Well, first off I'll say what made me come to think of that question. A while ago I was wanting to play a "new" game (not new, but something else if that makes any sense) and I managed to narrow it down to me wanting to play an RTS, although I couldn't decide which RTS I wanted to play since all of them these days seem to have lost the old RTS feel of actually using strategy rather than a "do this, do that then this thing and you've won" routine. Then there is also the fact that the maps are getting smaller and smaller with each new game.
Taking that map size as an example, in the days of AOE II, it took quite some time to mobilise your force to even half way across the map, now with the likes of the EA-ified C&C games (I know, the letters EA have a lot to do with it, but others are following their footsteps here), once you have your base defences built up, the turrets are in range of their base practically. So that's the first thing I miss from old games, the monumental maps, which is one of the reasons I love Supreme Commander so much
Another thing that seems to be missing from a large amount of RTS games is the random map generation. Really, is it so hard to keep that in, rather than making a couple of preset maps which players will be able to forge the "perfect" strategy and quit if they don't get the right map or location on that map? Surely it would take less space to have random map scripts than preset map files. Indeed, most of the classics (I consider AOE II and Tiberian Sun to be these for a point of reference) had both their own roster of fixed maps, and their own map generation. I usually used said map generation since it helped me hone my adaptation skills and learn general strategies that worked in almost all situations but didn't excel or fail particularly. Now we have the "you put that turret there and the match is yours" type of thing.
Now I've stated my two main gripes about RTS games specifically because honestly I can't think of any at the moment about other types of games though there are some. I am very interested to see what the rest of you think are the main things that have been "phased out" of gaming that shouldn't be
Taking that map size as an example, in the days of AOE II, it took quite some time to mobilise your force to even half way across the map, now with the likes of the EA-ified C&C games (I know, the letters EA have a lot to do with it, but others are following their footsteps here), once you have your base defences built up, the turrets are in range of their base practically. So that's the first thing I miss from old games, the monumental maps, which is one of the reasons I love Supreme Commander so much
Another thing that seems to be missing from a large amount of RTS games is the random map generation. Really, is it so hard to keep that in, rather than making a couple of preset maps which players will be able to forge the "perfect" strategy and quit if they don't get the right map or location on that map? Surely it would take less space to have random map scripts than preset map files. Indeed, most of the classics (I consider AOE II and Tiberian Sun to be these for a point of reference) had both their own roster of fixed maps, and their own map generation. I usually used said map generation since it helped me hone my adaptation skills and learn general strategies that worked in almost all situations but didn't excel or fail particularly. Now we have the "you put that turret there and the match is yours" type of thing.
Now I've stated my two main gripes about RTS games specifically because honestly I can't think of any at the moment about other types of games though there are some. I am very interested to see what the rest of you think are the main things that have been "phased out" of gaming that shouldn't be
(Or whatever Civilization II, Fallout, Arcanum, AoEII, Stronghold, Baldur's Gate II, etc used).
