Soo... When is the next patch?

NTJedi · #1 September 21st, 2007, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Gandalf Parker said:
Hmmm as nice as that sounds, the newsgroups for discussing strategy games has gone from hundreds of posts a day to a couple of dozen posts over the last year. There just doesnt seem to be much to discuss after we all figured out that we were playing games that were a few years old.

Somehow I dont see the pleasant trend getting us more games.

Stardock the creators of Galactic Civilizations are developing a Fantasy TBS game for SP and MP. They wanted to create the sequel for MastersofMagic yet Atari didn't want to sell the name. I believe its estimated release is the end of next year.

Humakty · #2 September 21st, 2007, 10:22 AM

What really killed the creation of new 4X games (and more classical strategy games) is the passion editors seem to have with 3D. You end up with games offering you very small maps, and most of the time repetitive strategies.

What also is strange is the tendency to publish all games on the same period at the same time.(I can't play any WW2 games anymore, got totally disgusted...)( they did the same with greek mythology)(all that to say that, when they've got an idea(WHAW!!!), they use it to produce 10 to 20+ games on a period of 2+ years).

3D doesn't favorise mods either.(and creating mod friendly games isn't the trend anymore).

If anyone here is working in the marvellous game edition domain, I wanna say (as usual) I'm so sorry...

Chacal · #3 September 22nd, 2007, 01:45 PM

Well, it's logical computer (un)evolution.
Now you can have very nice graphics with cool 3D effects that are catching eyes of potentiale buyers. In the past, the relativly poor graphs were a good pretext to offer deep strategy games. Unfortunatly for us, like all industry, the game industry focus on what sells better. So only few editors take a risk to publish strategy games. And even them put more time and bucks on graphs that on deep of scenario or quality.

So we have to count on fantastic teams like Illwinter that will coninue to do games we like.

Personnaly I prefer amator games with relativly simple graphics like Dominions 3 that we can easly custm that projects where you have to be almost a 3d designer with thousand dollars software needed to edit a simple unit.

Meglobob · #4 September 22nd, 2007, 01:55 PM

I have to say the last year has been dire for strategy games.

Fortunately, I have had Dom 3 to play during that time.

Other than GC2, Dom3 and Civ4 expansions what else has there been?

Can anyone name any good strategy games released in the last year that I may have missed due to my immersion in Dom 3?

sum1lost · #5 September 22nd, 2007, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Meglobob said:
I have to say the last year has been dire for strategy games.

Fortunately, I have had Dom 3 to play during that time.

Other than GC2, Dom3 and Civ4 expansions what else has there been?

Can anyone name any good strategy games released in the last year that I may have missed due to my immersion in Dom 3?

Slitherine produces historical 4X games which are supposed to be pretty good, but the only game of theirs I bought was a very odd RTS hybrid.

HolyFire · #6 September 22nd, 2007, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Meglobob said:
Can anyone name any good strategy games released in the last year that I may have missed due to my immersion in Dom 3?

Does SE5 count?

Szumo · #7 September 22nd, 2007, 04:39 PM

SE5 does not count. Big disappointment over SE4

HolyFire · #8 September 22nd, 2007, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Szumo said:
SE5 does not count. Big disappointment over SE4

Are you saying this because of the numerous bugs at the original release (most of which have by now been fixed), or for other reasons?

Theonlystd · #9 September 22nd, 2007, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Meglobob said:
I have to say the last year has been dire for strategy games.

Fortunately, I have had Dom 3 to play during that time.

Other than GC2, Dom3 and Civ4 expansions what else has there been?

Can anyone name any good strategy games released in the last year that I may have missed due to my immersion in Dom 3?

Well Sword of the Stars .. Even with its expansion its still pretty simple economic and colony wise .. But hopefully its the start of more turn based strategy games making use of pretty graphics and such in that way ..

NTJedi · #10 September 24th, 2007, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Humakty said:
What really killed the creation of new 4X games (and more classical strategy games) is the passion editors seem to have with 3D. You end up with games offering you very small maps, and most of the time repetitive strategies.

...

3D doesn't favorise mods either.(and creating mod friendly games isn't the trend anymore).

I completely agree... so many developers and publishing companies are lured into believing gamers care more about pretty graphics than game quality and game content.
This has hurt even the RTS games such as Warcraft_3 with the 96X96 size map limitation. It's frustrating to see so much effort being forced into better graphics which results in small maps, less game options, and a less satisfying overall product.
It's like discovering your favorite vehicle has a new model available, yet when you look under the hood it has worse performance, uses more gas, less safety, fewer options, etc; , and all just for better appearance. The worst part is this has been continuing in the gaming industry for 5 years now.

We're stuck waiting for the game companies to return with building quality instead of focusing on appearance.