Anyone else looking forward to this game? I've got a friend in the beta and he says it's awesome. It's got all of the complexity of a decent empire building game (more like 4x deep rather than RTS deep, even though it's real time), and given how the closed beta has been going for a while, it seems like they're pretty far along.

This is a genre that is really untapped. There's a few games out there, but none that have really caught my attention. I'm really looking forward to this game.

What other games have you people tried? Saga looks interesting. I've tried Shattered Galaxy, but found that too simple and repetive. Mankind was difficult to grasp, so I never got the hang of it.

Originally posted by Mylon

Anyone else looking forward to this game? I've got a friend in the beta and he says it's awesome. It's got all of the complexity of a decent empire building game (more like 4x deep rather than RTS deep, even though it's real time), and given how the closed beta has been going for a while, it seems like they're pretty far along.

This is a genre that is really untapped. There's a few games out there, but none that have really caught my attention. I'm really looking forward to this game.

What other games have you people tried? Saga looks interesting. I've tried Shattered Galaxy, but found that too simple and repetive. Mankind was difficult to grasp, so I never got the hang of it.

never heard of it

I really can’t wait for a game is this genre to come out.  And I love the name, I’ll check it out, thanks.

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Originally posted by Catizone
never heard of it

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Yeah, pretty much my reaction too. However, it's due out pretty soon summer 2008), and we all know release makes or breaks games. Let's hope when the open beta rolls around, it'll attract enough attention.

According to my friend in the closed beta, it's deliciously complex and supports multiple player roles so different people can find their niche and be happy.

This one looks like it will be worth playing...

It kinda reminds me of Space Empires V...

Sorry, but Space Empires V was a crappy game. I followed it for far too long, hoping some stuff would get fixed, but it took forever for the patches to come out, and the interface is never going to get improved. Space Empires 5 might support more moddability, but Space Empires 4 had a much better int

That said, this game is probably going to be better.

Yeah, I have to agree with you, Space Empires V has / had a lot of glitches, Space Empires IV was a lot more polished... I've been following the series since Space Empires III (Still my favorite one for some reason...)

Anyway, back to Beyond Protocol, has anyone looked at their homepage or the vids on youtube yet? All the folks on youtube say their vids are old and the game's a lot farther along in development now, but some of their vids do look impressive.

The game seems to be a blend of Strategy MMOBBG's and the 4x Space Strategy games... A nice blend to be honest, hope they can pull it off.

Wow, never heard of this before. I'm reading up on it right now.

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Originally posted by Sawtooth
Wow, never heard of this before. I'm reading up on it right now.

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Yeah, I hadn't heard of it before reading this thread either, it'll be nice to see how it plays once they finish it.

Yeah, the game looks awesome, but as an indy developer, they're not spending any money on advertising and I really believe that it's going to hurt them in the long run. Heck, I'm not even sure if they're approaching gaming news sites in an effort to get any kind of coverage at all. They've got some screen space on MMORTS.com, but that web site looks very amateurish and there's hardly any traffic.

Saga is another game that seems to be suffering similarly. They offered out 50,000 free accounts to try and get new members in (a promotion that's still going on at filefront.com, I believe), but only got about 11,000 or so to bite, if even that (each account starts with significant swag to consolidate into other accounts, so some people have been using this promotion to get free stuff, though officially players are only allowed 2 accounts, any more might cause suspension). Granted, their major feature, the one that will actually make it MMO, is still in development. For now it's just a small community around a great game that no one has really heard about.

You know, now that you mention it, and now that I checked out the website, found here if you're too lazy to google it, I'm fairly sure I've seen an ad or two promoting this game in PCGamer Magazine. Also, if you do take the time to google "Beyond Protocol", I see some action recently on the game sites.

What I see is good, I'm going to try and get in now, thanks!

Actually....just to have a laugh....I've been following the game for a year now. Since they first went public and started beta I've been following this game. The producer of the game, and what all the devs call the boss is actually intending not to market this game in the wrong areas. They don't care for a high population. This game isn't an MMORPG.....it's an MMORTS....so people don't represent one character, but a whole empire. Population ain't too important.

Another thing, which is the funny part is the producer told everyone very early on in ventrillo that he wanted to avoid any mentioning in game sites like MMORPG.com, Gamespot, Hi5 and other sites where there is a crazy and immuture community. So they targeted the more mature and less hyped sites. They don't care for having subscriptions like WoW. This game is their dream game and they want a mature community playing it. They don't want little kiddies whining and flaming on the website and screaming how the game is too hard or too difficult (which it is....massive learning curve for good reasons!!!)

This game has been in planning for many many years...if I remember right a decade if not more (I could be wrong there). They were planning it back in the 1990s. Thats all I remember. Just so you know the is the ultimate, hardcore sci-fi RTS on an MMO level which every Empire building RTS gamer has been dreaming of.

Just to mention a few features:

Create and modify your own units - Modify every component of a unit...from the engine to its armour all the way to the material used....you can even modify the material itself!! I was serious when I said Hardcore. There is no ultimate unit by the way.....research improves a unit mainly...you can't just put loads of massive guns on a cruiser and expect it to be unbeatable. There are always down sides without proper balance.

A whole universe of planets to conquar (although game mechanics make that almost impossible) - You can colonise as many planets as you want, and all have their own resources, which get depleted but eventually return in a random area (random area including any other planet). Resources on a planet are always changing from type to location on the planet aswell. You will never have a resource respawn in the same location...it can spawn anywhere on the planet (where there are no buildings of course.

War on a Galactic scale, with planetary battles to massive space battles with space stations...the works.....Planetary bombardments....spaceships shooting from space on to the planet (like artillery).

Other Features: Diplomacy, espionage, alliances, galactic scale battles with many players fighting eachother on several fronts.

As I said before this is an empire building RTS gamer's dream game comming soon. Apply for the beta at http://www.beyondprotocol.com/

And remember....it's an empire building game.....and an MMORTS.....and it's hardcore.....massive learning curve, so if you don't like it because it's too hard, just leave it alone....don't stay whining just unistall the game. Many of us Beta testers find this game to be ingenious, a real work of art. And brilliantly deisnged, although there have been many changes in the game as well. A lot of the planning they did was in the programming structure for the server. It has an incredible amount of stuff going on...imagine each unit with it's individual components (shields, engine,armour, guns) damage, ammunition. Hard core...

I'm glad that this was posted, I've been wishing that somebody would make a good MMORTS for the longest time...There is only one MMORTS that I can think of that is in existance but i can't even think of the name of it right now...I just remember seeing a review of it on X-play years ago...I'll check this game though though, thanks for sharing.

They had booth in the Exhibit Hall at both the Origins and Gen Con game conventions this summer.

The game looks very interesting and their booth was always busy.  I'd agree with you about the advertising though.  A convention game booth does reach the same audience as a full-page ad in a monthly gaming magazine.

Well here is where I deliver my pessimistic best, at the launch + 3 weeks mark.  Bear in mind that while I love the genre and wanted the game to be great, I have just cancelled and left.

First The Good:
The game is still running, basically stable. No massive rollbacks, exploits, hacks or show stopping bugs.
There is a certain satisfaction to conquering planets and whole systems in well coordinated military operations.

The Bad:
There are a *lot* of minor little nuisance bugs, many of which affect gameplay. The company is squashing them slowly, but has very very limited resources.

The game lacks a whole host of management tools needed to control multi-planet, let alone multi-system entities. I currently have 4 main production/research colonies and over 50 feeder colonies spanning 3 systems and managing my holdings is a nearly full time job.

The "learning curve" is more like a brick wall. The tutorial is basically useless and a lot of game mechanics have to be discovered by tripping over them. The support team is there 24/7 and frequently helpful, but even the company reps often don't know how some mechanics work.

The Ugly:
There are serious, nearly catastrophic, underlying issues with the game mechanics/design system which have been plastered over and taped together - but which will only get worse with time. See EGO of lead Dev and exceptionally poor relations with beta testers who actually tested to see why.

Baffling company policies on this like replacing units lost to bugs (see lead dev again - my way or the highway!) - as in they don't, even when it was clearly a bug and a "known" issue at that. These sorts of things aren't helping customer retention any.

Player Retention: A disturbiing number of the initial players seem to have thought they were signing up for the civilian version "Beyond Trade Agreements" and have whined most piteously when myself and others descended upon them with pulse guns blazing. (As a note, the game mechanics leave little to no reason to actually peacefully coexist - no benefits, all risk)

All in all, a very very mixed review. I cannot in good conscience recomend this game to anyone; unless you are really really bored and have the money to burn.
 

played the tutorial, and the Free trial system for 3 days, loved it, though lack of research options is annoying, but you still get alot of customability in designing ship layouts.

i started live maybe 11 hours ago from the post and so far im loving it.