Myth of Soma

The Myth of Soma is a sprite-based isometric 3-D massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Korean-based Comnjoy. It was originally released in Korea, and Europe (with specific audiences being Italy and the United Kingdom). The European release published by Digital Bros and Game Network Online Srl for beta testing on February 8, 2002 following a successful release in Korea by Comnjoy in 2000 and saw two expansions in its lifetime, one which added the 'Devil' World and one which merged the two worlds together. A third expansion was released in Korea where users could play as Monsters, known as 'Monster World' but this was never released in the European version.
After 7 years online with an attentive fanbase, Myth of Soma closed its doors to the European market on March 31, 2009 along with The Legend of Mir 2 and The Legend of Mir 3, another two games which were published by the now deceased Game Network/GNOnline. Many of the game's fanbase will directly attribute this to the lack of attention, care and willingness to support these games by Game Network and Digital Bros, stating that even though development and support had ceased directly from the developers, that it was possible to maintain the games, userbase and more just by simply taking care to add their own small content.
Game Network stated that they simply did not have the tools to do so and blamed this for the demise of the game, but the active private-server development community have shown this to be false as the game has been kept alive since then by dedicated fans who run their own private versions of the game for others to play.
Whilst being moderately successful in Europe, it has been incredibly well received in Asia and has been one of the most popular in its genre in Korea, with tens of thousands of players online at any one time.
About
Game information
The Myth of Soma is a traditional isometric MMORPG with the ability to immerse you from the moment you set foot in the Town of The Thousand Year Old Tree (also known as Thousand Year Town). The game gives you, the player, a choice to take sides with the Human World or the Devil World in their constant war and struggle to maintain ownership of the Continental Army Area.
With hundreds of quests available, you can hunt with your friends, your guild or train alone, discovering treasures and riches from all over the various lands available for hunting, gathering and more.
The Myth Of Soma allows you and your guild to fight side by side in Guild Wars and vie for control of various territories located throughout the world of Soma.
Not a fan of hunting and grinding? Some offers many of other ways to earn your keep in the local villages. Become a master artisan, crafting some of the finest armours and weapons in the land, gather materials and goods and sell them to earn your riches or just loiter around the storage house and chat to the locals.
Story
As taken from the now-defunct Game Network website, outlining the plot and background story from the game. Its entirety to be considered as sic:
There was a time when Human, Heaven and Monster worlds co-existed peacefully. This peace was broken when the Monster world leader, Macheonru, tried to conquer the other two, starting “the Great War”, a global conflict between these worlds. The War was about to be won by Macheonru, but the glorious hero King Pacheon, thanks to the power of his sword, the Lion Sword, eventually brought the final victory to the Heaven World. After the end of this cruel war, King Pacheon , decided to shatter the powerful sword that allowed him to defeat the Monster world into 4 pieces. Each piece was sent in a different locations:. one piece was buried in the Heaven-world while another one was buried at Budran, in the Human World. The location of the other two pieces was kept secret. Even if the war was ended, the minions of Macheonru were continually trying to cause havoc in the other two worlds. Chungyong , the Great Lord and king of the Human world soon understood that facing them alone would have been impossible. He first went to Chungoong to steal Heaven Lord’s Holy Sword. Then he searched for someone worth to wield it. Amongst thousands of warriors, he chose Soma.
Soma fought bravely against the Monster world with the power and talent of the Holy Sword and the help of the friends he made during the numerous battles: General Dong, one of the generals of Chungoong, Ninjatoong the thief, Chuldoo and Ryu Hadeung, who also was a childhood friend. Together they defeated many powerful enemies such as Gugumajae, Barurugo and Wolyohon. In the final battle, fought at Budran (where a piece of the Lion Sword was buried), they fought bravely, killing thousands of enemies and also killing Macheonru by offering their own lives. When the battle was over, the bodies of the five mythological heroes were not recovered so their death and their story become a legend.
One year after the bloody battle of Budran, the followers of Macheonru gathered again their forces and started to threaten the Human world: they were trying to obtain the control of all the three worlds starting from the domination of the Human one. Another long war was going to start. By that time, the human world was divided into two large parts, Western and Eastern. . Some cities in the Western part sweared loyalty to monster-world, while other fought for their indipendence. In the Eastern part of the continent, people gathered together under the control of General Lion Kahn with the name of “Continental Alliance Army” looking for peace, and trying to stop the brutality of the Monster world and their allies.
The Continental Army still exists and still continues its struggle against the powers of the Monster world: small- and large-scale battles still take place sometimes. There was another small army in the Human world, formed by mercenaries, who fought against Monster world. Due to lack of success in their battles and high number of casualties, they disbanded and formed a wandering group of thieves under the command of a man called Mangjong. Amongst them, many were worshipping Soma and his friends. Soma was, and still is, called “King of Thieves”. Their faith in them is very strong. They eventually settled into an island called Wow Island but the rest of the Human world considered them wicked ones and called them ‘Evils of Wow Island”. Those mercenary do not have any concept of good or bad and miss any kind of relationship with all the other powers of the Human world.
A prophecy said that another hero such as Soma that would have brought a durable peace. He or she would have born in Soma’s hometown, Thousand Years Tree Town. This is the city where the story of your own hero starts...
Gameplay
Myth of Soma is well regarded as a welcoming game for new players to the genre, allowing literally anyone to assume a role from the start whether it be mage, warrior, crafter or 'battlemage'. Although the game itself plays like most other point-and-click isometric MMORPGs, there are a number of intricacies that make the game stand out from the crowd.
Skills and attribute system
Character attributes
Like other online games, character progression is in the form of level but also in 'Stats' or 'Attributes'. This unique system enables every single character to be unique down to a minor attribute point or skill point, and was one of the reasons contributing to the success of the game. Myth of Soma's deep and intricate stat system is not only rewarding but addictive and was a major factor in the game's success.
Players can train a variety of statistics which are outlined below:
* STR or 'Strength' - this is the main attribute which determines your characters offense and defense and is trained efficiently using an axe or sword
* DEX or 'Dexterity' - this is the attribute which governs your characters ability to dodge attacks and determine your accuracy for landing blows, and is trained most efficiently with a bow or knuckle weapon
* INT or 'Intelligence' - the attribute which determines your magic defense and magic attack, and is increased by using spells
* WIS or 'Wisdom' - this determines the size of your mana pool and how much MP (mana points) you gain on level up, and is increased alongside your intelligence (although at a much slower rate)
* CHA or 'Charisma' - a statistic that is used in guilds, and increased by fighting in parties with other players. This had the possibility of opening up team buff skills, based on charisma but this was never implemented.
* CON or 'Constitution' - this statistic governs the amount of HP (hit points) that your character gains upon levelling up and is increased by bare-hand combat with monsters.
These statistics were all increased through simply 'hitting' or 'attacking' the enemies that the players faced, with the inclusion of experience points for killing the monster and would increase on a variety of factors - monster level, monster attributes (strength, dexterity etc.), weapon type and the speed at which these attributes would increase would be directly proportionate to the damage inflicted.
Depending on how characters are developed they will also develop various weaknesses and strengths, similar to the 'Holy Trinity' of RPG archetypes such as mages having low health and weak defense, warriors having high health but extremely low magic resistance and archers having low damage but high accuracy. But the deep stat progression system in The Myth of Soma has allowed for weaknesses to be balanced out or removed completely
Characters can train all of these attributes as they please, throughout their game career and this is what truly produces 'unique' characters. Every time a character progresses a level, their health and magic is not only determined by their respective CON and WIS attributes but also by what statistic they have been primarily increasing during that character level. Ideally this was to curb maximum health point gains where a character has been primarily training their intelligence attribute and vice versa where a character has been primarily training their strength attribute, they would not receive a maximum mana point gain. But, fortunately (for the players) they had managed to find ways to maximise their health point and mana point gains by various means of exploiting the games complicated attribute system.
Players could now create characters with both high HP and high MP with some users even creating character 'walkthroughs' and guides similar to those for games such as Diablo and Diablo 2 for creating the 'perfect character' which is extremely unusual for an MMORPG. These characters sometimes took months to perfect and older players who had already reach a high level found it hard to compete with these new 'super characters', as these characters would have much higher combinations of the main attributes than someone playing normally.
Weapon skill system
Myth of Soma features 6 weapons to choose from, each which directly affects specific character statistics. Every weapon in the game gains 'Skill Points' during the time it is used and is directly increased by simply hitting enemies with the weapons, save for one which involves magic being used.
Outlined here are the weapons that were in use in the game as well as the attributes they primarily increase -
* Axe - primarily increases the users STR attribute the greatest, and the DEX attribute the lowest. Axes have the highest attack but slowest attack speed
* Sword - increases the users STR attribute less so than the axe, but increases the DEX attribute moreso. Swords have an average attack power and moderate attack speed
* Staff - does not increase any primary statistic as it is not used to hit an enemy, but magic attack bonuses help to increase the intelligence attribute
* Spear - increases the strength attribute largely with minor increases to dexterity and allows the user to attack from two spaces away instead of one. Has a moderately high attack power but is relatively slow
* Knuckle - increases the dexterity attribute greatly but provides low gain to strength. Knuckle weapons have the highest attack speed but the lowest attack power.
* Bow - primarily increases the dexterity attribute but provides little gain to strength. Bows have moderate attack and moderate speed, and can attack from a distance.
Each weapon in the game has a 'skill' and 'stat' requirement to use instead of a level cap, meaning that dedicated progression can allow lower level characters access to better weapons.
Once characters had reached various skill levels, weapon skills known as 'auras' were available to learn that would provide various bonuses with all weapons 'first aura' (with the exception of staff at 15.0) being at 20.0 weapon skill and increased the characters attack while active while consuming mana to be sustained (staff aura was a regeneration boost). Other 'weapon auras' were gain respectively at 50.0 and 120.0 skill. With the War of the Worlds patch later on, two new skill auras were added for weapons at 75.0 and 150.0 skill levels.
Due to the variety of attribute gains associated with weapons, users would tend to train in two weapons - usually a bow and axe combination in order to maximise their attribute gains for their characters, some even training three or four weapons (although this was not recommended, as there was a skill cap in place).
Guild system
Characters could enroll in 'guilds', essentially a collection of like minded players who would quest with each other, recruit and assist newbies and work together to increase their statistics and become the strongest group in the game as well as organise team hunting events to fight bosses and other stronger enemies.
In the Myth of Soma, unfortunately like most games the guild system turned more into gangs than guilds with groups of users from one guild hunting down others from a rival guild.
Guild Village War
Once a week guilds would compete in a 'Guild Village War' for possession of the Guild Village just outside the main village. Perks of owning this village included a private (although publicly accessible, it was usually empty save for the guild in possession) area to craft and a discount at village stores. Guilds in possession also benefit from teleport scrolls that would take them straight back to the village.
In order to win the guild village war, the guild village relic inside the guild house must be destroyed in the alloted time and the guild who has a user standing on the square when it ends wins the war. This system also contributed to the fierce rivalries between guilds and players.
Devil World expansion
On 16th of December, 2002, The Devil World (known to players as Devil Soma or 'DSoma') was released, allowing players to play as an alternate race of characters who wanted to destroy the Human World of Soma (which became known as Human Soma or 'HSoma). Characters in Devil Soma were restricted to six different classes that all gained attributes differently to each other, but only slight variations were possible only by hunting monsters which yielded better statistic.
In order to play Devil Soma, players had to download a separate client and pay a one-off upgrade fee to access the service.
Devil attribute and skill system
Although Devil characters had the same attributes as human characters (STR, DEX, INT, etc.) they all provided different effects than those of their human counterparts.
Detailed here is how the attributes affected the Devil characters -
* STR - Strength in Devil Soma affected the characters hit points, the more strength gained in a level the more health a character gains upon level up. This is the governing attribute for damage
* CON - Constitution determined the defense value of the character, the higher the constitution the higher the characters base defense.
* DEX - Dexterity works for the same as it does for human characters, affecting hit ratio and dodge ratio
* INT - Only the 'Wizard' (aka 'Mage') class can utilise INT in the Devil World, affecting magic attack but not magic defense like the Humans. Much like strength, the more intelligence gained in a level the more mana points they gain upon level up
* WIS - Governs the characters base magic defense
* CHA - Remains the same as the Human world, used for creating and maintaining a guild
Skills remain exactly the same in the Devil World as they do in the Human World, with skill auras being obtained at the same skill levels.
It is these attributes that made Player vs Player combat in the Devil World a lot more balanced than the Human World and allowed for more tactical combat as melee-types would have to tactically take out magic-types and both would have to use strategies against ranged bow users, but at the same time made faction combat unbalanced as Devil players had troublesomely high attack and defence but most classes were unimaginably weak against magic.
War of the Worlds expansion
On 6th of May 2003, the patch known as 'War of the Worlds' was released, and was more of a combined client than a new patch which brought the two Myth of Soma worlds into one, and through two new maps known as 'The Castle Map' and 'The Contintental Map' both Human and Devil characters could hunt for new monsters and items at a risk of being attacked by the opposite race. Unfortunately the monsters in these areas were poorly created and did not yield the desired attribute increase rate that a lot of people desired, leaving them desolate, aside from a few lower level characters and those users who were just looking to run into trouble and fight off the opposite race.
POS (Point of Soul) system
Players at this point were allocated with POS - points of soul - which were deducted or increased if they were killed by or killed a member of the opposite race to either positive or negative 2000. POS was used to purchase new spells, armour and even weapon skill auras although the system was fatally flawed in that the user could only collect 'POS' from a character who was above negative 2000 'POS'.
War of the Worlds
Once per month the castle map would turn into a battlefield between the Humans and Devils, similar to the Guild Village War and the winning faction would have access to new NPCs, and the Continental Army map would be populated by their kind's monsters. Depending on who was in control of the map, the controlling race experienced an advantage against the opposite race who suffered an attribute decrease against players and monsters while they were on the map.
Player vs player system / player killing system / morality system
Players are allowed to attack and kill other players for any reason they wish, though outside of guild wars, guild village war and duels it looked down on. Once a player has killed another player they suffere a morality penalty which takes form in the colour of their characters name that informs other players that they have killed a certain amount of players. Red players are not allowed in any city as they are attacked by the village guards, the only place they can go to that has any form of shop is at the Thousand Year Town Graveyard in the main area or the Bone Graveyard in the Valley of Death map. Red players are also fair game to other players, a punishment for killing other players. Morality status in order of worst to best are - Devil, Wicked, Evil, Bad, Neutral, Good, Moral, Virtuous and Angel.
In order to revert a characters morality status, it takes time as morality points are increased over long periods but also from hunting monsters as some monsters give lots of morality points and some give very little. Once a users name reverts to Evil they are allowed to enter towns once again and are no longer free game to moral players.
While they are attacking a player, their name will turn to a shade of grey, and during this time any player may attack and kill the offending player in self defence. As this wears off their name will begin to flash and if their name turns white again while being attacked, the player who was once performing self defence will become the attacker. Many great 'player-killers' exploited this as a way to effectively kill other players without punishment.
Many believe the system was unfair as the Wicked and Devil morality players could be 'grief' killed repeatedly and lose a large portion of their hard earned statistics in no time at all.
Pay to play
Myth of Soma operated on a 'pay to play' or 'P2P' business model where users were required to purchase game time in order to play the game. Game time packages were available in lump packages from the publisher itself or via a recurring subscription which was charged monthly.
When Game Network were publishing the game in the EU, the prices were as follows -
* 10€ = 1 month (30 days)
* 27€ = 3 months (90 days)
* 48€ = 6 months (180 days)
* 84€ = 12 months (360 days)
Payments were made using credit card, PayPal or Splash Plastic (Splash Plastic was only available in the UK)
Development history
Not much is known about the actual development of The Myth of Soma, other than it was developed by Comnjoy between 1998 and 2003 and that updates ceased from then on. The publicly known lifecycle of the game is known as follows -
* 1998-2000: Myth of Soma is developed by Comnjoy
* Late 2000-Early 2001: Comnjoy release Myth of Soma in Korea, game is so greatly received a publishing deal is in the works with Digital Bros/Game Network to release in Europe
* January 2002: Myth of Soma is released in the EU (primarily Italy and Britain) by Game Network
* 20th Nov 2001-31st Oct 2002: Comnjoy hands Myth of Soma to WizGate as developer
* 3rd Dec 2002 onwards: MGame take over as developer on Myth of Soma
* Late 2003: All development for Myth of Soma ceases
Recently, as of January 2009 GNOnline released a statement on their website stating that the Legend of Mir 2, Legend of Mir 3, and the Myth of Soma would all be closing at the end of March.

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See Also

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