RTS themes

Personally, i''m more likely to buy or play a futuristic RTS for one extra reason over medieval RTS games. The extra reason is (what you''ve said) is that in a futuristic RTS i (the player) are more likely to encounter something new and creative that the game designer has come up with. Such as a new vechial or complex and what not. Whereas in medieval themes i''m less likely as a player to encounter these new and wonderful little suprises.

Although if a strategy game is done well enough i''m bound to find out about one way or another so i guess overall it all comes down to how well the game is done anyhow

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Our Goal is "Fun"!

With warcraft 3 coming your game may pass unseen if it is a Warcraft like.

I think maybe you could mix techno and fantasy, have wizards cast fireballs against tanks. Then an alien rip his head off ...

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Original post by eh

i was thinking about somthing today: RTS game themes. most RTS games are set in the future, and to the best of my knowledge, there are only one or two that are based in the midieval times. warcraft is one of those. it seems that no matter how many diff. structures and units i come up with, 99% of them are already in warcraft.

so, my question is, what would you rather see? a futureistic RTS with structures and units unlike any other game...or a fantasy midieval RTS game with castles, farms, camps, sword fighters, archers, dragons, orcs, ect.? even if it did seem like a rip-off of warcraft?

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Long ago in a far away place I was working for a startup, on a RTS... at this time C&C was really the only RTS on the market. We decided to create a RTS that had known weaponry. Unfortunately the company went belly-up (The choice of weapons wasn’t the cause Now that this genre of game has “grown-up” and there really aren’t many differences between them in game play, I suggest that you need something that sets your game apart…. All of these games are using 3d now and you have two distinct timelines, fantasy past and fantasy future. Now, with that in mind what can we do as developers that will make our RTS “stand-out” from the rest??

The game play and options.
Options first…
How about, the ability to play RTS or turn based (TB). With the waning support for TB type games you could capture some of the hard-core war gamers that Talonsoft are starting to ignore (granted this isn’t a big market, but every bit helps).
An option to have the computer act as a “government” giving you funding in place of the tedious task of resource gathering. This would probably be tightly coupled with the TB option, but could be fun (in fact our game was going to have this feature).

Those options directly affect game play…

My point? Well, I don’t think that the type of units that you utilize has a huge impact on the success of the game. The game play is the issue as long as you have covered all the bases with the games graphics and overall technology.

Just my .1 credit worth, from a guy who loves RTS’s







Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser

I''d rather play a fantasy game. Despite, the apparent concern over lack of originality the point being - fantasy. The designer makes it up. Yes you have dragons, orcs, but they can have different characteristics then the usual hack ''n slash. The same argument tha you have levelled at fantasy can also be flipped back towards scfi. Tanks, Artillary. They all, despite their appearance, fire guns. Nothing more technical than that. I imagine that the actually engines, and characteristics of the game remain constant. The difference''s you speak of would be, I feel, fairly cosmetic.

ps. I reckone the fantasy vs scfi RTS mentioned above would rock. That sounds well cool.

I think that nomatter how obscure you name the units, and how weird the graphics for them are, it''ll always come down to "how far can this thing shoot and how much damage does it do".

To have a real "theme" you''ll have to base it on something else, something people will identify with. This can be a fantasy world, using tanks and guns, or anything else you think of. That''s just fluff though, the real meat is in the way you control units and in how smart your units and the enemy units are.


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In reply to:

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From MadkeithV

I think that nomatter how obscure you name the units, and how weird the graphics for them are, it''ll always come down to "how far can this thing shoot and how much damage does it do".

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This is a cut and paste from the other thread "Strategy Game Questions" which i think is relevent at this point

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From Me
As we''ve disscussed, combat engines could deffinitly do with a major overhaul. Maybe a look at the systems used in rpgs (as mentioned) could be useful. I personally love the thac0 system from 2nd edit D&D.

Although, the system i was planning on using for my java-script strategy game took a few pages out of the Axis and Allies combat engine. What i''m talking about is rather than having the entire combat system revolve around shelling out damage the player also manages how much damage they take. Called a "Damage Control" Managment system. You can already do this in most RTS''s by using canon fodder in front of you expensive firepower but these game don''t supply any "control" help/game-orientation for these senerio''s. This would have to be my main criticism on current RTS''s. They need a better tactical gui/control-system for the game.

But apart from this micro-management issue there''s also the second most important issue [to me] that most RTS games don''t address well enough. This is "Combat Opportunities". Combat Opportunities are what allow one player to "prove" themselves better over another player. It also allows more space for player improvements/skill-growth. Most games rely on the map design to address this issue but i think thats lazy. This can and should be address in the function of units in terms of what they are capable of doing.

To top off, i also believe that every army (tactically speaking) should have a weak spot and a strength. The reason being is that by bringing in weak spots and strengths it allows the player after the battle to be able to pin point where they went wrong. It also allows the better player with a smaller force to win again a larger force because they knew things like how and when to strike at the enemy. Enough for now :p

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Please don''t think of me as arrogant for quoting myself




I love Game Design and it loves me back.

Our Goal is "Fun"!

I prefer fantasy.
I love the epic, mysterious atmosphere.And I prefer the kind of buildings you can build.I think a temple is cooler than an airport.
This doesn''t make much sense, huh ?

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There are lots of fantasy RTS games. Off the top of my head, Warcraft, Warlords Battlecry, Warlocked...hmm, all war games...

The reason for using either fantasy or futuristic is simple - what other genres are there? Both fantasy and futuristic have a bunch of established creatures and settings. Sure, the aliens may seem a little different, but they are still aliens from either the "humanoid" or "bug" races.

Why not create a RTS in a different setting? Because it would be really really difficult to basically recreate the wheel. It would be a simple matter to use an existing setting, such as AD&D, Star Wars, or Mad Max. But to create a RTS that takes place during the 1800''s? That would take some effort.

You could claim that Dungeon Keeper was too

-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)

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OMG ... are you all blind or what ?

With all the wars that have been and will be ... why is it that we just don''t seem to use any of them ?

What about cavemen battling it out ? you could have shaman (magic users), tamed dinosaurs that would also serve as war machines.

What about all the medieval wars, the crusades ?
Templars fighting the arabs of Saladin. At that time those people thought that magic actually existed, and monsters such as dragons, hyppogriffon, hydras, etc etc !

Does any one noticed that Close Combat 4 is out ? and still based around WWII ?

Come one, shake those neurons and create something new.

The only reason there are so many med-fan, and futuristic games is because of marketing "if it works, DON''t try something new".

That''s fucking stupid, and sterile as well .

youpla :-P

I was going to suggest a WWI or WWII RTS, but then if you want to be historically correct, the Allies still need to win, which kind of hintd (only slightly ) on the predeterminism theory

Why not make one which has no magic and no advanced technology. Kind of like an Amish world . Nobody has ever seen that in a game!


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I am so amazed nobody has a done a napoleonic RTS. I guess to many games companies are american with little knowledge of european history :-).
The Napoleonic era is crying out to be done as a decent RTS, it has different unit types, a whole list of different nations, each with highly colorfull and distinctive uniforms, and is THE game to code decent troop formations for. Maybe not a resource-management game, but certainly a good choice for a game like shogun.
I wouldnt be suprised if Age Of Empires III picked this theme.

http://www.positech.co.uk

thank you all for your input.

as much as i want to doa mideval RTS game, i am going to go with future. i seem to be more creative with future. i''ve already made a small (and unfinished!) list of my structures/units.

structures:
===========
base
solar panel (generates power from sun)
drill (to mine ore)
warehouse (supplys)
camp (ground units)
hanger (flying units)
tech lab (upgrades)
ion turret (ground to air, ground to ground)
electron fence (wall of electricity)

ground units:
=============
bot (builds structures)
ion gunner (shoots small ion blasts)
missile tank (shoots missile)
land mine (carrys 3 land mines to place anywhere)
devistator (shoots large ion blast)
arachnid (mechanical spider looking mobile that paralizes units)
scout (fast moving scout)

flying units:
=============
bomber (drops a small bomb)
on beamer (shoots a long beam of ion)

upgrades:
=========
+weapons (ground)
+armor (ground)
+weapons (air)
+armor (air)

ion is like very powerful electricity. it will be the main weapon in this game, along with missiles, bombs, and land mines.

you will produce structures with electricity (via solar panels) and with ore (via underground mine). and you can build units with power, ore, and supplys (via the supply warehouses).

does all of this sound good to you guys?

oh yeah, and i have a storyline in the works:

it is 4.8 billion years from now. the sun, has run out of it's gas, and has expanded destroying earth and many other planets in the solar system.

the human race has left earth on 600 massive carryers that are set to travel to a planet not unlike earth, 10 million lightyears away.

however, when the carryers arrive at new earth...they discover that the planet has been overrun by a strange alien race. the aliens have used up most new earth's resources, eating trees and plants, consuming all of the water. the humans are standed, and the aliens dont seem to agree with the humans invading their territory.

blah blah blah...you get the drift. you like?

Edited by - eh on July 30, 2000 2:02:13 PM

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Original post by eh

oh yeah, and i have a storyline in the works:

it is 4.8 billion years from now. the sun, has run out of it''s gas, and has expanded destroying earth and many other planets in the solar system.


blah blah blah...you get the drift. you like?

Edited by - eh on July 30, 2000 2:02:13 PM

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It souunds pretty cool, i hope i get to see it oneday



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Our Goal is "Fun"!

Story definitely sounds good. I hope my "YOU ARE THE EVIL" story works out. It is non-linear, but it has a main theme


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As people seem to be having problems looking for new settings for RTS games I humbly submit an idea that I''ve had kicking around for quite a while and I might consider (very slight) drafting a Design for and seeing what happens amounst my little coding group.

It''s based upon the human body and your incommand of the the white blood cells. (The idea came around after catching some cartoon about how the human body works that featued little blue men) The body is always under attack from germs, viruses etc and your job is to make sure that red blood cells can move around the body without being "attacked". You have to "research" which template your white cells have to modify depending upon the virus of infection that breaches the skin. You can have "bonus crates (booster jabs/imunity jabs)" forgein holidays with "Ebola virues" attacks etc.

The game might also have an education value as you learn the most important organs to defend. You would also have to learn the anatomy of the human body so you can find the invaders faster.

Dunno how it would work because thats the idea I came up with.

LOL! This is a great parody on RTS, I would love to see what becomes of this! Hehehe.. I can''t stop laughing. Please don''t give up on this idea, I can always do with some amusement


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