I have been thinking about this for a while, and decided to make a thread just for it. I was thinking, which kind of RTS game could succed and be popular today? People wish to have more old school RTS games with some new features? Why are voxel games so popular and succesful?
These questions lead me to think about this game idea. Basically a RTS game where you can create a faction using voxels: Tanks, Ships, Aircrafts Structures, Turrets, Walls...
Many people are wishing for a new supreme commander/total annihilation game to come, SC2 and galactic annihilation dissapointed many people as they wanted something more true to their predecesors. The other game people would like to return to its roots is Command and conquer games, and this game pretty much did it:
8 bit armies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90hHmDNiBmc
It uses a voxel block style and since it is so similar to the original C&C games people are enjoying it so far. However you cannot customise your units or maps, nothing like I am talking about in this thread. So well what about a supreme commander/total annihilation voxel type of game? (No infantry. no sense to use blocks to make something as small as infantry).
Large maps and epic scale, units made of voxels (blocks) would not have many polys which would increase performance and there would be many units on screen. The question would be whether to have a voxel type of terrain or not. Should voxels only be applied to units or to the terrain too? That is the question I cannot give the answer to and that would drastically change the game: players can change the world terrain or not? Are resources gathered from blocks? Or rather buildings that produce resources? Place this buildings anywhere or only in certain spots defined by each map? Supreme commander or C&C economy approach? Unlimited resources or limited resources? You have some alternatives here that would change the games core mechanics.
Would you go for a minecraft/starmade voxel style terrain?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmB9b5njVbA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQyWmyl47AU
Or for a Space engineers/Empyrion voxel style terrain?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW64QSdcNKg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiOVNHc2grU
Or maybe no voxel terrain at all, use a terrain like in your games.
The only voxel rts I know of is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLdqFt5e5NM
But the creator disappeared 2 years ago and there is no customisation, but there are some nice ideas,
it allows FPS too like in Battlezone 98 redux:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhPW09qEpZE
A FPS/RTS hybrid feature could also be integrated to this game idea in some form, but it would not be the primary feature the game would offer, being complete faction customization.
Another game similar to it is executive assault and It allows some kind of customization at some degree, but limited:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhnf3OwruBo
Personally, I have played ashes of the singularity, which is similar to supreme commander, and one of the cool features is that when you build stuff on the terrain and it is a irregular terrain, it gets flat to accomodate the building. Instead of letting the player edit the terrain blocks the terrain could regulate itself in some way, or maybe the player could move up or down the terrain who knows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h875xQcVD88
But lets get to the main idea once again. In the main menu there would be a unit creator, you could create any kind of structure or unit you can think of, with certain limits.
See planet explorers system:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cevoHb-3_M
And of course robocraft is very close too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnmv1E6f7q0
Planet explorers lets you create ''blueprints'' you can save and use as many times as you need, they are saved in your game folder. It lets you choose between structure or vehicle, and each one has size limits and some limitations. In this game you could use something similar. You would create a faction and start creating structures, for instance a ground factory, as well as other factories (air, naval..). It would look as you wished but with size limits of course. The more blocks you place the more expensive it gets. You want it to build units faster? Place more of this blocks. Energy shields? Place this other. More armor and HP? Armor blocks... You want to place few blocks in order to make units cheaper and rush early game? Ok but as a result units will be extremely weak. want it to have more weapon range? add this blocks. ETC.
The same would be applied to vehicles, turrets, defenses... Want a vehicle to have stealth? place this module. Oh, it requires energy? place this other module. Enemy units use shields? Use ionic weapons to take down shields faster. Design your own base walls and gate. Build static turrets and artilery... Pretty much the limit would be size (ammount of blocks) and your imagination, the combinations you can come up with.
Also check starmades building options they are great and allows you to make things look great even with simple blocks, so many options:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cevoHb-3_M
Don't you think this game could really be something and become popular among the voxel and rts players? If it was done right it could really succed imho. I do not know if you share my view with this. But if you like this concept Dan I think it may be the game that will skyrocket your popularity if you know what I mean. A voxel game always draws attention and more if it offers something unique such as RTS and faction customisation. Then if people could share their designs and create custom maps, and even allow modding, jesus christ it would be excellent.
It is a great idea to start with, but what matters is how the idea is executed. Is it fun? The game delivers what it has to be expected? Is it too much ambitious and hard to achieve? I have thought about ambitious projects, but to me this concept seems possible to execute and work and be fun, besides playing I am pretty sure I would spend lots of hours creating units and trying different combinations, re-playability rests assured. No other RTS game could have as many factions as this one would be able to have, the possibilities are huge, and people will enjoy playing with their own created stuff. Star wars fan? Oh lets make x-wing fighters! Halo fan? Here we have a scorpion tank! etc. There are many adventure and first person voxel games that let you do this stuff, but no one uses this feature for a rts, if you are the first one to do it right, you will have the advantage.
Edited:
This visual style (Art of war 3) would look great for it imho:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo02vjb3tO8
You don't need very realistic looking textures and graphics, you are allowed to make it a bit cartoony if you wish.
Planetary annihilation is another example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voIVfX_KchY
And walkers could be a possibility too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUvq_Wx9FZQ
Also you can also choose whether to start with a HQ, or a CUSTOM commander unit, surprised I did not think about that until now, custom commander unit would be so op and cool, and don't forget about nukes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5ivhPFZk_U
And energy bubble shields:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq3oi07U5qs
The more I think about all of this, the more strange I find nobody did something like this game idea yet. Something similar could even be applied to a space RTS game, the most similar is gratuitous space battles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEhns0XlnKA