I think I'm finished with C&C Generals...

[SOAPboy]

Both of these look to be fucking awesome.
Anyone tried Act of War? I'm playing it a bit now, and it's nice-looking, but nothing really impressive gameplay-wise as of yet.

Never gets any better either..

I think I'll just ditch it.

Played Ground Control II?

Oddly no.. I keep getting told to tho, im just to fucking lazy to get a copy

[Mr.Magnetichead]

Played Ground Control II?

Yeah. It's not very good. Looks really nice though.

[Foo]

RTS games are always tricky though - the AI is always predictable and not much of a challenge, and playing against random people on the internet is about as enjoyable as pounding your head repeatedly into a concrete wall. Playing against people you know is a fucking blast though.

I agree in every respect with this. Recently I've been playing this game so much because I have a friend with an alienware lappie who comes over and we play a few games now and then. Online game is a joke, and so's the AI.

[Nightshade]

Played Ground Control II?

Yeah. It's not very good. Looks really nice though.

I've played the first two missions, and nice graphics with blah gameplay really seem to be the trend.
I miss the way the original C&C kept me interested back on the PS1.

[Foo]

I don't think either one has anything to do with each other.

An RTS can have great gameplay with great graphics. If a FPS focuses only on graphics and neglets gameplay, then that game will be no fun to play either.

The transition to 3D in RTSes is not a bad thing IMO, as long as the camera isn't free roaming and all you can do is rotate the battlefield and zoom in/out.

Saying that RTSes aren't meant for 3D is nonsense. If you coded a 3D engine but made it so that the camera is always fixed in the same position, the feeling of it would be identical to a 2D sprite based engine.

again, agree.

Back in the days of Q1 some guys I knew converted the game to an RTS... they fixed the camera to a height above the level, and had bases and units and buildings and everything.

It was practically what generals is today, and didn't look half bad in openGL.

Talk about pioneers. Sadly, they never finished it up beyond an early alpha type thing.

[Mr.Magnetichead]

Yeah my friends and I used to pound the shit out of C&C on the PS1 before I got RE for PC.

[Mr.Magnetichead]

I don't think either one has anything to do with each other.

An RTS can have great gameplay with great graphics. If a FPS focuses only on graphics and neglets gameplay, then that game will be no fun to play either.

The transition to 3D in RTSes is not a bad thing IMO, as long as the camera isn't free roaming and all you can do is rotate the battlefield and zoom in/out.

Saying that RTSes aren't meant for 3D is nonsense. If you coded a 3D engine but made it so that the camera is always fixed in the same position, the feeling of it would be identical to a 2D sprite based engine.

Strogg War? Because that was Q3. Was there one for Q1 aswell? Do you remember the name?
again, agree.

Back in the days of Q1 some guys I knew converted the game to an RTS... they fixed the camera to a height above the level, and had bases and units and buildings and everything.

It was practically what generals is today, and didn't look half bad in openGL.

Talk about pioneers. Sadly, they never finished it up beyond an early alpha type thing.

[Foo]

Defeat In Detail. These guys: http://www.planetquake.com/elf/

[dzjepp]

Can't go wrong with Rise of Nations and the xpack.

[CrinklyArse]

Red Alert 2 :icon14::icon14::icon14:

[glossy]

I don't think either one has anything to do with each other.

An RTS can have great gameplay with great graphics. If a FPS focuses only on graphics and neglets gameplay, then that game will be no fun to play either.

The transition to 3D in RTSes is not a bad thing IMO, as long as the camera isn't free roaming and all you can do is rotate the battlefield and zoom in/out.

Saying that RTSes aren't meant for 3D is nonsense. If you coded a 3D engine but made it so that the camera is always fixed in the same position, the feeling of it would be identical to a 2D sprite based engine.

Technically, RA2 was in 3d because it incorporated sloped surfaces (and rendered these sloped surfaces as three dimentional quads), but I'm more referring to the fact that if you are going to do a 'classical RTS', there are only two dimentions involved.

Every true-3d RTS game i've seen with 3d models as units, etc., looks worse than sprite-based RA2 units, it runs considerably worse, the camera rotation and control is often ridiculous... I'm not even sure how to word this. Once developers fully immerse the game in the extra dimensions, they want to add all kinds of fancy stuff, which ruins the game with overcomplication, i think.

Simplicity is key. When you want unit A (or squad A, for that matter) to go from one place to another, you don't want to manouver a camera, select, move camera, rotate, zoom, order the move.

I'm not really saying that "3d RTS games could never happen well", more that every implementation of them so far has been rubbish.

You should try Dawn of War. It's fully 3D but you can leave the camera in the default spot and you won't miss out on anything. The grahpics are fantastic, the units look brutal and if something explodes... well, the sight of those explosions make you feel them in your stomach, they're that intense.

Gameplay is brought back to simple basics. You can really focus on the action.

The single player campaign is a bit pants and very short, but skirmishes against the AI are great, but it truely shines when you play with or against friends.

i will surely give it a shot, thanks

[Pext]

there's some warcraft 3 mod i'm playing dayly:

footmen wars

it's quite a bit different from normal RTS games:
it's 3v3v3v3, every player has a base that spawns units over time. you get money for killing units and that's about it.
of course there is teching, upgrading, heroes, items, etc...
plenty of tactics and loads of fun :icon14:
games are usually between 15min - if you're playing noobs - and up to 1.5h if your enemies are at the same level (what rarely happens)

[losCHUNK]

Red Alert 2 :icon14::icon14::icon14:

hows it look now ? i put resi evil 2 back on over memphs house the other week and just looking at it ruined all my memories of that game

i liked that game alot and like RA2 more, so dont want to fire it up again and realise it looks about the same as my ass after a curry

[CrinklyArse]

ye, RA2 will always be the shiz i don't really mind how it looks cos i still enjoy it the occasional time i put it on.

[Mr.Magnetichead]

Red Alert 2 :icon14::icon14::icon14:

hows it look now ? i put resi evil 2 back on over memphs house the other week and just looking at it ruined all my memories of that game

i liked that game alot and like RA2 more, so dont want to fire it up again and realise it looks about the same as my ass after a curry

RA2 looks fine as it's pixels
Ramp up the res and it's all good

And it's really great to have 200 teeny tiny little soldiers in oldskool RTSs

Theres also a res changer that can bump the games res up to however high your system can support. It rocks.

[.Chi]

Armies of Exigo
Age of Empires (II)

must be the AoE :icon32:

[glossy]

Just been playing Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War.

Awesome. I still stand by some of my statements -- RTS games in 'full' three dimentions might not work well, DoW is a lot more like starcraft, the placement and units all still work on a 2D grid, and the camera is quite limited in it's range. I have to play it in low-low detail (at 800x600 16-bit, no less) because my computer is shit, but plays well and the actual gameplay is slick.

Thanks Eraser for the reccommendation

[Mr.Magnetichead]

If you want a true 3d rts try homeworld.

[glossy]

i don't want a true 3d rts

[losCHUNK]

If you want a true 3d rts try homeworld.

fuck that game for a barrel of fun, my PC nearly went through the fucking wall when playing that, then when i finally un installed it i realised there was a patch to make it easier

good game but got on my tits way to much for me to look at it again

edit: i meant homeworld 2

never played the 1st 0.o

[axbaby]

i play RA2 sqirmishes every single day .. i've been trying to win on the hardest setting without getting a single unit killed.
my best game was 3 deaths 740 kills.

i play as france

[losCHUNK]

i play RA2 sqirmishes every single day .. i've been trying to win on the hardest setting without getting a single unit killed.
my best game was 3 deaths 740 kills.

i play as france

heh, that grand cannon owned, libya and its demo trucks owned for multi player though

i remember in 1 game i set the rally point for the vehicle yard ? in the other players base and qued up a shitload of trucks, ive never seen a guy so pissed off in my entire life