"All war is deception"

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Game Design: A List and Reimagining of RTS Game Tropes and Features

Genre:
4X hybrid (Sins of a Solar Empire)
Story-based
Economic (Offworld Trading)
Horror hybrid (The Inky Darkness)
Tower defense hybrid
Survival (Banished)
Open world (Warzone 2100)
Time travel (Archron)

Metagame:
Linear mission by mission campaign
Branching mission by mission campaign
Conquest mode (Total War, Battle For Middle Earth, Star Wars: Empires At War)
Persistent veteran units (Battle For Middle Earth)
City reclamation (Left Behind: Eternal Forces)
Solar system with spherical planet battlefields (Planetary Annihilation)

Battles:
Sandbox (Banished, Warzone 2100)

Victory and Defeat
Destroy all units and structures
Wonder victory (Age of Empires)
Diplomatic victory (Civilization)

Victory/Requisition Points (Company of Heroes, Dawn of War)

Pacing
Fast economy/Slow eonomy
Fast combat/Slow combat
Pausing
Clear Pausing
Auto Pausing (UFO: Aftermath)
Ability to plan/give orders while paused.

Factions:
Symmetric Factions
Asymmetric Factions
Sub-Factions (C&C Red Alert 2)
Minor Factions (Emperor: Battle for Dune)
Neutral Factions

Unique units per faction
Faction with mode switching (Universe At War, Act of War: Direct Action)
Faction to choose sub-faction in-game (Warrior Battles)

Units:
Individual units
Squads (Dawn of War 2)
Heroes (Warcraft 3)
Heroes that can be added to squads (Dawn of War)
Designed units/Unit designer (Warzone 2100)

Modular units (Battleships Forever)
Transforming units with more training (Battle Realms)
Deployable Units (C&C Red Alert 2)
Cloned units (C&C Red Alert 2)
Unit teleporter (C&C Red Alert 2, Dark Reign)

Infantry more useful than vehicles (Company of Heroes)
Vehicles more useful than infantry (Command and Conquer)

Unit transports
Unit carryalls (C&C Tiberian Sun)
Automated unit carryalls (Dune 2)
Relic units (Age of Empires)

Unit health
Unit (individual) naming
Unit bios (Left Behind: Eternal Forces)
Unit armor and shields
Unit morale
Unit suppression
Unit cover

Medical/Repair units
Engineer units
Constructor units
Resource collection units

Basic infantry
Anti-aircraft/Anti-vehicle (rocket) infantry
Sniper infantry
Flamethrower/Poison/Spread infantry
Mortar/Siege infantry
Commando infantry
Exoskeleton infantry
Animal units
Infantry can circumvent obstacles (Company of Heroes)

Light Vehicles/Cycles/Trikes/Buggies/Humvee
Tanks
Anti-Tanks/Tank Destroyers
Anti-air platform units
Artillery/Siege units
Mecha
Vehicles crushing infantry

Fighter aircraft
Bomber aircraft
Helicopters
Airship/Mothership

Submarines
Destroyers
Cruisers
Battleships
(Aircraft) Carrier units (C&C Red Alert 2)

Tunneling units (C&C Tiberian Sun)
Teleporting/Chronoshifting (C&C Red Alert 2)
Mercenary/Bounty hunter units that are paid
Suicide units

Unit Selection:
Click or drag a box
Center selection (Halo Wars)
No selection, units are automated

Recon:
Fully-automated scouting (C&C Generals: Rise of the Reds)

Fog of War
Shroud for already revealed FOW
Fog of War as an enemy (The Inky Darkness)
Non-circular reveal of FOW

Minimap
Different levels of minimaps (Supreme Commander)

Attack:
Attack move
Force Attack (Command and Conquer)
Formations
Suppression fire (Company of Heroes)
Predetermined angle/arc of attack/fire (Company of Heroes)
Flanking

Bombard area
Bombing runs (C&C Generals)
Superweapons (Command and Conquer)

Explosive Charges (Command and Conquer)
Grenades (Command and Conquer, Z)
Suicide explosions (C&C Red Alert 2)
Mines
Gattling/increasing rate of fire for focus (C&C RA2 Yuri's Revenge, Generals)
Chain/Prism (C&C Red Alert 2)
Infection/Poison (C&C RA2 Yuri's Revenge)
Freezing/Cryo (C&C Red Alert 3)
EMP (C&C Tiberian Sun)
Conversion to faction/Monk (Age of Empires)
Mind Control/Yuri (C&C Red Alert 2)

Infantry able to go pass obstacles (Company of Heroes)
Vehicles crushing infantry

Defense:
Walls (Dune 2)
Defense structures and towers
Defenses combinable with walls
Garrisons (C&C Red Alert 2)
Bunkers (C&C Generals)
Shielding (Starcraft)
Force shields
Unit cover (Dawn of War)
Unit hiding (The Inky Darkness)
Unit prone

Units with more armor based on viewpoint (Company of Heroes)
Temporary invulnerability/Iron Curtain (C&C Red Alert 2)
Singularity/Attract projectiles (C&C Red Alert 3)
Reflect back (Submarine Titans)

Stealth:
Cloaking (Command and Conquer)
Camouflage skins based on map (C&C Red Alert 2)
Disguises/Spies (C&C Red Alert 2)
Gap Generator (C&C Red Alert 2)

Fake Structures (C&C Red Alert 1)
Tunnels (C&C Generals)
Tunneling units (C&C Tiberian Sun)

Resource collection:
Resource harvesters (Dune 2)
Resource accumulators (Total Annihilation)
Mobile resource accumulators/Hackers (C&C Generals)
Fully-automated resource collection
Supply lines for access to extra, fancy resources (Civilization)
Global storage
Limited storage + Silos (Dune 2)

Resource converters
Trading
Marketplace (Age of Empires)
Blessing/refining resources (Warrior Kings)

Food
Farming (Age of Empires)
Hunting animals/fishing/caring livestock (Age of Empires)

Power plants
Area power plants/Pylons (Starcraft)
Power lines (Sun Age)
Powered units (&C RA2 Yuri's Revenge)

Spreading resource/Tiberium crystal (Command and Conquer)
Dangerous/radioactive resource (Command and Conquer)
Contained supply points (C&C Generals, Red Alert 3)

Happiness (Civilization)

Construction/Building:
Fully-automated and pre-set builds and construction
Building tied to time, not resources (Civilization)

Mobile Construction Vehicle (Command and Conquer)
Drone Construction Vehicle (C&C Re Alert 3)
Crawler (Command and Conquer 4)

Foundation/Concrete (Dune 2, D&C Tiberian Sun)
Foundation Remnant/GLA Foundations (C&C Generals)
Modular building (Halo Wars)
Modular cities (Civilization, Rise of Legends)

Cranes (Command and Conquer Tiberium Wars)
Expansion Outposts

Structures:
Capturable structures
Fake structures

Headquarters
Mobile Construction Yard (Command and Conquer)
Resource buildings
Power plants
Resource storage/silos
Cranes (Command and Conquer Tiberium Wars)
Expansion Outposts
Defenses

Barracks for infantry
Factory for vehicles
Airports for aircraft
Dropoff structures for units/reinforcement style (C&C 3 Mideast Crisis 2)
Tech/Research lab

Radar
Superweapon
Armory/Arsenal upgrades
Unit cloner (C&C Red Alert 2)
Unit teleporter (C&C Red Alert 2, Dark Reign)

Roads and road building (Settlers)
Neutral structures reconfigured for use (Left Behind: Eternal Forces)

Research:
Technology Tree
Technology Web (Civilization: Beyond Earth)
Ages (Age of Empires, Civilization)
Technological Levels

Maps:
Terraforming
Weather (C&C Tiberian Sun)
Day and night cycle
Territories (Z and Company of Heroes)

Chokepoints
Bridges

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