RTS goodness

logorouge · Post by **logorouge** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:52 pm

Earlier this morning, I was checking my emails and saw a new message from GOG. "Nice, another weekend sale." I thought, not knowing what was going to happen a moment later. Then I saw Total Annihilation Commander Pack in the selection of games on sale... Oh. My. GOD!

This masterpiece from Cavedog Entertainment was released in 1997 and is still considered one of the best (if not the best) RTS ever released to this very day. Let's put it this way: I played for a long time games like Command & Conquer, Age of Empire, Starcraft, Warcraft, KKnD and more recently Supreme Commander, but TA can still throw me into a fanboy frenzy by its mere mention. It's just that good.

Sorry FlowerChild, but a part of your soon-to-be donation just went into buying this great re-release of TA. I'm sure you understand though. ;P
So if anyone is looking for me, I'll be in my HQ, building an obscene amount of metallic minions to wage war on an epic scale.

(In other news, Gas Powered Games is currently developing a game called Kings and Castles. Because TA: Kingdoms was such a success. lol...)

Brethern · Post by **Brethern** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 1:00 pm

Given gpg's track record Don't hold your breath for KnC being any good.

Necropolis · Post by **Necropolis** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 1:33 pm

There is a Supreme Commander 2....which is little more than a repackaged total annihilation with giant robots.

AmishGoat · Post by **AmishGoat** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:04 pm

Well I don't know if you would consider this on-topic, but since you guys are interested in "old" rts games, has anyone ever heard of empire earth?

Kwilt · Post by **Kwilt** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:09 pm

AmishGoat wrote:Well I don't know if you would consider this on-topic, but since you guys are interested in "old" rts games, has anyone ever heard of empire earth?

I dunno.

Is it immoral to send giant robots to attack cavemen?

(Also, the Russian campaign in that game was so frickin' awesome. I want more campaigns like that.)

logorouge · Post by **logorouge** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 6:38 pm

Necropolis wrote:There is a Supreme Commander 2....which is little more than a repackaged total annihilation with giant robots.

It should be said that SupCom 2 has little to do with Total Annihilation or even SupCom 1. The economy, upgrading system and the scale are completely different from its predecessors. If that's a good or a bad thing depends on who you ask, but if you ask me it's a very bad thing.

AmishGoat wrote:Well I don't know if you would consider this on-topic, but since you guys are interested in "old" rts games, has anyone ever heard of empire earth?

Oh, didn't know that one. Looks quite interesting. Thanks for sharing. ^^

AmishGoat · Post by **AmishGoat** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 7:29 pm

KWilt wrote:
AmishGoat wrote:Well I don't know if you would consider this on-topic, but since you guys are interested in "old" rts games, has anyone ever heard of empire earth?
I dunno.

Is it immoral to send giant robots to attack cavemen?

(Also, the Russian campaign in that game was so frickin' awesome. I want more campaigns like that.)

No of course it isn't immoral! (But it is fun!)

And that was my favorite as well, though I never did the last scenario.

Oh, didn't know that one. Looks quite interesting. Thanks for sharing. ^^

Glad to be of service.

MoRmEnGiL · Post by **MoRmEnGiL** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:10 am

Don't burn me, but I liked Supreme Commander 1 much more than T.A. :P

SupCom 2 was rubbish though. Horrible game. (Well it isn't horrible really, but it is a major let down after the epicness that was SupCom and Forged Alliance.)

logorouge · Post by **logorouge** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 9:48 am

MoRmEnGiL wrote:Don't burn me, but I liked Supreme Commander 1 much more than T.A. :P

Well, I think SupCom 1 is an amazing game too and I tend to miss the strategic zoom whenever I play other RTS. Plus, I try to avoid burning people for mere preference differences. :P

MoRmEnGiL · Post by **MoRmEnGiL** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:10 pm

I'm not really a big fan of RTS games, even though I've played a lot of them, and really enjoyed warcraft, starcraft, dawn of war, homeworld etc.

2 games though I find way too good and ahead for their times. One is SupCom 1, the other is Company of Heroes.

Supreme Commander had grand scale, put emphasis on intel, strategy played a huge factor, almost bigger than tactics, and had simply the best interface and controls I've ever seen in an RTS. (made me love the shift key)

CoH on the other hand was a deeply tactical game, with some pretty realistic mechanics implemented perfectly (amazing cover and morale system,destructible terrain,weapon options to name a few) and had a lot of character.

SupCom2 already did away with everything I loved in the first one. I only hope CoH2 stands up to its name.

Necropolis · Post by **Necropolis** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:34 pm

I've played nearly every RTS of note, and I still continue to play Age of Empires II from time to time. More recently there was R.U.S.E., which was really interesting, but lacked long term replayability, mostly due to poor AI. World in Conflict was ball-grabbingly awesome, and if you want a real challenge, try Act of War: High Treason. Speaking of which, there appears to be another Act of War out, which I might just have to try....

Noodlerex · Post by **Noodlerex** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:42 pm

My favourite RTS was always Empires Dawn of the modern world, I don't really play many RTS games anymore but I'll still load it up from time to time.

AmishGoat · Post by **AmishGoat** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 4:38 pm

Noodlerex wrote:My favourite RTS was always Empires Dawn of the modern world, I don't really play many RTS games anymore but I'll still load it up from time to time.

I've heard of that one, mainly because it was created around the same time the expansion for Empire Earth. How does it play? Similar to AoE? I've thought about getting it

Brethern · Post by **Brethern** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 6:07 pm

I adored Supcom and FA for the mass unit spam. It showed that waves of cheap units can be much better than a few strong units.

Supcom2 was meh.

Triskelli · Post by **Triskelli** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 12:02 pm

This is off the original topic, but this makes me squee with fanboyism:

It's a Medieval 2: Total War conversion mod that changes the units to all the different races from the Legend of Zelda series. I never thought about having a Zelda RTS before, but now I need to have one. =D

Kwilt · Post by **Kwilt** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 12:32 pm

Triskelli wrote:This is off the original topic, but this makes me squee with fanboyism:

It's a Medieval 2: Total War conversion mod that changes the units to all the different races from the Legend of Zelda series. I never thought about having a Zelda RTS before, but now I need to have one. =D

Triskelli, I bow at your feet. I now have a reason to install Medieval 2 onto my new gaming hub. And I will play the shit out of it.

Necropolis · Post by **Necropolis** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 2:06 pm

Holy shit that's a well-done mod. I am greatly impressed.

Total War kinda fits into it's own category, but Medieval II, Napoleon and Shogun II are all worth playing. Rome and its expansions were great at the time but feel a little dated now. And Empire shall not be mentioned.

Kwilt · Post by **Kwilt** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 2:37 pm

Necropolis wrote:Holy shit that's a well-done mod. I am greatly impressed.

Total War kinda fits into it's own category, but Medieval II, Napoleon and Shogun II are all worth playing. Rome and its expansions were great at the time but feel a little dated now. And Empire shall not be mentioned.

Aww... but Empire: Total War was pretty good for the expansiveness of it. I mean, it was nowhere near perfect, but at least you weren't restricted to the tiny bit of Eurasia and the deserts of Africa.

Also, I do gotta give Rome and the Barbarians expansion. It was my first TW game, and I get a little nostalgia shock when I play it.

Noodlerex · Post by **Noodlerex** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:36 pm

AmishGoat wrote: I've heard of that one, mainly because it was created around the same time the expansion for Empire Earth. How does it play? Similar to AoE? I've thought about getting it

Yeah similar to AoE but the factions were more diverse as in no two faction had the exact same units, it really was quite fun.

AmishGoat · Post by **AmishGoat** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:05 pm

Necropolis wrote:Holy shit that's a well-done mod. I am greatly impressed.

Total War kinda fits into it's own category, but Medieval II, Napoleon and Shogun II are all worth playing. Rome and its expansions were great at the time but feel a little dated now. And Empire shall not be mentioned.

Really? I've only heard that Napoleon was just Empire re-skinned, what did you find so much better about it? And you feel Rome is dated? That is by far my favorite (though to be fair, I've only played the others for a short while as I only own Empire and Rome)

Noodlerex wrote:
AmishGoat wrote: I've heard of that one, mainly because it was created around the same time the expansion for Empire Earth. How does it play? Similar to AoE? I've thought about getting it
Yeah similar to AoE but the factions were more diverse as in no two faction had the exact same units, it really was quite fun.

They only have UUs? How many factions were there? (And I suppose that means there is no custom creation of factions :( )

Necropolis · Post by **Necropolis** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:25 pm

Napoleon had a tighter focus, better unit representation, and a more interesting campaign. It had far more immersion as a result. When it comes to Rome, the units feel so much more static and without personality after games like Medieval came out. Capturing cities is mundane, the AI is poorer than later incarnations, and the battlefields lack definition. After being able to at least control ships, going back to triremes feels boring and extremely annoying, leaving a very important strategic asset on the sidelines. The atmosphere and variability of combat units is nice, and loving ancient Rome as I do I enjoy the environment, but game-wise it has suffered over the years.

Kwilt · Post by **Kwilt** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:37 pm

Since we're partially on the topic of the Total War series, anybody up for some hilariously epic fan fiction? I like to drop this into the laps of anybody who's ever played any of the games and knows the absurdity of how you can change historic landscapes.

For example, in Medieval II, what would happen if the Princes of Scotland made their way to the states of Egypt, conquered a large portion of the Arabs, and proceeded to build a kingdom that would last for nearly three generations unmatched by any power?

The answer is simply a click away.

logorouge · Post by **logorouge** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 4:32 pm

-La question du jour-

Are you (or were you) a Starcraft 1 player?
You can also specify if you were/are playing in a competitive manner or just for fun.

In my case, I was a Starcraft 1 player who played just for fun. I'm way too slow to even think about playing competitively. Creating custom campaigns and messing around in multiplayer hero-based maps is where I had the most fun.

AmishGoat · Post by **AmishGoat** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 8:52 pm

I played a little of it, though not to the same extent as aoe

Battlecat · Post by **Battlecat** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 10:46 pm

Ahhh RTS! I loved all the original RTS games from Dune 2, C&C right thorugh to Starcraft. They kind of started to fall off in quality after that although there are still the occasional gems.

But Total Annihilation always stood out as a game ahead of its time, the potential scale of the battles was incredible!

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