Demigod

[Echo Black]

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/50580

http://www.shacknews.com/images/generated/477d73e715464_featured_without_text_demigod.jpg

Chris Taylor and the team at Gas Powered Games will follow their 2007 RTS Supreme Commander with a take on a popular RTS modification, according to a 1UP report filed today.

The game, called Demigod, is said to at least partly derive its gameplay from Defense of the Ancients, the wildly successful user-created mod for Blizzard's RTS Warcraft III.

As in DotA, players of the multiplayer-focused Demigod will command a single hero unit, which can grow in power based on a leveling structure. Some of the hero units will have the ability to create lesser units and supporting structures, while others will make do with their own super powers.

According to the report, Demigod is being designed as a multiplayer experience, with an "emphasis on co-op play." There will be a singleplayer component, which Gas Powered Games characterized as a "training ground."

Platform and release date projections have yet to be announced.

[Reaper]

Hmm... sounds cool. I haven't played DotA yet, but I've heard good things!

It sounds like the singleplayer is taking a beating, though. :mryuck:

[Jiminator]

anybody getting this? it is out in retail today (electronically a week ago). sounds somewhat like supreme commander set inside a magical world instead of a technological world. I loved the last 2 supcoms, although I never did the online thing. Hopefully this will be more of the same.

[Mountain Man]

After GPG's arrogant refusal to address a serious bug in their audio code in Supreme Commander, I've pretty much sworn off all of their games.

[Mountain Man]

First line in the article:

"Chris Taylor and the team at Gas Powered Games..."

So where'd you get the idea that this is a Stardock game?

[Mblackwell]

Note that I got this to run on Linux via Wine. My configuration was already set up to run Supreme Commander (which involves getting/installing an audio DLL), and this worked immediately. It runs slower for me than Supcom though (even though it's supposed to run FASTER).

[Orochi Avlis]

Played it, going to pick it up.

[Simon Charles]

So how does this play? Been wanting a game like that for a while.

[Orochi Avlis]

Micromanaging is extremely important. Not in the sense of controlling an army (because you cannot, unless you control a General class), but buying stuff for your character, upgrading your buildings, capturing flags, trying to stay in combat as long as possible without dying. I can't stress that enough, staying alive and around combat is extremely important. If you die, the person who killed you gets a huge cash bonus which they can use to upgrade things. But you need to be close to combat to build up experience.

It's really fun with playing with other people. So many choices, 8 characters, different tech trees, equipable items, etc.

Oh and the sweetest thing, with one copy, you can set up a LAN with however many people you want. They even mention it in the manual. They just need to sign up with Impulse so they can get the latest updates.

[Simon Charles]

Micromanaging is extremely important. Not in the sense of controlling an army (because you cannot, unless you control a General class), but buying stuff for your character, upgrading your buildings, capturing flags, trying to stay in combat as long as possible without dying.

This contradicts the reviews that praise the game's non-reliance on micromanagement, which is what interested me in the first place.

[Orochi Avlis]

I guess micromanaging is the wrong word for it. I tried thinking up another word for it, but I couldn't.

You should visit your citadel when your faction levels up so you can upgrade something as soon as possible.
You need to visit the item store to get items to use in battle for your character.
And those two things are found in your base.
But going away from battle is a bad thing, because you lose out on experience points. You have to strike a balance.

You also need to control flags to help you faction level up as well. Flags also provide other bonuses too.

It's not like Starcraft or any other tradition RTS where you have buildings to build and upgrade, and a plethora of units to look over.
You cannot build anything (unless it's a special ability, the Rook has one where he can build a temporary defense tower).
You just have to focus on your unit (in combat and upgrades/items) and the progression of your citadel.

Basically you always have to be doing stuff, but rather having tons of units doing different things, you have one unit that does the majority of it. And again, it's not about building. The game is about combat and upgrading. Gold is your only resource, and that's given to you in a set amount in a set amount of time (which can be upgraded).
You won't be constantly going all over the map too.

I might make it sound like it's overtly complicated, but it's not.
It's premise and execution are simple, but the mechanics have depth.
Think of it like SF2. Really easy to get into and play, and you could leave it at that. But there is alot there underneath for the hardcore crowd.

Give it a shot Simon.

[Phayzon]

So how does this play? Been wanting a game like that for a while.

If you have WarCraft3, try out Defence of the Ancients (DotA). It plays almost exactly like that. ;)

Anyway, picked this up last week. Fell in love with it :love:
Rook ftw!

[Orochi Avlis]

Rook is insanely deadly.

[Phayzon]

Indeed he is, especially with a few items that increase attack speed. Also, with such items its pretty funny watching him flail a giant hammer at buildings at elitespeed! :D

[Orochi Avlis]

Or you give him that favour item that gives him +15% movement speed.
He waddles around the map very quickly.

[Simon Charles]

I might get it, but I'm tired of downloading tons of gb through online stores. Gonna cap my bandwith limit soon. I want to buy the box but I can't find it anywhere, and the EBGames here have removed most of the PC games. All they have left is one tiny half-a-shelf, unmarked and poorly stocked with broken boxes, as if they're all bargain bin. It's like they don't even carry new PC releases anymore.

[Orochi Avlis]

I got mine from Best Buy.
Order the box version online.

[Jiminator]

so you guys that play, do you play online or just single player?

[Phayzon]

I havent tried the MP yet, just SP. Me and a few friends are probably going to try the MP soon.

[SpinX]

this game is suffering a lot from piracy... goddamn ******* pirates...
there were 14000 legal buyers and 100000 illegal users and the servers crashed...

[Simon Charles]

How can this thing get pirated? Doesn't it need Impulse to run? Like Steam games?

[Phayzon]

Nope, Impulse is entirely optional. No DRM at all.

[Orochi Avlis]

You can't get updates or play online without using Impulse.

[Phayzon]

Ah ok, didnt know that part. ;)

[Jiminator]

you can't play online if you pirate. I think the mistake they made was to have some communication between each game and their server. that made their servers crash.

[Simon Charles]

Watched a few gameplay videos. Kinda changed my mind. Looks dull. The Demigods themselves don't even look that tall or imposing except the Rook. A bit of a letdown considering they're the stars of the show.

[Phayzon]

Most of the cannon-fodder coming from the portals have some sort of Minitaur looking model. Considering the generic assumed size of a Minitaur, the Demigods are fairly huge!

[Orochi Avlis]

Patch 1.1 is coming out tomorrow.

I'm excited. :D

[Phayzon]

Is it bringing anything major?

[Orochi Avlis]

It's suppose to be a huge patch with some balance fixes, new additions and options, and hopefully (hasn't been confirmed yet), new items and demigods.
Here's hoping that it has new content.:D

[Orochi Avlis]

Well, wishful thinking on my part in regard to new content, but the change list is nice:
- Activated Concede mechanism
- Speed debuffs now have a default minimum move speed based on base move speed * 0.66
- Chat window art fixes, improvement to background for visibility.
- When selling an idol we destroy all units created by that idol.
- Fixed a bug where minions that have engaged a specified target would lose their target if target moved out of range.
- AI
- Flag capture checks
- Added task ticks
- Tightened purchasing priorities
- Removal of spammy achievement warnings
- Fix bug where hitting F10 in the main menu would show a broken dialog box.
- Fixes to healing crystal textures.
- Fixed a mismatch when replacing player in matchmaking.
- Lobby autoLaunch code now checks to see that remote players were connected to each other before launching game.
- Edited display error for Regulus Achievement.
- Increased price of Heart of life, doubled cooldown, made it an artifact, and increased the overall effect.
- Increased the power of Hex Scroll
- Reward for game completion upped from 10 to 40, to reward players for finishing the game, win or lose.
- Reduced experience and gold reward from killing priests and angels, to offset the benefit the opposing team sees from a citadel upgrade in those types.
- Improved Angel anti-Demigod focus

[Simon Charles]

How's the connectivity now? Read it was buggy as fark on release.

[Orochi Avlis]

It's much better. Still some issues, but good overall.