What do you think of critters in RTS games? How much impact do you think they should have on gameplay? Some examples from popular games: Starcraft: Critters have approximately zero impact on gameplay, their only purpose it seems is to get in the way. Age of Empires: Critters aren't massively important, but they do have some impact, particularly in the early stages of the game, where they can provide food or hinder your early expansion and exploration. Warcraft III: Critters have a massive impact on gameplay, being the primary source of experience for your heroes. Failure to level up your heroes quickly enough may well cost you the game - but at the same time, some of the critters are so powerful, they could screw you up before you even meet your opponent. I've been thinking about how to implement critters in a realistic but interesting way. I'm aiming at a level of importance somewhere between the *craft games - I don't think they should be anywhere near as important as they are in WC3, but should be a little bit more than mobile scenery as they are in SC. I've broken them down into a number of different types, along with a description of their general effect on gameplay. Birds Birds and other flying creatures are one of the more common types of critter. They are usually spawned in groups in suitable terrain, and tend to remain hidden, detectable only by their singing calls. If disturbed however, they fly off making a distinctive warning call, and can be seen and heard from some distance, which may to draw attention to whatever disturbed them… Herd animals Herd animals are sometimes found in the more open environments. They are spawned in groups in suitable terrain, and will just peacefully wander about the map in groups if left to their own devices. They generally ignore infantry units, and can be used as cover for an advance across open spaces. However, if disturbed by gunfire or large, noisy vehicles they may stampede, trampling any infantry units hiding amongst them. Predators Predators are large, carnivorous animals that may be lurking in any environment. Some predators are solitary, whereas others are spawned in hunting packs. They usually avoid contact with combat units – however, they may attack isolated and injured infantry that wanders into their territory. Predators in packs tend to be bolder than their solitary counterparts, and may even attack fairly large groups. Natives Natives are the local inhabitants of the area. They are generally spawned in groups around buildings, and tend to avoid combat where possible. However, they will defend themselves and their homes if attacked. Friendly natives may be able to provide players with useful information however, such as the locations of dangerous predators’ territories. Thoughts/Suggestions?

I like it. You could have complex interactions between critters. For example, a predator pack launches an attack against a herd causing a stampede which results in birds taking flight, dust clouds, the trampling of some of your infantry units and blowing your cover. Unpredictable, but you took that risk by staging too close to the herd. I'm sure others can think of more interesting interactions.

Will nests/dens play any part into the scheme?

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Original post by Nuget5555 Will nests/dens play any part into the scheme?

To add to that, will destroying nests/etc. cause the critters to stop spawning?

WarWind is a good one to look at for critters. Some of them are out in the open and ignore you until you aggrivate them (which happens easily). Some of them hide in the woods and eat your workers. Some of them can be tamed. Some of them just walk up and smash things. Too bad the rest of the game sucked.

Warcraft's 2 critters were pointless - leave 'em out if anything. WC3 made them feel more like a resource you needed - like gold that fought back. I think the best approach for neutral stuff is when its not just something you kill, but some thing you need to take over and control, like the neutral cities and towers in MoM. I still want to see a medieval war game that's about levying troops from the land and actually deals with the peasantry as something more than just "train peasants to go chop trees". They supply your food and your soldiers and work in your mines. They are weak and capturable and enslaveable. Fields can be burnt.

The RTS _Battle Realms_ had this sort of critter interaction with birds and horses. Birds would fly off sqawking and alerting your opponent, and horses could be tamed and used as mounts. Although they could impact the game, neither one was a 'gotta have it' thing like the creeps in WC3.

I guess some the little critters are OK, but I would like some bigger more dangerous things that you should leave well enough alone, like a dinosaur pack for example. However, in a desperate situation maybe you would just charge through the dinosaur pack in order to reach an objective quicker, or to hide from your pursuing opponent. In some miniatures games this is referred to as 'interactive terrain'

Gary

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Original post by CodeMunkie I like it. You could have complex interactions between critters. For example, a predator pack launches an attack against a herd causing a stampede which results in birds taking flight, dust clouds, the trampling of some of your infantry units and blowing your cover. Unpredictable, but you took that risk by staging too close to the herd. I'm sure others can think of more interesting interactions.

Yes, that's certainly a possibility. One thing I want to avoid though, is making random events play too large a part in the game. The critter interactions should be fairly low-key so that the player can concentrate primarily on strategy, rather than worrying too much about critters screwing it up. The critters are there to provide a bit of extra depth and detail for the more cunning players.

That said, it might be quite interesting if the player can trigger or take advantage of some of these more complex interactions himself. Perhaps deliberately starting stampedes and herding them towards his opponent might enable a player to cause some damage or confusion without even endangering his own units, or maybe a unit under attack from a predator could lead it towards a herd in order to take the heat off themselves.

Also, the idea of stampedes kicking up dust clouds is also nice touch, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, those dust clouds could provide additional cover for other units. Secondly, dust clouds might also be kicked up by vehicles moving across certain terrain... a player seeing a dust cloud may not be able to see what is making it, and may mistake a bunch of stampeding animals for an attack column, or vice versa.

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Original post by Nuget5555 Will nests/dens play any part into the scheme?

I wasn't planning to implement nests or dens as specific structures as such, but instead the map editor would designate certain regions of the map as being territories. The size of the territory would define the population, depending on the habits of the creature whose territory is being defined. Creatures wouldn't respawn once killed, so there'd be a finite number of critters to worry about. However, you might be able to destroy their habitat, by clearing forests etc, which would effectively drive them out or kill them.

If the critters behave complexly enough, using and spotting Dark Reign like scout units posing as critters could become an interesting part of the gameplay.

I like the idea of using stampedes as cover for an attack. Also just nice as a distraction. However I think that the advanced strategies using critters would be lost on most players unless interaction with the critters was very simple.

Its an interesting question and when do you draw the line at critters, are civilians critters? I think the meat of the argument is how those critters are used. For instance when I was younger I was designing an RTS game where one of the races where parasitic aliens. Which ment that until the later stages of the game you had to infect civilians or opposing troops to gain troops and a labour force. What made it interesting is that opponents could not tell who had been infected until later in the game when they developed parasite scanners. Basicly the parasites relied on stealth, guile and spreading discord to win.

But the question of critters depends entirly on how they can be used. Are critters a resource that can be used, or are they just moving art. For instance if your making a age of empires type game then, civilians could be netural. Meaning that you can't build workers instead who ever occupies a city or province can utilize the local inhabitents as a labour force. If its a more modern game, then you award a home ground bonous to which ever player is defending, however they are responsible for protecting civilians or critters when the opponents destroy civilians the defending player loses money.