Subsiege tournament weekend offers aquatic RTS
Submersive
Subsiege [official site] just caught my eye. It looks to be a kind of underwater real-time strategy/MOBA project with esports aspirations (it's having a tournament this coming weekend which seems to equate to "open servers but with some prizes if you play well). Given "underwater" and "MOBA" is kind of My Whole Deal I'm looking at diving in to see what's what, but until then I'll just be sifting through trailers and press releases.
The info page tells me that 12-player battles are possible as well as a co-operative mode. There also seem to be map objectives to factor in as well as trying to obliterate your foes. There also seems to be something akin to the level-up system for specific abilities you'd recognise for MOBAs with some effects being changed as you go to fit your playstyle.
I mean, there's a teaser trailer but it's just doing that cinematic thing where it's offering up a lot of flavour and just the barest hint of gameplay in that someone uses a missile.
AHA! Gameplay. I don't speak German but here's footage from a show match at Gamescom earlier this year which showcases how the game is at the moment:
To get something with an English commentary I ended up a bit further back in development with a Let's Play of the pre-alpha. Obviously things have changed a little since then - not least the name (which was Submerge at the time) - and through the chat you can hear bits and pieces of feedback to the devs about speed and size of units and so on.
So it's got a Starcrafty attitude in that it seems to be far more focused around unit creation, management and combat as you squabble over resources and oxygen beneath the waves. It's hard to know whether it's fun to play without getting some hands-on time but I feel like there's potential there. Plus I really like the setting. I'd probably try to boot up a passive bot game and peer at seaweed or coral tubes for ages.
If you're interested in the tournament weekend (it's basically an open server thing with some prizes for people who do well, I think) the information is here.
Ultimately the intention is for Subsiege to be free-to-play but with microtransactions/some points at which you could spend money.