Read moreI doubt may people played/remember, much less are aware of, an MMORPG/RTS called Shattered Galaxy by Nexon. Released 2001 I believe but was in open beta a while before. It’s essentially StarCraft on an MMO scale. Your “hero” had stats that affected your units, and each unit had its own XP/level/equipment load out. Players were split into factions on a big map with territories, think Risk. Battles were around 10-20 players per side. Walking across the map to other territories obv takes real time, if you moved into an enemy territory it started a fight that anyone can join if they could get to the territory, attackers had control points to capture and defenders had to run out the timer or force a full retreat. Team comps mattered; lots of weaker players would just bring high dps units for kills and XP, better players had some pocket specialized squads to cover other needs. There were siege tank and liberator units, medics and repair droids, cloaking units, detectors, flying tran...
I played sooooo much Shattered Galaxy. This game was my jam and gushing about it with the Frost Giant devs was one of the first things I did when I joined the team.