I found the artical on game spy and thought that the gamers here may really like what they had uncovered.

Dungeons & Dragons Real-Time Strategy
So new it doesn't even have a name yet, Liquid Entertainment and Atari are preparing to unveil an all-new fantasy epic.
By Dave Kosak | May. 03, 2004 GAME SPY

Liquid Entertainment consistently delivers great strategy titles. With Battle Realms the company focused on the essentials and delivered a solid real-time strategy game with streamlined play and interesting tactics. With the recent War of the Ring, the company proved it could do the same while exploring the deep fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth universe. And now, later this month, the company is going to reveal its plans for a real-time strategy game using another classic fantasy license: Dungeons & Dragons.

We spoke briefly with Ed Del Castillo, President and Co-Founder of Liquid, about what the new game is going to offer. Unfortunately, because it will be licensing a yet-unannounced D&D realm created by Wizards of the Coast, details are a little hazy. But what Castillo could talk about sounds like a new twist on classic gameplay elements in a world that combines familiar fantasy with some wild new inventions.

From a gameplay standpoint, the Dungeons & Dragons RTS (yes, it doesn't have a name yet) will explore multiple levels of combat. You'll be able to fight your enemy on the main map, as well as under the map in a whole subterranean dungeon network. The fiction has it that an immense sunken city, destroyed long ago, lurks under the surface. Parts of the city still reach up to the ground level. You might see a spire sticking out of the ground that you can break into, opening up a stairway into the city ruins below. Or, you might see the top of a dome that you can shatter, sending your flying creatures within to attack a massive underground temple. Can't reach your enemy on the surface? Tunnel under his village and attack him from behind!

As with any good Dungeons & Dragons adventure, your main characters will be able to evolve as you play. A character may start the game as a Paladin, and later you can choose to advance along a path that enhances her warrior abilities or her clerical abilities, allowing you to customize your heroes to fit your play style. Thief characters take on new importance, as the underground areas are much like dungeons, with locked doors, traps, and secrets to uncover.

Also new are the idea of 'squads,' where a hero and several characters are grouped together to function almost as one unit. Within a squad, clerics will be smart enough to heal the fighters and archers will form up behind the front lines while your hero's special ability gives the squad unique powers. Aside from taking out a lot of tedious micromanagement, the idea of squads will bring back an element of strategy in an RTS. Instead of the familiar situation where 500 units all pile on and attack a single unit, damage to a squad is spread out among the squad -- you'll actually be able to keep your healers alive and you'll be able to use some real tactics.

Liquid is also trying to make base-building more interesting for players with what they call the "living village" system. When you set down a keep to found a village, a huge area is staked off around it (along with a rudimentary set of walls.) You'll only have so much space near the keep to build on, and every building takes on new characteristics based on the buildings that are built next to it. Constructing a village, then, is almost like a mini puzzle-game within the main game: If you build a blacksmith next to your barracks, units that come out of the barracks will have better armor. If you build two barracks next to one another, they'll combine into one large building capable of cranking out veteran units. Three buildings connected will grant a special power of some sort. The problem is, you only have a limited space! You'll need to construct villages with buildings that enhance whatever strategy you want to use. This system also adds some strategy to village assaults, where the enemy may target certain groups of buildings with siege weapons to cripple your abilities.

Sadly, Liquid isn't able to give many details about the game world yet. Suffice it to say it's an all-new universe for the Dungeons & Dragons franchise. It'll combine some familiar elements and races with some all-new villains that'll make the Dark Elves look like a bunch of Girl Scouts. The artwork that Liquid is working with looks absolutely phenomenal. The glimpse we got of the art and the snippets we've heard of the gameplay really juiced our appetite, though. Expect to hear more about this one later in the month! The final game won't be ready until sometime in 2005. END
From Game Spy


I hope you are as hopefull about this game as I am TCB :D

In my opinion this may be the best thing to happen to computer games since Baldur's Gate II. Let us hope they do it right. Ironworks Gamers lets keep our fingers crossed that they don't make another Temple Of Elemental Evil.

[ 05-07-2004, 11:41 PM: Message edited by: Ziroc ]

Hmmm, Old-schoolers will remember the RTS D&D game called 'Stronghold' that SSI did in 1992, which was fun and had a good replay value. Hope this is as good! [img]smile.gif[/img]

lol I would have to say thats the only good D&D game ever althought i was suprised at the customization in the newest one Temple of Elemental Evil it deserves a little more credit at least befor this new game comes out!

Sounds good... but then, new games from Atari always do so we'll see...

I don't like Atari have the license to D&D games.

You guys are too pessmistic. Neverwinter Nights was fine, was it not?

A D&D RTS? That right there piqued my interest, then lost it. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Maybe it'll be more like Warcraft 3? Remember, D&D came out of a strategy, not an RPG game.

Well, NWN was more BioWare than Atari. When I saw the Atari name attached to this I said, "Uh-oh!" Can you say Temple of Elemental Evil? True, Troika is far from innocent in that mess, BUT Atari had the final say and the final push. I truly hope this D&D game is a great success. However, I hold off on any enthusiasm until the goods are delivered and the fine people at IW give their valued opinions. Until then...

I hope that,this game will be good.