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Pause. Breathe. Think. Attack
AndyLee
Member Posts: 230
Turn based strategic gaming in general has been a long held and honored tradition. From the ancient game of Go to more modern cousins like Heroes of Might and Magic, the game itself has largely remained unchanged.
Sure, there’s a lot more bells and whistles in more recent editions, but the basic tenets of gameplay are the same. There is at least one opponent, limited resources, and gameplay takes place on some sort of space which can be broken down into grids. Oh, and an objective; to be more successful at the game than your opponent(s), usually by using the game rules in such a way to gather more of those limited resources while denying your opponent the same opportunity. There’s something very enticing about outthinking an opponent; to be able to say I crushed you using only the power of my mind. Ownage.
That’s why I specifically say turn based games here. Skill for an RTS is still mainly dominated by mental prowess at the upper tier, but at the beginner level, everything’s more about knowing build orders, hotkeys, APM, and ping. It’s always a frantic push to get units out as fast as you can and run through resources like a madman, because that is how you win in current RTSs
Turn based games, on the other hand, have a much higher twitch handicap built in. Regardless of how long the actual “turn” takes or if there is some sort of time limit, it is still nice to be able to take stock out of things outside of the heat of battle. You can develop elaborate gambits, ruses, and assaults the likes of which are rarely seen in anything but the top RTS matches. In a random online SC pickup game, the most I can ever hope to see out of the other side is at most a three pronged assault. That’s the most I can pull off too, because my brain is not running on hydrogen fusion.
How many times have you seen a crucial game lost just because of a single missed or delayed click?
That’s why I think most strategy games should have a pause function. It doesn’t have to be a very long pause or anything. Maybe just 20 seconds on each side and you would have a limited amount of these “time-outs” you can call in a single session.
That way, people who like strategy gaming, but don’t like the twitch fest of titles on offer, (I’m looking at you civ fans) could maybe get a game in edgewise have a more active online gaming experience.
Agree? Disagree? Think I should go break myself off a switch?
Comments
I agree. I miss turn-based strategy games. I haven't come across any worth playing in years except for the Civilization games. Some of my favorite old classic games are turn based strategy games. It seems these days almost all strategy games have to be real-time, which IMO are more like action games than strategy games. There's usually just one strategy: build a lot of units as fast as possible and try to overrun the enemy. Strategy games are traditionally a thinking-man's game, but there's usually no time to think in RTS games.
If you know of any good turn-based strategy games that came out in the last few years besides Civ, please let me know.
I am not so sure about a pause function as I see that being exploited in various online board games, but a timer function would be welcome in a more complex game.
Actually just implementing something like the chess timer system would likely be more than adequate. Just modify the rules a bit depending on the specific game.
http://www.chesshouse.com/how_to_chess_clocks_a/162.htm
Scroll down a bit on the link and there is a fairly easy to follow explanation of usage for people unfamiliar with chess timing rules.
Though not really TBS, but RTS with slow down and pause function, Paradox Games produce some of the best strategy games out there such as Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis. The fact you can stop the action and make decisions doesn't make them pure RTS or TBS, but something in the middle. They are extremely comprehensive and usually have very little in the way of tutorial, but they are deep, challenging, and rewarding. As a bonus, you often get a history lesson or three while playing, and if you get tired of the vanilla game, there are tons of mods.
No problem, dude. HOMM looks like a cool turn-based strategy game. If you are interested, spend a few mins to watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/user/Hommonline#p/u/1/apeTGUdCIHc
Guys, the closed beta of HOMM has begun today, hooray~~~