Is this game really meant for casual RTS players?

[6poolrush]

If it was, then why are they the ones getting nickel and dimed?

I really wanted to throw some money at this game, but that will have to wait to see how bad the micro transactions are going to be, but for the moment, I am floored about the $10 heroes for co op.

Also, $10 for the 3 campaign missions is w/e, but I don't see the point in buying an incomplete campaign, so if I spend money on that, it will wait as well. But the way I see it, a full campaign that was as fun as sc2 should be around $40 - $60.

I don't know what else they going to lock behind paywalls, but I hope they arn't being too greedy about it.

And when the arcade comes out, I hope those won't be locked behind paywalls as well.

All in all this is a fun game, but the era of microtransactions dampened my spirit to be a gamer.

FROST GIANT, PLEASE DON'T BE GREEDY.

PS: A casual gamer.

[The Spu]

I would say it's more casual than Starcraft 1 or 2. The APM required is much more reasonable from what I've played so far, but there's still plenty of room for skillful play. It's not quite as slow as something like Warcraft 3 or Age of Empires, however. There will always be people who will complain that it's "catering to casuals", but those people are almost all casual players themselves and won't admit it because of their ego. RTS is a dying genre, and if they don't attract new players, it will fail. Period, end of story.

As for paywalls, I contributed to and followed the kickstarter closely, and from everything they've said, they won't be locking player-made content behind paywalls or overly restrictive EULAs. And the core PvP game will always be free. Their monetization strategy seems to be focused on cosmetics and regular additions to the campaign over time - sort of like a seasonal thing rather than the oldschool base game + expansion pack type releases from olden times.

[Tech Enthusiast]

Way too many casted abilities to be viable as a casual.
Lower APM requirements... maybe... but getting 100 more APM is certainly easier than controlling half a dozen different spell casters while dodging what "the other guy" casts at you.

[6poolrush]

Thanks for the constructive reply. There were some positive answers in there, but when I say for casual players, that's going to be campaign and co-op. That's what is being microtransactioned so heavily. I don't see many casuals playing 1v1.

When it comes to PVP, casual players will gravitate to the team games, which you state the core PVP will be free. My question is, because I think 3v3 has heroes, will they lock heroes behind a paywall there?

But the arcade is promising. Cosmetics have always been w/e for me, but I will still wait and see what time will bring.

[The Spu]

Originally posted by Tech Enthusiast:

Way too many casted abilities to be viable as a casual.
Lower APM requirements... maybe... but getting 100 more APM is certainly easier than controlling half a dozen different spell casters while dodging what "the other guy" casts at you.

eh, most good army compositions won't use all the spellcasters at once, though. They'll use one or two. I've mostly played infernals, however. Not sure how it is for the other races.

[Earl Komrad]

Originally posted by 6poolrush:

When it comes to PVP, casual players will gravitate to the team games, which you state the core PVP will be free.

Casuals don't play PvP. Casual players will boot a game, play the campaign, play a mission or two against the AI (maybe with a friend), and then move on. Anyone playing online against other players has an investment in the game.

This is why games launch with a high population that will diminish over time leaving only the "hardcore" to play against one another.

To your point, no. It really isn't for casuals. If it were, the Single Player experience would have received much more attention than it had, specially considering that it is also the most monetized aspect of the game. They might say that they are aiming to make the game approachable to casuals, but the released product tells another tale.

[black_and_blue]

Originally posted by Earl Komrad:

Casuals don't play PvP. Casual players will boot a game, play the campaign, play a mission or two against the AI (maybe with a friend), and then move on. Anyone playing online against other players has an investment in the game.

This is why games launch with a high population that will diminish over time leaving only the "hardcore" to play against one another.

There's actually a third kind of player that you missed, and SC2 had a lot of them, and still has a not insignificant number. They played coop for hours, days, months on end. They levelled every hero in the game well past Mastery level 90, and many have multiple heroes at ascension level 1000.

They're not casual because the invest a huge amount of time in the game, but they also probably aren't geting huge APMs or learning hardcore PVP strategy; they're barely playing PvP if at all.

Not sure what label to give these players. Hardcore coop players?

[Tech Enthusiast]

Yeah, the non pvp game is not present at all right now. Like... the "campaign" was like 90min for me in total and boring AF to boot. I certainly regret wasting my time with it and expecting too much.

If you loved SC2 for the campaign, this game is not for you (and me).
Hell, I hgave played the SC2 Zerg Campaign well over 100 times by now (yes, really, no exxaggeration)... I just love it so much. It has great story, evolution of characters, increasing depth,... a great mix of different mission types, interesting choices and units. NOT ONE of those things match what we are seeing in this game sadly.

So yeah, if casual means campaign to you: Skip this.

[Earl Komrad]

Originally posted by black_and_blue:

Originally posted by Earl Komrad:

Casuals don't play PvP. Casual players will boot a game, play the campaign, play a mission or two against the AI (maybe with a friend), and then move on. Anyone playing online against other players has an investment in the game.

This is why games launch with a high population that will diminish over time leaving only the "hardcore" to play against one another.

There's actually a third kind of player that you missed, and SC2 had a lot of them, and still has a not insignificant number. They played coop for hours, days, months on end. They levelled every hero in the game well past Mastery level 90, and many have multiple heroes at ascension level 1000.

They're not casual because the invest a huge amount of time in the game, but they also probably aren't geting huge APMs or learning hardcore PVP strategy; they're barely playing PvP if at all.

Not sure what label to give these players. Hardcore coop players?

That sounds like your average online game grinder. You could, in theory, subdivide labels into more labels, but I don't see reason for that. Like I said, casual is someone that, by definition, comes and go. Hardcore are the ones that are here to stay.

To put it in another way, I've played Warcraft 3 on and off for about 10 years (2005-2015). I played every single Hiveworkshop campaign there was, beat the main campaigns multiple times, played a ton of matches against the AI. Did I ever feel the need to log into Battlenet? No. Did I ever cared enough to look up guides/builds? No.

What kind of a player was I? I'd say hardcore, for I played the game a lot.

Another example. I have 2K hours in Warframe (iirc), back when I played it I would log in every day, play a couple of hours, lvl up a lot of stuff I'd never used just for the mastery points. Not too different from your example of SC2 player.