While EON Junkies was at PAX we got to meet Cyber, the person chosen to visit PAX by the Trion team. Since the EON Junkie team took 4 days to get back home due to Hurricane Irene we didn’t have time to post a thorough review of what we saw at PAX. It looks like Cyber did one for everyone. So instead of repeating what what he said, we’re just going to point to Cyber’s amazing break down of End of Nations at PAX 2011.

So I had the opportunity to hang out with the EoN team at their PAX booth most of the PAX weekend, and as a result not only did I get to play the game a lot, I also talked with a lot of people who were trying the game. The devs were interested in hearing some feedback based both on my thoughts and feedback from the players I talked to, so, here it is…

Disclaimer: Bear in mind that the game is still in or near the alpha stage and many aspects are still in flux. Everything that follows is purely based on my observations of the game, discussions with the devs, and my own opinion. It is safe to assume that much of what I talk about below will change, in some cases significantly, by the time EoN reaches beta.

Oh, and I should mention that my photos didn’t turn out, so I had to crib photos from one of the YouTube videos from Gamescom

General Thoughts

I had a lot of fun playing EoN, and from everything I saw the game is shaping up really well. The devs have constantly stated that they have endeavoured to produce a high-quality RTS game first before adding in the appropriate MMO elements, and in my opinion they are succeeding thus far. The game played very smoothly and responsively, looked great visually, and had relatively few noticeable bugs. The EoN matches at PAX involved a single PvP map, with an 8v8 match going on constantly (not two 4v4 matches as I mistakenly first thought, due to the fact that you only ever see three teammates listed in your party in the current game build). The gameplay reminded me of DoW II, and I think any RTS player will feel right at home in the game.

By the way, much of what I will say has already been covered in the reports from Gamescon a week ago. I apologize for any redundancy, but I am going to give my thoughts in full.

You can find the full thread here.

From MMORPG.com:

A lot of companies have tried to make the MMORTS work, but few have embraced the idea and done it with such aplomb as Petroglyph and Trion Worlds. The massive world on the brink of total destruction, brought back to order by a giant and faceless militaristic corporation. Two factions work together to fight the Order of Nations, but at the same time they’re vying for power themselves. Throw in some excellent RTS mechanics from some of the genre’s luminaries, add in some great persistent MMO features, and make it all free. We’re quickly becoming believers that End of Nations will popularize the MMORTS.

This is fantastic news for Trion and End of Nations. While all of us here in Junkie Nation already believe that EON will be a fantastic MMOG, this only adds weight behind our claim. Congratulations Trion!

This week at PAX 2011 we got a chance to chat with Chris Lena, EON Sr. MMO Producer about End of Nations and learn a bit more about the game.

Greetings Junkie Nation!

Ryan and I are off to PAX for the weekend. We’ve been promoting our personal twitter feeds (Jdodge80 and RyanRaplee) and we’ll be updating you all weekend long on RIFT, End of Nations, SWTOR, Defiance and many other games like Guild Wars 2, Wildstar, TERA and more. So everyone needs to keep their eyes glued to Junkie Nation to find out the latest information on the MMOGs we love! We’re also here for you, so we’ll have our eyes glued to our twitter feeds so get your tweets to us with questions and ideas!

This weekend we’ll have live blog updates on panels, video from the parties, conventions and booths. Stay tuned to Junkie Nation’s youtube feed for videos. We’ll have it all! Your ultimate fansite coverage.

If you’re going to PAX shoot us a tweet and say hello! We’d love to meet all the Junkies out there.

Official Junkie Nation Websites:

Indispensible on the front lines, the Archimedes is the backbone unit of the Liberation Front. With reinforced armor plating, this massively upgraded variant of the American M1 Abrams tank features dual cannons, blistering firepower, and electronic countermeasures that provide temporary resistance to damage. Only the most battle-tested Commanders are allowed to operate a unit with the destructive potential of the Archimedes.

Find out more by visiting EON’s Official Page.

Check out the newest End of Nations Developer Video to learn all about the massive meta game in End of Nations.

From Gamescom 2011, we finally got to see Michael Legg from Petroglyph give apresentation that details and goes over many of the basic aspects of End of Nations. The video above is 20 minutes long and gives us a few more details on the game. The demo had a point of view that came from the Liberation Front as the Spartan commander class running a 8v8 map.

A short Q&A session with Dave Luehmann from EON at Gamescom. For further discussion, you can hop on the official forums to see what everyone else is talking about.

Question: As a beginner, are there any perks to get into the game?
Answer: We have several modes, and cooperative missions at the start that will help you get to terms iwth the mechanics of the game.

Q: How many characters can you have per shard?
A: It’s quite flexible, you can have one character per faction per shard, and you can transfer characters from shard to shard. If you’re making choices in your Tech Tree you can also re-spec your points and go down a completely different path.

Q: Will the environment be destructible?
A: You will not have a lot of destructible environment.

Q: How many factions will there be?
A: There are 3, 2 of which are playable at launch. There are plans to introduce more factions in the future.

Q: What will be the difference between F2P and sub players?
A: F2P are not limited by leveling caps or anything, but premium players (micro transations) can buy skins, experience boosts, and ingame wealth boosts to earn wealth more quickly. But it’s a skill-based game and you don’t buy an immediate tactical advantage.

Q: How will the game’s matchmaking work?
A: We have a 2-part match making system that uses queues. First it sorts based on level, and then it looks at a skill-based ranking system. You can make multiple searches, and if it doesn’t find a suitable game for you it will start a new instance and collect other players for you.

Q: What is the server structure like?
A: Multiple clusters per continent, in Europé and America, and we can expand easily as needed. There will not be a need to connect over the ocean for European players.

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Check out the latest screenshots fresh from Gamescom 2011.

In End of Nations, players get to pick among many different Commander Classes. The classes effect what a player can do in the game, very similar to what you see in the majority of MMORPGs on the market. Not much has been revealed about the nature of how you can specialize each class. However we do know that there will be skill trees involved. Here’s what Chris Lena, Sr. Producer Trion Worlds, had to say on the matter from Gamescom via the Official forums:

Originally posted by RedAvocado (Source)

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While everyone else is at GamesCom I am going to sneak some facts out. The trees are unique for each Commander Class. They will be focused on unlocking things like new unit types, Commander abilities and tactical structures. At this time we don’t plan on giving small persistent increases to things like attack or damage through this system. We have another way you will be able to get that stuff. So, think specialized units, orbital strikes, turrets, bigger short term advantages and the like.

It comes to no surprise that this is the case, but we always like to see it confirmed. We can’t wait to see what kind of new unit types different classes will offer. We bet that this is where you will find Nukes!