Does anyone else feel bad when their troops in RTS games die?
- Thread starter Nathan A.
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Perversely when they're forcefully characterised RTS and most RPG characters are obnoxious and I'm more than happy to let them die. But by having cute little robots TA lets you impose your own hopes and dreams on them. They never speak, they never complain, they die by the hundreds at your command. Poor little guys!crimsondynamics said:
Depends on the situation for me. When it is a good running battle and I lose a few units, I feel disappointed that I lost a unit, but I almost feel proud as well, especially if it is a unit I've had for a while. For instance just last week I finished the Empire of the Rising Sun campaign in Red Alert 3. Over the course of the last mission, I sent a total of 3 waves into the enemy base comprised of King Oni mechs and rocket angels primarily. There was 1 King Oni that survived all 3 attacks and ultimately reached full veterancy. When he finally bought it right at the end I felt it was a fitting end. If its just a slaughter, I always feel bad though.
How true. In The Suffering, you had the choice of either saving everyone or killing them; your choices influence which ending you get in the game.rossatdi said:
There was this guard - the first NPC where you had to choose whether to save or kill - and I chose to save him but he was the rudest bastard and kept on threatening to kill me if I pulled any fancy stunts on him despite my efforts to keep him alive.
Ungrateful swine. I gave it to him - and it felt so satisfying.
I'll have to try out Total Annihilation then. Perhaps I can tolerate machinery being blown to bits, but at the end of the day they are all units to me. Bummer - having to miss out on so many games and an entire genre because of my inability to accept they are just zeroes and ones.
Yes, I usually do. That's why I plan my strategies for the minimum number of losses. Also, when I have a massive battlecruiser armada in starcraft, after they're done razing a base, eve if they only have minor damage, I bring 'em back to my base for repairs.
![[zonking great]](https://eg-forums-escapist-data.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/data/avatars/l/36/36225.jpg?1620302945){kind=avatar}
That last bit is awesome. Reminds me of Wing Commander, especially Price of Freedom.Jolly Madness said:
"I'll see you in hell!" *static, explosion*
Being me, if I were in a fighter, I'd go "Weeeeeeeee!" while crashing.
As for trying to save troops, mostly when I am playing good factions like Gondor or the GDI.
It just doesn't fit the Uruk-Hai to turn tail and pick up a wounded Uruk when he falls prey to a stray pebble, nor does it suit the NOD to mourn their fallen.
If I'm playing an RTS with human beings like AOE then yes, I do feel bad when they die. Somehow though it doesn't really bother me when zerglings are killed though. I guess since the zerg always force the idea of units being tools at your disposal rather than sentient life forms I see them dying as more annoying than anything else.
Yeah I feel bad, but not the 'pass the hanky' bad. More like the frustrated 'dang, now I have to get more resources and go make more of those guys' or 'great, now I don't have enough guys to take out the enemy base anymore' kind of bad.
I usually don't feel bad when just random units I'm using as cannon fodder die, but when a certain infantry squad or tank, in CoH for example, is doing really really good and lasting awhile, i start to attach personalities to them and become attached to them. Then i feel bad when they die.
Also, I feel sometimes when I lose a ship in Battlestations Midway. Seeing that ship slip beneath the waves, thinking of all the brave sailors who are going down with their ship...
But I can usually forget about my pain by continuing to fire volleys of 16-inch guns at my enemies. That's always fun.
Also, I feel sometimes when I lose a ship in Battlestations Midway. Seeing that ship slip beneath the waves, thinking of all the brave sailors who are going down with their ship...
But I can usually forget about my pain by continuing to fire volleys of 16-inch guns at my enemies. That's always fun.
Depends on the situation. If I was, for example, playing Company of Heroes, I wouldn't care much and try my best to win the battle, not minimise casualties. (Well... If I was playing anyone other than the Germans (Or Brits.).)
In any game I have to play as the Soviets, I don't care a bit. Let them all die.
Starcraft was pretty damn bad too, until I stopped making names for each of my marines and sitting in the base with my 200 troops. I can tell you, many battle were lost like that. Especially to Nukes.
In any case, yes, I feel bad when they die. Most of them. Some, at least. Well, a few.
In any game I have to play as the Soviets, I don't care a bit. Let them all die.
Starcraft was pretty damn bad too, until I stopped making names for each of my marines and sitting in the base with my 200 troops. I can tell you, many battle were lost like that. Especially to Nukes.
In any case, yes, I feel bad when they die. Most of them. Some, at least. Well, a few.
I only shed tears for them when they have died in vain. Like when I get ambushed or the gut I'm fighting uses a superweapon of them.
I may have a bit too much pride or honor or what ever, but I feel that super weapons should only be used on stationary military targets... unless they they hit first then I respond in kind on a greater scale to punish them.
These dead shall not have died in vain!
I may have a bit too much pride or honor or what ever, but I feel that super weapons should only be used on stationary military targets... unless they they hit first then I respond in kind on a greater scale to punish them.
These dead shall not have died in vain!
Not really. I'm a turtler, so dying troops usually means I'm being attacked. Bastards.
My weakness has more to do with the fact that I spend a lot of time making sure my buildings are nicely and neatly next to each other.
My weakness has more to do with the fact that I spend a lot of time making sure my buildings are nicely and neatly next to each other.
As a general rule I don't feel bad about losing units, unless it's something special like a hideously expensive experimental unit or a flagship that I have been slaving away for half an hour to get out of the space dock. Other than that I usually feel a minor sense of frustration that I haven't the time to micromanage every battle that's going on, which is the #1 cause of unit loss in the RTS games I play.
Currently I'm playing Supreme Commander, and the lack of humanity in the units keeps me from creating any emotional bonds to the cans of metal I send to do battle. This is especially helpful when I send in my workers to reclaim the scraps of metal left behind by a large fight
Currently I'm playing Supreme Commander, and the lack of humanity in the units keeps me from creating any emotional bonds to the cans of metal I send to do battle. This is especially helpful when I send in my workers to reclaim the scraps of metal left behind by a large fight
I don't feel particularly sad when my troops die in an rts, but in some cases I do feel confusion. For example, in Dawn of War I'm confused where all of these expendable space marines coming from? A chapter of space marines has a roster of 1,000 fighting marines. I've gone through thousands of marines in many online or campaign matches, which leaves me scratching my head. This breaks the canon of the universe for me.
I do feel bad when my units die in Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, but that's mostly because of stupid reasons. I hate having level 3 Chaos warrior squads, with full command, banners, and the like, run off the screen by damned artillery.
But otherwise I could care less if my minions die. All they are is more BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!
I do feel bad when my units die in Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, but that's mostly because of stupid reasons. I hate having level 3 Chaos warrior squads, with full command, banners, and the like, run off the screen by damned artillery.
But otherwise I could care less if my minions die. All they are is more BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!
I usually do, unless I'm playing as the Undead in WC3 or the Zerg in SC--something that doesn't have the capacity to feel pain or lose anything by dying. Sad, I know.
Where it's available, I like to fight by using weapons that don't involve my units, like the superweapons in Command & Conquer games (Generals and ZH gave you so many that you could kill an enemy without ever leaving your base) or the special abilities in CoH.
Where it's available, I like to fight by using weapons that don't involve my units, like the superweapons in Command & Conquer games (Generals and ZH gave you so many that you could kill an enemy without ever leaving your base) or the special abilities in CoH.
I don't feel bad about losing people in RTS games, but I did feel a bit of a twinge watching an endless stream of randomly generated soldiers charging to their deaths in the TV station in COD4 while I was cowering in the one corner that wasn't being perforated by enemy bullets.
