[pcchen]

Demigod is being released today. It's reported that Gamestop has jumped the gun and released it earlier than intended. Therefore, Stardock is releasing it right now for all those who pre-ordered it.

Demigod is a DOTA type game, where the player controls one of the eight Demigods as a "hero unit," to defeat the enemy's "Citadel." I've played some beta games and it's definitely looks promising, and now I'm waiting for the final version downloading in the Impulse

[Davros]

dota ?

[pcchen]

DOTA (defense of the ancients) is a custom map for War 3. It's a mix of RTS and RPG. In DOTA, players control powerful hero units to attack enemy's heavily guarded ancients. There are also creeps (little AI controlled fighters) which are generated automatically. The hero units can level up and buy equipments to become stronger.

I just played a single player tournament in Demigod. Basically the single player tournament is just for players to become familiar with a demigod and maybe test some strategies. The real beef is of course in the multi-player mode, but unfortunately I don't have time to try it out right now.

[obonicus]

Originally Posted by Davros

dota ?

DOTA:


Sorry, I had to.

[willardjuice]

A classic, never gets old!

[homerdog]

So has anyone bought the game? Is it any good?

[micron]

Originally Posted by homerdog

So has anyone bought the game? Is it any good?

I'd like to know this as well.

[Brad Grenz]

There have been some amuzing write ups over at fidgit.com. I'm looking forward to the chance to play.

[homerdog]

Apparently the multiplayer has some networking issues right now:
http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/903770...y1_041509.html

"That's my son, he's in charge of network QA"

[pcchen]

I have played it for a few days, and my thoughts so far:

Basically the game is fun. It does not have any single player campaign, but the single player tournament mode is still worth playing. The difficulties are a bit weird now though, Normal mode is too easy and Hard mode is a bit too hard.

There is no in game tutorial, and this can be a bit appalling for new players. There is a PDF manual which contains some information but it's not quite enough. It also lacks detail information of each Demigod's talent tree and items available in the item shop. That means you can only get these information when in game. So if you want to study them in detail, basically you have to create a custom single player game and copy these information for further reference (or if someone else did that for you, of course ).

Of course, the beef of the game is in multiplayer mode. I have played some multiplayer games in beta and it's pretty nice. However, currently the multiplayer mode is hindered by network issues. There are two problems, the first one is about the server, which is currently hampered by unexpected loads according to Stardock. The second problem is that because they decided to use peer-to-peer model, everyone playing a game need to have their networks configured properly (that includes IP router settings and firewall settings, etc.) If you happens to have a modern IP router, and you don't have some weird software firewall installed, the game is able to configure everything automatically. Unfortunately, many people don't have all of these, therefore some will have to configure networks by themselves, and many don't know how to do that or don't know that they have to do that. So now as far as I know it's not easy to get a multiplayer game going right now.

Now to the gameplay. Since I just played a few games, and I only played a single Demigod, my experience is limited right now. From what I have seen, this game requires a great deal of coordination between allies. You can never win by fighting alone (at least not if against well coordinated foes). That's also why single player tournaments is too hard on Hard mode right now. The demigod you control is pretty strong, and can easily kill dozens of creeps coming from enemy portals. However, it will have a hard time facing two or more enemy demigods, especially when they are well coordinated. For example, many demigods have abilities to stun an unit (with a cooldown time, of course). So it's possible for several demigods to "chain-stun" a single demigod if they timed correctly, and the victim will be dead in the water.

Of course, by coordination it's not just trying to bullying one enemy demigod with two or more demigods, maybe except the "slaughter" mode. In other modes, you may have to capture flags, destroy enemy structures, or destroy the enemy base to win, so other strategies may apply as well.

It's also possible to play on LAN, and Stardock has said that you only need one license to do so, you can have all your families play on LAN with only one license.

[John Reynolds]

Originally Posted by homerdog

So has anyone bought the game? Is it any good?

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/46...Infrastructure

Apparently 120,000 connections were on Stardock's servers yesterday. Only 18k of them were legitimate copies of the game, the rest were pirates.

[homerdog]

Originally Posted by John Reynolds

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/46...Infrastructure

Apparently 120,000 connections were on Stardock's servers yesterday. Only 18k of them were legitimate copies of the game, the rest were pirates.

Die vile pirates!

Stardock takes the right stance on DRM (they don't use it on their games) and this is what they get. Hopefully some of those folks are just 'testing' the game since there is no demo. Sadly I doubt that's the case.

[Silent_Buddha]

Definitely solid stats I can use to show my friends, that pirating is a VERY serious problem. Get so annoyed with people that claim pirating is OK since publishers make money hand over fist.

Unfortunately as with a lot of Stardock Games. I love their design but won't be buying it since it has no single player compaign. Was the same with Sins of a Solar Empire, I REALLY love what they did with it. But with no single player, I just couldn't bring myself to buy it.

Regards,
SB

[Bludd]

I just want to say that Basshunter is a waste of humanity.

[MrGaribaldi]

Silent_Buddha: Is it the story you feel is lacking? Or is it some other part?

Just curious, since it does allow for single player gaming with custom games vs. bots.

[Kyyla]

I bought Sins of a Solar Empire and I'm still disappointed by the lack of proper single player. I might take a look at Demigod when the price comes down.

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by MrGaribaldi

Silent_Buddha: Is it the story you feel is lacking? Or is it some other part?

Just curious, since it does allow for single player gaming with custom games vs. bots.

Yeah, a solid or at least decent single player storyline is something I find essential as I don't do as much multiplayer gaming as I did when I was younger.

And even for multiplayer games I felt storylines were a nice way to learn the game without feeling like you're learning the game. This was even more important for games that would otherwise have a steep learning curve (information overload). As it gives the player an opportunity of learning key concepts gradually over the course of a campaign rather than have it all dumped on them at once and feeling overwhelmed with info. All that gives you a chance to learn the game without feeling like you're learning the game.

I think UT (original) was the last game I enjoyed that didn't have a proper single player storyline. That was back when I still competed semi-professionally in online games.

So the same reason I won't be picking this up even though it's REALLY tempting is the same reason I didn't pick up Unreal Tournament 3.

Regards,
SB

[homerdog]

I enjoyed the hell out of SoaSE and still do occasionally, despite never having touched the multiplayer. I got over the lack of a campaign pretty quickly, though I would definitely rather have one than not.

I'm strongly considering Demigod, though as with Sins I doubt I'll go near the multiplayer. I suck too much at RTSs and RPGs to take my game online.

[pcchen]

Originally Posted by Silent_Buddha

And even for multiplayer games I felt storylines were a nice way to learn the game without feeling like you're learning the game. This was even more important for games that would otherwise have a steep learning curve (information overload). As it gives the player an opportunity of learning key concepts gradually over the course of a campaign rather than have it all dumped on them at once and feeling overwhelmed with info. All that gives you a chance to learn the game without feeling like you're learning the game.

I completely agree with this. Even for a multiplayer game, a well designed single player compaign can be used as a tutorial to introduce important game concepts. This can also make players better prepared for online games.

[Kyyla]

Originally Posted by homerdog

I'm strongly considering Demigod, though as with Sins I doubt I'll go near the multiplayer. I suck too much at RTSs and RPGs to take my game online.

Playing RTSs online is too stressful for me

[hoom]

I found the skirmish vs AI mode of Sins to be perfectly adequate for my purposes, a single-player storyline would just be a tutorial to build up to that.
Kind of like, imagine if MoOII had some sort of single player story mode, silly & unneeded.

I'm also looking at possibly buying Demigod, I'm not generally interested in RPG type games but was recently playing some WC3 stuff that I think was DotA (or something similar?) at a lan & that was pretty fun.
Relatively simple RPG stuff & the hero character can bash lots of small enemies.

Backgrounds on the website show a rather confusing background story for the 'heros', I wonder if they might have been better off going for more conventional Fantasy type units?
Though, I certainly concede that I'd have been likely to have completely ignored the game if they had...

Anyway stats show no clear cut 'most powerful' demigod so far (though I don't see how all characters can have greater than 50% chance of winning?)

[TheD]

Originally Posted by Silent_Buddha

Definitely solid stats I can use to show my friends, that pirating is a VERY serious problem. Get so annoyed with people that claim pirating is OK since publishers make money hand over fist.

Unfortunately as with a lot of Stardock Games. I love their design but won't be buying it since it has no single player compaign. Was the same with Sins of a Solar Empire, I REALLY love what they did with it. But with no single player, I just couldn't bring myself to buy it.

Regards,
SB

Umm...... the game is only out in shops in the US ATM and not the EU (Deutschland has a very large PC market), but all the pirate downloads would be from all over the world.

You also have the fact that it is a full price game that does not have much content and that would hurt sales.

I also find it funny that you are going on about piracy yet you are not buying the game, when in fact piracy does not cost them money so the only thing that matters is how many sales they get and since you are not buying it you are the same as a pirate to their bottom line.

But I do hope sales pick up.

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by TheD

Umm...... the game is only out in shops in the US ATM and not the EU (Deutschland has a very large PC market), but all the pirate downloads would be from all over the world.

You also have the fact that it is a full price game that does not have much content and that would hurt sales.

I also find it funny that you are going on about piracy yet you are not buying the game, when in fact piracy does not cost them money so the only thing that matters is how many sales they get and since you are not buying it you are the same as a pirate to their bottom line.

But I do hope sales pick up.

Huh? So by not stealing, I'm stealing? I love that twisted logic thieves use to justify their behavior.

I don't plan on playing it either. Since if I was, I'd be buying it.

If someone doesn't use something now or ever, it's not like they are helping or hurting a company. If someone uses something without paying for it, then yes, they are hurting that company, etc... Unless said company/person/whatever is freely giving away whatever it is that they own or make.

Regards,
SB

[Kyyla]

Originally Posted by hoom

I found the skirmish vs AI mode of Sins to be perfectly adequate for my purposes, a single-player storyline would just be a tutorial to build up to that.
Kind of like, imagine if MoOII had some sort of single player story mode, silly & unneeded.

MoOII had tons of more depth to it's gameplay. If Sins only had the tech tree from MOO, sigh..

[MrGaribaldi]

Originally Posted by Silent_Buddha

Yeah, a solid or at least decent single player storyline is something I find essential as I don't do as much multiplayer gaming as I did when I was younger.

And even for multiplayer games I felt storylines were a nice way to learn the game without feeling like you're learning the game. This was even more important for games that would otherwise have a steep learning curve (information overload). As it gives the player an opportunity of learning key concepts gradually over the course of a campaign rather than have it all dumped on them at once and feeling overwhelmed with info. All that gives you a chance to learn the game without feeling like you're learning the game.

Interesting. To me the game mechanics are much more important than any story. Sure, a story can help immersion, but is mostly a secondary consideration for me. But then again, I tend to play online shooters where any story is purely an afterthought.
And as this game is "built on" DOTA, where there is no back-story, nor single player game, adding a story would've/could've subtracted resources from more important areas.

Originally Posted by TheD

Umm...... the game is only out in shops in the US ATM and not the EU (Deutschland has a very large PC market), but all the pirate downloads would be from all over the world.

You also have the fact that it is a full price game that does not have much content and that would hurt sales.

Well, they do offer the game as a digital download to Europe, so I don't quite see why that should excuse piracy here.

And as for price, unlike Steam*, they are selling the game for the same price as in the states**, meaning it's quite affordable compared to other games on offer.


* Steam/Valve has decided all of Europe is part of the EU, and thus should pay in Euros (except for the UK), and that a good way of converting between USD and EUR is 1 = 1, instead of using the regular price points/conversion....

**At least they do for Sweden, and I would assume that goes for the rest of the EU (and other parts of Europe) as well.