Mythic Entertainment President Mark Jacobs interviewed with RPG Vault and gave his latest Dev Report on Mythic Entertainment's newest MMORPG title, Imperator. It was announced in June of last year, and according to Mark, is Mythic's answer to Sony's Star Wars Galaxies for the next year. Here's the entire article:

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In June of last year, a relatively short time ago in terms of online world development cycles, Mythic Entertainment announced that it had begun work on a second title. It is the brainchild of company President Mark Jacobs, the only person known to have worked on the new project up to now, who stated early on that it is aimed to go head to head with Sony's upcoming massively multiplayer science fiction role-playing game, Star Wars Galaxies. Imperator is not only set in the distant future, but also in an alternate reality. What if the Roman Empire had never fallen? What if it had reverted to a Republic and continued to dominate Earth well into the future? These questions will be addressed in the creation of the game universe. With Shrouded Isles, the recent expansion to Dark Age of Camelot, out the door, we thought it would be a good time to see where the new game stands. Recently, Mark was kind enough to update us with a few insights in this regard. Sometime this month, staffing will probably expand with the assigning of a lead artist to begin work on the project. "We will also pull in some part-time work from another artist or two," he stated. "The artists will work very closely with the design team on look and feel for the universe as a whole." He went on to explain that none of the re-assigned artists will solely work on the newer title as "we still have lots of goodness coming down the pike for Dark Age of Camelot." Mark hopes that the fruits of these artists' labours will begin to come to light by late January. At that time, the company may be ready to release things such as the symbol for the Roman Republic. "While it will be instantly familiar to those who have seen most Roman-themed movies," he said of the new representation, "there is a slight difference in it." He also suggested that at that time there might be a contest held "to see who can come closest to figuring out what the differences mean." It's thought that the dissimilarities will be of great interest to anyone who anxiously awaits Mythic's next title, as they may be of significant importance to the game itself. Work on the design document being produced by Mark Jacobs is said to be progressing very well. Typically created for any new title before the actual development of assets or coding begins, it outlines the story behind the game as well as the theoretical mechanics of how the creator would like the major elements to work. At this stage, Imperator's is an impressive 80 pages long. There are plans to have this document, which includes much of the historical backstory, reviewed by the development team in late January or early February. After this is done, the real work can then begin. Unlike Mythic's previous effort, Dark Age of Camelot, which Mark himself has often described as evolutionary, Imperator is aiming to push the frontiers of the online genre and to provide more of a revolutionary gaming experience. Compared to the current title, it will focus more on player versus environment play (PvE) over player versus player (PvP), although certainly not to the exclusion of the latter. Mark made it quite clear "there may be some PvP in places like the Coliseum," which would seem to indicate that the strong gladiator tradition of ancient Rome will still be alive in Imperator. It is envisioned that players will not be presented with the defined classes that are familiar to many. Rather, Imperator is intended to implement a skill-based system. There will also be a wide range of human and humanoid races from which to choose; this apparently suggests that players will have options aside from citizens of Rome, although this has yet to be stated one way or the other. The choice of race will also influence your character in various ways. Details are as yet unknown. In a game that takes a historical background and throws it thousands of years into the future, another interesting point of speculation is what has happened to the major institutions of the original Roman world. Our understanding is that although an Emperor has not been on the throne for over 2,000 years when the game takes place, the Praetorian Guard will still exist and play a significant role. What's more, Mark Jacobs insists, "Players will be able to become members of this elite corps." He goes on to describe them as something altogether different from their historical role as bodyguards to the Emperor, also adding that they are "much cooler than that." Overall, Imperator is reported to be on the right track. "It is coming along quite well," says Mythic's President. "I'm focusing now on the metaphysical aspects of the game including the creation of a system of meta-powers to spice things up." Although the game appears to be a great departure from Dark Age of Camelot, it does borrow one of the original conceptual backbones from that hit title. Mark's goal is to ensure that Imperator avoids the "three Ds", which is to say that he does not want it to be "dark, dank and dismal". Accordingly, we can look for Imperator to be more upbeat and exhibit a lighter, happier atmosphere than various other online worlds currently in development. -- Dana 'Lepidus' Massey

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Very interesting stuff going on over at Mythic. This is definitely something to keep an eye on as it comes along. -Kenti