Dragon Commander is out...today!

[Sir Slash]

Damn. I'd like to shake her hand. Both actually. At the same time. I see Spock and Spock but where do you think she keeps Capt. Kirk I wonder? Or is it Mc Coy? "Dammit Jim. I'm a doctor not a Brazilian!" ;D ;D ;D

[Yskonyn]

I just think jugg'ling all those units in real time is a bit too chaotit for me.

[Jarhead0331]

Just seems to me that the developers are trying to milk too many genres at once. They have mountains to overcome in combining it all successfully.  From a technical perspective, the mounds of code will require a lot of support. It will be interesting to see how much promised content gets sucked into DLC.

[BanzaiCat]

In actuality, the code can't be all that bad, mostly due to an appealing yet simple trick in the coding that reuses lines instead of just packing in additional lines that do the exact same thing. This in turn makes the programming much more efficient, because sweater muffins.

[Gusington]

I saw that.

[W8taminute]

I love muffins.

[Martok]

Sorry to derail the pun-tastic goodness going on here, but any further impressions SoM?  I'm especially curious as to how you feel the strategic side of the game plays out. 

Just seems to me that the developers are trying to milk too many genres at once. They have mountains to overcome in combining it all successfully.  From a technical perspective, the mounds of code will require a lot of support. It will be interesting to see how much promised content gets sucked into DLC.

I'm simply in awe.  Brilliant! 

[Bison]

So when is the review going to bust out for public oogling?

[son_of_montfort]

Sorry to derail the pun-tastic goodness going on here, but any further impressions SoM?  I'm especially curious as to how you feel the strategic side of the game plays out. 

I sort of quit writing about it when it felt like the derail had overtaken the actual thread. I figured interest level was fairly low and didn't want to look like... wait for it... a boob.

The game is still fairly interesting and has a certain charm that is hard to deny. One thing I did learn is that you can use the +/- keys to change the speed of the RTS battles, which makes them much easier to handle and much easier to use some of your upgraded units special powers. And these special powers are quite something, many of them can change the entire battle. For example, the Charm skill, which can steal a unit for a limited time. If, say, they steal your balloon bombers, well, you are likely screwed. That level of customization is really interesting.

I have also gotten to the third and final act. Act I and II were fairly easy, I barely lost a battle unless I just was surprised or planned poorly. The third act ups the difficulty dramatically, you only have one opponent, he has far more resources than you, and he has more strategy cards and research than you. This works thematically with the story, but I am trying to quickly reconfigure everything so that I can find a way to win this. No more easy victories and your dragon, while still useful, needs to be used more judiciously.

The story is fun, equal parts humor, political intrigue, dark deeds (or potential dark deeds), and Machiavellian plots. I mentioned at Octopus Overlords that the RPG portion reminds me of the original Dune adventure strategy game - not the one by Westwood, the one by Sega. That is a reference that won't resonate with many people, but those that did play it will understand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28video_game%29

[LongBlade]

w00t!

The devs came through with a review key for me.

SoM, LMK if you're up for some multiplayer.

[LongBlade]

Also, it looks like they're working on a second release - maybe US?

Anyway, expect a patch soon (though SoM hasn't complained of bugs or balance issues, clearly they're working on polishing the game).

Note: We'll be updating the review version between now and release, implementing fixes so don't be surprised if new downloads are initiated

     •      There are a couple of crashes we're searching for but in
general it should be fairly stable.

     •      There is an issue with the auto-resolve combat calculations
that we're looking at

     •      We're adding more campaign maps for multiplayer & custom
story campaigns

     •      We're tweaking the balancing values still (especially on
hard & on casual)

     •      We're expanding the in-combat tutorial sections

     •      We're adding Steam achievements + more advanced leaderboard
functionality

     •      There are some English strings still in other languages

Over the next couple of days you'll also see a few UI and polish improvements happening.

[Bison]

W(.)(.)T!!!

[Martok]

How scripted/open is the campaign?  You talk about the game occurring in three Acts.  Are they heavily rails-driven, or do you have a decent degree of freedom? 

[son_of_montfort]

How scripted/open is the campaign?  You talk about the game occurring in three Acts.  Are they heavily rails-driven, or do you have a decent degree of freedom?

Huge degree of strategic freedom, but the main story has a progression. So you chose where, who, and how to battle, but you got against the same "bad guys." The first act is against one of your siblings, on a small map. The second act is against several of your siblings (they do fight one another as well) on a medium map. The last act... well... I'm not going to spoil, but you have one adversary and a large map.

I haven't detected any bugs, but I could see that a little bit of tweaking might be needed. I think Charm is OP and the dragon feels a little fragile.

[GroggyGrognard]

Looks like today was a good day to call in sick...

Meh.