“End of Nations is a tactical MOBA.” Er, hang on. It wasn’t always. Petroglyph’s free-to-play work-in-progress spent at least a year as an massively-multiplayer RTS before publishers Trion Worlds (them behind Rift) took it under their own developmental wing. For the past six months, it seems they’ve been refashioning EoN’s real-time tactical premise to bring it in line with the LoLs, Dotas and Infinite Crises of this world.

A new beta sign-up site has risen to the surface of the internet overnight. On it are the visogs of five common-or-garden RTS units – a neon whirlybird, a tracked tank, an orange Transformer, a winged APV, and some metal plates glued to an ambulance.

But what’s this? They’ve all been given fierce Marvel-style monikers: Sidewinder. Sluicegater. Decibel. Hippocrates. Colonel Boze. The Judge. I’ve made only one of those up, and it’s probably not the one you think.

All, incidentally, look like they might potentially chug-chug-chug their way between vehicular and humanoid forms – though that’s wholly speculatory on my part. Let’s have Trion do some of the explaining:

“End of Nations is a tactical MOBA where your success on the battlefield depends on the heroes and units you command and quick decision making in the heat of combat,” they write. “Dominate during team-based matches and catapult your commander to the top of the ranks.”

That certainly sounds like a MOBA. Which is a bit odd, because when Trion brought End of Nations in-house in December, they were all for building on Petroglyph’s existing work with a few extra licks of polish, some learning curve tweaks and a revamped UI. This appears to be an utterly different prospect, sharing only a free-to-play model with its namesake.

Are Trion wise to follow the widely-practiced way of the MOBA? Or is this yet another Zerg (nail) in the base (coffin) of the traditional RTS?