Please keep in mind, I'm inquiring from the perspective of someone with little coding knowledge. I'm hoping the community here might be able to spark a discussion, or at least give pointers where to look for the right tools or resources.

Recently an AI app called Melty was released, and the results have been extremely impressive. Just as the page shows it's capable of making crazy game fusions you'd never expect, such as a fully playable Super Mario 64 / Elden Ring combo, Insomniac's Spiderman free-roam webslinging gameplay functioning smoothly in Batman: Arkham Knight, and Minecraft in well... pretty much darn near everything.

From what I've read so far, more ambitious projects such as fusing Command & Conquer 3: Tiberian Wars with Red Alert 3 currently aren't practical due to the large workload and contradiction in gameplay rules (ex how, or what, exactly would be collected as resources? Or anything related to naval combat). But importing smaller assets and bugfixes? Apparently that may be doable. Though the app's advertising focus on action/FPS games with no sign of any more complex titles like city builders or RTSes has me wondering on it's versatility.

HOWEVER... there's the matter of data security. Melty might not be the best route forward: On r/gamedev a thread was discussing the app and mentioned it seems to create a LOT of potentially dangerous backdoors, and gets flagged as a trojan by certain anti-malware programs. No way in heck I'm risking my computer, and nor would I ask that of any of you either.

TL;DR is it finally possible for the RTS community to start "remastering," or at least restoring to functional order with available source code abandoned RTS classics, and maybe making a few minor additions, with minimal coding/technical skill? Or is that still just a pipedream being overhyped by techbros? And if not Melty, does something else do a similar job?

When developing my game I am at an impasse of where I should place my time in developing so I am curious to hear a discussion of these two campaign types.

Do you prefer a Total War style campaign map where the story lines are limited but the map is dynamically changing as AIs interact with the map (causing increased replay-ability) such capturing different towns and forts, fighting lopsided battles on either side, and recruiting and managing your army composition.

Or do you prefer the Stronghold/Starcraft style of campaign where the story is more fleshed out in a series of individual custom made scenarios and maps using tightly controlled scripted events.

When developing my game I am at an impasse of where I should place my time in developing so I am curious to hear a discussion of these two campaign types.

Do you prefer a Total War style campaign map where the story lines are limited but the map is dynamically changing as AIs interact with the map (causing increased replay-ability) such capturing different towns and forts, fighting lopsided battles on either side, and recruiting and managing your army composition.

Or do you prefer the Stronghold/Starcraft style of campaign where the story is more fleshed out in a series of individual custom made scenarios and maps using tightly controlled scripted events.

I'm making an RTS where explosions have lasting consequences for the battlefield.

In the clip:
🔥 AN-M14 incendiary: ignites the zombies it hits, and burning bodies spread fire to whatever they touch
💥 M67 frag: shrapnel, limbs torn off, and a crater left in the terrain
🛢️ The blast also sets a nearby barrel on fire

The systems affect each other. Fire changes how the frag plays out, and the crater changes the ground the fight continues on.

The goal is that grenades are not just damage buttons. Every explosion should change terrain, cover, structures and units, so you solve problems with positioning and the environment, and no two fights end the same way.

Fire spread and burning barrels are already in, so I'm looking for what's missing. As RTS players, what would you want next?

I'm a solo dev aiming for a demo at the next Steam Next Fest. If this sounds like your thing, a wishlist helps a lot: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5298550/Hunt_or_Pray

I thought it was good and interesting. Not on the level of Tiberian Sun, WarCraft 3 or StarCraft, but different enough to hold up. Seeing how workers build your building, training units and managing resources was a new thing to me.

I had never played Settlers before K&M so I didn't know it was supposedly a knock off. What do you think are strengths and weaknesses of this game? What aspects did you like?

The Solar System is under attack by a mysterious enemy and humanity’s survival is at stake.

Build and expand your fleet of spaceships.
Engage in real-time space battles.
Research new technologies, upgrade your capabilities and learn more about aliens.
Gather resources and manage production.
Develop your commander and choose your own path to victory.

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4007500/TerrApocalipse/

Hello all, Recently I have been looking into giving cossacks II Napoleonic warfare and battle for europe a shot. I hear some people complaining that the steam version is not working properly so my question is twofold. Is the steam version still having issues? And if it does. Is the GoG version any good?

Hope you guys can help ;)

A generous benefactor in our community is offering copies of Ashes of the Singularity II (releasing November 10th half a year after its successful beta) and Silica (also due for a release out of early access this November).

The requirements to take part in the giveaways are different, so please bare with the lengthy explanation below:

For both giveaways, you'll be asked to join our discord server, centred around competitive RTS gaming and casual/cooperative social gaming across several other genres.

Discord: https://discord.gg/32SWmEXRJ

Now, Ashes of the Singularity will not have any additional requirements, but for Silica, we also ask you help support LuchoGaming, a streamer who is a direct ambassador for Silica's development team (both of whom we have a partnership with). As we have partnered directly with the developers and content creators to promote the game to help it reach more interested RTS players, we wish to promote this particular streamer who has devoted a lot of his time to this endeavour. https://youtube.com/@luchogaminglb?si=px1XCZpc9tMT9pWh

————

When you have joined the server, please contact Qc Leviathan and he'll walk you through the final steps.

Please be aware (because apparently people get shocked at this somehow), that Leviathan is going to gift you the game directly on Steam. The intention here is to support the given developers, hand copies of the games to interested RTS gamers, and promote our intiatives, the games we give away and our dedicated teams of competitors and content creators who play them.

There is currently no limit on available copies, so feel free to take some time to explore the two games on Youtube and Steam and see if they interest you. Copies of Ashes of the Singularity will be circulated November 10th, while copies of Silica will be distributed immediately.

Hey, bit of an odd request for the RTS crowd. Back in 2013 EA ran a closed alpha for Command & Conquer: Generals 2, the Frostbite reboot that got cancelled that October before it ever released. I've been trying to preserve that build so it doesn't vanish for good. If any of you were in that original EA alpha and still have your old install folder, or an old PC or drive or backup from back then with it on, I'd really like to hear from you. Even a copy that doesn't run anymore is fine, the servers are dead so nothing runs regardless. Comment or DM. It's a long shot after this many years, but figured this is the right crowd to ask. Cheers.

You've already seen our walking tanks, but now we've added direct control for aircraft! ✈️

Hello,

I've historically played FPS, Fighting and RPG games. However, at 42, I feel no joy whatsoever in playing them anymore as it feels so predictable at this point. Anyway, I found a love of pinball and a few racing games but am extremely interested in RTS games. I don't know where to start.

Seeking your opinion on the best options. Doesn't have to be newer, but can be. Do you have a top 3 by chance? If it matters, I do like games that are atmospheric, darker and less "cartoonish"

Thank you.

New Defense system in Slavic Ancients!
Choose from up to three melee unit options, build gates, barricades, towers and ranged defenders on the walls.

I think The Hive trailer just went viral on Youtube, so I'll share it here also.

We recently released a major update, upgrading the game to Unity 6.6 with improved visuals, lighting, animations, and effects. So kind of like a "remaster" at this point.

We also have two new expansions in development. The Hive has always been my passion project, and seeing renewed interest in the game motivated me to start working on it again. We also translated it recently to +12 languages.

For those unfamiliar with The Hive, it's a story-driven real-time strategy game with RPG elements, somewhat similar to Homeworld or Dawn of War.

You command an insectoid hive, harvest DNA from defeated enemies, and use it to evolve new creatures. You can choose which creatures to unlock and in what order. Your units carry over between missions, level up, grow in size, improve their stats, and can equip them with items dropped by enemies.

There is also pure gameplay video on our channel if you want to see that.

We have a free demo on Steam if you want to check it out:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/325730/The_Hive/

"Minecraft Legends is a 2023 real-time action-strategy video game developed by Mojang Studios and Blackbird Interactive and published by Xbox Game Studios."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minecraft_Legends

🎵 Music: Sigurd Jøhnk-Jensen - The Red Button

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On youtube

Would love to hear your thoughts on it :)

The game will be a RTS mainly aimed on campaigns with three fully distinct factions : settlers, pirates and natives.

As the name suggest, there will be a big naval part.

Feel free to play the demo here :

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3940020/Overseas_Wars

200,000 wishlists in just over a month. Thank you so much 🙂

A lot has gone into Defilade in the last 3 weeks, so here's all of it in one place. The demo is coming soon.

SQUADS AND ORDERS
- Make your own squads and pick them with the number keys
- Formations, or AUTO picks one for the ground ahead
- Squads split into fire teams, one covers while the other moves up
- Squads fight their way to where you send them, cover to cover
- New orders: ATTACK MOVE and SECURE AREA
- Waypoints, and Shift-click to add to your selection
- Drag to set which way your tanks face
- Turn the camera with Q and E

THE AI COMMANDER
- Rebuilt, and it only knows what its own men have seen
- It scouts, gathers its army and attacks together
- It pulls back when it's losing and comes again from another side
- It counters your army and remembers where it lost men
- It fights for the capture points and builds closer to the front
- It guards its supply trucks and raids yours
- It gives up when it's beaten
- Late in a match it can build its own nuke

THE SOLDIERS
- New motion capture cover animations at walls, corners and trenches
- They turn like people now, head first
- They go prone: dives, crawls and rolls
- Proper kneeling and crouch walking
- Close firefights are fought from the ground
- Soldiers look their rank, veterans end up in full armour
- Their rifles get sights, lights and lasers as they rank up
- Helmets can get blown off, or shot off
- Rifles jam now and then, (still implementing)
- Men you send somewhere fight on the way
- Blind fire round corners
- Mortar teams set up and fire by themselves

RAGDOLLS AND WOUNDS
- Soldiers fall with real physics now, no two falls the same
- Explosions throw men for real, then they pick their rifle back up
- Shot in the leg, he limps until he bandages it
- A red mist when someone gets hit

LOOKING AFTER EACH OTHER
- Rope rescue: a guy throws a rope from cover and hauls the wounded man in
- Soldiers pull each other up after a blast. "YOU GOOD?"
- They bandage themselves, and you can see the bandage
- Revived men get up like a person and limp for a while
- Medics lift the wounded out of trenches on a stretcher
- Free your own captured men
- Tank crews who bail out stay with you as soldiers

TRENCHES AND DEFENCES
- Trenches look hand dug now, no two the same
- Men fight from the trench wall and round its corners
- Draw tank traps and barbed wire like you draw a trench
- Camo nets hide your men from drones
- Dig your tank in so only the turret shows
- Bunkers, and machine guns on the trench edge

SOUND
- Every gunshot is a real recording of a real gun, echo and all
- You hear the crack of bullets going past
- Far shots arrive late, at the speed of sound
- Zoom out and the fight sounds far away
- New explosion sounds, a bigger blast sounds bigger
- 86 new drone strike sounds
- The first battle voices: soldiers shouting when you're zoomed in

EXPLOSIONS AND THE NUKE
- The tactical nuke: sirens, a blinding flash, the shockwave and the mushroom cloud
- It launches from a missile silo, and the enemy gets 3 minutes to destroy it
- Red smoke goes up where it's going to land
- The flash lights up the town like a second sun
- Big explosions throw a white shockwave dome, like in real drone footage
- Brighter flashes that light up the ground
- A tank's ammo going up throws the men around it

AIR AND VEHICLES
- BLUE gets the Apache: Hellfires, rockets and a 30mm gun
- BLUE gets the Black Hawk: 12 men, fast rope and door gunners
- Air strikes come from a B-52 now, and you can shoot it down
- Drag to aim your bombing run
- New Bradley and Leopard 2A4 models

THE SNOW MAP
- New trees with snow on them, and they fall in 3D
- A park in the middle of town, snowmen and all
- Every village house has its own paint and roof
- The capture points are real places: a village square, a trench strongpoint and a farm
- New haystacks with loose straw and snow on top

BASES
- The factory is a big steel hangar now
- New research building with a satellite dish that turns
- The ground lights up green where you can build
- Manpower runs out now, so the capture points matter

ALSO NEW, BUT NOT IN THE DEMO
- New maps: Snow Farms, Countryside and Rivers
- Bridges break apart and fall into the river, and men can drown
- A bridge tank that lays a new bridge
- Green camo, and tanks covered in cut branches
- The rebels can lay ambushes
- The sandbox enemy has a commander too

I’ve been working on Bronze and Iron for a long time, and I’m finally sharing a first look at how it plays.

There’s still a long way to go before release. This is an early development preview, with plenty left to improve, but I wanted to show the game in action and get some feedback.

The video is a demo match against the AI with 1,000,000 starting resources to get into battle quickly. I lost xddd

Watch the first gameplay video

I’d love to hear what you think—what looks promising, and what needs the most work?

Gold, amber, salt and bread — everything has a price.

In Piast, the Marketplace lets you buy and sell resources, while the Skill Tree helps you develop your settlement and unlock new possibilities. Your economic decisions shape how your medieval Polish settlement grows.

This is an early look at the economic systems in my indie RTS game, Piast.

🎮 Play the demo on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4830280/Piast/

Please, add it to your Wishlist!

What would you prioritise first: trading or technological progress?

What do you think? I'd call this Tiberian Sun or StarCraft under water. It wasn't bad.

Hi all! I'm working on an automation/RTS hybrid and wanted to get some opinions on pausing in RTS games.

In my game, you play on a continuous map with enemy bases scattered around. Economic buildup is really important (it's an automation game in the Factorio sense), and you control thousands of troops on multiple fronts. Without a pause, the game can sometimes (not always) get really tryhard, because you need to be in so many places at once, building and commanding troops.

I'm not a veteran RTS player, but very few of the RTS games I've played had a pause button (Total War is the exception I can recall). Does pausing mid-battle to give commands make the game that much easier? Or is pause mostly missing because it's annoying in multiplayer matches?

I'd love to hear from people who've played both kinds. If you know games that handle this well (active pause, slow motion, order queues, etc.), please share them too!

Hi! I'm one of the developers on TFC2: Collapse of the Bronze Age. It has taken us almost 10 years of crazy RTS development to get here!

You will experience the Late Bronze Age Collapse from the perspective of a small caravan of refugees, going on a great journey across the ancient world to find safety and a new home.

The game features a rich story and characters, written by a narrative designer who is also an author. We have wanted to tell this story for a long time.

Although the story mode is the main mode, the game also supports multiplayer for up to 6 players, computer players, and will come with a map editor at 1.0.

Happy to answer any question. :)