KickStarter Feature Creep: The RTS (ZeroSpace by Starlance Studious)

[ArchAngel]

This looks better than that SC2 clone former blizzard devs are working on, what the fuck?

This is also by former blizzard devs and took some sc2 pros to help them. Ex blizzard devs basically split into two dev teams and both decided to make sc2 rip off games :D

And there is a 3rd game that is being made by some sc2 modders that is also sc2 rip off. That one looks weakest out of these 3.

Isn't this one made by the modders & pro players? What's the third one then?

 

[Suicidal]

This looks better than that SC2 clone former blizzard devs are working on, what the fuck?

This is also by former blizzard devs and took some sc2 pros to help them. Ex blizzard devs basically split into two dev teams and both decided to make sc2 rip off games :D

And there is a 3rd game that is being made by some sc2 modders that is also sc2 rip off. That one looks weakest out of these 3.

Isn't this one made by the modders & pro players? What's the third one then?

Hmm, never heard about this one. Looks kind of rough around the edges but has potential as long as devs try to make an actual game with a proper campaign and not just muh esports.

Also WTF is up with the dev names:

Immortal is being developed by SUNSPEAR, while Zero Space is by STARLANCE.

 

[-M-]

This looks better than that SC2 clone former blizzard devs are working on, what the fuck?

Stormgate looks more like a hybrid between SC2 and WC3 and I don't think that's going to do it any favors. I imagine this is because the studio is composed of veterans of both games and they couldn't agree to what type of game to focus on. WC3 was never a great RTS. Small armies with overly spongy units were never as exciting as the type of armies you could make in SC. The upkeep system actively discouraged large armies and expansions. The strengths, in the way WC3 was designed, were the hero units which received far too much attention. Of course this led to modders creating the far more lucrative MOBA genre and leaving Blizzard in the dust which I'll always find funny.

Zero Space is being designed by people who have done nothing with their lives except play SC for the past decade or so. It's just mixing elements from everything SC2 has thrown at us over the three games since 2010 (mercenaries, top bar calldowns, etc). The two races they have shown so far are just minor variations of Terran and Zerg (and one of the final two will obviously be a protoss knock off). The campaign characters they have shown are generic rip offs from SC (space cowboy, red headed agent). I don't think it looks particularly good, but I do think it looks more fun than Stormgate, which was in no state to be shown off when they did.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I'm looking forward to Immortal: Gates of Pyre over StormGate and ZeroSpace. I've been on their discord for a couple years and it sounds way more interesting, at least if you care. In terms of gameplay they're taking lessons from how SC2 Co-Op worked and integrating commanders into the MP and SP from the start. The aesthetics are unique and don't just look like a ripoff of WC3 or SC2, even though IGP started out as an SC2 mod titled "Vanguard" (look it up). The worldbuilding is very different from the extremely generic designs seen in SG and ZS, and it has much more depth to it too: the team actually bothered to give the sides actual cultures, ideologies, motives, etc and not just write them as mindless zombies that obey whatever deranged whims occur to shallow inconsistent main characters. From what I've heard of their campaign plans, which they intend to release as DLC after releasing the SP/MP/CO modes for free, they intended to write their campaigns as a multiverse of timelines in order to give every side a chance to shine rather than a single canon that will inevitably favor one side over all others.

By contrast, I don't find SG and ZS remotely interesting. I'm one of those weirdos in the 80% of RTS players who only plays SP, so I'm concerned about meaningless things like "is the writing any good or just more stupid?" SG and ZS haven't given me any confidence that their story modes will be remotely interesting or well constructed. ZS is advertising romance... like, what? Why? RTS doesn't need romance! If I wanted to play Mass Effect, then I'd played Mass Effect, not a ripoff of Mass Effect with RTS game gameplay crudely bolted on. SG hasn't revealed much about their story, but what little has been revealed doesn't interest me and makes it sound like humanity and the demons will team up at the climax against Amon again... which I have zero interest in.

Going back to IGP, two of the revealed races serve Great Old Ones (the lorebook literally calls them that) who intend to reformat reality into something they find more conducive. Everyone else will die as an unintentional side-effect because they're weaklings. I love playing races like that and I'm glad IGP is bringing that back after the prior decades of RTS games ignored it or worse did a bait-and-switch where the monsters were revealed as misunderstood good guys all along.

 

[ArchAngel]

I'm looking forward to Immortal: Gates of Pyre over StormGate and ZeroSpace. I've been on their discord for a couple years and it sounds way more interesting, at least if you care. In terms of gameplay they're taking lessons from how SC2 Co-Op worked and integrating commanders into the MP and SP from the start. The aesthetics are unique and don't just look like a ripoff of WC3 or SC2, even though IGP started out as an SC2 mod titled "Vanguard" (look it up). The worldbuilding is very different from the extremely generic designs seen in SG and ZS, and it has much more depth to it too: the team actually bothered to give the sides actual cultures, ideologies, motives, etc and not just write them as mindless zombies that obey whatever deranged whims occur to shallow inconsistent main characters. From what I've heard of their campaign plans, which they intend to release as DLC after releasing the SP/MP/CO modes for free, they intended to write their campaigns as a multiverse of timelines in order to give every side a chance to shine rather than a single canon that will inevitably favor one side over all others.

By contrast, I don't find SG and ZS remotely interesting. I'm one of those weirdos in the 80% of RTS players who only plays SP, so I'm concerned about meaningless things like "is the writing any good or just more stupid?" SG and ZS haven't given me any confidence that their story modes will be remotely interesting or well constructed. ZS is advertising romance... like, what? Why? RTS doesn't need romance! If I wanted to play Mass Effect, then I'd played Mass Effect, not a ripoff of Mass Effect with RTS game gameplay crudely bolted on. SG hasn't revealed much about their story, but what little has been revealed doesn't interest me and makes it sound like humanity and the demons will team up at the climax against Amon again... which I have zero interest in.

Going back to IGP, two of the revealed races serve Great Old Ones (the lorebook literally calls them that) who intend to reformat reality into something they find more conducive. Everyone else will die as an unintentional side-effect because they're weaklings. I love playing races like that and I'm glad IGP is bringing that back after the prior decades of RTS games ignored it or worse did a bait-and-switch where the monsters were revealed as misunderstood good guys all along.

I prefer one of the couple of C&C clones that are coming as well. I always liked C&C Generals over Crafts, at least in MP.
For these 3 starcraft rip offs I am hoping they have fun Co-op commander modes, that was in the end the most fun part of SC2.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I'm looking forward to Immortal: Gates of Pyre over StormGate and ZeroSpace. I've been on their discord for a couple years and it sounds way more interesting, at least if you care. In terms of gameplay they're taking lessons from how SC2 Co-Op worked and integrating commanders into the MP and SP from the start. The aesthetics are unique and don't just look like a ripoff of WC3 or SC2, even though IGP started out as an SC2 mod titled "Vanguard" (look it up). The worldbuilding is very different from the extremely generic designs seen in SG and ZS, and it has much more depth to it too: the team actually bothered to give the sides actual cultures, ideologies, motives, etc and not just write them as mindless zombies that obey whatever deranged whims occur to shallow inconsistent main characters. From what I've heard of their campaign plans, which they intend to release as DLC after releasing the SP/MP/CO modes for free, they intended to write their campaigns as a multiverse of timelines in order to give every side a chance to shine rather than a single canon that will inevitably favor one side over all others.

By contrast, I don't find SG and ZS remotely interesting. I'm one of those weirdos in the 80% of RTS players who only plays SP, so I'm concerned about meaningless things like "is the writing any good or just more stupid?" SG and ZS haven't given me any confidence that their story modes will be remotely interesting or well constructed. ZS is advertising romance... like, what? Why? RTS doesn't need romance! If I wanted to play Mass Effect, then I'd played Mass Effect, not a ripoff of Mass Effect with RTS game gameplay crudely bolted on. SG hasn't revealed much about their story, but what little has been revealed doesn't interest me and makes it sound like humanity and the demons will team up at the climax against Amon again... which I have zero interest in.

Going back to IGP, two of the revealed races serve Great Old Ones (the lorebook literally calls them that) who intend to reformat reality into something they find more conducive. Everyone else will die as an unintentional side-effect because they're weaklings. I love playing races like that and I'm glad IGP is bringing that back after the prior decades of RTS games ignored it or worse did a bait-and-switch where the monsters were revealed as misunderstood good guys all along.

I prefer one of the couple of C&C clones that are coming as well. I always liked C&C Generals over Crafts, at least in MP.
For these 3 starcraft rip offs I am hoping they have fun Co-op commander modes, that was in the end the most fun part of SC2.

I’m looking forward to C&C clones too. The formula has completely different pathfinding and resource management that I think has its own appeal. The Tempest Rising demo looks fun and reminds me of my nostalgic memories of playing C&C.

 

[Jaedar]

So they revealed the final two factions


The fact that they can't even show one of them in game is very comforting. Legion seems to be heavily inspired by alarak coop commander from sc2.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Kickstarter is over! They reached $536,583 and achieved the following stretch goals:

 

[Feyd Rautha]

 

[ArchAngel]

Uff, looks like Sc2 mod.. also had fps drops in the video lol.. not a good sign.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

A galaxy map? MMORTS functionality? That’s new

 

[Suicidal]

Both this game and Stormgate visually look pretty bland. The graphics themselves are okay, but the games lack some sort of cohesive style and everything looks like it was just plucked out of some asset store. Maybe this will improve by release but I doubt it. Still, I'll probably play this game. I'm starved for new RTS games and Zerospace gameplay looks like it will be at least decent, even if that is achieved by shamelessly copying SC/WC. Not as interested in Stormgate cause the devs seem more focused on making an e-sport than an actual complete video game.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

even if that is achieved by shamelessly copying SC/WC.

And mass effect, star trek, etc. I’m disappointed in how they’re nostalgic for stuff from just last decade and so painfully derivative too. I played the original starcraft when it released. While the story comes across as terrible to adult me, in retrospect I really like the grungy 80s/90s cyberpunk aesthetic it was going for earlier in development. Colonies of cyberpunk space cowboy mining guilds jockeying for power and wealth, until aliens complicate things with their own idiosyncrasies, hits several of my preferred tropes and I’m disappointed none of the upcoming RTS take cues from that era.

Tempest Rising is the only RTS that I really look forward to in terms of hitting that nostalgia high. It doesn’t just mindlessly ape C&C, it takes inspiration while still doing new things. For example, the premise takes cues from multiple C&C games from the past three decades rather than obviously being a ripoff of one. Tempest Vine is basically tiberium, except that it just proliferates on the nuclear war rather than causing the apocalypse. The GDF and Tempest Dynasty take cues from Allies, Soviets, GDI and Nod, but aren’t clearly delineated as good guys or bad guys. Both sides are so heavily propagandized that it’s impossible to tell the morality of the situation. And the third side, which is being pushed back to DLC, seem to have already been on Earth for millennia rather than being suddenly arriving aliens.

Zerospace has generic space federation police, space leaf cutter ants, a geth+grey goo pastiche, and a generic misguided/evil theocracy.

 

[Jaedar]

The feature creep continues, with mmo pve coop.

 

[ArchAngel]

The feature creep continues, with mmo pve coop.

This looks awesome. I will need to test if this game will run on my old PC

 

[-M-]

I don't think this game looks particularly good, but the funniest thing to me is that it makes all the ex-Blizzard devs that made Stormgate look like a bunch of clowns.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Is the story any good? They said they’re focusing heavily on story. All I’ve heard thus far is that it’s a lazy ripoff of Mass Effect (among others) and completely devoid of identity and soul.

 

[-M-]

Is the story any good? They said they’re focusing heavily on story. All I’ve heard thus far is that it’s a lazy ripoff of Mass Effect (among others) and completely devoid of identity and soul.

Set in the Orion arm of the Milky Way in 4050, ZeroSpace thrusts you into a universe where diverse alien and human factions vie for dominance. The fragile peace, upheld by the inter-species Keeper Council, is on the brink, threatened by enigmatic events. As the human Prefect of the Protectorate, you're summoned to join the Council and unravel a cosmic mystery, encountering unknown aliens and journeying through uncharted space.

I think GiantGrantGames is the campaign designer/writer and he basically plays SC2 campaigns nonstop so I'd be impressed if he managed to lazily ripoff Mass Effect here (which is already a lazy ripoff of Babylon 5/Star Trek).

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Wow, that sounds so painfully generic. It reads like he copied a tvtropes page or used an AI.

Also, a protectorate is a client state, not someone who protects.

 

[ArchAngel]

I do not expect great story but persistant PvE global map that is ever changing is something I always wanted in RTS.
This is something similar to later Dawn of War 1 expansions and I loved that.