Spring RTS Engine

"Long range satisfaction"

Saktoth wrote: Moreover BA/AA/XTA are not TA. They are radically different to TA, and radically different to eachother. IMO, Gundam and EE have more in common with eachother than XTA and BA do. Strategies and principles that work similarly in BA, EE, and Gundam just do not work in the slightest in XTA.

Are you serious? Read that back to yourself and smack the stupid out.

I think most mods don't get played not because their gameplay is bad but because it's different, most people who play Spring do so because it's the modern way to play TA and so they learn only the TA mods (more specifically, only AA/BA). When they play another mod they play it like TA and if that doesn't work they think the mod sucks and go back to TA. It's kinda like trying to make Counterstrike players play something else, they play that other thing, don't understand it immediately and retreat back into a game they understand perfectly.

KDR_11k wrote:I think most mods don't get played not because their gameplay is bad but because it's different, most people who play Spring do so because it's the modern way to play TA and so they learn only the TA mods (more specifically, only AA/BA)..

There is a lot of truth in this.

I also think most other mods suffer from a lack of new people so that there's never anyone at your skill level, making games frustrating.

I know the big reason why I avoid new, upstart, unestablished mods is because of what KDR describes - RTS games have a horriffic learning curve. First you need to learn the basic gameplay concepts, then you learn what each unit does for each faction, then you start learning strategies - and all the while you're getting you ass kicked online... and getting your ass kicked in an RTS is much more painful than other games, as it involves a few minutes of building stuff before you watch it all get torn to shreds. That's a lot of work to get good at, compared to, say, FPS mods that usually just introduce one substantial gameplay shift but otherwise still follow conventional gameplay.

This is especially bad in Spring where there is very little built-in information on unit features. In StarCraft, I know how much damage a unit does, range, etc. In Spring, I have health, cost (which is some random-looking number) and a description.

This is why all RTS games have a substantial singleplayer mode that introduces you to the gameplay gradually - because you need to learn first.

Ta has it's slow relaxed pace that allows for a lot of micro etc. I wasn't getting into what it's gameplay is or how popular it is. I expect gundam to be fairly unpopular and that was not what I was on about. I wanted to see the other moders go the extra mile and add in effects and more eyecandy.