1.3.1?

What magic users are there on willow creek?!