Dragonshard

[Mr_Pleasington]

I downloaded the demo for Dragonshard, the Eberron RTS yesterday. I've only played the first level, but it's pretty well done. From what I played, they certainly nailed the visual feel of Eberron. It was pretty fun. The only big downside was it, like Warcraft III, involves a lot of unit micromanagement. Now it's not as bad as WCIII in that way, but there's still a lot of clicking.

Playing a Warforged Juggernaut = The Hotness.

[Spriggan]

I played it last week end, there's only 2 levels so enjoy them.

You all know I don't care for RTS games so I'm not going to get into that, what is good with this game is how you get gold which is you don't mine it but collect it from fallen opponents and sending adventuring parties into dungeons (there are multiple levels to each map).

[Mr_Pleasington]

I know what you mean about RTS.  Give me turn-based these days.   I'm just not up to par with the sheer amount of stuff to do in RTS games these days.  

Give me Starcraft any day of the week.

I don't actually forsee myself buying Dragonshard, but its a neat demo.

[Entsuropi]

I replied on your journal, but here's my comments replicated:

I played the demo and the multiplayer beta against the AI a lot. It's main problems are:

1) Graphics are terribly glaring and clashing, making it hard to see just whats going on, especially during major battles. If the colours were toned down it'd be better.
2) There is a lot of AI problems. Disregarding the computer AIs (not implemented fully), the units happily ignore your orders, making it a chore to get them to continue attacking buildings since they keep running off to attack archers and towers.
3) Sieges are just messy and confusing. Too many units, each ignoring your orders and just mass zerging going on.
4) The dungeon bit gets far too easy after a while. I never really had much trouble killing anything I wanted, and even the huge monsters (Horned Devils and Mariliths, among others) didn't pose much of a threat. Still fun to kill em though.
5) Dragonshards always drop in the same areas. You can happily leave a unit good at gathering it by the drop sites and just farm it. It'd be better if it dropped really randomly, since you'd have to put effort into getting it.
6) Named hero's are pretty dull. They don't level for a start.

Good things:
1) The dungeon is fun.
2) The building mechanic (more buildings you put together = higher level possible) is novel and interesting.
4) The idea of having the dungeoneers going upstairs and getting minions is a nice one. Also makes for good surprise attacks round the rear.
5) Having towns that automatically build towers and walls is easier, if nothing else. Takes a lot of the strategy out of it though. I always enjoy a bit of mine-laying and such.
6) The races are a bit average. The lizards were more interesting, but nothing that really blew me away.

Overall, I rate it as a slightly better WC3, that has a good D&D feel to it and some alternative mechanics. I don't think i'll pick it up though, sadly.

I think that dedicated and named dungeoneers below, and nameless proles above, would have made for a better mechanic. Tordek et all, if you will. There was a problem that you had these guys spending half an hour down there fighting and they were just as good as their companions upstairs who sat around waiting to do something. Having them all named, and having them pick up magic items and use them, then fighting other groups of named chaps, would have been a lot more fun than the 'oh, i lost my party. Meh, i'll send some proles down' aspect it has now.

Note that a lot of my comments reflect upon the full game, while you've played the restricted first level

Also: while the voice acting was pretty dire in general, I loved the bit at the start of the second level. Bastion has a truly classic line.