World in Conflict Beta

[FesterShinetop]

An open beta has been released for World in Conflict, a new RTS by Sierra.

I tried it and it looks absolutely gorgeous, I just spent 45 minutes just spectating a MP match admiring the graphics and the details, amazing!
The specs for this are pretty steep, but it ran surprisingly good on my old system that is just barely scratching the minimum specs... even with the settings at medium-high it was playable (I think due to my card, a 7300GT/512MB the only thing I have that is above the min. specs ), though there are some FPS drops... but still...

It is a true RTS though, so don't expect any fancy tactics and stuff ;)

The beta is mostly about MP, but if this game has some half-decent SP I might just get it for the pretty visuals alone!!

You can sign up for the beta here:
http://www.worldinconflict.com/beta/

And DL the beta here:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_20137.shtml

It's 1,7GB small...

[Bijo]

This is a game that caught my attention indeed. I have little care for multiplayer however, thus I will not try it out. If there were a single-player demo or something alike I would certainly check it.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Been waiting for this game for quite a while, jumped at the chance of playing the beta. Downloading now and should be done in 8 hours.

[Husar]

I'm playing this for some hours now, while it is indeed some sort of standard RTS, it is also different in some ways. First off you don't get a top-down perspective as usual, you get a camera similar to that of Total War games where you can choose an angle and can also look at the horizon or the sky even. Then there is no base-building at all, you order your troops and they're delivered via parchute or come flying in in the case of helicopters.

Ressources are also different, on the current ranked beta servers every player gets 6000 ressource points from which he can order units, those points will slowly refresh once one of your units is killed, so you can always order new units. On top of that you get tactical aid points for killing enemy units which allow you to call in artillery strikes, airstrikes, carpet bombing, tactical nukes, close air support, napalm, fuel air bombs, some reinforcements like spec ops paratroopers etc.

Also after choosing a faction you have to choose a branch from infantry, armour, support and air which will limit your unit choices though you can call some troops from other branches for an increased cost(armour commanders calling in a medium anti-air unit will pay 1000 ressource points while a support player gets them for 650 for example). Some tactical support costs also seem to differ between the branches. Also keep in mind that currently each team consists of up to 8 players divided into the different branches which results in two things:
1. teamplay is quite important, if everybody chooses air, noone can capture those tactical areas which are required to win the game, also no branch can beat everybody by itself, an armour commander will be very thankful for some anti air support from a support or air player for example.
2. more anonymity, less responsibility, leass sweat, well, if there are seven other players who can help you or help remedy a mistake you made, the game is a lot more relaxing(maybe not if you join a clan who expects this or that from you).

The goals are also somewhat different because you have to conquer some sort of victory locations to get victory points to win, indicated by two flags at the top of the screen which will expand to either side depending on who holds more locations. If one flag reaches one end you win by domination, if the timer runs out, the side with more of the flag wins and if one side gets all of those points, they win after some ten seconds or so. Victory points are not just single points though, they consist of at least two circles which both have to be occupied by friendly troops to capture the location, keeping troops in there afterwards will result in the creation of some basic defenses which make it harder for enemy raiders to capture the location.

Ok, that was a small introduction though at the start I just wanted to point out the differences in comparison to standard RTS games, well, this is only concerning the game modes available in the current open beta but maybe it's of help to someone. Also keep in mind that given a capable system the graphics are awesome, I can use fairly high settings and the graphics are very nice, napalm strikes, carpet bombing etc look very convincing and the game has one of the best nuke effects ever, including some noise in the contaminated area(which also seems to damage units travelling through).

People with DX10 cards might be interested in this nzone DX10 walkthrough which shows some amazing stuff like helicopters blowing away smoke etc.

[Bijo]

Hmmm, let me see. Husar's descriptive explanation + it is a war game + nukes + airstrikes + artillery + etc. + etc.... It becomes very attractive to check out.


Is there any high-speed download location available?

[FesterShinetop]

Is there any high-speed download location available?

Well, the link I provided is pretty good most of the time! And you can choose from different areas of the world...

Check out a video with the nuke-effect here:
http://www.gamespot.com/video/932462...meplay-movie-4

Some more gameplay videos:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...?mode=gameplay

[Mikeus Caesar]

Aaaaaaaaah!

Not fair!

I finally got round to finishing the absurd 8 hour download time, only to get a corrupted ZIP error.

Here i go again...

[Mikeus Caesar]

I know i'm double posting, but i have to tell you all this.

The beta, being a beta, is rather buggy, but from what i've seen, THIS IS THE GREATEST RTS SINCE THE TW SERIES. It's incredible. Absolutely incredible. The shocking enormity and brilliance of the nuclear bomb, the detail on soldiers, everything.

Keep a look out for this game guys.

[Husar]

The only bug I've found so far is that infantry hovers across craters instead of walking down into them. Either I'm still clouded by my own hype after almost 20 hours or I didn't find any other bugs. Though people with DX10 cards seem to have a few problems. I myself use (as many of you might know already) Vista Business 64bit, a 7950Gt and an E6600 with 2GB RAM and it runs pretty much fluent on rather high settings, the benchmark gives me IIRC 18 fps lowest and 22 average but I don't get a feeling of slowness in the game.

And the game has an interesting wheather system, basically the wheather and mood get worse the longer the fighting goes on, I made this screenshot to prove the infantry crater bug but you can also notice what the wheather looks like later in a round. And yes, everything being blurry is part of what I call wheather.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And by the way, my nickname there is the same as here, and it will stay since I was weak and preordered the game(you get an access code then which makes sure your account stays after the beta, although with all points reset to zero, and you get another map with NATO forces to play on, apparently you will also get bonus stuff in the upcoming demo).

[Mikeus Caesar]

About craters - it is rather annoying that they hover across them, but still, it's not gamestopping. And anyway, at least everything else goes down them - a field of craters is a good obstacle for fleeing enemy tanks. Slows them down enough for your artillery to hit them.

Did you get to use a nuke yet? I did. Most amazing thing i've ever seen in a game.

Also, what class do you mostly play as? I'm usually support or air. They're pretty damn good at racking up points and destroying everything.

EDIT: btw, Husar the link in your earlier post most definitely does not show nice pictures of DX10 graphics. It's some FBI report about a semi-automatic rifle converted to a machinegun with a piece of string.

[Husar]

I fired two nukes already, though I think that's still not enough, but carpet bombing isn't bad either.

Apparently I play mostly air and armour, at least I made most points with them.

And I'm sorry about the link, I usually test them and when I saw a download prompt I thought it was fine, seems like it was the wrong download though.
Fixed it now.

[Bijo]

The time was approximately 1750 or so. I checked hastily and found a fast download link originating in Germany. As I rejoiced, it took only 45 minutes or so to download, thinking it enabled me a quick peek and taste. Of course, naturally, afterwards I discovered the corruption of the large file. Good bandwidth has been squandered.

What are possible reasons for this corruption?

[Bijo]

Splendid; I have located the source causing corruption or more precisely general errors: the directory in which I stored the data was named WiC-β which was -- presumably -- somehow not allowed. Renaming it to WiC-Beta frought forth resolution.

Of course this occurred áfter data was redownloaded from another source which took another hour or so. Luck is on my side.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Husar - screw vehicles, infantry ftw. Masses of infantry that are kept on the move can destroy anything. I've taken on hordes of armour, support, air and enemy infantry, destroying it all, and as long you don't keep still for too long, you're fine.

I made the mistake of staying still a few times - fwoosh, napalm destroys three quarters of my men, while i make the survivors sprint for their lives into a nearby forest. Thank god you can replenish them.

Splendid; I have located the source causing corruption or more precisely general errors: the directory in which I stored the data was named WiC-β which was -- presumably -- somehow not allowed. Renaming it to WiC-Beta frought forth resolution.

Of course this occurred áfter data was redownloaded from another source which took another hour or so. Luck is on my side.

Have you begun playing on it yet?

[Husar]

Infantry is nice as long as the enemy artillery keeps missing and their armour players don't know that you can drive over them. Depends on the terrain though, if they have forests or houses nearby that helps, as long as noone destroys them with bombardements(napalm on forests = no infantry cover left ).

[Ja'chyra]

Does this game have a decent single player option, if so I might download it tonight.

[Husar]

The beta is MP only apart from the Tutorial which is not really a decent SP option.
If you want SP, you should wait for the SP demo which will hopefully come shortly after the end of the open beta(31st July that is). But since release is end of September, I have no idea when the demo(s) will come.

[Bijo]

Have you begun playing on it yet?

Hardly; not so much time. But I had a brief moment a while ago. One or two matches actually shortly. It is very... chaotic and too RTS-like for my taste. The chaotic part is the worst, however. I was playing a one-on-one match and this guy started spamming helicopters.

Agh, I guess online multiplayer RTS isn't my taste. If anyone wants to play you can locate by the name Mr. Black. I'll hardly be playing anyway, so you'll probably won't find me if you search.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Hardly; not so much time. But I had a brief moment a while ago. One or two matches actually shortly. It is very... chaotic and too RTS-like for my taste. The chaotic part is the worst, however. I was playing a one-on-one match and this guy started spamming helicopters.

Agh, I guess online multiplayer RTS isn't my taste. If anyone wants to play you can locate by the name Mr. Black. I'll hardly be playing anyway, so you'll probably won't find me if you search.

1 on 1 matches generally aren't the best. 8 v 8 messes are much better, as you'll have other people sorting out the chopper spam, leaving you to do your own thing. And of course it's chaotic - it's war. If you don't think fast, you die. And you could have just changed roles to support, pwned all his choppers with heavy AA and then quickly taken all of the control points, thus winning in about 10 seconds due to total domination.

[Bijo]

Well, alright. I just played a little and it's simply too fast. I'm probably getting old already, heh heh. I'm just not used to the damn game and it's too multiplayer to me. The game appears promising however. If there will be a single-player demo I'd certainly check it out. If the release version will have SP I will certainly get it.

[Husar]

Wow, I never played 1on1 so far, 8vs8 sounds a lot more relaxed because you can blame the other 7 guys on your team if you fail.

[Bijo]

Playing one-on-one will give you generic battle capability (infantry, armour, airforce, support).

The worst thing about this multiplayer beta is when annoying American guys/boys with silly nerdy voices (almost even gay-like (I have nothing against them by the way)) use their mic and start dissing people. It sounds ugly. "Right, you know.... next time nuke the enemy.... ah, *cough* not your friends." What a terrible voice it was.

[Husar]

Press and hold Tab and then mute the guy or just mute everybody.

[Bijo]

It usually goes too fast before I discover who it was, but I suppose I could have muted them all. What is really foolish is when players of your team use their mics to communicate hoping you understand them as the sound quality is beneath the meaning of terrible or horrible. A word of greater intensity is necessary but such eloquence capability eludes me momentarily. Why utilize (very unclear and bad quality) voice chat if the in-game communication system is already good and very effective? (Perhaps experienced clans but not public games.)

There was one person who did that and I could not comprehend him. Use the in-game system and get it over with. Such a person even dares to complain the team is not playing well and is not listening to him. I wonder why?
[/rant]

Anyway,

I've been playing a little this evening and I've acquainted myself with it. It is very good and enjoyable (for as much as I allow it). General-purpose infantry is my favourite of course. Rapid transportation of troops to, then, occupy buildings and forests. Infantry should be made stronger and faster however: regarding balance it is silly how slow they are on foot; they are too easily crushed beneath tanks as one would expect infantry to be smart and quick on their feet to evade such desparate moves.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Well, alright. I just played a little and it's simply too fast. I'm probably getting old already, heh heh. I'm just not used to the damn game and it's too multiplayer to me. The game appears promising however. If there will be a single-player demo I'd certainly check it out. If the release version will have SP I will certainly get it.

When you're on the main menu, the music playing in the background with fragments of radio reports gives me the idea that single player will be very detailed and very awesome.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Played through the tutorial, looks very nice and the mechanics are interesting. It's burning my GPU though...

I think I'll give MP a try now.

[Bijo]

Single-player is promising indeed.

For sake of easiness I put my settings to low and added some effects separately. For multiplayer acceptable speed to see what occurs is more important than pretty graphics and slowdown. And even on this low setting it looks reasonably good.

It would be splendid if they would release a free multiplayer version like it was done with F.E.A.R.


---


Alexander, MP took me an evening to get used to. Now I find it very enjoyable and also because in normal public matches without clans I usually in the end get some positions for best teamplay, best role (infantry), one of the top three players, transportation, tactical aid, repairs, etc. Very nice if you see your name multiple times.


---


I mentioned the in-game communication system before, and it's worth mentioning once more. To request allied aid one basically holds 'Q' (or whichever button is chosen for it) for a popup menu to appear whereafter you select an option (examples: need artillery; need anti-air; need repairs; need chemical/napalm strike; etc.) and then click a target (area or foe). It is beautful.

Gameplay -- from what I've seen -- mostly revolves around heavy armour, heavy air, heavy artillery, many airstrikes, nukes, etc., and not so much around infantry, but that's exactly why I like infantry (and I like infantry more in any case). They are so versatile and good if well applied. It is a nice sight when your infantry hidden in the bushes and/or buildings suddenly send anti-air rockets towards passing helicopters, especially when they were first attacking your teammate who was just retreating his armour towards you and another teammate's anti-air vehicles. Most satisfactory.

[Husar]

I agree in general Bijo, but if they were my choppers, you better prepare for some napalm.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I'm not good enough for infantry. Kept getting nailed by everything.

I am decent at support, if I'm allowed to MLRS everyone to death. Of course, then I get rocked by raiding choppers and don't have AA. If I buy AA, there's no choppers around...

My team has never won a battle though.

Very fun.

[Bijo]

I agree in general Bijo, but if they were my choppers, you better prepare for some napalm.

Immediate relocation after the attack is necessary. A napalm strike would then be rendered useless and wasted, heh heh. I've seen some players direct napalm (or worse.... chemical clouds) to my infantry but they usually miss, unless I wasn't paying attention. Sometimes it's just minimal damage.

Still, I find infantry too weak and vulnerable to easy point-and-click attacks, especially quick tank runs. I had two squads being run over by one tank due to their slow response and lack of autonomous behaviour. And if there are no forests or buildings they are I'd say almost useless. Forests and buildings perish too easily by these point-and-click offensives.

Infantry's special run option must be eliminated and they should always run. Then the option is to be replaced by some other one that is useful. Or the option must stay but normally they always run fast and the option makes them run even faster than before. And normal infantry's anti-tank weapons must be stronger -- as strong as pure anti-tank teams'. That should give a better play for infantry commanders.

Yes, indeed: I want infantry to own. Wanna fighdehboudid?