Corbeau posted:

A Myth III Multiplayer Survival Guide

Screwing up on camera is great entertainment, but I'm a longstanding believer in the idea that knowledge can unlock new, deeper, and even more amazing ways of cocking up spectacularly. In that spirit, with the multiplayer videos fresh in everyone's memory and anticipation of the public multiplayer event still tingling in the viewers' veins (yes, that feeling is anticipation, now go get the game already), I'd like to offer a basic guide to WTF is going on in Myth multiplayer.

Note that I won't be covering game mechanics that Guava's already talked about in the campaign videos. Things like formations, control groups, outflanking in melee combat, and height advantage for ranged units should be pretty obvious by now.

Game Types

First off, you'll want to know what the hell is up with the game types. Myth doesn't have a traditional "last man standing" gametype. There are roughly five popular gametypes - six if you add Guava's apparent tendency to pick Body Count. Here's a rundown of what you're supposed to be doing in each:

Body Count (BC) - Deal the most damage to enemy units. It doesn't matter if you die before the end of the game. As long as you've done the most damage (not kills, but damage), you win. DO NOT CAMP, but don't suicide either. You don't earn points if there's no one left to fight, but you don't earn points if you're dead. Pray that someone is stupid enough to suicide against you.

Last Man on the Hill (LMOTH) - Own the central flag when time expires. If it's contested when time expires, then the game goes into overtime. If one player owns the flag for five consecutive seconds in overtime, he wins. This mode lends itself to epic camping action if the game timer is set above ~7 minutes. Use most of the time to secure an angle on the flag and be ready to rush the flag at around 2 minutes remaining. Delay risks an anticlimax when none of the campers can show up in time.

King of the Hill (KOTH) - Occupy the central flag for the most total time. Contesting counts - if the flag is contested, then every contesting player scores time. Like Body Count, it doesn't matter if you die before the end of the game as long as you held the flag for the longest total time. Try to always be contesting the flag with something, and try to kill the contesting units of whoever is in the lead. Fast units like Ghols are great for contesting early and often.

Capture the Flag (CTF) - An elimination game: if your team doesn't at least contest one flag, then your team is instantly eliminated. If there are more than two teams surviving when time expires, then the team who controls the most flags wins. If a flag is contested when time expires, then the game goes into overtime until the dispute is resolved. ALWAYS LEAVE SOMETHING GUARDING YOUR HOME FLAG, and for the love of god spacebar it so that it doesn't get kited and leave you open to instant elimination.

Steal the Bacon (STB) - This is LMOTH with a ball instead of a flag. The ball can be bounced around by explosives, or pushed by units. Click on the ball to order your unit to push it indefinitely in a straight line. Strategy is just like LMOTH, except that you must be ready for the owner to attempt to run away with the ball as time runs out. That means you have to be closer, sooner, to the objective.

Territories (terries) - There are a bunch of flags scattered around the map, and the goal is to own the most of them when time expires. This is basically like Capture the Flag, except that there are more flags and you're not eliminated if you control zero flags. I always sucked at terries, so I have no advice. Be ready to spread out and multitask as time counts down, I guess.

Units

So you've been plunked into a game, and suddenly you're staring at a unit trading screen. There are a bunch of names and you have no clue what the hell any of them do. Don't panic! There are really only two types of unit sets on Myth maps: Light and Dark. Everything is a variation on those two themes.

Light - Light maps are built around the classic rock/paper/scissors theme, exemplified by Archers, Dwarves, and Warriors. Support units typically include Wights, Ghols, Thrall, and Journeymen. Archers beat Dwarves which beat melee which beats Archers. Other units are for tricks. Funky strategies are often funded by buying Thrall instead of Warriors. Thrall are useless offensively, but can screen your precious Archers and Dwarves from enemy melee.

Basically, you can't go wrong by buying a balance of basic melee (Warriors and/or Thrall), Archers, and Dwarves.

Dark - The balance of Dark maps rests on a similar triumvirate: massive Trow, fast and powerful melee, and an abundance of artillery. Dark maps are more prone to crazy shit goin' down due to their powerful units. Supporting units usually include some variation of slow, weak, and cheap melee unit (much like Thrall on Light maps), and inevitably includes a pack of Soulless. There are two big differences in Dark maps compared to Light maps: Soulless and melee. On Dark maps, fast melee outclasses the slow melee in actual combat. Light map Ghols are weak (they get owned by Thrall 1-on-1) but fast. Dark map Myrkridia are vicious (they kill almost anything short of Trow 1-on-1) and fast. See the difference? This makes hyper aggressive tactics much more viable, except that Soulless float. Soulless, by making use of terrain, are almost completely immune to melee units. This means that Dark maps tend to revolve around abusing terrain with Soulless and protecting your artillery units (like Dwarven Heroes, Fetch, and Pack-Mages) from assassination attempts by Trow or by small melee squads (since large melee clumps get BBQed en mass by dark map artillery). The Dark map counter system basically goes like this: Trow beat artillery which beats melee which beats Trow - and Souless dick around on hills like assholes, countering either everything or nothing.

Dark map strategy is much less clear cut than Light map strategy, since there's a greater variety. Plus I've always sucked at Dark maps. Still, it's hard to go wrong by maxing out on Soulless and Trow.

Tactics: Why I'm a Scrub

If you watched the multiplayer videos, you might have noticed that I did exactly the same thing every single time. I bought a ton of melee and ranged units, but bought zero artillery units. Artillery units, those being Dwarves, Fetch, etc., are very expensive and very fragile. A Dwarf costs as much as three Warriors, but has only a fraction of the durability of a single Warrior. They have the potential to cause incredible damage, but only if they're kept alive.

Basic multiplayer tactics all revolve around artillery. Either you're trying to keep your artillery alive long enough to pay for itself, or you're trying to deny the value of the enemy artillery. My strategy is simple: don't buy artillery, use ranged units to kill enemy artillery, and then out-muscle everything with melee using the points I saved by not buying any artillery. This has the immense benefit that I don't have to be good at the game: I have no particular vulnerability that can be crushed by a moment of inattention. Unfortunately for me, my strategy totally crumbles against an attentive opponent who abuses terrain to keep his artillery alive.

On Light maps, tactics are pretty simple: Dwarves can be killed by Archers on even ground, and Dwarves can be assassinated by Ghols or occasionally Warriors. Keep Dwarves on high ground, keep them away from enemy Archers, and make sure they're screened from assassins by your melee units. Use Dwarves to abuse the hell out of any height advantages you can get and prevent the enemy from using his melee units against you. Choke points are critical - on completely open ground, a massive melee force can often minimize artillery damage without compromising their larger front in melee. Don't skimp too much on Archers if you buy Dwarves - you'll need some way of fighting back against enemy Archers. If you can make the enemy pay more than 3 Warriors worth of units to kill your Dwarf, then you've come out ahead.

On Dark maps, things are slightly different. Dark map artillery is usually more powerful than Light map artillery (such as getting Dwarven Heroes instead of basic Dwarves). Since Soulless are equal to Archers aside from their floating power (weaker, actually, since they lack fire arrows), Dark map artillery tends to beat Soulless on even ground. In fact, artillery can basically do whatever the fuck it wants as long as it doesn't get assassinated by a Trow. Keep a thick wall of melee between your artillery and any enemy Trow, and fry enemy melee en mass at crunch time.

The trick to all of these tactics is that they rely on abusing terrain when the opponent is forced to attack you. That's where the strategy in Myth comes into play, and why there are so many different multiplayer game types. This is why knowing the game type matters: the only way that you can force an opponent to walk into your terrain advantage is to abuse the game type. That's why Myth multiplayer is both deep and rewarding (and why Body Count is a terrible game type, since it has no map objective).

Now go out there and screw it all up in new and exciting ways!