A new era in the RTS
For the next couple days, I am staying at my parents house, where I (gasp) don’t have access to a computer capable of playing Supreme Commander. This is quite the downer. I tried loading up the old, but dependable Total Annihilation, but found I can no longer play it. Every few seconds, I instinctively roll the mousewheel back, trying to get a view of the big picture. Needless to say, it doesn’t work, and I am left in the cramped, claustrophobic view typical of every RTS except SupCom. It just feels so wrong, I can’t bring myself to play.
This brings up some questions about other real time strategy games coming up soon, such as Command & Conquer 3. Regardless of any other features, it is doubtful that I will be able to play this game without strategic zoom. Looking at screenshots, every one seems strangely close in on the action, with only tiny forces fighting it out. It just does not look at all appealing to me, now that I have played SupCom.
Truly, all other RTS makers are now playing catch-up. They need to implement the strategic zoom and scale of SupCom in their own games if they want to compete. It seems we are entering a new era in the RTS, with SupCom hopefully just the first in a whole new class of games.
March 19th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
I encountered this very same thing playing Dawn of War! I kept trying to zoom out from the enemy positions and then re-zoom back in on mine, it seemed alien to be using a mini map again. I also hated not being able to tell a unit producing structure to “tech up” but not then being able to build a queue of the units that would be available once the upgrade had finished! I also found that pressing “P” holding down shift whilst having my Land Speeders selected and clicking around my listening posts didn’t do anything!? o_0
There is no going back Games Industry, Chris Taylor is forging the way forward!
NIDCLXVI
March 19th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Hi !
You should check out spring (spring.clan-sy.com), it also features the strategic zoom.
plus, it’s open source (and it had the zoom before supcom was released ;)
thanks, and keep on rocking with this blog. It’s my primary supcom reading place :) If you develop the wiki and other nice bits, it can really become an important place.
March 19th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I remember checking out Spring a long time ago, and thought it was pretty fun watching TA action in real 3-D, but it wasn’t really in a finished state. It seems they’ve moved along quite a bit since then, so its probably worth checking out again.
Oh, and thanks for the complement on the blog!
March 19th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
a spring break spent entirely playing Supreme Commander is a vastly superior alternative to your nonsense
March 19th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
It’s just other RTS games that give you problems? Man, I’m finding web browsers inadequate. I’ll instinctively try to scroll to zoom in to read more information on a certain subject, only to mentally smack myself on the head and go, “Duhh, I need to click on that link instead.”
March 19th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Firstly great site! informative, interesting, job done.
keep her up :D
and concerning strat zoom. wow. i downloaded C&C3 demo and that was the main thing i just could not stand. quite literally like haveing your head half buried in sand, unable to see smeg all.
it sucked :(
so, unlikely ill play that game.
strat zoom is most certainly a huge step forward and really does leave other games for dead at the mo.
March 19th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
I would go so far as to say that strategic zoom is the #1 feature in SupCom. It’s what makes SupCom what it is. Without it, it wouldn’t be nearly as good of a game. It’s what makes the game, and its absence is going to break other games. I remember when I first heard about strategic zoom I dismissed it as a gimmick and I was more excited about the 3D landscapes (something that TA lacked). I really didn’t see strategic zoom working; who wanted to look at a bunch of icons, I thought?
Luckily I was very, very, very wrong. Strategic zoom is the best new feature to hit RTSs in the past decade.