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Another exciting aspect of Funcom's upcoming Age of Conan is the Guild City System. This is mostly unique to other MMOs, in that you build the guild city not as a hall, but as an actual city with multiple buildings within. Each building serves its own purpose for offense and defense against other guilds and attacking forces, and is upgradeable to different tiers, much like an RTS.

In a recent article at MMORPG.com, they run down the details of each of these guild city buildings, and their biggest advantages. Also in this article are some details on guild leadership itself. In order to create a guild city, your player will need to be a guild leader, level 40 or higher, and have a guild membership of at least 24 players. You will then have the choice of 3 environmental locations currently for your guild city. Let the land-grab begin!

While many people are eagerly awaiting the release of Warhammer Online, there's another MMO in development with same initial name: Warhammer 40,000 Online. Although the initial difference between the two is obvious -- one's a fantasy RTS, the other is a science fiction RPG -- a recent interview with Vigil Games' General Manager David Adams and Studio Creative Director Joe Madureira offers up more juicy details.

Topics covered in the interview include customization options, available classes and NPCs, and how the existing Warhammer 40k universe will be introduced to gamers who may not have ever played the tabletop version. While there are still no beta or release dates on offer, development continues apace. We'll have more on this title as news emerges.

More than ever, it appears as though MMO developers are struggling to keep afloat using the traditional models for monetization. SAGA is a game that's had an interesting subscription model from the getgo, shirking the typical subscription fee model for a CCG-esque booster system. Once you've bought the client, the game is free to play. The only caveat is that you can only get additional troops for your army by purchasing "boosters" for an additional fee. It's really a pretty brilliant system, combining two types of games (CCGs and MMOs) that are independently addictive, and fusing them together into what one would have assumed was a license to print money.

We haven't really heard how the game has been doing since it's since it finally emerged from beta last week, but already Wahoo Studios is shaking things up in an effort to draw in players. Like a drug dealer looking to give clients a first taste to get them hooked, they're now offering a free version of the client to give would-be players a better idea of what's on offer. The free client is missing a few features, but a free something is always better than nothing. Unlike a trial though, there is no time limit on how long you can use the free client. Seems they're confident in their product. It's probably worth a shot if an MMORTS/CCG sounds up your alley!

[Via Warcry]

Saga, which bills itself as the "world's first collectible online real-time strategy game," is throwing wide its doors for Open Beta 2 starting today. You can head over to their site to sign up; they mention that account creation is not quite ready yet, but it might not be a bad idea to get your foot in the door. (And for what it's worth the sign-up form did allow me to create an account with no fuss. You can just ignore the "promo code" field.)

But what, you ask, is a collectible online RTS? We've only covered it once before on Massively, so I looked around the developer's site to see what they have. Here are some key points: it's an RTS (of course), but it's persistent, so you won't have to rebuild structures every match, and your units stay dead until made otherwise. The setting is standard fantasy. The game has no subscription fee, using a microtransaction model: players buy their troops in booster packs, which cost $2.95; the game itself is currently on pre-sale for $20. You can also trade troops with others, which highlights the "collectible" nature of this game. The site claims that they are aiming for a Q1 2008 release. I'm not so much an RTS player, but it is an interesting business model. Will you try it out?

The massively-multiplayer real-time-strategy genre has never had a breakthrough title. There have been obscure, niche MMORTSes, but we'll bet most of you haven't even played one! Well, Korean companies Blueside and Phantagram intend to bring the genre into the mainstream with their sequel to the 2001 XBox title Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders.

This new game, like the original title, will feature a mesh of action and RTS gameplay elements. There will be a complete single-player campaign in addition to the MMO mode; that's starting to look like a trend now. Oh, and if you didn't notice ... it's beautiful. CVG has a few more screenshots for your pleasure, as well.

Expect Kingdom Under Fire II on PC and "consoles" -- presumably XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 -- next year.

WarCry has brought our attention to the fact that a new MMORTS has gone live. Ballerium, by game development studio Majorem, is now free to download and play from the game's homepage. Some of the features of Ballerium are thousands of players on a single map, seven races to choose from, a persistent multi user environment, and interestingly, AI that will finish fights for you if you disconnect.

The homepage's feature section also says that you can earn status and prizes outside of the game by participating in the Ballerium community, creating videos and fan art, and later on, making creatures and levels. If you register for the game before the end of this month, you'll be in the running for a $50 Jinx.com gift card.

This isn't the only MMORTS we've heard from recently, with Saga announcing their final beta date a week ago.

Developer Silverlode Interactive issued a press release revealing the date for the final beta phase of Saga. The MMO real-time-strategy game will open up Beta 2 on December the 11th, with players from Beta 1 being offered places first, and the rest on a first-come first-served basis after signing up.

The press release also explains a little about Saga's business model, which will be microtransaction based, with players purchasing 'booster packs' that have new units and spells to use, and a subscription fee will not be charged.

We have not covered this game before, so a quick visit to the homepage's FAQ was necessary to learn a bit more. It is basically what you would expect from an MMORTS -- an RTS with a persistent world. The world is based on traditional fantasy (dwarves, elves, spells etc.) and you will be able to trade troops with other players. In-game activities include building armies, cities and kingdoms, taking over new lands, and multiplayer questing.

If you want to be considered for this last Beta phase, visit the sign-up page and create your account.

[Via IGN]