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ideas for selecting levels in RTS?

Started by April 27, 2003 09:28 AM
6 comments, last by boolean 21 years, 9 months ago
I am creating a pseduo-RTS game, and am trying to think of a fun and creative way to run levels. I dont want to have a "mission 1, Mission 2" type setup, but after playing Shogun: Total War, the idea of having a big map and letting players slowly conquer was...boring to say the least. So I am hoping to get some innovative ideas from those on the forums. What other ways are there to run missions in a RTS, letting the player have some sort of control over who attacks where, but still injecting a plot and some fun into it? If this is a bit hard to understand, let me know and I will try and explain it better. Thanks all!
I liked Total War''s concept of letting the player chose where battles would happen. If you''re modeling warfare situations, then this is the way to go for free-form player interactivity. If you don''t want the step by step mission level plan, I''m guessing you don''t like to be forced into choosing what you want to do.

But if you found Total War''s freeform, "build as you go, move your troops as you go, fight when you want" style of play as boring, then I don''t think there''s really a compromise between the two. I suppose you could have a choice of mission''s, so that instead of being forced to play one mission, and then another, you can chose between several missions.

The trouble with that approach is that if you win or lose that mission...what then? Obviously consequences of the mission outcome are important. One way to hedge that is to say that the player is only fighting a small portion of the battle, so that even if he loses, the battle in general may have been won (or lost) and the forked mission path remains the same. But some players won''t like being the top dog (I for one wouldn''t mind playing as a small fish in the pond).
The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount." - General Omar Bradley
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Warrior Kings (despite it flaws) had a very nice campaign system. The campaign was still made up of ''mission 1'', ''mission 2'' scenarios that drove the story along, but at various points player actions meant that the campaign could branch off in different directions (for example accepting the surrender of the computer lead you off in one direction, while continuing the attack lead you off in another).

The advantage of this is that the player has more control over his destiny - decisions made in the game do make a difference. The down side is that a branching campaign means that for the same total number of scenarios, each path will be shorter (you might only play 8 out of 20 scenarios for example).

Jon.
Jon.
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Legends from the Lost Realms
Emperor: Battle for Dune did have something similar to total war, but more campaign oriented and not nearly as big. Basically you where presented with a screensized map of Dune, all divided into quadrants. You could go to any area neighbouring your own control sphere. Usually you would just select next mission area but sometimes the computer attacked back forcing you to defend a map. There were also scripted missions that took place during the middle and later part of the campaign... check it out.



::aggression is the result of fear::
::aggression is the result of fear::
boolean, are you asking about campaign goals other than "conquer this map"? If so, I can agree with you.

Unfortunately, most games'' eventual goals are to "become the most powerful", or "take over the world", or "destroy all enemies/monsters". Some would tag a nice story along the way...

May be you need to elaborate a bit more?
If you want a decent plot but also wish to maintain relatively free-form choice by the player, consider implementing a story web.

Any story is a sequence of nodes that advance the plot and increase or resolve tension. A story web generalizes that to create something akin to a graph that allows transition from one point to another within the graph by way of some action (note: the actions are the edges/links in the graph, not the nodes) which either increases or decreases overall thematic tension. By placing your player at a (possibly random) starting node with a reasonably high number of links to other nodes, you present quite a few decisions to the player. At each subsequent node, the player is faced with more alternatives until the overall story tension reaches zero. Tension should be simulated outside the user''s direct experience to give the sensation of external and independent events having consequence if so desired, and nodes can actually be moved onto a user''s path if it is desirous that a certain conflict occur, for example.
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Play some RTS games. Get ideas for them. Try to read postmortems on these games. If you study them, you will find the answer. I think that you should be creative. The creativer approach always works.

Scott
Scott SimontisMy political blog
Thanks for all the replies everyone!

Dauntless: Maybe its just me that finds it boring. Do you think this system has its merits? I just found that after conquering 6 or 7 states, I was thinking "now, WHY am I attacking this next town? If I just walk away from the game, is that classed as the war ending and me winning?" Like I said, this could just be me.

Oluseyi: WOWZERS :S That helps heaps; now I just have to figure out how to implement it :D

Jon Alma: I did some reading, and it does sound like a corker of a system. I suppose that way I can have the scripted events, without it being COMPLETLY linear.

Village Specialton: Thats what actually drove me to put this post up. I rented out a TON of RTS games, and have read countelss reviews. Unfortunatly, 99% of these use the ''Mission 1, Mission 2'' mentality, with only a mere few breaking the mould.


Thanks all. Note that even if I didnt reply to your post, I still take them all in, so dont feel like I dont appreciate if I dont reply.

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