What do you want in a strategy game?

[Jorj]

Hello.

If you could have any (realistic) feaures in a fantasy themed real time strategy game, what would they be?

[Illuminator]

Commanders. You link troops to a commander unit then tell it to do something. Then the commander controls the troops intelligently(ie if they are being attacked in a pass it will give orders to move back, if they are supposed to be gaurding a building they will take up startegic positions based on the situation) This would allow you to focus on other troops with out worrying about the troops you are not paying attention too.

Also then if you lose a commander your troops dont work as efficiently which is realistic.

[V(ery) Basic]

Loads of commercial, C++, DirectX, Binary games miss out on one simple fact:

People need food. The less food, the less efficient. The more food, the
more efficient.

[SteveCRM]

NIGHT!!!!!!!!! No games ever have night! Your troops have to sleep! Maybe they should have an tired level, if they are tired they don't run as fast.

[mortyr]

Water always seems to be a complete obstacle to foot troops, but why? Most people can tread water and there is probably going to be a shore so why can't they atleast wade through it? I've awlays wanted to see a strategy game that had your troops wading through a croc infested river looking for enemy installations and the like.

[Fox]

I vote for night!

Like C&C3 should have night, as westwood said before releasing it! They suck!

oh and technology is very important for me, with future weapons and stuff... AoE2 is a good example, you have to explore many things there.

To SteveCRM: In Shogun people can be tired :D

[oetje]

Originally posted by Fox
Like C&C3 should have night, as westwood said before releasing it! They suck!

There is night in C&C Tiberian Sun! Your troops don't sleep, that sucks. Don't you know the little lights? I'm sure there is night.
Westwood Rulez!!!

[Edited by oetje on 07-25-2000 at 12:13 PM]

[Fox]

Well, not really... there should be really dark missions where you need lights to see something... It was planned but finally removed :( Also, in multiplayer you don't have any darkness :(:(:(!

[atjs]

Gosh! I vote for troops able to cross water. You never see a game which troops can cross water. Perhaps make it like some guys get tired and drown or something, and when they reach land they're soaked and slow down until they get dry to balance the game.

[HarryW]

lol, we want the moon on a stick! :D

Actually the night could be really really really cool and used really effectively. If it was totally dark you wouldn't be able to see enemies who are still, and you'd need lights to be able to see around, but then the enemy would see the torches... That would rock.

That commanders idea sounds really good too, that's one of the really annoying things about RTS games, that when the maps get bigger and longer you have to command hundreds of units all at once, it just takes too long to order them around.

[kedaman]

There are commanders in Machines, but i can't really understand if they are much help since the machines are really hard to move around, for being really realistic i could say wind, and friction is cool, i tried to work some out on my RTS

[ashu1]

Hey why dont you go to the freedownloads website and check out some of the strategy games. You would get some wonderful ideas.

Good luck

[Dim]

I would say weather conditions and technology.

I look for games that has a lot of building types and resources to build those buildings. I love a game that has a MASSIVE amount of resources to keep the town running. That's the one thing about Sim City 3K that is missing. They should have resources in the game.

I'm designing a RTS resource game to be played online. I am doing the graphics, but I need someone who can MODEL in 3D studio Max. I need some 3d Models (not very big obviously) made so that I can take screen shots for houses, or food, or resources etc.. The game my friends and I are designing is MASSIVE, but we are starting out small.

Like I said, I love a game that TOTALLY relies on resources, and you litteraly have to make sure every building gets what it needs. But hey, it's just me.. LOL

Knight Vision

[Warmaster199]

EARTH 2150 is a new genre of game called 3D RTS. You can explore your world in 3D and change the way that you place the buildings and everything. Earth 2150 is an awesome game. Why am I posting this here? Because the game has a night phase. There is a "clock" in the top left corner and shows your game time and it turns from night to day depending on the time on the game clock. What's more is that you can customize your vehicles. You can pich a vehicle chassis and put different guns on them. Also, it's like AOE and AOE2 because you have to research technologies. But, there is only 1 time frame or age. Once you go to the research screen, there is like 70 different technologies. Each side has completely different building, units, songs, and researches, although some are similar.

Sharks, Tigers, and Eagles could make your game more interesting. Those can damage, provide food, or provide resources/fun. Trees can block vision and rocks could block paths.

[Balder]

One thing that keeps me going on strategy games is the personal characters. Instead of a cascade of five-pixel high soldiers I prefer fewer but more personalized units.

They could have features like name, rang, morale etc. After each mission they achieve promotion or other increment depending on their performances in battle. Someone mentioned commanders and that´s a good start.

Perhaps it´s too complicated to give attributes to each unit, maybe a group of units is more realistic. (Haven´t tried out this kind of games on my own yet)

I think it´s much more fun to "get to know" the soldiers or vehicle-crews. Then you really wants them to survive and get better. You don´t just send them on suicide missions because it´s fun.

The ideas about water, wheather and day-night cycles seem great!

Happy Programming!

[Warmaster199]

Weather would be awesome. Rain and snow to slow down the movement of units. Have winds so that flying units have difficulty flying. If you use wind, be sure to make the trees move with the wind too:) This maybe very hard to do, but try to have your game using 3D Models. This is like Earth2150. It's a new genre of game(like I said earlier), called 3D RTS. It's very cool.

[Warmaster199]

I also think that you should have Veteran troops(like in Tiberian Sun) that get more attack, life, armor, etc with the more battles they're in. Also, To tell if a troop is veteran, when you click the troop, have a symbol (In Tiberian Sun, new troops have no symbol, more experienced troops have an "II", and the highest level or "Veteran" troops, have a star " * ").

Your troops can have experience by which they gain (or lose).

Also, experience is divided into skills, flexibility, speed, agility, diversity, accuracy, etc.

And magic/spells can enhance a game.

[rekcus]

Me prefer that games with more automation. It should have a setting that user can choose to enable/disable automations such as automatic defence and retreat procedures. Auto-resource search and harvesting and auto-building new units.
Better still have formulas and rules that the commander can set.

E.g. Retreat to repair depot if life < 20%


I want to concentrate only on the battle!

[MasterGoon]

I think it would be cool if you could take prisoners, dont shoot to kill all the time so you could take a prisoner and get information out of him...

[HeroK]

I'd like to see more scripted events like in Starcraft in RTS games. Make each "round" in the campaign as unique as you can.

[SteveCRM]

taking prisoner would be really cool...But what about cities...the soldiers can't stay outside their whole lives...they should have houses (not barracks where 500 5 pixel high men fit into a 10 pixel high barrack).

[Fox]

As in age of empires you mean?

Tiled Maps/Grids/Whatever

Tiled maps can make your game more popular because it allows other people to make unique maps that they like.

Also, if you can't do that, Randow maps may also be fun:).

You can also have destruction of your own men, as that always were cool.

[MysticEarth]

It would be really cool if the vehicles in a RTS can lose a tire or something when they drive trough rocky land, or their engine blows or whatever like that. That would be cool AND very realistic!

MysticEarth

[VitalyB]

Half of what you guys mentioned is in Jagged Aliance 2. There is night, characters do need to sleep (I did sleep at nights), you can go into water, characters have personalities (slight rpg influence).