Big Download got some of our questions about End of Nations answered via Petroglyph including why they feel an MMORTS title has not broken through into the mainstream and more about the game itself.
First how did the idea for End of Nations come about?
The idea for End of Nations (aka, MMO-RTS) came from the thought of merging two great gaming genres. We love RTS games, but we also love playing MMORPGs. If I can step back in time a bit and talk about how the RTS genre came to being, the similarities might help with understanding how End of Nations came into being. At Westwood during the development of Dune II, we didn't set out to create the Real-Time Strategy genre. The end result was almost a surprise. We actually were taking elements of other contemporary games that we loved to play and wanted to merge them into a new game: the real-time gameplay of Populous, the combat strategy of turn-based military games, and the tech-tree advancement of Civilization. The mixing of these elements created a new product that was much more than the simple sum of its parts. In much the same way, the idea of MMO-RTS was formed. How do we combine the fun of RTS with the fun of MMO games. Combining the two genres was not, at first, an obvious process.
The original (late 20th century) RTS gameplay mechanic of starting very weak, sending out grunts, chopping wood, building up a base over time, manufacture countless disposable units, throw them at the enemy (who is following the same process as yourself), until one side was obliterated just to start over again for the next battle doesn't fit well with MMO strengths. These MMO strengths are casual gameplay, being able to join and leave the game at arbitrary times, long term advancement, cooperative gameplay, focus on player verses the computer controlled environmental enemies (PvE), and being able to pick and choose the intensity and difficulty of combat to match the player's mood and desire for the best rewards. However, over the last 10 years or so, RTS games have evolved away from the old mechanic, where victory is largely determined by mastering the tech-tree production-process economic game, and shifted toward more dynamic combat where the player who wins is largely determined by the skill of play in the battlefield itself. This new (early 21st century) kind of RTS gameplay, that breaks free of the static base building in battle, can merge with the strengths of MMO games. Thus End of Nations was born.
Why was Petroglyph given the gig on developing the game based on your platform?
Petroglyph has a rich history in the RTS genre, which is a big plus for developing an RTS game. Also, Petroglyph has been percolating the idea of an MMORTS game for quite some time. We have been envisioning all aspects of the game and learning from abortive attempts of others in trying to combine RTS with MMO. In the end, I think it was the combination of the right idea meeting the right developer meeting the right publisher at the right time.
What can you tell us about the back story for the game?
Set in the near future, End of Nations takes place in the aftermath of a worldwide, economic catastrophe. During the ensuing chaos, entire countries are erased as people are forced to use any means necessary to survive. There's no security, formerly stable societies collapse into lawlessness, and our most revered institutions, which once formed the bedrock of civilization, are rendered impotent. They can do nothing but watch and hope for the best.
It's at this moment that the Order of Nations asserts itself and begins to take control. Wielding advanced weaponry and the economic clout required to stabilize the world's economy, the Order appears to be the world's salvation.
Unfortunately, they're not as benevolent as they appear, and once their true intentions are revealed, the real war begins.
Since this game takes place in the near future what will the units be like?
There will be an enormous variety in the many hundreds of vehicles in EON. These will range from weaponized civilian vehicles, to modern military vehicles from around the world, all the way up to units built from cutting edge technology that you researched and manufactured or stole from the Order of Nations.
How will the MMO aspects of the game be put into End of Nations? Will players have persistent units and can battles take place 24/7 even when the player is offline?
Adding MMO to RTS means creating a highly social game with massive battlefields including many dozens of player armies. All of this takes place in a living, persistent world that you share with many thousands of other players. EON has a wide variety of fun long term goals for you as a commander that will take much more than one battle to achieve: research of new technology, war production and supply lines to amass an army, working your way through a massive game world, constructing bigger and more advanced headquarters, coalition building, political networking, etc.
Player vehicles can be damaged to the point of becoming immobile and unable to attack, but they can always be repaired to full functionality no matter what kind of a beating they take. If a player is offline, he cannot be involved with a battle and is at no risk, though the game carries on without him. If he was working with a team or coalition toward a cooperative goal, they may need to rally additional support, which is easy and convenient with our social tools and drop-in gameplay.
What other aspects of the game do you think are important?
You have a command center at your headquarters that we call the war room. It has many cool features that showcase the MMO aspects of End of Nations--things you've never seen in RTS or in any other genre that I know of. As a commander planning his next battle, you can observe state of the entire world in real time and watch major events unfold. For a higher level of detail, you can position your spy satellites over a location anywhere in the game word and observe a live battlefield or track another player executing a spy mission anywhere in the game world. If you want to get involved, you can deploy troops to that location and drop-in to the action, live.
We have seen other attempts to make an MMO game with RTS gameplay. Why will End of Nations succeed where those others have not?
Some other attempts at MMORTS have kept the player at-risk even while logged off. That's just a very punishing approach that I believe most players don't want. We have developed technology that lets us have many more players and vehicles in the same battle than we are typically constrained to--we're not revealing our biggest numbers just yet. So, that's a bit of a tease, but we believe that we'll be providing a gaming experience that has never been available before.
The idea for End of Nations (aka, MMO-RTS) came from the thought of merging two great gaming genres. We love RTS games, but we also love playing MMORPGs. If I can step back in time a bit and talk about how the RTS genre came to being, the similarities might help with understanding how End of Nations came into being. At Westwood during the development of Dune II, we didn't set out to create the Real-Time Strategy genre. The end result was almost a surprise. We actually were taking elements of other contemporary games that we loved to play and wanted to merge them into a new game: the real-time gameplay of Populous, the combat strategy of turn-based military games, and the tech-tree advancement of Civilization. The mixing of these elements created a new product that was much more than the simple sum of its parts. In much the same way, the idea of MMO-RTS was formed. How do we combine the fun of RTS with the fun of MMO games. Combining the two genres was not, at first, an obvious process.
The original (late 20th century) RTS gameplay mechanic of starting very weak, sending out grunts, chopping wood, building up a base over time, manufacture countless disposable units, throw them at the enemy (who is following the same process as yourself), until one side was obliterated just to start over again for the next battle doesn't fit well with MMO strengths. These MMO strengths are casual gameplay, being able to join and leave the game at arbitrary times, long term advancement, cooperative gameplay, focus on player verses the computer controlled environmental enemies (PvE), and being able to pick and choose the intensity and difficulty of combat to match the player's mood and desire for the best rewards. However, over the last 10 years or so, RTS games have evolved away from the old mechanic, where victory is largely determined by mastering the tech-tree production-process economic game, and shifted toward more dynamic combat where the player who wins is largely determined by the skill of play in the battlefield itself. This new (early 21st century) kind of RTS gameplay, that breaks free of the static base building in battle, can merge with the strengths of MMO games. Thus End of Nations was born.
Why was Petroglyph given the gig on developing the game based on your platform?
Petroglyph has a rich history in the RTS genre, which is a big plus for developing an RTS game. Also, Petroglyph has been percolating the idea of an MMORTS game for quite some time. We have been envisioning all aspects of the game and learning from abortive attempts of others in trying to combine RTS with MMO. In the end, I think it was the combination of the right idea meeting the right developer meeting the right publisher at the right time.
What can you tell us about the back story for the game?
Set in the near future, End of Nations takes place in the aftermath of a worldwide, economic catastrophe. During the ensuing chaos, entire countries are erased as people are forced to use any means necessary to survive. There's no security, formerly stable societies collapse into lawlessness, and our most revered institutions, which once formed the bedrock of civilization, are rendered impotent. They can do nothing but watch and hope for the best.
It's at this moment that the Order of Nations asserts itself and begins to take control. Wielding advanced weaponry and the economic clout required to stabilize the world's economy, the Order appears to be the world's salvation.
Unfortunately, they're not as benevolent as they appear, and once their true intentions are revealed, the real war begins.
Since this game takes place in the near future what will the units be like?
There will be an enormous variety in the many hundreds of vehicles in EON. These will range from weaponized civilian vehicles, to modern military vehicles from around the world, all the way up to units built from cutting edge technology that you researched and manufactured or stole from the Order of Nations.
How will the MMO aspects of the game be put into End of Nations? Will players have persistent units and can battles take place 24/7 even when the player is offline?
Adding MMO to RTS means creating a highly social game with massive battlefields including many dozens of player armies. All of this takes place in a living, persistent world that you share with many thousands of other players. EON has a wide variety of fun long term goals for you as a commander that will take much more than one battle to achieve: research of new technology, war production and supply lines to amass an army, working your way through a massive game world, constructing bigger and more advanced headquarters, coalition building, political networking, etc.
Player vehicles can be damaged to the point of becoming immobile and unable to attack, but they can always be repaired to full functionality no matter what kind of a beating they take. If a player is offline, he cannot be involved with a battle and is at no risk, though the game carries on without him. If he was working with a team or coalition toward a cooperative goal, they may need to rally additional support, which is easy and convenient with our social tools and drop-in gameplay.
What other aspects of the game do you think are important?
You have a command center at your headquarters that we call the war room. It has many cool features that showcase the MMO aspects of End of Nations--things you've never seen in RTS or in any other genre that I know of. As a commander planning his next battle, you can observe state of the entire world in real time and watch major events unfold. For a higher level of detail, you can position your spy satellites over a location anywhere in the game word and observe a live battlefield or track another player executing a spy mission anywhere in the game world. If you want to get involved, you can deploy troops to that location and drop-in to the action, live.
We have seen other attempts to make an MMO game with RTS gameplay. Why will End of Nations succeed where those others have not?
Some other attempts at MMORTS have kept the player at-risk even while logged off. That's just a very punishing approach that I believe most players don't want. We have developed technology that lets us have many more players and vehicles in the same battle than we are typically constrained to--we're not revealing our biggest numbers just yet. So, that's a bit of a tease, but we believe that we'll be providing a gaming experience that has never been available before.
Big Download's E3 2010 coverage is sponsored by:
The Baconing (6/23/11)
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