"MMORTS" Is A Real Thing, Honest

[News Reader]

"MMORTS" Is A Real Thing, Honest
MMORTS games keeping being talked about by various beardymen, but I can only remember ever playing one, or maybe two? Anyway, they weren't great, nor memorable, clearly. Reverie World Studios are aiming to change that with Dawn Of Fantasy, which is both beautiful and epic (see trailer below) thanks to judicious use of GRAPHICS. Woo! [...]

Author: Jim Rossignol
Category: RockPaperShotgun 505 games dawn of fantasy reverie world studios
Publish Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 08:23:43 +0000



MMORTS games keeping being talked about by various beardymen, but I can only remember ever playing one, or maybe two? Anyway, they weren't great, nor memorable, clearly. Reverie World Studios are aiming to change that with Dawn Of Fantasy, which is both beautiful and epic (see trailer below) thanks to judicious use of GRAPHICS. Woo! See how they sparkle.

The game will be released June 3rd 2011, and we'll play it. You can try to play it now, actually, as there's a closed beta in progress. Anyway, when I have played it we will say that I have played maybe three MMORTS games, so it's a real genre now. Okay.

(more...)



Read more... - Read comments...

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

[Joose]

In theory:

But like they say in the comments over there: How the hell does it work? I cant think of a way that isnt either:

1) Horribly harsh on players
2) Horribly unrealistic
3) Not actually an MMO.

[Baliame]

In theory:

But like they say in the comments over there: How the hell does it work? I cant think of a way that isnt either:

1) Horribly harsh on players

Much like a Eve, which is really closer to MMORTS than MMONG.

I'm inclined to agree with this point, but RTSes are harsh by default. There's no point fluffing it up. Look at Travian for example, it's essentially an MMORTS but if you don't have full commitment and just hang around you'll be utterly destroyed within a week. Stuff doesn't get harsher than that.

2) Horribly unrealistic

Oh, quite right, MMOs are a realistic. My neighbour is a goblin, yep.

3) Not actually an MMO.

That really depends on what qualifies as an MMO. For RPGs this obviously means 10000ish people online at the same time in a vast world, but RPGs are traditionally playable by more people at the same time. For an RTS I'd say 256 people in the same world would qualify as "massively" multiplayer.

Now, if I had to guess how it would happen, I'd say it's basically Travian with a shiny interface. As in stuff might take days to build and armies need hours to march.

[Joose]

Oh, quite right, MMOs are a realistic. My neighbour is a goblin, yep.

Seriously? You haven't yet realised that when people say "realistic" in this context they mean it in relative terms? In a game set in a fantasy world, goblins are perfectly realistic. I'm talking about taking suspension of disbelief too far. It's one thing to have a single person fade out of existence when a player logs out, but an rts players in game presence isn't one guy, it's a load of guys, seine engines, buildings, maybe a castle and other buildings. Having all that disappear when someone logs out, and reappear when they log in, that's *too* unrealistic for players to accept as a constant world. That's what I mean by unrealistic.

The alternative would be for all that stuff to stay behind. But then the best tactic will always be to wait till a player logs off, then rape all his stuff whilst it's undefended. Which, yes, is basically how eve does things, the difference there being eve has lots of players building stuff cooperatively, rather than one player building lots of stuff. It's easier to keep someone online to keep an eye on things, and when it does go badly wrong, there's a bunch of you to put it right again. Having to start again from scratch every time you get offline pwned would be horrible. So what we are talking about there is a game thats even harsher than eve, a game famous for being really harsh. I think you would have a hell of a job selling that game.

[deject]

Now, if I had to guess how it would happen, I'd say it's basically Travian with a shiny interface. As in stuff might take days to build and armies need hours to march.

Yeah because waiting hours and days to get to the fights is sooooooooooooo much fun. Every time I play a game I think, "You know what would make this way more fun? Not being able to do anything for 9 hours."

[Dog Pants]

DoW2 turned into a squad based MMO. Et voilat, MMORTS. Not a traditional RTS, but one nontheless. And one I'd like to play actually.

[spoodie]

Ooooooooooh!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmauUbBKXII[/media]

[Baliame]

Seriously? You haven't yet realised that when people say "realistic" in this context they mean it in relative terms?

Well, if you're not being concrete, I can't be sure what you're thinking about.

Also, yes, it seems there are two scenarios for what we define as an MMO, a persistent world with Travian speed or a non-persistent world where you disappear when you log out. Neither is ideal. What I could imagine that would actually work, isn't your usual MMO - it's basically be RTS on large scale, a heavily strategic high player count game, imagine ye olde online RTS except with two-layer maps, one layer is the overview and the other layer is the battlefields and castles.

Yeah because waiting hours and days to get to the fights is sooooooooooooo much fun. Every time I play a game I think, "You know what would make this way more fun? Not being able to do anything for 9 hours."

Ooooooooooh, someone's sure sarcastic today. Well. Never suggested it should be like that, back to your seat, you get an F.

Really, it depends on how you define the MMO. If it's persistent-world, the long timespan is unavoidable. If it isn't persistent world you could argue it's not an MMO.

[deject]

Maybe it's just a bad idea then.

[Baliame]

I was right. It's Travian.

Offering a persistent online experience, Dawn of Fantasy's MMORTS, or Online Kingdom, mode gameplay revolves around a player's Homeland territory, which can be built in one of nine regions across the game world of Mythador. Players will develop their homeland from a couple buildings, villagers, and a hero unit to a massive empire complete with layers of heavy walls and keeps, a complex economy, and a number of armies and trade caravans wandering the map. To develop this city, players can gather resources, construct various buildings, recruit new units, and research powerful upgrades and new abilities. Even when a player is offline, their homeland will still be in development with the worker units still gathering resources and finishing constructing any buildings tasked shortly before logging off. Although, the gathering, construction, and training rates are significantly slower than in the fast-paced Skirmish modes.

[Joose]

I was right. It's Travian.

Based on this, my money is on Horrible Fail.

DoW2 turned into a squad based MMO

So essentially it plays kinda like a traditional MMO, but with a squad instead of a character? That does sound kinda interesting, actually.

[friznit]

Looks more like a half baked reason to avoid writing an AI engine than any real developments in the MMO direction. It'll probably end up being one of those good games that'd be great if only you had someone/thing to play against.