Another factor that people expect is locational bonuses. For example, a unit on a hill takes less damage and/or deals more damage than lower units. This tends to come out only in games between good players, but it is nonetheless quite significant on a psychological level.

Along the same vein, map clutter actually tends to play a very important part in RTS games, both as atmospheric flavour and as hiding points for units without cloak abilities. Again, tends to factor mainly into high-level matches, but the effect is quite definitely extant.


Much better foxholing systems are needed, as well. Homeworld is a standout example to my mind.

[edit]
That is to say, a standout example of a game which needed foxholing in some form.
[/exit]

ld

Edited by - liquiddark on February 4, 2002 4:10:35 PM

Notification sounds and mini-map "flashes" for completion of work, arrival of a new unit, warnings, etc.

Also, instant "jump to" the action of a notification using space bar or something.

Dave Mark
Intrinsic Algorithm Development
"Reducing the world to mathematical equations!"

My 2 cents:

Unit Grouping: click-dragging to select a number of different units as well as being able to hotkey them for quick redirection during battles.

Map Warping: The only game that I have played that has this is Starcraft (unless i missed something in the others). Clicking on the minimap will instantly jump you to that location on the map. Very handy when being attacked at multiple locations.

Fog of War: This is a must BUT i believe total blacking out of the map is a bit silly(unless it suits the situation). I hated being on a planet where you live and NOT knowing the terrian around you. This to me just doesn''t make sense. have the whole/part/or none of the map revealed IF it fits the situation ie. you are inside the enemies base and you don''t have the floor plans. I''m not saying you should be able to see the other players movements but at least the lay of the land. Can''t think of any RTS I have played that did this but I know Warcraft 3 is allowing the map maker to do it.

Can''t think of any other elements of RTS''s that fit what you''re looking for(without going into specific types of RTS''s ie space, medival, earth, future).

Hmm, a basic features-list? Well, what I'm listing here actually is what games do not have, although I think they are in a way modifications of what some games have tried to do, or are what I believe are better implementations of what games designers try to simulate

Well, I would recommend the following:

1) Scaleable Unit organization- This would be something along the lines of Kohan, in that you don't just make units piecemeal, but you design individual units around a core of units. Basically you use units as building blocks, not as end fighting units in and of themselves.

2) Command and Control
a. Chain of Command- each base unit of organization has a leader or captain. Orders are issued from the player, to the commander of that organizational unit (let's call it OU from now on, although that gives me the willies from it's M$ networking heritage...but I digress ). Instead of having one little unit that the player controls (or clicks and drags a box on to control), the player really controls and gives orders to the commander of the unit, who in turn controls the OU. This chain of command goes from the highest level Army and Corp commanders, all the way down to the Lieutenants in charge of platoons.

b. Command Interface- This is a pseudo scriptable interface that the player can give rudimentary "game logic" for the commander's AI to use. Depending on the rank of the officer to which he is interfacing with, certain routines or events may or may not be possible (for example, the ability to call in for artillery of air strikes without the player's intervention). I guess you can think of the officers as a class that inherits from the base class Commander. Then you can specialize the interfaces that particular officer objects have, which in turn control the behavior (i.e. methods) that can give "orders" to the OU. The player's pseudo-scripting will essentially allow the player to access these interfaces and potentially even methods of the officers, although they can not alter the base class. I suppose it could be possible to make major officers almost like the avatars in Black and White, but with more initial intelligence.

c. Communication and Intelligence- Instead of the player having a magical connection to every OU that makes the orders go through 100% of the time, orders must make it to their commanders effectively. I propose having an "avatar" that represents YOU the player. It can be a mobile command bunker, a general on a horse or whatever. But this represents your ability to actually send orders to your subordinate officers. Depending on technology, the visibility of the battlefield will be known to you only through what your AVATAR has access to. So, even if say for example, you have a Reconnaissance unit out patrolling, that scout unit only "sees" for it's commanding officer. Once your Avatar "communicates" with this commanding officer, then you "see" what the reconnaissance unit sees. Think of it like each OU is a node on a circuit board (or network). These nodes are unconnected until you purposefully make a link. So you the player through your avatar may not know exactly what's going on, but the OU's commander, and his superior commander will know. And this reflects back on point a) and b). How smart are your AI commanders, and will they tell you this information in time? Will they react appropriately? This makes intelligence gathering and communication links incredibly important. Who cares if you sent off your great Army if you can't effectively communicate with them?

3) Seperate Resource Building and Warfare- Resource management should be handled on a different time scale than combat, or should be handled by "wizards" that take into consideration the players overriding goals. RTS's try to simulate that a commander has to worry about logistics and fueling his army, but in the real world, a nation has it's generals, and it has its politicians. Trying to have the two together invites trouble
4) Supply lines and Logistics- Speaking of which, units should not be able to last indefinately on their own unless they are highly specialized units. Units begin to lose their efficiency and or mobility depending on how far they are from resupply. This can be implemented as a variable within the unit object type that determines how long it can go without resupply, and how much maintenance and upkeep it needs. Can also factor into morale

5) Morale- Wow, one segue right into the other Commanders give orders to their units, but that doesn't mean they will obey. Morale will be determined by damage to the OU, if the leader is good (or even alive), a threat factor (are they facing imminent destruction or is it a cake walk?), and hosts of other factors. Rallying units that have broken or are shaked will be a critical factor in

6) Skilled Human production- It's takes more than just raw materials to produce armies, you have to train the personnel and the leaders for them as well. This includes officers, elite units, crews for vehicles, scientists and other support personnel. Along with raw material resource modeling, there should also be a "people" factor. This will be based on education levels, as well certain other factors.

Hopefully you see a trend in my ideas. It stresses less on the materialistic and individualistic nature of the combat, but rather the human side to it. Can you get your order to your commander? Once the commander gets the order, will the unit obey? Can he rally his troops? Do you have the skilled crews to man the vehicles? How do you organize units to cover their weaknesses rather than send them out piecemeal or as a mob? If my communication links get cut, will my officers be able to fight effectively?

In essence, I'm taking away the "God" view of strategy games, and trying to make the player do what a real battlefield commander would have to do. Even if your avatar dies, it's not the end of the game, you'll assume a new avatar, however, your army as a whole may suffer a huge morale shock, not to mention there will be a time delay where all officers will have to react on their own (i.e. no input from the player).

Edited by - Dauntless on February 4, 2002 12:08:29 AM

Units that can gain limited experience from kills.
Survivors carry over to the next level as veterans.
(credit goes to Myth)

This should be obvious, but I''ve taken games back for lacking this: freeplay skirmish mode. Ability to select map, map size resources, etc.

Also should be obvious, but missing from some games: difficulty setting.

Unit limits for multiplayer and skirmish mode. TA let you limit ALL units. Red Alert let you restrict weapons of mass destruction.

Setting a rally point from buildings. TA let you select multiple queue points, so you could automatically have units follow a path out of the factory. Conquest: Frontier Wars does the same, except over multiple star systems!

Clicking a point on the minimap with unit(s) selected is the same as clicking on the main map (so you can send them across the map without scrolling there).

Orders: Guard, Hold Position, Hold Fire, Return Fire, Free Fire (Total Annihilation). Would love to see this applied to groups, btw, so that GROUP 1 (your fighters) can guard all of GROUP 2 (your bombers).

Queueing convention: Waypoints still visible while you select them, and a line is drawn between each node (TA, not Starcraft grrrrr....).

Queueing convention (patrolling): Selecting first node of waypoint automatically indicates a patrol route (like the polygon creation tool in a paint program, where you click the beginning of your first line to indicate you''re finished drawing).

"Paint" selecting for common, redundant object placement like walls or mines: In C&C and TA, it was irritating to have to specify each wall segment. Better to just paint and drag.


UI: Swap, customize controls. There''s always going to be that lame RTS that reverses the mouse button convention or changes buttons themselves. Why not simply let us select our own settings?




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Just waiting for the mothership...