I just noticed the trend of RTS recently in term of gameplay and mechanic., My own though about RTS trend in term of gameplay and mechanic Options

[OrikoMikuni]

There are plenty of changes of the RTS through time which give me the mixed emotion about how the future of the RTS going to be. Here is a list of trends I think about the recent popular RTS:

-The removal of naval combat. For a long time I have came across a few RTS or mod with naval combat and I have to say it's rather a little dull (except RA3 but it's still not reached it's full potential in the tournament as I still see the majority of the combat are land based unit or air force, naval unit still play only a smaller role in the game). Although I already read a few posts about it I think the real problem come from the fact it lack the same depth of land based combat (more unit variety, more terrain variety, require an entire type of naval units which doesn't blend well to the land based combat which often happen even more ton the land than the sea).

-The simplify of jet or the removal of airfield. Act of War/Act of Aggression, Company of Hero series, Generals 2, they all removing the traditional formula of manually controlling your own jet either by easier mechanic or call-in support ability.

-More abilities to use, it's a double edged sword for the one who love more depth and the one who dislike too much micro (this is the part I got the most mixed feeling about this). The C&C during EA era also follow this path by giving each units their own special ability.

-More 'conventional' feel. Act of War series, Generals series, Company of Heroes series all getting closer to the realism of technology and less room for high tech or weird tech weapon. (I don't want to bash or anything but it's just my though about it)

-More depth in term of urban combat and infantry use. Act of War series give you more interaction with the infantry by using object as the covering or the building rooftop. Company of Heroes give you the cover mechanic of infantry along with many interesting mechanic to promote infantry play (which I loved the most for this concern of infantry combat).

-More symmetry design. I think the symmetry is necessary for the sake of balancing and a much easier time for designing new unit. Although some people said Starcraft reached it's famous due to the asymmetry design I think it won't happened in the future after seeing how much problematic to balance such kind of design.

-The turtle style are being more discouraged in the multiplayer while it's a big favorite thing in the casual and single player. CoH British is a good example of how polarizing the people opinion is, either they love it in the casual play or they hate it in the multiplayer and competitive. Although I love the turtle design of CoH British, Rots ECA and Brood War Mech Terran I know it will cause a very huge clash of two opposite playstyle in casual and competitive compared to the other common design like Powerhouse or Subversive (brute/heavy unit vs horde/mobility tactic).

-Different type of gameplay. Endwar and World in Conflict give you 3D style view along with other RTS which give you are different kind of design than these points I said earlier.

Although I know I'm not having the most knowledge and experience like you guys here but I would love to hear you guys opinions about the trend of RTS recently (pls don't give too much salt into this post since I want to see a healthy debate instead of another meaningless flame war again).

This post has been edited by OrikoMikuni: 30 Apr 2019, 11:43

[X1Destroy]

COH2 did away with bought veterancy and the Oberkommando West is similar to what you described. They have powerful infantry and vehicles but bad fuel and ammo income so they have to rely on salvaging wrecks. Any vehicle lost is a serious blow to them and unless this is a big team game the longer the game drags on the more disadvantage they get.

On the otherhand Russian and US are really powerful the later the game. Russian units are average but highly numerous and cheap. T34-85 is no joke. Theirs SU-76 and Zis AT gun can also be used as indirect artillery that can 1 hit kill your infantry squad, so at late game when they have so much ammo you're going to be in big trouble.
US even have unit withdrawal to get back fuel and manpower from vehicles you no longer need. Weapon racks allow double BAR or bazooka on every infantry squad. Yeah, bad news for everyone.

As for Brit, the Turtling got even worse. Counter artillery and bofor spam ruin the fun for everyone. People complained about OKW flak truck and they add a spammable turret for brit that can be garrisioned. Talk about trolling.