Comment by nemacol | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nemacol | Hacker News Reader

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My friends like FPS but I am terrible at them. I love RTS and they can't be bothered to learn them. Would be great if we had a game to bridge that gap.

1) Asymmetric RTS / FPS. A group of FPS players play through a map against an RTS player who is controlling the tech, types and grouping of mobs, etc.

2) RTS / FP coop game sort of like Warcraft 3 where one player controls the base from an RTS view and another player(s) control a hero and a support army.

I don't enjoy MOBA's but they are super popular. I love Starcraft but it is too hard to get into. Takes tons of time and effort to get the basics of 'how to play'.

3) I think a game somewhere between Starcraft and LOL would be interesting. Clearly it is all about the details here and I don't have them - but I think you could capture a really big gaming market by trying to simplify the macro of Starcraft, keep the micro, army movement, base building, expanding etc. Controlling and upgrading lanes of a moba map?

I have no idea how any of these would really work out from a game development point of view but I think they have potential to be a lot of fun and bring some new life into the RTS world.

It's not quite point 1, but Natural Selection 2[1] is close, and might even be better than what you're asking for if you're looking to play with (rather than against) your friends. Each team has one player who plays with an RTS view, with all the other players being the units, playing with an FPS view.

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/4920/Natural_Selection_2/

I heard of Natural Selection which was aiming to be exactly #2 in 2003-2006. I never played it though so I can't confirm how well it realised the ideal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Selection_(video_game)

Both Natural Selection and Natural Selection 2 are some of my favourite games of all time, so I probably carry a heavy bias. But in my opinion they were both absolutely excellent. The second game had severe technical issues initially, but has improved greatly. They both suffer from the same problem though, in that you need to find a good server with friendly players to have a good time given the amount of cooperation necessary. In particular, there is no way to make up for a really poor commander. But, it becomes absolutely magical once you are with the right people. It also has asymmetric combat, which makes for a very rare and interesting experience.

Natural Selection is close to what you're after, my friends used to play it a lot.

One of the players is the RTS "Commander", the rest are soldiers on the ground. The commanders role is to distribute both resources and information as necessary to the soldiers.

One game that was announced and then cancelled was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_canceled_Command_%26_C...

It was similar to what you are talking about. There was an RTS aspect with a tactical view where you ordered groups of units around, and an FPS aspect where you fought as an individual.

The gameplay was based around your tactical units being under balanced against the enemy, so you would have to choose where and how to use yourself as the superweapon to achieve the level objectives.

I was a developer on the game team which had representatives from the RTS and FPS teams (CnC and Medal of Honor). The first day you were on the team you had to play the lo-fi prototype which had the basic mechanics in place. It was frantic, exhausting, frustrating, and incredibly fun.

Obviously I can't talk about why it was cancelled, but if you look at the business environment and economy in the first couple of years after the xbox360 and ps3 were released, you can get a good idea.

I really wish that game had been finished and released as it was originally conceived.

Another one that was in production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fable_Legends but was cancelled right around the time Microsoft picked up the company. THis one was RTS + Action RPG but similar in concept.

Very disappointing.

There's an older game called Savage, the battle for newarth that combines two RTS captains with an army of FPS players:

https://www.savagexr.com/savage-the-battle-for-newerth-downl...

Love the idea for (2). It is literally the plot of Ender's Game - which has been on my list of potential ideas to make as games but you have summed it up perfectly!

For 1), check out Natural Selection 2 (https://www.naturalselection2.com/)

Haha. You win mschulze!

    > myrmi 0 minutes ago
    > 1 point by AndrewOMartin 0 minutes ago
    > mschulze 1 minute agor

Better luck next time letharion.

Hostile Waters sort of did #1. Its solo, but it's a RTS where you can switch to FPS gameplay as any of your units

I'd throw up Gunfire Reborn. I don't really like FPS either but the character building RPG elements keep me interested. It is fairly forgiving in that an average player won't really hold the group back.

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