The end for RTS

[Davidu]

Graphics is fun but it sure doesn't make a game. That's why Heroes II and III are still awesome, that's why Morrowind is a classic, that's why Gothic also was a milestone in RPG, that's why Panzer General II kicked ass. Graphics are a tool but design is everything. Even less advanced graphics can make a game look awesome if the designer knows how to use them.

 

Now, what about that whole batch of space RTS that came out a few years ago, like Sins of a Solar Empire? That was pretty good. Not to speak about Homeworld I & II even if they're old. Probably in the future we'll see some combined types of "pure" RTS: space battles and then planet invasion so thee we get ground battles. As I said earlier, maybe we get the possibility to make decisions on the strategic map and then zoom in to a battle in progress to assume command and maybe turn the tide. Sins of a Solar Empire also had this seamless zoom in and switching between the strategic map and the local map (planet orbit) where you could see the units and the whole eye candy and issue orders individually, which ship to attack which enemy, etc. When you zoomed out all these disappeared and you could only see the data regarding that cluster. So the strategic map was broken into predefinite battle maps. Perhaps in the future we'll have dynamic battle maps as they'd be generated for the battle that takes place using the overall map data as seed information. And then you'd seamlessly zoom in to an instantly generated battle map, take control, win the fight and zoom out just as the battle map gets erased.

 

So for me the next generation of RTS will have multiple planes of action: strategic map (or more) from where you can jump in different battle maps for the battles that go on at the same time. Imagine having a strategic map as in SSE (galaxy - cluster - solar system - planet) with the Planet acting as a battle map and then for each planet you have the current planet's strategic map and each battle a battle map of it's own. Obviously this would be too much for one person to take care of.

 

This brings me to the second innovation: cooperative RTS. I heard many years ago they wanted to make one: one player would take care of gathering resources, one would build up the base and defences and others would wage the war. I haven't heard of any such game being rolled out onto the market. Even there you could layer it into strategic map controlled by one player (allocating resources and reinforcements between battle maps) and the battle maps each with a team of players conducting the front line war.

 

Now if you want to mix it then just add real players for the soldiers being able to grow in rank (both FPS and RPG) elements. So each Strategist will have their favorite field Commander which in turn will have their favorite Trooper. You send Commander X to take care of an attack in location Y and he brings in his Trooper Z is the best sharpshooter there is.

 

So ok, I'm going really ballistic here because then imagine a multi-layered chain of command split into space and ground. Basically you'd be able to put pilots in those ships. Imagine an EVE Online + Dust 514 + whatever_space_sim_you_like + SSE + Homeworld + many more.

 

The whole idea is that f you're playing the shooter then you don't have to worry about "who takes care of the huge cannon I saw in the distance?" because the field commander would've already dispatched a team there to blow it up. The field commander wouldn't have to worry about managing other battles at the same time because other field commanders were dispatched by the strategist to deal with that. None of them has to worry about resource gathering or base building and production because an administrator for each of these functions will take care of that.

[Andrew]

Talking about coop FPS+RTS, the closest I can think of is

'>Natural Selection 2

.

I played it when they had free steam weekend. Was quite fun. Basically there are two teams. There is 1 commander (RTS overhead view) per team that places structures, resource gathering structures etc, gives orders to other team players so that they work together better. The FPS based team players go and build the structures, get upgrades etc, and seek out and kill enemy opponents and buildings.

 

Currently on 66% sale ($8.49) on steam this weekend.

[X3M]

Co-op RTS exists already for a long time. It was first introduced for I know, in Starcraft.

In a 2v2, each team had only 1 base instead of 2. Each could see what the other had selected at that time.

1 could focus on the battle, while the other one indeed did some production etc.

 

In Starcraft 2, you can have the same, but then each has his/her own base. But you can share control. Same concept, a bit of a different approach.

 

Talking about space battle's. You might be right about that. It is RTS in pure form again. But then we have the shiny coating, the light on it.

After all, I think Planetary Annihilation will be a cool game.

To bad I can't get it, unless I get a credit card.

 

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Then again, it all starts to look like arcade games. Just like said in the following article.

http://digitalbattle.com/2010/03/27/old-school-rts-games-are-a-dying-breed/