Pirates vs Ninjas. Pirates are strong and structure based (ships, cannons, etc.). Ninjas are speedy and hit-and-run oriented (smokescreens, poison, fire, etc.). The battlefields have water. Each side has ships, but the pirates have more types of ships and better uses for them (troop transport, naval escort, island siege). Ninjas just have troop transport ships, but their troops can do more things than pirates (climb cliffs (perhaps ship edges would be considered cliffs), higher level ones can walk on water, cloaking). Similar resource mechanics to SC, but also include towns that can be pillaged to produce extra resources. PM me if you want more, I've got a list of ideas written down.

airtown

United States410 Posts

May 12 2010 00:35 GMT

#22

Here's an RTS which is an example of a game completely different from Starcraft - just so we can get some more ideas for the mechanics:

http://www.towerdefence.net/games-261-Creeper_World_Training.php

There aren't really any units; you control a network with stuff like turrets and power generators.

kolp33

Estonia2 Posts

May 28 2010 23:02 GMT

#23

Well i have been thinking about RTS system for quite a long time allready and what i acualy think is most importand is the combat is gotten very old. i mean practicaly all newer RTS-s are WC 1 with better graphics now i think the main thing i would like to chanse is to make combat more realistic example we have 2 guys each have 5 hp and normal hit makes 2 dmg but first we have miss rating and secondly we have armor while miss would make completely miss the hit the armor would make it to reduce dmg like 2-1 and then we have critical hit wich would be 1 shot kill and now we could add here the fact that all troops gets levels what that does is make dmg higher and increase evasion % also if we are speaking about games that have world like WC we could add in race system i mean we have horde faction and there we chouse to train orc warriors taurens ore trolls and we would chouse what weapon he wears like axe hammer sword ore spear each have different strenghts and weaknesses same with armor do he have a shield and what kinda a armor he wears and soo on the difference beatween taurens trolls and orcs would be cost and hp but still crit hit would kill eny off them but it has small chanse (it would simulate more real battel) also i think realy realy great idea would be that workers could chanse the map i mean build high grounds, ramps and digg it would greatly make it much much more dynamic and intresting and about reasurses i would add 1-2 1 would be like gold ore wood that you get from map other would be something like food that you get from buildings it would up and when your army reaches max it still goes up but slowly and when army dies it goes down with the population of the army and therefore you could not rebuild army too fast but have to wait untill food if you have eny other questions about these mehanics i would be more than clad too help out

petered

United States1817 Posts

May 28 2010 23:11 GMT

#24

I am not experienced in a whole lot of rts games outside SC, but I thought it would be cool if there was an rts race where every single unit was morphed from a lower tier unit.

So like, lets say the zerg worked this way. You could only build drones, and then you morphed a drone into a zergling, and then later, once you got the tech, you morphed the zergling into a hydra... and so on.
It would be hard to balance but would be pretty cool I think.

Another idea I had was if a race had a few basic units, but then only had one higher tech unit that did all the casting. And then instead of getting higher tech buildings you would buy spells.

So if protoss was this way, you could make templar and then every spell you researched could be used by templar.

lepape

Canada557 Posts

May 28 2010 23:15 GMT

#25

On May 12 2010 08:05 Toyman69 wrote:
I'm at the Art Institute of Vancouver and I'm in a team currently making a rts game(just got a alpha build working). I can tell you for sure that this isn't a cake walk. We have a team of 15(4 programmers, 5 artists and 6 game design students). Hopefully gonna release it online in 5weeks or so.

What engine you use will for sure depict what your limits are. We are using Unity because our programmers had quite a bit of experience with this engine.

A rts game is insanely programming heavy, the 4 on our team has just got a alpha working and it took 17weeks. Starting off with nothing though.

I don't want to discourage you by any means, just want to let you know what your getting yourself into.

To get ideas, we first started by breaking down mechanics in a shit ton of notable rts games.
Started choosing what we wanted or what would be cool, and then altering mechanics to make them more unique.

Categories like:
-Resource gathering
-tech trees
-characters and abilities
-combat
-etc.

4 programmers, 5 artists and 6 game designers?

No wonder it took 17 weeks for the alpha stage, there's only 9 people in your team actually working.

Starparty

Sweden1963 Posts

May 28 2010 23:21 GMT

#26

If you want the resource concept a bit easier than in SC, imagine a sci-fi RTS where the resource gathering is done by moving a mothershipesque main base unit around to different resource spots for income. Win the game by destroying the opponent mothership. This would make bases constantly moing to different resource spots which could also include different kinds of resources for different techs. With a bit of tunig it could perhaps generate some dynamic game play.

kolp33

Estonia2 Posts

May 28 2010 23:43 GMT

#27

also i think that the home city system in aoe3 is great because it gives your race even more opions specialy in upgrades also duble layer map is great like in armys of exigo basicaly it could be made with levels in terrain i mean you start et level 4 example you can dig to make a defensive hole and if you dig even more you can deep enaguht to make a new layer of map

lepape

Canada557 Posts

May 29 2010 00:05 GMT

#28

To be honest, I don't think you should try to reinvent the wheel if you're making a small scale RTS, unless you get a genius idea.

If you think about it, SC1 is pretty much 100% about amazing unit concepts.

Just have fun thinking of cool unit ideas, such as ''a fast ground unit that gains +10 dmg with every kill'', or ''this unit attacks in a small AoE around him with a 3-5 secs cd '' and be creative.

Endymion

United States3701 Posts

May 29 2010 00:32 GMT

#29

The game KKND had quite a unique way to gather resources, basically you would build an oil rig (which was a unit) and you had to move it to an oil well and it would collect oil until you deactivated it and moved it, or until it was destroyed. The reason this is different from say CoH or DoW is that in those two series, you had to dedicate forces to capture resource points, but in KKND you didn't (although it was a good idea to guard them, it wasn't manditory). Just interesting because you could use the mechanic in several different ways accommodating different playstyles.

Motiva

United States1774 Posts

May 29 2010 00:48 GMT

#30

Read Flatland and make a nice 2d flash/java based RTS based on shapes. Squares vs Circles vs Triangles.

Done.

rofl

mmp

United States2130 Posts

May 29 2010 01:10 GMT

#31

Make a game where the map is modifiable.

Resources are gathered by terraforming the map (e.g. increased elevation for wind/solar), but to do so takes resources from military. Your opponent can steal this territory from you, but terraforming also enables you to gain a defensive advantage.

This could be a discrete height map or you could do something fancier.

Check out Myth (old Bungie game) and Darwinia (indy RTS) for what a simple 3D tactical game should look like.

Jawa~

United States291 Posts

May 29 2010 01:15 GMT

#32

I love how he just comes in and asks people to do all of his work for him.

Come up with your own ideas and ask for suggestions on improving them

ironchef

Canada1350 Posts

May 29 2010 05:14 GMT

#33

I dont kno if this can even work game design wise, but I think it'd be nice to have a character/ preference system. For example, in jrpgs/srpgs you can pick the people u like to use. Or in SC, you like sac a unit to scout etc, but hopefully in real life you wouldnt toss lives away like that.. Kind of like the "no man left" behind thing.

Not exactly like wc3 heroes, but an ability to center a strat around a unit/group you like(and have it matter strategically) , not feel like all units are equally expendable.

Yeah idk if how it'd work haha, but thatd be kinda neat and bring in more rpgish fans.

JohannesH

Finland1364 Posts

May 30 2010 05:08 GMT

#34

How good are you at the technical side of making games? What engine(s) are you considering, can you make models & script them? Will you work alone?

Design ideas is kinda the most important part of the game yes, but I'm not convinced you'll finish your game out no matter what the design was supposed to be.

-> If it's your first game, just start working on something, improve your technical knowledge while working on the ideas. Even if you scrap the code or models you first started with, you now have a better idea how to make stuff work in the future.