THE BORE
General => Video Game Bored => Topic started by: Bebpo on March 05, 2009, 01:09:33 AM
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I'm trying to play Red Alert 3 and it's the first RTS I've tried playing for more than 10 mins since Warcraft 2. What kind of control scheme works best for RTS games on a keyboard?
I put camera scrolling as WASD with QE for rotation and mouse scroll for zoom. Then I have left click selects unit, right click does action and I bound a key to select all units. What other buttons do I need?
The camera feels so close even at max zoom out compared to the old games. I feel like I can't see much and that makes it difficult for me. There's so much stuff on the screen it just feels cluttered and for some reason when my mouse passes over a building or selects units I get giant all one color outlines of them taking up even more screen space.
I'm guessing the basic gameplay of RTS hasn't really changed in 10 years. You build your base while collecting resources, building structures, building defensive structures, building offensive units and you slowly expand and start marching your army on towards the enemy. I'm just kind of bewildered on how to control the game.
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I find that most people have no problems getting the very basics of RTS, but they just need a few key points to rev up their game to a much higher level.
First is that you can never have too much resources. In a game like Red Alert 3, that means taking expansion mineral nodes and derricks whenever you can do so without it being in total danger getting blown to bits. This gives you more resources per minute, which in turn allows you to get more units per minute.
Which brings us to the next pro tip-always be building units. Even when you are fighting and controlling , go back to your factories and what not and ensure that you are always spending that money. build multiple factories or barracks if you can't spend the money fast enough and rally them to a staging point so that if your attacking force gets beat back or you need to retreat, you can immediately come back and press the attack with fresh units.
This concept is known in RTS-speak as "macro", as in macroeconomics.
The second concept is to get out on the right foot in a game. This means following something known as build orders, which are optimal opening production timings for units and buildings such that you get the most out of the first few minutes of the game and put you in a good position to really have a strong army and/or economy going into the midgame. Offical game forums and places like gamereplays have forums where people share the best build orders for their sides and for the specific game matchup (say soviets v. allies or what not).
Finally, there is the concept of control, and this really comes down to nothing short of practice. This is the ability to know at an almost instinctual level what the next action you need to do is and as a result your ability to perform different actions at the same time across the game increases dramatically. Usually this is measured by "actions per minute" in the RTS scene and as you get better at the game and more familiar with both the interface and what the correct response to a certain strategy the opponent is using, you will be able to react faster as that instinctual manner of thinking takes over. This isn't necessary for single player or even casual multiplayer but in the RTS games where I've gotten into the top part of some ladders it's mostly been because I played the everliving crap out of them for weeks on end.
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Move to Asia
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those were good tips, frag
i will use them tonight when i play red alert 3
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I play by trial and error until I get the best opening strategy, hence I don't like RTSs. To me, 'trial and error' isn't the same as 'strategy'. I'm sure if I played a ton I'd be able to cut down or eliminate the trail and error aspect.
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http://www.gamereplays.org/redalert3/replays.php?game=6& Watching replays has always been a great way for me to improve my game.
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Don't scroll the camera, click the minimap.
That's the only thing I know about RTS games.
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Bebpo, Eel, play co-op with me! Or versus, whatever.
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i will later on this weekend!
i decided to install crysis warhead tonight (it's getting a bit late here to dive into an RTS) and just do RA3 tomorrow
you must understand that i will probably suck
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i will later on this weekend!
i decided to install crysis warhead tonight (it's getting a bit late here to dive into an RTS) and just do RA3 tomorrow
you must understand that i will probably suck
No biggie. I'm not very good at Red Alert 3. I've only played like the first 5 missions in the Soviet campaign and haven't even touched the other guys.
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Anyone here ever play that remake of Total Annihilation, the open-source one?
http://spring.clan-sy.com/
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Anyone here ever play that remake of Total Annihilation, the open-source one?
http://spring.clan-sy.com/
it's great
as for the OP, just point and click? most rts are really easy to play unless you want to be super competitive and learn all the keyboard hotkeys. if you just want to play casually for fun, then you don't even need to use your keyboard.
anyone tend to turtle a lot? i get anxious about the cpu rushing me and i turtle it up with lots of defense, and then send my massive army to obliterate their base an hour later.
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That's usually how I play RTS. I tend to focus on defense a lot, then coming in with as much force as I can muster. Then I usually forget to build at home while managing the attack.
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Know what units are good counters for enemy units. :gun