Units (part II) REDUX!

I’ve recently finished editing and updating the second part of my eventual three-part series about units in RTS games. So go check out the newly revised Units (part II).

Filed under: Posts by Luke, RTS Concept

Why Is Strategy Fun?

Why are strategy games fun, and why do we care?  This is the first question that needs to be addressed before any attempt to build a better RTS game is undertaken.  Games like Half-Life were built from the ground up based on questions like this, specifically by trying to create an immersive novel, and with every facet of the game bent towards its ultimate purpose, the result is highly polished.  Whether it’s a success or not is subjective, but I say that Half-Life, and its successors are the Canterbury Tales in the history of single-player video games, and demonstrated what it is that the medium can and should become.  Strategy games are more complex than creating a single linear story because a single game actually embodies a single instance of a solution space that can be immensely large, and using a wide variety of starting parameters such as player skills, preferences, etc.  So if we are to plan what strategy games should become, first we need to figure out their basic elements, and the proper tools and methods used to construct such a game.  Let’s begin by figuring out what has made past strategy games successful.

Filed under: Posts by Evan, RTS Concept , game design, games, rts, strategy

Units (part II)

Finally I get around to part two! I’ve had a number of thoughts lately, perhaps inspired by the recent announcement about a possible 2010 release of Supreme Commander 2, to do with RTS games – more specifically; units, command management / control, and user interface. I’ll continue my rant about units in this post but try to tie in the other aspects as I go along.

Cybran Rhino. An example of a kick-ass unit.

Upon reflection, what most strikes me and sort of disappoints me about units in Supcom, as opposed to say, TA, is how ‘light’ and unsubstantial they feel. They appear to slide about the terrain as if skating across ice (yes, especially the hover units but not only those) and don’t bump into one another in the manner you’d expect giant metal tanks and robots to do – it’s all soft and bouncy and well… it just doesn’t feel right.

Filed under: Posts by Luke, RTS Concept , ai, physics, rts, supcom, supreme commander, TA, units

Units (part I)

Traditionally, RTS units are non de-constructible. What I mean is that the actual units themselves, in almost all RTS games I’ve played, live a short ‘0 / 1′ alive/dead existence, with a certain amount of damage points (shown as health-bars) to represent damage in a fairly abstract way. Most RTS games display diminishing health/damage of a given unit with some kind of cute preset animation. For example, in Total Annihilation the units billow an ever greater amount of smoke. Upon actual death they possess a variety of explosion animations to represent their demise, such as breaking apart or full blown explosions with flying debris!

In Supreme Commander we see pretty much the same system but with fancier deaths or damage animations. The experimental units in particular go out with a real bang. I’m going to propose a more modern and importantly, more fun system in terms of actual gameplay mechanics. It is also, I think, a more realistic way of doing things and fits in with my RTS concept.

Filed under: Posts by Luke, RTS Concept , damage, energy, macro, micro, rts, strategy, supcom, supreme commander, TA, tactics, troops, units

A Single-Resource Model?

Those of you brave enough to browse my scrappy notes may have noticed that I was brainstorming a resource system for my futuristic RTS concept. I am still adamant that the more logical option, despite being a HUGE fan of T.A and Supreme Commander, is the single, not dual (energy/metal) resource system. The main reason for this is that it fits in with my ideas for linking the expansion of ones empire very directly to resource income in order to promote (but not insist upon) continuing growth.

This single resource which could be regarded as ‘energy’ or ‘finances’ etc, then links into two main areas of the game; research and production. Research is centered around the classical turn-based Space Empires-esq ‘tech tree’ system. Production is of course, anything to do with the actual building, maintenance, repair or reclamation of items within ones empire.

As much as I love T.A, I want to get away from its reliance on good eco-management skills and make RTS even more action packed and strategy/movement centered. The building of energy-metal converters and so on is a fine concept but it does detract slightly from the core notion of warfare and expansion of empire.

Filed under: Posts by Luke, RTS Concept , base, depth, energy, metal, production, resources, rts, strategy, supcom, supply lines, supreme commander, TA, units