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ACCESSIBILITY
Interface improvements. According to users, the area of Myth most in need of improvement was the interface. We’ve added tons of improvements to get users onto the learning curve and make the game fun and accessible for everyone. It’s a big list of improvements, and both new users and die-hard Myth fans are really going to appreciate them:

•Our #1 goal was that users could optionally play with only the mouse. We’ve added the ability to turn and orbit the camera when the mouse is placed in the corners of the screen.
•We added a control bar at the bottom of the screen which makes commonly-used features more accessible. Just like the status bar, the control bar may be hidden.
•When you pass the mouse over characters, they dimly light-up, showing the unit’s health and spell points.
•You can use the right mouse button (Mac users can option-click) on the overhead map to give movement orders to units. If you hold down shift as you click, you can give waypoints to units.
•You can use the left and right arrow keys to quickly rotate selected groups of units; you can even rotate the final orientation of units which are on the move. This makes the dreaded gesture click to orient units unnecessary.
•To turn a group of units around, you can simply click on your selected units with the left mouse button and drag in the desired direction. As you drag, you’ll see arrows at the feet of each character, indicating the direction they will face. No more gesture clicking!
•Users can hit F9 to toggle in netgames between friend/foe and team specific colors for blips on the overhead map.
•Players are clearly presented with mission objectives when they start a map, and are shown new mission objectives if they change during a level.
•In netgames or netgame replays, you can also press the up arrow key to view the last ten chat messages, in case you missed them.
•Users can slow the game down to half-speed if they’re getting overwhelmed.

BUNGIE.NET 2.0
The enhanced bungie.net introduces many conveniences for users, including game and player searching, separate Leader Boards and ranking systems for single-players and Myth Orders, preferred game type settings for easy location of your chosen game type and more.

Multiplayer play between languages and versions means that a German playing the bloodless version will be able to play a Japanese player with gore enabled.

Faster level load times. The level load process has been greatly optimized, and levels now load nearly twice as fast as they did before.
Better underlying file system. Our new file system is far more extensible than the file system for Myth I. It will allow users to easily create plug-in files which contain new scenarios or changes to existing game parameters. These plug-in files can be downloaded over the net and used for netgames. Combined with the release of our powerful tools for Myth II, you can expect people to be playing Myth II:Soulblighter for a long time.

GAMEPLAY
Indoor environments. Not only will you battle upon blood-soaked plains, but you’ll also duke it out inside buildings. You get a cut-away (ceiling removed) view of gorgeous interiors. Blood stains the walls, flickering candelabras light the rooms, limbs can bounce off the walls and ceiling and come to rest on tables. Fighting indoors requires completely different tactics than outdoors, and will provide lots of interesting gameplay.

Improved unit AI and pathfinding. All these changes to the environment required improvements and a complete overhaul of unit AI and pathfinding. Players of Myth I constantly complained of friendly firecasualties and units that could kill themsleves. These problems have all been addressed, and Myth I fans will find their units to be much more intelligent.

Players also complained that while Myth I emphasized the use of formations, the units sometimes couldn’t form up properly. In Myth II, we’ve introduced the concept of personal space to the units. This allows friendly units to squeeze by one another to quickly reach their position in a formation, and it also allows users to move one line of units smoothly through another. In addition, units also remember what kind of formation they were in, and always prefer to form up. This means that the novice user will be able to select all their units, click on the landscape, and the selected units will organize themselves nicely. Using formations is absolutely necessary for mastery of Myth II and we’ve made it easier than ever to do so.

Animating, polygonal models. Myth I fans consistently asked for fighting inside towns and upon fortifications. There are polygonal models everywhere in Myth II, and the model code was dramatically accelerated to allow fighting indoors and outdoors in urban environments. The model code was also completely rewritten to allow animating 3D models, like windmills, swinging gates, and drawbridges. These models cast smoothly blurred moving shadows and reflect nicely in the water… everything you’d expect from a realistic environment. These animating models aren’t just eye candy; you’ll battle your way to the base of a large keep only to have the defenders raise the drawbridge and prepare for your attack.

3D fire. Tons of players requested 3D particle-based fire in Myth II, and they’re going to get it. Archers now have the special ability to shoot a flaming arrow. The flames spread over different terrain types at different rates, and units are smart enough to run from the fire when it spreads close to them, and they do not try to find paths through the fire. Flaming arrows are great for holding off an oncoming enemy or setting off explosives from afar.

Magic. Myth II will feature new magic units. Spell-casting units display a blue spell point bar above their character, and the various spells cost differing amounts of spell points. So far, we’ve got spells which create a guided explosive fireball, summon a 3D poisonous cloud, and confuse a nearby target unit. More ideas for spells are in the works.

Multiplayer. Making and breaking alliances within multiplayer games is now possible. If, during a multiplayer game, two players decide to form an alliance against the others, their units will cooperate for mutual defense (alliances can also be broken). More dynamic multiplayer maps will allow NPCs to attack multiplayers, reinforcements to arrive, and let NPCs play a part in achieving victory conditions.

Anything can do damage and take damage. The game object code was also rewritten so that virtually any object in a game can do damage and take damage. This means that, yes, you can destroy trees and other scenery items. You can also set the susceptibility of all objects to different kinds of damage. Want the stone pillar which can only be destroyed by explosions? You can do it. Obviously, there’s gameplay considerations here which may prevent us from showing off these features, but the engine does support it and I’m sure 3rd party maps will take advantage of this.

IMMERSIVENESS
Doubled animations. All units are rendered at twice the number of frames as the units in Myth I. Myth II also supports multiple animations for attacks, so furious melees will look even more impressive. Units also support separate taunting and celebration animations.

Better reflections and water effects. The water undulates realistically in Myth II, as do the reflections for all objects and polygonal models. Also, the clipping of reflections along the coastlines (a noticeable problem in Myth 1) has been greatly improved. In larger bodies of water, you’ll see fish periodically jumping.

Finer terrain mesh. The landscape in Myth II is 4 times as fine as the landscape in Myth I. The polygonal mesh is so detailed that you’ll be able to see the ruts in roads and furrows in plowed fields. The detailed landscape allows our artists to create even more interesting and varied landscapes than in Myth I. You’ll maneuver troops over grand vistas, including smoothly rolling hills and sharp cliffs.

Ambient life. I always thought the battlefields of Myth I were rather empty and bleak. To correct this, the environments of Myth II feature ambient life like chickens, flying birds, and fish. We’re planning on adding more interesting creatures in the near future, including some (including wolves) which can attack straggling members of your army. It’s a jungle out there…
Improved lighting model. The shadows upon the landscape are cast even more accurately in Myth II and, with the detailed new landscapes, they look great. Torches and flames can cast colored lighting on the ground, and you can expect to see some nighttime missions.

Variable media (water) elevations. In Myth I, the water was stuck at a fixed height. In Myth II, we can set the height of the water arbitrarily. This means you’ll see beautiful waterfalls and dams.

Improved sound code. The sound code for Myth was completely rewritten to allow for a number of improvements. First, Myth II features a 3D audio environment so realistic that you can close your eyes and maneuver around the battlefield blind. We support a wide variety of sound cards, including Creative Labs’ Environmental Audio Extensions and Aureal Semiconductor’s A3D technology. On certain Creative Labs cards, users will be able to hear realistic reverb and echo in indoor environments. Our background ambient sounds (which were mono in Myth I) are stereo in Myth II and create a "wide" audio environment. Users will be able to take Myth II out of the box, hook it up to quadraphonic speaker systems and get an amazing surround sound experience.

The Myth II code base also supports playback of Redbook CD audio. Our audio team is planning on adding subtle context-sensitive musical scores. Unlike some games that overload the user with blaring musical overtures, we want the music in Myth II to be unobtrusive, like a good movie soundtrack.

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