In a new preview up at IGN, Mythos’ Executive Producer Max Schaefer has confirmed new classes are headed to the free-to-play MMO, but “[Flagship Studios] is not at liberty to discuss what they are yet, but it’s a safe bet that some will specialize in some of the weapon types that currently exist but don’t have a class that is optimal for them.”

Current in-game weapons that don’t have a class or skills suited for them include dual stat weapons like scepters (strength/wisdom) and polearms (strength/dexterity) and ranged weapons such as bows, crossbows, and pistols. My prediction for upcoming classes: A ranged/pet class with a focus on bows and not entirely dissimilar to a traditional hunter class, and a melee caster/buffer that closely resembles Diablo 2’s paladin. Of course, like all content on this site not sandwiched between quotation marks, this is all baseless speculation.

Mythos currently sports three distinct character classes, each with three unique skill trees. In reality, each tree is a class unto itself, with each class playing radically differently based on the tree you invest in. So even adding one new character class to the game would require a great deal of balancing and polish.

Currently in closed beta, Mythos is Flagship Studios’ free-to-play, Diablo-clone MMO, and the developer’s official apology for Hellgate: London. The game is expected to enter open beta in the coming months.

Mythos First Look [IGN via Massively]

In a press release this morning, Flagship Studios bragged about Hellgate: London’s success in Korea, claiming the game was the ninth most-played online game and the most successful new game to launch in the country in the last three years. And while both of those statements may have been true at one time, Flagship ombudsman Flagshipped.com has proof that it’s no longer the case.

The above chart, taken from a Korean site that tracks the games Korean gamers play using software installed on nearly every Internet café’s PC, shows that while Hellgate: London did in fact have a successful launch, the number of Korean players playing the game has fallen off dramatically since then. At present, it’s currently the twenty-fourth most-played online game in Korea.

To make matters worse, the game’s popularity has been rapidly decreasing throughout the rest of the world as well. In fact, based on the following comparison between the webtraffic to Diabloii.net and Hellgatelondon.com, it appears the two games maintain a mutually exclusive relationship, with many gamers choosing to play Blizzard’s nine-year-old action RPG over Flagship’s new one:

Additionally, Flagship recently disabled Hellgate: London’s /who command, preventing players from seeing the total number of people playing the game at any one time, further suggesting that Hellgate: London’s playerbase is continuing to shrink with each passing day.

Hellgate in Korea - Failure in the form of a chart [Flagshipped via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

It turns out it’s not all doom, gloom, and PR disasters for Hellgate: London in Korea. In fact, the action RPG has become the most successful online game to launch in Korea in the past three years, with over 1 million accounts registered within the first two weeks of its open beta and “record sales” in its first week of presales.

“To become the most successful launch in Korea for over three years is an incredible achievement,” said Bill Roper, renaissance fair performer and CEO of Flagship Studios. “This milestone wouldn’t have been possible for us to achieve without the incredible support of our publishing partner, Hanbitsoft, and our dedicated community in Korea. We look forward to expanding the Hellgate universe and building upon this success in the future.”

If subscription-based Hellgate: London can find an audience in Korea, then the sky’s the limit for Mythos, Flagship Seattle’s hugely superior dungeon crawler that employs the free-to-play, microtransaction-heavy business model most Koreans MMOs use.

Hellgate is the Most Successful Online Korean Launch in 3 Years [IncGamers via Blue's News]

Later this week, Flagship Studios will offer up a beta version of the Hellgate: London single player 1.2 patch, which “will match the content, balance changes, and bug fixes found in the Multiplayer version of Patch 1.2.” ‘Better late than never’ seems to be Flagship’s mantra when it comes to Hellgate: London.

The developer also plans to start testing the upcoming 1.3 multiplayer patch soon. While the exact patch notes have not yet been published, Flagship promises 1.3 will introduce the Shared Stash (a feature originally promised for launch), gambling vendors, and an increase to the amount of money a single character can carry. In other words, it’s been five months since the game’s release and Flagship is still trying to match the content Diablo 2 shipped with nine years ago.

I know it’s fun to be down on Flagship and their unending stream of very public screw-ups, but… Well, but nothing. It’s just fun to be down on Flagship.

Patch 1.2 Coming To Single Player, Patch 1.3 Nearing Test Center [Hellgatelondon.com via Gaming Today]

Before the Mythos Zone 3 patch hit, my time with the game had fallen into a comfortable routine: Get a quest, clear the associated random dungeon, sell my loot to the vendor, gamble my earnings away at the bargain hunter for the possibility of new gear. Now I haven’t visited the bargain hunter since installing the new client and only rarely trade my items for cash at the local vendor. Instead, the crafting system has taken over my virtual life.

What makes the crafting system so engrossing and addicting is that it doesn’t force you to change how you play the game, but instead offers additional rewards for what you would be doing anyway. You obtain crafting materials as loot from defeated foes, from usable resource nodes in the world, and primarily from breaking down items in your inventory into their component parts. As a result of this new crafting system, drops rates have been increased significantly, both because you’re now finding various crafting materials like cloth, wood, and magical essences from downed foes, but also because the game now throws even more weapons and armor at you, forcing you to constantly destroy them to get at their base materials. In essence, every enemy is now a loot piñata.

Additionally, the crafting system also adds another layer of character customization to a game already rich with it. You can choose from three different trees representing eighteen different super-specific crafting specialties, and because of the limited number of crafting points available to you – earned at level up and by completing quests for the Crafting Guild – you’re forced to focus on just one. Specialties include “swords and axes,” “helms and shoulders,” or “rings,” allowing you to make items falling under their category. The base items you craft, however, are woefully underpowered compared to the loot monsters drop when killed, but you’re able to boost the strength of your items through a clever risk system.

By adjusting sliders in the crafting menu, you can opt to raise certain stats on the item you’re crafting, but doing so also increases the chance that the item will be destroyed upon creation. As you spend points in the crafting tree, you’re able to take greater risks with less chance of failure, allowing you to create increasingly more powerful items, but the option to risk it all for the possibility of superior loot is always present. Additionally, you can invest in crafting skills that allow you to imbue your crafted items with elemental properties or random modifiers. The system works incredibly well, forcing you balance the risk of losing your valuable crafting components with forging an incredibly powerful item.

The newly introduced PvP system also hinges heavily on a risk-reward system. Entering a portal to the Shadowlands allows you to travel to a PvP-flagged version of the world where any player can attack you at any time. Killing a player causes them to randomly drop one of their equipped items, and should you die, you too will lose a valuable piece of gear. Rampaging through town and murdering every noob in sight will raise your anarchy rating, increasing the number of items you drop when killed and making you an especially juicy target for a player of equal strength.

At present, Shadowlands is dominated by high level players, but as the beta continues (and assuming Flagship Studios doesn’t wipe the servers again), PvP should become less of a gank-fest and more of a balanced conflict between players willing to risk their hard-earned loot for some of your precious gear.

Of course, I’ve barely scratched the surface of the Zone 3 patch, and haven’t even ventured into the titular new landmass yet. From what I’ve seen so far, however, Flagship is certainly on the right track to deliver a stellar, free-to-play experience later this year. With each major patch Mythos only improves, forcing me to come up with more elaborate hyperboles to describe it.

The Mythos Zone 3 patch has finally made its way onto the beta servers, bringing with it a wealth of new content. Besides the titular Zone 3, an arctic-themed zone featuring new high level quests, monsters, and areas, the new patch also introduces the Cyclops, a new playable race, as well as crafting and PvP systems.

You can now enter a PvP version of the world through each zone’s Shadowlands portal, allowing you to do battle with other players. Dying causes you to drop one random piece of equipped gear, and killing lower level players raises your anarchy rating, upping the odds that you’ll drop multiple pieces of loot when you die.

Flagship also promises a risk-based crafting system that requires no grinding, complete with its very own crafting skill tree. Earlier versions of the game included both rudimentary PvP and crafting systems, so it’ll be interesting to see just how far the game has come. (Current download status: Done, waiting to install).

Along with the new Cyclops race, all of the races now feature racial bonuses, allowing you to further customize your character. Also, Flagship has revamped the skill system yet again, now providing stat bonuses for skill points invested in skill tree tiers.

The patch also introduces a new mail system and a great many balance changes, interface improvements, and bug fixes.

Beta testers can stop by the recently-redesigned Mythos website to download the new version of the game. New players hoping for an invite from a kindly current tester (like me!) will have to wait for the open beta, currently expected to go live in the next month or two, as the invite system was scrapped in the site’s redesign.

Zone 3 is Live! [Mythos Official Site]

Full patch notes after the jump.

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