Part 6: Game Mechanics

Game Controls and Mechanics

Here's a few more details for anyone who wants more grounding in the controls/mechanics before the missions start. If you really want to dig in, the game manual and strategy guide are downloadable from the TFL section of The Tain (if that site is down you can get them from here and here). Strategy guide has spoilers of course. N.B. The strategy guide may be one of those written-from-prerelease-code deals; it says odd things from time to time.

Notes for folks playing Myth 2 in "TFL Gameplay" mode: the default controls for mouse movement and formations/facing will be different than in Myth:TFL, but they are also very configurable. I think I'm just going to stick to describing the TFL controls below. As far as unit commands and behavior are concerned, those should be the same as in TFL.

Camera control

The controls for your POV allow you to pan, turn, or orbit about your focus point, both by using keys and also by mousing to the screen edges. You can zoom in and out as well. The "pitch" of your POV is not under your control; it changes somewhat with zoom level but otherwise remains fixed.

You can jump your POV directly to a new location by clicking on the overhead map. There's also a command to jump your POV directly to a selected unit group.

Unit selection

Myth has standard mouse controls that allow you to select an individual unit, a group of units, all nearby units of the same type, or all units visible on the screen.

You can create and use presets too. This is quite important but the Myth approach to this is a little wonky, as you use the same modifer key for both creating (hold down Alt+number) and selecting (quickly press Alt+number). Fortunately you get used to it, and since you're not often receiving new units you generally only have to do preset creation at the start of a map/level.

Unit movement

Move selected units to a location by left-clicking the ground (not the overhead map). You can shift-click to designate waypoints (including the ability to create a patrol loop). If you have multiple units selected, you can control how they "form up" at their destination by pressing a formation number before clicking. If you have a formation selected, then you can "gesture flick" when clicking at the destination to pick the formation's facing. (More about formations later, after the first mission.)

A lesser-known fact, not mentioned in the original Myth manual, is that you can use right-click-and-drag to choose the facing of a single unit. This only works if you have "right click is deselect" in your preferences, and doesn't work if you have multiple units selected. The Myth manual PDF found in the Total Codex collection indicates that there should be a right-click-and-drag control scheme usable as an alternative to "normal" gesture flicking, but it doesn't appear to actually work when you have multiple units selected.

You can also command selected units to scatter apart, or command them to keep running from enemy units.

Combat

Attack by selecting your units and left-clicking on enemies. If you have a melee group selected and you click on an enemy unit, your melee units will each pick a target of that type in the vicinity of the one you clicked on. Ranged units on the other hand will all attack the single unit you clicked on, until it is dead or you give other orders. You can also attack a particular location with ranged units by control-clicking on the ground.

Note that ranged units have a minimum attack distance, so they may have to move away from their target before they can attack.

Left to their own devices, your units will attack and chase any enemy units they perceive. This is the default "stance". Units can see enemy units in front of them, and can perceive enemy units at shorter ranges behind them. Units can also be alerted by nearby friendly units perceiving an enemy.

You can put selected units into a Guard stance so that they will attack enemies that come within range, but they will not move. There is also a more severe Stop stance that will prevent them from attacking unless attacked first. Non-default stances are cancelled if you give any command to the units.

Veterancy

The more kills a unit gets, the faster and more accurately it attacks. Ranged units also get a small boost to the velocity of their missiles, which gives additional accuracy and may (for some unit types) also provide a range increase.

In the campaign, and optionally (but rarely used) in competitive multiplayer, surviving units carry over to the next map if there is a unit of the same type available on that next map. Units that carry over to the new map keep their veteran status and are very nice to have.

Special actions

Some units can be commanded to perform a special action. This varies from unit to unit, and may require "ammunition" and/or require you to select a target for the action. If the unit doesn't have a special action, they will execute their "taunt" animation.

Goals

In the campaign, each mission usually has a goal that is some variant on defeat, defend from, and/or escape the enemy units. Competitive multiplayer has lots of possible game modes that I will describe later.