Applied Research in RTS games

[Chimas]

Hi,

I'm discussing how REPAIRS can have a more important role in strategy, concerning RTS games.

I'm providing some links, if you wanna read about other games (i.e. Grey Goo and Homeworld).

 

1 - https://www.greybox.com/greygoo/en/forum/topic/2698/?page=1#post-23452

 

2 - http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/t/basic-and-applied-research/518027

 

Basically, bringing a number of units to repair so you can enable performance upgrades in your units. And by doing so, making the units less disposable.

 

This is the base for this argment:

- I was watching a documentary about the soviet attack helicopter MI24 or 27(don't remember the code) and they were reporting the improvements in the aircraft obtained from the battle field, specifically the conflict in Afghanistan in the 80s. The most visible changes was the tuning (accuracy) of the main gun and the move of the rear rotor from one side to the other to "clear off" vibrations. All that came from feedbacks of the battle field, because many helicopters used to be recovered over night by engineers to be ready for combat by dawn. It's a 1h B&W documentary in YouTube.

 

Some will find it useless while others might like it. But, Conditioning features can make a player rethinks strategy in-game. It's a way to put optimization in place of maximization of a given skill.If you wanna discuss, comment below.

[X3M]

I too always likes these kind of RTS. One where you actually can upgrade a specific statistic of your unit. However, this is mostly done in board games. And in most cases, the upgrade already takes place in the field.

 

Your best chance of selective upgrades would be Warcraft 3 and some modmaps in Starcaft 2.

[Jacko]

Maybe something similar to how C&C3 does it.

 

But even without requiring it for improving units a well-used repair bay can win games (at least in Tib Dawn it can)

[Chimas]

Well, there is one detail.

In Homeworld game, since it's in space, when you send the small units to repair (fighters and corvettes), you just simply press a key ("D" in case of HW), after selecting the unit(s). It will leave the battle, head back to the nearest hangar, repair and get back to the immediate defensive perimeter of the hangar. That simplifies a lot. Selecting just the wounded is difficult if it's more than 2, but possible.

[cn2mc]

I've had games in TD where I actually built and used two repair bays, for my fleet of orcas. In a 3-way full-tech all GDI match, factories tend to stay alive for about 30 seconds so no use even trying to build them. Helipads and repair bays are tough beasts though. Overall, in TD it makes more sense for GDI to use the repair bay (for repairs, not just for mammoth tech) -- they have the stronger, more expensive units that benefit more from it. The only Nod units I can think of that are worth building a repair pad for are harvs and apaches, if you have a lot of them damaged.

 

Structural repairs and the way they are done in classic C&C are also a point of discussion that goes hand in hand with the 'sell' option. Now, there's your maximum efficiency! You build a reasonably powerful defensive structure that can actually take between 10% and > 100% more damage than its health suggests, depending on how many attackers are shooting at it, and then you can sell it for half price AND you get some full-health men to keep on fighing.