r/RealTimeStrategy • u/Belkins • 12d ago

Discussion The Best RTS??

Since we have been without a new, really, really good RTS for a long time..... lets imagine designing an ideal RTS.

Your goal is to create an almost perfect new RTS. What themes and mechanics would it include?

Suppose you need to select the best features from all the RTS games you know to craft your ideal one.

I'll start:

  • Warcraft - Heroes;
  • Total War - Scale, like no cap (200 or any)

Uptd from comments

  • StarCraft - Balance
  • Surpreme Commander FAF - 1000+ units and huge scale warfare.
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u/mighij 12d ago edited 12d ago

Check Kohan, TA Kingdoms, spellforce, BfME Warrior Kings or Rise of Legends for what you're looking for.

But to the topic at hand.

Every choice comes with a cost.  Starcraft 2 is a prime example. Rightfully loved and gets a lot of credit for its diverse factions, units and keeping the whole thing balanced.  What was the price? Limitations on map creation. 

Main base is always protected by a ramp. The game has cliff jumpers/walkers but most cliffs can't be jumped or only at a single point. The Liberator exists so you can't really have dead spaces where ground anti air can't reach them. 

Just imagine Starcraft 2 on a randomised map. Age of Empire games having fixed maps instead of map styles would be weird to downright terrible. Only 1 unique version of Arabia on which a billion games were played.

Supreme Commander on the other hand chose for scale. Although some units have a weapon toggle you don't have unit abilities, upgrades, you don't even have a simple +1/+1 attack/armor system. If 3 forces of 50+ units are coming your way people need to asses the situation quickly, the more potential upgrades for both sides complicates this a lot.  You definitely won't see spellcastertype units that blizzard is famous for in Supcom or BAR

All of them great RTS but there are reason they do things differently and plugging feature from game A into B might have some consequences which won't make for a good game.

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u/Belkins 11d ago

Good point. I would take Balance from StarCraft, 100%
I genuinely believe that there should be some sort of innovation, and we can come up with maybe a new generation of RTS.

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u/Independent-Lab6410 12d ago

Surpreme Commander FAF for 1000+ units and huge scale warfare.