ID:152332
 
What makes a good strategy game, i've been thinging on finishing my RTS engine but i have no idea if people would play. There dosen't seem to be much interest for strategy games on byond any ideas?
I find that people often do not wish to either wait for a game to start or commit to a long session of play. You might already be able to avoid the long duration of some turn-based strategy games with real-time play. However, coming up with a fair way to enter and exit a game at will would also be a nice touch.

I may be biased, but I think there are a bunch of strategy fans. What we need are more strategy developers.

Aside from that, it's hard to judge what people will play. Don't let the list of live games discourage you from trying different genres. There is a disturbing feedback loop involved with gathering players. You need to have players to get players. Hosting on your own can make you feel lonely. Joining a game which already has a single player can make you feel obligated. RPGs can get away with letting people mess with NPCs until someone else shows up, but AI in anything else tends to be a tool for offline play.
In response to ACWraith
I for one love turn based strategy. Take a game like Jagged Alliance. Build that up for byond and I'd play it.
Lets be honest, Strategy games on BYOND aren't going to get the same level of players as all the anime games.

However, BYOND has a very good and sizeable enough Strategy guild, headed by ACWraith. If its good enough for the guys over there to play it, then you know its a game that is well valued by an intellectual community. Games like Ultimatum has great popularity with people coming back every week.

The main thing that Strategy games need, funny enough, is Strategy. Why Strategy games differ from those labelled as Action, is because its based on thinking and deciding rather than how many times you can click a button every second.
In response to Acebloke
Acebloke, my avatar is a cartoon version of myself and I post blogs where I roleplay either a tyrant or a really pathetic version of Dirk Deppey. If you're going for "intellectual", you'd probably do better to use the original (and still) King, IainPeregrine, with his philosophy forum and "Leningrad" blog photo. ;)

Yorae, maybe it would help get this discussion back on track if you were to mention what features your RTS engine already has so that others can fill in their desires. As for myself, I stand by the idea of short sessions with the possibility of joining late. However, as obvious as it might seem, I would also like to promote the availability of help files inside the game. There are multiple games in the strategy guild which offer some form of real-time play, but, whether I join a game in progress or run my own server, I have little idea what is going on. (I realize that these suggestions might apply to any kind of game, but I've noticed them a lot when trying to have Strategy Guild events.)
In response to ACWraith
I've decided to just throw the idea of a RTS game out the window i dislike the idea of so many units and byonds ablity handle it, i see Turn-Based games more a better choise then its couter-part.

I've had the idea of a game like Master Of Orion or Stars in my head for along time i was going to make it RTSish but as i've said changed my mind so do you think people would be interested in a game like those?
If there can be no cheap tactics, I can get red & white units and BYOND members get more firepower, I'll be all over it.
In response to RedlineM203
RedlineM203 wrote:
If there can be no cheap tactics, I can get red & white units and BYOND members get more firepower, I'll be all over it.

The thing about that is "Balance" which i think is important to any strategy game that exists even if you are a byond member.
I like RTS and TBS (Turn-Based Strategy)... I'm making a turn-based strategy game right now because I think it'd be great fun to play.


--Vito
In response to Yorae
Create whatever ideas of yours that you can manage to implement. If you were only worried about the number of players on BYOND then you would be designing an anime RPG right now. ;)

It's fine if you don't want to do an RTS, but keep in mind that turns take time to complete. Lately, I've been favoring simultaneous turns so that games last roughly the same amount of time no matter how many people play. However, I'm aiming for guild events with an unlimited number of players. You might be able to get away with using asynchronous turns with a small number of players. It's not uncommon. Some games, including one I have in development, require asynchronous turns. Just be aware of the time increase per player.

What I'm trying to impress upon you, since you appear to be worried about having an audience, is the level of commitment of the player. If it takes a person hours to play a single game then that person is likely to wonder what else they could be doing during that time. (Likewise, if a person logs in and has to wait hours for the next game then that person is likely to leave. However, some games have had success with creating multiple games on the same server.)
In response to Yorae
Yeah... now when I think about it, the more firepower for BYOND members is stupid, but its more reason to sign up, eh?