this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
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It got abandoned way before the monetization issues. It's an extremely difficult genre from a technical perspective. Networking and keeping in sync is far more difficult for an rts than any other type of game. Then path finding is also a difficult problem, too poor and units fail to move through choke points, too perfect and you can reveal unknown information, do different speed units march together or not, if units March together how far away do they try to group up vs going to the destination.
Before you even get to design of the game there's a ton of technical hurdles that other styles don't have.
All solved problems with well known solutions.
Networking is solved by processing commands in lock step (quake actually pioneered this).
Pathfinding has well known solutions like A*. That's really integrated with fog of war. In fact, it's easier to do today because computers are faster
Unit formation can be added but does not need to be. If you are doing high cps like in games like StarCraft, it's even preferable to the gameplay that you don't solve that problem.
And let's not forget the for these big studios, the solutions to these problems already exist in previous titles. They aren't starting from square one.
These problems are so well known that Indy game devs routinely solve them solo (see, games like factorio). Heck, the fact that you know to cite them speaks to how well known they are.
What's blocking new rtses by AAA companies is nothing technical, it's financial. Creating the assets, levels, and story are almost certainly a bigger blocker than any technical problem.
How so? Wouldn't a game where thousands of people on a map require syncing, while the movements of CPUs would be more deterministic?
Rts requires each player to see exactly the same state at exactly the same time. Fps games can compensate more and minor lag isn't as big of a problem.
I see… but isn't virtually all of the pathfinding deterministic based on the seed + inputs of up to 4 people? How would it be more difficult than fighting game rollback, where you have 2-4 players that need to have sub 2frame accuracy?
While a command might be deterministic, new commands can be issued at any time. A client that is behind could miss a command to move units that then leaves them visible or in range to an opponent. In an fps a client that's behind they might shoot someone who isn't really there, but shooting someone is the main focus. Most shooting games have some level of window where if a client thinks there's a hit it happens even if the person wasn't there.
I was talking about other frame important games, not FPS. I'm talking about games with rollback and no more than a frame or 2 difference.
Meh, it can't be too hard! Just retexture Dune2! It worked for Command and Conquer: Tiberian Something....