I think RTS games are currently wrong. What do I mean by that?
Current RTS games do test strategy and tactics, but they also require a high degree of micro-management. Top Starcraft players are measured by their APM, and a player with high thinking skills but a less than agile hand is at a disadvantage. The anticipatd Starcraft 2 doesn't seem to hold great promise to change this.
What I want is this: In addition to the point-and-click action we all know (and love), I want RTS games to offer me strategy/tactics menus. I want to be able to order the computer AI things like:
- "build the base, 10 drones, and the entire tech tree up to Guardian . Then build 10 of these and 25 Mutalisks and send them after the nearest Terran opponent.
- "Organize all my troups into battle formations while leaving 10% on defense and go search & destroy all opponents"
- "Build up to 3 overlords and scout for Vespene gas. Once found, take a drone there to build a base. Once the base nears completions, send other drones there to mine the gas".
Such commands should be easily programmable in the game as it ships. Special player-made commands could be added before and during a game. The player's major role should be to select and define strategies, not to gather up individual drones to build structures or to micro-manage an attack. Of course, as I said, the micromanagement can stay, but it must not be how you spend the better part of a game.
Note that most of the "strategy commands" I want are probably already present at some form inside the computer's native AI player. As a player, I want to have access to this AI and parts of it. Once this is developed enough, I can imagine different Starcraft tournaments where players are only allowed to pre-program the strategy.
Now I wonder how long till these ideas become reality and how difficult it would be to program a extension for the existing Starcraft that accomplishes something like this.
