Stormgate - sci-fi/fantasy RTS from ex-Blizzard devs - now on Early Access

[luj1]

Battle Realms was fun

 

[Xamenos]

Dark Reign 2 is one of the few games I regret buying. Even after all these years, I still wish I could get my money back.

 

[Lagi]

original game.exe, you dont need cd

 

[DraQ]

I actually never really played DR2 outside of running it once for 10 minutes and thinking wtf is this. Mistake?

I think I saw a screenshot once.

 

[Johannes]

A bunch.

• Elevation mechanics. Starcraft technically had rudimentary elevation mechanics with up to 3 levels and some range/accuracy rules when shooting up/down. DR had 10 levels and elevation + elevation differences affected pretty much everything - firing arcs, movement, line of sight, etc. Elevation was visualized by shading and there was also utility to automatically apply appropriate terrain tiles to steep ridges.
  
• Very detailed LOS rules. To the point where infantry hiding among vegetation gained a lot of edge against enemy armour simply because they were continuously slipping in and out of detection just by moving around (and faced less obstruction doing so).
• Extremely detailed terrain and mobility rules - hovercrafts could easily cross swamps and water but had to navigate around steep inclines, didn't benefit from roads and stuff like rubble or gravel slowed them down something nasty, OTOH wheeled vehicles could not pass swamps or water, but could scale fairly steep inclines, got a speed bonus on roads and weren't as brutally affected by rough terrain, then there was infantry that was overal slow and pathetic but could do swamps and scale any incline. And then you had hybrid kinds of propulsion, like amphibious APCs or hoverpack infantry.
• Units with working turrets. Anything with turrets could fire on the move and it had a lot of impact when trying to harass enemy or do hit and run. Ok, so could siege tanks in SC (and I guess goliaths?), but that didn't have nearly as much gameplay impact - in DR you had a lot more stuff with turrets, a lot of movement while shooting and line of sight rules that really helped make use of that.
• VERY long range artillery that really needed spotters.
• Resource flow rather than finite resource supply economy.
  
• AI options. You could give units orders to scout the map (basically move semi-randomly and try to reveal as much as possible but avoid enemy contact), harass enemy (same as above, but attack enemy units until fired upon - really good for turreted drive-bys), search-and destroy (mopping up stuff that might bite you in the ass later), pretty complex patrol route mechanics, ability to set-up your forces to automatically rotate - retreat to get healed/repaired, then return to battle.
• Very fast movement and shooting. It really ecouraged use of AI options and combined with flow economy made it very hard to turtle.
  
• Fairly advanced base micro - cutting off power to selected buildings if low on power, ability to pack up and move, ability to set up decoy buildings.

sounds cool, some stuff is reminiscent of TA which is ofc a great game, but none of this is necessary in SCBW. It has its own mechanics, just adding more complexity wouldn't be any guaranteed improvement. If you wanted to improve SCBW, another round of polish would be a better way to go - make the most of what you have, bring the pathfinding up a notch etc. It's quite a slick game already, adding extra simulation could easily dilute its current strengths.

 

[good fucking shit happen]

These old bums won't deliver any sort of good RTS, but if you want something akin to WC3 and pre-WOW Blizzard games then you should check out Armies of Exigo. Unfortunately it isn't on sale digitally so you have to acquire it on the black market.

Battle Realms was fun

Battle Realms was great and did some new things, very unfortunately overshadowed by WC3 shortly after release. Not just being able to pump out troops and making you go through a process to train them was a great idea that I haven't seen much of since then. It made smaller scale battles make more sense than just by using an arbitrary unit limit. It also made it easier to wreck your opponents production chain and their peasants made for good targets, since without them they couldn't get new troops. Much more tense to be raided than in a game where they are just resource collectors and nothing else.

 

[luj1]

Not just being able to pump out troops and making you go through a process to train them was a great idea that I haven't seen much of since then. It made smaller scale battles make more sense

War of the Ring did that too

 

[Mastermind]

Other than the Campaign Designer for The Frozen Throne, none of these guys worked on anything older than SC2. They'd have put it in their resume otherwise. Why are we getting excited, again?

Because SC2 is a great game (except for butthurt storyfags).

 

[Multidirectional]

As far as competetive multiplayer gaming goes, SC2 has been the most fun one I've played so far. Playing for about 4 years now and I'm still not bored. Not that I'm an RTS expert though, I didn't grow up with that shit and only started playing them in my 30s. Still out of the ones I've tried so far SC2 has been the best one.

 

[good fucking shit happen]

Not just being able to pump out troops and making you go through a process to train them was a great idea that I haven't seen much of since then. It made smaller scale battles make more sense

War of the Ring did that too

No it didn't, it came out after WC3 and was more generic, even if it retained some cool features from Battle Realms due to using the same engine. Still liked it more than WC3. At least WotR had proper orcs and trolls. Having to capture horses to get riders, training peasants into your units, all that stuff was gone.

 

[luj1]

I meant War of the Ring had training and a bunch of features from Battle Realms

 

[Jaedar]

Apparently they're gonna show something on the 9th. A bit unclear if it's gonna be some kind of teaser or cinematic trailer or engine footage. I doubt they have a functioning rts after only 1.5 years.

 

[what am i doing]

I'm personally hoping they come out with a name so me and my bro can stop referring to it as "the Frost Giant RTS" whenever we discuss it.

 

[Monstrous Bat]

They explictly stated on reddit that there will be no gameplay footage. Which sounds pretty . I suppose we'll get to see the game's logo that took 2 years to make.

 

[Lucumo]

These old bums won't deliver any sort of good RTS, but if you want something akin to WC3 and pre-WOW Blizzard games then you should check out Armies of Exigo. Unfortunately it isn't on sale digitally so you have to acquire it on the black market.

Battle Realms was fun

Battle Realms was great and did some new things, very unfortunately overshadowed by WC3 shortly after release. Not just being able to pump out troops and making you go through a process to train them was a great idea that I haven't seen much of since then. It made smaller scale battles make more sense than just by using an arbitrary unit limit. It also made it easier to wreck your opponents production chain and their peasants made for good targets, since without them they couldn't get new troops. Much more tense to be raided than in a game where they are just resource collectors and nothing else.

Played a bit of Armies of Exigo but didn't think it was fun. The different layers were a nice gimmick but it didn't grip me at all.

Now, Battle Realms was great. My best friend had the game back in the day and I looked for it on Ebay (when that was relatively new) and found a CD that was apparently part of a collection which meant that it probably didn't sell well here. With that, we played it a lot via LAN and I also bought the expansion when that came out. But it didn't have any localization, just pointing again towards the first game not selling well. So yeah, it's an absolutely overlooked gem.
As an interesting side note, the Ebay seller gifted me Warlords Battlecry II which I thought was a good game too...but terribly broken, yet a lot of fun. Thanks to that, I got myself Warlords Battlecry III later.

@topic: I doubt people who meddled in Starcraft II will amount to anything worthwhile.

PS: Serpent Clan ftw (my friend played Dragon).

 

[LESS T_T]

Steam page before announcement today. Stormgate

Welcome to the future of RTS.

Stormgate is the new real-time strategy game from the team at Frost Giant Studios—including former developers of WarcraftⓇ III and StarCraftⓇ II. Explore an ever-evolving story through thrilling campaign missions where science fiction and fantasy collide—solo or cooperatively. Battle opponents around the world on our competitive 1v1 ladder. Team up with your friends to challenge the AI in cooperative modes. Get your hands dirty in the editor to build the game of your dreams.

Developed in Unreal Engine 5, Stormgate will support high-resolution HD visuals in 4K and hundreds of units in epic, large-scale wars across a variety of maps and tilesets. The user interface is designed to make RTS more approachable by streamlining inputs, automatically assigning units to control groups, and enhancing gameplay. We’ve lowered the skill floor while keeping the ceiling as high as you want to climb.

Stormgate is the RTS everyone's been waiting for.

Epic story missions
Earth didn’t stand a chance. Our story begins hundreds of years in the future, after alien invaders hellbent on claiming this planet as their own poured out of the Stormgates and brought an end to the world as we knew it. Yet humanity survived.

As the fully-playable demonic Infernals return to unleash havoc once again, Earth’s defenders must gather their courage—and climb into their 20-foot tall mechs—to save the world. It’s up to you to pick a side, harvest resources, build your base, and command mighty armies to decide the outcome.

The first truly social RTS
Whatever your favorite game mode, you can play Stormgate with friends. Campaign missions can be played cooperatively, Stormgate’s open-ended co-op mode supports 3 players, and even 1v1 competitive players can make social connections through the built-in tournament system.

The next generation of RTS competition
Stormgate carries forward the storied legacy of world-class esports. Enjoy advanced matchmaking for players of all skill levels, featuring a competitive 1v1 ladder where your abilities will be put to the test against similarly-skilled opponents around the world.

When it comes to competition, we've got you covered: set up your own tournaments, participate in grassroots events, or qualify for professional esports matches, all from directly within the game.

Free to play – Never pay to win
Stormgate is free-to-play so that everyone can enjoy the fun of RTS. Support the development of additional optional content that you enjoy, without ever paying to remove nuisances or gain an advantage.

Unleash your creativity in the editor
Craft your own custom missions and mini-games in our powerful and user-friendly editor. Draw terrain, create scripts, modify units, and publish your map for the community to play. Gather data about your content to take your creations to the next level. Make something fun, share it with the world, and be rewarded for your effort and creativity.

 

[Keshik]

Well, the editor sounds like it might be somewhat fun.

 

[Lagi]

2 races only? screens doesnt look good for rts

 

[Jaedar]

2 Races, free to play, demons vs mechs.

At least it's probably going to be an RTS, which will make it the best RTS of the last decade by default

 

[Infinitron]

 

[MRY]

Blizzard's genius lay in how well it selected the things it took (Games Workshop's lore and look, Westwood's basic gameplay model), how well it refined them, and how high a level of polish it put on top of them (especially in voice acting). Neither the Steam page nor the cinematic elicits any positive reaction from me. It feels like they are trying to borrow from Blizzard, but that second-order borrowing doesn't seem particularly effective. A vaguely Diablo-Zerg hybrid fighting a vaguely Terran-Protosss hybrid with in a low energy MOBA-style cinematic has no particular resonance or impact. And the screenshots just look bad -- some weird fishbowl camera thing going on, no particular art direction in sight.

 

[Naraya]

The first truly social RTS

This doesn't sound appetizing.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I predict that in the story mode the human heroine will die and be resurrected as the demon queen, the demons will be revealed as actually good guys fleeing persecution, and the humans and demons will team up at the end against the real big bad evil guy.

I will be very surprised if that doesn’t happen. I might even be inclined to actually play the game.

 

[what am i doing]

More or less what I was expecting from gookclick devs.

 

[Naraya]

against the real big bad evil guy

Let me guess - it will be a white straight man.