The Forum

[quote="BIRDMAN"]True as titus makes hero armour pretty useless now i would say [/quote]

[quote="VALKIRYE"][quote="MICKYC"]Be nice if there were to be a Hero Armour II :)[/quote] or Hero Weapon I :)[/quote]

[quote="DEVASTATION"]If i recall correctly; Soma was hacked due to 1p1 pw being left the same? Finito and ..forgot the other guy... MentaL? or something, always wondered why would Finito keep the game going after all he brought about Pirate servers. Did you fall in love like most of us? :p Also what happened to Badger is he still about? So many noticeable, and much better, differences have been brought to Soma making this the best version ever.[/quote]

[quote="BIRDMAN"]aye hail finito!!!! also i remmeber badgers name lolol where he gone[/quote]

[quote="TITOSS"]Game network realised their babestation was making way more money than games and rebranded to babestation . Pretty sure that's what really happened[/quote]

[quote="LINNYI"][quote="BIRDMAN"]aye hail finito!!!! also i remmeber badgers name lolol where he gone[/quote] Last time I spoke to him he was doing okay don't think he's into soma now 😢[/quote]

[quote="DEVASTATION"]He was just on another thread, be nice to hear from him what he says :)[/quote]

[quote="MISER"]It's pretty long but these are my recollections. The game was developed by Comnjoy in Korea between 1999 to 2003. Game Network bought a licence to host a European server in 2001 and began with a beta free-to-play launch, then in early 2002 switched to a pay-to-play model, also releasing a CD version that could be purchased online. That version included a game manual and a poster of the three maps available at the time (TYT, Merc and Abias), along with important coord locations. The game was being advertised as well across Europe by Game Network, who were running a Myth of Soma TV programme (alongside a similar Legend of Mir programme). The TV show ran between 2002 and 2003. Originally it was hosted by a guy called Rob, who was later replaced by a woman (in-game name KillerKat). This seemed to be quite effective as there was originally quite a large community. In Summer 2002 a large update was released that introduced/altered various aspects of the game such as the login screen, certain sprite animations (e.g. 2-handed weapon stances), equipment requirements, spell upgrades, weapon/armour tags, parties, D4, VoD, SOD/COD/KOD/Blood bow/Tbolt, magic/sorcery hats, guild auctions, level 15 PK restriction, and so on. It also saw the launch of Devil Soma as its own executable client separate to the Human Soma client. Sometime after this update in 2003 there was another large update unifying HSoma and DSoma, providing a shared client and shared maps, bone/BoF/Apus/Ripper/Crusher/HoM etc., as well as functionality such as POS, WotW, the hair shop, and 3rd and 5th auras. Up until this point Game Network had been paying for these updates (I believe in a subscription type model), but GN being run by the tightest lads in the northern hemisphere they decided to stop, and we in Europe didn't see any official game updates ever again. These updates included Mob Soma, end-game features (e.g. a permanently visible gold title for any level 100+ player), and I believe additional spells and items, and a functioning 'known as' feature, though I never played foreign servers much so I'm a little vague on everything we missed out on. This additional content was however available in the Korean and Chinese servers. As for houses I'm not sure if anyone got to see those. At some point Comnjoy seems to have fallen off the radar and I'm not sure what happened to them. Throughout this period we had the original Myth of Soma site and forums, but in 2004 or 2005 GN created a centralised web portal to consolidate management of their games (Soma, Mir and the new Droiyan). It seemed briefly that things were happening, but unbeknownst to the community GN had already given up on Soma from opting out of its updates. In 2005 we see a lot of things go down. MentaL, the founder of the RageZone forums, hacked the server and set up the first private server. http://upload.lhurgoyf.net/gal/Soma/hack04.jpg http://upload.lhurgoyf.net/gal/Soma/hack05.jpg What I believe is the order of events, although isn't totally clear to me, is that MentaL discovered the files on a GN or Wizgate owned FTP server (although I'm not sure what GN stuff would be doing on a Wizgate server), but couldn't get them working. Finito, who was (is?) affiliated with RZ did manage to get them working, with the help of another RZ guy called MMan, who developed the sharedmem executable. How they actually got it all working is frankly amazing to me and required some real technical wizardry. Also on this FTP server I believe was a database backup as well as old Soma client source code - either this or they were discovered separately around this time. The database would've allowed MentaL immediate access to GM accounts, though I don't know if this was the method he used. This database effectively compromised everyone's user account details and led to a number of people being hacked, including me. The emails were also used to advertise various private server projects over the years. Private servers got underway but a lot of people still played ESoma. Gorthol, who I believe was an actual full-time employee for GN, was keylogged by a person (but they probably wouldn't appreciate me sharing their name), which compromised his GN Online account as well as his Soma and Mir GM accounts (and I suppose his trove of porn). Unlike Soma, Mir had a create-item command so this proved pretty lucrative and went undiscovered for some time. RageZone seemed to tire of Soma pretty quickly and once the server files were publicly accessible servers started popping up. I think the second notable server was by Sausage, who was an active Soma developer at the time. By 2006 the Soma community had moved away from RZ and onto the Pirate Server forums, where Badgerr hosted the first Pirate Soma. I also became a GM on that server and Badgerr and I were able to develop some much-needed new content, such as multi-targeting status spells and new attacks for boss mobs. The server was hacked though and after fixing the security issue I wiped and relaunched a version 2. We had a lot of Soma development during this time. Philkills developed software for converting sprite files into bitmaps and vice versa, which allowed the first editing of in-game graphics. Badgerr wrote a server setup guide so that anyone could get a server up and running. I wrote guides on editing the monster, monsterset and basicitem tables, and released a web-based server admin panel. Badgerr, Finito and Philkills are responsible for a large amount of work bringing the discovered client source code into a state that it could be used to play on modern servers. On top of this, Philkills was able to use the code to discover a number of exploits that have now been fixed. Unfortunately a guy named KingKooper also discovered one of the (several) methods of item duping and irresponsibly started handing out items, which in 2008 I believe is the straw that broke ESoma's back. The Pirate Server forums disappeared (and the admin seemed to have *actually* disappeared), and in 2007 the community moved on to the Shen forums (Shensation?). A guy called Garry who (I think) ran those forums set up the next big private server, which had what seemed to be a 'dream team' of people to take Soma forward (that included Sylver and Finito). This was the first time Soma had legitimate packet encryption (as opposed to the terrible XOR-based algorithm used originally), and this encryption was actually updated over time to keep the server secure. Philkills through his own wizardry cracked the encryption twice and we used the server to test client mods and I looked for security issues. It's a lot easier to test on an actual server than have to set up your own all the time, especially if you've only got one computer. This led to me getting banned so in the end I had to resort to that anyway. The dream team of Shen Soma turned out to be a bit lacklustre since I think it was only Finito doing any technical activity pushing the game forward. Garry had idealistic visions of things he wanted to do, but if you ask me they never made a lot of sense when he wrote them down. There was a fourth guy called Dataforce, and maybe a couple other guys, but I'm not convinced they ever really played Soma or did anything with the project. Other development was ongoing. Finito was using Droiyan server source code to create a Soma server emulator. I was working on a server emulator from scratch with LiquidX and another guy. In the end I don't think any of these projects got all that sophisticated, since they were massive projects. As a brief aside responding to the earlier post about being able to access an account just using the username, that's essentially true. During development of my emulator I discovered a huge security flaw with Soma's authentication procedure. It allowed you to access any account with just its username (you didn't need to type it backwards though). I immediately had to test it out, and tested it out on Shen since it was the only server around. It worked and I could access GM accounts. I didn't really use it for anything and told Sylver about it so we could find a fix. Apparently it was already a known exploit and it was fixed. Ever since then I feel Sylver and I've been on bad footing, hehe. Shen Soma eventually fell through (I think the management lost interest?), and Sylver set up Somadev. There wasn't always an official Somadev server though - it was more a place to talk about Soma and development. We saw some great servers like Remix and a lot of good development. We had a new age of development tools, with Remix creating item/mob editors, me creating a sprite viewer/editor, and Syfire creating all sorts of guides. There was even a service provided by Syfire and Remix to custom build and host people's ideal server ideas. We had people like Ramy, Tiffany and Rauban working on their own projects and providing new knowledge, but at the same time a smaller and smaller overall community. The Somadev server eventually launched and after that I think we saw very few competitors. The community just wasn't big enough anymore to really support multiple servers. We did see drop ins from Slither and Radiankh, and old players. I wasn't involved in Soma much after I finished university so I haven't followed the Somadev server's history much, but it sounds like it's going strong. And that, I suppose, is history - or as accurately as I can recall it. If I've made any mistakes here feel free to supply corrections. There's a lot else that can be talked about - a lot went down on ESoma - but I don't remember it so well.[/quote]

[quote="MISER"][quote="DEVASTATION"]Also what happened to Badger is he still about?[/quote] I think he's doing well. Last I saw he's successful as a 3D graphics programmer for a games development company.[/quote]

[quote="LINNYI"][quote="MISER"][quote="DEVASTATION"]Also what happened to Badger is he still about?[/quote] I think he's doing well. Last I saw he's successful as a 3D graphics programmer for a games development company.[/quote] Long time no see Miser you ok ?[/quote]

[quote="MISER"][quote="LINNYI"]Long time no see Miser you ok ?[/quote] I'm great thanks. Nice to see a familiar face. :)[/quote]

[quote="LINNYI"][quote="MISER"][quote="LINNYI"]Long time no see Miser you ok ?[/quote] I'm great thanks. Nice to see a familiar face. :)[/quote] Awww thanks glad to hear you are doing well x [/quote]

[quote="DEVASTATION"]Nice read, :) Still wondering about Finito, think he loves Soma more than the rest of us :D[/quote]

[quote="QUICKSHOT"]Myth of Soma Promos from over 10 years ago :P https://youtu.be/us2tT2Hum-U?t=1m30s pretty sure Gorthol left long time before all the hackin went down i think he left when korea stopped supporting the game properly even before devil race patch? I think he was the only paid staff maybe the reason he left if they wasnt making enough money on the game etc and went to part time staff in the form of radiankh and slither i believe for the longest time. I pretty sure when devils were first created they was slither and nexer his devil gm char no one else by then other than a couple of advisors. world of warcraft stole myth of soma idea..they going back to 2004 aswell lol! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuzU7m0mUas[/quote]

[quote="BUFFY"]For old school players like myself, so much has happened that it's all been a bit crazy. Being there from the beginning always makes Soma special, a bit like Hotel California...You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. We were all so happy to pay for Soma and Mir in the day, but now that it's free most people don't. The great days of the beginning to the bad days of hundreds of DP's on the floor on that fatal night... Amazing what Finito has done really with all the new additions since. Worst things that happened to Soma... 1. Fatal night when we knew it was over with all the tabs on the floor. 2. When that big patch came in and my Blood Armour changed/running graphics changed...God I hated that so much. 3. Men with small brains/small dicks/with good items hiding behind a keyboard acting big pk'ing people 2/3/4/5/6 v 1(Hitler/Mussolini/Napoleon were all small). Best things... 1. Finito saving Soma. 2. When upgrades work. 3. Events. :o) [/quote]