RTS

Real Time Strategy games call upon the quick thinking and foresight of their players- developing their ability to problem solve and adapt to situations. I have been a player of RTS games as my PC preferred genre. Others will talk about the depth of World of Warcraft- whereas I still would prefer to play Warcraft 3. It also appears that I am not the only one, with RTS games taking a key culture position in various Asian Cultures, specifically South Korea. Is it the fact that you are playing a God like position able to command so many people (units, orks, elves, depending on the game) when we have such a limited amount of control in our own lives? Or is it that you are able to indulge in violence in a more complex than Lemming explosion button kind of way.

Command and Conquer (and its spin off series Red Alert), Age of Empires, Star/War Craft have been the commanding title series for quite some time- and with good reason they offer immerse game play, story lines that range from acceptable to epic, and near unlimited multiplayer repeat gaming. While playing over a LAN connection with some friends in a unit one time, I found that some people just are not suited to this type of game. As my club men bore down upon his puny peons, I was greeted with the message- 'Hey stop attacking my little men'. Some people make a little too much connection to their little people, and in games like this that often leads to assured defeat.

Total Annihilation which was released in the nineties was also a good game- sure you could only play as one of two fairly similar factions but the graphics were way ahead of its time, and it also implemented a resource system that basically did away with the often annoying babysitting requirement of making sure your weak peon units were mining/chopping or gathering. In a lot of games to gain a sense of realism this was required- because you need food, gold, wood and stone to not only feed your people but construct buildings (Age of Empires or War Craft would be a good example of this). But in Total Annihilation the whole army was basically robots, so all you needed was energy- this allowed the player to focus on the draw of real time strategy for most players- combat. Also you did not have to focus on up leveling through ages, you just had to follow the build order to build up to the next level- allowing for people to gain advanced units without the need to save as desperately as required in normal RTS games. Although the two factions were rather similar they did have some different units- I especially liked the Peewee. It was an early unit, but it had a rapid fire action and if you had enough it sort of slowed down the units it was shooting because of their rapid fire. Also a feature that I have not seen recently is that it had the whole gamut of war covered; land, air and sea outside of Empire and C&C. If you were good enough your air fights could also resemble actual air fights because the planes had to continually move and, if timed right you could actually dodge incoming missiles.

More recently this moved me onto Dawn of War from Relic that was based on the lucrative Warhammer 40K franchise. It brought about some of the features that were brought together in Total Annihilation, but it had distinctly different factions and allowed for the already expansive universe to be explored by a new audience. In the coming posts I will explore the various factions and my opinions on them.

Key tips for budding RTS players;

1. If you are playing a game that requires the gathering of resources make sure you do the following;
- Look after them! It will be one of your goals and that of the opposing human player to disrupt your resource income- for without income there is no outcome; ie units to fight.
- Also know where the next batch of resources is- so that you can gradually send units to gather from that before the current lot runs out, because you want to keep a good inflow of resources.

2. If you are not saving for a tech or level upgrade be spending you resources- even if it is on more units. Also consider whether another batch of units will be more helpful than just an upgrade.

3. Use counter units. In most games there is a rather simple format for countering units in most games and it is up to you to read and test.

4. If a unit can be saved do it, usually repairing/healing a damaged unit is cheaper than purchasing a new unit.

5. Scout early, and scout often. You want to know where the resources are, and where your enemy is.

6. If you are in a game with a hero unit (more recent games) use them to provide support to your other units- they are not a one man army.

7. If your enemy is spamming a certain unit- see if there specific counters. Remember in most games a nice combination of units is more adaptable than those that are not.

8. Most factions have a specific play style, try testing them all out to see which suits you best.

9. If the game allows for options to win other than annihilation (destroy everything of your opponent), try to win through this method- it will often be a cheaper/shorter campaign and you will not invoke a flame war from your opponent.

10. Have fun, if you are not perhaps a different style of game is more up your ally.

Dale Stam