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Otherworld RTS (Need Ideas for Improvement)

Started by Xanthier Nov 22, 2006 at 12:58 AM 14 replies 2.1k views

Original Post

Nov 22, 2006 at 12:58 AM

I am trying to put together an RTS. Mine is more WC2(2D) in style however, but I had an idea of recruiting, only you can only recruit the villagers you have, which are auto-generated by the town center(the hub of activity and trade) and the amount is dictated by morale of the populous, resources, and the growth stage of your camp. I'm hoping to eliminate rushing this way as well. Gathering resources will be different as well. Any ideas on that are welcome. This game takes place in the jungle. in addition advanced units will not simply be churned out, they must be taken from existing ones that have reached their highest level- then trained. same with warriors from slaves. food must be harvested, it doesn't just come in neat little farms, it goes into a farm(garden) for the workers, to be stored (therefore food fluctuates) and a tax portion is deducted from the populations foodstores for your army. I don't want to say too much more, but I also have a unique idea ( I think) that involves being able to carry on bases/armies from one scenario to the next, and an Idea of a battlemap so you choose which map you enter next. I'm not quite seeking help yet, because my dilemma is choosing the best medium for this game. Either programming from scratch or using an existing engine or game creation software. I had solicited an MMF forum at one time and while I had people who were interested, I was told that RTS is very difficult using that program. Yet someone else recommended the Stratagus engine on Sourceforge.net I ask that the more experienced users give their opinion as to where they think this game would best fit in. If it helps I am a pixel artist/designer and not a programmer, so any programming would require me to seek help, however I'll probably need to do this with a game creator as well. I did post here a while back, I've done more artwork for the game, but not much time other than that. I'm back at it again however, feed back please. Suggestions, reponses, anything, welcome. [Edited by - Xanthier on November 29, 2006 5:52:56 PM]

Captain P

Nov 22, 2006 at 6:05 AM

Quote:
Original post by Xanthier
I don't want to say too much more, but I also have a unique idea ( I think) that involves being able to carry on bases/armies from one scenario to the next, and an Idea of a battlemap so you choose which map you enter next.

Evil Genius and Emperor: Battle for Dune jump to mind. :)

Evil Genius for it's training system and persistent base, Emperor: Battle for Dune for it's battlemap. Though that system frequently occurs in Total War-like games as well. Warzone 2100 had a persistent base as well. Great game for it's time. :)

Anyway, it's going to take a lot of time (and a lot of programming) if you're doing it from scratch, so I'd say using an existing engine is a better option. Nonetheless, I'm afraid that without a programmer you probably won't get this done - there may be RTS creating tools around, but I don't think any of them is as specific as you need.

Xanthier

Nov 22, 2006 at 9:24 AM

Yes I will definitely need a programmer, I'm willing to take on whoever would be willing to help me with this. On your second point, I really need to brush up on the latest RTSs so I know what's out there. The latest game I've played is Warcraft III, however I've wanted to get Emperor: Battle for Dune for some time. For anyone who wants to help me I'm extremely open to new ideas and adjustments to make the game realistically ambitious. In other words, I'm not looking for a bunch of lackeys to help ME make my DREAM GAME. I want creative minds with an oppurtunity to mold a game that will showcase my artwork. I want to make it 2D however, I may try a 3D one in the future, but right now my skills aren't there.
Here is the art I bring to the table.

http://flexiss.net:2095/3rdparty/squirrelmail/src/webmail.php

Once again advice is appreciated and even wanted.

Xanthier

Nov 22, 2006 at 9:28 AM

sorry double post, browser error

Codman

Nov 22, 2006 at 11:13 AM

The link is not working.

Instruo

Nov 22, 2006 at 11:27 AM

You might consider looking at the Torque with the RTS Starter Kit. By nature its 3d and not 2d, but it might give you a leg up in the right direction.

Xanthier

Nov 23, 2006 at 1:10 AM

This should be the right link:

http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newterrainxq8.png

A few others as well

http://img224.imageshack.us/my.php?image=unitsom0.png

http://img182.imageshack.us/my.php?image=jungtilesgi6.png

I'll look into those engines, are they popular enough that I can relatively find help/collaborators to work with me? Can anyone recommend any others that are, or forums to find them. Also curious if anyone is familiar with Stratagus. Is it usually advisable to solicit help while you are still a one-person team? I want to add that I do have much of the units and storyline worked out but everything is flexible at this point.

thanks for the patience, and the answers!

Daniel Miller

Nov 23, 2006 at 10:03 AM

Wow nice artwork

Xanthier

Nov 23, 2006 at 12:19 PM

thanks, I'm hoping someone will want my artwork as much as i need their programming skills.

Xanthier

Nov 29, 2006 at 5:55 PM

I actually found someone, a small company that helps create commercial games using MMF (Multimedia Fusion) those familiar with it may be able to give me tips on how to get the most out of the MMF engine for what I want to do.

Calin

Nov 29, 2006 at 7:14 PM

Quote:
Original post by Instruo
You might consider looking at the Torque with the RTS Starter Kit. By nature its 3d and not 2d, but it might give you a leg up in the right direction.

Torque RTS StarterKit is not the best candidate if you want a full blown RTS:
It has no pathfinding, collision detection and worst of all it doesn't have RTS networking.

Best thing is to either build a RTS from scratch using an existing rendering engine or use an existing open source RTS (there is few of them)

[Edited by - Calin on December 3, 2006 12:14:33 PM]

Xanthier

Nov 29, 2006 at 11:18 PM

Quote:
Original post by Calin
Quote:
Original post by Instruo
You might consider looking at the Torque with the RTS Starter Kit. By nature its 3d and not 2d, but it might give you a leg up in the right direction.

Torque RTS StarterKit is not the best candidate if you want a full blown RTS:
It has no pathfinding, collision detection and worst of all it doesn't have RTS networking.

It's best thing is to either build a RTS from scratch using an existing rendering engine or use an existing open source RTS (there is few of them)

such as Stratagus? i believe that is one.

GrumpyAndTired

Dec 1, 2006 at 5:24 PM

Well, your ideas sound good, implementing them will be a challenge. But try to stick to some of the standard formulas for RTS games like rock-paper-scissors, or like WC3, they have more of an RPG like battle engine. And try to stick to 'normal' keymap bindings. These are the kind of things that gamers will *really* complain about. Alot of games that try to go to far outside the genre just don't get picked up by the gamers because it's just too far out there.

Rock-paper-scissors basically, this is a counter system for combat. If you don't know what it is, it means that every unit has a strength and weakness to some other unit.

Also, how are you going to balance your units? How will you calculate the costs for them? Balance is crucial for an RTS. With bad balance the game will be set aside by the gamers. Many games fail because of bad balance and the company won't patch it. You need a good data scripting system to make tweaking the balance easy.

Xanthier

Dec 1, 2006 at 6:18 PM

Quote:
Original post by GrumpyAndTired
Well, your ideas sound good, implementing them will be a challenge. But try to stick to some of the standard formulas for RTS games like rock-paper-scissors, or like WC3, they have more of an RPG like battle engine. And try to stick to 'normal' keymap bindings. These are the kind of things that gamers will *really* complain about. Alot of games that try to go to far outside the genre just don't get picked up by the gamers because it's just too far out there.

Rock-paper-scissors basically, this is a counter system for combat. If you don't know what it is, it means that every unit has a strength and weakness to some other unit.

Also, how are you going to balance your units? How will you calculate the costs for them? Balance is crucial for an RTS. With bad balance the game will be set aside by the gamers. Many games fail because of bad balance and the company won't patch it. You need a good data scripting system to make tweaking the balance easy.

Yes it won't stretch the boundaries too much, just enough to hopefully spice things up. I'm familiar with r-p-s, it will still have a lot of that.

I assume by your last statement you mean that unit stats can be easily modified for fine tunings and stat overhauls. I think balance is something that is hard to achieve in concept, it takes extensive testing before you really know how it's all going to work. I hope to do a lot of testing myself. I want it to actually be fun for people! I've played too many games that simply weren't.

Calin

Dec 3, 2006 at 12:49 PM

Quote:
Original post by Xanthier
Quote:
Original post by Calin
Quote:
Original post by Instruo
You might consider looking at the Torque with the RTS Starter Kit. By nature its 3d and not 2d, but it might give you a leg up in the right direction.

Torque RTS StarterKit is not the best candidate if you want a full blown RTS:
It has no pathfinding, collision detection and worst of all it doesn't have RTS networking.

It's best thing is to either build a RTS from scratch using an existing rendering engine or use an existing open source RTS (there is few of them)

such as Stratagus? i believe that is one.

Stratagus, Spring, Glest, etc. SourceForge.net has more than a hundred of them I think. First decide on complexity then pick the engine. Select something that matches your skills. Spring has same features as a commercial RTS, same thing for Glest except that it doesn't have networking, both require programming experience though.

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