RPGWatch Feature: Dragon Commander - Hands-On Preview

I had the opportunity to play Dragon Commander when I was at the offices of Larian. I'm not much of an RTS player so I focussed more on whatever RPG elements their are in the game. Check out our article to read what what I discovered.
More information.

I am getting more and more excited about this game.

I have some questions about RTS part if you don't mind answering:

Do units use active abilities that need to be activated like DoW/CoH or more or they are more passive like WiC/Wargame?
Are there terrain bonuses(cover,higher ground bonuses etc…)?
Is there off-map artillery/magic?
Are camera controls classic or WiC/GC2 WASD style or something third?
To which RTS is game most similar to(you said in article that you are not much RTS player but you maybe heard other people on event comparing it to another RTS)?

Myrthos, because of you I don't think I'm going to be able to wait until July for Dragon Commander. Your preview makes the game just sound awesome.

Well, in contrast, your interview further convinced me that the game isn't for me. Too much RTS for this crpg player, but I really knew this already. Bring on the Original Sin preview!

Social Issues: the RPG. Oh wait it's not an RPG. Legit then

Well no one should of expected a true rpg. Its a hybrid. I have no problem playing other games bedsides rpg's, so I can't wait to play it.

If you want a rpg wait for there other game this year or next year. Whenever it's released.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Well no one should of expected a true rpg. Its a hybrid.

I was more, uh, intrigued by how they approach the different layers of gameplay and how they're connected. Say, you can choose to tell your Dwarven princess that her ass is too fat, which will make her throw a hissy fit that basically causes your bombers to fall from the sky. That's some choices & consequences right there.

I updated the story part of the article as I was told that the story changed in between the visit and the publishing of the article.

Originally Posted by Nameless one
Do units use active abilities that need to be activated like DoW/CoH or more or they are more passive like WiC/Wargame?

I belief they are passive, at least I have not seen that you needed to activate them.

Originally Posted by Nameless one
Are there terrain bonuses(cover,higher ground bonuses etc…)?

Not that I am aware of. In general air units can be moved over a larger distance on the strategy map and a zeppelin can cover a very large part of the map with its weapons.

Originally Posted by Nameless one
Is there off-map artillery/magic?

No, not that I know of.

Originally Posted by Nameless one
Are camera controls classic or WiC/GC2 WASD style or something third?

It is WASD style. In addition when pressing the center mouse button you can rotate (left/right) or zoom in/out (forward/back) by moving the mouse.

Originally Posted by Nameless one
To which RTS is game most similar to(you said in article that you are not much RTS player but you maybe heard other people on event comparing it to another RTS)?

Sorry, I can't answer that.

Thanks for the info.Not putting lot of active stuff does make sense when I come to think of it since there is dragon form.Personally I would prefer more unit micromanagement,but dragon form looks fun too.

The real time combat pacing.Are we talking a slower more tactical Totalwar style or a clickfest RTS?

Can you pause in combat mode? Like in Homeworld and Totalwar games.
Or is it more similar to starcraft? where there is no useful pause. (cant issue orders while paused)

Oh snap, I'm so excited. It probably helps that I -love- turn based strategy games, real time strategy games, and RPGs. I also like flight combat games (Tie Fighter stole much of my childhood), boardgames, and politics. It's like this game was custom designed to my specifications.

There is no pauze option.
I like to know what I am doing in games. What the effect is of certain actions, what the effect is of units, cards etc. I didn't, so to me it was very hectic. But that is me.
Watching others more experienced players play it did not appear to be a clickfest, but there is a certain level of stress involved with everybody.

Nice preview, I've gone from zero to totally excited about this one. See if you can talk them into letting some rpgwatch bros help beta test it!

Sounds good. I found one thing a bit odd though:

"Dragon Commander takes place before any of the events in the other Divinity games, including the yet to be released Divinty: Original Sin."

This all happened before the other games? The technology seems a lot more advanced, so I hope we get to know why the world has gone backwards.

Probably easy to explain why they have gone "backwards". Several large wars. And its not like the technology is missing in the other games, its just not as obvious and far spread.

And if I remember correctly, beyond divinity was taking place in another dimension/universe/something.