By Jim Rossignol on August 24th, 2012 at 6:00 pm.
Paradox’s games don’t exactly all leap out and explain themselves the moment you glance at a statistic-framed map screen, but even among their current line-up Starvoid is looking a little obscure. Which is odd, because it’s actually fairly straightforward: it’s an RTS. But it’s not a classic base-builder, no sir, in fact it’s something a bit more akin to classic multiplayer deathmatch modes. Leap in and just start fighting other players. No building, no resource wars, just a bunch of units and blowing each other up. It is, in fact, “mostly about the fun!” says the design director. Tsk. Strategy players don’t want fun, they want clicks, and reasons to frown for extend periods of time.
For purposes of answering the question “what is Starvoid?” you can watch the devs explain themselves – and Starvoid – below. I mean they sort of explain it… don’t they? Okay, no, I still have no idea. Sorry! The game arrives next week, apparently.
24/08/2012 at 18:04 Safewood says:
Can this STARt to fill the void in my rts heart?
24/08/2012 at 18:59 The Random One says:
That pun was awful.
Maybe it just didn’t click with me.
24/08/2012 at 19:27 Zepp says:
He wanted to be a pun star but failed to do so.
24/08/2012 at 19:39 S Jay says:
The confusion could be avoided.
25/08/2012 at 01:14 Sparkasaurusmex says:
It looks like it could be fun, but I’m not really starving for an RTS devoid of strategy.
24/08/2012 at 18:22 mcnostril says:
Visually, this looks disturbingly similar to DoW 2.
24/08/2012 at 18:32 Cuddlefish says:
I honestly thought they had somehow misposted a Dawn of War 2 pic until I looked more closely. Uncanny.
24/08/2012 at 18:32 Sardonic says:
You said it, I’m surprised Paradox doesn’t get sued more. Ah well, I suppose with WiC’s drop in/out server and matchmaking architecture and DoW2′s gameplay, it could be good.
But seriously paradox, can’t you keep your eyes on your own paper?
24/08/2012 at 19:06 Silvermarch says:
Yeah, that was my first thought too.
24/08/2012 at 20:04 Lord_Mordja says:
It’s missing the most important visual cue from DOW2, however, and that’s readability.
From the trailer, all the units seem difficult to differentiate at a glance and use such a faded colour palette that they barely stand out from the landscape.
24/08/2012 at 20:46 LXM says:
Agreed, all the trailer did was make me want to play some DoW2
24/08/2012 at 18:23 Rikard Peterson says:
Interesting. Now, if someone would do the same thing for a turnbased game, and make it work. Then I’d be very interested.
24/08/2012 at 18:25 Jim Rossignol says:
Yeah. That was my thought as well, actually. It’s baffling that companies of Paradox’s ilk haven’t turned out an awesome turn-based tactical strategy in the past couple of years.
28/08/2012 at 17:13 kaffis says:
Precisely. My biggest disappointment with the Real Time Strategy genre has always been that it teases me with words like “strategy,” and often even delivers “reasons to frown for extend periods of time,” as you so eloquently put it, but then deny me the *time* to perform said frowning at a comfortable pace.
This most often causes all pretense of making actual decisions based on my frowning musings to be cast aside in favor of rote repetition of trained responses to specific stimuli, which isn’t nearly as interesting a prospect.
24/08/2012 at 18:25 Koozer says:
Unfortunately, the only parts of RTSs I really enjoy are base building and resource management. Shooting always gets in the way of making pretty bases :(
25/08/2012 at 03:07 belgand says:
Agreed. Building your base, doing research, politely existing with your neighbors. It’s really the best part of RTS games. Whenever I actually have to leave my base and go fight someone I always get upset that I’m no longer having fun.
Then again, I also find the combat parts of RPGs to be tedious and would much rather just find new towns to explore and interesting people to chat with. Take out the inventory and towns in an RPG and you just have a lifeless hunk of a game.
Perhaps the time has come for developers to acknowledge that for at least a portion of their audience the “fun” “action” of their games are actually the bitter pill we have to swallow in order to play the bits we enjoy.
24/08/2012 at 18:25 dontnormally says:
Please be anything like Myth.
edit: sci-fi Myth. I and II (not III).
24/08/2012 at 18:53 bhagan says:
I will sacrifice my firstborn to Paradox if it is so
24/08/2012 at 19:18 Berzee says:
Don’t do that.
Maybe you could dedicate (like Hannah did with Samuel) instead of sacrificing. Little dude in a hand-stitched coat runnin’ around the Paradox offices.
24/08/2012 at 18:36 MythArcana says:
Let me guess…it’s a stripped down SupCom2 meets DotA with ICR for DRM and DLC for every single new unit to come out. Yeah…pass.
24/08/2012 at 18:39 Unaco says:
Do you have knees left? Or a desk?
24/08/2012 at 18:59 Brun says:
“ICR” would be unprecedented for a Paradox title, they usually don’t do things like that. Not sure why you’re jumping to that conclusion, other than being a bitter old man.
EDIT: Okay, multiplayer-only. So maybe ICR. But so what? I thought that ICR was okay for multiplayer-only titles, right?
24/08/2012 at 19:31 Eclipse says:
but what’s ICR anyway? :O
24/08/2012 at 19:35 Brun says:
It’s the same thing as “always-online” but some nitpickers around here don’t like that terminology.
25/08/2012 at 03:08 belgand says:
Hmm… but does it have TLA?
24/08/2012 at 18:37 ceenima says:
…multiplayer only?
that’s a little worring
24/08/2012 at 18:57 Bobka says:
“No building, no resource wars,”… no fun?
24/08/2012 at 19:12 Phasma Felis says:
So it’s actually about strategy? Bitchin’.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked C&C and Starcraft, but it always baffled me how “real-time strategy” somehow came to mean “SimCity with guns”. This whole notion of three guys with hammers rolling up to a warzone, building an entire R&D campus/factory complex/military firebase in minutes using stuff they find on the ground, and then manufacturing soldiers on the spot to charge suicidally at the guys doing the same thing a quarter mile away…never stops being hilarious.
25/08/2012 at 03:11 belgand says:
By which you mean “all about tactics”.
A game that is “all about strategy” would involve you managing the entire army and probably controlling logistics and supply trains. It would have absolutely no fighting aside from “send this unit over here” and then waiting to hear what happened to it.
In fact, Crusader Kings II is pretty much along these lines. You don’t control the battle, you have commanders to do that. You control the strategy.
24/08/2012 at 19:58 pakoito says:
Dawn of War 2.
24/08/2012 at 19:11 Jools says:
Man, I feel like such a ridiculous stick in the mud for even bringing this up, but I hate when developers say something is “all about the fun.” It’s such a meaningless thing to say. I mean, I generally don’t run out and buy games that I don’t think are going to be fun. And I generally don’t expect developers to aspire to make things that aren’t fun. It usually just means “we got rid of all the stuff that acts as a barrier to entry for this genre even though that stuff is probably the reason people enjoy it in the first place!”
I’m turning into such a grumpy old man. :(
24/08/2012 at 19:17 NathanH says:
Your post is all about the grump. But correct.
24/08/2012 at 19:28 Baines says:
What about art-style indie games? The ones that are all about the art, or all about the message, or all about being counter to mainstream fun, or whatever happens to be the cool thing to be about that week?
24/08/2012 at 20:54 reggiep says:
I’m pretty sure he means fun as opposed to serious. Starcraft is fun, but when you start getting bogged down in APM and all the minutiae of the strategy, it starts to be work. People like work when they are good at it, but that doesn’t necessarily imply fun. Starcraft at that level is more stressful than fun I think.
24/08/2012 at 19:25 Rawrian says:
They should have spelled the name like StarVoid, it sounds like something that has to do with starving children and robots to me.
24/08/2012 at 19:29 Zepp says:
StarFACE would be better.
24/08/2012 at 19:45 S Jay says:
I had the same impression.
25/08/2012 at 10:14 Tinus says:
Indeed, Starvoid is a robot whose sole function and purpose is starving. Forever.
Also: StarkRaft