End of Nations Message Board

When I first heard about Grey Goo, I assumed it was some kind of World-of-Goo-style puzzler, except all gritty and probably about a goo blob with No Family, No Loyalties, And Nothing Left To Lose. I was woefully, hideously incorrect, but can you blame me? Grey Goo isn’t really what I would’ve titled an RTS that attempts to hearken back to the genre’s golden age, but former End of Nations developer Petroglyph is sticking with it, so here we are. In the wake of Victory’s sobering defeat, the recently beleaguered studio is going back to what it knows best. Base building, three unique factions, and a handful of profoundly important decisions instead of 100 inconsequential ones. Debut trailer below.

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Oh End of Nations, we hardly knew ye. Except we actually got to know you quite well over multiple iterations and directional shifts that we assumed would ultimately culminate in some sort of release. But Trion doesn’t seem too interested in tryin’ anymore. It has the likes of Defiance and the recently announced voxeltronic spree Trove waiting in the wings, so End of Nations – mo’ MOBA than MMO or not – is now officially “on hold.” But hey, it’s not the end of the world. Just the End of Nations.

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Development on End of Nations has officially stopped. Trion Worlds first halted the game in late 2013, recently telling Video Gamer it is "currently focusing the company's energy and creativity on Rift, Defiance, Trove, ArcheAge, and some new projects that we will be revealing soon."

The game's website no longer resolves to any landing page and the last posts on its Facebook and Twitter pages were from August 2013, right around the time Trion Worlds shuttered its San Diego studio. At the time, the publisher opted to move development of End of Nations, along with that of Defiance and ArcheAge, to its Redwood City studio. It also named Scott Hartsman CEO of the company, who left his former role as COO of Trion Worlds in January 2013. [Image: Trion Worlds]

Is End of Nations cursed? I’ve consulted with shamans (and even one soothsayer) from as many cultures as possible, but I’ve yet to reach a definitive conclusion. In the meantime, here are the facts: the massive-scale RTS went through countless states of beta, got pushed way back when Trion deemed it not up to snuff, parted ways with original developer Petroglyph, and then descended back into Trion’s development catacombs, never to be heard from again. Now, however, it’s finally emerged, but it’s looking a little bit, um… different. Can you say “tactical MOBA”? Because Trion sure can. Also “fast-paced military MOBA/RTS,” because genre identities are hard.

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Victory!

Is not a word I plan to use to name anything ever – except perhaps my arch-nemesis if I’m given the opportunity to travel back in time, be present at their birth, and choose their name. Reason being, cosmic irony is a looming, universe engulfing bastard, and it will paint a target on your back for so audaciously daring to believe you might succeed. Such is the sad yet somewhat inevitable tale of Petroglyph, who hasn’t exactly had the best string of luck after Trion yanked End of Nations in-house. The developer’s admitted defeat in its effort to raise $700,000 for WWII arena RTS Victory, pulling the plug on a Kickstarter that was off to a languidly tank-like trundle. So then, where to from here?

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Dodging the incredibly strange trend in which games with portentous names become self-fulfilling prophecies (Hello, Duke Nukem Forever), End of Nations has not, in fact, met its untimely end. You could be forgiven for thinking that it’s in pretty big trouble, though. Indefinite postponements and worrisomely far-reaching developer layoffs tend to have that effect. Regardless of how things ultimately shake out, however, change is afoot. The most earth-shaking bit? Petroglyph’s no longer on development duty, with Trion Worlds now leading the charge on the lumbering, stumbling MMORTS.

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Bleak news. Eurogamer is reporting that End of Nations developers Petroglyph are letting around 30 employees go. Their reported rumour was confirmed on Twitter, when writer and game designer Adam Stevens confirmed he’s one of those who’ll be losing a job over the holidays, posting: “Well, it appears this winter break will be extended indefinitely.” And is response to an inquiry he confirmed: “Lay-offs at Petroglyph. Looking like I’ll be Leaving Las Vegas.”

Meanwhile PC Gamer are reporting that NCSoft Seattle are losing an undisclosed number of staff in a ‘realignment’.(more…)

Time. The gaming industry – like everything else in the past, present, and future – exists inside of it, but often, it seems to observe time less as an incontrovertibly defining law of the universe and more as a set of loose guidelines. So delays happen right and left, and everyone cries while conveniently forgetting that their backlog can be seen from space. That in mind, I can’t really complain when developers decide to do things right instead of cutting corners en route to a quickly forgotten whimper of a release. And I especially can’t complain when said developers are super graceful about it, as both Turbine and Trion have been with Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan and End of Nations, respectively.

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End of Nations, the free-to-play MMORTS from Panzer General developer Petroglyph Games, is nearing launch, and the team is eager to talk about some of the special features found within. Case in point: the above dev diary outlining special hero and mercenary units. The F2P game hits later this year, but you can get a head start with a few premium content bundles that are already available.

Trion has revealed Collector's Edition details for its upcoming free-to-play MMORTS End of Nations. For $70 you'll essentially get a head start in the game, including a Black Dragons company with special units for your army, the chance to start out two commanders at level 5, two extra commander slots, and a 50% boost on in-game cash for five days.

You'll also get a three-month VIP membership, with perks like an in-game store discount, extra in-game credits, and a 90 game XP boost. If you don't want to take the plunge on the CE, Trion's also offering a Founder's Edition, with different skins and fewer perks, for $30, which you can upgrade later if you so choose.

Or, because the game is free-to-play, you could, you know, just wait until it comes out and see what you think for without cracking your wallet. Trion is having another closed beta event this weekend, and rolling towards an open release later on this year.

From this latest trailer for End of Nations, we've discovered that not only is a globally-unified government an almost certain inevitability in our future, but that the key to a successful post-unification revolution appears to be skin-tight outfits.

Handsome MMORTS End Of Nations seems to have taken its sweet time to materialise in the realm of playable, but that time is nearing with beta sign ups in progress for a closed beta which will begin in just over two weeks. You may also choose to witness the most recent trailer, in which they describe the 15-army maps as “insane” and claim that the game is like nothing anyone has ever see before. Them’s fightin’ words, Trion!

And he says Dune 2, not Doom 2.(more…)

The battle persists in the MMO RTS End of Nations. E3 demo floor-cam footage.

Trion's MMO real-time strategy game End of Nations got a new E3 trailer loaded with in-game battles and voice-over commentary. The free-to-play game will go through a "PvP preview" period this summer, and is slated to launch this fall.

Are you playing the End Of Nations beta? I DEMAND to know. So I can label you accordingly. “END OF NATIONS PLAYER” I’ll write on you, with pen. Eventually I plan to do it for all games, but I’m starting with this one. Um, er, crap, why am I posting about a strategy game again? I’ll tell you why – Adam’s too busy bashing all his teeth to bits, leaving me to try to fill up enough space before I tell you there’s a new trailer out for the Liberation Front class and you can watch it below phew I made it.

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From Command and Conquer veterans Petroglyph, End of Nations is a multiplayer RTS that I managed to enjoy and, more importantly, in which I actually won a match. Admittedly, I was on a team partly made up of the people who designed the maps, units, balance and pathfinding, but the important thing is that a little box appeared on my screen informing me that I was a winner. I played my part. Ego dictates that I am now keen to take my skills into the beta to see how they hold up. A new trailer briefly explains the game’s features and provides some detail of the release schedule.

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I’m rubbish at multiplayer RTS games, my fingers are either unable to keep up with my brain and eventually I shut down entirely and wonder how it’s possible for my opponent to have so many units. To my surprise, I wasn’t entirely rubbish at End of Nations when I sat down to play it recently. During the session, I found time to talk with producer Chris Lena and, among other things, asked how Petroglyph’s MMORTS will encourage different styles of play, and how the team are hoping to balance character progression, strategy and teamwork.

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Last time we saw End of Nations, Trion's massively multiplayer real-time strategy followup to its popular Rift, the core gameplay hearkened back to developer Petroglyph's old home of Westwood Studios and its Command & Conquer games. Yes, this is an RTS game focused more on map control and exploration than base-building, but the goal was still to move a group of units around a top-down map, something that RTS players know plenty about.

Now, however, Trion is much farther along in the game's development, so much so that it's readying for a closed beta in just a few weeks. And as Game Director Dave Luehmann unveils a much more polished build of his company's upcoming free-to-play strategy title, another interesting influence emerges: Riot Games' League of Legends.

Many game developers tend to think that more is better: more content, more options, more players. This is especially true of the MMO genre, which tends to pile on vast quantities of content, options players and just about anything else they can fit in the game, such as with Petroglyph's upcoming massively-multiplayer real-time strategy game, End of Nations...

A persistent world map with conflicts across the globe taking place between up to 56 players, nuking each other into metal morsels as they attempt to tip the overall balance of war in their faction’s favour. End of Nations is an MMRTS, alright, but how does something like that work and, digging past the garbled mess of consonants, what kind of conflict is this and can just anybody make a difference?

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MMORTS! MMORTS! Try saying it as a single word. Sounds ominous. Anyway, that’s a collection of letters that refers to be but a few games, and End Of Nations is one of those. The forthcoming MMORTS from Petroglyph (Universe At War) and Trion Worlds (Rift) has opened beta sign ups. I thought they did that weeks ago, but not according to a new video bulletin which implores you to support the game in every possible way, which you can see below. That’s going to be weekly, apparently. Mm.(more…)

#endofnations Though no official release date had been given for the free-to-play MMORTS End of Nations, 2011 had not been ruled out for the game's launch. Developer Trion took that off the table today at the Eurogamer Expo, saying the game will in fact arrive in 2012 and not sooner. More »

2012 is right around the corner, you guys, and as if global pandemics and earth-shattering astronomical events weren't enough to look forward to, Trion has told Eurogamer that we should all expect an End of Nations as well.

Originally slated for a 2011 release, Trion's free-to-play meta-MMO/RTS is now set to launch sometime before the end of the world in 2012. This news follows an exhibition of the title at Eurogamer Expo 2011, where Trion also stated that items purchased through microtransactions will be relegated to cosmetic duty, as the title is not "pay to win."

Petroglyph and Trion Worlds are close to releasing End Of Nations, and they are hoping that it will change things for the MMORTS genre. Seeing the game at Gamescom has given us some clues as to whether they are going to realise that dream.(more…)

We saw the Gamescom trailer from forthcoming MMORTS End Of Nation last week (although reposted below), but there’s also a piece by Petroglyph talking about the metagame (also below) – which is the whole conquering-the-world thing that the game has going on. They talk about how you can deploy anywhere on the map to help friends out in the their conquests, and talk a bit about how that wider conflict will play out. We also learned last week that the game will indeed be free-to-play and so if Dan’s message about the game from Gamescom (which read simply “strong”) is to be believed, then we might be in for a cheap treat of RTS persistence.(more…)

#watchthis The informative video series Extra Credits is back on YouTube, and in their latest episode, they take on the concept of the MMORTS—the massively multiplayer real-time strategy game. (Though at no point in the video do they refer to the genre as "Memortis," even though that is a pretty sweet name, and way easier to say than "MMORPG.") More »

Sure, you'd like to play Trion's upcoming MMO/RTS mashup called End of Nations, but you're not sure if you want to pony up for the retail box, and then shell out another few bucks a month for a subscription. That's a lot to spend on a game you might not like, right? Good news for you, then: Trion has announced that End of Nations will be a free-to-play title.

Free players, according to the official website, will get access to "the entire game," including co-op, the metagame, and the huge multiplayer games as well. The company will offer an optional subscription that will feature "a significant amount of value and convenience extras," though exactly what those are Trion hasn't yet said. But the company does emphasize that winning the game will be built around "strategy and skill," not paying the most money.

There will also be an in-game store with "a wide selection" of more customization and convenience items. And no credit card will be required for the actual game -- everything will be purchasable either with in-game wealth or Trion Credits (which can be bought with real currency). Stay tuned for more hands-on with the game from Gamescom next week.

Just when we thought we’d run out of ways to make jokes about how End Of Nations is a bit like saying “the sea”, another big news story comes out of the MMO RTS. It’s going to be fuh-ruh-ree. Which of course means it’s going to be Free To Play. Co-developed with Petroglyph (the former Westwood team responsible for Command & Conquer), Trion Worlds are claiming that the AAA game’s single player and co-op campaigns will be completely playable to the end without a fee, as well as offering access to 50 player multiplayer battles in the persistent world. So, is there a catch?

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#endofnations Peteroglyph Games's upcoming real-time strategy MMO End of Nations will be the latest game to hop on the free-to-play train. More »

After Trion Worlds had what seems to be substantial success with Rift, the publisher is pushing their next game pretty hard. The game is End of Nations, an MMORTS being developed by Trion and Petroglyph in which players take control of a squad of units and enter matches ranging from one versus one to 26 versus 26 players, as well as a whole Player versus Environment campaign...