I'm looking for an old RTS game, probably from 2005 or earlier. I never got to play it, so I don't remember much about the gameplay, but I do remember the box it came in, which was practically a cube, it was so big. Now, where my memory fails me is whether the box was gray with a pattern like a stone wall/armor, or red with a pattern like dragon scales. Does anyone remember anything similar?

Since we have been without a new, really, really good RTS for a long time..... lets imagine designing an ideal RTS.

Your goal is to create an almost perfect new RTS. What themes and mechanics would it include?

Suppose you need to select the best features from all the RTS games you know to craft your ideal one.

I'll start:

• Warcraft - Heroes;
• Total War - Scale, like no cap (200 or any)

Uptd from comments

• StarCraft - Balance
• Surpreme Commander FAF - 1000+ units and huge scale warfare.

If you were to pick 1 cheat AI can get in a RTS game, which one rubs you the most ?.

For me, its omnivision

The ability to ignore vision requirements/fog of war. And always knowing whats happening across the entire map 24/7.

I find Omnivision to be the most annoying feature AI can have as a cheat, as it does the following at once:

- Makes flanking pointless

- Makes stealth pointless if AI conveniently sends a detector towards your hidden unit. Or a vehicle to conveniently crush your hidden infantry. Or start using artillery against your hidden units if they cannot attack them directly.

- Makes positioning pointless on the map, if anything standing in the open and waiting for AI's unit blob to show up is the way you want to fight.

- Cheapens combat because AI will always be able to make counters against your units if the game runs on that system.

- Makes secondary bases, hidden expansions or buildings pointless.

- If game has support powers/off map abilities, you will be massacred across the entire map in your own base with no enemy within 100 metres of your base to spot them. While you cannot do the same to them. Same with super weapons if the game has them.

Bad examples of this cheat: Pretty much all command and conquer games (easily the worst examples can be found in Command and Conquer games), Company of Heroes 1, Warcrafts (All of them), Starcraft 1, Dawn of War 1 (all of them).

What do you dislike ? Infinite resources ? Access to mechanics the player cant use ? When computer speed is fully utilized and they can micro 40 units perfectly ?.

Some very early concept art for The Hive.

The original idea was that whenever a unit killed an enemy creature, it would take some of its gear and visually equip it.

As you can see, that eventually started to look a bit silly, basically turning our insects into medieval knights.

So we scrapped the idea and made the upgrades organic instead, with the creatures themselves evolving.

各位老戰友好久不見。

《破碎銀河系》mmorts（Tactical Commander）自 2004 年結束營運至今已超過 20 年，近期陸續有重製計畫的相關消息推出。

Hello everyone. Since October, I've been wanting to learn programming, and I love the RTS genre. I'd really like to create something of my own. The truth is, I know absolutely nothing about programming, and doing vibe coding is for the lazy.

Besides the fact that I love the RTS genre as such, I think that creating a game in this genre can in principle be news and give motivation to finish it, unlike some shooter of which hundreds are created Per day.

I may be wrong, but I would like to hear your thoughts or advice or warning. I understand that RTS is a very difficult genre for programming, but still, I don’t have the heart to do anything else.

So I’ve played the first 5 campaign missions, and honestly, I’m baffled by the praise this game gets.
Everything feels so damn sloppy and streamlined. Building is ridiculously easy, resources are everywhere, distribution is basically effortless, and it feels like everything is one click away from unlocking. There’s no real pressure, no sense of urgency, no meaningful resource scarcity, and barely any threat from the enemy.
The combat is probably the biggest issue for me. The troops feel clumsy and clunky, and the whole thing just feels like a sandbox rather than a game where I’m constantly making difficult decisions.
The campaign so far has been incredibly dull and unengaging. Maybe it gets significantly better later, but right now it feels like a playground designed to be as accessible as possible.
What confuses me is that when I asked if this was actually a good game, people were calling it the GOAT of RTS games. I specifically asked whether it was comparable to They Are Billions and Frostpunk, and a lot of people even suggested it was better.
Am I missing something? Does the campaign eventually become more challenging or strategically interesting, or is this just not the kind of RTS I’m looking for?
Because so far, I’m really not seeing the hype.

Game just let u level up too fast takes away the excitement from achieving the tech…..

Description of the game:
So... lets say that Dune + Starcraft + Command & Conquer Renegade + Starship Troopers + Battlefield + Natural Selection 2 had a baby. That and more is SILICA, the dream game of developer (Martin "Dram" Melicharek), who on May, 2023 released in Early Access (therefore a work in progress) a cinematic-like experience of a game, seamlessly merging RTS (Real Time Strategy) with FPS (First Person Shooter) in an explosive and intense action-packed delivery. A game I have no doubt has tremendous potential.

Was testing structure collision today and my npc decided to spin endlessly instead of stopping at the wall.

Honestly not sure if I should patch this out or turn it into a hidden achievement at this point. What do you think?

Have you tried to present Rts games to your kids? And how did they received it? And what games ?

Which old RTS are still supported by community mods and not just received mods with bugfixes or balance changes, but also improve graphics? Or maybe some less well known remasters? Not to make graphics impressive, but just to make it look decent non-blurry on larger screens / modern resolutions.

Those mods that I played or know about:

• Dune 2 (Dune Legacy)
• C&C and RA (OpenRA)
• Supreme Commander: FA (FAF)

Remakes, I'm mostly aware of obvious ones: C&C, AOM, AOE 2, Warcraft 1, 2 and 3, DOW 1, Stronghold.

A little early to be thinking about this, but who cares?

Which faction would you like to see implemented into War for Westeros after release? Currently we have Stark, Lannister, Targaryen, and White Walkers. All make for interesting asymmetric factions that lean into the BFME style of factions, but still leaves the roster feeling a little thin.

One interesting choice for a faction, for example, could be House Baratheon led by Stannis. Melissandre gives soldiers weapons with fire damage, and is able to create demon assassins. Davos is able to smuggle to provide economic buffs or penalties to the other player. Stannis can use Lightbringer to buff troops and attract more followers, etc.

House Baratheon is also a good case to have sub factions as there are in AOE4. When selecting House Baratheon, you can choose the line of Stannis or Renly.

Curious to see if others have thought about this.

I'm working on a War Of the Worlds City Builder that is a strategy, city builder, and tower defense game. The premise follows the original Worlds, where aliens come to Earth and wreak havoc. You have to manage a city, grow its economy, put the funds toward a defense/military, and fight them off. If they destroy your capital, you lose.

Play It Here (work in progress)

I'm trying to follow the books as closely as possible on the capabilities and weaponry. In the original book, normal rounds did nothing, so guns like the Maxim (a really powerful Gatling gun at the time) are useless against Tripods but work on the lower aliens.

But heavy artillery, like massive cannons, were useful against the Tripods. Once the Tripods' heat emitter failed, then infantry became more effective.

And that is how the current gameplay translates.....kinda.

If you watch the video, the Tripod completely destroyed all the units I have set up and is hardly scathed.

To make the game fun, this is too strong. So I need to find a way to balance it that holds true to the lore of the books, while having players correctly build out their defenses and balance that with their resources.

Any suggestions?

The irony of War for Westeros being a traditional RTS is that Game of Thrones repeatedly shows that real power does not come from armies or conquest. It comes from relationships, alliances, information, and influence. Robb wins battles but loses the war. Meanwhile, characters like Varys, Littlefinger, and Olenna shape kingdoms without commanding armies at all.

Then the game turns Westeros into gathering resources, constructing buildings, capturing territory, and controlling perfectly obedient units from above.

It reminds me of licensed games when we were kids. A popular movie would come out and, regardless of what it was actually about, someone would turn it into a generic side-scroller or FPS. The characters and imagery were there, but the gameplay had nothing to do with the spirit of the source material.

War for Westeros might still be fun, but it takes a story about why armies alone cannot win the game of thrones and makes the armies the entire game.

I've been experimenting with a weird idea for Border Empires:

What if an RTS has no units?

Instead, you set the direction, improve your territory and have your generals wage war over a persistent shared map.

I recently put the first real players into it and learned that I'd made the game far too difficult to get into. I've spent the last few days simplifying it.

The current world is live if anyone wants to poke around:

https://play.borderempires.com

I'm particularly interested in how the lack of traditional units affects combat.

Don’t play RTS games, but will war of Westeros have a mode where the map is already laid out? (Like with actual locations from GOT) or do you make and design all the bases yourself?

Tiberian Sun turns 27 today! The game was released on August 27, 1999.

Congratulations to all the fans on this special day, and remember: ONE VISION!!! ONE PURPOSE!!! PEACE THROUGH POWER! 🗣

I doubt this is the correct sub, and I’m sorry if that’s the case.

I’m looking for a game genre to find options to play, but all I have is the below description:

- Bases increase in defending army size incrementally at regular intervals

- Player drag/drop army to send them to capture enemy base

- Half of the defending army leaves to attack the base

- Sub-army count decreases by the size of the opposition army they intercept or by the number of defenders in a base; if sub-army is greater than enemy they win, otherwise they’re defeated

- All bases must be captured to win the map

Im envisioning minimal graphics, overhead view, maybe fog of war, and players can group multiple bases to send larger armies to attack the enemy.

Any ideas where I can start looking?

Thanks!

This is dumb question, but I've been wondering if there are any books about rts games genre. (List of Articles) Do you know if any of the RTS champions whatever the game is the author of a book? Can be an auto/biography. I'm a hudge Warcraft 3 fan, been playing on and off for 15 years. I also played other RTSes. I realize that each game you play might have a series of guides and detailed nerdy articles about the mechanics of that game and such, but I wonder if there's something universal that would glue together our loved genre. Like Sun Tzu - art of war but for RTS players.

Opening statement: I'm aware there's multiple games in the series' I'm gonna mention, but I have only played the one-off games I mention, feel free to recommend others from their series. I'll try to be concise, but I have a tendency for TL;DR's, so bolding points for an easier read.

1. I love any kind of game with progression. Especially if that progression is slow to unlock and persistent, best if permanent across matches.

The closest I've come to this with RTS's so far was WH40K Dawn of War 1, where you could upgrade your faction leader with items that enhanced them for the rest of the campaign, usually as the result of winning a battle. IIRC this just directly gave you all items in the order you'd request them, with no side-grades.

Or Company of Heroes 2, where you can technically(™) unlock permanent minor boosts towards certain units or unit types via a 3-slot card system, where you choose which cards you wanna slot in.

2. I love sci-fi and fantasy. Company of Heroes 2 is neither, and while a fantastic game it doesn't *quite* scratch the itch I have.

That said, I still love COH2 and would be very glad to receive any recommendation for good, historical RTS titles, especially if they in any shape or form have the progression I seek in point #1.

3. Functional multiplayer is near-and-dear to my heart.

I have a friend and two uncles whom I usually play RTS's against. But my friend lives at the literal opposite side of the world so LAN-only might not cut it. We would need the multiplayer function to not have been shut down, and preferably not needing mods to resurrect either.

Not hellbent on this point, I enjoy RTS as a singleplayer every now and then. But it's a huge bonus when I get to have my ass handed to me by the people I cherish the most and not the Insane CPU.

So I ask you guys, do you feel like anything I spoke of touched upon a game you know? Is Dawn of War 2 closest to what I want?

Thank you all in advance, all recommendations very welcome.

wattup RTS reddit, hope yall have a great weekend full of rtsing. Hopefully i can make you laugh, chuckle smile or something with me being silly in Liquidation RTS. What are your RTS plans for the weekend?

I've been working on a game about War of the Worlds. If you are unfamiliar with the series, it was originally a book published in 1898 by H.G. Wells, then was made into a movie in 2005 with Tom Cruise, and has had a few TV series based on it.

Play Online or PC Here

In this version of War of the Worlds, it's the same aliens, except you must defend your city from them and overcome the waves. You lose if they take your capital. So, it's Tower Defense meets City Builder, which makes a very very very difficult strategy game.

True to the original story, the game takes place in the 1900s. No fighter jets, no nuclear weapons, just good ole cannons, firing squads, and telegrams.

When building your society, you have to manage how coal is distributed because all businesses, homes, and the military run off of coal.

Like other city builders, there is trade, professions, beautification, and other cool things you can build.

As you build your society, waves of Tripods and other aliens keep coming. You have to balance defending against them while growing your city.

As the waves come, they get harder and harder, and I doubt the last few are survivable, but I'm hoping someone proves me wrong.

This is my first version of the game, about 15-20 hours of gameplay, feedback is welcome.

I am looking for life sim and colony sim/rts mix

Do you know any games which combine these genres? I know Rimworld, Noblefates, Going Medieval but still something is missing in them + I wasn't able to mod enough The Sims games to get my dreamt game.

Life Sims:

My main complain about life simulators (Sims, Paralives, etc) is that you can't build without pause + you put walls instantly, your sim/para don't need to build them in game, they don't need to gather resources like wood, stone, it breaks immersion for me. But they have better building options than mentioned titles, even very old The Sims 2 has diagonal walls. My other complain is that sims don't do many things autonomously, even if you put them in club, they can lag often and you need to monitor every sim non-stop, when colony simulators allow you to chill, just give them some craft, farm and cook tasks and they won't die on easy difficulty even if you are afk. Other than that I hate life simulators don't have technology tree, some furnitures are unlocked with career progress, but many times you can do the same things with normal counterparts.

Colony sims:

And now is my complain about colony simulators: settlers don't have any emotions on faces (Going Medieval's folks don't have even faces) and their animations are limited. They still feel worse than The Sims 2 in social aspects, they lack in idle/working animations, they lack in genetic and pregnancy (Noblefates has marriages and pregnancy but game graphic is not optimized well, it stutter when you zoom out).

Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress would be so great if they were in 3D and had mentioned animations and other things, but they don't have.

RTS/others:

I played also The Guild 2: Renaissance, with very good economy and crafting system, but there your family folks don't have basic needs (except avoiding diseases), you are limited to premade buildings, and it has only one good mod Fajeeth's MegamodPack. You can't put buildings wherever you want, because npc workers sleep and spawn in specific houses, so if you build your blacksmith/etc too far you will lose money.

I know also Cultures - 8th Wonder game, very old and underrated rts, where your attack can be screwed because your soldier left catapult and decided to go to sleep or run to get shoes. The most annoying thing of this game is that maps have unit limit (animals + people) so you can just spawn kids forever and you will beat ai enemy because he can't spawn more people.

Stronghold games have some nuances from life simulators too like every worker has his unique name and can stop work, go to tavern or park and idle but building options are limited, luckily less than other rts (because it has nice defence wall system), but I wish to be able to build multi-level walls and put buildings on these walls.

I know there is Manor Lords, but I don't have good PC + still its build abilities are limited to premade buildings, and no enough animations for peasants.

I want to try also Sims 2: Castaway on emulator, but I feel it will be entertaing only for few hours, i dont know yet.

I am sad that Spore didn't get sequels, it was made by Will Wright, The Sims 1 creator and with some tweaks (basic needs, more building abilities, more things to do in space era,etc) it could become ultimate colony/life sim.

----

If you know any games like that, you can suggest it. It doesn't need to be medieval game, it can be ancient, modern, futuristic or fantasy. You can also suggest RPG + life sim combo, but i know Skyrim, Fallout, Fable, they lack animations too sadly.