Caltrops - Gamerasutra - I think we've got something here

Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra

by FABIO 08/25/2004, 12:27pm PDT

Pre wrote:

curst wrote:

Why is Kohan so revered by the twenty people who played it? (Well, aside from me.) (And IIRC Fabio hates it too.) (Not that that's a surprise, but this is one of those instances where I agree with him wholeheartedly.)

There's apparently a Kohan 2 looming over the horizon, and I've seen message boards and even my ICQ messages get inundated with "BEST RTS EVER!" squeals of delight. What the shit?

Kohan is loved by a select group of people: big dorks who are also terrible at any real RTS game.

I'm talking about the kind of guys who end up playing 4 of them versus 2 or 3 computer players in starcraft. People who have no concept of build orders or micro.
It's got all kinds of "features" for terrible players, like running your shattered hulk of an army back home after your ill conceived assault and letting them regen back to full health.

I kind of feel sorry for them. I'm fine with letting them having tic-tac-toe to play if it'll keep them out of my games of chess.

I remember reviews praising the supply lines because they discouraged rushing. A "no rush" game in any online RTS game is a sure sign that the players are all skilless faggots. This is totally out of control in C&C: Generals online. 80% of the games are no rush and/or no superweapons, mostly so the fags can choose the side best suited for turtling, turtle without worrying about a rush, and then have their little fortress be invincible because there are no superweapons to break the stalemate. I have a part time job joining these games then rushing. Hopefully they'll eventually they'll stop fagging up MY game.

What is with every single RTS's multiplayer that it eventually disintegrates into people only playing the one or two most turtle-friendly, resource-heavy maps? The maps that are symmetrical with one tiny chokepoint bridge in the middle (and another at your base!) so that turtles only have to worry about defending one entrance. Then throw in unlimited resources so you can mindlessly throw away lots of units at the chokepoint without havig to worry about running out of money or that pesky "expanding". It happened in the original Command & Conquer with Tiberium Fields, it happened in Starcraft (actually most of the standard maps cater to this, which is why I'll only ever play sirocco) with Big Game Hunters (and now the even worse "fastest map ever"), it happened in Myth with If I Only Had a Trow (no resource management, but still more units you could hope to finely control fighting over a tiny chokepiont in the middle), it happened in C&C: Generals with Twilight Flame. I've never played Total Annihilation (unless being completely unimpressed with the demo counts), but I bet it happened there too.

You're absolutely right, Kohan is perfect for these people. It completely dispenses with strategy and micro-management so you can just get right ot the mindless throwing of units at the meatgrinder aspect.

P.S.- I'm now in the position where I think it was be a great idea for developers to intentionally leave out a map editor for their RTS games. Has anyone ever played a SINGLE user made map that was better than the standard ones? Just the opposite, they take the most "Kohan player friendly^TM" standard maps mentioned above and make them even more extreme until you have just two islands covered in resources with one chokepoint. It's either that or they churn out some extremely gay stab at an RPG with starcraft or warcraft units. Fuck these people. Leave the editor out and FORCE everyone online to play the sandard maps. This is why the greatest (and only) contribution Warcraft 3 made to RTS games was its quickgame feature on battlenet. Bingo, no more dealing with user-made maps!