   RTS game skills
  There's something about RTS games that some people seem to have and some don't. That is: the ability to micro-manage things at multiple locations at the same time even under stress, and, the ability to be aggressive from the start with a "winners" mentality. I do all technical things correct in an RTS game, but seem to miss the things I mentione above. Are there any efficient ways to learn those? What properties of the human brain or mentality affects those skills?   
  I don't think it's micromanagment so much as memory and pattern recognition. There are certain strategies that work in RTS games, and the experienced players know that and work on them. They have pretty much their entire strategy and building schedule planned out in advance. They know that they can build X then send their resource scouts off to gather this and that, and about 10 seconds later they can build Y. If you get to the point where you're wondering what you're going to build or research next, you're probably already toast.That and make sure you use your keyboard shortcuts. When I first started playing RTS PVP I got whooped about every time. When I saw the stats at the end of the game, they were using many, many times the number of keyboard shortcuts I was.   ;  I'm basically horrible at RTSs, plus I don't particularly enjoy them but that probably stems from being bad at them.I find there's usually too much going on at once; you have to manage your resources, build an army, get more resources, defend, do reconnaisance patrols and constantly watch for some of the old-fashioned dirty tricks some C&C players still insist on using.  I usually find that, no matter how much effort I put in, I just get steamrolled by masses and masses of cheap units.  It seems like there's very little skill and whoever has the most money wins by default.I prefer FPS because all you have to do is watch your back and shoot at anything that you see.  No micro-management and much less going on at once.   ;Quote:Original post by LodeThat is: the ability to micro-manage things at multiple locations at the same time even under stress?Hotkeys. Most decent RTSs are built to be played with hotkeys. In AoE2 for example, if you wanted to make five villagers, you could do it the slow way, which would be: Locate Town Center on map, press Create Villager button five times. The other way would be to simply press H, Shift+V. Voila.Other than that, don't forget to take advantage of your opponent's human side. For example, keep a few stray units around his peasants, and just annoy him constantly by damaging his villagers, destroying resources etc. If you do it right your opponent is going to be pretty frustrated and annoyed which will cause him to lose focus on attacking you. Be aggressive and keep constant pressure on attacking his base.Hmm. Most importantly, keep your cool even though the situation seems hopeless. I've seen quite a few battles turn around because the dominating part slacked off thinking the battle was won, while the enemy regrouped and turned the tide of the battle.   ;  Hotkeys help alot.I would highly recommend playing a Relic RTS. That is, Dawn of War & Company of Heroes (haven't had a chance to play DoW2 so I don't know about that).I used to be pretty bad at RTS like Starcraft and such. Relic RTS games force you to not turtle and be aggressive. Since your resources are directly related to the amount of territory you control, rather than 'spots' on the map that you mine, you need to hold onto as much territory as possible. If you aren't aggressive you will lose in under 5 minutes. It puts you on a quick learning curve to get better. I've found it helps in other non-Relicy RTS titles like SoaSE and such... I'm assaulting another player's planets before they even start building a fleet :)   ;Quote:Original post by LodeThere's something about RTS games that some people seem to have and some don't. That is: the ability to micro-manage things at multiple locations at the same time even under stress, and, the ability to be aggressive from the start with a "winners" mentality. I do all technical things correct in an RTS game, but seem to miss the things I mentione above. Are there any efficient ways to learn those? What properties of the human brain or mentality affects those skills?I think the stress issue is important. I'm good at the economic and tactical sides of RTS games individually, but try and do them both at once and my stress levels get too high and I make stupid decisions or overlook things.I'm not sure how you learn to keep a level head under stress... practice?I was playing PvP SupCom for a while, which is particularly unforgiving as if you let your economy slip at all, then you get penalized with growth penalties, making it even harder to get back on track, causing a quick defeat unless you're very clever about it.On small maps, I could manage this while also commanding a bunch of units and microing the commander (he's awesome at offense, but if he dies you lose), but larger maps the learning curve got too steep for my poor stress-adverse brain.I knew one guy who was awesome at sup-com, who also gambled excessively in his relaxation time. Perhaps it's the mindset of enjoying being 'on the edge' that helps?   ;  The only serious RTS experience I have is with Starcraft and Warcraft 3 (the expansions as well).  In SC there is a lot of "macro" and "micro" while in WC3, there seems to be more micro than macro.  I think it all depends on the game.  And hotkeys don't really help you that much, because its still a lot of mouse work.  I expect most game developers will use hotkeys normally, so thats a moot point.  Anyway, I have been watching Starcraft pro-gamers and it's pretty ridiculous how fast they are and how many things they manage at once.  I think that the pro-gamers for Starcraft are probably in a league of their own for best RTS players, so they may not be the best people to model after.   ;Quote:Original post by curtmax_0Hotkeys help alot.I would highly recommend playing a Relic RTS. That is, Dawn of War & Company of Heroes (haven't had a chance to play DoW2 so I don't know about that).I used to be pretty bad at RTS like Starcraft and such. Relic RTS games force you to not turtle and be aggressive. Since your resources are directly related to the amount of territory you control, rather than 'spots' on the map that you mineSeconded.Of course, spots on the map that you mine are still related to the amount of territory you control - but somehow it feels much more natural to play aggressively in DoW than in most other RTS games. I think it's due to a number of factors:* Points do not require much babysitting: you need to keep your eye on them so the enemy doesn't take them, and you may want to upgrade them from time to time, but that's about it.* Points can be captured by most infantry units, rather than just vulnerable and weak builder units. This means there's no barrier to expansion, and no reason not to send your units out into the battlefield.* Infantry can be reinforced on the field. This basically means there is no reason to have troops sitting in your base: you can continue to increase your military forces while they are out killing/capturing stuff.DoW 2 is even harder to turtle: the low pop limit and lack of base building means there is basically nothing to do after about five minutes unless you get out there and start actually doing stuff.   ;  I MUCH prefer playing a RTS where you can lean back and watch what's happening, consider what to do next, etc. As already mentioned, this is going to get you squashed against a proper player, but the 'proper' way of playing is just boring to me.   ;  Regarding DoW, I watched a few videos and it seems like more of a tactical FPS than a RTS.  There seems like almost no strategy involved, but it could be because I'm an outsider.Playing a game that forces you to be aggressive eliminates several play styles already, which lowers the skill gap.  A game like Starcraft just has so many possible things to do that for you to be good, you have to be a very quick thinker.  I guess Starcraft got lucky because so many things in there make for good strategies, but I think it was a result more of happenstance than actual planning (not to take anything away from Blizzard).   