4 ms·

Anyone know how 'Alpha' this game is? I'm looking at their news archive and their first post is from 2003, then jumps to semi-regular posts starting 2011. Is th

Anyone know how 'Alpha' this game is? I'm looking at their news archive and their first post is from 2003, then jumps to semi-regular posts starting 2011. Is this a reasonably stable game? Is this like Dwarf Fortress and will just forever be in some alpha state?

joecot 6y ago
The biggest problem in this game is the networking. It seems to have the same sort of networking issues Age of Empires did before the HD revamp, except worse. Once you hit a 100+ units for each player, the gameplay slows down dramatically. If the multiplayer desyncs, the game is over and there's no way to continue. The unit pathfinding is pretty janky as well. I've played it, we liked it, but the multiplayer issues made it a non-starter for us. And while other changes have been made, it doesn't seem like any real networking optimizations have been made in years. The only recent change that might help is them adding a global population max in addition to a per player one, so you can keep the lag from getting too bad but add more units per player as other people get eliminated. But it's not enough.
- axaxs 6y ago
  Not sure that's networking. I play single player here and there to kill time. When a lot of units are moving, the game will literally freeze for seconds at a time.
badosu 6y ago
You can consider it indefinitely alpha at this point, unless dev adoption gets traction, especially engine/graphics specialists. That said, as a huge RTS and ancient history fan I can definitely say its mechanics/art/units make it stand out from other games - and have had lots of fun playing it continually for years.
heavyset_go 6y ago
It's enjoyably playable. I haven't noticed any bugs or warts that have bothered me for years. It was a different story several years ago.
evolve2k 6y ago
It’s highly playable for in-person LAN. I’ve said before; each year over summer my kids and I have a tradition of finding the game downloading the latest and locking in for a day or two of play. LAN Parties!

joecot 6y ago

The biggest problem in this game is the networking. It seems to have the same sort of networking issues Age of Empires did before the HD revamp, except worse. Once you hit a 100+ units for each player, the gameplay slows down dramatically. If the multiplayer desyncs, the game is over and there's no way to continue. The unit pathfinding is pretty janky as well. I've played it, we liked it, but the multiplayer issues made it a non-starter for us. And while other changes have been made, it doesn't seem like any real networking optimizations have been made in years. The only recent change that might help is them adding a global population max in addition to a per player one, so you can keep the lag from getting too bad but add more units per player as other people get eliminated. But it's not enough.

axaxs 6y ago
Not sure that's networking. I play single player here and there to kill time. When a lot of units are moving, the game will literally freeze for seconds at a time.

badosu 6y ago

You can consider it indefinitely alpha at this point, unless dev adoption gets traction, especially engine/graphics specialists. That said, as a huge RTS and ancient history fan I can definitely say its mechanics/art/units make it stand out from other games - and have had lots of fun playing it continually for years.

heavyset_go 6y ago

It's enjoyably playable. I haven't noticed any bugs or warts that have bothered me for years. It was a different story several years ago.

evolve2k 6y ago

It’s highly playable for in-person LAN. I’ve said before; each year over summer my kids and I have a tradition of finding the game downloading the latest and locking in for a day or two of play. LAN Parties!