SW: Next RTS: Military

[FroZticles]

I made this thread just to start a conversation about what us forum junkies would love to see in the next RTS gameplay wise.

 

Many of the new RTS are not thinking the military a hundreds of singles of units but as batallions. I love this format and would love if they used it.

 

Pop Limit is another big issue with graphics being updated with every new game and the boundaries of computers being stretched. You are seeing you are commanding smaller and smaller armies. The new SW RTS needs to find a balance between something that looks great on screen but does not take that epic feel when you have hundreds of clones or droids fighting at your side.

 

Just some things I wanted to throw out there....

[swphreak]

I want unit sizes to be right. ATATs must tower over tanks and soldiers.

 

As for poplimit. Meh, 250 seems to be working... but with today's technology, it could probbaly be doubled.

[saberhagen]

I'd rather have a bigger pop cap than have nice graphics. As long as the graphics are functional I'm happy, but I realise that the rest fo the market is against me there, so it's not going to happen.

 

otoh it is possible for the game to get too big. I've tried playing Cossacks, and even with the ability to organise your troops into battalions, it does my head in. I think that's also partly because of the overcomplicated resource system (no-one needs 6 resources!) and tedious upgrade paths, and the significant but hard to remember differences between the civs, but the sheer scale of the game always bewildered me.

[Darth Windu]

Well in terms of pop cap and whatnot, it depends on the sort of scale you want. For example, I was given 'Medieval: Total War' for my birthday, and in that you can have 10,000 soldiers in one battle. But on a scale such as in SW: GBG it would be impossible.

 

Frankly, i would prefer a scale a big bigger than GBG, sort of a RoN scale, but also have the ability to fight inside cities in campaigns, like GBG.

[DK_Viceroy]

I'd like a vairable Pop limit that could essentially be open ended you'd just have to invest in whatever form of Pop creators that side might have since I doubt they'll be sticking with pre-fabs for the Confederacy they might have something like Control points where Control Points equates to how much computing power you have to operate droids. you could also pick Max pop in games that would be best like we have now really except with larger pop caps maybe 30 000.

[lukeiamyourdad]

You can field thousands of units in Rome:Total War. I don't see how we couldn't do the same.

[FroZticles]

I feel they are minimising the economy in most new RTS to make for a more military scale game which is what its all about. I feel that for there to be tens of thousands of units graphics would have to be really basic and not detailed that much at all.

[DK_Viceroy]

well they should only be detailed if you zoom in and Economy shouldn't be simplified ala BFME it's a bad idea.

[Darth Windu]

Well i agree with the simplified economy and more focus on military - after all, that is what my template is based on and you all attacked.

 

Anyway, it should definately be a smaller scale then the 'Total War' series, although a few thousand clones fighting a few thousand battle droids would be cool. I still think a scale a bit larger (more epic) than GBG would be ideal.

[DK_Viceroy]

We all attacked it for good reason. It was the template that most resembled a Frankenstein in the entire forum's since it was completly made up of elements "borrowed" from other RTS's.

 

Economy shouldn't be simplified it should have more depth to it so that you need more skill to master the game effectively.

 

It should be on an epic scale perhaps with a pop limit above 30 000

[FroZticles]

30,000 is way to much I was thinking 500-1000. I don't want super scale battles for a 30k pop limit, battalions would be 100 or more and could you imagine the lag!!! Could you try and micro those armies cause I sure as hell couldn't.

[DK_Viceroy]

yeah but you could slect that Maximum pop limit for beter performance while 30 000 being the maximum.

 

Try Empires dawn of the Modern World and you'll see that works pretty well with that sort of limit and you could get Micro done you'd just have to gut the hand of Ctrl+ number for teams

[FroZticles]

Empires is dead even more dead than SWGB it died quicker and only lasted about 2 months online. I think the same storyline and game concept really killed this game. Now its nothing but a dust collector in many RTS fans rooms.

[DK_Viceroy]

But it did have some good Ideas like wonders actually being useful apart from victory conditions and such a huge pop limit.

[Darth Windu]

In this case, i agree with FroZ. The pop cap shouldnt be any more than 1000, and 500 would be much better. The way to give a more 'epic' feel is to use the RoN system of having each infantry unit represented by three 'icons'.

[DK_Viceroy]

please explain this system for those who read RoN was craptacular and didn't bother buying it.

 

I think we should do away with a pop cap and have it similar to Generals in that respect.

[lukeiamyourdad]

Yes and having it in pseudo 3D like RoN.

 

Yay...

 

Infantry units are now built in squads. We could have squads that move as one. Pop cap could still be 500, each infantry unit in the squd representing 1 pop.

[DK_Viceroy]

I'm personally against the idea of squads but I will concde it fits perfectly into the Star Wars Universe however all infantry shouldn't be built int squads since Commando's require Micro and Squads to my knowledge eliminate most of this.

 

I think there should be a pop cap of at least 5,000

[lukeiamyourdad]

Not really. You can have a commando of several different units and have them individually selectable.

 

For large scale battles with huge armies, squads are the way to go. It can get quite chaotic and squads help partly reduce the microing in those situations.

[DK_Viceroy]

I already said that I concede that they would work Perfectly for the star wars universe so I'm not debating it, I just never really liked the idea of squads in the sense that it can only be controlled as a unit not controlling what makes up the unit.

[Majin Boba Fett]

I'd like to be able to build citites (or in this case, bases) kinda like in RoN. I'd also like to have political/military units such as govenors, generals, and such. I'd like to be able to add customizations to my civ. Let me explain. By making my own custom design or whatever, I can then place it on the side of my units. A totally uneccasary yet neat option. I too would like batalions. I'd also, somehow, like to have a bit more attachment to my troops. For example, instead of sending them in to die like slaves, I'd rather they improve with battle and help out your civ by bonuses and such. To prevent people abusing the bonuses, I'd like to see some kind of method, perhaps "battle mode", when your civ is in battle. Note: the civ is kinda constantly at war, hence you fight a war one battle at a time. My ideas my be shotty, as usual, but I like them. You may begin critizing, flaming, attacking, and destroying my post now.

[FroZticles]

I guess you could have some of those spanning over a few games.....

[DK_Viceroy]

I don't think a political side should come into this maybe in an RTS that focuses mainly on space while the one we're hoping for will be focusing on ground with consdierable space elements.

 

It's a good idea but it'd propably work best on a satr warsy version of Imperium Galactica 2

[Darth Windu]

I disagree about cities and whatnot. Star Wars really isnt about city building, but combat. RoN has city building precisely because your are supposed to be building a 'Nation', which is not the same as in a Star Wars RTS.

[DK_Viceroy]

Did you ACTUALLY bother to PROPERLY read his post he said in this case BASES not cities.