On November 19 2024 11:18 CicadaSC wrote: Played this beta MUCH less than previous ones. Couple issues at the start hit me hard, 1. Needing to play 10 bot games. Why is the system not having an option to skip this if you are either a.) a self declared RTS veteran or b.) completed them in previous betas. 2. The early monetization was too much of a grind to unlock units. So having to spam games vs bots, and then once I completed that having to play countless games just to try out the decks I wanted to was not fun. I know they fixed the unit unlock problem but by then I didn't really feel like coming back. When I'm playing a game it's to have fun, the moment I stop having fun is when I stop playing the game. For battles aces it was the start of this test.
That's what the beta is for. Like d.kim said, these are easy fix, it's all about core gameplay. I haven't seen day9 with adrenaline pumping for years. And everyone else seems happy with it. Parting definitely likes the game a lot, he's in the discord quite often.
Tons of people seem to quite like the core gameplay aye, but a lot really don’t like how the unlocking decks aspect works, or at least the pace of it.
It’s a problem I’m not sure how they get around at this stage and find effective alternate ways to monetise, but on the plus side at least they’re also getting that feedback now.
It would be much worse if both betas had had a completely unrepresentative unlock system and then that was suddenly revealed when the game launches.
I mean they do have to make money as well, there is that to consider too. Personally I think F2P plus pay to unlock everything, be it seasonal or permanent might work better.
Folks like to experiment in RTS, or find things that click with them, it seems in ways some of the most appealing aspects of the game mechanics are in direct conflict with the unlock/monetisation model.
For me unlike a game like League, or card builders like Hearthstone or Magic, there’s also little additional pull beyond game functionality. Some players will go hardcore on whatever’s best in a meta, but some will play a middling hero just because they’re cool, or like having cool-looking or favoured characters in their deck or just to collect.
If X robot air harassment unit is just better than Y, I don’t think the units have enough identity to really make many go ‘yeah I know this unit is worse but damn it’s so cool I’ll play it anyway’
The main challenge comes down to having freedom for deck building vs progression (and monetalisation)
I think they can have a XP per unit system where you pick the units and unlock them through XP grinding, limited to one or two units. Total XP of that unit can reduce the cost to full unlock etc.
So far there's not a lot of X unit clearly better than Y unit, maybe in particular role but how it works in the whole deck is a huge factor.
I am already missing the game. Kinda used to just logging a few games everyday.
On November 21 2024 21:13 Harris1st wrote: Just make it X bucks for all units at release + 12 coming months. This way they know how much money will come their way and can plan accordingly. Then charge another Y bucks for every 12 month of units and updates. Make a currency that can either be paid for or played for and use it for MTX skins and whatnot
This, please. I know I'm showing my age, but I really want to just buy a video game. I don't mind spending my money to have a good time, but just let me buy the damn thing. I'm done with games that want me to purchase them piecemeal forever.
On November 12 2024 17:33 ETisME wrote: I don't really agree at all. Deadlock isn't casual not newbie friendly.
Exactly. Deadlock works because it's "exciting". I can watch a few highlights and be inspired to want to try out the heroes, some tricks or abilities.
Battle Aces is unmarketable. Big clump of units a-moving against each other is not something you that will cater to a wider audience. And it's ironic because the exact reason they are going for simple units is to cater to casuals, but it will end up having the opposite effect.
I kinda agree and disagree It's difficult to market for sure but i think it just needs to be through word of mouth..
The game is exciting because how much momentum swing there is. And the game is extremely fast paced. Watch day9 stream and he loved it (other than no stats and micro transaction bit).
And on the point about newbie friendly, it's easier to get into because it has very little complexity of macro. But it is still very multitasking and mechanics heavy, the macro isn't THAT easy, especially with the hard counter mechanics with 0 build time
The question is this; Can you recommend this to a MOBA player that never played an RTS before. They try it out for 1 hour and become hooked? If not the game cannot work for anything else than being a side-game for existing RTS players.
If yes, it has a chance but I am very sceptical. I think what lures people to real-time games is the ability to make "plays" and do exciting things with the heroes/shooting/units etc.
I personally think Moba players will like it, I like both genres.
It's just different type of micro and macro, you still have the general concept of power spike, poking, decision making under imperfect knowledge, multitasking, twitch reflex etc.
When RTS was bigger than Moba, I don't think Moba asked how they can capture RTS players. There's crossover but not that important imo.
But what I like about this game is the scope, it's small enough and doesn't need to be the next big eSports title to succeed. More indie and double A would revive the genre imo.
I agree with you that the scope is smaller, probably cheaper to maintain than Stormgate. They can probably very effectively monetize on a per $-to-hours-played ratio. So out of all the games, Zerospace, Immortals Gates of Pyre and Stormgate - it's the only one I can see with a chance to survive.
There is a case where they can maintain a small profit with a very little studio, e.g. 10 FTE. I expect, however, they think they can capture more. They think that due to the decrease in learning barrier and focus on "simple units" that they can attract a larger audience.
Uncapped Games is not a small studio. They are only slightly smaller than Frost Giant and they also empoy a lot of industry veterans most of whom are based in California, so it is not like the salary per empoyee will be lower than FG either. Their smaller scope allows them to produce a more polished game at an earlier stage of development but they will still need to earn quite a lot of money to make it sustainable if they wish to continue developing content for the game going forward and for Tencent to think it is a good investment to keep funding the studio.
Yes, and my thinking is that while there perhaps is a way from them to operate at a smaller capacity and being satisfied with a heavily monetized niche audience, they appear to be more ambitious. But I don't think they will succeed in that. They will likely continue to spend money in an attempt to get more a larger playerbase and fail doing so. Because I don't think they get what makes games exciting for non-RTS players.
Community seems to have successfully (and rightfully) bullied them off of having any units locked behind the Battlepass. But besides that, the monetization model still seems pretty up in the air.
I saw this thread, are they actually going to add a new game mode we suggest or is this meant to farm community interaction? The wording makes me a bit skeptical they will actually try to add any of this.
I saw this thread, are they actually going to add a new game mode we suggest or is this meant to farm community interaction? The wording makes me a bit skeptical they will actually try to add any of this.
They probably want interaction and ideas. But many things are hard to develop even if they would be fun, while other things only seem fun on paper but don't pan out when you test them.
I think Riot's card game Legend of Runeterra is a good case for things working out when testing other modes. They have a well made and normal pvp card game. To which they added a rougelite pve mode. Which ended up being the only mode actually making them money. They did not start with 50 champions and 30 mini campaigns and weekly events. It expanded after trying it out.
I think Battle Aces probably want to find something like that, something they can use current assets and engine for. Requires a bit of development but would reach more people or make the ones they have more engaged.
Next beta was announced for April 16th. Biggest thing for me is that they responded to criticism from the last beta and will be unlocking all units off the bat and have a cosmetics-only battlepass.
There's also the usual gameplay + graphics changes you'd expect from an ongoing beta. Various devblog postings in the last few months suggest they're moving in a direction that makes it easier for beginners to approach, but I'm always skeptical about how much floor-lowering you can realistically achieve in any real-time PvP game.
Next beta was announced for April 16th. Biggest thing for me is that they responded to criticism from the last beta and will be unlocking all units off the bat and have a cosmetics-only battlepass.
There's also the usual gameplay + graphics changes you'd expect from an ongoing beta. Various devblog postings in the last few months suggest they're moving in a direction that makes it easier for beginners to approach, but I'm always skeptical about how much floor-lowering you can realistically achieve in any real-time PvP game.
the change i liked the most is it used to show when u click a unit " X counters BIG " etc, now it literally shows the units it counters. Makes it much more simple. Like u click a Beetle it will say "Counters blinks, scorpions, etc" for example. I love that.
On April 17 2025 12:53 CicadaSC wrote: anyone else getting really high ping? I'm on NA. It's honestly kind of unplayable :/ i was really looking forward to it. Feels like 200 ping.
On April 17 2025 12:53 CicadaSC wrote: anyone else getting really high ping? I'm on NA. It's honestly kind of unplayable :/ i was really looking forward to it. Feels like 200 ping.
On April 17 2025 12:53 CicadaSC wrote: anyone else getting really high ping? I'm on NA. It's honestly kind of unplayable :/ i was really looking forward to it. Feels like 200 ping.
Damn, the new tier-1 base protection ability changes the game A LOT. The lack of early-game interaction and the reduction of mechanics-based outplay really decreases the enjoyment for me, but I can see it being appealing for an entirely different kind of gamer.
Can anyone more tuned in tell me if they said this is more of a extreme test, or actually a direction they want to keep pushing in?
Alrighty got my first few games in. The game is fun and quite fast-paced enough for me though I feel something is missing. I mainly played very defensive with the new core defense thingy than later push out with air superiority and multipronged attacks doing enough damage to finish the game shorty after my first move out. Also as I'm nearing 40, I'm noticing 1v1 games are not my cup of tea anymore. I prefer coop and team games nowadays. Ladder anxiety is real ^^'
Great changes all around. The visual upgrades are very noticeable but it also kinda took away the super clean aesthetic.
I am not 100% sold on the new T1 defensive units, too strong in early game but too weak in mid-late game. Still having tonnes of fun, there are less of the "I gotta finish the game at this stage" comp imo. And the losses I had always felt it's my miss play/gameplan more than anything else.
I have to wonder if Guardian Shield and similar abilities are a 'newbie trap' for the developers themselves, where they're tricking themselves into thinking there's a large casual audience that's waiting to be tapped.
I feel like any kind of real-time 1v1 game is just inherently very sweaty/tryhard no matter how much you mess around with the mechanics, and you're just pushing something from being a 99th percentile tryhard game to a 98th percentile tryhard game at best.
I think you might be better off trying to make the best competitive game possible, and draw in the people who are already playing other genres of difficult and stressful 1v1 games (fighting games, card games, whatever).
On a somewhat related note, can anyone tell me the general view on how modern controls worked out for Street Fighter 6?
EPT
