🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 03:15:38 GMT, John Doe <jdoe@usenet.is.the.real.thing>
wrote:


>> Slowing it down a bit is still real time combat.  The idea that the
>> current speed is the "real, accurate" time/speed is ridiculous. These
>> games often have very unrealisitic build times, movements speeds,
>> etc.
>
>That's sounds like another good reason for user editable starting
>terrain. Of course you don't want construction of a large building to
>take years, but you want players to be able to build their own
>environment. User editable starting terrain would help correct that
>neatly, in my opinion. 

Editable terrain could be a bit too complex, and can lead to potential
problems (e.g. a player who plateaus his base to make it unreachable by
most common means.).  However, a prebuild phase similar to Metal Fatigue
works...

>A player should be allowed to move quickly if he
>(or she) knows what he is doing. If he moves quickly and inefficiently,
>he should be penalized. That's where energy bars come in. Each player
>would have an energy bar which is filled at a predetermined rate. The
>capacity of the energy bars is also predetermined. A slow rate of energy
>flow into your energy bar and you're not going to do a whole lot and a
>short amount of time unless you have a large quantity of energy stored
>up. The total amount of energy which can be stored is determined by
>energy bar capacity. You can save energy for some later flurry of
>activity or you can use what you have to disrupt your opponent, long as
>you do it efficiently.

I wouldn't be comforatble with this concept for an RTS.  While it might
work for individual units to simulate supply ranges and the like, it risks
causing the player to be rendered helpless when they receive a sudden
suprise attack.

I do know that a proper implementation of energy might not have these kinds
of problems - however, most developers don't know how to properly write an
RTS.  

>That concept was implemented to some extent in
>Total Annihilation but it does not play enough of a role in the game, in
>my opinion. 

Actually, energy played a different role in TA.  It was used as a secondary
resource collected by solar/fusion plants rather than a limitation on what
the player could perform.