Sins of a Dark Age - Will it succeed?

from Sins Forums

I haven't really looked into what it's all about, but I do remember Total Annihilation by Cavedog.

The RTS was a breath of fresh air when it came out, far better than Command & conquer/Warcraft 2.

It expanded the Gene, unfortunately RTS's have never really gone beyond it, in-fact gone backward (IMO) with the latest Warcrafts etc.

Anyway back to Cavedog & their unexpected success.

What they did next seems to be very similar to what Ironclad is doing here.  They didn't give the fans what they wanted (TA2) but released a fantasy based RTS (TA kingdoms) the game was a flop & Cave dog never released TA2.

They were trying to get on the very popular Fantasy bandwagon, with  Warcraft, AOE etc.

Fortunately, many years later, the original designer released Supreme commander, the 'spiritual successor' to TA.

So I just hope that doesn't happen here.

10,915 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Well going from a paid space 4X-RTS to a free to play action RTS maybe a big enough leap to make it work. I mean its free, why wouldn't their old fans at least try it?

Also I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason for not making Sins 2 straight away is to let the technology catch up a bit to their plans. Once everyone has 64 bit machines with over 4 GB of ram and who knows what else, they'll be able to do a lot more than they could if they were to start development right now.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

It's got a lot of tough competition.  DOTA2 in beta and people are loving it.  LOL has a good player base.  Is SOADA going to have the "Premium" content where whoever has the most real cash wins?  SOADA will, hopefully, provide them the raw cash to eventually get a SOASE II engine going.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting SemazRalan, reply 2
Is SOADA going to have the "Premium" content where whoever has the most real cash wins?
End of SemazRalan's quote

No, they said anything that affects gameplay will be purchaseable with in game points. The only cash exclusive things are cosmetics.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

LOL is its only real hard competition, as it is also Free-to-Play, though SOADA will have my support, as I like LoL and Sins...

I wonder how successful IC will be...

DOTA2 is a pay-once kind of game, and has a different niche, IMO.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

I'll be honest and say I don't understand this business model at all. Invest millions in development on a pay as you go trinket game?

What does free as you play gaming say to the consumer?  "Hey give us a try cause we know you wouldnt buy it otherwise"?

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 1
Also I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason for not making Sins 2 straight away is to let the technology catch up a bit to their plans. Once everyone has 64 bit machines with over 4 GB of ram and who knows what else, they'll be able to do a lot more than they could if they were to start development right now.
End of GoaFan77's quote

    This I don't agree with, a game such as this has a player base that will move up to hardware that will run it. If Ironclad has their finger to the wind waiting for the 64 bit wind to come by for all, it could be awhile. 

    Sins came out in 2008, I don't see a realistic Sins 2 at this juncture until 2015.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting wbino, reply 5
I'll be honest and say I don't understand this business model at all. Invest millions in development on a pay as you go trinket game?
End of wbino's quote

 

Its been shown that the F2P model is a cash cow. 

 

It players try a game without the feeling of wasting 60 bucks if they dont like it.

 

It allows players to buy what they want from a game as new content is developed. 

 

No worry about losing sales from piracy.

 

There are several great examples of F2P doing well, Leauge Of Legends, and DnD Online are just 2 of them.

 

 

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

What they did next seems to be very similar to what Ironclad is doing here.  They didn't give the fans what they wanted (TA2) but released a fantasy based RTS (TA kingdoms) the game was a flop & Cave dog never released TA2.
End of quote


The game also wasn't all that good.


It was OK, but TA was GREAT!

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah, TAK was all potential and no polish...

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 1
Also I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason for not making Sins 2 straight away is to let the technology catch up a bit to their plans. Once everyone has 64 bit machines with over 4 GB of ram and who knows what else, they'll be able to do a lot more than they could if they were to start development right now.
End of GoaFan77's quote

Well, 64 bits have start in 1985 with cray computer and Unico ( unix x64 )... at a large scale, console have move to 64 bit before 2000 ( nintendo 64, PS2, etc )... move on computer was more slow first because hardware but mainly due to the OS... linux x64 was ready in 2001 but for a windows version, it have only happen in 2005 with window xp pro...

2005 is the purchase date of my actual computer... 2 processor x64 quad core, 16 gb ram ... so, it is fare to be new... problem is again the OS... xp pro x64 was released in 2005 but it was a pro version... lot of people have remain with the usual xp 32 bit shipped with the computer... later, Vista was a flop... Only recently ( a few year ), with Win7 being x64 capable from the Home version have allow people to fully use the power of their old hardware...

And of course, game developper cannot make a x64 game without a enough large amount of people using a 64 bit OS... as today ( january 2012 ), it seem that almost 40% of people are always using a 32 bits OS ( xp, vista, win 7 )... xhexk at http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey, click "OS version"...

At this rate, hardware will move to 128 bits before everybody have upgrade to x64 !!!  

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

The major difference is Cave Dog didn't give a sequel to the game like everyone wanted. Where as Ironclad is giving us a sequel and it's only months away from release.

SoSE: Rebellion IS SoSE2. Not everything has to follow the Game, Game 2, Game 3, and etc naming convention. They can work on both at the same time and it's not like they have abandon support for it the way Cavedog did with TA.

Also I don't see how this thread can be useful in any sense. I just recently found out about Sins of a Dark Age and given it was my by Ironclad want to find out as much as possible. However after searching around for a bit there is very little information on the game. What information there is tends to be very vague with lots of room for interpretation. It's like reading the feature list on the game of a box. Two games can have nearly the exact same list of features but end up meaning completely different things. That's why I just ignore feature list these days and look for concrete details of the mechanics in action explain, if they don't have those I pass it by, unless a friend recommends it or it's from a Dev I trust.

Ironclad really only has the one major successful franchise so they could pull cavedog and flop on it's next title. Or it could join the ranks of some of the elites in the industry who's name because synonymous with success as they have few franchises but all are hugely popular. Given the completely lack of concrete info on SoDA there is no way judge which way it's trending.