Ironclad, known for Sins of a Solar Empire?the intricate, massive sci-fi 4X game that can take an entire day to play, has recently announced a new multiplayer online battle game (MOBA) called Sins of a Dark Age. MOBA’s are becoming increasingly popular with titles such as Dota 2, League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, SMITE, Blizzard DOTA, Rise of the Immortals, Realm of the Titans and more, but Ironclad is going to do something different, a sort of hybrid style that will hopefully lessen the hostility that many MOBA games are known for.
How will they do this you ask? Well, their plan is to take element of Real Time Strategy games and implement them into their Sins of a Dark Age game. Like many MOBA’s, they plan on using Heroes to battle it out on the map, but also implement commander’s, who won’t have a physical presence on the battlefield themselves, but will control minions that will help the Heroes in battle. From the press release
?As Commander, you?re responsible for building your base, directing your peons and positioning your defenses. It?s up to you to properly train your units and use them to support your team?s Heroes in calculated assaults on enemy positions and to capture key resources. The Commander role allows players to call upon larger-than-life ?Realm Powers? to turn the tide of battle.?
Another priority for Ironclad is to make the game more accessible and to build in incentives for players not to be jerks to each other. They will do this by minimizing the effect that dropping out players have on the match. Instantly rejoining games or jumping into shorthanded battles to save the day and earn bonus rewards for yourself and your clan are ways to combat these so called rage-quitters.
For more information about Sins of a Dark Age visit the developer’s website.