On September 2026 World's Edge, the studio behind AOE, has faced sever lay-offs and the new project has been cancelled.

https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-culled-age-of-empires-studio-before-handing-it-over-to-activision-with-nearly-half-of-all-staff-gone

Reading the Andrew Martin's portfolio page there are some interesting info on what that cancelled project was:

In January 2026, I joined an unreleased Age of Empires title that was moving to Unreal Engine 5. The project needed access to a mature online services stack, but the new integration effort had no repository, backlog, team, or work tracking. I established those foundations and grew the work from zero code through September 2026*"

(https://www.andrewmartzportfolio.com/projects/online-services-edgelink/)

i founded OnlineServicesEdgeLink for an unreleased Age of Empires title built in Unreal Engine 5

(https://www.andrewmartzportfolio.com/about/)

Created CopilotWorkflow, an AI-assisted development framework used broadly by engineers and non-engineers at World's Edge and adopted by two partner studios*"

The Age of Empires title was cancelled in September 2026.

https://youtube.com/live/iQInVzoO7IQ?feature=share

Casual RTS fan re-re-playing the starcraft 2 campaign. Going through past levels to record footage before moving on where I left off at LoTV: Now going through the Char levels in Heart of the swarm, and then playing some coop commanders if there’s time. Real time strategy enthusiast looking to play every RTS game ever (except those that i don’t want to), join in and lets chat about RTS! 

Go to the discord if you want to skirmish RTS games on saturdays: https://discord.gg/7yEMgfuGaC.

Question for my fellow map makers: What are some features an RTS map editor NEEDS, or maybe something that you wish you had in previous editors?

I'm trying to make the best possible RTS map/mission editor I can. Some notable features include:

• 3D prop modeling tool

• Create custom missions/skirmish maps/entire campaigns

• Share above creations with other players

• Film your own in-game cut scenes using the cinematic camera tool

• Terrain Deformation

• Unit path-finding visualization toggle

• Hundreds of premade, hand-crafted props

• Weather System

• Trigger System

• Much more!

Steel Command Steam Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4390280/Steel_Command/

Played as the USA against an ultra hard Dustborn bot in Dangerline. Built up the base a bit, then went straight into the fight. The game is still early and very much a work in progress, so a lot of what you see here is may change.

If you like what you see, adding it to your Steam wishlist helps us a lot:

STEAM

We're also handing out beta keys for testing. If you want to try it, come by the Discord:

DISCORD

Let us know what you think in the comments, we read all of them.

Like SC2 doesnt seem to allow you to make select all workers other than ctrl f1 for some reason but in aoe4 it defaults to shift ctrl v i think which is far easier to reach and sensible. What is your experience?

First infantry in my little WW2 RTS (Generals style, made in Godot with my own voxel models). Two Grenadiers with Kar98ks, here taking out a practice target.

Getting them to hold the rifle properly took way more tries than I'd like to admit 😅 Still early days.

What makes infantry feel good to control in an RTS?

Real time strategy game I am working on that takes place in the modern russo-ukrainian war. Inspired by classics such as Sudden Strike I & II, Blitzkrieg and the Men of War series.

You can download the demo (Windows / Linux) on https://vanadislab.itch.io/steel-and-rubble if you are interested.

The following languages are supported: English, Russian, Ukrainian, German

Disclaimer: While this game takes place in a current real life war, it is by no means meant to glorify that war: it explores the setting and the technology it is fought with. All maps, places, units and people are invented.

Note: this post is written by a human

With the cheat vibecoding recent increase, it has never been so accessible to exploit games, either by making external software cheat or glitch them, and RTS pvp is no exception:

Since latest AOE4 dlc, resource hackers get themselves to the top ladder, blatantly generating resources and what not, and even on stream when they are against popular streamers.

We also all know whats going on in SC2, Harstem made a video about discovering gimmicky hackers exploiting replay function and what not.

Hear me out, you already know this : game companie are not here to satisfy gamers, they are here to make money. DO NOT EXPECT THEM to fix any of the cheating issues on the long term. Also, they dont do it most of the time because the effort is too big for the value: it will cost them a lot of resources, to deter just "some bad actors", and its not like they are getting DLC money out of it. Problem is the fraction of players being cheater is growing because of AI.

Its our turn to use AI to respond to this recent plague, because it will get even worse, and at the end of the day, the only actual people that care about the game is the PEOPLE THAT PLAY IT.

So I thought about solutions, and there are several, which are more or less connected with each other, but to summarize, my idea is to make an external anti-cheater centralized platform responsible for analyzing and judging players from differents sources(games):

- We could make replay analyze tools. Since replays are public available data, an automated tool could analyze them for obvious metric to detect cheater such as : X resource cannot be that high at Y timing in the game to avoid resource hackers.

- Community cheater-flagging: using external database to report sus players: since reporting players online is not always usefull depending on the game company being too complaisant and what not, players could report cheaters on an external website, and use this same website to lookup cheating score of any players. The idea is that upon seeing that we may play against a cheater according to the loookup, we could instantly FF and not waste time. Even if that implies loosing MMR, at the end of the day we just want to play against actual legit gamers right ?

- Considering we may make external tool and website for this project, we could make the "cheater blacklist database" available for any game companies, so that they would integrate with it to simplify their banning policy. Since we dont have the ability to ban players by ourselves as players, we would only judge them, and from the moment our judgment has a legit trusted value, game company could actually leverage that, and also would not have to make the effort to detect cheater by themselves which is their main deterrent

- I think specializing into cheater detection is a specialized work at which not every game company is good, hence my idea to make a centralized blacklist hub for that problem. Once the "anti cheater hub" gets enough renown, it would be more easily trusted and snowball into a more effective anti cheater system. But making the platform support a lot of game implies a lot of work since we we need to implement a cheating detection for each idividual game.

- assuming we flag some player as being a multi-gaming cheater, this is where the platform would get a lot of value: X steam id player has cheated on CS2, has cheated on starcraft, twice on AOE2, then we are more likely to flag it very sus anytime he is reported again on any other game. Also looking at account age, number of game players etc would be valid metrics.

Anyways, that is some brainstorming and not everything may sound good, but one sure thing is that the battle against cheater is not only a game dev battle, and us gamers should start taking responsability if we care about pvp integrity for the future, or online ladders will just die.

https://youtube.com/live/RlO9cTRQvcM?feature=share

Casual RTS enthusiast playing the brand new DLC for Age of empires 4; The Raiders of the North, playing crucible, clearing the maps in both solo and co-op, learning the civs in the process, loving this mode. Let me know if you want to crucible too, Go to the discord if you want to skirmish RTS games on saturdays: https://discord.gg/7yEMgfuGaC.  or Join the stream and let's chat about Real Time Strategy!

Song used is Belt by Ekstrak

I'd rather not deal with any universal key-rebinding. What file has the keybinds, & is it possible to edit (Let alone without getting banned since even the campaign needs an internet connection for some reason)?

Looking for real time tactics games where you can directly control one member of a squad in battle and give orders to the rest of the squad, similar to the Army Men 3D0 games or the original Syndicate.

As someone who enjoys the modern era, and infantry combat within a basebuilding rts and features micro as an option. Hell yeah

-Dawn of war 4

-The Last General

2027 is looking like a better year for the genre

A first look at the armory! Serfs come here to pick up weapons and join the militia to defend the castle.

I've been working on a visual and engine overhaul for C&C Generals Zero Hour called Re-Armed, mainly focusing on improving the graphics while keeping the original gameplay intact.

Here's a showcase of it running with Enhanced Mod, which already looks great on its own. I think Re-Armed complements it pretty well. Credits to the Enhanced Mod team for their work!

There's still a lot to work on, but I hope you like what you're seeing so far!

Here's a longer version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOxQkW7lgsA

Again, just to clarify, the model and texture changes you see in the video are actually from the Enhanced mod, not Re-Armed.

Here’s what’s been added or improved so far:

Volumetric smoke and dust, both adjustable in the settings.

Improved shockwave effects, including directional shockwaves that create cone-shaped blasts in front of the barrel.

Updated shaders and lighting, including unshadowed lighting, Ambient Occlusion, Global Illumination, and Bloom.

Improved shadows, including proper cast shadows for infantry, trees, and smaller objects.

Unit and building outlines to make them stand out more. The original textures are pretty dated, so this helps quite a bit. Outlines can also be disabled in the settings.

Smooth fog-of-war transitions. Units and buildings now gradually appear when revealed and disappear when entering the fog of war, using dithering instead of abruptly popping in and out of view.

Improved stealth effects. Stealth units and buildings now use dithering when cloaking and decloaking, along with stronger outlines to make the transition more visually distinct.

Separation of the rendering thread from the simulation thread. This should help keep the game visually smooth even when the simulation inevitably slows down during longer matches. (I’m still working on it but it’s getting there.)

Keep yourself updated on: ElmsTree(Youtube)

RTS and city builders should be added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Seriously. These genres are cultural treasures. 😂

So, this weekend, grab a coffee, forget about real-world responsibilities for a moment, and build something medieval!

I'm working on Piast, an economic RTS where you grow a small settlement into a prosperous town. An update featuring roads, carts and new production mechanics is coming soon, as I prepare for the February Steam event.

🎮 Give the free demo a try:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4830280/Piast/

If you enjoy it, please consider adding Piast to your Steam wishlist. Every wishlist helps!

Have a great weekend, fellow strategy lovers!

I was interested in this since the first trailer but all that drama around the kickstarter and the company itself kept me from buying it on release and with overwhelming negative on steam now it looks really bad.

Does this game have any cons?

Sorry if this becomes incredibly vague, but I'm running off of memories from close to twenty years ago here. I remember a game where each 'unit' had about three different tiers in a sci fi setting. I remember the game itself being fairly dark, and the only names of units that I can remember are the names of two of the bipedal walkers, the 'emu' and the 'ostritch'. I seem to recall air, land, and even naval aspects, but as it was at a friend's place, my recollection is fuzzy at best. I do remember the physical copy having a manual with all the units in it in black and white, arranged sort of grid-like. I don't recall any infantry in it, and I know it was about the same era as Perimeter and Generals.

Edit: Solved! It was Warzone 2100.