DtCarrot, on 06 August 2012 - 10:17 PM, said:
Hence, there needs to be a method which can simplify the task of destroying even the strongest defense line. At the same time, not comprimising the viability of light defensive build where players choose to forgo the early game and prepare themselves for the mid/late game.
That's resolved by designing a rock-paper-scissors system to the game. The difference between successful RTS games and failed ones are usually whether the developers understand basic war theory, such as the war machine triangle (Defense > Attack > Production > Defense). Not to mention the psychology behind successful warfare (e.g. making the opponent weaker by means of deception and the fear of uncertainty).
But don't get too self-assured either. The reason why a person fails to beat a turtler could just be because he's bad at it, too. I.e. unrelated to the game design. In Starcraft 2, for instance, there's practically zero difference in viability between defensive, offensive and production strategies. They all cancel eachother out, not to mention the fact that the inferiority of a tactic can be eliminated by exploiting not only an opponent's weaknesses, but his strengths as well).
Be sure to confirm whether your issues with the game is a common trend or if it's just you.
Yeah I agree, people get overconfident occasionally and make mistakes which allow the turtling player to "rise from the dead". For example, throwing away units and humiliating the opponent and gradually closing up the unit gap.
There should not be tactics that are deemed as unbeatable. In many instances, you would hear complaints of OP(overpowered builds). IN SCII, this happens frequently and to reduce the viability of certain builds, Blizzard steps in and nerfs some unit such as the time taken to research warp gate. Builds indeed, have to cancel out each other. When you go for a resource powering build, if the opponent goes for a rush, you will lose. Every strategy has their pros and cons. For example, even though massing elephants will give you a significant advantage in firepower, the opponent can take advantage of it's con which is it's vulnerability to pike men.
How the opponent will react to the tactic is when they scout and how they perceive the situation. Hence, in relations to scouting, there needs to be a way to scout the enemy but at the same time, if the opponent is careful and do not leave any gaps, the scouts cannot probe into the base. Scouting is one of the minor aspects of an RTS game but it can determine the flow of the game, whether it may be a BO(Build order) loss or tricking the opponent. In SCII, you may be deemed as going aggressive if you build a barrack close to the enemy base, the opponent will pull all stops and may set up defensive measures. Instead, he may go for an expansion taking advantage of the lost resources spent in defense. Hence, there is also the psychological factor which can be used to influence the opponent's thinking.
With regards to strategy, you would need to anticipate possible strategies which could be op and thinking/devising a possible counter to that strategy. For example, is a certain race too powerful in the early game? Will it remove the late game most of the time? Will this strategy be a sure win against enemy of a certain race?
Some general strategy players can use include the supply cut-off tactic as mentioned earlier, flanking and surrounding the opponent to cut off their escape route and securing important positions such as high ground to have greater vision and a geographical advantage.
When attacking, players can divert the attention to another location by doing a multi-prone attack or a false attack weakening their defense. Also, forcing them to defend multiple locations by attacking in various directions with no fixed pattern.
When defending, how will players distribute their defense to ensure that there are no weak spots. Are there enough scouting to guess which position they are able to assault. How will players react to surprises. For example, instead of the pike men you have anticipated, the enemy goes for archers. Will players be overwhelmed by surprises or devise a last minute defense tactic to halt their invasion?