However, designing mechanical "speed limits" which feel artificial or overly restrictive is a thorn in the side of players and can sour them on a game. To try to summarize my point: in an effort to maximize fun and minimize the worst aspects of RTS gameplay, it tends to be better if game systems provide certain "speed bumps" which work on a systematic level to set a more methodical rate of army and economical growth. That line of thinking kind of snowballed out as I looked at the larger implications of attempts by game designers to control or guide the pace of various RTS games: from Upkeep in WarCraft 3 or Company of Heroes to Match Phases in Dawn of War 3 or Steel Division, and the various pros and cons of these systems. Grey Goo, I think, less so than UaW, but that's just me going down a rabbit hole.Īnd that got me thinking about why that is, and how C&C lacks what I'll call "speed bumps" or "speed limits" that are seen in other RTS, and how those speed bumps affect gameplay outcomes in RTS games. That is, both games attempt to put some kind of mechanical or systems guidelines in place to ensure that players don't end up in radically different game states before they're able to interact with each other. Both games have at least some C&C DNA and both implement changes to that gameplay formula which, in part, control the pace of the game. This is something I feel like Petrolgyph at least attempted to address in both Grey Goo and Universe at War. There's a tremendous volatility to the game that can be as frustrating to experience as it can be exciting and dynamic. Whether it's Chinese Dragon Tanks melting base structures early in the game, or massed Nod Buggies destroying ConYards in overwhelming numbers in under 2 minutes Shadow Strike Teams swooping in to take out infrastructure, and well, the list goes on. While there are many things I dearly love about the C&C franchise, one of the things that I've seen time and again in these games is how awkward the pacing of these games can be, particularly in the early game. I've also been continuing to play Universe at War and Grey Goo as I've grown to know many of the fine people who still love and play these games, and spending time in those communities has become a regular part of my afternoons and evenings. I've even been dabbling with OpenRA's take on C&C, Red Alert, and Dune 2000 and futzing around with RA3 and C&C Generals skirmishes. From revisiting the original Command and Conquer Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert via the Remastered Collection, to spending time every week re-learning Kane's Wrath and practicing commentaries on game replays, to dipping my toe back into Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge via CNCNet just for the heck of it, Westwood's (and ultimately EA's) storied RTS franchise has been the water that I've been moving through lately. I've been playing a lot of Command and Conquer lately.
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