I don't know in witch section I should post this, so I'll just put it here.
I like RTS games a LOT and I tried to find a modern RTS game.
I found World In Conflict, but it was RTT.
So I decided to make my own modern RTS game. I know it will take a lot of time. I'm thinking about 2-3 years.

The game starts in the beginning of WWI and ends in the present.

What do you think is better?
1. Would you want Age Of Empires style game?

I need your opinion on what you would like to see in the game, both economics (what kind of resources to use, what kind of upgrades) and military part(units, buildings).

2. A mixture of Government Simulation and RTS?
You build a few types of cities, those cities are controlled by AI, how well the city does has some randomness and the resources you get depend on the area. You are in charge of placing new cities (where you place them, how many) and military bases, the amount of units you make, taxes, declaring wars, trading needed materials.

Please tell me your opinion.


[Edited by - Mtuntid on November 21, 2010 11:18:33 AM]

People make a career out of sharing their opinions. They are called designers and consultants.

What I think would be a great RTS game is something without a fixed set of unit types. Units should be made of components based on whatever tech advances a race/team/army creates, and thus units should be able to be different each time the game is played, depending on how the player chooses to develop his race. They should be open ended.

As for your question, I think government sim is better. I like the idea of building a hierarchical command structure where the player starts out as the only participant and remains at the top as the all seeing eye. But I don't believe in micro-managing during gameplay. I think somehow the player should be able to influence a logistics AI engine that controls the specific use of resources, and the player merely adjusts that balance.

Like maybe have a map of the whole scenario, and overlayed is an 'intent' grid where the player selects areas and adjusts sliders for that area to indicate what he intends to have occur on that area of the map, and what priority it should be at. This would start small around his base and expand to map as his army and population grows.

The world should wrap-around too. Either as a sphere, or just wrap-around in X/Y.

As for WWI, I stopped being a fan of realism and/or simulating real scenarios when I realized that it murders raw creativity, and thus leaves the developer unfulfilled by robbing them of the opportunity to explore what could have been a project with limitless options for expressing their ideas with.

It takes a lot of time and energy to develop something realistic. Time and energy that could have been spent on focusing on making a game more novel and interesting.

Everyone learns their own way what is a good idea to work on. If you haven't worked on much at all, you'll learn from this project, whether or not you finish it. The trick is realizing that unless you can do all the gfx/sound/code yourself, you will get bored and think of something more fun to work on.

Original post by radioteeth

Quote:

Original post by radioteeth As for WWI, I stopped being a fan of realism and/or simulating real scenarios when I realized that it murders raw creativity, and thus leaves the developer unfulfilled by robbing them of the opportunity to explore what could have been a project with limitless options for expressing their ideas with.

I wouldn't make scenarios. I want to make it time specific, since I am bored of the science fiction and fantasy RTS. I also got bored of playing RTS where you are far back in time. I want to play modern RTS for once.

Quote:

Original post by Mtuntid I don't know in witch section I should post this, so I'll just put it here. I like RTS games a LOT and I tried to find a modern RTS game. I found World In Conflict, but it was RTT. So I decided to make my own modern RTS game. I know it will take a lot of time. I'm thinking about 2-3 years. The game starts in the beginning of WWI and ends in the present. What do you think is better? 1. Would you want Age Of Empires style game? I need your opinion on what you would like to see in the game, both economics (what kind of resources to use, what kind of upgrades) and military part(units, buildings). 2. A mixture of Government Simulation and RTS? You build a few types of cities, those cities are controlled by AI, how well the city does has some randomness and the resources you get depend on the area. You are in charge of placing new cities (where you place them, how many) and military bases, the amount of units you make, taxes, declaring wars, trading needed materials. Please tell me your opinion.

How many video games have you made before? You might want to start smaller then starting with a full-fledged RTS game.

Moving you to Game Design.

Quote:

Original post by dantheman3633 How many video games have you made before? You might want to start smaller then starting with a full-fledged RTS game.

I have made a few smaller games, but not such a large project. This one will be easier to create because it is NOT going to have AMAZING graphics. :D

And this game won't include opponent AI in the beginning.

Quote:

Original post by Mtuntid Quote: Original post by dantheman3633 How many video games have you made before? You might want to start smaller then starting with a full-fledged RTS game. I have made a few smaller games, but not such a large project. This one will be easier to create because it is NOT going to have AMAZING graphics. :D And this game won't include opponent AI in the beginning.

Unlike simple First Person Shooters, Programming the Gameplay will be a far bigger headache than the graphics :D

I was kind of hoping that the next Total War game would have gone from the British Imperial era into the first, second world wars (the latter of which may never even happen!) and beyond into the future. It would have been quite the departure for the series in many aspects, but otherwise would have proven to be one hell of a more interesting game with the dramatic emphasis on technological advancement :)