I'm a huge fan of online RTS games like Warcraft (fuck W.O.W., I'm talking old school Warcraft), Starcraft, and Age of Empires.
What I'd like to see is an option for multiplayer team play, where you have multiple players sharing control of the same civilization. For instance, in Starcraft, my brother would control most of the SCVs. He would handle building construction, resource gathering, and upgrade research. My buddy Rob would be in charge of base defense, with a few SCVs of his own to build defensive structures like missile turrets and bunkers and control of some of the unit production facilities, and I'd lead the offense, coordinating with my brother to ensure he's building the right production buildings for the units I need. Perhaps a 4th player could handle battlefield supply lines.
Of course, I'd add new complexities to the game to ensure everybody has plenty to do. Instead of harvesting 2 resources, I'd increase it to 5 or 6, as well as needing supply lines to deliver resources from the refineries and processing centers to the unit production buildings and delivering ammunition and fuel to the combat units in the field. Unit limits would have to go up, from 200 in Starcraft to 1,000 or more. Map sizes would have to go up, as well.
Of course a single player could still control an entire civilization single-handedly, or only split the work with one or two. The limit would probably be in the neighborhood of 5-6 people sharing control of a civilization.-- 21 Quest, May 19 2012 MMMORTSLARP http://turfwarsapp.com/ [Laughs Last, May 20 2012] ...and the South Koreans will continue to do demolish you, just like they do now.-- Alterother, May 19 2012 They have that in original starcraft mulitplayer. It's called team fortress, it's one of the multiplayer settings.
I just looked at the starcraft 2 multiplayer menu, and there is something called co-op, which might be the same thing. i'll report back.
ok reporting back. i have no idea what that was. some stupid custom game use map settings thing. oh well.-- rcarty, May 19 2012 I'm on the Starcraft Brood War multiplayer create game screen, and I see nothing about 'team fortress'. Ditto Starcraft Original. For game type, I have the following choices: Top vs Bottom, melee, free for all, one on one, use map settings, capture the flag, greed, slaughter, sudden death, team melee (each player has his own civilization), team free for all (ditto), and team capture the flag. Even in Campaign Editor, there's nothing in the player or force settings that allows sharing control of a player's units.
A Google Search indicates that Team Fortress is the name of a completely different game.-- 21 Quest, May 19 2012 hmm team fortress might be a use map settings map, I dont have original starcraft installed so I can't check.-- rcarty, May 19 2012 It's called 'Allied Fortress'. It's available in original and Brood War. It consists of 2 'teams' of 4 players each with the 'Allied Victory' option enabled. Not what I'm after here. I'm telling you, this is something that should be available in EVERY multiplayer RTS but it's simply not in any game I've ever played. One squad team of 4 competent people (one on building and resources, one on defense, and two on offense) could kick the living shit out of any individually run team, or even 2 or 3 individually run teams, Korean or otherwise.-- 21 Quest, May 19 2012 Well in that map if you use map settings all the players on one team control the same units, so basically if everyone takes a role then one person can build expansions and mine minerals, another player can attack etc.
All the times I've played that map it was chaos though.-- rcarty, May 19 2012 Yes, but then you have let the Koreans do it too, though... otherwise, it's called cheating.-- Alterother, May 19 2012 No, they all have their own player start locations, meaning individual civilizations.-- 21 Quest, May 19 2012 I don't actually play the games--I just hear friends who do bitching about the South Koreans all the time, and thought I'd take the opportunity to tease you.-- Alterother, May 20 2012 So how many marriage options have you guys accumulated from beating them?-- oscil8, May 24 2012 random, halfbakery