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It's a open source RTS (real time strategy) game similar to the Age of Empires game series. It's great that 0 A.D. is coming along fine :) Microsoft closed Ens

by frik 13y ago

It's a open source RTS (real time strategy) game similar to the Age of Empires game series. It's great that 0 A.D. is coming along fine :) Microsoft closed Ensemble Studios (the maker of Age of Empires). And EA canceled "Command & Conquer: Generals 2" as of October 29, 2013. Sadly, beside Star Craft 2 (its SciFi theme is not for everyone) no triple-A RTS games are in active development :( Back in 2000 there was the last RTS hype and one had troubles to find a new roleplaying game. As more and more players are moving back to PC/notebooks and tablets that all have better navigation interfaces than the bad controllers, I hope RTS games come back :)

cclogg 13y ago
Yeah I miss that RTS golden age haha. SC/War3 custom maps too man! You'd think there'd be way more awesome RTS's for tablets, given the controls can work so well. The situation right now seems to be kind of stuck between the Farmville/Clans type stuff from the Facebook world, and tower defenses.
- DanBC 13y ago
  Also considering connectivity is so much better - people could set up local networks really easily now.
- etherealG 13y ago
  the sc2 custom map thing is pretty big these days. they have a whole 'arcade' section of the game designed around customisation, you should try it out :)
  - cclogg 13y ago
    Has it changed much since the first year or so? I was pretty big in that community but the reality was the editor was too difficult for most people and the popularity system ended up creating a cyclical loop of the same maps (ie similar to the app store problem). The brilliance of WC3 was the named-game system that allowed people to host whatever and fill games instantly. Battle.net was much more social-friendly too, and the editor itself provided a lot of power, but was not insanely difficult to figure out. I found the custom games in SC2 were of quite low quality just because of how much work it took to do anything.
    - kzrdude 13y ago
      the SC2 arcade is soon going free to play. Hopefully that changes something.
stonith 13y ago
Company of Heroes 2 was released this year, so while it's true none are in active developement, one did come out very recently from a non-Blizzard source. It would be most sad if SC2 effectively killed off competition, since it's going downhill in terms of popularity. I think kickstarter is a decent chance of filling the gap - there are a lot of RTS fans who are dissatisfied with SC2 for a variety of reasons and don't like Dota.
- chii 13y ago
  i quite like planetary annihilation. It's on steam - but its absurdly expensive for some reason...not sure why.
  - Erwin 13y ago
    They're matching the pricing of the Kickstarter -- pledging more got you early access, so they didn't want people to get the same early access for less just because the game is on Steam now. Once the game is actually ready, and not in Alpha, the pricing will become sane. It's the opposite of the e.g. Minecraft model where alpha was cheap.
renekooi 13y ago
Ensemble Studios might be closed, but Age of Empires 2 is still very much alive. For one, a 50,000$ team tournament is scheduled for March 2014[1], and a 20,000$ 1v1 tourney has just finished a week ago! There is a UserPatch that is in active development, adding such things as widescreen, multi-monitor support and fixing tons of bugs that have existed for 14 years[2]. Of course there's also the new HD version, which is in active development, but also kind of bug-ridden. A popular AoE2 caster and commentator by the name of ZeroEmpires has a nice quick video on the current AoE scene[3]. AoE2 is still a triple-A RTS game, even after more than a decade of abandonment ;) [1] http://www.aoczone.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=96960 http://www.aoczone.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=96960 [2] http://userpatch.aiscripters.net/ http://userpatch.aiscripters.net/ [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_uOIV3SkAc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_uOIV3SkAc e; 0ad is really nice as well. Actually, I've not played it a lot at all, but from what I've experienced it's better than Age of Empires 3. It lacks some of the strategic aspect of AoE2 but wins in other areas (such as, not having archaic graphics, and supporting monitors > 1280x800 out of the box.)
mstrem 13y ago
Not all is lost. Let's not forget to mention the Spring RTS open source engine: http://springrts.com/ http://springrts.com/ which has some really good free games (usually based on Total Annihilation). Also new currently in beta (it has already been mentioned), Planetary Annihilation: http://www.uberent.com/pa/ http://www.uberent.com/pa/
- shavenwarthog2 13y ago
  Thanks! I looooved Total Annihilation, I'd love to play some more!
- tobias2014 13y ago
  I can recommend Zero-K (http://zero-k.info/ http://zero-k.info/) and NOTA (http://nota.machys.net/ http://nota.machys.net/) as very polished AAA RTS games based on SpringRTS. As is always the case for games the available screenshots/media don't reflect the actual gameplay. I suggest you give it a try :)
- smithzvk 13y ago
  There is also MegaGlest, which is under active development and already pretty good. One cool feature that I don't see elsewhere is the fully 3D positionable camera.
tel 13y ago
Planetary Annihilation is in development.

by frik 13y ago

cclogg 13y ago

Yeah I miss that RTS golden age haha. SC/War3 custom maps too man! You'd think there'd be way more awesome RTS's for tablets, given the controls can work so well. The situation right now seems to be kind of stuck between the Farmville/Clans type stuff from the Facebook world, and tower defenses.

DanBC 13y ago
Also considering connectivity is so much better - people could set up local networks really easily now.
etherealG 13y ago
the sc2 custom map thing is pretty big these days. they have a whole 'arcade' section of the game designed around customisation, you should try it out :)
- cclogg 13y ago
  Has it changed much since the first year or so? I was pretty big in that community but the reality was the editor was too difficult for most people and the popularity system ended up creating a cyclical loop of the same maps (ie similar to the app store problem). The brilliance of WC3 was the named-game system that allowed people to host whatever and fill games instantly. Battle.net was much more social-friendly too, and the editor itself provided a lot of power, but was not insanely difficult to figure out. I found the custom games in SC2 were of quite low quality just because of how much work it took to do anything.
  - kzrdude 13y ago
    the SC2 arcade is soon going free to play. Hopefully that changes something.

stonith 13y ago

Company of Heroes 2 was released this year, so while it's true none are in active developement, one did come out very recently from a non-Blizzard source. It would be most sad if SC2 effectively killed off competition, since it's going downhill in terms of popularity. I think kickstarter is a decent chance of filling the gap - there are a lot of RTS fans who are dissatisfied with SC2 for a variety of reasons and don't like Dota.

chii 13y ago
i quite like planetary annihilation. It's on steam - but its absurdly expensive for some reason...not sure why.
- Erwin 13y ago
  They're matching the pricing of the Kickstarter -- pledging more got you early access, so they didn't want people to get the same early access for less just because the game is on Steam now. Once the game is actually ready, and not in Alpha, the pricing will become sane. It's the opposite of the e.g. Minecraft model where alpha was cheap.

renekooi 13y ago

Ensemble Studios might be closed, but Age of Empires 2 is still very much alive. For one, a 50,000$ team tournament is scheduled for March 2014[1], and a 20,000$ 1v1 tourney has just finished a week ago! There is a UserPatch that is in active development, adding such things as widescreen, multi-monitor support and fixing tons of bugs that have existed for 14 years[2]. Of course there's also the new HD version, which is in active development, but also kind of bug-ridden. A popular AoE2 caster and commentator by the name of ZeroEmpires has a nice quick video on the current AoE scene[3]. AoE2 is still a triple-A RTS game, even after more than a decade of abandonment ;) [1] http://www.aoczone.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=96960 http://www.aoczone.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=96960 [2] http://userpatch.aiscripters.net/ http://userpatch.aiscripters.net/ [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_uOIV3SkAc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_uOIV3SkAc e; 0ad is really nice as well. Actually, I've not played it a lot at all, but from what I've experienced it's better than Age of Empires 3. It lacks some of the strategic aspect of AoE2 but wins in other areas (such as, not having archaic graphics, and supporting monitors > 1280x800 out of the box.)

mstrem 13y ago

Not all is lost. Let's not forget to mention the Spring RTS open source engine: http://springrts.com/ http://springrts.com/ which has some really good free games (usually based on Total Annihilation). Also new currently in beta (it has already been mentioned), Planetary Annihilation: http://www.uberent.com/pa/ http://www.uberent.com/pa/

shavenwarthog2 13y ago
Thanks! I looooved Total Annihilation, I'd love to play some more!
tobias2014 13y ago
I can recommend Zero-K (http://zero-k.info/ http://zero-k.info/) and NOTA (http://nota.machys.net/ http://nota.machys.net/) as very polished AAA RTS games based on SpringRTS. As is always the case for games the available screenshots/media don't reflect the actual gameplay. I suggest you give it a try :)
smithzvk 13y ago
There is also MegaGlest, which is under active development and already pretty good. One cool feature that I don't see elsewhere is the fully 3D positionable camera.

tel 13y ago

Planetary Annihilation is in development.