Looking for a real good RTS!

[cairnswm]

Hmm... has anyone considered making an RTS project?

It would be somewhat easier to complete than say something like an RPG or something else with a ton of required content.

We've had Shooters, Platformers, Scrollers, RPGs galore, Racing, a Sim RPG project somewhere in there, puzzle galore, etc and so on... but I don't think we've had an RTS. At least one that was completed.

I wrote an RTS for one of my early 48 hour contest entries. But it certainly doesn't fit into the 'Good' category You play the white blood cells in the body protecting it from a horde of invading germs.

http://www.cairnsgames.co.za/blog/RTVS-Post.zip

[WILL]

Ah! I guess I forgot about your game William.

But wasn't it about fairy city building or something? Aimed at young kids obviously...

Still it's not as widely accessable to those that would want a full RTS game no. Doesn't mean it's not 'good', just not 100% within the usual RTS audience's targeted game spectrum.


As for if it were easier to make an RPG... no way man! Think of all the custom made art and content you'd need for an RPG. It's by far the largest amount of work for any project you try to do. [size=9px](Unless the content is really that low. Then as an RPG the game probably sucks, story-wise.)[/size]

I think RTS would be way easier. Balancing is more or less a matter or planning ahead or doing the math/numbers and weighing them out in a planned format before you commit to it in code. All you'd have to do then is make minor tweaks here and there where one factor is a bit more heavy then where it would seem on paper.

So really it's far easier to toggle a range, speed or a damage count than get an artist to create X amount of characters with Y amount of animations just to fill up a village because you need this location in your story. Besides, you'd have to balance your RPG as well, right?

[pstudio]

I think RTS would be way easier. Balancing is more or less a matter or planning ahead or doing the math/numbers and weighing them out in a planned format before you commit to it in code. All you'd have to do then is make minor tweaks here and there where one factor is a bit more heavy then where it would seem on paper.

You make it sound to easy imo. The coding aspect may not be that hard but that is only one part of making a RTS. Making a balanced RTS with +20 units, +10 buildings, which could be considered a small RTS, would take many days/months/years to get balanced just right. Unless you're extremely lucky you'll have to be prepared to work hard on getting a balanced game. If a unit just give 2 hitpoints to much in damage it can change everything in the game and make it to hard/easy.

I've always wanted to make a game like Red Alert and I hope to do it someday, but it's such a big project that it's hard to get started with it stay motivated for the whole project.

[WILL]

Well I don't think it would be so easy, but compared to an RPG definately not.

However the time to properly balance the game would depend on the amount of play testing you are able to get feedback on. But yeah, the more unique units each race/faction and the total number of races/factions you have would of course increase the extra balancing required.

Overall, I think it would depend on the complexity of the RTS in question. So yes, it could take quite a while to get all of that in order, but no where near as long as it would take to put together an RPG of similar complexity. If you could even compare the two that way.

[cairnswm]

Ah! I guess I forgot about your game William.

But wasn't it about fairy city building or something? Aimed at young kids obviously...

Thats one I started but never got that far with.

Actually the game was called Real Time Viral Strategy - the theme of the contest was desease or Virus or something. You control the white blood cells attacking germs

[Robert Kosek]

Hmm... has anyone considered making an RTS project?

Yup. But it takes mountains of artwork I can't even get, though maybe I could get something really basic out the door.

[pstudio]

Hmm... has anyone considered making an RTS project?

It sounds like a PGD community project

[arthurprs]

Hmm... has anyone considered making an RTS project?

Yup. But it takes mountains of artwork I can't even get, though maybe I could get something really basic out the door.

Art and sound is the worst part of a project in my opnion

[pstudio]

Hmm... has anyone considered making an RTS project?

Yup. But it takes mountains of artwork I can't even get, though maybe I could get something really basic out the door.

Art and sound is the worst part of a project in my opnion

And that's probably why you're a programmer
It's the same for me, and when reading different fora it seems to be a general problem for most programmers.
Ofcourse there exists pogrammers with an artistic skill (or artists with programming skills) but I think they make a small minority.

Luckily for us non-artists their exists many free resources to use in our games (at least as temporarily gfx.) :mrgreen:

[WILL]

Hmm... has anyone considered making an RTS project?

It sounds like a PGD community project

Well I've counted at least 3 people that had an interest right here.

Why doesn't one of you organize something? Thats how the DGDev Team got started.

If nothing else, you could make a basic RTS so the end goal is more attainable. You could also give out the source so that others might have a basic platform to build off of in the future.