[Freeciv-Dev] Thoughts after playing C&C Generals

["Per I. Mathisen" <per@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've been playing a bit Command and Conquer Generals (with Zero Hour
expansion) lately. Finally an RTS game that can rival Starcraft :)

I think we can learn a few lessons from it. I'll go through the good
stuff.

You can choose between three 'nations' just like in Starcraft, which are
rather different in play style, available options and tactics. Then you
can choose between three different 'generals' for each nation, which give
you different build options (some things cheaper and available earlier
or not at all) and bonuses/drawbacks.

Like in Starcraft, players choose their 'nation' (and general) in pregame.
This is good because you are mentally prepared for what kind of game you
are engaging in, and you can set up the challenge by agreement and see it
visually. The latter is a useful feature - if too many people are playing
'nation' X, then I might choose something else for flavour and diversity.

The game has teams (as in Freeciv), but no multicontroller feature (as
'team' play in Starcraft) - nobody has missed the multicontroller feature
that I have heard (even in Starcraft it is not much used).

In game, both units and players gain experience. Units use experience to
gain veterancy levels and players gain general's promotions. These
promotions give you access to special features and upgrades, like cloaking
units, making infantry appear anywhere on the map, carpet bombing anywhere
on map, giving you resources for enemies killed, etc.. Most of these
features are time-limited, in that once you have used it, a timer counts
down to the next time you can use it.

I started out rather skeptical of the promotions concept, but it has grown
on me. It punishes turtling (just sitting there building defenses) and
rewards the offensive player that takes chances and kicks some ass,
especially when there are multiple players. The players who do not engage
in the fighting do not get any promotions. It makes the game less stale.
Also, due to the nature of many of the promotions, they are often used to
break up very solid defences and give a whipping to the bases of players
who turtle, further adding flow to the game and rewarding good players.

Each 'nation' has one superweapon, available by building the superweapon
building. It is an uncounterable attack of massive proportions that can be
used anywhere on the map. It is on the end of the game's 'tech tree'. Once
used it counts down five minutes before it is available again. It can only
be stopped by destroying the superweapon building before it is launched. I
started out hating the superweapon concept, but I now think the concept is
quite nice - it is a nice box opener to use on players that just build
defences and turtle. There is a game option to limit the maximum number of
superweapons to one per player, and this is a must.

There are lots of units to choose from, but no superfluous or useless
units. They all have weaknesses and are therefore counterable. There is no
strategy for which there is no viable counterstrategy. Attacking with a
mixture of different kinds of units is therefore almost always a good
idea.

In conclusion, I think that the idea of gaining experience is a good
feature that will reward action and good players, and also help protect
such players against ganging, since their units will become better from
the action (if they survive). Rafal has said he will implement this, which
is good. I don't quite see how Freeciv could have a player experience
(general's promotions) system, though. I think choosing your nation in
pregame is vital for Freeciv once you have rulesets where nations have
rules differences, and I do not think anyone will miss the multicontroller
feature if we remove it.

  - Per