Well it has been some time since I last posted something on this blog. My time has been spent on my OU studies, work and various hobbies. RTS and game/UI design never really leaves my mind for more than a day or two at a time, however.

One of the issues surrounding around RTS games as they rapidly evolve is how to deal with their ever increasing complexity and scale. Many RTS’ have chosen simply to stick to old tried and tested formulas, tweaking the graphics and interface here and there but generally sticking to the same old boring micromanagement formulae. Supreme Commander is certainly different in this regard but there have been other attempts to reshape RTS gaming. Homeworld was one of the first to attempt to forge a totally new direction, for example.

In my opinion, the barriers to really scaling RTS are three-fold. The first is one of basic computational restrictions, added burden to the CPU as we add more units, better physics, depth and complexity. This is something beyond the topic of this blog.

The second is the bridge between the casual and hardcore gamer. RTS games are notoriously ‘hardcore’. Is there room for an RTS which caters to the more casual player, or can even reach out to both equally well? The generally steep learning curve is one aspect to this but the other critical one is GUI…

…Lastly, the user interface has become burdened by the sheer number of game options and the in-game variables have increased along side jumps in the hardware which allows this. So, we have seen wonderful advances such as strategic zoom, multicore threading, macros, templates, dual-screen, mouse/key press efficiency, UI customisation & add-ons etc.

These are all great but I feel we are approaching a critical juncture. The relentless build-order or unit-stat memorising, hyper-clicking and so on, these things cannot continue to evolve past a certain level of optimum design efficiency. I think what we need is a total reassessment of the way RTS is played, especially how top-down orders are assigned to and then carried out by the AI.

I shall continue with an analysis of some possible solutions during the course of the next few posts, so stay tuned.