Re: A Special Announcement from EA
Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2018 8:33 pm
Aside from Kane's story, I would like C&C to do the steps and evolve the RTS genre. Even in this thread people have lamented how RTS's are pretty static or even declining. And I have a theory on why that is.
Imagine if FPS's had remained stuck at the Arena games. Quake, UT and the like are games where accuracy and speed dominate over any other skill. This is a wonderful game type but it limits how many people can enjoy the genre. FPS games evolved, besides solid games like the UT series we also got games like Crisis, Planetside 2 etc where COF, recoil, bullet velocity, damage degradation and other weapon modifiers changed which skills are important, in some FPS games being fast and accurate means almost nothing if you dont control your COF and recoil or dont know at what distances your weapon remains effective. The best games combine it and people can become masters in different skills without being outperformed by a single skill, or even not become a master but just be able to combine skills well enough to perform at the top.
RTS's miss all that, RTS's got stuck in the FPS Arena gameplay and didnt evolve farther. It barely matters what RTS game you play, from the old and new C&C games to Starcraft to Men At Arms to the entirety of the Total War series, clickspeed dominates it all, in some games more than others but this remains a fact. A simple tactic done fast will almost always defeat an intricate tactic that takes time (or timing). Unfortunately this has become so ingrained that asking for an alternative gets you a lot of resistance and even people who dont understand the question. Because of this we are actually looking at maybe 25% of the amount of games we could have had if it had evolved and embraced games where other skills dominate and clickspeed is a secondary or even tertiary skill, and games that combine clickspeed and other skills all as primary skills for games that are far more accessible and draw in more people types.
C&C could start its babysteps in this direction by adding better UI and making positioning buildings more important for example. The early game of C&C you already have your strategy ready but are still forced into a clickspeed race as you are only allowed to place and build the next tech after its finished and placed. You could allow players to select buildings, place a blueprint and select a techbuilding or unit that is unlocked by it. You could even allow the player to build the building that's unlocked by that building and place it as well. This gives the player more time to work on other things like the exact placement of the buildings, which way they are facing or what features they might have. But also focus more on the commanding of units. Allowing this system to remain as-is will only enforce a clickspeed game for the sake of clickspeed which has been done (and better) too much already. You might as well create a game where units have to be ordered for every single attack to pad clickspeed even more (which could actually be a great game if done right but with the RTS market already boasting a 100% clickspeed based games its saturated). Starcraft already does the clickspeed best, RA3 and C&C4 tried to compete with that through super-symetry in the maps and a gross misunderstanding of what made Starcraft successful at it and they were massive flops. Try to do what C&C does best: a solid and engaging story with attempts at evolving the genre step by step.
Imagine if FPS's had remained stuck at the Arena games. Quake, UT and the like are games where accuracy and speed dominate over any other skill. This is a wonderful game type but it limits how many people can enjoy the genre. FPS games evolved, besides solid games like the UT series we also got games like Crisis, Planetside 2 etc where COF, recoil, bullet velocity, damage degradation and other weapon modifiers changed which skills are important, in some FPS games being fast and accurate means almost nothing if you dont control your COF and recoil or dont know at what distances your weapon remains effective. The best games combine it and people can become masters in different skills without being outperformed by a single skill, or even not become a master but just be able to combine skills well enough to perform at the top.
RTS's miss all that, RTS's got stuck in the FPS Arena gameplay and didnt evolve farther. It barely matters what RTS game you play, from the old and new C&C games to Starcraft to Men At Arms to the entirety of the Total War series, clickspeed dominates it all, in some games more than others but this remains a fact. A simple tactic done fast will almost always defeat an intricate tactic that takes time (or timing). Unfortunately this has become so ingrained that asking for an alternative gets you a lot of resistance and even people who dont understand the question. Because of this we are actually looking at maybe 25% of the amount of games we could have had if it had evolved and embraced games where other skills dominate and clickspeed is a secondary or even tertiary skill, and games that combine clickspeed and other skills all as primary skills for games that are far more accessible and draw in more people types.
C&C could start its babysteps in this direction by adding better UI and making positioning buildings more important for example. The early game of C&C you already have your strategy ready but are still forced into a clickspeed race as you are only allowed to place and build the next tech after its finished and placed. You could allow players to select buildings, place a blueprint and select a techbuilding or unit that is unlocked by it. You could even allow the player to build the building that's unlocked by that building and place it as well. This gives the player more time to work on other things like the exact placement of the buildings, which way they are facing or what features they might have. But also focus more on the commanding of units. Allowing this system to remain as-is will only enforce a clickspeed game for the sake of clickspeed which has been done (and better) too much already. You might as well create a game where units have to be ordered for every single attack to pad clickspeed even more (which could actually be a great game if done right but with the RTS market already boasting a 100% clickspeed based games its saturated). Starcraft already does the clickspeed best, RA3 and C&C4 tried to compete with that through super-symetry in the maps and a gross misunderstanding of what made Starcraft successful at it and they were massive flops. Try to do what C&C does best: a solid and engaging story with attempts at evolving the genre step by step.