Warcraft fans get to relive the origins of the Warcraft universe as Blizzard has just released the Warcraft Battle Chest, a bundle containing all three Warcraft RTS games remastered and packed with quality-of-life improvements.
I read a piece not too long ago by one of the developers of WC1. He originally had it so you could select all your units at the same time and just order them to attack. The lead designer said that was too boring and easy, so he had him limit the unit selection to groups of 4.
After trying it both ways, they agreed the smaller group limit made the game more skilful and interesting to play. Ever since then RTS games have gone towards increasing the selection cap more and more! I think it’s a mistake.
Yeah that’s how the Total War series does it. A single unit could be up to 200 people. It tends to make the unit far less maneuverable though. This means it leans pretty far away from what the WarCraft/StarCraft fan is looking for with highly microable units.
There are open source engine rebuilds for Dune 2 that offer lots of QoL/UX refinements so it is really great to play but at the same time those changes make the game way to easy.
Dune 2 was designed and balanced with the limitations in mind and removing them utterly breaks the difficulty.
I love the old games but I wish that unit pathing and attacking would’ve been updated a little. Or at least for the remastered version, or have it an option in the settings.
Another thing that always bothered me a bit was the max amount of selected units in many older RTS games. Sometimes it’s limited by the UI too, but they could update that as well.
If the remastered versions add modern controls that’d be super. It’s the main gripe I have with the older games besides low resolutions.
You mean like updating unit selection in Warcraft 2; it is limited to ~9 units per control group from what I remember.
I watched someone stream it and freaked out that they grouped 10 trolls
Orks and humans had no multi select 🙃 apparently they’re adding that in though which might make it playable.
I read a piece not too long ago by one of the developers of WC1. He originally had it so you could select all your units at the same time and just order them to attack. The lead designer said that was too boring and easy, so he had him limit the unit selection to groups of 4.
After trying it both ways, they agreed the smaller group limit made the game more skilful and interesting to play. Ever since then RTS games have gone towards increasing the selection cap more and more! I think it’s a mistake.
I liked how dawn of war did it with units being squads of people, you had huge battles but less units.
Yeah that’s how the Total War series does it. A single unit could be up to 200 people. It tends to make the unit far less maneuverable though. This means it leans pretty far away from what the WarCraft/StarCraft fan is looking for with highly microable units.
I remember trying to replay Dune 2 a few years ago.
The lack of many QoL/UX refinements made it really difficult to play.
There are open source engine rebuilds for Dune 2 that offer lots of QoL/UX refinements so it is really great to play but at the same time those changes make the game way to easy.
Dune 2 was designed and balanced with the limitations in mind and removing them utterly breaks the difficulty.
Did not know about this about the open source engine rebuild. Will have to try them the next time I feel like playing Dune 2.
I don’t mind the easier difficulty. 😀
I love the old games but I wish that unit pathing and attacking would’ve been updated a little. Or at least for the remastered version, or have it an option in the settings.
Another thing that always bothered me a bit was the max amount of selected units in many older RTS games. Sometimes it’s limited by the UI too, but they could update that as well.