Eugen Systems, the studio behind the million-unit selling Wargame series of RTS games and the critically acclaimed Act of War (2005) or R.U.S.E (2010), is back! Set in a modern, techno-thriller setting, their new game promises to be a perfect cocktail of political intrigue, high fidelity visuals and solid mechanics with old-school RTS values.
Act of Aggression vows to bring about a return to the 90's Golden Era of real time strategy games, delivering all of the core mechanics sorely missed by many RTS fans: base building, resource management, unit production and dynamic, immersive battles will meet high fidelity production values and intelligent modernization. Today's images and teaser trailer provide a first look at the game, to be showcased at the Gamescom next week.
In what is shaping up to be their most ambitious project since Act of War, Eugen Systems will deliver a real-time strategy experience set in the 2020's in a darkly realistic future where 3 major factions fight for their interests. In a world where international crisis and financial order is set in a seemingly unending loop, the shadowy organization known as "The Cartel" attempt to complete a secret agenda with high-tech technology, stolen prototypes and stealthy operatives. Against this looming threat stands the Chimere, a UNO funded, classified military organization specialized in fast strikes, which attempts to maintain global peace and order. Finally, somewhere between the two stands the US Army, worn out by two decades of being kept on a war footing with too few replacements, but still fielding a great deal of battle-hardened veterans.
Act of Aggression will include two separate single player campaigns, featuring traditional RTS storytelling and game mechanics: gathering resources, building a base, producing units ... but also supplies to keep the war machine rolling. In true Eugen style, expect vast, skill-based multiplayer modes where technological upgrades, resource storage and base defenses will play an integral role in the battle. Extend your base, defend your structures, and create new bases to control key strategic areas on the map. Unleash infantry, mechanized vehicles, tanks, artillery, helicopters, planes, and super weapons, earning experience as you destroy the enemy's forces and preserve yours (as they get more experienced), unlock skills and abilities to turn the tide of war by specializing them in roles, such as anti-air, anti-tank, etc... With steady development of new technologies, your production capacities will grow always more powerful, unlocking new buildings, units, and ultimate weapons far beyond technologies of today!
Wonder if it can get me back into RTS games. Used to love them, but for the past 10 years I skipped them. Only thing I played in that genre in those ten years was Dune II.
What an amazing piece of news. Loved Act of War, looking forward to this immensely.
Yeah same here, it's a shame Act of War does not run on 64-bit system with higher then 4 gb of ram. It's also a shame they never released a patch for this to fix it.
Yeah same here, it's a shame Act of War does not run on 64-bit system with higher then 4 gb of ram. It's also a shame they never released a patch for this to fix it.
I had forgotten about this problem and since this topic made me want to play Act of War again I dug around a bit and found this http://www.moddb.com/downloads/proper-windows-7-fix-for-act-of-war
Tried it and starting the game still throws all those unsupported errors but it actually runs!
Unlocked widescreen resolutions. For the steam version, I had to run both games' .exe in compatibility mode (Windows XP SP3) but outside of that they both work fine. Direct Action throws out weird errors as mentioned before, but launches nonetheless.
This is for steam version (if that wasn't obvious with all the mentions of steam already lol) but should work for retail as well.
NO LINKS TO ILLEGAL STUFF IN SIGS - DLC IS ILLEGAL TOO
There are choices to make at every stage, whether you’re planning the collection of basic currency through control of petroleum supplies or the securing of strategic points on the map. On the surface, every action is recognisable: harvesters collect resources from specific points on the map and then trundle back to the base; infantry spawn outside a barracks when a recruitment bar is full; research unlocks new buildings that permit the construction of new units.
The process is familiar but the fine detail shows evidence of a great deal of tinkering. It’s as if Eugen have looked at every expected element of the traditional C&C-style RTS and then asked “Is this interesting?” Where the answer is “no”, they’ve tweaked and redesigned in an attempt to ensure the player is an active participant at all times rather than a nodding bird pushing buttons to activate new functions whenever resources reach the necessary threshold.
Supply lines are a good example of the thinking that underpins Act of Aggression. Vehicles collect resources and return them either to the base or a supply dump closer to the source. While travelling across the map, those vehicles are vulnerable so might require an escort if there are enemies close by. To complicate matters, resource placement is randomised at the beginning of each mission, so even if you know the basic layout of a map, the routes that form across it will vary from one skirmish to the next.
It’s a slight adjustment to the usual flow that should prevent experienced players from relying on autopilot. The three factions also have their own method of ferrying resources around the place – a Cartel cargo helicopter can zip about the map and avoid roadside ambushes more effectively but it’s relatively flimsy, and has a tiny capacity in comparison to a US Army truck.
It’s also possible to gain money by capturing banks, which are actual physical structures on the map. Alexis sent reconaiisance vehicles to a cluster of buildings and upon finding them empty, moved in APCs packed with infantry. Foot soldiers are needed to capture buildings because tanks, for all their qualities, are incapable of performing a heist (Ocean’s Eleven with tanks instead of people would be a fine thing, mind). With the bank’s funds now transferring into Alexis’ account, he set up infantry units in other nearby buildings. They’d be invisible to approaching forces but would create a killzone around the bank if the enemy came too close.
Research requires reactive thinking as well. In many RTS games, you’re essentially filling a bucket. Drop points into research and eventually you’ll unlock all of the best units and hopefully go on to win the day. Act of Aggression has several buckets. There’s an emphasis on upgrading existing units rather than building new ones and the limited resources on a map – particularly the high-end minerals – means you’ll have to make some tough decisions. You can’t run around the shop and buy one of everything so rather than clicking to form build queues as soon as you complete a new piece of research, you’ll have to consider the particulars of the map and mission, as well as whatever you’ve managed to learn about your enemy’s movements and plans.
The demonstration wasn’t scripted and there were many digressions as Alexis addressed my questions by demonstrating the answers in realtime as he played. Using dev tools to hurry the process along, he built a large base and assembled a huge army, then dropped a couple of missiles into a silo and filled the screen with fire. Buildings collapse, the ground is scorched, and vehicles buckle and burn. It’s a spectacular game, although quietly so considering the subject matter. The buildings and armies look as if they’re interpretations of tabletop models, packed with fine detail and admirably solid.
What I’ve seen so far brings back my fondest memories of the original Command & Conquer. My main concern is that the AI will behave too predictably, or that despite the attempts to complicate the traditional RTS flow, players will quickly find the best method of playing for each faction. Alexis responds to my doubts about the AI by acknowledging the difficulties involved but says he’s confident that AI willll use the same tricks and fall into the same traps as a human player.
so I am trying to install Direct Action, but after I run setup.exe, select English, the installing window pops up with a progress bar at 0% and the immediately hides.
The setup.exe continues to read ~15mb/s from the HDD and rises it's private bytes by 1MB/s.. and uses ~25% of CPU
not sure what is happening..
High Treason's setup just crashes after selecting English, again showing a progress bar for a split second
Lutzifer wrote:
and yes, mine is only average
Last edited by StrEagle on Fri, 27th Mar 2015 19:12; edited 1 time in total
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