>rts has combined ground and naval combat
>the ships are really underpowered and are the same size of tanks
Are there any RTS games that get this right?
>rts has combined ground and naval combat. >the ships are really underpowered and are the same size of tanks
Age of Empires 3.
Supcom of course
Supreme Commander, duh
>even the weakest ships are significantly bigger, stronger and more expensive than equivalent level tanks
>stronger naval units are even bigger and more expensive, but feature greater range and damage capabilities than any mobile land units, each battleship and aircraft carrier becomes a real feature on the map
>Naval combat is different from the land combat due to different distance scale, more micro involvement surface/subsurface damage limitations, and a different reclaim balance
>still, some land units and naval units are amphibian, so both parts can interact with more than just mutual bombardment
>Naval is also significantly more vulnerable to losing the air superiority, as torpedo bombers are much more efficient in DPS/cost than all other bombers
wargame red dragon
>gets destroyed by planes as soon as it enters the map
just like IRL
Belgrano was sunk by a sub, you want Yamato.
subs are just underwater planes
Bro, your escorts? Your air cover?
To be fair, RA3 deserves insane respect for integrating both land and naval play together to be an integral part of the game. I never saw an other mainstream RTS being able to do it as well as RA3 did. It is a very flawed game but if there is one thing it did right, it is that.
Unit balance is something that every RTS struggles with because it's just that difficult to get right. Infantry vs archers and cavalry, infantry vs tanks, planes and ships, destroyers vs frigates, cruisers and carriers, etc.
You either have rock-paper-scissors where each unit always has a purpose (it's silly and arbitrary but it works), or tech progression where units become obsolete when stronger ones show up, and it turns into a matter of quantity vs quality.
The battleships in Red Alert 1 were terrifying as frick
Cossacks. Both ships of the line and frigates are essentially death rays against any adjacent land units, and ketches and galleys can bomb the shit out of buildings.
Came here to post this.
Building 18th century ship of the line is pretty much equal with creating a circle of death, with everything entering its gun range being obliterated. And frigates are no slouches either, but nowhere near as broken
Oh, and that circle covers about 1/5th of a standard size map. If your enemy build by the shore, you can easily destroy their entire base with just one of those, being completely outside of any counter-fire (unless they've build their own ship of the line or a squadron of frigates and know how to micro them)
SupCom, Cossacks, WarCraft II (even the basic frigate is minimally larger than a dragon and both them and the more advanced ships will murder any land unit that will be close enough for them to be in range), Age of Empires, Age of Mythology...maybe Earth 2150 where the ships could dish out some serious punch.
Jeff Wayne's HG Well's War Of the Worlds the RTS has the humans start with ships being the only unit that can actually fight the martian walking machines without overwhelming them
Came here to say the same thing, ironclads are terrifying in the early game for Martians
You either avoid the coasts or figure out how to make up for your losses
Rise of Nations.
>Most of them don't contribute to economy/research/beach fights/air defense for various scaling issue
>transport command are not stream lined that takes a lot of clicks and generally low capacity, and lack of ferry support to better integrate sea/land units
>not competitive compares to airforce