End of Nations (MMORTS)

[Mrbloodworth]

A closer look at End of Nations units, customization, and gameplay from gamescom 2011

Long Presentation:

See more of End of Nations, the upcoming massive-scale RTS, than you've ever seen before as Petroglyph co-founder Mike Legg introduces us to units like the mechish Guardian and hovering Ragnarok, including their special abilities and how players can customize their looks. Then watch Mike and company put their skills to the test on a 9v9 map (huge by RTS terms, but smallish for EoN - which can support up to 26v26), unleashing unlockable commander weapons such as missile strikes and even a massive nuke!

[Draegan]

I have an interview with chris lena and a full 8v8 match.  Unfortunately I'm stuck traveling and whatever because of irene.  Stay tuned.

[Malakili]

Total biscuit did a WTF of this, and I'm at least still interested despite my numerous reservations.  I'm hoping I'll get into beta, but at least the free to play nature of the game means I can try it out regardless when it comes out.

[Ghambit]

The TB vid. wasnt very inspiring, albeit he did warn about that ahead of time and said to focus on MBW's video which is a lot more informative. 
Something about the former didnt sit well with me though and I could tell TB was less than enthused.

'Feel' is very important in an RTS and it just didnt look like it felt right.  It may be due to the fact there's essentially no real-world balance in a convention tech. demo.  Like the fact they essentially gave everyone every available unit.  I was expecting more niche-play.  For instance, if I wanted to focus my microtrans and statpoints  on a fully upgraded airquake strat.

[Malakili]

New article: http://www.rtsguru.com/game/16/features/198/End-of-Nations-PVP%2C-Cash-Shops%2C-and-Focus-Fire.html

Then we chatted a bit about the economy in End of Nations, and while there won’t be an Auction House or a Real-Money AH either, the former isn’t off the table. The team just wanted to focus on getting the RTS part of their game right, and the whole war meta-game that stretches the entire globe. To do that, they took some focus away from stuff that was beginning to feel like tacked on MMO features. That’s not to say an AH and other MMORPG aspects won’t ever make it in, but rather that for launch they wanted the strategic and competitive side of things polished as much as possible. For example, the bases which were going to be akin to player housing, are out for launch to be put back in at a later date. Crafting is also out for launch, because again it was just feeling too tacked on. If they do crafting, they want it done right and within the context of the game. Chances are we can expect both features to make their way back into EoN once it launches.

Sounds like good news.  The more RTS this is, the better.

[Ghambit]

Yah, but w/o the dollhouse at the very least, there shouldn't really even be any microtrans imo.  The only thing left to charge for is higher-powered unlocks or map content, which imba the game.  They'd be better served just charging a monthly sub.

[Malakili]

Yah, but w/o the dollhouse at the very least, there shouldn't really even be any microtrans imo.  The only thing left to charge for is higher-powered unlocks or map content, which imba the game.  They'd be better served just charging a monthly sub.

It sounds like you'll still be able to buy cosmetic things for your units.  Its just that they have replaced player bases with loadout screens (which is all that bases were functionally anyway).  At least that is what I take from it.  I don't like the sound of buying units though - even units you've already unlocked. In fact, that model in general makes me nervous, whether it is from the store or found in game.  Specifically I mean having to actually someone find/buy/earn 3 tanks so you can use three in battle.  I kind of assumed once you unlocked something you could just use it in your army as much as you like provided you didn't exceed the map's point limit

[Mrbloodworth]

During the past weekend's Eurogamer Expo, Trion announced that the MMORTS will be released "sometime in 2012" which is a delay from the original anticipated arrival by the end of 2011.

[Speedy Cerviche]

I guess they realized their game looks boring as fuck and they're going to use the extra time to add some fun to it.

[Draegan]

If you like RTSs the game is pretty fun to play.  It's all the action but you limit yourself to just a certain load out of vehicles and no base building. 

You do get special abilities to place turrets and other temp structures so that's pretty cool.  Any special abilities like nukes.

[Shatter]

I guess they realized their game looks boring as fuck and they're going to use the extra time to add some fun to it.

Miracle patch?

[Mrbloodworth]

That doesn't even make sense.

[Malakili]

This isn't any surprise, they totally overhauled the game starting a few months ago.   It looks a lot better since then in my opinion, better not to hose yourself from the beginning.   I wouldn't be surprised if we saw beta fire up by the end of the year though.  The only problem I see is that they might be shooting for a niche that doesn't exist.

[Dark_MadMax]

This isn't any surprise, they totally overhauled the game starting a few months ago.   It looks a lot better since then in my opinion, better not to hose yourself from the beginning.   I wouldn't be surprised if we saw beta fire up by the end of the year though.  The only problem I see is that they might be shooting for a niche that doesn't exist.

Depends... - there are many RTS players,  you might be right though because CoH  online failed , I dont know the reasons why but given that CoH was one of the better RTS franchises out there it makes possible EoN future rather bleak.

[Malakili]

This isn't any surprise, they totally overhauled the game starting a few months ago.   It looks a lot better since then in my opinion, better not to hose yourself from the beginning.   I wouldn't be surprised if we saw beta fire up by the end of the year though.  The only problem I see is that they might be shooting for a niche that doesn't exist.

Depends... - there are many RTS players,  you might be right though because CoH  online failed , I dont know the reasons why but given that CoH was one of the better RTS franchises out there it makes possible EoN future rather bleak.

It seems to me that the online RTS community is rather competitive.  EoN seems to want to give these players something, but they also want to give casual RTS players something to do online an dnot feel like chumps.   This seems like a great idea in principle, but I am not sure if enough people consider themselves fans enough of the genre to begin that they would try this out.   Co-op missions to unlock new unnits and so forth sounds like it would appeal to a lot of the people who normally don't venture online in RTS.  So does large scale 24x24 matches, because it takes osme of that individual heat off.  There is definitely a logical idea behind it, but since I don't know that anyone has tried this like this before, it is going to be hard to know before release whether or not the player base to fill it up is actually out there.

[Malakili]

http://www.youtube.com/endofnations

New Weekly updates called the Warfront.  First one released today.  I am hoping this is a step towards more info being released and beta starting up in some reasonable time frame.  There is still painfully little real information about this game out there.

[Mrbloodworth]

End of Nations™ Warfront 02: "Massive Scale, Minimal Cost"

End of Nations Conquer the World Trailer [HD] [/url]

[Malakili]

Unrelated to that particular video, I've been enjoying the Art of War discussion thread series on their forums.  Its just about topics related to RTS gaming generally speaking, but I feel like its been a good way to promote decent discussion and community involvement.  I'm still not 100% sold on the game, but the community over there is actually pretty reasonable.  Of course, it'll tank once beta starts, as usual.

[Mrbloodworth]

End of Nations Warfront 04: Have a very merry Warfront

[Malakili]

Game seems to be shaping up.  These warfront videos are a bit on the cheesy side, but given the fact that they were radio silent  for months after they decided to do their rework of the game, I guess I'm just happy they are regularly releasing updates at this point.

[Malakili]

Overview of the map Deep Hammer released:   Apparently this is an 8v8 map.  Apparently there is more information on facebook if you like the page or something, but I don't have facebook so oh well.

[Draegan]

I played that map at PAX Prime.  Kinda big and fun if you like RTSs.  Was only doing 4v4 at the time.

[Malakili]

Big break down of the above map: http://eontube.com/index.php?/page/index.html/_/articles/a-strategic-breakdown-of-deep-hammer-r25  Lots of info.

[Malakili]

http://forums.endofnations.com/end-nations-general-discussions/general-discussion/1466-trion-worlds-secures-85-million-investment.html

"Trion’s next two titles will showcase the company’s operational agility and the strength of its technology platform. End of Nations™, the company’s highly anticipated massively multiplayer real-time strategy game being developed with Petroglyph Games, is scheduled to start rolling out in early 2012."

I can't imagine the release is actually being released in "early 2012" given that there is so little public information about a lot of things still.  However, maybe this means we will get an announcement about the start of Beta soon.

[Malakili]

Looks like they are about ready to ramp up for beta, they've been giving out keys on twitter and facebook, and seem to be holding some contents on their forums for them.

Also, here is a huge set of screenshots: http://eondepot.com/2012/02/nations-pre-beta-images/

[Draegan]

Those are just a bunch of released screenshots from the passed year or so for press releases.

You should be getting some good stuff over the next week or so.  I was invited to head out to San Fran to check out the game but unfortunately I can't make it due to conflicting schedules.  Few other sites should get some good stuff.

[Ghambit]

There's a "hammer deep" EoN fb subpage with a beta code embedded in the image.  I just applied it, so give it a try and maybe you'll get in.

[Mrbloodworth]

There's a "hammer deep" EoN fb subpage with a beta code embedded in the image.  I just applied it, so give it a try and maybe you'll get in.

Where what?

NVM, figured it out!

[Ghambit]

There's a "hammer deep" EoN fb subpage with a beta code embedded in the image.  I just applied it, so give it a try and maybe you'll get in.

Where what?

NVM, figured it out!

Is it still working??  It's been up a while.  (not that it matters, there is no beta yet really)

[Mrbloodworth]

Yeah it works. If you "like" it, you can hover spots on the image to be granted a beta key. I entered mine and its now on my account.

[Jherad]

That key is out of uses now - the German version still has some though. 

[Malakili]

They just overhauled the website.  Some new info up as well - particularly on the classes available.

http://endofnations.com/en/

[Malakili]

Gasp: Actually new and useful video:
Actual gameplay!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Fx4_dZsisQU


Looks ok.

[Ghambit]

Did this just get pushed back to "closed alpha" status?

[Malakili]

Did this just get pushed back to "closed alpha" status?

As far as I know they've only ever been in closed alpha?