I’m currently making a space RTS that tries to focus on more strategic than tactical gameplay and tries at every step to remove micromanagement and let the player focus on a single game instead of a collection of sub-games (resource collection, production, tactics) like most RTSes are.
The player doesn’t create individual units, they create fleets. When a fleet comes near a friendly planet, they will heal their ships and revive destroyed ones. A brand-new fleet starts with only the flagship and must revive/heal itself up to full strength, but the player has the option to command an unfinished squad as soon as they want to.
Attack orders are also not managed directly by the player. Squadrons will engage enemies automatically when they move into weapons range and individual ships will pick their own targets.
Squadrons can adjust themselves in various formations that provide combat or movement bonuses. Morale is modeled and fleets that have lost many ships or are being attacked from several sides will rout.
Main sources of inspiration are Homeworld and Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns, and as I put more features into the game it might start looking more influenced by Sins of a Solar Empire and/or Warzone 2100.
If a player action requires more attention than the mechanical value it provides, such as placing buildings or managing resource collector units, I won’t include it. I am also trying very hard to not force the player to split their attention constantly, I am very aggravated that in most RTSes if you get carried away with commanding your units you will fall behind in production or resources (raise your hand if you’ve lost a game of Starcraft with thousands of minerals in the bank), and vice versa. This is pretty subjective but at least I’m trying to stick to some principles.
Here’s a gameplay video… please excuse the atrocious quality, I haven’t quite figured out the best method for video capture but I think I’ve got a good method figured out and I just need to spend some time to make another video with it:
If you would like to keep track of the development, please take a look at my tumblr blog:
If you are interested in becoming a playtester, please email me at my forum name @gmail.com
