game systems in an old game

There is an RTS from 2000, which back in the day I played a demo, in a game magazine CD after years learned it was drowned in bad reviews. No internet back then, thankfully. Back in the real world of tangibles.

I will presume that mostly nobody played it or forgot about it because it was so long ago. (100-200-500 years I think can be described as such )

I read a review that said that the game lacked imagination So much that other games couldnt come up with a similar system while being playable as that one.

So, the simplification of the tech tree,

T1 was light vehicles.

Wheeled vehicles contained a jeep, able to mount a half of a weapon of all other actual light vehicles (0,5 Tier)

Actual light chassis, able to mount A class weapon turret.

Medium chassis, able to mount B class weapon.

There werent any big trucks able to carry big things, considering it was 25 years ago, makes sense.

Once T1 was unlocked, you had unlocked the ability to build a tank, walker or glider factories. (there were ships too, scout and bomber planes which worked but werent the best mechanics wise)

So what you had with tanks : light, medium heavy chassis. Heavy chassis could carry the heaviest, longest ranged weapons sometimes with large minrange.

Walkers there had a progression of the lightest ones having two weapons of class A. Double the firepower.

Walker medium chassis had 1 class A, one class B weapon.

Heaviest walker had 2 weapons of B class.

Heavier chassis had longer view range than the lower tier. Walker B tier saw further than A tier, and C tier saw further than B tier.

Walkers also saw further than other vehicles, explanation that they were higher (but not being seen from further away )

 

Gliders were the lightest HP-wise, these also had a scout variant just like the jeep 1 half A weapon.

then like like walkers, except not combining a light and a medium weapon

light : AA, Medium BB and a heavy chassis with a C

in total chassis scout-light-mid-heavy, so same roster plus the super heavy C weapon compared to walkers.

 

There were some special rules that did not allow every weapon to be fitted to every chassis type.

Mortar was A weapon, fit only A class wheel vehicle. Light howitzer - B weapon, but only fit to A tank.

Heavy artillery was C, large minrange, could arc shots, as howie, over hills etc. Also Radar was a B weapon, on mobile versions only on a C chassis. Meaning tank, C ship and not sure if Glider C could have it.

Walkers had no C weapon, but C walker saw further than other C chassis without radar.

 

So, a bit more description, if you selected a factory, it showed what you could build. all the variants. Or select no factory and just get all the unit variants to be built with all the available chassis and weapon types researched.

PLenty weapon types, lasers, beams, cannon, heavy cannon with two barrels, which when fuly upgraded one-shot any wheeled vehicle, be it A,B variants.

Lasers countered walkers, beams were more of a hard counter to walkers with not as generalist strength.

Then plasma there called Ion weaps, green balls, flew slowest and alll projectiles had to actually hit their targets, long range, best vs buildings.

Dumb rockets were countering tanks, C weapon was more like an unguided long range direct fire rocket, all projectiles were sort of calculated to hit, then there were light guns, double MG as A class, B was a rotary cannon, C none.

after you researched C plasma and laser, in a spec lab after researching radar you ganed possibility to res - and build a long range turret that had low HPs, but had long sight range, not as good as a radar. When fully upgraded, two-shot any C vehicle. if it hit fully. It had a radar, even if weaker, which was countered by a stationary antiradiation missile silo that instakilled any radar unit or building that got within its range. 

 

Years ago I was actually hoping that soase 2 would implement something of this sort, the game is Thandor: The Invasion. I play it without music, it was already in 3D, where red alert 2 was not, though Emperor:Battle for Dune was getting close. Still, either because of marketing or some other reason, this ability to buy a chassis and armament, repair, whatever, that fits the chassis, while pre-built once researched, you dont do anything manual, I liked that in that game the most, was not taken up by other rts-es, all wanted to copy-paste CnCs and starcrafts, muh munnieh. I mean that made sense, because money lovers never choose whats right anyway on a constant basis, because they are slaves to money, they cant make a good game then, only such that has good marketing and endlessly increasing profits from nothing.

In the campaign you dont have full unit roster like in skirmish, I do think that the level of customization of army that you want in an rts is really unmatched. That game sadly didnt have units leveling up, and even though I do like this feature in most games, I dont feel like that game is missing out because of it.

There were for sure later games that for example have you build a light-medium-heavy infantry type, but I remember that only with inf, which could take any weapon of any weight size type.

And you could say, well all those old 4x games (which I did not play, since I didnt have a computer nor access to those games, only read about them) had the feature that 'let you design' (variations of pre-built) but built for some purpose.

Soase 2 works very similarly as that game using other systems and representations, I only write this because I think that this is an awesome feature that is missing in rts-es. I dont say copy that oldie game. Games that dont simulate moving turrets, needing to point their guns in proper positions, they do not need details. If you played it, or remember when you tried the demo at first, I think that this feature is not standard, but where it is, you have more control over not just the weapons with some hull that was predetermined, but you build the hull because reasons, Bigger hulls are more expensive. Bigger is usually slower, harder to maneuver etc.

I felt like I needed to write about that game, because most discussions are about CnCs starcrafts, while a gem in the rough you could say got overlooked to such a degree I find the 'group wisdom' and reviewers biases and blindness or whatever... all messed up. Its like ohh RA2 had awesome music. 2 tracks were. out of 11-13 or whatever.

I guess youre not changing the systems to that sort of game now, even though these are largely in the game already, plus factional differences are made, I just wanted to write that I think the system in that game is awesome. Plus guns there sound like guns, MG weapon there sounds like AK form Counter Strike. (the first one)

Anyway, cheers and thanks for reading.