Hi Im planning a classic rts in 2d. Gamestyle will be similar to dune 2 and total annihilation. Setting is kinda modern warfare with some other elements. A bit more management/economy is included compared to the two games mentioned. Units are in these classes - infantry - vehicle - air And if i choose also - ships - submarines Ive got three fraction planned: "Brute" - sturdy tanks and straightforward. Slow n powerful. Tanks weak vs air. "Hitech" - best air capabilities and some advanced weapons/buildings "Dusky" - best infantry. Stealth and ambush powers/reinforcements. Traps/mines etc If ships are used i think the teams will be rather equal in this aspect. Ok so this is what i got so far. 3 is a good and realistic number, but is it to classic? I can think of some games that has kinda this 3 teams... But in a way i like it:) Any good input here? Thanks Erik

Meh. Your current factional system seems to be rock-paper-scissor-y. Which is bad. Having units counter each-other is fine, because that can be altered in-game. But having the faction countered by another will mean that the game ends before it begins, which isn't any fun. Ultimately, I'd say the emphasis should be less on number of factions as distinctness of factions. Take the Age of Empires games; there really wasn't that big of a difference between the huge number of factions, so it really didn't matter all together too much. Then there are games like Starcraft, where each faction is completely different in all respects. If you're going to add one special unit per faction, but keep the tech and standards the same, number really doesn't matter that much. If you're going to play it like Starcraft, less is more, because its a pain to learn 20 different techs.

You misunderstood me. The factions will not counter each-other. Think of it more like the total war factions. Some have more options in cavalry, some in footmen.

If the hitech just builds bombers, the brute still have anti-air to crush them. But the look and feel of the brute will be more bulky and they are planned to have the biggest tank and the hitech the only stealth-fighter (for example).

I will not go for completely different factions (like starcraft) but somewhere in between starcraft and age of empires. I agree that having twenty factions but only change one unique unit for each is not really 20 different factions.

Could you think of another/better spread of 3 teams? This is basically the 3 teams from dune 2 (although the teams in that game were very similar) (generals:zero hour i think had the same 3 team-styles).

Well, it depends on how you go about it. As long as each faction has a fighting chance against each other it would actually be pretty interesting to pit an all-cavalry army against an all-infantry. Essentially just a few elements of each need to balance. For example, if the brute faction can pump out one tank that is 50 times as powerful as a soldier in the same time it takes the dusky faction to pump out at least 40 soldiers (taking into account that there is an advantage in already being out on the field), then there would still be balance. This faction sample is very similar to Starcraft (practically an exact copy) so it is certainly very traditional, but it is proven system so don't worry.

how is it similar to starcraft? which is the airbased team in starcraft for example? Ok so zerg has a lot of "infantry"? I dont get the reference:) And protoss has some expensive, though units but they are also the most advanced/complicated. So... Starcrafts teams are not really like dune2 or generals teams.

Essentially the Terran are the Brutes, focusing on a lot of heavier land-based units with smatterings of big guns, the Zerg have power in numbers, and the Protoss have the more technologically interesting weapons. But I'm sure your approach will be plenty unique enough in its own right, just keep in mind it's not totally new.

Im not aiming for "next gen" (gotta hate that expression) i will borrow heavily from games i like:)

The 3 archetypes in games are normally:
China : brute force
USA : technology, air superiority
Terrorist/some shady cult : inf and sneaky buisness.

Also a tank will not deal much damage to infantries (has no mg: use only main gun, which is not historically correct but brings nice balance) so a couple of bazookas will kill tanks cheaply. The idea is

ARMOUR CLASSES
inf - vuln to machineguns, fire
vehicles - balanced, but primarily vuln to shells/cannons
heavy - "tanks". vuln to anti-tank weapons like AT-guns, mines and aircrafts
buildings - takes balanced damage, but machinegun fire do little damage.
choppers - can be targeted by some inf and special units
aircraft - can be targeted by special units only

WEAPON CLASSES
anti infantry
anti vehicle (perhaps specialization : anti heavy)
anti air

Then we can have hybrids like anti-infantry armoured vehicles etc. I want to make it pretty clear what each unit has as role. I hate games where its somewhat confusing why objects act the way they do. And i will try to keep it from getting to complicated.

What about going the way of Homeworld?

In this game they had 3 top level classes of ships:
- Fighters
- Corvets
- Capital Ships

In each top level class they had 3 ship types:
- Anti-Fighter
- Anti-Corvet
- Anti-Capital Ship

This gave 9 unit types in total (there were more, but these were speciality/non-combat ships mainly), and although there was a Scissor/paper/Rock relationship between them (on average Fighters were better at taking out corvets, on average Corvets were better at taking out Capital Ships, and on average Capital Ships were better at taking out Fighters) there was always one type that could take out another type.

This also allowed for variation between the factions as a faction could specialise in one top level class of ship or another, or the balance between them could be tweaked (so that one faction's Anti-fighter Fighter might be better than another faction's anti-fighter fighter but the other fighter type ships were weaker).

For your game, you could ahve it that the Brutal faction has stronger units that take out the same type of unit (eg: a stronger Anti-tank Tank and other races), this would make the faction appear tougher as match ups of the same type of unit would allow the Brutal faction to win.

The Hi-tech faction might have their units better at taking out the next type in the cycle (so Vehicle might be good at taking out Air, Air good at taking out Infantry and Infantry might be good at taking out Vehicles).

The "Dusky"/stealth faction might reverse this cycle and that their Vehicle is good at taking out Infantry, Their Air is good at taking out Vehicles and their Infantry is good at taking out Air).

However, all factions still ahve 3 units in each group (so all factions would have Anti-Infantry Infantry, Anti-Vehicle Infantry and Anti-Air Infantry), just the cost/effectiveness of them is slightly different).