The Total War games have a very free-roaming camera (not a true 6 degrees of freedom but still much more than other games).
I think depending on what you want to stress in your game, how you work the camera is of greater or lesser importance. If your game focuses more on nation-building than actual fighting, or if it''s more strategic than tactical, than there''s less of a need for a 3d system to have a truly free-roaming camera. However, the more war oriented and more tactical it gets, then the more important being able to see every nook and cranny becomes.
Personally, I think AI should be smart enough, that it knows the environment as well as or better than the player. Afterall, strategy games aren''t supposed to allow you the player to know precisely what''s going on through the commander''s eyes....just the gist of it. With my own personal game, I''m trying to move away from that God-like notion of the player having absolute access to, knowledge of, and control of his units. Part of being a good leader afterall is dealing with those limitations.
So 3d can help the player visualize the world, but it only has to be enough to give the player a good reference so that he can plan situational advantages/disadvantages better. But if the AI is good, it will know what "good" and "bad" terrain is for different tasks (open terrain for speed, hilly or covered terrain for defense for example).
They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin
The new 3D RTS games
It''s an awesome idea, kapru... and from your post I assume you were just joking ("its coyrighted to bullshit inc."), but, just in case you don''t know, the idea has already been done in Dungeon Keeper 
It''s a great idea though, I really wish more developers would use it. If I ever create an RTS, that would definitely be a feature I would include.
It''s a great idea though, I really wish more developers would use it. If I ever create an RTS, that would definitely be a feature I would include.
I always liked the camera controls in the Myth series. They were very straight forward and made watching the battles fun. The only thing I found wrong with the camera in War3 was that you always feel like your playing at 640x480 no matter what res you are really playing at. I think Age of Mythology pulls it off pretty well. A lot of RTS 3D games get the angles so wrong that the games are barely playable because you have no field of view.
Like was mentioned before, the main reasons for going 3D would be hardware acceleration, nice graphics for less work (1 model instead of a million sprites). And I would imagine that realistic physics could be applied much easier in a 3D environment.
Like was mentioned before, the main reasons for going 3D would be hardware acceleration, nice graphics for less work (1 model instead of a million sprites). And I would imagine that realistic physics could be applied much easier in a 3D environment.
You guys ought to try Ground Control..their camera system ruled completely, it''s by far the best I''ve used (and yes, it even let you watch the terrain from a squads view)
hm..wonder why that game went by so unnoticed as it did..it was rather good I recall..
-Luctus
Statisticly seen, most things happens to other people.
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hm..wonder why that game went by so unnoticed as it did..it was rather good I recall..
-Luctus
Statisticly seen, most things happens to other people.
[Mail]
In response to the FPS/RTS posts of several people, there is a game currently in development called Savage that incorporates these two genres. It''s built primarily for team play in which each team has a player who acts as the commander and sees the world from the traditional RTS perspective and all of the other players play as the soldiers. As I understand it the various players can change their role (ie the commander could become a soldier and vice versa). Looks rather promising, if anyone wants more info I think they have some on the major game sites (gamespot, gamespy, ign).
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