Real Time Strategy

I couldn't find a thread for this, so forgive me if one already exists.

Anyways, RTSes have always been a favorite videogame genre for me, despite me never really being much good at them and not really playing much of them lately (Little Kings Story non-withstanding). I remember at one point as a kid at the needier of my obsession, I made up a Warcraft III racial tech tree!

I have been watching a lot of Star Craft II matches, and I can't wait to see how pro-players will use the new Heart of the Swarm additions.

I don't mind RT Ses, although I'm not at all great at them. I always get stomped on multiplayer, and usually against the computer, too. I know what the problem is, and there's not a lot to help it, I fear. I'm skilled at the hybrid games like Total War or Real Time with pauses that you can use to give orders, but when everything's coming at me at once my brain slows down and I can't concentrate.

Oh man, I totally hear you. Could only ever deal with easy computers on Age Of Empires, Age Of Mythology, Empire Earth, Star Craft, Warcraft III, etc. Yet I still found myself bizarrely obsessed with dreaming up ideas of them as a kid with the whole Faction Calculus, Tech Tree design, Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors elements, etc.

I think I'd be better suited to playing something like {{Civilization.}}

I wonder if any RTS players have played Achron or not...that's the whole new venture of strategy right there...

I've heard of Archon. While it does seem fascinating, especially seeing something like time-altering mechanics in an RTS, my anal-retentive side is annoyed about how they portray time-travel in the demos. Ah well. I'd also say it looks pretty out of my league.

What I'd personally like to see is more Genre-Busting RTSes. And have there been any more RTSes like Populous The Beginning that give you a sphere (or other non-flat surface, for that matter) to play on and terrain alteration? I remember once while playing the campaign I was too scared to face my computer opponent's front door, so I made a land bridge all around the other side of the planet to attack him from the back.

I suck at them, but do like them. I never do multiplayer though.

Command And Conquer has always been my favourite, currently trying to do every campaign on Hard Mode for all games in the series. Not gonna happen! Still, I've just about done Tiberian Sun, and I managed it with Red Alert. Tiberian Sun is causing me issues at the very end of GDI's campaign, though Nod was no issue, nor was GDI before this damn mission. Specifically, it's issues with the first base you have to destroy, since the only bridge access is walled with Artillery. Managed to take out the first target with the Ion Cannon, scouted with Jump Jet Infantry. I'll massacre the base later.

Reckon I can take the 2nd base with a giant Titan army, might even try and capture this one for a forward position. The second actual target is much easier, but I'm not sure if I need to destroy both the second and third targets within the same hour. If so, I can presumably just try and scout out the third and blow it with the Ion Cannon, since the second falls with the second base. If not, I can take my time.

Which mission are you on? I'm guessing it's Cairo since you're describing targets isolated by islands and being able to use the Ion Cannon. If so, the way I did that one was with Orca bombers and carryalls lifting the older model Mammoths into the enemy base. The area is pretty tight and AA missile turrets are all over the place, but that's why I bombed their power stations first. Once the power is down, that means no more Obelisks or turrets to worry about, just the factories and defending units!

Also, try patching the game, if possible. That should end up nerfing Nod's artillery into something more reasonable, as well as buffing the Ghost stalker, Orca Bomber, and Mammoth Mk II.

Oh it was already patched, TFD version. Vanilla Tiberian Sun leaves artillery un-nerfed, even when patched - it was the Firestorm expansion that brought them down. One of the most badly needed nerfs in video game history, considering they could kill Titans in two hits.

I managed to win the mission without too much trouble actually, after a few restarts to get my bearings, because the Ion Cannon one-shots the targets. Hover MLRS's locate them easily, and once the three main targets are gone, you can take your time. 15 MLRS's was how I took down the only two bases which are a serious threat, the first and second. In the first case, I sent them right along the top edge of the map, using the Ion Cannon to hit the artillery along the north edge by the silos. I then used the Mk 1 Mammoths as bait while the Hover Tanks flew into the base and removed the Construction Yard (which I hit with my next Ion Cannon strike, the War Factory and the target.

For the second, I again used a dozen Hover Tanks, carefully manoeuvred to the south east edge of the temple island. From there, I hit the SE corner, and moved them carefully along the southern edge of the map. I again Ion Cannoned the Con Yard and destroyed it, the War Factory, Hand of Nod and the target, successfully getting almost all of them back out alive. They waited at the South East corner of the temple island, destroying the SAM Sites which confirmed my suspicions - the Temple Island is a part of the 2nd base, thus that attack removed the enemy capacity to launch Cluster Missiles at me when I twice Ion Cannoned the Missile Silo on the north of the island.

The third target is on and island, and, yet again, the Hover Tanks locate it and the Ion Cannon destroys it. Attrition and a wave of tanks easily wiped out the remainder of the enemy there!

I haven't had one for awhile. I suppose if I did pick up a real time strategy game in the near future it would be Dungeon Keeper, Evil Genius, Battalion Wars or Pikmin. I'm amused to see Star Craft 2 came out when it did. I would have jumped on that, when I was nine.

Odd. In the game files neither the [155mm] (Nod Artillery weapon) nor the [MMCH] (Titan) meant a 2 hit kill even with the 0.8 health multiplier in play on Hard settings.

4-6 hits is possible on Hard but 2 is supposed to be impossible without the Titan taking previous damage.

"I've heard of Archon. While it does seem fascinating, especially seeing something like time-altering mechanics in an RTS, my anal-retentive side is annoyed about how they portray time-travel in the demos."

Why does it annoy you? I play Achron a lot, and one of the things I like most about it is how consistent the system is.

I played a fair few RTS games before Achron, but it's the only one where I got into mutiplayer. Mainly because you don't need to deal with everything happening at once. If you slip up on your macro while defending yourself from an attack, you can just go back and do it right. The game actually rewards slower, well thought out actions rather than insane reflexes.

edited 19th Jun '12 11:46:40 PM by Kytin

Re Nerf: The patch actually nerfs the artillery in vanilla Tiberian Sun, but only in multiplayer.

The same happened to Blizzard's Warcraft III: Patches didn't affect the single-player campaigns, because they were pre-balanced for unpatched rules and it would unbalance them; expansions released after the patch use the new rules.

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. What a pity they didn't stick to that with Tiberium Wars - the controversial economy nerf in 1.07 is singularly responsible for a lot of the difficulty of the campaigns.

A couple of the missions are almost impossible now, espeically in the Nod campaign. Funny thing is, before release the EALA team said that they would separate the campaign from the patches to prevent that from happening...

Yup, doing something like Kane's Tower is ridiculously hard on Normal, and very, very loseable even on easy. Croatia is winnable on Hard, but basically forces Sequence Breaking to do it, as holding out against all three bases is nigh-impossible on a half economy. Pre-economy nerf, that wasn't necessary, only an option.