Xan Xan

DEMIGOD: GAME of the YEAR or Spectacular Disaster?

DEMIGOD: GAME of the YEAR or Spectacular Disaster?

When Demigod is working it's the best damn RTS type game I've ever played. It's amazingly fun. Having played Dawn of War 2, going and playing a good game of Demigod multiplayer is an absolute blast!

BUT...

The actual online experience is absolute garbage right now. WHEN I can get into a game, which is hit or miss, the odds of me being able to actually complete a game is maybe 1 in 10 because somebody gets bumped off. I just don't buy that people are losing internet connections this common. I don't get that in my other games. AND....even if somebody is disconnecting I end up with the f*cking eject dialog where I am given almost not clue as to what I'm supposed to do and have to eject everybody in order to get the game going.

The in game connection unreliability is much worse for me than the getting games set up problem. It may sometimes be a pain to get a game going but I never have any real problems getting a game going. Completing the game is the problem.

If Gas Powered Games can't get their in game net code to work, this game will be a dismal failure and deservedly. If they can make it robust and reliable then I predict Demigod will set the standard for online strategy gaming for years to come. 

204,592 views 141 replies
Reply #76 Top

Fair enough, Sargerias.

A couple of peeps in this thread might disagree, but my .02 -

1.  So far we are looking at 8 heroes (demigods or DGs) in Demigod, with at least two more planned.  Each demigod ideally has several builds and skills they can use (8-10 skill lines per DG, including some that synergize between skill trees), though in practice we are still seeing optimal builds.  DoTA players have lobbied hard for more DGs just to present team build variety, even as reskins, but the counter-argument has been that 1. DGs are supposed to be deep where Heroes are shallow 2. More DGs will be added to address perceived gaps in balance.

2.  Demigod has several items which can be bought and sold.  There are consumable single-use items and potions, armor which remains equipped ingame when bought, and Favor items which can be earned over several games and once bought, used in any game free of cost.  You have three active item slots, five passive item slots, and one favor item slot.  Items cannot be customized or upgraded a la DoTA.  Hopefully an upgrade system will be incorporated post-release.

3. In Demigod the elements of surprise, reconaissance and counter-reconaissance are not yet strongly developed on a strategic level, with some notable exceptions.  You don't see the whole map all the time, but many of the maps are small enough and have enough common objectives that you can often predict where an enemy is or is going.  Having said that - it is always possible to surprise, trap and kill opponents on a tactical basis.  Hopefully strategic LoS elements will be incorporated post-release that will add to the larger element.  

One way that Demigod does shine, strategically, is by incorporating the ability for a team to upgrade their creep stream and base in a number of ways.  There are also a number of control point flags scattered across the map which confer large bonuses on whomever controls them.  Seizing the opportunity to run through enemy fortifications and capture one of the enemy portal flags (which means the creeps coming out of the portal become allies) and then upgrading your creepstream to powerful units at the same time will usually bring you victory.

4. Demigod is very accessible, and with certain individual demigods we may be beginning to see the ceiling beyond which playstyle cannot progress without additional skills and builds (which we will probably see in future updates).  In a team setting, however, we are a long long way away from determining max efficiency and makeup.  No one team makeup is guaranteed to win every time, and I've seen good teams beat better teams that have been playing longer.  

Finally and most importantly, the developers are as committed to their player community as they can be within the limits of being in business.  None of the above is set in stone, and the devs have stated that they are planning a year of free updates after release. 

I'm sure there will be a few in this thread who disagree with some or all of the above - but after you take their input with mine maybe try the demo (which will come out a month or two after release) and see what you think

 

Reply #77 Top

Quoting Gerry, reply 24

I think it's perfectly fine to look to Dota and find things that they did right and implement it with the ideas that you wanted for Demigod. They both fit under the same genre as much as you might hate that :/ Why not use good things amirite? I'm not saying we should base it completely off of Dota but look at things that worked really well to make demigod something better. Isn't that what we all want a better game?
End of Gerry's quote

 

This is more or less what I've been trying to say, but for some reason people don't get it.

Reply #78 Top

Quoting JinxOfSin, reply 21

I seem to recall that the general marketing hinted quite strongly that if you like Dota you'll like Demigod.  I don't recall reading anywhere (except well after Beta 2) the devs saying it's nothing like it.

However, the biggest marketing blurb that I found completely disingenuous was the "we want Demigod to be the COUNTERSTRIKE of RTS."

...if you came in here because of your various marketing campaigns and interviews, you might be in for some disillusionment.
End of JinxOfSin's quote

Exactly.

Reply #79 Top

Hm I don't think GPG ever said "If you like DotA, you'll like Demigod".  Frogboy said that, while on GPG forums everyone would say "Demigod is not DotA".

 

I did hear the counterstrike of RTS thing too..  Yeah. :\  Maybe in a few months?  Here is hoping they support it, then it can be good.  But it won't be good on launch.  It has lots of potential IMO.

Reply #80 Top

What I said is that if you like Dota you'll PROBABLY like Demigod. 

Similarly, if you like Master of Orion, you'll probably like Galactic Civilizations.

Naturally, at the end of the GalCiv betas we had plenty of Master of Orion fans telling us how terrible GalCiv was because it wasn't enough like MOO.

Reply #81 Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 5
What I said is that if you like Dota you'll PROBABLY like Demigod. 

Similarly, if you like Master of Orion, you'll probably like Galactic Civilizations.

Naturally, at the end of the GalCiv betas we had plenty of Master of Orion fans telling us how terrible GalCiv was because it wasn't enough like MOO.
End of Frogboy's quote

 

Oh hai brad,

This is the solution http://forums.demigodthegame.com/343533

kplzthx

Reply #83 Top



Also add flying monkey Demigod please
End of quote

 

How about a flying pig?

 

Reply #84 Top

Well, on one hand it's not good for a new game to be compared to an already existing mod or game, especialy when it comes to pitching the idea, but it's understandable and widely used by players.

On the other hand, lots of well known publishers and studios take old well known mechanisms, polish and patch them up and resell them as brand new state of the art. Best example is Blizzard with Diablo III and World of Warcraft.

 

And about this I'd like to link a comic from a german mmo-games-magazine www.buffed.de

free Translation:

First Line:

Zam (the left one): "With Diablo III and Starcraft II it's easy to see that Blizzard has an easy but ingenius system for new editions of their games, right Björn?"

Björn (right one): ""Right Zam! They keep the games as they are and improve some odds and ends here and there ..."

Second Line:

Zam (the left one): "With Diablo III and Starcraft II it's easy to see that Blizzard has an easy but ingenius system for new editions of their games, right Björn?"

Björn (right one): ""Right Zam! They keep the games as they are and improve some odds and ends here and there ..."

Third Line:

Zam (the left one): "With Diablo III and Starcraft II it's easy to see that Blizzard has an easy but ingenius system for new editions of their games, right Björn?"

Björn (right one): ""Right Zam! They keep the games as they are and improve some odds and ends here and there ..."

Voellig Buffed Ep. 18

Reply #86 Top

thx Ke5trel

Your mini-Review fits pretty good in my actual opinion from the game. However having 8 skills instead of 4 skills (dota heros) doesnt realy add that much depth into the Demigods. If they can launch the game with 10 Heros it could be a good sign to the community. But i guess it will be 8 Heros and fully 6 Months later they come up with and expansion wich includes 2 more Heros. This way making the game just another smal stone on the road to the next damn blizzard game :(

On the other hand i see that no company can use almost endless resources like Blizzard can nowadays to delay their produkt till everything is close perfektion. I realy wish Demigod every possible Success in the world, but my honest opinion.......

......Demigod will have a very promising start (like countles good games before), but regular Playerbase will fall drastically after a few Months cause they get bored of the game cause of minor depth (like exactly those countles good games before). Since it positioned itself pretty clever as a "Next-Gen-Dota" (thats the way the majority of people look at it)  the game will sell good enough to at least even the productioncosts. One expansion will come out 6-8 Months after release and then the game and its community will slowly vanish (again like those countles good games before). Dotas success is based primary on the NONSTOP additions to the (therefore everchanging) gameplay. And Blizzards overall success is based on the fact that their games have incredible depth for hardcore and tourney-players while staying easy and enjoyable for those casual players with only smal playtime-amounts.

As long as no other company starts to get this basic idea and only build either easy games or totaly inaccessible games noone will ever catch up to blizzards success. Most of us will buy Demigod just to reduce our waiting-Time for DoTA 2.0 (when Starcraft 2 comes out with its world editor its pretty sure dota 2.0 will be there with dozens of brandnew Heros again).

 

Reply #87 Top

......Demigod will have a very promising start (like countles good games before), but regular Playerbase will fall drastically after a few Months cause they get bored of the game cause of minor depth (like exactly those countles good games before). Since it positioned itself pretty clever as a "Next-Gen-Dota" (thats the way the majority of people look at it)  the game will sell good enough to at least even the productioncosts. One expansion will come out 6-8 Months after release and then the game and its community will slowly vanish (again like those countles good games before). Dotas success is based primary on the NONSTOP additions to the (therefore everchanging) gameplay. And Blizzards overall success is based on the fact that their games have incredible depth for hardcore and tourney-players while staying easy and enjoyable for those casual players with only smal playtime-amounts.
End of quote

Yea, Stardock's pretty well known for just putting out the game and doing an expansion and abandoning it.

I mean, heck, I don't think we ever touched Galactic Empires or whatever the heck it's called after we shipped that bugger. We just sat back and tossed out a couple of expansion when the lease payments on our private jets came in.

I mean, that's what people think of when they think of a Stardock published game - tossed out there and abandoned. Which is fine since everyone understands what they're getting and I don't have to feel guilty as I hang out in my mansion feasting on whatever endangered species delicacy my butler brings by.

Reply #88 Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 12


Yea, Stardock's pretty well known for just putting out the game and doing an expansion and abandoning it.

I mean, heck, I don't think we ever touched Galactic Empires or whatever the heck it's called after we shipped that bugger. We just sat back and tossed out a couple of expansion when the lease payments on our private jets came in.

I mean, that's what people think of when they think of a Stardock published game - tossed out there and abandoned. Which is fine since everyone understands what they're getting and I don't have to feel guilty as I hang out in my mansion feasting on whatever endangered species delicacy my butler brings by.
End of Frogboy's quote


That's it, amp up the sarcasm, that'll boost confidence in the developers. :)

 

(p.s.: I don't think what you quoted is true, and I understand why you're frustrated)

Reply #89 Top

So Sargerias, I know you don't have alot of experience with these developers, but they are really really good at supporting their products.  Stardock in particular has released upwards of 3 expansions and countless updates for GC2, all based on community feedback.  If the game fades and dies it won't be from lack of support...

Reply #90 Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 12

......Demigod will have a very promising start (like countles good games before), but regular Playerbase will fall drastically after a few Months cause they get bored of the game cause of minor depth (like exactly those countles good games before). Since it positioned itself pretty clever as a "Next-Gen-Dota" (thats the way the majority of people look at it)  the game will sell good enough to at least even the productioncosts. One expansion will come out 6-8 Months after release and then the game and its community will slowly vanish (again like those countles good games before). Dotas success is based primary on the NONSTOP additions to the (therefore everchanging) gameplay. And Blizzards overall success is based on the fact that their games have incredible depth for hardcore and tourney-players while staying easy and enjoyable for those casual players with only smal playtime-amounts.
Yea, Stardock's pretty well known for just putting out the game and doing an expansion and abandoning it.

I mean, heck, I don't think we ever touched Galactic Empires or whatever the heck it's called after we shipped that bugger. We just sat back and tossed out a couple of expansion when the lease payments on our private jets came in.

I mean, that's what people think of when they think of a Stardock published game - tossed out there and abandoned. Which is fine since everyone understands what they're getting and I don't have to feel guilty as I hang out in my mansion feasting on whatever endangered species delicacy my butler brings by.
End of Frogboy's quote

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Funniest post I have read all week!!!

Reply #91 Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 12


Yea, Stardock's pretty well known for just putting out the game and doing an expansion and abandoning it.

I mean, heck, I don't think we ever touched Galactic Empires or whatever the heck it's called after we shipped that bugger. We just sat back and tossed out a couple of expansion when the lease payments on our private jets came in.

I mean, that's what people think of when they think of a Stardock published game - tossed out there and abandoned. Which is fine since everyone understands what they're getting and I don't have to feel guilty as I hang out in my mansion feasting on whatever endangered species delicacy my butler brings by.
End of Frogboy's quote

Brad, Galciv 2 is currently broke. There is a small portion of the screen that does not allow you to "edge-scroll." In TA it is on the top of the screen where it reads "Menu." You can move the mouse anywhere else on the edge of the screen and it will scroll.

Please fix this, until then, game is broken.

Reply #92 Top

Quoting Trigeminal, reply 15

Quoting Frogboy, reply 12

I mean, heck, I don't think we ever touched Galactic Empires or whatever the heck it's called after we shipped that bugger. We just sat back and tossed out a couple of expansion when the lease payments on our private jets came in.

I mean, that's what people think of when they think of a Stardock published game - tossed out there and abandoned. Which is fine since everyone understands what they're getting and I don't have to feel guilty as I hang out in my mansion feasting on whatever endangered species delicacy my butler brings by.


Funniest post I have read all week!!!
End of Trigeminal's quote

 

Sheltered life or obsessive fanboyism, hard choice.

 

Anyway i doubt anyone thinks that the game will be abandoned after release, it's just what will become of the game after release. There is no point of having updates/expansions for the game when the game could die out in active population after 1 month, which pretty much ends up to be a waste of time beta testing and supporting (aka. Age of Conan). I guess we will see how many "casual" gamers take notice of Demigod when it's released.

Reply #93 Top

1. AFAIK there's a few overpowered heroes in DOTA that everyone plays and the rest get largely ignored. In Demigod the aim is to make every demigod competetive and unique instead of having a dozen variations on the same hero. (They've succeeded here, however imho the game still needs some balancing.)

2. Items in Demigod need some reworking/rebalancing but everyone including the devs knows that. Depth in Demigod is skills, items, favor items, general minion idols.

3. who told you that? demigod has fog of war so mostly you can see your half of the map and not the enemy's.

4. Dunno, I'll give you an answer a few months after release.

EDIT: someone beat me to it.

Reply #94 Top

Quoting Zeneroth, reply 5
There's depths in every game, it's just that you really notice it or not.
End of Zeneroth's quote

Eh... Pong ?:)

LOL... well i would agree in so far that "most" games have much more depth than the average player notices,

quite often leading to ironic posts where the same person complains that the game sucks so much because a.) it is so shallow and b.) they lose all the time :p

Reply #95 Top

Brad, Galciv 2 is currently broke. There is a small portion of the screen that does not allow you to "edge-scroll." In TA it is on the top of the screen where it reads "Menu." You can move the mouse anywhere else on the edge of the screen and it will scroll.

Please fix this, until then, game is broken.

End of quote

Exactly, GalCiv 2 is totally broke. I mean, heck, if there was even a single pixel on the screen that didn't handle edge scrolling for the 1% of the user base that uses edge scrolling in GalCiv (instead of left-mouse down to drag the screen around) I'd say the game is total trash.

But like I said, GalCiv 2, like all Stardock games, is just something we tossed out there to make a quick buck on gullible gamers so that we can keep living our ridiculous lifestyle.

You probably seriously expect me to load up Galactic space empires or whatever the hell it's called and fix that. But I say to you, what's in it for ME? My jet fuel doesn't pay for itself you know. Roasted Quayle brought in from flights from Morocco nightly don't just show up automatically. 

Our strategy with Demigod is the same thing. Back last November when Demigod first started to compile without errors I told Chris (Taylor) we should put it in a box and ship it.  But Chris argued that we should make sure the game actually ran which I thought was quite a strange idea but hey, there's a first for everything.

Reply #96 Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 20


Our strategy with Demigod is the same thing. Back last November when Demigod first started to compile without errors I told Chris (Taylor) we should put it in a box and ship it.  But Chris argued that we should make sure the game actually ran which I thought was quite a strange idea but hey, there's a first for everything.
End of Frogboy's quote

 

Let us see us walk first before we run actually maybe even crawl first cause I bet those first few steps are going to be exciting and probably rememberable.

Reply #97 Top

Roasted Quayle brought in from flights from Morocco nightly don't just show up automatically.
End of quote

Always wondered what happened to Dan Quayle

Can't say I'm surprised..

Reply #98 Top

Mr. Fancy-pants CEO sounds really angry.

More than 1% of us use edge-scrolling in galciv! And no I don't expect you to fix Space Empires V as that game is fundamentally borked.

Mr. Brad, here are my Rights:

  1. Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.
  2. Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
  3. Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.
  4. Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
  5. Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.
  6. Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
  7. Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
  8. Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
  9. Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
  10. Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

By not addressing the edge-scrolling issue you are violating Rights 1, 2, and 3.

  1. Screen does not scroll when using a certain edge so technically Galciv 2 is not working properly on my computer.
  2. Game is not finished because it doesn't work properly. See above.
  3. If any of the previous updates had actually been 'meaningful' this would've been addressed by now.

You have 24 hours to fix this edge-scrolling issue before I start ragin' in the offical Galciv forums.

Thank you, and have a nice day sir.

Reply #99 Top

Demigod will be excellent.

ANd for Dota player who cant stand of not making receipe and having ugly graphics, Get lost to your warcraft world.

Long live to the FROG!

I vote Frogboy as president!!!

Reply #100 Top

Quoting Wagnard, reply 24
Demigod will be excellent.

ANd for Dota player who cant stand of not making receipe and having ugly graphics, Get lost to your warcraft world.

Long live to the FROG!

I vote Frogboy as president!!!
End of Wagnard's quote

I must respectfully disagree due to his blatant disregard of my Gamer's Rights.