Spring RTS Engine

Following a debate with a freind of mine, and with 1 of my tutors, I began to wonder...

I know a nintendo DS has about equal power to the min spec PCs for OTA....
and I know it can do the graphics stuff....
So, would OTA run on a DS, assuming of course you had it compiled for running on a DS instead of windoze?

If you can modify the controls to fit a DS, so you don't have to do everything with the stylus and aren't left with a set of buttons that you never use, it would theoretically be possible..... however, I fear that you would have to start programming it from scratch to have the DS understand it.

So, Spring DS anyone?

Dude, that would be soooo awesome. you could put the minimap on the top screen and have the main game on the bottom. And like omg. Sooo cool.

Yes, but it would be difficult.

I doubt it would work considering that you'll already get slowdown with half as many sprites as you'd see units in OTA on the screen, with 3d it's going to be even worse. The DS can draw 2048 triangles per frame, while I don't know the average TA unit polycount I'd expect that to be ~50 units at most.

nitendo ds has nor a keyboard neither a 14" screen (neither windows )


well, IF you had its source code AND IF you could translate all its hardware calls to the new hardware AND IF you could change the operative system calls to work with the ds bios AND IF you could work around the screen size AND IF you could turn the multiplayer system into the ds wifi / internet AND IF after all that it would still work nicely in ds' hardware...

you'd have our love and workship, and probably a cease and desist letter

I think he meant if whoever holds the rights for TA made a port.

IMO the screen is too small. I've been thinking that a DS RTS would be awesome, but the screen would have to have twice the resolution. Aside from that, OTA for DS would = win.

Advanced Wars it an amazing game, and the screen for the GBA isnt big at all.

Sheekel wrote:Advanced Wars it an amazing game, and the screen for the GBA isnt big at all.

AW isn't an RTS, and it's simple as hell compared to TA. Plus, it is comprised of all 2D sprites instead of 3D models. And "animation" is laughable.

I think you could handle something like Dawn of War on the DS maybe... I think a DS RTS would be an interesting experiment but you couldn't get very good micro due to the fact you basically have 5 buttons and a mouse, too much menu driven stuff...

I could really see something like DOW on DS though... you would press the shoulder button to bring down the minimap and tap to move the camera there or use the D pad to scroll... double tap a unit to bring up a context menu (aka a build/upgrade menu for builders and factories and upgrade/orders menu for infantry) double tap the ground to move, double tap the enemy to attack... bring down the minimap while a move order is selected (attack/move) to give orders at a distance... it could work...

Final Fantasy 12 is going to be an RTS on the DS.

nobody ever played palm wars? 2D tile based game on palm OS, quit old, supports more units than spring, has bigger maps than spring, runs on a fraction of the cpu power. A modified version using rotatable sprites, a smaller tile grid, rotations, and some modificatiosn would allow it to be ran very well on the DS with better graphics.

KDR_11k wrote:Final Fantasy 12 is going to be an RTS on the DS.

?

afaik ff12rw will use the same battle system as ff12 for ps2, just with a different camera angle and 2d graphics


aw is not so simple, it just doesnt have +200 units like similar tbs wargames for pc (no game with supply lines is simple)

FF12RW did seem to involve larger armies and ordering units around with your stylus in the trailer.

DS should just be tetris and tetris variations





im not kidding im better than anyone here at tetris and i will fight you irl to profve it

actually, I had an ulterior motive asking this:

I'm doing a game development course, and part of my assignment this semester is to design a game from scratch, so I'm doing a tactics game on the DS....

And you guys just helped me work out that it COULD support TA level graphics and better


Course, don't let that stop a SPRING DS port

wouldnt it be easier to do a famicom wars style tbs wargame with TA background? (with resources, factories et all, but turn based, with supply, ammo, etc)

Easier maybe but TBS (or SRPG) games are a dime a dozen on handhelds, realtime is rare.

handhelds arent clickfest friendly

now i cant get the turn based annihilation idea out of my mind (its a nice name, isnt it?)