The Perfect RTS Game

[puglover]

Here's your chance to make your opinions known about the different variables of Real Time Strategy games. These are twenty questions involving game mechanics, complexity, playablity, and realism. I'm curious to see what Civfanatics think the perfect RTS game would be like. Feel free to add your own opinions about any points I forgot to list.

1. Cities
- Fixed building foundations (example: Battle for Middle Earth)
- Build anywhere on the map (Age of Empires)
- Can only build in city boundaries, cities are a type of building (Rise of Nations)

2. # of Resources
- 1
- 2-3
- 4
-5+

3. Units
- Multi-units (Rise of Nations style)
- 1-man units (Age of Empires style)

4. # Number of Ages/Epochs
- 1
- 2-4
- 5-8
- 9-12
- 13+

5. National Borders?
- Good idea
- Bad idea

6. Diplomacy
- Limited. You're either at war or you're at peace.
- Lots of treaties, deals, and bargains you can make with other players/the computer

7. Houses
- No houses
- Yes to houses. Function to increase population limit.
- Yes to houses. Give morale to surrounding units.
- Yes to houses. But none of the above functions.

8. Resource collection
- No citizens, resource buildings only
- Assign citizens to collect resources from fixed positions
- Have citizens work at certain buildings to gain resources

9. Specific Civilization Strengths
- Special powers and unique units
- Unique units but no other special powers
- Special powers and unique bonuses but no unique units
- Equal ablities for each nation, no bonuses or unique units

10. Converting enemy units
- Possible
- Impossible

11. Units with special powers that cast magical spells/disasters
- Good idea
- Bad idea, unbalances the game
- Bad idea, unhistorical

12. Navies?
- Yes to ships!
- No!

Trade Routes
- No, keep this game simple
- Yes, trade between peaceful nations increases wealth

14. (Do not answer if you said no to #12) Transport ships?
- No, units automaticly become transports when ordered into the water
- Yes, you need transports to move units over water.

15. Heroes (Special, one-at-a-time, sometimes nation-specific units)?
- Yes
- No

16. Build units or equip units?
- Equip, build weapons and equip the basic peasant with them to change him into a certain unit type.
- Build, swordsmen are built as swordsmen, cavalrymen as cavalrymen, no need to build weapons.

17. Morale
- Yes
- No

18. Formations
- Yes
- No

19. Civil war. Can your nation split in half?
- Yes
- No

20. Citizen happiness?
- Yes, you need to pay special attention to keeping your people happy, else deal with the consquences.
- No

 

[The Person]

Let's see... Here's my list:

1. Buildings anywhere.

2. 2-3 resources

3. One-man units.

4. 1-4 epochs. It doesn't matter if it has epochs or not, but not too many if it has.

5. Not sure about national borders.

6. Limited diplomacy.

7. Houses should increase population limit.

8. It doesn't matter how citizens collect resources, as long the resources are being collected.

9. All factions should have unique powers and unique units (like Starcraft).

10. The ability to convert enemy units is a must.

11. Spells/special abilities should be part of the game.

12. Yes to navies.

13. I don't care if a game features trade routes or not. But they certainly add another element of strategy to the game.

14. Units hould automatically become transports on water.

15. Heroes are great as long as they don't become the main focus of the game. Nation-specific units all the way as well.

16. No equipping.

17. Morale works best in TBS.

18. Formations all the way!

19. No civil war.

20. Happiness is also best used in TBS.

 

[Syterion]

Total Annihilation


Oh, it wasn't a question? Ok, then, I'll play along.

Oh wait, no I won't. All your questions are about characteristics of Civilization. Guess what, Civ isn't an RTS. RTS's shouldn't be like Civ. Rise of nations and Empire Earth are hybrids that frankly, are not much fun. RTS's are about tactics(some strategy too) and TBS's are about strategy.

The components of a good RTS are IMO as follows-

Sufficiently different, yet balanced races.
Large numbers of useful and interesting units.
Resource system that does not require micromanagement, but still requires skill to plan.
Basic queuing features to enhance planning and long-term management
Features designed to enhance gameplay(Ex. Finding construction units, squad selections, you know)
Focus on tactics and strategies, not micro(that's boring)
3D terrain that gives the advantage to the higher units, especially artillery/ranged units.
Sufficient customization/modification abilities
Online play.
Good online community.

Other more indepth things I could mention but different types of RTS's might not apply. I consider Total Annihilation the best RTS in existence. I find Starcraft fun, but ultimately annoying and too much micro-bull****.

 

[Knowze Gungk]

The perfect RTS game is a MP mission for OFP called Conquer The Island (CTI) & is played as a FPS, flight sim & combat driving sim.

You can play either of 2 roles:
1) A team leader. Who's job it is to go out looking for trouble.
2) Commander. Avoids trouble & builds the base(s).

I'll see if I can answer the questions.

1. (Building).
Only the Commander can build buildings/factories & they can only be built within a set radius of the Mobil Headquarters (MHQ). Fortunatly, as the name suggests, the MHQ can be moved anywhere on the map.

2. (Resources).
For income, you need to capture towns. The income varies for each town depending on size & strategic position. there are usually 20+ towns per island.

3. (Units).
There is 1 Commander and 6-14Team leaders on each side* (East vs West), the average is 1 comm & 8 team leaders. They can buy up to 11 soldiers each and there can be up to 20-30 vehicles* for each side. So the units are multiple.

4. (Number of Ages/Epoch).
One. But each building needs to be upgraded for the building of better units, the barracks is upgraded twice & Aircraft factory is upgraded 3 times.

5. (National Borders).
There is no official border, You either own a town or you don't. The one's you captured from the resistance are marked on the map as a flag marker of your sides colour, the ones you captured from the enemy are marked as a circle/reticle marker.

6. (Diplomacy).
Kill 'em all.

7. (Houses).
No houses, set pop limit from start.

8. (Resource collection).
All income is automatic, The more towns flying your sides flag, the more income you get. Putting a soldier in a town will increase that towns income.

9. (Specific Civilization Strengths).
Each sides units are different, have different weapons, strengths & weaknesses. Which side is more powerful is just a matter of oppinion.

10. (Converting enemy units).
I haven't seen it done, but there are so many different CTIs & OFP can easily be scripted to include it. I'd like to see it done.

11. (Units with special powers that cast magical spells/disasters).
Never seen it, can be done, doesn't appeal to me.

12. (Navies?).
Boats are a part of most CTIs

13. (Trade Routes).
Negative

14. (Transport ships?).
Yes. Manual load/unload

15. (Heroes).
Only in a multyplayer gaming community kind of way.

16. (Build units or equip units?).
Players can equip themselves, but they buy units fully geared. A player can order one of their soldiers to pick up a better weapon on the battlefield.

17. (Morale).
Not a factor.

18. (Formations).
Yes

19. (Civil war. Can your nation split in half?).
Officially no. Unofficialy, I've played a game that was ruined by one person teamkilling another , when that one respawned he took his revenge on the wrong person, who took his revenge...& so on & so forth until about 90% of the team were just TKing everyone they saw until they were TKed themselves, respawned, rinse & repeat.

20. (Citizen happiness?)
Appart from a $120 dollar fine if you, or a member of your team kill a civillian, there is no consequence to oppression.

If you've ever been playing a RTS, and wished you could play as one of the units on the map, this the game for you.

Links.
OFP - http://www.flashpoint1985.com/
CTI - http://mfcti.sourceforge.net/MFCTIFeatures.html

*Depending who made the mission

 

[Wolfe Tone]

1. Cities
I like the RoN style system. But there should be certain outpost like buildings that can be built anyware

2. # of Resources
I don't mind. 4 or 5 sounds about right. As long as they are unlimited, like RoN

3. Units
Don't care

4. # Number of Ages/Epochs
No ages, just a massive tech tree

5. National Borders?
Good idea

6. Diplomacy
Plenty of diplomacy. Everything should be up for trade, resources, armies, cities etc

7. Houses
Sure, as long as there is no upper population limit. The population limit should be based on how patient you are to spend the time building up your army.

8. Resource collection
I'm not sure, citizens should be involved

9. Specific Civilization Strengths
- Special powers and unique units
But they have to be balanced

10. Converting enemy units
- Possible

11. Units with special powers that cast magical spells/disasters
Depends on the genre, if it's an historical game no.

12. Navies?
Definatly, they should be a major part of the army.

Trade Routes
Definatly allow trade

14. (Do not answer if you said no to #12) Transport ships?
Yes. However the space should be divided not by the number of units but by unit size. For example a ship might be able to only carry 5 tanks, but 50 infantry.

15. Heroes (Special, one-at-a-time, sometimes nation-specific units)?
Nope

16. Build units or equip units?
- Equip, build weapons and equip the basic peasant with them to change him into a certain unit type.

Could someone give me an example of a game like that, I'd be very interested to play it. The only game I can think of is Settlers and it's not exactly a combat game

17. Morale
- Yes


18. Formations
Yes, and they should matter.


19. Civil war. Can your nation split in half?
- Yes
- No

20. Citizen happiness?
- Yes, you need to pay special attention to keeping your people happy, else deal with the consquences.
- No[/QUOTE]

 

[homeyg]

You forgot one. All RTS games that have this suck.

21. Population limit?
a)yes
b)no