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Bruce Shelley On Future Of The RTS
Thanks to GameSpy for posting an interview with Bruce Shelley of Ensemble Studios, talking to the strategy game veteran about his work on the Age Of Empires series, as well as the forthcoming Age Of Mythology expansion. However, Shelley also talks about the future of real-time strategy titles, suggesting: "There is a risk that gamers will become tired of the explore/build up/fight model for RTS games. The industry has now explored most of the good topics for an RTS game. Future excitement has to be generated largely by gameplay innovation."
One new RTS im looking forward to is Homeworld 2. Its includeing the bundled unit system where you make one unit and it spits out a couple. You control the group together instead of the individual units. More groups you add together the more the AI will alter the tactics and formations for best effect. I think this will be the big new fad in RTS games. Small units with scaleing tactics and formations that respond dynamicaly to battlefield events and situations.
I played Shogun and I liked it a lot. Historical realism obviously limits what the designers could do with the gameplay. But at the same time that's a strength as well because it focuses conception. Beyond the paper-scissors-stone (or Janken Pow?--I recently read that children all over the world play that same hand game and have for centuries) of the unit types, the terrain was the most important part of the game. Gameplay revolved around the hills, bridges, and forests. I felt that it was unfortunate, however, that there were no objectives beyond the killing of enemy soldiers. The terrain was just important as a battlefield, and never as a piece of land that needed to be held. I haven't played Medieval War yet but I plan to.
I thought that the single most inventive thing about Shogun was a graphics engine that makes it look like you're fighting with huge armies when there is actual little individual troop action -- which is both realistic and fun.