🚀 go-pugleaf

John Doe <jdoe@usenet.is.the.real.thing> wrote in message news:<Xns9588E273AFCAwisdomfolly@151.164.30.44>...  
> 
> I think his (if I'm not mistaken) is expressed accurately/concisely like
> a perceptive person who is new to the genre. 
> 


You are mistaken.  The first real time strategic PC game I ever played
was "Ancient Art of War" on the gray-scale CGA monitor.  If you don't
remember that game, then *you* are probably a little too new to the
genre.


> 
> And clicking fast is not to be confused with thinking fast. 
>

Ah, but thinking fast should not be confused with clicking fast.  I
happen to think that mouse dexterity should have no impact on the
effectiveness of an RTS player.  In C&C:Generals, mouse speed has more
to do with victory than strategy.  It wouldn't matter if you had a
good strategy in mind if you're not fast enough to execute it.  Your
opponent, who may have a simpler strategy (swarm! swarm! swarm!) will
overwhelm you while you are trying to issue orders to multiple, small
groups of units trying to make a simultaneous multi-sided assault on
different areas of the map.  With the ridiculous pace of C&C:Generals,
a person could only concentrate on one area of the map at a time. 
Frankly, that's a very dumb way of making a "strategy" game. This pace
of this game makes it practically a hybrid of arcade and strategy.

Take for example the incident that lead to my original post.  I had a
dozen or so tanks and troop vehicles on their way to a waypoint.  I
scrolled down to my base for ten or fifteen seconds, just to issue a
few maintenance commands (build power plants, build units, etc).  When
I scrolled back to my tanks, they were all gone!  Not a single units
left.  I have no idea what happened because it happened so fast.  It's
insane.  Strategy games ought to give you enough time to manage units
and buildings effectively on more than one area of the map at a time.