What IS a 4X Game? (An advanced discussion)

[dh_epic]

I don't know what to make of RT4X either, to be honest. I don't think it necessarily has to be just a gimmick, however. It could very well be sort of like a real time Civ or MOO with more war.

 

[Smidlee]

Brad wrote an interesting article about most RTS games can be won by explore , kill a few peons, build up army then kill. He pointed out that just by killing a couple of an opponent peons in the beginning of a game would set them back in which they would never be able to catch up. This does kill the fun of RTS but it seemed to be the most effective strategy especially in multiplayer. I'm not that good at RTS but his peon strategy made a lot of sense. RTS does rely more on resource gathering than TBS.

 

[dh_epic]

To say RTS relies more on resource gathering than TBS is to oversimplify the issue.

RTS has SUCH a simple economic system, with such a powerful military system, that the strategy you just mentioned becomes extremely powerful.

TBS makes the economy more tricky. So yeah, it's not just resource gathering. But it's also challenging enough that you can't quickly bump off the source of an empire's economic strength.

(Mind you, if you've played multiplayer, you do learn quickly that "the choke" is pretty important. Even if you can't destroy someone's economic foundation, you CAN scare their worker inside their city borders, keeping them stuck for a while.)

I'm curious if you have the article in mention? Think you could find it?