In the competition for the most banal, vulgar and artless name End of Nations It would be easy to get gold. As if the developers deliberately chose a dozen words of the most hackneyed by game marketing, fed them to the generator of random numbers, and he gave out the result – sonorous and absolutely meaningless. Just on the phrase "Command & Conquer: Online »U Petroglyph No right. And in fact it is he! We contacted the heads of the studio and in a half -hour telephone conversation we learned the most important details about the new game.
Again in business
At first glance, we have a classic C& C-Strategy: powerful tanks, planes, destroyed cities, the confrontation of transnational organizations. The role of "Ecumenical Evil" went to Order of Nations – a powerful union that controls most of the world and brutally suppresses freedom and democracy in any manifestations. It is not surprising that they have many enemies who are sometimes unable to agree among themselves and act as a united front.
The surroundings are appropriate. In one of the fresh videos we were shown a huge futuristic fortress. Inaccessible walls, guns the size of a five-story house, tanks scurrying back and forth-it’s hard to believe that one day the bastion will fall. With a common pathos, a slightly bright visual series does not fit slightly. Although, given the previous projects of the studio, you do not have to be surprised. Petroglyph was created by immigrants from Westwood , That is, we have the real authors of C & C. In their past games, they experimented with the setting ( University at War , MyTheon ), and now they returned to their native RTS-stichia.
Tactical variations
The missions in the game are quite diverse: break through the guard ring and kill the general, seize the runway, destroy the giant prototype tank. The multi -ton Makhina arrived at us straight from Universe At War. “This is not a youth with a long strip of health,” President Petroglyph Mike Legag explained to us in a conversation. – To defeat, it is necessary to alternately disable separate nodes: weapons, protection system, engines. You can deprive the tank of the ability to move or suppress its firepower – the choice for the player ".
The life of a recruit in End of Nations consists not only of exploits. The authors promise a lot of side tasks that bring quick dividends. You can help the unprincipled weapon dealer (for a real businessman, profit is always ahead of politics), run around the district in search of resources, attack one of the secondary bases. End of Nations encourages research. Those who risk turning from the main path are waiting for a lot of interesting.
The path to life. The story of Petroglyph Games
Petroglyph Games – veterans of the virtual entertainment industry with many years of experience behind the back. The ideological inspirer End of Nations Joe Bostik worked on Dune 2 , which, even if it was not formally, was not the first RTS, but actually laid the foundations of the genre. The backbone of the team consists of former employees Westwood – The very people who gave us the legendary series Command & Conquer.
In 1998, Westwood became part Electronic Arts , And, unfortunately, this was the beginning of the end. Tiberian Sun failed to surpass the first part of C& C, and the Renegade shooter remained an unsuccessful experiment. In March 2003, large bosses recognized the unprofitable studio and eliminated it. Someone moved to EA Los Angeles, but many employees, including the founders of Petroglyph, Mike Legga, Joe Bostik and Steve Tolla, preferred to move to free bread.
The first project of Rebelpets was Star Wars: Empire at War-surprisingly high-quality and interesting RTS in the surroundings of the distant and distant galaxy. Feeling the strength, Petroglyph began to experiment. At first there was an innovative Universe At War, then two fairly successful taps, finally, recently, a MYTHEON-multiplayer Action-RPG with a “Korean” payment system was born.
From each by abilities
Now imagine that you will have to do all this with your teammates. The idea of MMORTS is by no means new, but Petroglyph claim that only their game is worthy to be called a real online strategy.
In fact, this is a real MMORPG – only instead of individual heroes there is a base and army. In End of Nations there are three classes: scout, tanker and artilleryman. Associations with World in Conflict is better to quickly sweep out, because we choose ourselves the role of not one match, but for the whole game life (if you want to change the class, we will have to start the game first) https://betfred-gb-casino.co.uk/.
“We offer not a ready -made set of units, like other RTS, but a direction for further development,” says project manager Joe Bostik. – Participating in battles, the player earns experience of experience, grows in titles, in his arsenal certain special skills appear. Thus, you can gradually configure the class under your game manner of the game. ". The main thing is not to be mistaken. High -speed, but easily armored troops are available to the scout, the tanker relies on heavy equipment, but the artilleryman is responsible for support: under his command there are long -range howitzers and volley systems.
Each unit has been given the price depending on the power, and special limiters are installed on the maps. Roughly speaking, it is allowed to take five heavy units, ten medium or fifteen lungs. Such a system equalizes players of different levels. Of course, Papa has more experience, and other opportunities, but the newcomer always has a chance to leave the winner even from the battle with the veteran.
In the lair
After a successful operation (or shameful defeat), the player returns to his secret den. This is a military town whose analogue is available in any RTS. In the hangar, military equipment is waiting for their turn, scientists are hovering bald heads, helicopters are busy busily, a ballistic missile rises aside. The development of the base requires capital investments. Charpses and factories cost money (as for weapons of mass destruction, you will have to pay separately for the launchers and missiles), and advanced buildings are completely available only when a certain level is reached.
The most important component of MMORPG is pumping. Joe Zorko makes sure that the game follow the canons: “New skills, troops, missions are opening. The size of the base increases. But the complexity of the game is growing ". At the very beginning, at our disposal, standard models are tanks, “hammers”, non -proclaim guns. Time goes on, and more and more interesting specimens appear in the garage. Something is given to us as a reward for the Feat of Features, we are exchanging something from friends-Generals.
Particularly valuable samples still have to run. “It's like a collection of figures for desktop wargam,” Joe notes. The keyword here is "collection". Just as in a role -playing game you can assemble a set consisting of several items (for example, a sword, chain mail and a helmet) and get a pleasant bonus, there are units in End of Nations, which in combination with each other allow us to carry out a special attack.
The right of the first. Whether there is a genre MMORTS?
The authors of End of Nations insist that their game is the first true Mmors. It is difficult to argue with this statement that, however, does not mean that no one had tried to unite popular genres before.
Take, for example, Worldshift – A strange game where you can pump your troops in multiplayer mode, and then return to single and use the acquired skills against AI. Or Battleforge -The unsuccessful attempt of EA to cross Magic: The Gathering and the classic RTS gimple. The Kingdom Under Fire 2-sequel to the popular Xbox strategies that has not yet been prominent. Large -scale battles and chic graphics make you forget that the game is from South Korea.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg! If we consider the term MMORTS in the widest sense, the list will be much larger. It will get there easily Darkworld – A minimalistic space strategy, where all events do not occur in “real”, but in real time (the fleet gets to the target for several hours or even days), Dreamlords -gloomy fantasy-adventure in the lost world, Galaxy Online. And many more different games.
The empire of good
The basis of end of nations are large-scale PVE. ENVIRONMENT; A player against a computer), where we selflessly circle the driven AI hordes, carry out instructions of various characters, collect trophies and ride. At first glance, the process looks unpretentious. I circled the army with the mouse, poked it into the enemy and wait for the results.
There is no economy. Construction on the battlefield is also (at least from our side; at the disposal of Order of Nations, automatic factories that regularly spit out fresh detachments). In some places you can heal or get reinforcements, but in general, counting on free bonuses you do not have to. What is – so we are fighting. Another thing is that up to 50 players can participate in the battle at the same time (although the developers still think about a possible maximum), which completely changes the usual conditions of the battle.
The coalition of evil
PVP sabotage is impressive a little less-there is a limitation of 10×10 players here, but in what other strategy you can fight at once with ten opponents? PVP nail will undoubtedly be a global regime. Players are divided into teams, and a long battle begins for the territory. At the end, the winners receive prizes, the world map returns to the pristine state, and the next season starts. But the experience for destroying their own kind is not charged; "Muscles" grow only in PVE.
By the way, in different modes, the work of superweapon is different. In PVP, we capture command points and copy the tools for impact, while in PVE everything is much more honest: if there is a rocket or flock of fighters on the base, then they can be used. Unfortunately, aviation cannot be controlled directly. We indicate the goal – bombs fly from the sky. The fleet in the game will not be at all.
The main question that we asked the developers, of course, concerned the balance sheet. After all, twenty players in PVP and fifty in PVE are not jokes. “No problem,” Joe Bostik reassures. – We do not strive to collect everyone at one point, rather the opposite. Each has its own goal, often detachments shares a considerable distance. Yes, it is sometimes more profitable to organize a joint attack, but we do not force anyone. Want to act alone – please ".
It is important to note that many tasks are interconnected. Destroying the enemy barracks or artillery attitude, we will save the lives of subordinates and help the allies. “Fifty players are not the limit,” adds Joe. -There are no technical obstacles, but we decided not to chase the numbers, otherwise traffic jams can arise in some places. ”.
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Whether it will be possible to balance a couple of hundred units? How exciting will the hunt for rare models be? Will the non -standard concept be able to attract enough subscribers? It is impossible to predict the future, but the creators are very optimistic: “Development will not stop after the release. We will regularly add cards and equipment, full-fledged aviation will appear, it is possible that someday it will reach sea battles. The essence of MMO is in constant development ". You can't argue with such a statement. It remains only to nod and hope for a favorable outcome.
We will wait? According to the assurances of the authors – the first MMORTS in the world. In our opinion – without five minutes C & C: Online.
Percentage of readiness: 50%