Real-time strategy games are often compared to turn-based strategy games, where each player has time to carefully consider the next move without having to worry about the actions of his opponent. In real-time strategy games, players must attempt to build their resources, defend their bases and launch attacks while knowing that the opponent is scrambling to do the same things.
A real-time strategy game may also be referred to as a real-time simulation or a real-time war game. Real-time strategy games introduce new pressures into strategy and war games because they require players to make quick decisions as far as how to use resources and time attacks. Although real-time strategy games move much more quickly than turn-based games, gameplay can still be slowed down by degenerate strategies like turtling. By: Justin Stoltzfus Contributor, Reviewer.
By: Satish Balakrishnan. Dictionary Dictionary Term of the Day. Natural Language Processing. RTS games typically generate drama by positioning players against another foe in a combative encounter. RTS games generally have four main elements. These are units, buildings , technologies and resources. Units are the moveable actors that can be assigned tasks, such as gathering resources or attacking enemies, and buildings research technologies and train units.
Meanwhile technologies improve economic or military stats to give one player an advantage over another. All of these elements are dependent on there being sufficient resources, which are deliberately harvested or generated during the game.
In a game of chess, play proceeds through the course of turns. In each turn, a player can move one piece. In RTS games, the game rules do not limit moves by turns. Instead it takes place all at once. Chess can be played with RTS rules.
In Age of Empires 2, the initial scout is an indespensible part of gameplay for a variety of reasons. Another great example of early scouting is in Red Alert 3, where units like the Attack Dog and Burst Drone are specialized to be able to get around the map quickly and act as scouts. They're not available from the start of the match, which to me is a bit of a disadvantage to Age of Empires 2's dedicated scout unit, but are generally able to get some scouting done or contest areas of the map in advance of many threats or strategies.
Red Alert 3 has several other fairly early units that can be used for scouting: the Soviet Terror Drone and Sickle make good scout troops as well, and the Allies have a very early support power that makes it pretty easy to keep tabs on their enemy. In particular though, a dedicated scout unit really helps the player to keep in mind that they can and should be out on the map seeing what their enemy is up to. As a bonus, a dedicated early scout unit can provide some needed interaction and interest during the often slow ramp-up time at the start of the match, when the player is waiting for stuff to build, or accumulate, et cetera.
Well, first and foremost, as I said above, the early game in many Command and Conquer titles is really volatile. This is a prime example of an early game that is not stable. It's really easy to derail a player in a variety of ways, and it's not easy to defend yourself from any of them, and it's also quite difficult to scout these early strategies until they're already hitting you.
Legacy of the Void, I believe, doubled the number of starting workers from 'classic' StarCraft. There were a host of other changes as well, but this in particular was of interest to me as a designer. Starting the game with more income potential truncated the early game dramatically. Since the earliest stage of the game is when players have the hardest time reacting to unexpected threats, truncating the early game allows for players to have a more robust defense and offense earlier than previously.
It also allowed some rushes and cheese to happen earlier, but in general players have more options and more money to react to their opponent sooner than before, allowing for more robust trading of blows without being crippled. Among other things, it shortened the areas of greatest weakness and vulnerability while at the same time allowing for larger attacks to happen sooner. There's also the matter of the 'QuickScript' mod in Grey Goo. Community leader XCet of the Grey Goo Fan Discord "Grey Goo Hangout" created a mod that, through the simple act of refunding the cost of the player's first refinery, cuts what is normally a roughly 7-minute windup in the early game in half and dramatically changes the shape of a competitive Grey Goo match for the better.
In short, I feel like a relatively quick economic ramp-up is one way to achieve some stability, especially in conjunction with other efforts. On the flip side, Company of Heroes 2 has a relatively stable early game. Losing a squad is pretty bad, especially early in the game, but it's also fairly uncommon if you're paying attention. Also, a lost squad or two is probably recoverable due to the fact that the game's manpower resource is accumulated more slowly the more units a player has under their command.
The other thing that Company of Heroes has going for it in terms of 'stability' is that there's a lot of stuff to focus on instead of just the other player.
As with everything in terms of optimal RTS design, the length of the 'early game' is a matter of somewhat delicate precision. No one wants that 'dice roll' on match start to see whether the game will get interesting.
Thinking of 'stability' in the early game, the upcoming RTS 'Immortal: Gates of Pyre' has capturable turrets on the map in various places. Notably, each player starts with one of these turrets in their base, already owned by the player at match start. These turrets serve a role similar to the Age of Empires Town Center, helping keep the player's base safe during the early game when unit counts are still low. WarCraft 3, with Ziggurat turrets, Night Elf Ancients having attacks, garrisonable Orc Burrows and building spikes, et cetera, has similar protection for bases in the early and mid-game, though mostly these defenses don't really stem off a dedicated force in a meaningful way, that I've usually seen.
My general rule is that the economy should ramp up relatively quickly, while the player's ability to get crippling damage into their enemy's stuff should ramp up more slowly, and be balanced against the ability to get scouting information on what your opponent is planning. Of course, I repeat that Company of Heroes 2 is an example of a much more protracted early game that plays out in a generally positive manner due to the player's ability to keep their investments from being destroyed.
Above, I try to lay out some of the various strengths and weaknesses of the 'early game' phase of RTS. This is really important to strategy games in general since they're one of the only genres of competitive game with such a long and uncertain ramp-up. In a shooter, you don't have a 5-to-7 minute window before you're really ready to take on your opponent, and being shot doesn't usually, anyway? Length: it feels like a short early game in terms of economic expansion, and a slightly longer game in terms of crippling offensive options, allows for the most robust counter-play between players while still feeling 'fair.
Fairly robust defensive options early can help as well. Consider the Age of Empires Town Center, which serves as effective army deterrent in the early game but doesn't scale well into the mid and late game where walls, trebuchets, huge army sizes, castles etc come into play. If I have additional thoughts later, I might revisit the topic.
For now, I worry I've gotten overly wordy. Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you on the battlefield! Sections Close Back. Blogs Close Back. Write for Game Developer. Blog Now. Connect Close Back.
0コメント