• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 18:36
CEST 00:36
KST 07:36
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S RO4 & Finals Preview: herO, GuMiho, Classic, Cure0Code S RO8 Preview: Classic, Reynor, Maru, GuMiho2Code S RO8 Preview: ByuN, Rogue, herO, Cure4[ASL19] Ro4 Preview: Storied Rivals7Code S RO12 Preview: Maru, Trigger, Rogue, NightMare12
Community News
[BSL 2v2] ProLeague Season 3 - Friday 21:00 CET1herO & Cure GSL RO8 Interviews: "I also think that all the practice I put in when Protoss wasn’t doing as well is paying off"0Code S Season 1 - herO & Cure advance to RO4 (2025)0Dark to begin military service on May 13th (2025)21Weekly Cups (May 5-11): New 2v2 Champs1
StarCraft 2
General
Code S RO4 & Finals Preview: herO, GuMiho, Classic, Cure 2024/25 Off-Season Roster Moves Code S RO8 Preview: Classic, Reynor, Maru, GuMiho Code S RO8 Preview: ByuN, Rogue, herO, Cure Dark to begin military service on May 13th (2025)
Tourneys
SEL Code A [MMR-capped] (SC: Evo) [GSL 2025] Code S:Season 1 - RO8 - Group B RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series Cheeseadelphia 2025 - Open Bracket LAN! [GSL 2025] Code S:Season 1 - RO12 - Group B
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers [G] PvT Cheese: 13 Gate Proxy Robo
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 473 Cold is the Void Mutation # 472 Dead Heat Mutation # 471 Delivery Guaranteed Mutation # 470 Certain Demise
Brood War
General
ASL 19 Tickets for foreigners BW General Discussion Recent recommended BW games Battlenet Game Lobby Simulator BGH auto balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/
Tourneys
Small VOD Thread 2.0 [ASL19] Semifinal B [ASL19] Semifinal A [BSL 2v2] ProLeague Season 3 - Friday 21:00 CET
Strategy
[G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player Creating a full chart of Zerg builds [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Beyond All Reason Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Grand Theft Auto VI Nintendo Switch Thread What do you want from future RTS games?
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
LiquidLegends to reintegrate into TL.net
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia TL Mafia Community Thread TL Mafia Plays: Diplomacy TL Mafia: Generative Agents Showdown Survivor II: The Amazon
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Elon Musk's lies, propaganda, etc. Ask and answer stupid questions here! Iraq & Syrian Civil Wars
Fan Clubs
Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread [Books] Wool by Hugh Howey
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread NHL Playoffs 2024 NBA General Discussion Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Cleaning My Mechanical Keyboard How to clean a TTe Thermaltake keyboard?
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TL.net Ten Commandments
Blogs
Why 5v5 Games Keep Us Hooked…
TrAiDoS
Info SLEgma_12
SLEgma_12
SECOND COMMING
XenOsky
WombaT’s Old BW Terran Theme …
WombaT
Heero Yuy & the Tax…
KrillinFromwales
BW PvZ Balance hypothetic…
Vasoline73
Racial Distribution over MMR …
Navane
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 7068 users

The future of RTS games - Page 47

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 45 46 47 48 49 81 Next
Keep "my game is better than yours"-slapfights out of this. If the discussion devolves into simple bashing, this thread will be closed.
HeatEXTEND
Profile Joined October 2012
Netherlands836 Posts
May 27 2014 18:04 GMT
#921
On May 28 2014 01:13 Big J wrote:
Nope, micro is not inherently fun.


Nothing is inherently fun -_-
knuckle
Incognoto
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
France10239 Posts
May 27 2014 18:45 GMT
#922
On May 28 2014 03:02 Xiphos wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 28 2014 01:13 Big J wrote:
On May 28 2014 00:42 LaLuSh wrote:
Yea I don't particularly buy the argument that economy management makes any significant difference.

The argument seems to be: the people who play hundreds or thousands of hours of these RTS's don't have to spend 90% of their time improving their macro, but can instead focus 90% on micro -- which happens to be inherently fun, inherently stress-free and thus automatically appeals to casuals?

I just don't buy it.

Games like that have existed before. How big a part would you say economy management is in Warcraft 3? Did the people who spent thousands of hours playing such a micro-focused game think it any less intense to focus 90% of their time on improving their micro for any slight competitive advantage?

Traditional RTS games that are designed to be replayable will always suffer from this problem. For a classical RTS to have any sort of long term replayability value, there has to exist a potential for improvement -- whether it be in the sphere of macro or micro management. And wherever there exists a potential for improvement -- the intensity and stressfulness of macro versus micro will naturally be shifted from one sector to the other depending on their relative degrees of importance. Otherwise: what the hell is the point of playing more than ~40 hours of a classical RTS game if there is zero potential for improvement and zero variation in gameplay?

Classical RTS games have more things in similar than a change in economy management could ever hope to buckle or bend. I think you have to find other creative ways of inserting meaning and replayability value to RTS games (whether they are economy or micro focused doesn't matter).

One of the best ways I can think of is to redefine the genre through some massive online co-operative campaign style RTS gaming. That would make the replayability of RTS games partly content driven and partly replayability driven like is the case with many MMORPGs. World of Warcraft would not have retained as many of its customers without constantly pumping out new content. New quests, raids, bosses, all in the style of RTS campaigns -- with the difference that they are online and co-op driven.

You cannot blame the average consumer for finding no compelling reason to continue playing an RTS game after having run through all the traditional "content" of the RTS game. In olden times these average consumers used to have their thirst for content quenched by Use Map Settings and Arcade maps. Not so much anymore.

As long as RTS games are kept being made in the same vein as they always have nothing is going to change. You may argue about fun micro vs boring economy management all you want. Makes no appreciable difference one way or the other.



Nope, micro is not inherently fun. But it can be designed to be fun, that's what MOBAs have been succeding in. DotA took simple hero designes and created a world around them that gave them a lot of stuff to do and many, many small interaction possibilities that sum up to a fun experience in unit control.

I can't speak too much for WC3, I only played it supercasually. But I really liked a lot of the principles of it, just what I didn't like was the economy system. The extremely low supply limit with the upkeep and the fact that expansion play is often nonexistent, so it's really just that one location on the map that you can attack.
You could say that this is exactly what Starcraft does and now I claim I don't want that either, but I guess I have played too much RA3 (or CnC in general) to accept that there isn't a middle ground if you design an economy system that is both cheap and very easy to manage, but forces you to spread over the map.

The fun parts for casual players is always the choice and usage of units. The "woaaaa, look what my badass Superwalker just did to your infantry line". But in Starcraft, if you let any silver player play against someone who has only just played for a week, that guy is not even going to get to his Superwalker. The mechanical demands but more so the demands in attention of executing a simple build order is preventing you from going to any point in the game where you can have what you expected to have in the game as a beginner.

So any player that wants to play RTS, but doesn't want to spend hours to be competitive in silver league - even more that does not want to play "the one standard way" but rather wants to build bases and units and eventually watch and command a few battles - is repelled from the way your skill improves in Starcraft. That is by mechanics and build-order grinding. A singleplayer like basebuilding experience at which RTS is horrible as it lacks complexity compared to the extreme depths of round based strategy games or economy simulators. But you still have to play that part over and over again, which is pretty boring if you don't play for the competitivness.
But that's the major group of people that you want to attract with RTS - kind of the original idea of the genre -, every other group of people pales in comparison.


Yeah micro is only fun if you have highly potential result with interesting abilities on the unit. MOBA's unit is superior than modernized RTS in that department.


Micro is waaaaaaaay more than spellcasting.

Spreading units, flanking, position, using abilities, hard counters, soft counters, etc.

MOBAs don't have ANYTHING on RTS in terms of micro.
maru lover forever
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
May 27 2014 19:02 GMT
#923
On May 28 2014 03:45 Incognoto wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 28 2014 03:02 Xiphos wrote:
On May 28 2014 01:13 Big J wrote:
On May 28 2014 00:42 LaLuSh wrote:
Yea I don't particularly buy the argument that economy management makes any significant difference.

The argument seems to be: the people who play hundreds or thousands of hours of these RTS's don't have to spend 90% of their time improving their macro, but can instead focus 90% on micro -- which happens to be inherently fun, inherently stress-free and thus automatically appeals to casuals?

I just don't buy it.

Games like that have existed before. How big a part would you say economy management is in Warcraft 3? Did the people who spent thousands of hours playing such a micro-focused game think it any less intense to focus 90% of their time on improving their micro for any slight competitive advantage?

Traditional RTS games that are designed to be replayable will always suffer from this problem. For a classical RTS to have any sort of long term replayability value, there has to exist a potential for improvement -- whether it be in the sphere of macro or micro management. And wherever there exists a potential for improvement -- the intensity and stressfulness of macro versus micro will naturally be shifted from one sector to the other depending on their relative degrees of importance. Otherwise: what the hell is the point of playing more than ~40 hours of a classical RTS game if there is zero potential for improvement and zero variation in gameplay?

Classical RTS games have more things in similar than a change in economy management could ever hope to buckle or bend. I think you have to find other creative ways of inserting meaning and replayability value to RTS games (whether they are economy or micro focused doesn't matter).

One of the best ways I can think of is to redefine the genre through some massive online co-operative campaign style RTS gaming. That would make the replayability of RTS games partly content driven and partly replayability driven like is the case with many MMORPGs. World of Warcraft would not have retained as many of its customers without constantly pumping out new content. New quests, raids, bosses, all in the style of RTS campaigns -- with the difference that they are online and co-op driven.

You cannot blame the average consumer for finding no compelling reason to continue playing an RTS game after having run through all the traditional "content" of the RTS game. In olden times these average consumers used to have their thirst for content quenched by Use Map Settings and Arcade maps. Not so much anymore.

As long as RTS games are kept being made in the same vein as they always have nothing is going to change. You may argue about fun micro vs boring economy management all you want. Makes no appreciable difference one way or the other.



Nope, micro is not inherently fun. But it can be designed to be fun, that's what MOBAs have been succeding in. DotA took simple hero designes and created a world around them that gave them a lot of stuff to do and many, many small interaction possibilities that sum up to a fun experience in unit control.

I can't speak too much for WC3, I only played it supercasually. But I really liked a lot of the principles of it, just what I didn't like was the economy system. The extremely low supply limit with the upkeep and the fact that expansion play is often nonexistent, so it's really just that one location on the map that you can attack.
You could say that this is exactly what Starcraft does and now I claim I don't want that either, but I guess I have played too much RA3 (or CnC in general) to accept that there isn't a middle ground if you design an economy system that is both cheap and very easy to manage, but forces you to spread over the map.

The fun parts for casual players is always the choice and usage of units. The "woaaaa, look what my badass Superwalker just did to your infantry line". But in Starcraft, if you let any silver player play against someone who has only just played for a week, that guy is not even going to get to his Superwalker. The mechanical demands but more so the demands in attention of executing a simple build order is preventing you from going to any point in the game where you can have what you expected to have in the game as a beginner.

So any player that wants to play RTS, but doesn't want to spend hours to be competitive in silver league - even more that does not want to play "the one standard way" but rather wants to build bases and units and eventually watch and command a few battles - is repelled from the way your skill improves in Starcraft. That is by mechanics and build-order grinding. A singleplayer like basebuilding experience at which RTS is horrible as it lacks complexity compared to the extreme depths of round based strategy games or economy simulators. But you still have to play that part over and over again, which is pretty boring if you don't play for the competitivness.
But that's the major group of people that you want to attract with RTS - kind of the original idea of the genre -, every other group of people pales in comparison.


Yeah micro is only fun if you have highly potential result with interesting abilities on the unit. MOBA's unit is superior than modernized RTS in that department.


Micro is waaaaaaaay more than spellcasting.

Spreading units, flanking, position, using abilities, hard counters, soft counters, etc.

MOBAs don't have ANYTHING on RTS in terms of micro.

Depends. Dota had lane control through manipulating the creep AI, stacking and tones of other ways to control the game that require lots of practice. Micro is such a subjective and over used term anyways. At the highest levels of both games types it requires all of the player's focus.
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
IMPrime
Profile Joined September 2011
United States715 Posts
May 27 2014 19:23 GMT
#924
I'm pretty sure Destiny went over this awhile back and he basically said it better than most people could.
Incognoto
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
France10239 Posts
May 27 2014 19:31 GMT
#925
Fair enough point however I don't feel the depth of micro when you're talking about manipulating farm and stuff. Micro, the way I see it, is a termed used for the control of units in itself to win fights. Macro is managing your economy. Strategy comes to your choices. etc.

in layman's terms, obviously
maru lover forever
Plansix
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States60190 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-05-27 19:44:30
May 27 2014 19:40 GMT
#926
Well look at it this way, creep micro and controlling the AI is a way to get farm(income) when you normally couldn't. It's commonly used in match ups im uneven between heroes, such as a ranged hero vs a melee hero. It means that a player who is good at it can get farm where another, less skilled play could not. And it can lead to mistakes and even getting killed if you don't pull the agro properly. The same goes for stacking and other economy based activities in dota. And you need to do all of this while being aware of what is happening on the map and that no one is setting up to murder you. You don't have to move as fast as you do in SC2, but the margin for error is much thinner in dota and other mobas and one second of bad movement could set you behind for the game.

The micro is different, but no less taxing than it is in SC2(mentally). Openings are thin and being in the right place at the right moment can turn a whole fight around, or lose it. And you need to do it with 4 other people.
I have the Honor to be your Obedient Servant, P.6
TL+ Member
Thieving Magpie
Profile Blog Joined December 2012
United States6752 Posts
May 27 2014 20:39 GMT
#927
On May 28 2014 04:40 Plansix wrote:
Well look at it this way, creep micro and controlling the AI is a way to get farm(income) when you normally couldn't. It's commonly used in match ups im uneven between heroes, such as a ranged hero vs a melee hero. It means that a player who is good at it can get farm where another, less skilled play could not. And it can lead to mistakes and even getting killed if you don't pull the agro properly. The same goes for stacking and other economy based activities in dota. And you need to do all of this while being aware of what is happening on the map and that no one is setting up to murder you. You don't have to move as fast as you do in SC2, but the margin for error is much thinner in dota and other mobas and one second of bad movement could set you behind for the game.

The micro is different, but no less taxing than it is in SC2(mentally). Openings are thin and being in the right place at the right moment can turn a whole fight around, or lose it. And you need to do it with 4 other people.


Presentation wise, its also a more "active" macro style, in that the player *could* just focus on his hero and not care about the minimap and still be able to maximize his own personal chances of doing well, and if he kept track of the minimap, he could maximize how well the team overall does also. As opposed to an RTS where the presentation of the macro focus can be a bit removed from what a new player *wants* it to be.

Hark, what baseball through yonder window breaks?
LaLuSh
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Sweden2358 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-05-27 21:53:20
May 27 2014 21:18 GMT
#928
In my opinion the reason MOBAs appeal to a wider audience is simple:

You control one hero/champion and you have to keep track of (usually) a maximum of 4 abilities. That is the extent to which YOU can influence a game.

You suck but you still want to play multiplayer? No problems. You can play an entire multiplayer game while being completely centered on your own viewpoint if you're so inclined. It won't be a shit experience. You only have to focus on one character and how that character interacts with the game world.

I'm not looking down at MOBAs. I play dota2 myself instead of SC2. And there's plenty of room for complexity in MOBAs if you're the type of player that's looking for it. The basics of the multiplayer MOBA experience is very cognitively manageable is what I'm trying to say.

RTS games are an entirely different beast when it comes to multiplayer. Even experienced players will have their hands full simply fighting against the complexity of the genre itself. Avoiding food/supply blocks, managing economy to the extent required, creeping patterns, production, micro. The battle with the game is hardly overcomeable by itself. Throw in a human opponent in there and you will be guaranteed to be cognitively overloaded. It's not a genre that lends itself well to just casually doing your thing and "enjoying yourself" (unless it's singleplayer).

I don't disagree with what BigJ and Xiphos say. I just think there is no way you can make a classical RTS game that sells widely AND is highly replayable (meaning it will retain those players in its multiplayer experience, or have a chance to expand upon its playerbase due to the multiplayer experience).

In reaching out to the part of the player base that enjoy sitting quietly building up, "making choices", and occasionally battling when it suits them -- the RTS genre needs to change. Those players already play singeplayer. Just need to give them a (content-driven) reason to play multiplayer.

On May 28 2014 03:02 Xiphos wrote:
Yeah micro is only fun if you have highly potential result with interesting abilities on the unit. MOBA's unit is superior than modernized RTS in that department.


You could include highly interesting abilities on units in an RTS and it would still be a completely different experience. The value of detailed micromanagement goes down as scales increase. It becomes more important to focus on the entire army's average outcome than the details of using any single interesting ability perfectly. RTS games can have elements of these things (muta, vulture moving shot, storms, reaver scarabs, for example). But their relative importance will decrease as any single game moves from order to disorder (increased game length ---> more things to keep track of, increased complexity and cognitive load; small scale micro fades out of relevance).

One could add: "So why don't we remove all these boring cognitive loads and focus on the fun stuff?"

Problem is, if you do, you're no longer really left with an RTS. You instead have what is called a MOBA/ARTS: a genre where all the boring parts of a classical RTS are removed. Someone already beat you to it.
Spaylz
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Japan1743 Posts
May 27 2014 21:45 GMT
#929
WC3 was and is the greatest game of all time. That is all.
I like words.
Thieving Magpie
Profile Blog Joined December 2012
United States6752 Posts
May 27 2014 21:55 GMT
#930
On May 28 2014 06:18 LaLuSh wrote:
In my opinion the reason MOBAs appeal to a wider audience is simple:

You control one hero/champion and you have to keep track of (usually) a maximum of 4 abilities. That is the extent to which YOU can influence a game.

You suck but you still want to play multiplayer? No problems. You can play an entire multiplayer game while being completely centered on your own viewpoint if you're so inclined. It won't be a shit experience. You only have to focus on one character and how that character interacts with the game world.

I'm not looking down at MOBAs. I play dota2 myself instead of SC2. And there's plenty of room for complexity in MOBAs if you're the type of player that's looking for it. The basics of the multiplayer MOBA experience is very cognitively manageable is what I'm trying to say.

RTS games are an entirely different beast when it comes to multiplayer. Even experienced players will have their hands full simply fighting against the complexity of the genre itself. Avoiding food/supply blocks, managing economy to the extent required, creeping patterns, production, micro. The battle with the game is hardly overcomeable by itself. Throw in a human opponent in there and you will be guaranteed to be cognitively overloaded. It's not a genre that lends itself well to just casually doing your thing and "enjoying yourself" (unless it's singleplayer).

I don't disagree with what BigJ and Xiphos say. I just think there is no way you can make a classical RTS game that sells widely AND is highly replayable (meaning it will retain those players in its multiplayer experience, or have a chance to expand upon its playerbase due to the multiplayer experience).

In reaching out to the part of the player base that enjoy sitting quietly building up, "making choices", and occasionally battling when it suits them -- the RTS genre needs to change. Those players already play singeplayer. Just need to give them a (content-driven) reason to play multiplayer.

Show nested quote +
On May 28 2014 03:02 Xiphos wrote:
Yeah micro is only fun if you have highly potential result with interesting abilities on the unit. MOBA's unit is superior than modernized RTS in that department.


You could include highly interesting abilities on units in an RTS and it would still be a completely different experience. The value of detailed micromanagement goes down as scales increase. It becomes more important to focus on the entire army's average outcome than the details of using any single interesting ability perfectly. RTS games can have elements of these things (muta, vulture moving shot, storms, reaver scarabs, for example). But their relative importance will decrease as any single game moves from order to disorder (increased game length ---> more things to keep track of, increased complexity and cognitive load; small scale micro fades out of relevance).

One could add: "So why don't we remove all these boring cognitive loads and focus on the fun stuff?"

Problem is, if you do, you're no longer really left with an RTS. You instead have what is called a MOBA/ARTS: a genre where all the boring parts of a classical RTS are removed. Someone already beat you to it.


If there is a way to refute this I can't see it. Sums up most of this thread.
Hark, what baseball through yonder window breaks?
Excludos
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Norway8001 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-05-27 21:58:24
May 27 2014 21:56 GMT
#931
On May 28 2014 06:45 Spaylz wrote:
WC3 was and is the greatest game of all time. That is all.


Dude, Total Annihilation..

I honestly think the sosial aspect is one of the main reasons. Sc2 felt very lonely, even while in a top-end clan/org. The second I left that there was nothing left for me in the game anymore. Even without friends in dota, you still communicate with your team..for better or worse. And usually you'll have or gain friends who you can play and share the experience with as you progress.
TaShadan
Profile Joined February 2010
Germany1965 Posts
May 27 2014 22:12 GMT
#932
Problem is, if you do, you're no longer really left with an RTS. You instead have what is called a MOBA/ARTS: a genre where all the boring parts of a classical RTS are removed. Someone already beat you to it.


I guess it depends on what you consider being "boring". I agree in general though. It might be impossible to please the casuals and the hardcores.
Total Annihilation Zero
WolfintheSheep
Profile Joined June 2011
Canada14127 Posts
May 27 2014 22:31 GMT
#933
On May 28 2014 07:12 TaShadan wrote:
Show nested quote +
Problem is, if you do, you're no longer really left with an RTS. You instead have what is called a MOBA/ARTS: a genre where all the boring parts of a classical RTS are removed. Someone already beat you to it.


I guess it depends on what you consider being "boring". I agree in general though. It might be impossible to please the casuals and the hardcores.


Casuals never played the RTS anyway. Actually, I would think SC2 has a much better conversion of buyers->ladder players than any other RTS proceeding it. Fact is that Player vs Player RTS was never very popular in pure percentages.

People arguing about how RTS games lost to MOBAs are missing the history. The MOBA audience was always there, and were always the dominant audience. That's why Battle.net was filled with far more Bound, RPG, DBZ maps, etc. than actual Starcraft.

Same with WC3. Custom maps were always more popular than ladder, and when a very well-made custom called DotA was made (and refined)...well, yeah.

But that's a dead horse too. SC2's Arcade isn't as useful, the customs aren't as addictive, and so on. But that only helps SC2 sales, and not SC2 e-sports.
Average means I'm better than half of you.
DoubleReed
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States4130 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-05-27 22:46:40
May 27 2014 22:40 GMT
#934
You know what I think would be interesting is an RTS that takes after MTG style of releasing sets/blocks. And what I mean by that is like every couple months units are added/modified/deleted to constantly shift the metagame around and tell a larger overarching story. Like lots of small expansion packs. The different races would essentially have a bunch of variations depending on their time period.

I suppose pros might not like it because competitiveness by nature tries to have the same game each time. But I would think that the pros would just use certain blocks or patches to play if they really wanted a more constant experience. Like they would play specifically "Daggoth-era Zerg" or "Confederate Terran."
Incognoto
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
France10239 Posts
May 27 2014 22:50 GMT
#935
On May 28 2014 06:55 Thieving Magpie wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 28 2014 06:18 LaLuSh wrote:
In my opinion the reason MOBAs appeal to a wider audience is simple:

You control one hero/champion and you have to keep track of (usually) a maximum of 4 abilities. That is the extent to which YOU can influence a game.

You suck but you still want to play multiplayer? No problems. You can play an entire multiplayer game while being completely centered on your own viewpoint if you're so inclined. It won't be a shit experience. You only have to focus on one character and how that character interacts with the game world.

I'm not looking down at MOBAs. I play dota2 myself instead of SC2. And there's plenty of room for complexity in MOBAs if you're the type of player that's looking for it. The basics of the multiplayer MOBA experience is very cognitively manageable is what I'm trying to say.

RTS games are an entirely different beast when it comes to multiplayer. Even experienced players will have their hands full simply fighting against the complexity of the genre itself. Avoiding food/supply blocks, managing economy to the extent required, creeping patterns, production, micro. The battle with the game is hardly overcomeable by itself. Throw in a human opponent in there and you will be guaranteed to be cognitively overloaded. It's not a genre that lends itself well to just casually doing your thing and "enjoying yourself" (unless it's singleplayer).

I don't disagree with what BigJ and Xiphos say. I just think there is no way you can make a classical RTS game that sells widely AND is highly replayable (meaning it will retain those players in its multiplayer experience, or have a chance to expand upon its playerbase due to the multiplayer experience).

In reaching out to the part of the player base that enjoy sitting quietly building up, "making choices", and occasionally battling when it suits them -- the RTS genre needs to change. Those players already play singeplayer. Just need to give them a (content-driven) reason to play multiplayer.

On May 28 2014 03:02 Xiphos wrote:
Yeah micro is only fun if you have highly potential result with interesting abilities on the unit. MOBA's unit is superior than modernized RTS in that department.


You could include highly interesting abilities on units in an RTS and it would still be a completely different experience. The value of detailed micromanagement goes down as scales increase. It becomes more important to focus on the entire army's average outcome than the details of using any single interesting ability perfectly. RTS games can have elements of these things (muta, vulture moving shot, storms, reaver scarabs, for example). But their relative importance will decrease as any single game moves from order to disorder (increased game length ---> more things to keep track of, increased complexity and cognitive load; small scale micro fades out of relevance).

One could add: "So why don't we remove all these boring cognitive loads and focus on the fun stuff?"

Problem is, if you do, you're no longer really left with an RTS. You instead have what is called a MOBA/ARTS: a genre where all the boring parts of a classical RTS are removed. Someone already beat you to it.


If there is a way to refute this I can't see it. Sums up most of this thread.


Competitively, you can't refute this.

If you're playing a casual FFA with friends it's literally: "i'm building shit don't attack me" and everyone agrees and chats in the mean time. generally speaking, it's possible to play online with other people without the competitive mind-set; you just have to make sure the other players agree. It's pretty much like single-player except that you're online, with your friends and you use diplomacy to not get attacked.
maru lover forever
Eek858
Profile Joined May 2014
United States1 Post
May 27 2014 23:32 GMT
#936
I think Blizzard should do more to promote the fact that you can now try Starcraft for free. I played other Blizzard games, but didn't have an interest in buying Starcraft because I had not played RTS games since back in the Age of Empires days. I didn't think it was the game for me.

But, I tried the free version a few months ago and now I'm hooked. I've bought the games and I'm really getting into all the nuances the game has to offer. I think the most surprising part is how much I enjoy the pro scene. I regularly watch TB's and Day[9]'s coverage. It's fun to watch a pro game and then try to emulate it(very poorly) in my own game. I wish I would have found this game years ago.

I would think there are more players out there like me who would give the game a try if they were aware that it wouldn't cost them anything. Maybe it could expose more people to how much fun the game is and how great the community/esports scene can be. I don't think the game needs to change. Maybe just how you get new people aware of the game. Large learning curves aren't a bad thing and there will always be a market looking for a game like Starcraft.
aZealot
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
New Zealand5447 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-05-28 09:41:30
May 28 2014 09:01 GMT
#937
On May 28 2014 06:55 Thieving Magpie wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 28 2014 06:18 LaLuSh wrote:
In my opinion the reason MOBAs appeal to a wider audience is simple:

You control one hero/champion and you have to keep track of (usually) a maximum of 4 abilities. That is the extent to which YOU can influence a game.

You suck but you still want to play multiplayer? No problems. You can play an entire multiplayer game while being completely centered on your own viewpoint if you're so inclined. It won't be a shit experience. You only have to focus on one character and how that character interacts with the game world.

I'm not looking down at MOBAs. I play dota2 myself instead of SC2. And there's plenty of room for complexity in MOBAs if you're the type of player that's looking for it. The basics of the multiplayer MOBA experience is very cognitively manageable is what I'm trying to say.

RTS games are an entirely different beast when it comes to multiplayer. Even experienced players will have their hands full simply fighting against the complexity of the genre itself. Avoiding food/supply blocks, managing economy to the extent required, creeping patterns, production, micro. The battle with the game is hardly overcomeable by itself. Throw in a human opponent in there and you will be guaranteed to be cognitively overloaded. It's not a genre that lends itself well to just casually doing your thing and "enjoying yourself" (unless it's singleplayer).

I don't disagree with what BigJ and Xiphos say. I just think there is no way you can make a classical RTS game that sells widely AND is highly replayable (meaning it will retain those players in its multiplayer experience, or have a chance to expand upon its playerbase due to the multiplayer experience).

In reaching out to the part of the player base that enjoy sitting quietly building up, "making choices", and occasionally battling when it suits them -- the RTS genre needs to change. Those players already play singeplayer. Just need to give them a (content-driven) reason to play multiplayer.

On May 28 2014 03:02 Xiphos wrote:
Yeah micro is only fun if you have highly potential result with interesting abilities on the unit. MOBA's unit is superior than modernized RTS in that department.


You could include highly interesting abilities on units in an RTS and it would still be a completely different experience. The value of detailed micromanagement goes down as scales increase. It becomes more important to focus on the entire army's average outcome than the details of using any single interesting ability perfectly. RTS games can have elements of these things (muta, vulture moving shot, storms, reaver scarabs, for example). But their relative importance will decrease as any single game moves from order to disorder (increased game length ---> more things to keep track of, increased complexity and cognitive load; small scale micro fades out of relevance).

One could add: "So why don't we remove all these boring cognitive loads and focus on the fun stuff?"

Problem is, if you do, you're no longer really left with an RTS. You instead have what is called a MOBA/ARTS: a genre where all the boring parts of a classical RTS are removed. Someone already beat you to it.


If there is a way to refute this I can't see it. Sums up most of this thread.


Agreed.

And, by the by, just to add another example of the crazy goodness in the arcade, a FPS shooter:


KT best KT ~ 2014
urboss
Profile Joined September 2013
Austria1223 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-05-28 09:42:41
May 28 2014 09:34 GMT
#938
On May 28 2014 06:18 LaLuSh wrote:
In my opinion the reason MOBAs appeal to a wider audience is simple:

You control one hero/champion and you have to keep track of (usually) a maximum of 4 abilities. That is the extent to which YOU can influence a game.

You suck but you still want to play multiplayer? No problems. You can play an entire multiplayer game while being completely centered on your own viewpoint if you're so inclined. It won't be a shit experience. You only have to focus on one character and how that character interacts with the game world.

I'm not looking down at MOBAs. I play dota2 myself instead of SC2. And there's plenty of room for complexity in MOBAs if you're the type of player that's looking for it. The basics of the multiplayer MOBA experience is very cognitively manageable is what I'm trying to say.

RTS games are an entirely different beast when it comes to multiplayer. Even experienced players will have their hands full simply fighting against the complexity of the genre itself. Avoiding food/supply blocks, managing economy to the extent required, creeping patterns, production, micro. The battle with the game is hardly overcomeable by itself. Throw in a human opponent in there and you will be guaranteed to be cognitively overloaded. It's not a genre that lends itself well to just casually doing your thing and "enjoying yourself" (unless it's singleplayer).

I don't disagree with what BigJ and Xiphos say. I just think there is no way you can make a classical RTS game that sells widely AND is highly replayable (meaning it will retain those players in its multiplayer experience, or have a chance to expand upon its playerbase due to the multiplayer experience).

In reaching out to the part of the player base that enjoy sitting quietly building up, "making choices", and occasionally battling when it suits them -- the RTS genre needs to change. Those players already play singeplayer. Just need to give them a (content-driven) reason to play multiplayer.

On May 28 2014 03:02 Xiphos wrote:
Yeah micro is only fun if you have highly potential result with interesting abilities on the unit. MOBA's unit is superior than modernized RTS in that department.


You could include highly interesting abilities on units in an RTS and it would still be a completely different experience. The value of detailed micromanagement goes down as scales increase. It becomes more important to focus on the entire army's average outcome than the details of using any single interesting ability perfectly. RTS games can have elements of these things (muta, vulture moving shot, storms, reaver scarabs, for example). But their relative importance will decrease as any single game moves from order to disorder (increased game length ---> more things to keep track of, increased complexity and cognitive load; small scale micro fades out of relevance).

One could add: "So why don't we remove all these boring cognitive loads and focus on the fun stuff?"

Problem is, if you do, you're no longer really left with an RTS. You instead have what is called a MOBA/ARTS: a genre where all the boring parts of a classical RTS are removed. Someone already beat you to it.

You wrote a good post, however the last sentence doesn't make any sense.
It wouldn't be a "problem" that "RTS" wouldn't be name of the game any more.
A majority of the people couldn't care less if you call it "RTS" or "MOBA".
The casuals play a game as long as it is fun.

The initial idea of the OP to mix the two genres still stands:
Make a MOBA, but instead of minions and have each player control multiple units.

Let the players choose heroes and units at the beginning of the match.

Here is how one team could look like (using SC2 units for demonstration only):
Player 1: Jimmy Raynor + 4 hydras + 2 hellions + 1 immortal
Player 2: Tychus Findley + 2 medivac + 3 reaper + 4 hellbats
Player 3: Sarah Kerrigan + 8 zerglings + 2 raven + 2 high templar
Player 4: Rory Swann + 6 marines + 2 sentry + 1 archon

Heroes and units resurrect after some delay.

Now, obviously this won't be anything like a MOBA.
It also won't be anything like a traditional RTS.
It will have its own set of strategies and tactics.
LittleRagey
Profile Joined August 2011
United States24 Posts
May 28 2014 09:50 GMT
#939
What you're proposing sounds more of a MOBA having a couple of StarCraft aspects introduced. That's not the main problem though. The larger problem is that this idea is just making MOBA's a little different, and if you go the other way by just introducing MOBA aspects to StarCraft then you're just making StarCraft into a MOBA. The strategic aspects of StarCraft and MOBA games are so radically different that you can't make a hybrid game. While playing StarCraft you have to deal with the micro of your units, the macro of your economy, and the knowledge of what your opponent is doing. That of course is very general. Now for MOBA games, the strategic depth mostly lies in pure game knowledge. You have to know what your opponent's heroes are, what their spells are, and what their heroes intended purpose is. Of course that is also a generalization. Apologies if this, or some form of what I've said has been posted.
urboss
Profile Joined September 2013
Austria1223 Posts
May 28 2014 09:55 GMT
#940
Yes, and who gives a shit if it is a MOBA with RTS elements?
It is only a handful of hardcore players like on TL that really care.
Let the casuals decide!
Prev 1 45 46 47 48 49 81 Next
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Replay Cast
17:00
GSL 2025 Ro8 Group B
GuMiho vs ReynorLIVE!
PiGStarcraft544
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft544
ZombieGrub113
ProTech101
JuggernautJason87
Nathanias 35
StarCraft: Brood War
Sexy 13
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm56
Counter-Strike
Fnx 2255
Stewie2K1072
Foxcn383
flusha380
byalli329
kRYSTAL_28
Super Smash Bros
C9.Mang0176
Heroes of the Storm
Liquid`Hasu608
Other Games
summit1g8875
tarik_tv8188
Grubby4464
shahzam350
RuFF_SC234
ViBE15
Organizations
StarCraft 2
ESL.tv129
Other Games
BasetradeTV24
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 21 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• musti20045 46
• Hupsaiya 29
• davetesta20
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Migwel
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
StarCraft: Brood War
• HerbMon 45
• blackmanpl 23
• Diggity8
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• Ler74
League of Legends
• Doublelift7615
• TFBlade1231
Other Games
• imaqtpie1385
• Scarra1017
Upcoming Events
RSL Revival
24m
OSC
1h 24m
GSL Code S
10h 54m
herO vs GuMiho
Classic vs Cure
BSL 2v2 ProLeague S3
20h 24m
OSC
1d 1h
Korean StarCraft League
1d 4h
RSL Revival
1d 11h
SOOP
1d 18h
HeRoMaRinE vs Astrea
BSL Season 20
1d 19h
UltrA vs Radley
spx vs RaNgeD
Online Event
2 days
Clem vs ShoWTimE
herO vs MaxPax
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
Percival vs TriGGeR
ByuN vs Solar
Clem vs Spirit
MaxPax vs Jumy
BSL Season 20
2 days
TerrOr vs HBO
Tarson vs Spine
RSL Revival
2 days
BSL Season 20
2 days
MadiNho vs dxtr13
Gypsy vs Dark
Wardi Open
3 days
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
Replay Cast
5 days
The PondCast
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL Nation Wars Season 2
PiG Sty Festival 6.0
Calamity Stars S2

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
ASL Season 19
YSL S1
BSL 2v2 Season 3
BSL Season 20
China & Korea Top Challenge
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
2025 GSL S1
Heroes 10 EU
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
ECL Season 49: Europe
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025
YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025
PGL Bucharest 2025
BLAST Open Spring 2025
ESL Pro League S21

Upcoming

NPSL S3
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLAN 2025
K-Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
HSC XXVII
Championship of Russia 2025
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2025
2025 GSL S2
DreamHack Dallas 2025
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.