I've always been a big fan of the persistent online games. Unfortunately, the MMORPGs are so ridiculously time consuming, I cant take one up without screwing up other parts of my life. I've always been a little fascinated with the MMORTS idea, just because it really hasnt been done right yet, and it (ideally) would be a great kind of persistent world that wouldnt require you to level for 1125370 hours, or play in quests that consume half of your day.
Well, I stumbled across this game called Saga. It is a MMORTS (Massively Multiplayer Online Real Time Strategy). It is in a free open beta phase, but unfortunately is not getting a whole lot of attention. I dont think they are advertising at all right now. The game will obviously get much more interesting and dynamic once the player base is larger.
In short -
You run a kingdom, manage your army, and complete quests to gain experience, equipment, resources, and more units for your army.
In addition to the battles, you also manage your kingdoms peasants/building/resource collection, which eventually bring income to further fund your army.
PVP is live, but needs tweaking
Guild vs guild is in development, It may work, but I am not sure yet.
All in all, a very solid free game that is exploring a genre that really hasnt been mastered yet.
the website is
http://www.playsaga.com/ I am not affiliated, but would definitely like to see their playerbase grow.
I'm still fairly newb, but some tips for new players -
-Your race doesnt really matter right now - they are still balancing. Just pick whatever sounds cool.
-Your army is made up of "cards". They are somewhat like magic cards, but they represent units on the field. You start out with enough for a small army. You can only use cards that are alligned with your race. DO NOT SELL the cards that you cannot use. Try to trade them for other equally powerful cards.
Example - if you are Magic, you will start out with a bunch of stock units, 2 magic cards, and 8 cards of different alignments. Instead of selling these 8 other cards for gold, try to trade them for 8 more magic cards to enhance your army.
-In your city, first priority for buildings are houses. Just make a crapton of them.
-The best way to get resources is completing quests. Your city will not produce very well until late game - and for the moment your city is more useful for PVP (which is very good for resources)
-The first thing you should do when you create your kingdom and start playing is:
1)Go to the website
2)Log in under "My Nation"
3)Click booster packs
4)Click to recieve 1 of your 8 free booster packs
5)Reveal the cards you are given.
The booster packs are extra army units that you can use/trade, and are very valuable. You get 1 free per day for 8 days.
I hope to see more of you in there. The player base is quite small right now, and overrunning them with poker players would be pretty fun [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
If anybody has questions i'll try to help, but i'm still fairly new.
TLDR notes
SAGA is a new MMORTS open beta
website at
http://www.playsaga.com/
It is free/fun. try it.