The best base building RTS's

[catfood]

You might then be interested in this upcoming patch for the game
http://www.tauniverse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42656

...

• Fixed Pathfinding - Perhaps the #1 wish of TA players, the pathfinding is fixed, meaning it no longer degenerates as the in-game unit count increases. Groups of thousands of units move with ease and complex maps are now playable.

Wow. Now that's a patch! Can't wait for it to be fully released. The interface improvements alone are worth it.

 

[Nomask Alt]

Stronghold, hands down.

Hadn't heard of this. Looks great.

Gotta try AI War as well...

Company of Heroes for removing it. I want to focus on the battle and tactics, not play a simplified Sim City.

Actually I just meant an RTS game with a base (so that Dark Omen and the Total War series wouldn't qualify). I forgot Company of Heroes, which is great indeed, but it's still a Dawn of War copy.

P.S. The adjacency bonus made building bases great fun in Forged Alliance. http://supcom.wikia.com/wiki/Adjacency_bonus

 

[Ethan Duvall]

You forgot potato production:

 

[DraQ]

To add something new to the thread there is Netstorm. While the game itself was average at best the base building was pretty novel. for those who haven't played it, the map consisted of a few floating islands and a huge empty void. (well, empty air). You use semirandom tetris-like bridge pieces to extend across the expanse between islands. The bridges eventually crumble if they don't connect to something. There are no mobile units in the game except resource gatherers. So the entire game revolves around constructing and powering various turrets and walls with different arcs of fire and defense to breach the enemys defenses. Buildings that are destroyed damage nearby bridges, so it's possible to take out large sections of the enemy base if you isolate key structures that keep the bridge network anchored to islands.

It was a pretty ingenous workaround to compensate for latency in a multiplayer game during the dial-up age.

Yup, Netstorm deserves credit, if only for originality - not often do you beat enemy base with one of your own.

I'd love to see a modern remake with more units and multi-layered 3D battlefield, ability to influence weather and have it influence performance and capability of aligned units, maybe even ability to move floating island fortresses around a bit (at a cost).

Though, TBH, I think I would like NS better if it was TB.

Never got around to tasting its main meat - online play, but it sounds like a blast, don't think I'd last long, though.

 

[SoupNazi]

Stronghold is awesome not only for its basic mechanics, but also (mainly?) for its exploits. I never played the sequel(s? did 3 ever come out?), but the original game has ways that can make floating islands and buildings extremely different from what the developers intended. Wooden palisades with stone tops, vice-versa, numerous ways to make static boats which was something never intended for the game. I spent dozens of hours in the map editor just building beautiful (but also functional) strongholds (yes) that defied the game's original limitations, and there are (were?) dozens of other people doing the same. There are some exceptionally awesome looking creations out there on the many fan sites. You could have palisades on top of walls on top of walls, multi-layered castles, or extremely accurate depictions of existing historical buildings. You had people remaking the Élysée palace in the game, or building gothic cathedrals and castles from all across Europe. The interesting thing was that you could then arm it with some actual working defenses and try it all out by sending armies at it.

Here's just a few of the many ways to trick Stronghold into making something unexpected and potentially awesome for eye-candy maps:
http://www.stronghold-knights.com/site/print.php?sid=308
http://stronghold.heavengames.com/maps/mm24
http://stronghold.heavengames.com/maps/mm4
http://stronghold.heavengames.com/maps/mm1
http://stronghold.heavengames.com/sod/sod1

And here's some eye-candy pictures that might not mean much to the untouched by Stronghold, but those who are familiar with the standard ability to build stuff in the game are amazed, because most of these make some use of exploiting the "bugs" in the game to make amazing structures:
http://stronghold.heavengames.com/cpix/compendium/woodensteps4.jpg
http://stronghold.heavengames.com/albums/album05/aaa.sized.jpg
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/6303/osgiliath.jpg
http://stronghold.heavengames.com/albums/Gathering-the-Lost/acn.jpg
http://stronghold.heavengames.com/gallery/Gathering-the-Lost/aan?full=1
http://stronghold.heavengames.com/sod/pix/6-om-holy-fountain

 

[Nomask Alt]

SoupNazi

Only the last of your eye candy pics links works...

 

[SoupNazi]

SoupNazi

Only the last of your eye candy pics links works...

Hmm... they all work for me. Maybe try first opening the main page and then click on the links. Alternatively you can just check out the gallery of that site.

 

[Ashery]

You might then be interested in this upcoming patch for the game
http://www.tauniverse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42656

...

• Fixed Pathfinding - Perhaps the #1 wish of TA players, the pathfinding is fixed, meaning it no longer degenerates as the in-game unit count increases. Groups of thousands of units move with ease and complex maps are now playable.

Wow. Now that's a patch! Can't wait for it to be fully released. The interface improvements alone are worth it.

...

Holy shit.

 

[Emily]

Man warzone 2100 was such a grand game. Even now it is quite good.

 

[Ulminati]

Apparently some BROs have remade Netstorm in glorious 3 dimensions. Blessed is the Machine Spirit!
http://risingstormhq.com/news.php

 

[catfood]

Apparently some BROs have remade Netstorm in glorious 3 dimensions. Blessed is the Machine Spirit!
http://risingstormhq.com/news.php

I'm still looking through their site for a FAQ of this project. Other than the fact that it's Netstorm in 3D I don't know what other improvements they will bring.

 

[laclongquan]

Build a battalion of mobile artillery. Assign them to a Commander car. Set the car to attack those nearby tanks. Move the screen very fast back to the view of those MA battalion. What a firestorm, oh la la~

Rally your ten most experienced Main battle tank into formation. 4 Support Engineer-Tank move behind to heal. Smash them straight at enemy's outpost. They rush out to encircle us. Another ten wait at the side smash them on the flank in-movement, stall them in place. Though they outnumber us, with the mountainous terrain and their own outpost they dont have room to expand. Meanwhile Artillery Call for Fire is transfer to the Commander tank and he call. The Curtain of Fire start falling on their outermost members and sweep slowly in toward the two anvils.

Send your scout-tank toward the most probable location of AAA sites. See them but enemies send their aircraft out to hunt. Scouts show off their AAA capability and stall them around. Meanwhile a slow three bombers smash their way through the other side of main base's defense. The aircraft return to defend but dont have the fuel ammunition to chase after the fleeing bombers. The scout make short work of AAA ambusher. Trap escaped~

Warzone 2100, where you can satisfy your inner arty-whore. Or inner airstrike-whore. Or inner Main BattleTank Blitz Whore. Or... you get the drill.

EDIT: There, nitpicker!

 

[DraQ]

Even now

If it was up to me this would be grounds for banning.

 

[Ashery]

...aircraft return to defend but dont have the fuel to chase after the fleeing bombers....

But WZ2100 VTOLs only track ammunition, not fuel

 

[IDtenT]

Netstorm remake for those who don't know: http://risingstormhq.com/news.php

Speaking of. Would populous count?

Personally hate base builders that makes you rush, so I'm a much bigger fan of AoE than Starcraft, C&C, etc. This is why I can't be happier that the RTS genre has been dying.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Yeah, I too have had enough of BIT BY BIT for a decade.

 

[Keshik]

You might then be interested in this upcoming patch for the game
http://www.tauniverse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42656

...

• Fixed Pathfinding - Perhaps the #1 wish of TA players, the pathfinding is fixed, meaning it no longer degenerates as the in-game unit count increases. Groups of thousands of units move with ease and complex maps are now playable.

Oh sweet. I remember my friend getting stymied on a map by one sentinel, heh, due to units moving in a single file through a narrow path.

 

[Johannes]

Personally hate base builders that makes you rush, so I'm a much bigger fan of AoE than Starcraft, C&C, etc. This is why I can't be happier that the RTS genre has been dying.

Why exactly? I think it's much better when the action potentially starts right at the beginning, than there be a period of many minutes where you always do roughly the same stuff every game with very little interaction between players, that serves no purpose to me.

 

[Destroid]

It was hilarious how many people back in the late 90s RTS days wanted 10 minute grace periods to build their shit before you attack. Dark Reign is another great RTS in the base builder style, although there is nothing particularly great about the base building itself, it does have a few nice features like proper LOS, very long range artillery and cool AI settings for your units.

 

[catfood]

Constructor is an very original RTS/city-builder hybrid with some interesting mechanics and ideas. Laugh-out-loud funny as well. Unfortunately it's also very difficult and micro-intensive which detracts greatly from the game's playability. Still it's worth giving a shot if only to try out something completey different than your run-of-the-mill RTS.

 

[DraQ]

Personally hate base builders that makes you rush, so I'm a much bigger fan of AoE than Starcraft, C&C, etc.

I can definitely agree.

I like RT, but not the mental pace most RTSes are played at - they are effectively more twitchy than even old FPS games like Quake or UT and making rushes viable and desired tactics puts even more emphasis on that, because they rely on amassing units early, rather than organizing your defences, attack groups and tech.

It was hilarious how many people back in the late 90s RTS days wanted 10 minute grace periods to build their shit before you attack. Dark Reign is another great RTS in the base builder style, although there is nothing particularly great about the base building itself, it does have a few nice features like proper LOS, very long range artillery and cool AI settings for your units.

DR in general has a lot of awesome stuff in it - terrain, LoS, AI modes, decoys, disguise, flow, rather than finite resource based economy, artillery, packing and moving your base, etc.

 

[Ulminati]

My memory of Total Annihilation multiplayer back in the day.

1) Build solar collector(s)
2) Build metal exrtractor(s)
3) Build vehicle plant(s)
4) Mass produce Flash tier 1 tanks
5) Produce airfield
6) Produce 1 transport plane
7) Pick up commander with transport, fly to enemy base
8) Watch plane get shot down, commander explosion kills entire enemy army
9) Flash blob mops up
10) Opponent: FUCK YOU FUCKER YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED OT FUCKING ATTACK BEFORE 30 MINUTE!!!!!1!!


Commander bomb es king of all-in rush!

 

[Destroid]

Only noobs fall for that.

 

[IDtenT]

Apparently some BROs have remade Netstorm in glorious 3 dimensions. Blessed is the Machine Spirit!
http://risingstormhq.com/news.php

Netstorm remake for those who don't know: http://risingstormhq.com/news.php

I demand a trial by combat!

Seriously, how did I miss that? I must have really been tired.

I remember Constructor, in fact I actually found it quite easy (boringly so) - if my memories don't betray me.

Is Stronghold 3 playable yet?

 

[Ulminati]

Only noobs fall for that.

The people I got matched against way back then thought it was cheating to attack before the thirty minute mark. That is all you should need to know.