I realise it is very early in the development phase of AotS however the engine is clearly in phenomenal shape.
I would be surprised if the developers / community have not suggested any of the below, but as feedback is encouraged here are my two pence:
Well it's not that early. The game releases in the next few months (the road map says February). I think we should expect some nice improvements until then, but the real game changes after release. Just a guess.
I agree with some of what you said. I try not to think of SupCom when thinking about Ashes because they have their own vision and some elements of SupCom don't fit.
Tentatively we release in March. But the roadmap for this game does out until 2022.
That long tail might seem unusual because it is. Most studios are early publicly owned OR they are WFH OR they rely on a third party publisher.
The reason there was no Supreme Commander 3 was because no publisher was willing to fund it.
The only reason Supreme Commander 2 came into being was because Square offered more to GPG to publish it (though at the cost of acquiring the IP) versus Stardock which just wanted to take Supreme Commander: FA and extend it further. We were "that close" to being the publisher to SupCom 2.
But with Ashes, we already have the third race designed, the naval units designed, the new economic and defensive buildings designed, dragon's teeth, multi-monitor support, advanced meta game features (control your empire from your mobile device). Etc.
But for us, we have to release these things in pieces.
The reason I bring all this up is that even if the suggestions in the OP can't be used in 1.0, we integrated them into our schedule.
I will fall asleep tonight dreaming about what SC2 could have been hahaha... I mean what SC2... lets just forget that stuff with square ever happened alright?
Haha, yes, it is an interesting imagination exercise. What killed SupCom2 for me was it being designed for weak consoles which made the game so much smaller. The economy really took a horrible step back with the initial release too, though the expansion improved the economy a lot fortunately. Also the lack of a map editor for the community. I think they said it was a 3rd party too so couldn't release it.
2022?! That is a long tail indeed. I am really glad to hear the game will grow. Hopefully the framework of your engine will allow you to update effects and scale and such if you want the game to last that long. Really hope you make enough from the game to fulfil all your plans.
I believe you though, I know you guys just did a patch for Galactic Civilization II, which after so long is very cool.
Any ETA for the Beta other than January?
Maybe parte that dream can have bit + fun ,we now have a Map Editor on Supreeme Commander 2, its the same has FA but with some bether changes.
A 6 year roadmap is very impressive. It is interesting to know that you guys came very close to getting SupCom 2, it is a shame that it turned out the way it did.
If you look back at so many franchises, the two most pertinent being C&C and SupCom, they got it so so right and then paradoxically got it so so wrong. The hardest thing to get right is the formula of strategy, the variations that can be employed by players alongside the balancing of the game to allow players the feeling of almost infinite freedom. That it was precisely my set of actions that led to victory, if I had taken any other step along the way I might not have won the skirmish.
I would happily support the game via paid expansions for units, maps and so on. I'm playing the game in its current form and it is my go to strategy game. I absolutely love it. It is the only game in my mind that can even be considered a true successor to TA, SupCom and C&C.
I do agree on the phased release, and I appreciate the sentiment that the points above have the possibility to come beyond 1.0. I work in this domain so I appreciate the risks. Minimally viable product first with a solid foundation and build out from there.
AotS in its current form only fills me with utter joy and is a fantastic achievement in its own right.
Roadmap of this game goes for another 6 years, that is very interesting indeed. If this game goes successfully, perhaps more developers might implement a similar strategy for their game development process. Even though that is very idealistic and dependent on a range of factors, one could only hope.This extensive long term plan has a very negative impact to Stardock though; that means Sins of a Solar Empire 2 isn't even in their crosshairs yet. ~Melodramatic Sigh~
Well 6 years or no, the game must feel finished at release to avoid a lot of negative publicity. GalCiv3 could have had a much better release if the devs had implemented more of the feedback that had been offered during the beta. GC3 release felt six months too early, so there are some lessons to learn in what not to do. Ashes might have a leg up over GC3 comparing apples to apples, 3 months prior to release. Ashes is fun, GC3 was tedious. But aside from the missing gameplay additions, the game needs polish in certain areas before it is release quality (army behavior and controls, responsiveness), and I hope the devs see the importance of that.
I totally agree, there are many examples where early access titles have rushed to release prematurely and received a lot of criticism.
I agree with most of the OP comments.
• Strategic zoomThe current zoom in AotS results in a very claustrophobic feeling, strategic zoom is essential for me. A smooth zoom transition to the strategic map would be fine.• PatrolsCurrent shortcut (F). I agree that unit aggression behaviours etc should be able to be selected for each army. I would also like to see formations.• ShieldsI am always ambivalent about shields in games, they are a good game mechanic, but provide little realism. I would like to see shields as well as other countermeasures such as anti-missiles, radar jamming, EMP etc.• Extend unit capabilityI would personally prefer individual unit upgrades instead of the quantum upgrades, although I can imagine the time/effort constraints against this.• CyberAt this stage there is nothing to steal. It would be good to see diversity between the factions, and it would be nice to be able to steal/capture other factions unique tech. If the factions differ greatly (eg biological vs mechanical), then it might make more sense to not have this.• Super weaponsThe plasma storm feels more like a support tool rather than a weapon, which is fine as it is.I would very much like to see a range of super weapons including nuclear missiles. It would also be nice if each faction had their own unique super weapon(s).• Special OpsCurrently as all of the ground units’ hover, they really should all be able to scale terrain (slowly). It would be nice for some units to have unique abilities such as jumping up terrain/over walls etc to give more variety.• "Experimentals"We have dreadnaughts, but these don't feel scary. After playing AotS, I am left with the desire for that "Krogoth" fix.• NavalI look forward to seeing naval battles down the road. As the current faction has entirely hover units, I just hope we don’t get a SupCom2 Illuminate treatment.• TransportsThe coming soon “Orbital Relay” “unlocks the teleport orbital calldown”, it will be interesting to see how this works. I certainly enjoyed the aircraft transport system in SupCom, it would be nice if something like this was able to be implemented in AotS.• DefensesWe have the Smarty System, Sentinel Turret, and Drone bay. I see what you mean, but don’t think “tesla coils” in particular would really be the right fit for this game. It would be nice to have more powerful defenses and/or longer range 'offensive' structures that could be used to create useful fire support bases, and provide more variety in our tactics.• Destructible mapI would like to see build-able walls to block routes to slow enemy advances etc, not sure if bridges in maps would be the way to go. I guess we will have to wait for the dragon's teeth to be released.
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