Beyond Protocol - All the decisions you can handle...

Ok, I doubt anyone really follows me as an entity here, but if you've seen me before, you might know that my all time favorite game was just released a few weeks ago, Beyond Protocol. I played this game in beta a while back and have loved it ever since. It doesn't get too much love, so bear with me.

It's an MMORTS, and you take the reigns of an empire in a persistant universe with hundreds of other players.One of the coolest things about it is that there are almost no premade units. Cool? Why is that cool? ;) Cause you get to design everything else!

 If you want an example, read the next paragraph, if not, skip it...

Let's say I wanted to produce some missile support ships. I would start by designing my missiles, make them long range, high guidence, high flight time, and low speed to cut costs. Then I need a radar, I might want to make it a low accuracy, high visibility radar with a touch of jamming thrown in. Next is the engine, which will need enough power to support the missiles and radar, max the speed so they can run away if necessary, and minimise the manueverability to reduce costs. Finally, design a hull layout that will have enough space for all this equipment and some armor, research it all and put it all together. There are multiple weapon types, shields and special hull atributes, all of which have strengths and weaknesses. This also goes for buildings.

The game takes place on land, sea, and air inside of a planet, and goes into space and then across solar systems, so it is pretty massive. Then there are guilds, a bunch of empires banded together. Right now there are three major ones in the game, but as new players come, new systems will open up and I'm sure more guilds will start up. There are also Trade, Espionage and Diplomatic paths to take in the game, but like any MMO, there are enough choices to where you aren't necessaryily supposed to do everything. 

Ok, enough rambling by me. I love it. Anyone tried it? If you want to, there is a free trial on their home page.

-KillOBKilled

That actually sounds pretty sweet. I read your review and some others out there. I may have to try that out. One question I have is how does it keep track of you? I mean, i understand that in normal MMORPGs that you just join in and romp around and when you're not there, you're not there. But, is that the same case for this? It sounds like you'd be buildling an empire on a specific world, and I would think that people can see it all the time? Or is it still semi-based around small scale battles but you are able to keep your research and such? I probably just need to test it out to "get it".

I probably sound like an idiot, but i have never seen/heard of a MMORTS before... sounds intriguing.

Sorry for the delay, life pulled the rug out from under me there for a few days...

The persistence is something that takes getting used to. Yes, when you log off, everything you've built stays in the universe and can be attacked. Course, the devs know that coming back to a smoldering empire is no fun for anyone, so they give you a planet/spacestation of your choice that can't be attacked while you're gone. Aside from that, the whole, "everything continues" bit is pretty cool. You send a fleet accross star systems one night, and by morning they reach their target, or set your factories to spit out thousands of tank guns, and after work they're done and ready to be put on a chassis. Then again, there are intense dog fights where a decisive tactic might win the fight in a few minute. Then there's guilds and aliases, so your friends can use your stuff, or protect it while you're offline/away.

I took some time looking at this video... the different colour lasers looks like a disco.

Other then that... I like the concept of the game, by planets have a advangate and disadvangate and building an empire... it looks interesting.