My Friend Wants to Start RTS Games. Where Should He Begin?

[hiphop4eva]

I don't really know where to put this thread so move it around accordingly plz.

The title says it all. I was thinking of SC2 since it's free and I know how to play it a bit, but for someone that has little to no experience playing RTS games, maybe SC2 will be a bit overwhelming? Idk help me out please.

 

[Squiggy]

Warcraft 3 maybe?

 

[doom_sheep]

sc2 is really bad

 

[hiphop4eva]

Warcraft 3 maybe?

The thing is I don't have original wc3, and W3R is expensive as frick so no way either of us will buy that. Should we play with the old version of warcraft3?

sc2 is really bad

 

[pyf]

The thing is I don't have original wc3, and W3R is expensive as frick so no way either of us will buy that. [...]

So in the end, I understand that you and your friend want a free RTS to play online?


Maybe this could do:
Warzone 2100: A Free And Open Source Real-Time Strategy Game

Note: to play the solo campaign, prefer v3.1.x over v3.2.x. v3.3.x untested


Warzone 2100 - Wikipedia

Should we play with the old version of warcraft3?

Warcraft 3 has never been free, but maybe one can download the shareware version and see if it is multiplayer-compatible one way or another?

 

[hiphop4eva]

So in the end, I understand that you and your friend want a free RTS to play online?

He likes playing online multiplayer games, so ideally we want to be able to play with other players. This guy has little to no experience in games like Dota, LoL, WC3 etc.
And I mean to say that I already have a copy of Warcraft 3, it's not the original so multiplayer other than LAN isn't available.

I'm thinking maybe I will use that version of war3 to play solely with him until he gets used to playing RTS-styled games. Then we can move on to SC2? The thing is, one thing I need to factor in is that this is supposed to be a fun experience for him, so I can't keep tutoring him forever. At some point, we need to move to a multiplayer game like SC2.

 

[pyf]

Why StarCraft II, and not StarCraft?

 

[hiphop4eva]

Why StarCraft II, and not StarCraft?

Why would I play SC1? It's harder, older, I don't see what advantage it has over the second. Plus I'm jsut used to the second one.

 

[pyf]

Why would I play SC1? [...] Plus I'm jsut used to the second one.

Maybe the question should be, why wouldn't he play StarCraft, since this thread is about your friend, and not really about you?

[...] It's harder, older, I don't see what advantage it has over the second [...]

The whole StarCraft solo campaign is a tutorial, since the many units in the game are introduced one at a time.
The two solo campaigns (SC+BW) are enjoyable. The many plot twists and improvements in BW make this one imho superior to the SC one.

Starting with v1.12 and the introduction of rally points in 2005, the SC gameplay is imho on par with the one of Warcraft 3.

The whole point of a RTS is imho to get good at it. The good ones are easy to learn, but hard to master (else, they get dull pretty quickly).

WC3 is older than SCII.

---

What kind of online multiplayer game universes does your friend like? Sci-fi ones? High fantasy ones? Historical ones?
Will he give Warzone 2100 a try?

 

[hiphop4eva]

Maybe the question should be, why wouldn't he play StarCraft, since this thread is about your friend, and not really about you?

I mean in the end I'm going to play with him sooo

I don't think he will care about the story aspects of the games, but then again I never thought this guy would give RTS games a shot so maybe he will surprise me again.

If SC is easier to learn than most games then I think we can give it a shot. Plus, I'm kinda curious to see how the first game feels, as I have never played it before.

I think he can play just about anything really. The thing is, the reason I rule out most games other than Blizzard is because I'm not used to them myself. If I have no idea how a game plays then how am I supposed to help him He doesn't have great english either so forget tutorials. This is why I think I can give SC a shot. It has the same style as Blizzards other games so I won't be confused at all. And if it's suitable for a begginer level player, then it's a good match.

 

[Feng Shui]

maybe SC2 will be a bit overwhelming

If Blizzard games are too overwhelming I'm sad to say the RTS genre is not for him.

 

[hiphop4eva]

If Blizzard games are too overwhelming I'm sad to say the RTS genre is not for him.

No clue. He hasn't started playing yet. But why do you think that?

 

[Feng Shui]

No clue. He hasn't started playing yet. But why do you think that?

Because all Blizzard titles are extremely hand-holding, especially in comparison to pretty much any other RTS game.

 

[hiphop4eva]

Because all Blizzard titles are extremely hand-holding, especially in comparison to pretty much any other RTS game.

I'm glad to hear that lol. As someone that has known how to play RTS games since childhood, I don't know how easy or hard these games can be to learn.

 

[pyf]

The game's built-in tutorial is imho the most important part to consider. This is the reason why I never really took the time to understand how to play Earth 2150: The Moon Project, despite having bought a copy of it back in the days (and I had played and liked the demo version before buying the full game!). The built-in ingame tutorial for the full version of Earth 2150:TMP was, simply put, tedious to read, while the one for StarCraft was so very easy to get into effortlessly.

 

[doom_sheep]

I dunno if there's a scene but tzar: the burden of the crown is pretty great.

 

[Squiggy]

Warhammer 40k + Addons, AoE, Empire Earth, AoM, C&C 3 & Red Alert (+2&3), C&C ZH etc..
The classics.

 

[Naze]

Perhaps picking by the theme may help you choose.

About SC2: Is he into futuristic fantasy, or will it be uninteresting for him? For example, I know SC2 100% wouldn't work with some friends of mine because of that.

If he's into a more historical theme I'd recommend any Age of Empires or Company of Heroes. If medieval fantasy, I'd go with Warcraft or maybe look for some other titles on Steam. You get the idea

 

[pyf]

[...] AoE [...]

@Squiggy: If you mean the original 1997/98 release of Age of Empires, then only with the Rise of Rome expansion pack, and with UPatch HD installed. And even with that, the pathfinding of enemy units will still be (hopelessly?) broken...

 

[João Caju]

Of course it should be Star Wars Galatic Battlegrounds (aka the Jedi AoE2).