Does anyone feel a sense of morality when playing an RTS?

DEC_42

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Jan 25, 2008
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Well, this could be attributed to any combat game, for that matter, but I chose RTS, as that's my medium of choice.

What I mean by a sense of morality is, well...

Back in they days where C&C and StarCraft was nice and shiny and new, it was real easy to let you units die morally (economically, not so much), as you could make more of them later. If they had bad voice acting, it was even easier. However, when I play a newer, more realistic RTS, like Act of War or Company of Heroes, I find myself thinking more before deploying my troops, as if I let them die, they die, and I get a more advanced death sound/animation.

I mean, the sounds and animations don't make me piss my pants, but it makes me more thoughtful of these things, as I sent a soldier to his death, due to my own stupidity. That's why I almost never rush with these games. Company of Heroes is even worse still.

In contrast, when I played Supreme Commander, I learned that all the units were robots; not sentient beings. I was actually building ungodly amounts of bombers to rush the enemy defenses and move my ground troops in, if the bombs hadn't caused enough splash damage to destroy it beforehand, just like I had in C&C (with the Black Eagles; they were awesome!!)

Now, I'm not advising everyone go and rush insanely in C&C and SupCom, as that's almost impossible to sustain with SupCom's economy.

Another thing: In games featuring Humans vs. Aliens, does anyone else tend to go with the humans, even though it seems like they are at a disadvantage? (I'm neutrally including StarCraft here) Because, my first time I played StarCraft, I went with the Terrans, 'cause well, I didn't like the zerg at all, and I wanted to see what the humans had to offer before going to the uber-humans. The same way in Sins of a Solar Empire, where I always play TEC or sometimes Advent, but Vasari only once. COH was that I'd pick the Allies instead of the Axis.

So, does anyone else feel the same way? Do you feel a shift in tactics depending on what type of units you're commanding (sentient/realistic vs. unrealistic/non-sentient)? Did I word this right? Am I a weakling for posting my thoughts?
 

LordCraigus

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May 21, 2008
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I'm not gonna comment much on my attatchment to my units because I don't play a lot of the newer or more well known RTS games so examples would mean nothing to most people on here. However, I do prefer to be on the defending side in a battle, because I like to see how long my units (especially infantry) can hold out.
I'm a big fan of the 'last stand' scenario, so I'd rather be overrun and take out as many of the enemy as I can, rather than be the overwhelming attacking force.

When it comes to the non-human races, I think I'm not as attatched to them, so I wouldn't feel bad just throwing them into a meatgrinder battle with other aliens/robots. When it comes to Humans VS Aliens, assuming the human side were outclassed or outnumbered (which they usually are) I'd probably pick the humans, for similar reasons as above.
 

Nine of Hearts

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Jun 18, 2008
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I've noticed that, too. Whenever I play games with multiple races I almost always choose a non-human race while I learn how to play the game, and then almost exclusively play humans afterward. I prefer them but don't think "I can do them justice" while I'm still new.

Also, I tend towards "morally good" sides in games, although I base it off of my own morality. For example, I prefer using the Core in TA, even though they're practically unplayable. I generally choose "good" paths over evil ones, too.

At the same time, in games with magic I almost always try to use the most evil magic possible, usually death magic or so. I honestly have no idea why. In more "plotless" games, like Magic: the Gathering (when I still played that), I automatically prefer the most evil race/side. Again, no idea why.

EDIT: These stances can clash pretty hilariously in 4x games, where my startup of choice is a high-research human dystopia.
 

bluemarsman

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Apr 6, 2008
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It is hard to get attached to mass produced units when you can just make more identical units.
 

TomNook

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Feb 21, 2008
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My general strategy in all of the RTS games I own is throw suicide units at the enemy until one of us is dead. I guess that pretty much defines where I stand morally.
 

Kovash86

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May 23, 2008
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I only try to preserve my units because I want to win, if your entire army makes it through a game without dying you probably have won. I will also cycle units I have multiple of, I mostly do this to avoid having to wait for a replacement unit, as those are slow as hell in DOW, the RTS I play the most, unless it's the tank I can have the most of (in the case of the Tau, which I like to play the most, the Skyray) that thing I will send to it's doom over and over again, but only if I can kill a building with it each time or at least damage one really badly.

One problem with this is that I play one of the fastest armies in that game (the Tau are stupid quick, it helps that my starting unit is invisible to most things) which generally has me taking the points right next to my opponents base before they can so the fights don't normally last that long, at the very least I will seal off their base by surrounding the one or two entrances they have with units.
 

broadband

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Dec 15, 2007
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when i used to play rts i always try to keep my units aliva as long as posible, and i always use basic units, something wreid about me.
 

TheDon

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Apr 2, 2008
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I go by the old saying, "One death is a tragedy, 1,000,000 is a statistic" Its hard to be sad for soldier 00003064754 getting killed to save your munitions factory, vs. your neighbor Bob who drives your kid to baseball practice getting killed be a serial killer.
 

666thHeretic

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May 26, 2008
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I prefer playing human races, but I couldn't care less about my minions on-screen. In Command & Conquer, I like nuking my own army when I get bored. In CoH, I try to keep everyone alive, but that's because every unit is valuable in a game with low population limits. I also don't pick sides based on who's good or evil, I play them based on whoever's more fun to play.
 

zacaron

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Apr 7, 2008
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ya i do tend to do things like that except i save the robots and the humans alike but I defiantly do tend to play more with the human class then the the alian.
 

posom2

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Mar 25, 2008
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God games and the such yes, but RTS like age of mythology? no not really =P
 

SilentScope001

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Dec 26, 2007
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Surely, wouldn't rushing save more lives in the long term than the regular old "attriton" match where you slowly starve off the enemy forces?

Your post, meanwhile, convinced me that I should play evil races more often. Since I usually stick with the common strategy of "expendable canon fooder", then that means that if I play as a Good Race, I'll smear the Good Race with the idea that they're actually evil since they throw their men into doom. An Evil Race would see their units as expendable, so it's justified for them to throw men to their doom, but a Good Race wouldn't do something like this at all.

And I do got something ticklish within me. Next time I boot up DOW, I'm going to play a normal skrimish, but as soon as 20 men get killed, I'm going to unilaterally surrender. I don't want any of my men getting killed after all, so why not submit to the Xenos Scum? :)
 

Limos

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Jun 15, 2008
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I've never felt bad for the units themselves, even when they scream and die realistically. But that might be because I usually play races like Zerg or Undead, where each unit was either spawned on location or made from a handy corpse. They are ultimately replaceable. But they fit my play style (which is to basically drown the other guy in units. Be it Zerglings or Ghouls. I just throw units at them until they collapse under the sheer weight of numbers)

I suppose the only time I feel bad for a unit dying is when they were very expensive. But most RTS games don't give a way to heal or repair units. So keeping a wounded unit on hand is just weakening my force. Usually I send squads in and then leave them to destroy until they all die. It's usually not worth it to retreat.
 

minignu

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Jun 16, 2008
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Depends a lot on the game. In the C+C games, I never really cared, I just rushed them in if I knew they would do as much damage as they cost to make. Now and them I might save a veteran unit, but that was mainly to send them into the meat grinder again. However, in the original Ground Control, I simply couldn't do that. I named the units, customised them and brought them from battle to battle. In the end, I completed it without ever losing a full squad - I was just so commited by that point, that I did feel oddly protective of them. It's wierd getting so worked up over a bunch of polygons, but there ya go.