I have kept an eye on Saga since I first heard of it, advertised as a new MMORTS with one of the Starcraft devs working on it. Many different races available, and promised clash of civilisations. As the game developed i got invited for Beta testing. Here's why i said no:

* The game isnt really a mmorts, its more like an mmorpg with rts elements. Only battles are done via PvP, so if you dont want to get attacked u wont be. There are levels to be made determining rank, also an rpg element. Also when your units die, they can be resurrected. Not a realistic element of war.

* I am more of a scifi/history lover. The game is situated in a fantasy world, and i am personally much more impressed by a full planetary assault with battleships or a heavy cavalry charge than an army of orcs n dragons.

* In Saga, you can and actually must buy your army, or trade units with other players. For real cash. In this it looks much more like the card game Magic the Gathering. This is a cool thing for pimping your army, but takes out of account any benefits from in-game industry or economics. Both are a definite requirement for a decent strategy game in my opinion. You can become very cool without even firing a shot or building a city.

* My impression was further strengthened by a Boundless Planet player, SloBBioK. He played Saga full time. In the end he became rank one by means of spending a lot of time, and getting dev induced bonusses (another thing i hate, free subs fine, but free units an unfair advantage strategy wise). He eventually got bored with the game, since it did not offer the thrill of play it advertised. He stayed in the game to earn a $100 bonus the devs offered to the first player to reach rank 60, collected the money and then left.

To summarize, i had high hopes for this game, in spite of its fantasy ­base­d universe, but as it developed it did not turn out to be the cool new mmorts I had expected like its promises, but more of an mmorpg instead. And I'm not a big fan of those hehe.

Lord

Some small mistakes from a outsider data wise but indead I got bored and there was no real warfare, but now with the new patch they implemented something very cool:


You can make your territories *wilderness territories* or *WT*
Those territories need to have a keep(strongest tower that can be build) and you will get additional spots to build on. Including spots to build mana shard mines wich shards can be used to enchant your found or bought weapons and armors.

This all sounds very cool but ofcourse there is a counter-side for it.

Those WT's can be raided by everybody who has a WT also, including destroying their buildings and plundering everything.

How to defend against that you ask?

Put units you have leveled up on their defense so you are defended even when you are offline. Only problem stays with the stupid AI as in every game but well..Nothing much to be done about that hmm. And note I am around there =) I will take a eye on it that it will become a cool game to play =)

And also the current new thing that they implemented: bosses. BIG HUGE INCREDIBLE STRONG SPELL CASTING BASTARDS who require more then 1 player to finish them off. And they are going to implement a much more guild interactive way of gaming. Quests wich need to be done by the whole guild to archieve something.(like conquering lands from other guilds)

In my eye's SAGA is going into the right way of being a cool game to play.

wow they got WT's now? i gotta go check the game out sometime. c ya in there slob

edit:
geeze i realy missed alot of patches. i'm updating my client atm,only i get 2 sec ping so i gotta wait 2 seconds between every file download. and there's like 3000 files. or 1 second something like that.but it's taking FOREVER. can't wait to get on the game and check out the WT's. hope it was a good way to add persistance to the game. WT's will keep the players coming back to check on em day after day.

The WI territories are good and bad. I almost lost my nation due to a raid. lost 12 houses and peasants rioted.


nature - Gilmar

This game is more of an RTS than many I have seen. It has ­base­ building, research, resource gathering, combat in the form of quests and pvp and for me personally its the kind of MMORTS that I have been waiting around for along time. Granted there is some issues I would love to see changed, but overall the game is very well developed for this stage in beta.

Saying this game is more of an rpg is like saying WOW is an rts. I have been in beta since right at the end of alpha and have seen changes come and go. The upcoming changes will be well worth the wait, ie. new Bosses, World territory conflicts, new guild and guild war functions.

While I applaud CrazyMorax on his testing in Alpha phase, he has just recently came back and the game has changed drastically since beta. His ideas on pvp and alot of his views are somewhat outdated, but still he is right. Saga has alot of potential and the game is being brought out with a new model (booster pack units) that should bring alot to the game. Some of the ideas such as items, unit leveling, enchanting items, pvp, questing should all help pull in even non rts type players.

Btw a few funny stuff about the game that just wondered...:

..Pidgeons are able to lift 250 thousand times their body weight.

...Pidgeons also know how to fluently use email, and will give messeges to you

...most lizards can breath fire. beware of geckos.

...Some people really can miss hitting sombody with their sword.

...Orcs have massive muscle tone, making their arrows 3x stronger.

...All machinery seems to be haunted, operating without a crew.

...The worlds armies are the secondary slave market, trading soldiers like ­base­ball cards.

...humans are worth less than a micheal jackson cd (and thats pretty low)

...just because your a hippy elf chick, you can shoot a bow two times longer than anything else.

... horsemen hate their job so much, they have a skill named sacrafice

...Buildings build themselves

...Peasants are invisible, and gather resources in puny amounts.

...the admins are scared of logging in themselves due to being mobbed.

...everything balanced is supposedly hacked because it killed a noob.

...If you perk your ears at night, you can hear the majestic call of the nerd: ROFLMAOMGWTFMOOOOOOOHAHAHA!!!!

...Towers that shoot one arrow are stronger than a platoon of archers

...fireballs launch from the sky because the higher level players despise combat. as they have played so much they hate it.

...where peasants live happy, invisible lives.



And the bad is that after u completed to build an empire,builded all the buildings up,lvled all the units up,kicked the ass of everybody 1 by 1,theres simply nothing to do...the secound bad thing is that in saga if u got more money u got a bigger army(what is kinda unfair)

The GOOD!!:I'm still a mod in the forums...RESPECT^^

the trading card aspect works fine from what i see.

paid around £20 which seems about right for a game, from that i've just traded around resources and troops for what i want, traded my booster packs directly for green dragons + 5000 gold each to get started. picked up a ballista for 3000 gold, other units such as druids for around the same gold cost.

just looking for a trebuchet atm since i don't really have any proper siege ;p