Honestly, when I want to do base building I go back to Supreme Commander (specifically with Forged Alliance). While it doesn't have (good) walls and all the stuff you'd find in, say, EE or AoE, it does have a large array of static defenses and artillery pieces. There's something lovely about making an impenetrable base and then building artillery that can lob shells all the way to the enemy base.
You mean Blizzard games are too much like C&C games, not the other way around.Originally Posted by b0rsuk
Actually, there is. Homeworld and Company of Heroes are made by the same company, and share common game elements.
For instance, in Company of Heroes, there is also smart targeting. anti-infantry units go after infantry. Anti-tank units go after tanks. They're limited by range, however, so if a tank is out of range of an anti-tank unit the anti-tank unit will not ignore infantry in order to get in range of it. This is mostly for the sake of self-preservation, however.
Speaking of old RTS games, did anyone else hang out on Westwood Chat back in the day? That was the happenin' place to be!
El Oh fucking El.
Dude. That whole swath of map between your base and their base?
That's supposed to be the battlefield. RTSs are supposed to be more than trading baserapes.
I think the genre needs the games to be just as much about controlling resources as they are the battlefield.
Picking out nice defensive lines and taking advantage of elevation and line of sight as well as watching over your havesters and what not.
It would be nice to see a game that emphasized land control like WiC, CoH, DOW2 but then fucked you over by having all the resources clustered around areas that are easier to attack than defend
Being that the resources in CoH and DoW2 are based on strategic points, which have a greater or lesser value depending on the map design, that is entirely possible and actually quite common to the maps they employ: High resource strategic points are usually situated in the center of the map, with many avenues of attack available.
I have to say the RTS genre would be in quite the mess if it weren't for Relic. With Big Huge, Ensemble and Maddox/Stainless all dead, there aren't terribly many RTS studios remaining. You have semi-RTS Total War with Creative Assembly, ruined talent with Gas Powered Games stuck on AoEO (which is why Kings and Castles is on the backburner, huge shame) and... Blizzard. I'd have a hard time counting Bioware Victory as a studio considering they haven't released anything since the transition and that C&C has become an awful mess.
Actually, I have to be missing a few, right? There can't be less than a handful of studios around?
I still have some hope for Generals 2, given that they've said they'll go back to base building.
At least it will be pretty...
My favs are Age of Empires 3 Complete, Supreme Commander 2, Ruse, and Sins of a Solar Empire.
It's a really small genre now. The only one released this year so far is Sins: Rebellion, as far as I know.
You're missing Eugen Systems and Ironclad, who are making (IMHO), the best RTSes around.
I have the same concerns. Most of my childhood was built on RTS games, seeing one of my favourite genres being so close to death is a sad thing indeed.
I share the opinion of many of you, that competitive RTS gaming shouldn't be about math and having a high APM, but rather about thinking strategically. Sadly, sitting back and thinking strategically doesn't do overly well in the fast-paced world of modern e-sports, where RTS is completely dominated by StarCraft II.
The only good recent RTS I can think of is Sins.
I'd recommend Stronghold: Crusader, and Star Trek Armada. But Armada is almost impossible to get running on a modern system in my experience. Age of Mythology is probably my favorite RTS ever. But recently, Sins of a Solar Empire is the best.
Aww man, you were doing so well to.
I'm failing to writing a blog, specifically about playing games the wrong way
http://playingitwrong.wordpress.com/
It fitted what the guy was looking for, and the limited workers makes it a bit unique.
That's because MOBAs are currently the in-thing. We can only hope that market will be saturated soon, but I have a feeling it'll continue like MMORPGs and we'll see many thing that look like fun singleplayer games end up as failed multiplayer games. Even the Sins guys next game is a MOBA, and I wouldn't be surprised if Chris Taylor comes out and announces Demigod 2 as hey, gotta jump on that bandwagon. I'd say "At least we have Relic" but I've come to realise that I'm pretty neutral towards them. Since HW2 their campaigns have been too scripted (the AI particularly so) and I'm not a multiplayer.
I had no problems getting Star Trek: Armada running on a PC with Vista.
I'm no multiplayer gamer either, but just skirmishes in CoH against the AI are quite fun. As somebody who's rubbish with RTS but still likes the genre, the CoH AI is just the right difficulty to keep me on the edge while not hopelessly crushing my soul forever.
Also, I sometimes did CoH "coop" games with friends, 2v2 or 3v3 against AI opponents. They also were of similar skill level to me (read: zero) so it was overall quite enjoyable.
@Giaddon: Too bad one's making a game I have no interest in (European Escalation) and the other's doing some sort of RTS-MOBA hybrid...
I've heard that and, after bouncing off the CoH SP due to over-scripting, it made me feel hopeful when an interview for CoH2 promised skirmish AI during campaign missions. So long as Relic are thinking what I'm thinking that could be awesome.
I do like CoH though, and have enjoy watching the Sunday Night Fights series on GameTrailers
Agh, I shouldn't have clicked this thread. Now I have an almighty yearning for a "good" RTS. The last one I truly enjoyed was Age of Mythology, although admittedly that was largely down to the "Mythology" bit. Although, I do have fond memories of just walling off half the map to myself against the AI and creating a whole Sim City. I loved World in Conflict too, but arguably that was more tactics than strategy - that said its the only RTS-ish game I've ever enjoyed competitively, largely I think due to the deferred responsibility of being part of a team. It's half two in the morning and I'm rambling now.
Giaddon has a point- too many of you aren't mentioning RUSE or Wargame from Eugen. In particular, RUSE is a base-building, harvesting, tanky kind of RTS without the need for a ton of fiddly micro, which is just what some of you are asking for. It's another really clever game.
Blitzkrieg is up on GOG for $10. I highly recommend it to any RTS fans. No base building, pretty punishing, native language voice overs for all countries. Awesome 2d art mixed with 3d vehicle models. Fully destructible environments. I already own a hard copy but I need the expansions. Once I finish the vanilla campaigns I'll grab the GOG anthology. I hope they get Sudden Strike up there at some point because I never played it.
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