There seems to be more information popping up about Stormgate now including the devs adding a third faction and it seems to be getting more polished.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0XdTRLYspc
May end up poking at this game because at least there's 1v1 so that means you can have solo matches and it will probably be a game that's harder to bot. Hopefully because it's ex-devs being involved that are good at RTS games we won't see potential multiplayer shenanigans but going to wait and see with this one.
If the devs don't fuck it up they could easily poach the Starcraft playerbase I think.
I haven't been following it super closely (RTS isn't my main thing), but it seems pretty promising, from what I have seen.
I'm also a bit warry, though. These things usually go one of a few ways, with the whole 'totally legit ex-[blank] devs,' and 'spiritual successors,' and the like.
They either deliver, and break everything wide open (super rare, but does happen), or they deliver a competent but not groundbreaking game and, with all the hype they built up, people kind of go 'that's it?' This seems by far the most common.
Then there are even a few negative outcomes, where these totally competent and hyped up devs aren't capable of working in their new environment, and turn out slop after hyping it up so much. They were just missing a few pieces to actually churn out a good game.
Lastly, sometimes they're just straight up scams, or otherwise destroy the faith of most of the playerbase. I'll never forgive Phoenix Point for that bullshit they pulled.
I think Stormgate will at the very least fall into the 'competent' category though. Possibly actually break some ground, but we'll just have to wait and see.
Agreed, best not to get hopes up, I've been very sick of the state of muh 'modern' gaming seen these days I feel like a more complex game that brainlets and bots can't play is exactly what the doctor ordered for this industry. I think more games should go that route as it would be a fine way of gatekeeping the industry more too.
Yeah, same. And it seems to be getting worse. I like your (and other's) theory that modern AAA devs are so compromised at this point they would be downright incapable of designing a game that isn't just copy/paste. The industry is running on fumes, as all the competent people have long since been replaced. Sadly the average consumer doesn't care so, for now, it's still trucking along mostly fine. But you can only keep this going so long, when the devs aren't capable of, well, developing.