I created this thread because I want to get a general idea of what gamers and designers both believe could be added to Real Time Strategies set in a Fantasy setting. I'm looking for anything ranging from unit types, landscapes, types of battle map, etc... So if you think your idea is too obscure or bogus, it's not! My friends and I have been working on a project for quite some time now and are finally ready to start putting something substantial together. Your input would be greatly appreciated, and eventually reciprocated with what we've put together! Thanks in advance, HunterCyprus

Well, this may not be related to your post, but I wanted to say this for a long time now.

Warcraft Series borrowed a lot(more than 50%) of it's spell and ability ideas from D&D. And my friend keep telling me Warcraft is not D&D...How can it not be D&D if there's the Boot of Elven Kind, Boot of Speed, and Boot of Giant Strength? They are exactly the same name and ability in the 2 games.

Ok, now this part is relative to your post.
If Warcraft can do this, so can you! Get your ideas from D&D and use them as you wish!

@Lightblade - But is D&D an RTS? You control one unit (unless your the dm) and it really is an RPG. Also, the world in Warcraft is very different than those in D&D. Warcraft plays nothing like a D&D game (both PnP and, say, Neverwinter Nights). Thats like saying that there is a BFG and demons in Sacred (an RPG), so it must be a Doom-clone.

@OP - Stories can really be added to an RTS. Check out Warcraft III and AoE III for examples. Alot of games have pretty minimal stories, and this isn't good. Stories add alot to the game.

All games need to be original in order to be successful...

None of the sequel of a game are more successful than it's predecessor.
Originality comes from the world itself, including artwork and design.

For example, spiders had appeared in Fantasy RPG over and over again. Ok! We get it! Spiders are disgusting vermins, can't we use some other disgusting vermins other than spiders? Like cockroaches and centipedes or maybe giant cockroaches and centipedes?

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Original post by lightblade For example, spiders had appeared in Fantasy RPG over and over again. Ok! We get it! Spiders are disgusting vermins, can't we use some other disgusting vermins other than spiders? Like cockroaches and centipedes or maybe giant cockroaches and centipedes?

Cockcroaches and centipedes aren't original... heck they've been used a lot in RPGs... Just to name two: Breath of Fire and Final Fantasy.

The FIRST FF had centipedes.

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Get your ideas from D&D

...won't this just perpetuate the hum-drum, cliche EGOD (I think I got that acronym right -- "elves, goblins, ogre and dwarves" or something similar is what I'm after here) status quo?

I don't fancy myself a designer, and I don't mean to suggest the impossible (that you come up with a "truly unique" idea that nobody can possibly draw a connection to), but please... the fewer lithe, haughty elves and stout, bearded dwarves a fantasy game has, the better, in my opinion. At least for a while, until nobody's using them anymore.

There's an idea I've been toying with; that you don't simply click a button on a building to generate units, but instead you specify roles for your existing units. That's worded poorly, let me explain.

You start the game with a few specialized Builders, who can make and repair structures. They make a House. The House is the only structure which can generate units, they generate simple Citizens. Citizens require lodging though, so if you want more than a few Citizens, you'll have to build more Houses to support them. Citizens (and all your units) also require food, so you build a Farm. But the farm won't produce anything until you assign a Citizen to it, at which point that unit become a specialized Farmer. You also want an army, so you build a Barracks. You can then send groups of Citizens inside the Barracks to train, and out come your new Soldiers.

It's all about using the Citizens you've generated to fill your necessary roles. But not all Citizens need to be converted to something else. Citizens left to their own devices will wander around your town and be assumed to be living out their lives. That means making and spending money, which helps your economy in the form of taxes. So, the more free-willed Citizens you have, the stronger your economy.

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Original post by Veovis There's an idea I've been toying with; that you don't simply click a button on a building to generate units, but instead you specify roles for your existing units. That's worded poorly, let me explain. You start the game with a few specialized Builders, who can make and repair structures. They make a House. The House is the only structure which can generate units, they generate simple Citizens. Citizens require lodging though, so if you want more than a few Citizens, you'll have to build more Houses to support them. Citizens (and all your units) also require food, so you build a Farm. But the farm won't produce anything until you assign a Citizen to it, at which point that unit become a specialized Farmer. You also want an army, so you build a Barracks. You can then send groups of Citizens inside the Barracks to train, and out come your new Soldiers. It's all about using the Citizens you've generated to fill your necessary roles. But not all Citizens need to be converted to something else. Citizens left to their own devices will wander around your town and be assumed to be living out their lives. That means making and spending money, which helps your economy in the form of taxes. So, the more free-willed Citizens you have, the stronger your economy.

Thats a pretty cool idea

You should play Stronghold. It's medieval, rather than fantasy, but you get townsfolk, and you have them become farmers and hunters and bakers and millers and brewers and innkeepers, and they go about their business until your population and tech reach a point where you can quarry stone and smith metal and such. Then you start training soldiers, and building forts, and finally an actual castle with catapults and whatnot. I had this one guy (they've all got names and you can follow their careers) who was a baker, but when TSHTF I called him up for military duty and he kicked a ridiculous amount of asses. Then he just went back to his bakery and made bread. He was awesome. Every battle he killed five or six guys.

That game sucked though. There's a reason you don't actually attack castles. You suffer like 40%-80% casualties, and always lose. Then you go back to your crippled economy and mope.

Take a look at Majesty for a neato fantasy world. Individual units actually adventure, like a player would in an RPG. They go out and kill mobs, then spend their money on weapon upgrades and healing potions. It's a much smoother experience, and quite fun, although you can't control the units directly.

One aspect of medieval warfare and economy that is rarly seen in games is that of supply lines. Curently in the games you can harvest resources in one location (say near you main base) and then take 1 unit over near the enemy base and start a new base useing the resources located in your main base.

If you made it so that resources need to be transported (automaticaly?) to the building that was useing them (for construation of the building or the production of a unit), this could add a bit more strategy to the game. Having supply lines to individual units would get too fiddely to manage (even if done automaticaly) so individual units weould not have this (but you may be ok to impliment it for hero units).

Another aspect that might work well in a fanatasy setting is to have combined arms. This would allow a group of units to fight with complimentary weapons. An example would be that units with long weapons (pikes, etc) would be behind the units with shorter reach weapons so that all of them could attack (where as if the short reach weapon units were in the back then they couldn't attack). This is what makes flanking a squad effective as not all the troops could attack.