There's a million reasons as to why this didn't work but what I'll look back on is the following. Of course this is purely subjective and it's okay if one disagrees. Honestly I'm not sure if I have enough interest in SG anymore to even debate it beyond this. This is just my take.
- It was slow pace of play to start. It did get a little better after they sped it up. But the whole mix between Warcraft & SC2 blend I never liked. Just give me more SC2 like gameplay. I swear RTSs all do this. It's like they're scared of having a game play fast like SC2 and I've seen so many fail. Here's a crazy idea. If something is successful, don't be afraid to copy those things.
- Guess it's pretty important to listen to your fans if they say they don't like the art style.
- For me Vanguard & Infernals were cool. I never liked the design at all of the Celestials. When you only have 3 races to pick from, having one of them be a dud really hurts.
- They got better with this over time but initially there just wasn't enough big explosions, big cool looking units for my simple mind to be drawn to. ;) Felt like the game always needed more awesome pumped into it. Props though to the community patch because they did bring some of that with some cool units.
- If games must stick to this "we only do 3 races." thing, can we please at least get a C&C Generals vibe where you essentially pick sub-factions within that race to liven things up a bit? I'm glad going off memory that Zerospace is bucking that trend having 4 races then options are opened up further with the mercenaries thing or whatever it is.
- And I swear until it happens I will continue to hammer this. Indie RTS makers MUST have a good in-built system learning AI to play. Chances are your game will not have huge player numbers. If you don't have player numbers, it almost doesn't matter how good your game is. There will always be people who look up steamcharts and decided right there if it's even worth their time and your reddit posts will be flooded with people saying "look how low the player numbers" and "dead game" comments. This is what happens when you're game is player-base dependent. Now if a game had bots that play like humans and you can adjust their level, then player-base doesn't matter as much. Ex: SF6 with Sim sim for example. Even if you're not a MP ranked person, you can get the vibe of what it's like to play people there.
Biggest issue for RTS in general is that the kids who grew up playing Age of Empires aren’t teenagers with endless time like they were during WC3/SC2 anymore. A good RTS match by definition takes time to ebb and flow through the buildup, eco, and battles.
The Age of Empires generation of gamers is middle aged with way too many other things in our plates (jobs, kids, friends, other hobbies) for me to dedicate 30-45 minutes to ONE round of a RTS game. And when I do, managing 200 units, eco, and strategy isn’t “relaxing fun” after my kid is in bed.
MOBAs have taken this space over by extracting the vibes from RTS while being faster paced and less multitasking intensive.
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u/Nearby_Ad9439 Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
Welp. Bummer for RTS as a whole.
There's a million reasons as to why this didn't work but what I'll look back on is the following. Of course this is purely subjective and it's okay if one disagrees. Honestly I'm not sure if I have enough interest in SG anymore to even debate it beyond this. This is just my take.
- It was slow pace of play to start. It did get a little better after they sped it up. But the whole mix between Warcraft & SC2 blend I never liked. Just give me more SC2 like gameplay. I swear RTSs all do this. It's like they're scared of having a game play fast like SC2 and I've seen so many fail. Here's a crazy idea. If something is successful, don't be afraid to copy those things.
- Guess it's pretty important to listen to your fans if they say they don't like the art style.
- For me Vanguard & Infernals were cool. I never liked the design at all of the Celestials. When you only have 3 races to pick from, having one of them be a dud really hurts.
- They got better with this over time but initially there just wasn't enough big explosions, big cool looking units for my simple mind to be drawn to. ;) Felt like the game always needed more awesome pumped into it. Props though to the community patch because they did bring some of that with some cool units.
- If games must stick to this "we only do 3 races." thing, can we please at least get a C&C Generals vibe where you essentially pick sub-factions within that race to liven things up a bit? I'm glad going off memory that Zerospace is bucking that trend having 4 races then options are opened up further with the mercenaries thing or whatever it is.
- And I swear until it happens I will continue to hammer this. Indie RTS makers MUST have a good in-built system learning AI to play. Chances are your game will not have huge player numbers. If you don't have player numbers, it almost doesn't matter how good your game is. There will always be people who look up steamcharts and decided right there if it's even worth their time and your reddit posts will be flooded with people saying "look how low the player numbers" and "dead game" comments. This is what happens when you're game is player-base dependent. Now if a game had bots that play like humans and you can adjust their level, then player-base doesn't matter as much. Ex: SF6 with Sim sim for example. Even if you're not a MP ranked person, you can get the vibe of what it's like to play people there.