Strategy game in real-time

The strategy game in real-time ( STR , or RTS for the denomination of the kind in English: real-time strategy ) is a type of particular Strategy game which in particular and in opposition to the Strategy game with the turn by turn does not use an arbitrary time division out of turns of play, it is not however the only element which makes of a strategy game a STR.

This article speaks precisely about the strategy game in real-time such as one hears it today. Other kinds of strategic plays are played in real-time like the Wargame S or the God range S and, generally of a less strategic measurement, the plays of simulation and the plays of management, it is not the framework of this article.

Presentation

Definition

To include/understand real-time, it is advisable to describe the system with the turn by turn then to explain the differences of them.

In the turn by turn, therefore, the exit of a confrontation is solved by stages, a combat while succeeding another, so as to leave with each player time to reflect on the next stage. A confrontation is then solved by successive and isolated combat. Of this common base are then defined the rules and the mechanisms which come to be grafted with each play, like the system of points of life, of costs of displacement, range, the number of units which can move during a turn, etc

But the difficulty which arises when one wants to simulate realistic confrontations is that in general, the units do not wait until it is their turn to tackle and manage the confrontation of several units at the same time and in a realistic way comes under the field of impossible for the human being, until the invention of the Processeur S. Those, programmed so as to simulate a confrontation can from now on manage the displacement of several units simultaneously and solve the engagements in a simultaneous and rigorous way within the framework of a video game. One calls that the real-time .

Characteristics

Exclusive of the field of the Video game, this type of play requires in addition to the reflection, a certain amount of reactivity, even of reflexes for the fastest plays. Of relatively recent creation, the kind was initiated at the beginning of the Années 1990 thanks to the play Dune 2 created in 1992 by the studio Westwood. Gradually, the strategy games in real-time acquired a popularity higher than the strategy games with the turn by turn near the general public, with licenses headlights such as the series of the Warcraft of the studios Blizzard Entertainment or that of the Age off Empires of the studios Ensemble Studios. In the specialized press, these plays are often called STR for strategy in real-time , (one also often finds English name RTS for real time strategy ).

This style of play is particularly developed on PC, the mouse and the contributing keyboard has to make the kind more accessible than by a lever. Although this type of play is practiced mainly on Internet or at the time of the parts in Lan (LAN), the development of the Artificial intelligence and the increasingly professional scenarisation of the plays make it possible to the player to carry out true campaigns.

History

1983 - 1992: beginnings

The kind of the video game recognized today as STR is the one long period result of evolution and improvement. To identify the very first STR is problematic because one tends to judge the plays by their similarities with the recent plays, and to try to find very first play STR before the kind is established and recognized like tel. Considérer plays ancestors with kind STR, without those being launched under this name, nor which they were conceived to be confronted with the modern criteria of the STR, it is like testing something in a shoe-horn created subsequently (in short, they are not truths STR as it today is heard). The kind initially evolved/moved separately in the United Kingdom and in North America, then a world and unified tradition gradually emerged. Because of various interpretations which one can draw from the history, certain points can be debatable, and the contradictory references can beings.

In the United Kingdom, one can make begin the kind starting from Stonkers of John Gibson, published in 1983 by Imagine Software on ZX Spectrum, and Nether Earth published on ZX Spectrum in 1987. In North America, the first retrospectively classified play as STR by several sources is The Ancient Art off War , (1984), conceived by Evryware (Dave Murry and Barry Murry) and published by Brøderbund, then its continuation The Ancient Art off War At Sea in 1987. Some amateurs, place Utopia on Intellivision of Don Daglow (1982) like the first STR (although the play is with the turn by turn), but certain elements currently considered as characteristic of the STR are secondary in this play, than it is thus more correct to regard as first play of simulation or god range . None of these plays, in an adapted way, would be characterized today like STR because they miss important components in their Gameplay - mainly, the construction of buildings and the extraction of resources - but they make it possible to take the control of territory and to take bases allowing an increased contribution of troops.

Herzog Zwei on Mega Drive in 1989 and Battle Master on Amiga and Atari ST in 1990 are perhaps the relatively complete predecessors of the modern STR. The STR is recognized a kind with whole share with the exit of Dune II of Westwood Studios in 1992, an exit of play which one can say that it launched a golden age of plays STR. Its success encouraged the development of plays such Stronghold (1993), Warcraft (1994), Command & Conquer (1995), Total Annihilation (1997), Dark Reign (1997), Age off Empires (1997), and StarCraft (1998); a core group of plays, more or less recognized today like “normalizes” kind ( to see the following section ).

1992 - 1998: installation of a popular concept

Although plays STR, as higher explained, had an extended history, some plays more than of others were used to define popular perception like plays STR and pre-empted plays STR in general, and the plays left between 1992 and 1998 (which are now old) in particular developed by Westwood Studios and Blizzard Entertainment contributed to that. Dune II: the Battle of Arrakis of Westwood (1992) introduced all alone has to him all the central concepts of modern plays STR and is thus the first play which is regarded today as “true” plays STR, is recognized and acclaimed by the popular conscience, and as such acted like the first significant prototype with the “modern” kind of the STR. The originators of Dune 2 were inspired mainly by simulation in real-time SimCity (1989) and by their preceding play Battletech: The Crescent Hawk' S Revenge (1988), a Wargame in real-time without the concept of the buildings. Westwood Studios, undertaken ressuscity at Petroglyph, recently conceived the play suitably carried out Star Wars: Worsen At War .

While Westwood created the base and provided a prototype for the plays of STR with Dune II , Blizzard Entertainment, between 1994 and 1998, is recognized to be particularly responsible for the establishment of the form and of the contents of the kind such as one hears it today. Their famous titles of Warcraft , Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994) and its continuation Warcraft II: Tides off Darkness (1995), refined the concepts present in Dune II and one considers that they started the era of the contemporary STR by his treatment of elements budding with the kind and by the inauguration of his popularity. With Command & Conquer (1995) and Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996) - whereas Westwood provided the model and the original prototype, Blizzard the form of what to date is identified as plays of STR - and finally StarCraft (1998) takes shape the standard gauge on which all the new handsets of STR are still compared.

1998 at our days: improvement of the gameplay and passage to the 3D

It is interesting to note that the contents - and improvements - kind remain mainly unchanged since 1995: the improvements of concepts in the new handsets tend to being quantitative (more units, larger charts, grounds in 3D…) rather than qualitative (of the conceptual innovations), and the new handsets generally concentrate with the refinement of successful aspects of plays predecessors. For example, here some improvements of gameplay : the play acclaimed Total Annihilation of Cavedog Entertainment (1997) distills the general principles of Command & Conquer in a gameplay purified mixing more action (he is recognized however less), and uses for the first time of the units in 3D in a play of STR. In 1997, Microsoft tries to combine elements of Civilization with the concept of the STR in the play Age off Empires by presenting various technological periods, later Empire Earth (2001) of the Stainless Steel Studios is more refined combination. The series Cossacks: European Wars of GSC Range World research the innovation by leading the kind in another direction, making climb the number of the individuals (units) with nearly ten thousand. Rise off Nations of Big Huge Games (2003) tried to integrate several of the concepts of the strategy games into the turn by turn with those of the STR.

The STR one of the kinds most resistant to was advanced 3D, Homeworld (1999) and Warcraft III: Reign off Chaos (2003) are first successful titles STR in 3D. Although separate in the four years time, there is between the two only very few plays STR in 3D to have collected a significant popularity. The plays to use graphics entirely in 3D appeared some time earlier, after several attempts, primarily due to the control of the camera and with the weak visual angle available, it is only recently that the 3D became a standard. In 2006, the majority of exits STR to large budget tend to being entirely 3D but use an visual angle constrained with an aim of reducing the complexity of the user interface.

Moreover, relatively few kinds emerged from (or the competition with) the STR. The plays of tactic in real-time ( Wargame in real-time), a kind superficially similar (see also below), emerged about 1995 but result probably more from the improvement of the material that of a reaction to the STR. In 1998 Activision tried to combine the STR and the subjective plays of shooting in Battlezone , which received a very good criticism but beyond a continuation then of Hostile Toilets of Rage Ranges Limited (2002), the kind generated only few disciples.

Future

Plays STR continue to undergo improvements in the tactics, and some other incursions into other kinds continuous with being tested. The next exit of Small channel and Fall: Civilizations At War which will make it possible to the player to control during a certain time a particular unit, will make it possible to influence the engagements thanks to a subjective sight. Company off Heroes should make it possible to combine an entirely destructible environment and a Moteur powerful physique with a development of the aspect strategy taking again for that the improvements introduced by other plays on the aspect of the microcontrôle. This should allow an new approach of the tactic in plays STR. Supreme To order , left in February 2007, will try to present the strategy has very large scales, such as it still seen forever in a STR. As that was the tendency the ten preceding years, the next video games of STR seem to improve the Gameplay without for that revolutionizing the kind.

General principles

The STR use mechanisms varied to pack to them Gameplay

These plays often rest on two types of management, namely the macrocontrôle or stock management , often simplistic, even optional to let the player concentrate on the wars which it must carry out and the microcontrôle or microphone-management or management of the combat . Plays like Ground Control or Blitzkrieg do not impose any basic management but only one system of reinforcements. Sometimes plays like Empire Earth or Stronghold are based mainly on the management of the base and make it possible to avoid the armed conflicts by using the diplomacy. Other plays, like the series of The Settlers, force very complex economic chains in order to set up of the armies, binding economy and tactic closely, thus imposing a balance between the economic part and the military part of the play.

The distance compared to the ground of the camera influences the Jouabilité directly. Indeed, when the camera is moved away, it is in general with an aim of making it possible to the player to direct armies made up of several hundreds to several thousands of units (one can quote Cossacks for most known). In this case, the player must manage the troop movements in his globality and intervenes only seldom on the level of the unit. More recently, it appeared plays whose camera is stuck to the action ( Dune 2 , The Gladiators , Warcraft III …). The units are in general more resistant and the player to the possibility of managing them separately (in the outgoing ones of mélée when they are weakening for example). One calls that of microphone-management and these are the plays which have the most popularity in tournament. Very many STR however generally use a hybrid approach, i.e. the camera is brought closer to the action but the number and the low resistance of the deployed units not allowing an easy microgestion ( Age off Empires , StarCraft , Total Annihilation …)

Macro-management

Macro-management consists in managing the resources as a whole. To choose to increase its base, to build a new base, to launch the mass production of a type of precise unit, to direct its economy towards a resource specifies or towards a type of precise unit correspond to acts of macro-management.

Microphone-management

Microphone-management as for it corresponds, in the plays which allow it, with management units at the individual level in order to obtain an advantage in the general course of the battle. The plays which allow such a practice in general propose units whose price is rather high so that the loss of this one is sufficiently penalizing to encourage the players to keep them in life. For that, the Game designer will have taken care to give them sufficient resistance so that the player has time to leave them the fray before they succumb.

Certain video games of strategy, as Warcraft III center to them Gameplay on microphone-management by proposing single and very powerful units, the hero , which thanks to a system of experiment become increasingly strong if they are managed suitably by the player. He is also possible there to influence directly the exit of a battle in particular if the player leaves the fray the units damaged to re-enlist them once they are not any more the target of the unfavourable shootings, or precisely by focusing its attacks on the enemy units so that the adversary does not have time to leave them the fray.

Other plays, like Cossacks or Age off Empires do not allow microphone-management bus the armies are made up of a too significant number of units with not enough resistance so that it is possible to manage them individually. The strategy then consists in having a comprehensive view of the battle, to manage the battalions as a whole, to build the good units at the good moment and in sufficient quantity, and to attack at the good place.

to have a direct repercussion

• At the time of a battle, microphone-management consists in advancing or move back a unit according to the points of life that it remains to him.
• At the time of a retirement, a unit which does not have much any more of points of life can be sacrificed by its clean allied so that the enemy does not gain points of experiment.
• At the time of a battle, an army can carry out what one calls x-ray a , which makes it possible all its members to tackle only one and even unit with an aim of killing her quickly. This allows, at the time of a battle where an army feels that it can lose, to make to téléporter a hero (and his army) on which several units will have concentrated, giving a few minutes of respite to the minority army.
• microphone-management is also the action making it possible to carry out several things at the same time. For example when a hero tackles only an enemy base, it can make creeper the remainder of its army in order to gain points of experiment, while continuing to build its base.

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• Manufacturing costs or of formation.
• Time of manufacture or convoying.
• Speed of movement.
• Points of life.
• Forces and weaknesses according to the types of weapons faced according to the principle paper/stone/scissors.
• Power of attack.
• Rate of “shooting”.
• Carried shooting.
• Carried visual.
• Autonomy while Carburizing, Ammunition, or in Food, (or Operational Range Operating in the case of aircraft not ravitaillables in flight).
• special Capacities (armament secondary, amphibious, no-claims bonus of command or formation, camouflage, capture, collection, construction, conversion, detection, climbing, hiding, put in formation, supply, repair, sap, care, transport, visualization).

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Elementary actions

These actions and the order in which they appear can strongly vary according to the plays.

• Construction of a principal building of production.

• Collection of resource Collecting S.
• Increase in the quantity of S to accelerate the production.
• Exploration of the chart to locate the site of the resources, the places strategic and the positions and progressions of the adversaries.
• Construction of the structures of research, defense, and production of military units.
• Beginning of research and improvements of productivity and the armament.
• Capture and defense of the maximum of sites of extraction of resources to maintain a contribution growing of resources.
• diplomatic Alliances.
• Capture or destruction of the collectors of the adversaries to cut their provisioning or Blockade.
• Capture or destruction of the military units and the buildings of production.
• Tables Statistical S and comparative graphs of the detailed chronological evolution of the scores economic, military, etc

Towards a professional practice

Appendices

• chronological List of the strategy games in real-time

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