Excellent, balanced gameplay
AI that doesn't cheat (unless you count being incredibly fast at micromanaging)
choose your own music for menus, gameplay, action gameplay
scenarios for single player gameplay
lots of maps, for 2-16 players
active lobby
they host game servers for for for $0 (but seriously, please donate)
in-development features that can be enabled with a click and tested
ridiculous features, so you can do different game modes
still under active development and expansion
awesome community
physics-based gameplay - that means, shots are actively rendered. Beam weapons do damage while on. If something drives into it, it takes damage. If you hit your own guys, they die. If you put shields around one section of your base and not another, the plasma cannon rounds might just bounce off and hit your stuff anyways, if it comes from the right angle to do so.
radar has line-of-sight - i.e., hide behind a cliff face and advance, and place your own radars well.
rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock. That is - air, sea, and ground units, each with unique advantages - but also, amphibious units, hovercraft, long range vs short range, fast vs slow - deep strategic complexity.

Negatives:

some assholes exist, because humans
unintuitive menu system
unintuitive separation of main menu options and in-game options.

[–] imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wow this actually looks amazing. Reminds me of Supreme Commander, I used to play Forged Alliance Forever back in the day. Good times.

[–] sag@lemm.ee 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I think It's inspired by that.

[–] imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Yeah the more I look into it, I see that it takes direct inspiration from Total Annihilation and SupCom. I messaged my friends who used to play Forged Alliance with me and at least a couple of them have already played this game.

I've been waiting for over a decade for a new game in this mold. It's not just an RTS, it's a very specific kind of strategic RTS that has a much greater scale than a tactical RTS like Starcraft. I like that it's more focused on macro than micro.

And the fact you can do 16 player matches is just epic. Supreme Commander was originally limited to 4v4 and then they eventually modded in the ability to play 6v6, but it would frequently cause the framerate to drop to slideshow levels. Can't wait to try this game out!

[–] BugleFingers@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Oh it's 100% inspired by TA, I played that game so much as a kid and this one is it's spiritual successor IMO

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago

8 FFA TA on 56k dialup. That was the edge on which we lived.

[–] SilentKnightOwl@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 months ago

It's so much fun! I've been playing it for a while now

[–] sag@lemm.ee 22 points 2 months ago

Community: !bar@discuss.tchncs.de

[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I haven't played a video game in ages, but this might just reel me back in. This looks amazing!

[–] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You can even load custom music in, I used my old TA (Total Annihilation) mp3 files and now it's just like old times. Very intense multiplayer gaming though, phew!

[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 2 points 2 months ago

Sweet! That's awesome!

[–] Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I've played it for a bit, and it's a decently fun and well-made game! My only gripe is that it requires an email for signup; I wish it would only require a username and password. For most users, though, I'd wager that that's a pretty minor issue.

[–] skizzles@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago

Just a note for those interested in the local play aspect of it like I was.

You don't need to create an account to play the game locally.

You can just exit out of the first menu and play the scenarios that are available.

[–] bitfucker@programming.dev 4 points 2 months ago

I wanted OpenSAGE to mature more quickly so modders of CnC can have a field day with it. This looks like a nice in-between for me

[–] s3rvant@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago

Started playing BAR recently and am loving it. Prior to this I'd only played some SC2 and watched some videos about FAF.

I've been playing with my 8yr kiddo against bots as we both learn the mechanics. The amount you can customize a match has been great.

Also been watching the pro league tournaments on their YouTube channel which are great fun to watch.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

I can play spring games, but I can't play this one.

Ah well. Zero-k for me.

[–] jjlinux@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

what distros are tou guys using.? In my Fedora it lags horribly in the main screen (after the launcher), but works fine after the game starts.

[–] SomeGuy69@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

This game is fantastic. At first you got to get used to setting up production lines and how to tech up quickly, but once you got the hang of it, its super fun, even just vs AI.