Battle of the Sands - a Dune II clone

[MrFlibble]

Here's a WIP project that very clearly copies Dune II without openly acknowledging it:

Battle of the Sands

What can be seen on the screenshots is very clearly based off Dune II (including the flag graphics and some very clear similarities of the factory structure).

[X3M]

They say, it looks like dune 2000 :D

[MrFlibble]

Well, they have replaced the Dune II ripoff graphics with some nice 1997-ish stuff which looks nice although nothing special :)

[X3M]

Only tanks? Seems boring.

[Davidu]

Did I understand correctly that the maps are hand-drawn?

[MrFlibble]

Did I understand correctly that the maps are hand-drawn?

No idea, might be textured 3D terrain.

[MrFlibble]

Just found a few gameplay videos on YouTube (example), and frankly I'm not impressed.

[X3M]

I have seen other flash games that are better and more fun.

As said before, only tanks is fail. You need at least 4 different units, even if those 4 are still only tanks.

A timer, also fail. A new game first needs missions without timers. Only apply a timer for a goal specific like stopping a nuke or something.

 

But perhaps they are only experimenting now. And thought, best way to balance the game is 1 unit only. We add more later, 1 by 1. Just like Warcraft.

[MrFlibble]

One positive thing about this (if there's any at all) is that at least they are trying to bring back the classic RTS style. Too bad that there are completely non-commercial projects that are way better in terms of game mechanics and overall quality, but can't be considered completely free because they use copyrighted material (like Dune II - The Maker or Dune 2: The Golden Path).

I understand of course that Stefan and Drackbolt have been perfecting their projects for years, but on the other hand these Heroic Fantasy Games guys pose themselves as professionals who earn money with game development.

[X3M]

I thought that Stefan stopped?

 

---

 

Anyway, what could be referred to as a classical RTS style?

Your thoughts?

 

My thoughts:

2D map and 2D units?

All units have the same size?

Each field is a square?

Some sort of limited money?

 

A list of "classical" RTS games in my eye´s:

Dune 2, Warcraft, Warcraft 2, C&C, KKND, Red Alert, Dune 2000. (Tiberian Sun?/Red Alert 2?)

 

I don't count Starcraft and Warzone 2100, since they are really advanced for their times already.

Starcraft really had all kind of different sized units, while C&C and beyond only had 2 sizes.

Same goes for Warzone 2100. And that one had a design system for units. And on top of it, a complete 3D environment with 3D effects on vision and projectile path's. Still better then Generals and C&C3 if you ask me.

 

I don't mind if someone adds squads, just like in Dune2. After all, they did do this again in Generals, and obviously in C&C3.

[Nyerguds]

Huh. The way destroyed stuff fades out looks really dumb... the explosions are there exactly to cover up making the stuff disappear. The fade out completely ruins that.

...and the AI units don't even interfere when he starts destroying their base from the back. Fail AI. I also don't see why he even bothers going around these units in the first place, seeing as the mission doesn't end until everything is destroyed, meaning he has to destroy these tanks anyway.

Overall, in that video, I get the feeling he's trying to micromanage far more than he should, which makes him fail because of the dumb countdown thing. He also loses far too much time stopping to save his game :P