Sovereign takes strategy gaming to the next level - Online only, real time in a persistent world. That’s right boys and girls, persistent. You may be at work, sleeping, heck – you may even be spending time with your spouse/partner (Yeah right – like THAT ever happens – Ed) but out there in Cyberspace enemies may be moving against you. That resource mine you need to build the latest division of super tanks may be under attack. Allies could be under attack and a huge force of enemy marauders could be heading your way.

Sounds scary, huh? Fortunately Verant have a number of groovy things (or “Stuff” as we technical guys like to call it) for ensuring that players who are logged off won’t be at a major disadvantage.

I want to try and paint a picture for you, I would ask you to close your eyes, but as this is a written article, it would probably be a dumb idea. Okay, instead, clear your mind of questions (Young Jedi – YodEd) and picture a planet with landmasses, seas and oceans, hills, mountains and rivers. Okay, this is the play area – pretty big, eh?

Now, remember Command & Conquer? Picture a four-way battle online, versus human opponents. Now imagine there are 500 such battles going on at the same time, and some of them are uncomfortably close to you. That’s right, Verant are talking about 2000 players in the same world, simultaneously. Instead of the play area of a Medium to Large C&C Map, we’re talking about an area 500 times the size of that. Instead of 3 Neighbors, you’ll have 8 – not to mention their neighbors, and their neighbors neighbors. All with the ultimate goal of squashing you like a bug. Kind of boggles the mind doesn’t it?

When asked, Verant CEO, John Smedley described Sovereign as C&C meets Diplomacy (The old board game) meets Civilization. You have the scope of Civ, the negotiations and backstabbing of Diplomacy and the action of Command & Conquer.

"Backstabbing: 10 ways to the top, over the broken bodies of your 'allies'."

While details are still sketchy (as I mentioned – this game isn’t due to be announced for another 2-3 weeks) excitement is certainly mounting over what can be described as no less than a revolution for Strategy gamers. Sovereign aims to deliver strategy heaven for both the action-oriented Real Timers and the thoughtful, more devious Turn Basers.

Sovereign will put players in charge of a territory set in today’s world of technology. The units built by players will be right out of today’s modern armed forces, over land, sea and in the air. Units won’t come cheap however. Verant is determined not to see the break down in strategy of the typical RTS – where the player builds up a massive army of units and throws them at his opponent (Affectionately called a “Tank Rush”). So to combat this form of playstyle (which to the purists is nothing short of exploiting a “bug”) Verant are planning to make units much more valuable, and naturally harder to build.

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