Misplaced Pages

#220779

192-735: Halo Wars is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 video game console . It was released in Australia on February 26, 2009; in Europe on February 27; and in North America on March 3. The game is set in the science fiction universe of the Halo series in the year 2531, 21 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved . The player leads human soldiers aboard

384-484: A Halo game." "Fans of the [first-person shooter] series have very strong expectations for how a Halo games looks, feels and plays. Halo is all about heroic action to save humanity, mega-battles across the galaxy, visceral, highly-tuned combat and heart-pounding tension," Pace said. These themes were considered fundamental to the Halo experience, and so Ensemble tried to replicate them for Halo Wars . Early in play tests,

576-433: A disposable camera , or a capacitor from a standard cathode-ray tube television as the energy source, and a low inductance coil to propel the projectile forward. Some designs have non-ferromagnetic projectiles, of materials such as aluminium or copper , with the armature of the projectile acting as an electromagnet with internal current induced by pulses of the acceleration coils. A superconducting coilgun called

768-407: A ferromagnetic projectile placed at one of its ends. This type of coilgun is formed like the solenoid used in an electromechanical relay, i.e. a current-carrying coil which will draw a ferromagnetic object through its center. A large current is pulsed through the coil of wire and a strong magnetic field forms, pulling the projectile to the center of the coil. When the projectile nears this point

960-468: A god game , where the player assumes a god-like role of creation. The genre recognized today as "real-time strategy" emerged from an extended period of evolution and refinement. Games sometimes perceived as ancestors of the real-time strategy genre were never marketed or designed as such. As a result, designating "early real-time strategy" titles is problematic because such games are being held up to modern standards. The genre initially evolved separately in

1152-400: A quench gun could be created by successively quenching a line of adjacent coaxial superconducting coils forming a gun barrel, generating a wave of magnetic field gradient traveling at any desired speed. A traveling superconducting coil might be made to ride this wave like a surfboard . The device would be a mass driver or linear synchronous motor with the propulsion energy stored directly in

1344-416: A sonic boom . Adjustable, smooth acceleration of the projectile along the barrel length would allow higher velocity, with a predicted range increase of 30% for a 120mm EM mortar over the conventional version of similar length. With no separate propellant charges to load, the researchers envision the firing rate to approximately double. In 2006, a 120mm prototype was under construction for evaluation, though

1536-464: A split-screen two-player mode where both players are in action simultaneously and there are no pauses while decisions are taken, forcing players to think quickly while on the move. In Herzog Zwei , though the player only controls one unit, the manner of control foreshadowed the point-and-click mechanic of later games. Scott Sharkey of 1UP argues that it introduced much of the genre conventions, including unit construction and resource management, with

1728-465: A December 2008 compilation of previous Halo music. The tracks were mixed in Dolby Digital 5.1-channel Surround Sound and packaged with video of recording sessions and the "Five Long Years" trailer. The soundtrack was released on February 17 as a standalone compact disc and as a digital download . AOL Radio secured the exclusive rights to premiere the soundtrack early, playing a new track at

1920-681: A Los Angeles-based company Arcflash Labs offered the first coilgun for sale to the general public, the EMG-01A . It fired 6-gram steel slugs at 45 m/s with a muzzle energy of approximately 5 joules. In 2021, they developed a larger model, the GR-1 Gauss rifle which fired 30-gram steel slugs at up to 75 m/s with a muzzle energy of approximately 85 joules, comparable to a PCP air rifle . In 2022 Northshore Sports Club , an American gun club in Lake Forest, Illinois began distributing

2112-591: A big fan of both cataloging that stuff and stealing from it without remorse," Rippy said. "Sometimes you don't know what you've got until you really, really need it." Rippy and audio lead Kevin McMullan examined O'Donnell's tracks to identify elements to reuse in Halo Wars . Foregoing his usual method of writing melodies before determining the method of sound production, Rippy built melodies around synthesizer patches or drum loops. He felt that scoring for science fiction

SECTION 10

#1732779792221

2304-462: A coilgun system, more accurate and non-linear second order differential equations do exist. The issues with this formula being that it assumes the projectile lies completely within a uniform magnetic field, that the current dies out instantly once the projectile reaches the center of the coil (eliminating the possibility of coil suck-back), that all potential energy is transferred into kinetic energy (whereas most would go into frictional forces), and that

2496-407: A different type of content compared to a map." Robot released a second DLC package on July 21, 2009. The DLC, dubbed "Historic Battles", contains four additional maps and four new Xbox Live achievements. Halo Wars garnered generally positive reviews. The game has an average of 82/100 on aggregate web site Metacritic . Critics were split on whether Halo Wars was a successful console translation of

2688-522: A dual-layer map; three-layer (orbit-surface-underground) maps were introduced in Metal Fatigue . In addition, units could even be transported to entirely separate maps, with each map having its own window in the user interface. Three Kingdoms: Fate of the Dragon (2001) offered a simpler model: the main map contains locations that expand into their own maps. In these examples, however, the gameplay

2880-598: A game combining both turn-based game and real-time-strategy is The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II which allows players, in a 'War of the Ring' game, to play a turn-based strategy game, but also battle each other in real time. A second criticism of the RTS genre is the importance of skill over strategy in real-time strategy games. The manual dexterity and ability to multitask and divide one's attention

3072-459: A key gameplay consideration, a significant example being StarCraft , while other titles have no such unit cap. Micromanagement deals with a player's constant need to manage and maintain individual units and resources on a fine scale. On the other hand, macromanagement refers to a player's management of economic expansion and large-scale strategic maneuvering, allowing the player time to think and consider possible solutions. Micromanagement involves

3264-470: A large amount of reference material for the Halo film adaptation that the Halo Wars team used for inspiration. Another reference point was art from the Halo first-person shooters; however, as the art was from a forward perspective and Halo Wars takes place from a bird's-eye view , the team exaggerated shapes to make the units recognizable. Lead designer Graeme Devine noted that the Warthog Jeep

3456-425: A large current through the projectile or sabot , but coilguns do not necessarily require sliding contacts. While some simple coilgun concepts can use ferromagnetic projectiles or even permanent magnet projectiles, most designs for high velocities actually incorporate a coupled coil as part of the projectile. Coilguns are also distinct from Gauss guns , although many works of science fiction have erroneously confused

3648-403: A last look at Forge's empty cryonic tube. If the game is completed on the "Legendary" difficulty mode, Serina wakes Cutter and tells him that "something has happened". Computer game developer Bungie conceived Halo: Combat Evolved as a real-time strategy game in which players would tactically control units and vehicles in a three-dimensional environment. Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000, and

3840-448: A military force. Command & Conquer (1995), as well as Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996), became the most popular early RTS games. These two games contended with Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness after its release in late 1995. Total Annihilation , released by Cavedog Entertainment in 1997, introduced 3D units and terrain and focused on huge battles that emphasized macromanagement over micromanagement . It featured

4032-426: A mobile game published by Supercell , is a good example of a game which modified the RTS format into a simpler mobile experience. While often classified in the broader Strategy game genre, Clash of Clans still possesses many of the classic RTS elements, such as a "perspective of god", control over buildings and mobile units, and resource management. It also introduces and simplifies specific elements of an RTS to fit

SECTION 20

#1732779792221

4224-650: A multi-turn coil armature might not require currents as large as those required in a railgun , the elimination of the need for high speed sliding contacts is an obvious potential advantage of the induction coilgun relative to the railgun . Air cored systems also introduce the penalty that much higher currents may be needed than in an "iron cored" system. Ultimately though, subject to the provision of appropriately rated power supplies, air cored systems can operate with much greater magnetic field strengths than "iron cored" systems, so that, ultimately, much higher accelerations and forces should be possible. An approximate result for

4416-604: A physics engine is Ensemble Studios' Age of Empires III , released on October 18, 2005, which used the Havok Game Dynamics SDK to power its real-time physics. Company of Heroes is another real-time strategy game that uses realistically modeled physics as a part of gameplay, including fully destructible environments . RTS World tournaments have been held for both StarCraft and Warcraft III since their 1998 and 2002 releases. The games have been so successful that some players have earned over $ 200,000 at

4608-432: A prototype for control experiments. Ensemble found that managing Age of Mythology ' s resources, units, and buildings was too difficult with the console's controller. "The answer [to making a PC-style strategy game for a console] is actually hidden in the question," Jason Pace, Microsoft Game Studio's lead producer, told The New Zealand Herald . "It's something we believe has held strategy games back from succeeding on

4800-497: A record for most demo downloads on the service. In addition to the standard retail version, a Limited Collector's Edition of Halo Wars was made available. To attract Halo 3 ' s player base, Microsoft bundled early access to the Mythic Map Pack, a collection of three Halo 3 multiplayer maps, with the collector's edition. A 48-page, half-size hardcover graphic novel was also included; titled Halo Wars: Genesis , it

4992-431: A round. Though they face the challenge of competitiveness versus conventional guns (and sometimes railgun alternatives), coilguns are being researched for weaponry. The DARPA Electromagnetic Mortar program is one example, if practical challenges like sufficiently low weight can be achieved. The coilgun would be relatively silent with no smoke giving away its position, though a supersonic projectile would still create

5184-468: A sequel developed by 343 Industries and Creative Assembly was released in February 2017. Halo Wars is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game developed exclusively for the Xbox 360 console, in which players command armies from a bird's-eye view of the battlefield. The game focuses on military combat, but contains streamlined resource management and base construction elements. It was designed with

5376-661: A set of troops across various enemy-filled levels. TechnoSoft 's Herzog (1988) is regarded as a precursor to the real-time strategy genre, being the predecessor to Herzog Zwei and somewhat similar in nature, though primitive in comparison. IGN cites Herzog Zwei , released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1989 as "arguably the first RTS game ever", and it is often cited as "the first real-time strategy game" according to Ars Technica . It combines traditional strategy gameplay with fully real-time, fast-paced, arcade -style action gameplay , featuring

5568-547: A strategic control-point system, in which control over strategic points yields construction/reinforcement points. Ground Control (2000) was the first such game to replace individual units with "squads". Others are moving away from the traditional real-time strategy game model with the addition of other genre elements. One example is Sins of a Solar Empire (2008), released by Ironclad Games , which mixes elements of grand-scale stellar empire building games like Master of Orion with real-time strategy elements. Another example

5760-411: A strategy game that felt "absolutely at home on the console", rather than a "poorly shoehorned ... port" of a PC game with clumsy controls. 1UP 's Thierry Nguyen was neutral about whether it was a good RTS game or Halo title, but called it a "solid beginning towards what could be a really good console RTS". Digital Trends ' Scott Steinberg said that, while not perfect, Halo Wars made a strong case for

5952-446: A strategy game. Although more than 100 people worked on the project, which cost tens of millions of dollars, a Covenant campaign was never realized because of a lack of manpower and money. Halo Wars was officially announced at Microsoft's X06 media briefing on September 27, 2006, with a pre-rendered trailer created by Blur Studio. The trailer depicts a group of Warthog vehicles searching for missing soldiers. Covenant Elites ambush

Halo Wars - Misplaced Pages Continue

6144-424: A strategy map and a battle map (in full real-time) and the player can at any point in time seamlessly zoom in and out in between both. A third common criticism is that real-time gameplay often degenerates into " rushes " where the players try to gain the advantage and subsequently defeat the opponent as quickly in the game as possible, preferably before the opposition is capable of successfully reacting. For example,

6336-481: A streamlined interface that would influence many RTS games in later years. Age of Empires , released by Ensemble Studios in 1997, tried to put a game in a slower pace, combining elements of Civilization with the real-time strategy concept by introducing ages of technologies. In 1998, Blizzard released the game StarCraft , which became an international phenomenon and is still played in large professional leagues to this day. Collectively, all of these games defined

6528-572: A tenuous time for deployment was then estimated to be 5 to 10+ years by Sandia National Laboratories . In 2011, development was proposed for an 81mm coilgun mortar to operate with a hybrid-electric version of the future Joint Light Tactical Vehicle . Electromagnetic aircraft catapults are planned, including on board future U.S. Gerald R. Ford class aircraft carriers . An experimental induction coilgun version of an Electromagnetic Missile Launcher (EMML) has been tested for launching Tomahawk missiles. A coilgun-based active defense system for tanks

6720-465: A traditional RTS experience. In a typical real-time strategy game, the screen is divided into a map area displaying the game world and terrain, units, and buildings, and an interface overlay containing command and production controls and often a "radar" or "minimap" overview of the entire map. The player is usually given an isometric perspective of the world, or a free-roaming camera from an aerial viewpoint for modern 3D games. Players mainly scroll

6912-619: A unique special ability; for example, human Marines throw grenades, while the " Warthog " vehicle can run over enemies. Humans have access to their ship, the Spirit of Fire , and its special abilities, such as a powerful coilgun called a M.A.C. (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon). Covenant units are generally weaker than their UNSC counterparts, but can use inexpensive and powerful defensive shield generators to add protection to their bases. Players establish their armies by building and expanding bases; these are used to train units and to allocate resources to

7104-643: A video shown at E3 2007, which was later made available on the Xbox Live Marketplace . This video described the game's controls, user interface, vehicles, special weapons, and new units. It also showed a UNSC base consisting of an airbase, vehicle depot, missile silo, and other buildings. IGN , Next Generation , and PC World ranked Halo Wars as one of the most anticipated showings at E3. On September 10, 2008, Ensemble Studios announced that it would close after Halo Wars ' completion. Ensemble founder Tony Goodman and other employees announced

7296-501: A whole year just trying to reconstruct how the controls would work on an RTS game." Without revealing the title, Goodman described the game as being shorter and more visceral than their previous projects. Halo Wars was originally not a Halo series title. Ensemble spent 12 to 18 months working on the control scheme, using the Age of Mythology engine. The development team hacked an Age of Mythology expansion, The Titans , and used it as

7488-484: Is "actually jumping three times as high as it does in Halo , and it goes four times faster than it does in Halo , and all these things—but it looks the same. Very different, between look and accuracy." To ensure artistic continuity between Halo Wars and previous games in the series, Ensemble created a set of guidelines for their artists to follow; for example, the Covenant were to retain their curvy, organic look, while

7680-408: Is applied and a B tail will occur after the coil field has disappeared. This delay decreases the force, which would be maximized if the H and B were in phase. Most of the work to develop coilguns as hyper-velocity launchers has used "air-cored" systems to get around the limitations associated with ferromagnetic projectiles. In these systems, the projectile is accelerated by a moving coil "armature". If

7872-400: Is commonly the main focus of the RTS games, but other titles of the genre place higher gameplay significance to how units are used in combat ( Z: Steel Soldiers for example, awards credits for territory captured rather than gathered resources), the extreme example of which are games of the real-time tactical genre. Some titles impose a ceiling on the number simultaneous troops, which becomes

Halo Wars - Misplaced Pages Continue

8064-553: Is damaged during the fight, necessitating a manual detonation. Forge volunteers for the suicidal task, telling the Spartans that they will be needed in the coming fight. The Spirit of Fire escapes just as Forge overloads the reactor, destroying the fleet and the Forerunner world. Without its faster-than-light drive, the Spirit of Fire is left drifting in space. The crew enters cryonic sleep for long-term storage as Cutter takes

8256-517: Is indie game Achron (2011), which incorporates time travel as a game mechanic, allowing a player to send units forward or backward in time. Multiplayer online battle arena games (MOBA) have originated as a subgenre of real-time strategy games, however this fusion of real-time strategy, role-playing , and action games has lost many traditional RTS elements. These type of games moved away from constructing additional structures, base management, army building, and controlling additional units. Map and

8448-416: Is more expensive. Destruction of a temple results in the loss of all tech until the temple is rebuilt. Each base has a limited amount of space, so players must balance their resource buildings with other facilities, such as those used to create military units. The number of units a player can deploy is limited, but certain upgrades ease this limit. Halo Wars takes place in the science fictional universe of

8640-626: Is often considered the most important aspect to succeeding at the RTS genre. According to Troy Dunniway, former Westwood developer who has also worked on Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars : "A player controls hundreds of units, dozens of buildings and many different events that are all happening simultaneously. There is only one player, and he can only pay attention to one thing at a time. Expert players can quickly flip between many different tasks, while casual gamers have more problems with this." Real-time strategy games have been criticized for an overabundance of tactical considerations when compared to

8832-470: Is rescued. Cutter decides to destroy the Forerunner fleet rather than allow the Covenant to use it. Anders formulates a plan to detonate the ship's faster-than-light drive in the planet's sun, as the explosion would cause a supernova . Before they can prepare the reactor, Forge and the Spartans are ambushed by the Arbiter and his Elites. The Spartans dispatch the aliens and Forge kills the Arbiter. The reactor

9024-475: Is that success involves not just fast clicking, but also the ability to make sound decisions under time pressure. The "clickfest" argument is also often voiced alongside a "button babysitting" criticism, which pointed out that a great deal of game time is spent either waiting and watching for the next time a production button could be clicked, or rapidly alternating between different units and buildings, clicking their respective button. Some titles attempt to merge

9216-485: Is that they too often have the same strategy: produce faster than you consume. He also states that building and managing armies is the conventional definition of real-time strategy, and that it is unfair to make comparisons with other genres. In an article for GameSpy , Mark Walker criticizes real-time strategy games for their lack of combat tactics, suggesting real-time tactics games as a more suitable substitute. He also says that developers need to begin looking outside

9408-417: Is the spark gap , which releases the stored energy through the coil when the voltage reaches a certain threshold. A better option is to use solid-state switches; these include IGBTs or power MOSFETs (which can be switched off mid-pulse) and SCRs (which release all stored energy before turning off). A quick-and-dirty method for switching, especially for those using a flash camera for the main components,

9600-447: Is to use the flash tube itself as a switch. By wiring it in series with the coil, it can silently and non-destructively (assuming that the energy in the capacitor is kept below the tube's safe operating limits) allow a large amount of current to pass through to the coil. Like any flash tube, ionizing the gas in the tube with a high voltage triggers it. However, a large amount of the energy will be dissipated as heat and light, and, because of

9792-624: The Bloons Tower Defense series (2007-2021), and more have (varyingly) adapted the RTS format in the same manner as Clash of Clans , and in turn developed a style of RTS unique to the mobile game industry. Beginning in the early-mid 2010s, the expansion of the Indie game market on game developer Valve Corporation 's gaming distribution service, Steam , allowed RTS game developers to produce smaller-scale and increasingly accessible Indie-RTS games. These RTS games often are more true to

SECTION 50

#1732779792221

9984-470: The Toronto Star , appreciated the streamlined RTS experience. In contrast, critics such as Luke Anderson of GameSpot said that the game lacked the depth necessary to attract more seasoned RTS players. Some critics were frustrated by the lack of control features—specifically, the ability to create and manage groups of units, the lack of hotkeys, the inability to set rally points for different units, and

10176-561: The Warcraft III World Championships . In addition, hundreds of StarCraft II tournaments are held yearly, as it is becoming an increasingly popular branch of e-sports . Notable tournaments include MLG , GSL , and Dreamhack . RTS tournaments are especially popular in South Korea . Coilgun A coilgun is a type of mass driver consisting of one or more coils used as electromagnets in

10368-612: The Arbiter ( David Sobolov ), who the Covenant leaders, the Prophet Hierarchs , have tasked with the oversight of humanity's destruction. The Spirit of Fire is sent to the ruined planet Harvest to investigate Covenant activity, where Cutter learns that the Covenant has excavated something at the planet's northern pole. When the UNSC's main outpost on Harvest is captured, Cutter orders Forge to retake it. Soon after, Forge scouts

10560-544: The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics as well as the Misplaced Pages article for magnetic susceptibility . n being the number of coil turns per unit length of the coil, which can be found by dividing the total turns of the coil by the total length of the coil in meters. and I being the current passing through the coil in amperes . While this approximation is useful for quickly defining the upper limit of velocity in

10752-722: The CS/LW21 , also referred to as the "E-Shotgun", a compact, 15 joule magazine fed coil gun, manufactured by the China North Industries Group Corp . They project distribution to reach 5000 units per year in the US, and the manufacturer has also unveiled plans to supply the Chinese police and military with units for "non-lethal riot control". Much higher efficiency and energy can be obtained with designs of greater expense and sophistication. In 1978, Bondaletov in

10944-440: The Halo fans' expectations." To position the Spartans as " kingmakers " in gameplay, the team gave them what it considered to be the "coolest" unit ability: hijacking enemy vehicles. The developers hoped players would become attached to individual Spartans in the campaign and gave each one an individual name; skirmish units were left nameless. The character design of the Spartans was meant to emphasize their relative inexperience and

11136-530: The Halo series, during the 26th century. In 2525, a collective of alien races known as the Covenant attacked humanity, declaring humans an affront to their gods, the Forerunners . The game takes place in 2531, roughly 20 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved . Years after the Covenant invaded the colony of Harvest, human UNSC forces are still locked in battle on the planet. The commander of

11328-447: The Halo sound. "Flollo" contained musical ideas Rippy had experimented with since his last project, Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs . "Bad Here Day" was the first piece in which he tried to incorporate the " Halo sound". Rippy felt it important to avoid repeating too many old themes because he wanted the game to have its own identity; however, he wanted to continue to incorporate choir and piano, elements he believed to be integral to

11520-438: The Halo trilogy's music, written by Martin O'Donnell and partner Michael Salvatori . Consultation with O'Donnell and Salvatori finished before Rippy became involved in the project, but the composer sent a compact disc of his work to O'Donnell halfway through the writing process. Before starting work on Halo Wars , Rippy listened to previous Halo soundtracks and searched for useful material in discarded Ensemble projects; "I'm

11712-506: The PC platform. Real-time strategy games made for video game consoles have been consistently criticized due to their control schemes, as the PC's keyboard and mouse are considered to be superior to a console's gamepad for the genre. Thus, RTS games for home consoles have been met with mixed success. Scott Sharkey of 1UP notes that Herzog Zwei had already "offered a nearly perfect solution to

SECTION 60

#1732779792221

11904-405: The Spirit of Fire ' s military expedition is Professor Ellen Anders ( Kim Mai Guest ), a scientist interested in ancient ruins of the mysterious Forerunners. The Spirit of Fire is operated with help from Serina ( Courtenay Taylor ), a super-intelligent artificial intelligence (AI) with a sardonic sense of humor. Leading the Covenant search for Forerunner technology is a holy warrior known as

12096-477: The Xbox 360 controller in mind; for example, the A button is used for selecting units. A single tap of the button selects one unit, while a double tap selects all units of the same type. The d-pad navigates to current battles and cycles through bases, while the right analog stick adjusts the camera angle. A radial menu is used for base construction. Halo Wars features a story-based, military campaign game mode that can be played alone or cooperatively over

12288-689: The Xbox Live service. A plotless multiplayer option, called "skirmish mode", lets players compete against human or computer-controlled opponents. The game features two factions the players can control: the human United Nations Space Command (UNSC) as Captain Cutter, Sergeant Forge, or Professor Anders, and the alien Covenant as the Prophet of Regret, the Arbiter, or a nameless Brute Chieftain. Each faction has different units, strengths, and special abilities. There are three selectable "Leaders" for each side;

12480-467: The ZX Spectrum , and Nether Earth for ZX Spectrum in 1987. In North America, the oldest game retrospectively classified as real-time strategy by several sources is The Ancient Art of War (1984), designed by Dave and Barry Murry of Evryware, followed by The Ancient Art of War at Sea in 1987. In Japan, the earliest is Bokosuka Wars (1983), an early strategy RPG (or "simulation RPG");

12672-411: The real-time tactics (RTT) template, have moved toward an increased focus on tactics while downplaying traditional resource management, in which designated units collect the resources used for producing further units or buildings. Titles like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (2004), Star Wars: Empire at War (2006), and Company of Heroes (2006) replace the traditional resource gathering model with

12864-571: The "limited" variety of game modes. Critics generally agreed that Ensemble re-created the Halo universe's aesthetic well. Gillen said knowledge of the game universe could alleviate some issues of player ignorance regarding units' actions: "It's not just the geek thrill of seeing a Scarab in action—it's that you understand what the Scarab means on the battlefield (trouble)," he wrote. "We know which characters are best against tanks, and which are probably best in special vehicles." Nguyen said that, although

13056-443: The "nostalgia" of classic RTS games. Rusted Warfare (2017), is an indie-mobile release which is a good example of a traditional-style RTS which utilizes assets from the unreleased Hard Vacuum (1993) to create a "revived" RTS experience. Hard Vacuum was intended to include "resource gathering from mineral deposits", "base building", and "a wide range of fighting with units". Rusted Warfare and other traditional RTS titles utilized

13248-461: The 360° 3D environment. Furthermore, Machines , which was also released in 1999 and featured a nearly 100% 3D environment, attempted to combine the RTS genre with a first-person shooter (FPS) genre although it was not a particularly successful title. These games were followed by a short period of interest in experimental strategy games such as Allegiance (2000). Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds

13440-552: The 3D environment. This led to a number of unique gameplay elements, which were mostly obscured by the lack of computing power available in 2007, at the release date. Japanese game developers Nippon Ichi and Vanillaware worked together on Grim Grimoire , a PlayStation 2 title released in 2007, which features hand-drawn animated 2D graphics. From 2010, real-time strategy games more commonly incorporated physics engines , such as Havok , in order to increase realism experienced in gameplay. A modern real-time strategy game that uses

13632-559: The Ancients ( DotA ), a Warcraft III mod from 2003, and its standalone sequel Dota 2 (2013), as well as League of Legends (2009), and Heroes of the Storm (2015), are the typical representatives of the new strategy subgenre. Former game journalist Luke Smith called DotA "the ultimate RTS". The popularization of the smartphone in the 2010s led to a new market for Video games to expand to and develop. Innovation on

13824-490: The B(H) dependency often contains a hysteresis loop and the reaction time of the projectile material may be significant. The hysteresis means that the projectile becomes permanently magnetized and some energy will be lost as a permanent magnetic field of the projectile. The projectile reaction time, on the other hand, makes the projectile reluctant to respond to abrupt B changes; the flux will not rise as fast as desired while current

14016-444: The Covenant excavation and discovers that they, under the direction of the Arbiter, have discovered a Forerunner facility. Forge's troops defeat the Covenant forces before they can destroy the installation, and Anders arrives. She determines that the facility is an interstellar map, and recognizes a set of coordinates that points to the human colony of Arcadia. After escaping the facility, the Spirit of Fire travels to Arcadia, where

14208-551: The Covenant faction in campaign mode as well as the lack of strategic options during play. Critics from GameSpot and USA Today wrote that experienced RTS players would find the strategic elements of the title shallow. The game sold one million units worldwide through March 2009, making it the best-selling console real-time strategy game to date. An enhanced version of the game— Halo Wars: Definitive Edition —was released for Windows and Xbox One in December 2016. Halo Wars 2 ,

14400-415: The Covenant has begun raiding local cities and slaughtering civilians. Forge contacts the local Spartan special forces and helps with the evacuation process. UNSC forces discovered that the Covenant has built a giant energy shield to hide the construction of a gigantic Scarab super-weapon, and their search of Forerunner ruins in the area. The UNSC forces use experimental equipment to break through and destroy

14592-507: The Cyclops, a nod to Age of Mythology . Time constraints prevented many elements from appearing in the final game. One such missing feature was a fatality system by which Spartans or Covenant leaders could inflict massive damage on large groups of units. Pottinger said that the animations, while interesting, did not mesh with the fast-paced combat of Halo Wars and raised balance concerns. Other elements based on Halo fiction did not work in

14784-419: The Forerunner and UNSC were to keep the same geometry angles. UNSC structures and units were given a green tint, with gold specular highlights. The Covenant were textured with a repeating honeycomb pattern, with small blue lights against a purple base color. Devine described the challenge of developing Halo Wars as "getting Halo fans to play a realtime strategy game, and getting realtime strategy fans to play

14976-402: The RTS genre. GameSpy 's Allen Rausch argued that, as Halo: Combat Evolved showed that first-person shooters could work on consoles, Halo Wars "is an RTS ... on a console ... and it works". Tom Price of TeamXbox said that gamers have been waiting a long time for a console RTS "to get it right", and Halo Wars did so; reviewers for Official Xbox Magazine credited Ensemble with creating

15168-416: The Scarab. The Arbiter kidnaps Anders during a salvage operation and escapes the planet, with Spirit of Fire in pursuit. Spirit of Fire follows Anders' signal to an uncharted planet in another star system. The planet's surface is infested by the parasitic Flood , who attack and assimilate any sentient life they encounter. The Spirit of Fire inadvertently activates a Forerunner docking station and enters

15360-588: The U.S. through March, making it the third best-selling game in the market. In June 2016, Microsoft announced Halo Wars: Definitive Edition —an enhanced version of the game—for Windows and Xbox One . Development of the Definitive Edition was handled by Behaviour Interactive . It was made available on December 20, 2016 as part of the Ultimate Edition version of Halo Wars 2 . After Ensemble's closing, Robot Entertainment announced that it

15552-590: The UNSC and Covenant. This did not match the Flood's role as "the single scariest thing in the galaxy". Because of the Master Chief 's large role in previous games, significant effort was expended on the Spartan units. Lead designer Dave Pottinger said the design team "started out just accepting and embracing the fact that the Spartans have to be the coolest unit in the game. If they're not, it's not going to meet

15744-487: The UNSC warship Spirit of Fire is Captain James Cutter ( Gregg Berger ), a strong leader who has earned the admiration of his subordinates. Cutter's lack of political ambition prevents him from climbing the ranks further. Serving under Cutter is Sergeant John Forge ( Nolan North ), a gruff Marine whose devotion to his men has caused him to be jailed twice for disobeying orders and engaging in disorderly conduct. Joining

15936-403: The UNSC, but no similar introduction was available for the Covenant. However, he said the two sides were "authentically different", and each offered its own challenges to players. Some critics, such as Nick Cowen of The Daily Telegraph , wished that the Flood was a playable faction; in contrast, Ryan Geddes of IGN disliked the Flood and appreciated their exclusion. Will Porter of IGN UK enjoyed

16128-502: The USSR achieved record acceleration with a single stage by sending a 2-gram ring to 5000 m/s in 1 cm of length, but the most efficient modern designs tend to involve many stages. It is estimated that greater than 90% efficiency will be required for vastly larger superconducting systems for space launch. An experimental 45-stage, 2.1 m long DARPA coilgun mortar design is 22% efficient, with 1.6 megajoules KE delivered to

16320-576: The United Kingdom, Japan, and North America, afterward gradually merging into a unified worldwide tradition. Tim Barry in May 1981 described in InfoWorld a multiplayer, real-time strategy space game that ran ("and probably still is") on an IBM System/370 Model 168 at a large San Francisco Bay Area company. He stated that it had "far better support than many of the application programs used in

16512-536: The United States would hold Halo Wars tournaments, and two thousand GameStop stores held midnight releases for the game. European markets sold a "Best of Halo " bundle of Halo Wars , Halo 3 and an Xbox 360. On release, Halo Wars reached second place on the United Kingdom weekly sales charts behind Killzone 2 . Halo Wars reached only 16.7% of Halo 3 ' s first-week sales, but it outsold Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars threefold, making it

16704-457: The Worlds (1998), Warzone 2100 (1999), Machines (1999), Homeworld (1999), and Dark Reign 2 (2000) were among the first completely 3D real-time strategy titles. Homeworld featured a 3D environment in space, therefore allowing movement in every direction, a feature which its semi-sequel, Homeworld Cataclysm (2000) continued to build upon adding features such as waypoints. Homeworld 2 , released in 2003, streamlined movement in

16896-408: The additions of performance-based medals added replay value to the campaign. Price said that, although the story and mission structure of the game was fairly standard, levels that were "rote" in other RTS games seemed more substantial in Halo Wars . Reviewers such as Geddes, Wilcox, and Patrick Kolan of IGN UK said that the lack of a Covenant campaign was an unfortunate omission. Publications judged

17088-487: The amount of magnetic flux coupled into the projectile. Results can vary widely, depending on the materials used; hobbyist designs may use, for example, materials ranging anywhere from magnetic steel (more effective, lower reluctance) to video tape (little improvement in reluctance). Moreover, the additional pieces of magnetic material in the magnetic circuit can potentially exacerbate the possibility of flux saturation and other magnetic losses. Another significant limitation of

17280-529: The amount of strategic gameplay found in such games. According to Chris Taylor , lead designer of Supreme Commander : "[My first attempt at visualizing RTSs in a fresh and interesting new way] was my realizing that although we call this genre 'Real-Time Strategy,' it should have been called 'Real-Time Tactics' with a dash of strategy thrown in." (Taylor then posits his own game as having surpassed this mold by including additional elements of broader strategic scope.) In general terms, military strategy refers to

17472-452: The armature is configured as one or more "shorted turns" then induced currents will result as a consequence of the time variation of the current in the static launcher coil (or coils). In principle, coilguns can also be constructed in which the moving coils are fed with current via sliding contacts. However, the practical construction of such arrangements requires the provision of reliable high speed sliding contacts. Although feeding current to

17664-492: The battlefield, or generate them by building supply structures at bases. Greater numbers of these buildings produce more supplies. Some structures and upgrades become available only after the player achieves a certain "tech level". The UNSC can achieve multiple tech levels through the construction of reactors, with some actions requiring up to level four; the Covenant builds a single temple that allows three upgrades of tech level. The Covenant has one fewer tech level, and each upgrade

17856-470: The beginning of every hour. The pre-release playable demo for Halo Wars was first mentioned in the October 2007 issue of Official Xbox Magazine , and it became available for download on February 5, 2009; redemption codes for early access were given starting January 29. According to Microsoft, the game demo was downloaded by more than 2 million Xbox Live Gold members in the first five days, and set

18048-483: The belts on, they're still carrying around everything. Ensemble expanded the Halo universe during the game's development, in order to create enough units to give players strategic options. Among the new units was the Gorgon, a biped mech that used weapons called Needlers to destroy light aircraft. However, Ensemble later realized that the Gorgon invalidated a rule they had established: "anything with two legs that walks"

18240-412: The business", with a published manual and regular schedule. Comparing its complexity to Dallas , Barry recalled that "when the game was restored at 5 P.M., a lot of regular work stopped". Ars Technica traces the genre's roots back to Utopia (1981), citing it as the "birth of a genre", with a "real-time element" that was "virtually unheard of", thus making it "arguably the earliest ancestor of

18432-446: The capacitors and potentially shortening their lifetime. To reduce component size, weight, durability requirements, and most importantly, cost, the magnetic circuit must be optimized to deliver more energy to the projectile for a given energy input. This has been addressed to some extent by the use of back iron and end iron, which are pieces of magnetic material that enclose the coil and create paths of lower reluctance in order to improve

18624-434: The central axis of the coils. The coils are switched on and off in a precisely timed sequence, causing the projectile to be accelerated quickly along the barrel via magnetic forces. Coilguns are distinct from railguns , as the direction of acceleration in a railgun is at right angles to the central axis of the current loop formed by the conducting rails. In addition, railguns usually require the use of sliding contacts to pass

18816-448: The character of the music changed depending on the environment, he followed self-imposed rules; one environment could feature guitars, but not piano, for instance. To musically unify each world, he added a short introductory piece containing common elements. In contrast with the skirmish mode, the campaign mode contains different recurring melodies for each major character and the human ship Spirit of Fire . Rippy's most intensive work period

19008-446: The characters were stereotypical and somewhat unlikable. Critics noted that for a strategy game, the campaign was rather short, with only 15 missions; Nate Ralph of Wired completed each in fewer than 40 minutes. Jon Wilcox of Total Video Games wrote "there's an ebb and flow" to the gameplay, with "lengthy chapters cut with shorter punchy ones or time-based missions, all together creating a surprisingly compelling experience". Wilcox said

19200-404: The chosen leader allows the use of specific units and upgrades during play. While Covenant Leaders appear on the battlefield as units, human leaders do not. Combat in Halo Wars is balanced by a " rock-paper-scissors " system. In general, ground vehicles are effective in combat against infantry, infantry are effective against aircraft, and aircraft are effective against vehicles. Most units have

19392-622: The city and the sound the orchestra produced. The lower cost of recording in Eastern Europe was an additional benefit. The March 10–15 recording sessions involved 24 vocalists and 45 instrumentalists; choir and string sections were later overdubbed to enlarge the sound. In all, roughly 65 minutes of Halo Wars ' 75-minute score were recorded in Prague. The final touches and production took place in Seattle; O'Donnell attended one of

19584-408: The cliffside, even in the case when the attacker is a missile-armed helicopter. Homeworld , Warzone 2100 and Machines (all released in 1999) advanced the use of fully 3D environments in real-time strategy titles. In the case of Homeworld , the game is set in space, offering a uniquely exploitable 3D environment in which all units can move vertically in addition to the horizontal plane. However,

19776-412: The coilgun is the occurrence of magnetic saturation in the ferromagnetic projectile. When the flux in the projectile lies in the linear portion of its material's B(H) curve, the force applied to the core is proportional to the square of coil current (I)—the field (H) is linearly dependent on I, B is linearly dependent on H and force is linearly dependent on the product BI. This relationship continues until

19968-424: The coilgun's electric circuit is inherently analogous to an LC oscillator, the unused energy returns in the reverse direction ('ringing'), which can seriously damage polarized capacitors such as electrolytic capacitors . Reverse charging can be prevented by a diode connected in reverse-parallel across the capacitor terminals; as a result, the current keeps flowing until the diode and the coil's resistance dissipate

20160-423: The configuration of a linear motor that accelerate a ferromagnetic or conducting projectile to high velocity. In almost all coilgun configurations, the coils and the gun barrel are arranged on a common axis. A coilgun is not a rifle as the barrel is smoothbore (not rifled ). Coilguns generally consist of one or more coils arranged along a barrel, so the path of the accelerating projectile lies along

20352-462: The console: you can't effectively bring a PC-style strategy game to the console because the fundamental game mechanic is tied to the mouse and keyboard input devices. It's not a question of just changing the control scheme to be gamepad friendly—you need to adapt the underlying strategy mechanic to make sense with the new input device." Senior designer Justin Rouse said that the team kept the controls from

20544-840: The control and destruction of bases being an important aspect of the game, as were the economic/production aspects of those bases. Herzog Zwei is credited by 1UP as a landmark that defined the genre and as "the progenitor of all modern real-time strategy games." Chuck Sperry cited Herzog Zwei as an influence on Dune II . Notable as well are early games like Mega-Lo-Mania by Sensible Software (1991) and Supremacy (also called Overlord – 1990). Although these two lacked direct control of military units, they both offered considerable control of resource management and economic systems. In addition, Mega Lo Mania has advanced technology trees that determine offensive and defensive prowess. Another early game, Carrier Command (1988) by Realtime Games , involved real-time responses to events in

20736-403: The controls worked well mainly because the developers omitted features to make most options quickly available; for example, limiting base construction to select areas made sure players could easily find their buildings. Reviewers considered the factions balanced. Eurogamer 's Kieron Gillen commented that the Covenant was harder to master, especially because the campaign served as a tutorial for

20928-414: The core is saturated; once this happens B will only increase marginally with H (and thus with I), so force gain is linear. Since losses are proportional to I , increasing current beyond this point eventually decreases efficiency although it may increase the force. This puts an absolute limit on how much a given projectile can be accelerated with a single stage at acceptable efficiency. Apart from saturation,

21120-417: The core units meshed well, the inclusion of Ensemble-developed units gave Halo Wars the feeling of a generic science-fiction title. While giving the game a mixed review, Anderson said that the authentic-looking units and environments went a long way to integrating the game with the rest of the series. Wilcox commented that with the Halo -inspired menu system and Rippy's score, "before the campaign even begins,

21312-447: The developers watched devoted Halo fans play the game; their feedback led to the development of special abilities, which, according to Devine, enhanced the Halo feel. Ensemble initially considered making the Flood a playable race, but this idea did not progress beyond the concept stage. According to Devine, this was largely because the Flood would have needed to be similar to StarCraft ' s Zerg , in order to maintain balance with

21504-417: The developers were satisfied with the controls, they presented their project to Microsoft, who suggested that it be turned into a Halo game. Bungie was reportedly not happy about this development. Ensemble's Founder, Tony Goodman, stated in a 2012 interview that Bungie saw the move as "the whoring out of our franchise" Although Ensemble had to re-create all of Bungie's assets from scratch, Bungie had produced

21696-421: The drive coils. Another method would have non-superconducting acceleration coils and propulsion energy stored outside them but a projectile with superconducting magnets. Though the cost of power switching and other factors can limit projectile energy, a notable benefit of some coilgun designs over simpler railguns is avoiding an intrinsic velocity limit from hypervelocity physical contact and erosion. By having

21888-404: The electromagnet must be switched off, to prevent the projectile from becoming arrested at the center of the electromagnet. In a multistage design, further electromagnets are then used to repeat this process, progressively accelerating the projectile. In common coilgun designs, the "barrel" of the gun is made up of a track that the projectile rides on, with the driver into the magnetic coils around

22080-614: The element of classic PC-gaming nostalgia in order to drive the game-playing experience. Traditional RTS games released in the late 2010s - early 2020s were developed with a focus on coupling the traditional-style gameplay with uniquely styled, or hyper-realistic graphics. These RTS games are often Indie-RTS games, but released on a multitude of platforms. Some RTS releases like Halo Wars 2 (2017), Steel Division 2 (2019), Company of Heroes 3 (2023), and Last Train Home (2023) are examples of modern RTS games that are focused on providing

22272-404: The exit velocity of a projectile having been accelerated by a single-stage coilgun can be obtained by the equation v e x i t = 2 m V μ 0 χ m n 2 I 2 {\displaystyle v_{exit}={\sqrt {{\frac {2}{m}}{V\mu _{0}\chi _{m}n^{2}I^{2}}}}} m being the mass of

22464-496: The fastest-selling console strategy game. The following week, Halo Wars ' s sales were ranked fifth. In Australia, Halo Wars ' weekly sales ranked highest, ahead of Killzone 2 . By March 12, the limited edition and standard version were ranked second and third, respectively, on the United States Xbox 360 sales charts, behind Call of Duty: World at War . Gamasutra attributed the surge in Halo 3 sales to

22656-408: The field energy as heat. While this is a simple and frequently utilized solution, it requires an additional expensive high-power diode and a well-designed coil with enough thermal mass and heat dissipation capability in order to prevent component failure. Some designs attempt to recover the energy stored in the magnetic field by using a pair of diodes. These diodes, instead of being forced to dissipate

22848-442: The first 3D units and terrain in real-time strategy games. The Age of Empires focus on historical setting and age advancement was refined further by its sequel, Age of Empires II: Age of Kings , and by Stainless Steel Studios ' Empire Earth in 2001. GSC Game World 's Cossacks series brought population caps into the tens of thousands. Dungeon Keeper (1997), Populous: The Beginning (1998), Jeff Wayne's The War of

23040-562: The formation of a new studio, Robot Entertainment , shortly before the game's release; another group of ex-staff created Bonfire Studios . Robot announced that, while developing new intellectual property, it would support Halo Wars and Age of Empires through a partnership with Microsoft Game Studios. Halo Wars ' music was composed by Stephen Rippy , the composer for all of the Age of Empires games. Rippy wanted to write new material while maintaining continuity by reusing iconic elements of

23232-415: The game became a first-person shooter and " killer app " for the Xbox console. Bungie produced two best-selling sequels, Halo 2 in 2004 and Halo 3 in 2007, before separating from Microsoft and becoming an independent company once more. Although Bungie is free to produce new intellectual property, the rights to Halo remain with Microsoft. Shane Kim, the head of Microsoft Game Studios , said during

23424-434: The game randomly picks between all of those elements for as long as the battle continues," Rippy explained. "Once it's over, an outro plays and then it's back to the regular "world" music. It was an interesting way to work, and I'd like to push it further if there's an opportunity in the future." Four tracks from Halo Wars were included as a preview on a bonus DVD bundled with Halo Trilogy—The Complete Original Soundtracks ,

23616-452: The game revolves around the player leading an army across a battlefield against enemy forces in real-time while recruiting/spawning soldiers along the way, for which it is considered by Ray Barnholt of 1UP to be an early prototype real-time strategy game. Another early title with real-time strategy elements is Sega 's Gain Ground (1988), a strategy- action game that involved directing

23808-464: The game, requiring management of resources and control of vehicles. Another early game, SimAnt (1991) by Maxis , had resource gathering, and controlling an attacking army by having them follow a lead unit. However, it was with the release of Dune II (1992) from Westwood Studios that real-time strategy became recognized as a distinct genre of video games. Although real-time strategy games have an extensive history, some titles have served to define

24000-523: The genre for new ideas in order for strategy games to continue to be successful in the future. This criticism has ushered into a couple of hybrid designs that try to resolve the issues. The games of the Total War series have a combination of a (turn-based) strategy map with a (real-time) battle map, allowing the player to concentrate on one or the other. The games of the Hegemony series also combine

24192-561: The genre received positive reception. The Pikmin series, which began in 2001 for the GameCube , became a million-seller. Similarly, Halo Wars , which was released in 2009 for the Xbox 360 , generated generally positive reviews, achieved an 82% critic average on aggregate web sites, and sold over 1 million copies. According to IGN , the gameplay lacks the traditional RTS concepts of limited resources and resource gathering and lacks multiple buildings. Total Annihilation (1997)

24384-498: The genre, providing the de facto benchmark against which new real-time strategy games are measured . The real-time strategy genre has been relatively stable since 1995. Additions to the genre's concept in newer games tend to emphasize more of the basic RTS elements (higher unit caps, more unit types, larger maps, etc.). Rather than innovations to the game concept, new games generally focus on refining aspects of successful predecessors. Cavedog's Total Annihilation from 1997 introduced

24576-432: The infantry, they're all loaded up. They have all the backpacks on, they have all the belts on, every single bit of armor is there, and they're carrying around lots of armor. At the end of the war, they've lost it all and just carry what they need. This is all they have. So if you look at our Spartans, they have more pieces of armor on going into the war. They have more markings on there, more pieces of armor. They've still got

24768-430: The interest of any armed forces. There are two main types or setups of a coilgun: single-stage and multistage. A single-stage coilgun uses one electromagnetic coil to propel a projectile. A multistage coilgun uses several electromagnetic coils in succession to progressively increase the speed of the projectile. For ferromagnetic projectiles, a single-stage coilgun can be formed by a coil of wire, an electromagnet , with

24960-403: The magazine's annual Game Contest, the author described it as a "single-player game of real-time action and strategic decision making". The magazine described it as "a real-time space strategy game". The game has elements of resource management and wargaming . In the United Kingdom, the earliest real-time strategy games are Stonkers by John Gibson, published in 1983 by Imagine Software for

25152-628: The main structures for each team are still present, and destroying enemy main structure will secure victory as the ultimate victory condition. Unlike in RTS, a player has control over the only one single powerful unit, called "hero" or "champion", who advances in level, learns new abilities, and grows in power over the course of a match. Players can find various friendly and enemy units on the map at any given time assisting each team, however, these units are computer-controlled and players usually don't have direct control over their movement and creation ; instead, they march forward along set paths. Defense of

25344-406: The majority of the magnetic flux is not coupled into the projectile because of the magnetic circuit's high reluctance . The uncoupled flux generates a magnetic field that stores energy in the surrounding air. The energy that is stored in this field does not simply disappear from the magnetic circuit once the capacitor finishes discharging, instead returning to the coilgun's electric circuit. Because

25536-455: The map or possessing certain types of units and structures devoted to this purpose. More specifically, the typical game in the RTS genre features resource-gathering , base-building, in-game technological development, and indirect control of units. The tasks a player must perform to win an RTS game can be very demanding, and complex user interfaces have evolved for them. Some features have been borrowed from desktop environments ; for example,

25728-548: The message is clear: this is still very much a Halo game." Overall, Halo Wars was judged a fitting final game for Ensemble. During the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards , the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Halo Wars for " Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year ". On August 4, 2015, Microsoft announced Halo Wars 2 , developed by Creative Assembly with assistance from 343 Industries . The game

25920-493: The mixing sessions. Rippy used the Audiokinetic Wwise pipeline to create dynamic music that changes with the action in the game. Although Rippy used Wwise's tools only for dynamic music, they made audio system setup much easier than in previous Ensemble games. For each battle sequence, the musical cue was divided into sections and mixed differently for each section. "When a cue is triggered, an intro plays and then

26112-640: The mobile format with "idle" resource gathering and defenses, as well as reducing the number of resource types, unit types, and building types to make the game more accessible to new users. In an interview between game journalist Bryant Francis and Clash of Clans developer Stuart McGaw, McGaw attributed Clash of Clan ' s design to "a focus on simplicity and accessibility", something that "anyone could pick up and play", while also retaining "the strategy DNA", that gives players "lots of options" while remaining "clear to understand".  Multiple other mobile games, such as Boom Beach (2014), Plague Inc. (2012),

26304-424: The mouse to move units, and gathering resources, and as such served as the prototype for later real-time strategy games. According to its co-designer and lead programmer, Joe Bostic, a "benefit over Herzog Zwei is that we had the advantage of a mouse and keyboard. This greatly facilitated precise player control, which enabled the player to give orders to individual units. The mouse, and the direct control it allowed,

26496-491: The multiplayer aspect of the game well. Wilcox noted that, although the multiplayer mode "added [nothing] new [to RTS games], at the very least it's a solid experience that expands the longevity of Halo Wars ." Adam Biessener of Game Informer wrote that Halo Wars gameplay was better against human players, as campaign "gimmicks" and poor artificial intelligence were not an issue. The Mirror ' s Kevin Lynch found fault with

26688-402: The near-industry-wide switch to full 3D was very gradual and most real-time strategy titles, including the first sequels to Command & Conquer , initially used isometric 3D graphics made by pre-rendered 3D tiles. Only in later years did these games begin to use true 3D graphics and gameplay, making it possible to rotate the view of the battlefield in real-time. Spring is a good example of

26880-450: The need to return to the base to adjust production. Nguyen wrote that "finesse maneuvers ... are more difficult to pull off than they should be". Brett Molina of USA Today said that experts would find the action oversimplified, but that the game "is an excellent choice for fans of the Halo universe and players new to real-time strategy". Reviewers for GameSpy, G4tv, and Eurogamer stated that

27072-489: The oldest "2D Real-Time Strategy". Barton also cites Cytron Masters (1982), saying it was "one of the first (if not the first) real-time strategy games [sic]." On the other hand, Scott Sharkey of 1UP argues that, while Cytron Masters "attempted real time strategy", it was "much more tactical than strategic" due to "the inability to construct units or manage resources". Byte in December 1982 published as an Apple II type-in program Cosmic Conquest . The winner of

27264-403: The only way for them to win or lose is militarily makes them unlikely to respond to gestures of diplomacy. The result is that the winner of a real-time strategy game is too often the best tactician rather than the best strategist. Troy Goodfellow counters this by saying that the problem is not that real-time strategy games are lacking in strategy (he says attrition is a form of strategy), rather it

27456-492: The original Command & Conquer gave birth to the now-common "tank rush" tactic, where the game outcome is often decided very early on by one player gaining an initial advantage in resources and producing large amounts of a relatively powerful but still quite cheap unit—which is thrown at the opposition before they have had time to establish defenses or production. Although this strategy has been criticized for encouraging overwhelming force over strategy and tactics, defenders of

27648-489: The patrol and a battle ensues involving human and Covenant vehicles and infantry. The trailer ends with the arrival of Spartan reinforcements. GameSpy listed the trailer in its top 25 video game cinematic moments, because it showed "the world of Halo on a much grander scale". Halo Wars was exhibited at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2007 and 2008. Devine narrated the soundtrack for

27840-402: The planet's interior, revealing the planet is actually a Forerunner installation with a hollow, habitable interior, and a miniature sun at its core. The Covenant's plan is to activate a dormant fleet of highly advanced Forerunner starships inside the installation, and use them to obliterate humanity. While the Forerunner ships are being activated, Anders escapes through a teleportation device and

28032-438: The player to build an army (ranging from small squads of no more than two units to literally hundreds of units) and using them to either defend themselves from a virtual form of Human wave attack or to eliminate enemies who possess bases with unit production capacities of their own. Occasionally, RTS games will have a preset number of units for the player to control and do not allow building of additional ones. Resource gathering

28224-606: The popular perception of the genre and expectations of the genre more than others, in particular the games released between 1992 and 1998 by Westwood Studios and Blizzard Entertainment . Drawing influence from Herzog Zwei , Populous , Eye of the Beholder , and the Macintosh user interface , Westwood's Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (1992) featured all the core concepts and mechanics of modern real-time strategy games that are still used today, such as using

28416-416: The popularity of turn-based strategy computer games. In the past, a common criticism was to regard real-time strategy games as "cheap imitations" of turn-based strategy games, arguing that real-time strategy games had a tendency to devolve into "click-fests" in which the player who was faster with the mouse generally won, because they could give orders to their units at a faster rate. The common retort

28608-491: The problem by giving the player direct control of a single powerful unit and near autonomy for everything else," and is surprised "that more console RTS games aren't designed with this kind of interface in mind from the ground up, rather than imitating" PC control schemes "that just doesn't work very well with a controller". Some handheld consoles like Napoleon on the GBA uses a similar solution. However, several console titles in

28800-459: The projectile pulled towards or levitated within the center of the coils as it is accelerated, no physical friction with the walls of the bore occurs. If the bore is a total vacuum (such as a tube with a plasma window ), there is no friction at all, which helps prolong the period of reusability. One main obstacle in coilgun design is switching the power through the coils. There are several common solutions—the simplest (and probably least effective)

28992-554: The projectile, defined as kg V being the volume of the projectile, defined as m μ 0 being the vacuum permeability , defined in SI units as 4π × 10 V · s /( A · m ) χ m being the magnetic susceptibility of the projectile, a dimensionless proportionality constant indicating the degree of magnetization in a material in response to applied magnetic fields . This often must be determined experimentally, and tables containing susceptibility values for certain materials may be found in

29184-682: The real-time strategy and first-person shooter genres in Battlezone (1998), while in 2002 Rage Games Limited attempted this with the Hostile Waters games. Later variants have included Natural Selection (2002) , a game modification based on the Half-Life engine, and the free software Tremulous / Unvanquished . Savage: The Battle for Newerth (2003) combined the RPG and RTS elements in an online game. Some games, borrowing from

29376-517: The real-time strategy genre". According to Ars Technica, Utopia was a turn-based strategy game with hybrid elements that ran "in real-time but events happened on a regular turn-based cycle." According to Brett Weiss, Utopia is often cited as "the first real-time strategy game." According to Matt Barton and Bill Loguidice, Utopia "helped set the template" for the genre, but has "more in common with SimCity than it does with Dune II and later RTS games." Allgame listed War of Nerves (1979) as

29568-558: The release of Halo Wars ; the former was fourth in the United States and second in Australia in sales of Xbox 360 games, and reappeared on the list of top 20 United States console games for February. Before the game's release, industry analyst Michael Pachter estimated that Halo Wars would sell 2 million units. On March 19, 2009, Microsoft announced that the game had sold 1 million units and that players had spent 118 total years of time in online skirmish matches. According to NPD Group 's March sales figures, Halo Wars sold 639,000 copies in

29760-491: The remaining energy, recharge the capacitors with the right polarity for the next discharge cycle. This will also avoid the need to fully recharge the capacitors, thus significantly reducing charge times. However, the practicality of this solution is limited by the resulting high recharge current through the equivalent series resistance (ESR) of the capacitors; the ESR will dissipate some of the recharge current, generating heat within

29952-478: The research of upgrades and technologies. There are a limited number of potential locations for bases on each scenario or map, making base fortification and defense a priority. A player is defeated if all his or her bases are destroyed, unless a new base is quickly established. The army of a player must also be destroyed to be defeated. Units are trained, buildings upgraded, and special abilities activated using resources known as "supplies". Players can find supplies on

30144-455: The research they had conducted, but scrapped the rest in favor of "build[ing] from the floor up what we need[ed]: the basics, the core of a strategy game." With the goal of making "the first great strategy game on the console", Ensemble streamlined gameplay mechanics; the game's single resource is produced at each base site, which allows players to quickly cycle through their bases instead of micromanaging multiple resources at many locations. Once

30336-456: The rock-paper-scissors RTS mechanics, but said that "since the game is singularly crap at indicating which units are rocks and which scissors," players had to learn which units were best via trial and error, an issue that was more prevalent with the Covenant. The game's plot was well received. Reviewers praised the game's cinematics and voice acting. Geddes said the story was good, but not on par with those of Bungie's Halo games, and that most of

30528-402: The screen and issue commands with the mouse, and may also use keyboard shortcuts. Gameplay generally consists of the player being positioned somewhere in the map with a few units or a building that is capable of building other units/buildings. Often, but not always, the player must build specific structures to unlock more advanced units in the tech tree . Often, but not always, RTS games require

30720-466: The setting of the game, which takes place decades before the events of the main trilogy. Devine commented on the Spartans' look: ... We felt because it was 20 years earlier, these are much younger Spartans. They aren't quite as experienced as Master Chief, and we looked a lot at combat infantry going into actual wars, and typically at the beginning of a war, especially the Vietnam War, if you look at

30912-422: The sound of previous Halo games. In adherence to an Ensemble Studios tradition, the tracks are often named after coined phrases and inside jokes, rather than in-game events. By the end of 2007, Rippy had completed all of the gameplay music, including end credits, battle themes, and ambient world tracks. In the game's skirmish mode, the music reflects the environment rather than the warring factions. To ensure that

31104-559: The split announcement that "our intent is to continue investing in [ Halo ] and growing it." In 2004, the Microsoft-owned Ensemble Studios —developers of the Age of Empires strategy series—began work on the game that would become Halo Wars . The studio confirmed in April 2006 that it was working on a console-based RTS. CEO Tony Goodman said, "We're giving RTS games on the console a shot. We actually spent

31296-423: The square of the speed, but, correctly switched, the resistive losses are largely unaffected, and thus these resistive losses become much smaller in percentage terms. Ideally, 100% of the magnetic flux generated by the coil would be delivered to and act on the projectile; in reality this is impossible due to energy losses always present in a real system, which cannot be eliminated. With a simple air-cored solenoid,

31488-565: The strategy argue that they're simply taking advantage of the strategies utilized, and some argue that it is a realistic representation of warfare. One of the most infamous versions of a rush is the "Zergling rush" from the real-time strategy game StarCraft , where the Zerg player would morph one of their starting workers (or the first one produced) into a spawning pool immediately and use all of their resources to produce Zerglings, attacking once they have enough to overwhelm any early defense; in fact,

31680-469: The technique of "clicking and dragging" to create a box that selects all units under a given area. Though some video game genres share conceptual and gameplay similarities with the RTS template, recognized genres are generally not subsumed as RTS games. For instance, city-building games , construction and management simulations , and games of real-time tactics are generally not considered real-time strategy per se. This would only apply to anything considered

31872-458: The term "zerging" has become synonymous with rushing. Some games have since introduced designs that do not easily lend themselves to rushes. For example, the Hegemony series made supply and (seasonal) resource management an integral part of its gameplay, thus limiting rapid expansion. Despite Herzog Zwei , a console game , laying the foundations for the real-time strategy genre, RTS games never gained popularity on consoles like they did on

32064-514: The track. Power is supplied to the electromagnet from some sort of fast discharge storage device, typically a battery , or capacitors (one per electromagnet), designed for fast energy discharge. A diode is used to protect polarity sensitive components (such as semiconductors or electrolytic capacitors) from damage due to inverse polarity of the voltage after turning off the coil. Many hobbyists use low-cost rudimentary designs to experiment with coilguns, for example using photoflash capacitors from

32256-486: The traditional RTS format accelerated throughout the early 2010s as RTS games were released on the App store . With the new format specific to Mobile devices , mobile RTS games were often simpler than their desktop counterparts. The simplification of the RTS formula coupled with the adoption of the smartphone during this period allowed for mobile RTS games to be more accessible than traditional RTS games. Clash of Clans (2012),

32448-477: The traditional RTS formula, with the player having the "perspective of god" and managing units and resources. Such Indie-RTS Games released in this period were often subject to Porting , and often made it to mobile devices. A few of these Indie-RTS games are Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator (2017), the Machines at War series (2007-2012), and Bad North (2018). Oftentimes, modern RTS games attempt to capture

32640-537: The transformation from semi-3D to full-3D game simulations. It is an open-source project, which aims to give a Total Annihilation game-play experience in three dimensions. The most ambitious use of full 3D graphics was realized in Supreme Commander , where all projectiles, units and terrain were simulated in real time, taking full advantage of the UI's zoom feature, which allowed cartographic style navigation of

32832-476: The tube being a spark gap, the tube will stop conducting once the voltage across it drops sufficiently, leaving some charge remaining on the capacitor. The electrical resistance of the coils and the equivalent series resistance (ESR) of the current source dissipate considerable power. At low speeds the heating of the coils dominates the efficiency of the coilgun, giving exceptionally low efficiency. However, as speeds climb, mechanical power grows proportional to

33024-479: The two systems: for example, the role-playing game Fallout uses turn-based combat and real-time gameplay, while the real-time strategy games Homeworld , Rise of Nations , and the games of the Total War and Hegemony series allow the player to pause the game and issue orders. Additionally, the Total War series has a combination of a turn-based strategy map with a real-time battle map. Another example of

33216-479: The two. A coil gun uses electromagnetic acceleration whereas Gauss guns predate the idea of coil guns and instead consists of ferromagnets using a configuration similar to a Newton's Cradle to impart acceleration. The oldest electromagnetic gun came in the form of the coilgun, the first of which was invented by Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland at the University of Kristiania (today Oslo). The invention

33408-423: The upgrades they can earn. Strategic Options was released on May 19, 2009, after a patch that addressed software bugs and game balance issues. The update garnered criticism for its small size (2  megabytes ) and high price (800  Microsoft Points ). Pottinger responded on the Halo Wars forums that the game modes were small downloads "because they are rules. There is some new content, but it's obviously

33600-628: The use of a broad arsenal of weapons including diplomatic, informational, military, and economic resources, whereas military tactics is more concerned with short-term goals such as winning an individual battle. In the context of strategy video games, however, the difference is often reduced to the more limited criteria of either a presence or absence of base building and unit production. In an article for Gamasutra , Nathan Toronto criticizes real-time strategy games for too often having only one valid means of victory — attrition — comparing them unfavorably to real-time tactics games. Players' awareness that

33792-462: The use of combat tactics involved in the present, whereas macromanagement considers the greater scale of the game in an attempt to predict the future. A debate has emerged between fans of real-time strategy (RTS) and turn-based strategy (TBS) (and related genres) based on the merits of the real-time and turn-based systems. Because of their generally faster-paced nature (and in some cases a smaller learning curve), real-time strategy games have surpassed

33984-587: The viability of RTS on consoles; "There's certainly the potential to have PC holdouts seriously reconsidering hoisting the controller." Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle offered a dismissive summation of the game as "a remedial game—real-time strategy for dummies", and stated that the game offered relatively little innovation when compared to other Halo titles. Reviewers generally praised Halo Wars ' s controls. Critics who were less experienced RTS players, such as Darren Zenko of

34176-543: The warship Spirit of Fire in an effort to stop an ancient fleet of ships from falling into the hands of the genocidal alien Covenant . Halo Wars was unveiled at the X06 Xbox show in 2006. Ensemble designed the game specifically for the Xbox 360 controller, in an attempt to circumvent issues present in previous console RTS titles. Ensemble was closed by Microsoft before the game's release, but soon after Robot Entertainment

34368-430: The wires of the coil are infinitely thin and do not stack on one another, all cumulatively increasing the expected exit velocity. Small coilguns are recreationally made by hobbyists, typically up to several joules to tens of joules projectile energy (the latter comparable to a typical air gun and an order of magnitude less than a firearm) while ranging from under one percent to several percent efficiency. In 2018,

34560-773: Was January 2008, when he began writing music for the game's cinematics; by this point, he had been working on the score for nine months. Rippy finished the score by February 2008, and, after three months, all tracks were ready to be recorded. Although the previous live orchestrations for Halo games were performed by the Northwest Sinfonia in Seattle, Washington , Rippy chose the FILMharmonic Orchestra of Prague to record Halo Wars ' music. Rippy had been in Prague attending recording sessions for Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties and loved both

34752-407: Was a change of pace from his previous work, which was written for historical settings. Rippy began writing music for the game in April 2007. "Some of the plot points of Halo Wars revolve around discovery, and I think that was my favorite idea to write to—that sense of, 'no one's seen this before,'" he said. The first two tracks combined repurposed elements from past projects with his efforts to convey

34944-471: Was an infantry unit. Instead, the team added a new aircraft called the Vampire. The UNSC, meanwhile, lacked a melee unit to match the Covenant's hand-to-hand power. Ensemble considered using the original, less advanced Spartan Mark I suits of armor, in keeping with Halo lore, but once added these units were indistinguishable from Spartans in appearance. Instead, they created a lumbering, mechanized unit called

35136-415: Was another full 3D game, but had limited camera views. The move from 2D to 3D has been criticized in some cases. Issues with controlling the camera and placement of objects have been cited as problems. A few games have experimented with diversifying map design, which continues to be largely two-dimensional even in 3D engines. Earth 2150 (2000) allowed units to tunnel underground, effectively creating

35328-419: Was created by Phil Noto, Graeme Devine, and Eric Nylund . It explores the background stories of Anders, the Arbiter, Forge and Cutter. Other bonuses included a unique in-game vehicle, trading cards, and a Spirit of Fire patch. Players who pre-ordered the game from certain retailers received a special in-game Warthog vehicle with flame decals. GameStop announced that on February 28, 2009, one thousand stores in

35520-407: Was critical in making the RTS genre possible.” The success of Dune II encouraged several games that became influential in their own right. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994) achieved great prominence upon its release, owing in part to its use of a fantasy setting and also to its depiction of a wide variety of buildings (such as farms) which approximated a full fictitious society and not just

35712-744: Was developing downloadable content (DLC) for Halo Wars . Pottinger described support as ongoing rather than a one-time effort and compared it to Bungie's post-launch additions to Halo 3 . He stated that Robot would also work on balance issues, bug fixes, and other patches. The first DLC package, Strategic Options, added three new multiplayer modes. "Keepaway" is similar to capture the flag ; in it, players try to capture and hold Forerunner units. In "Tug-of-war", players earn points by fielding large armies and destroying enemy units. In "Reinforcement", players receive units as reinforcements, rather than training them at bases. The amount of available resources and reactors determines which types of units are deployed and

35904-471: Was essentially identical regardless of the map layer in question. Dragonshard (2005) emphasized its dual-layer maps by placing one of the game's two main resources in each map, making exploration and control of both maps fundamentally valuable. Relatively few genres have emerged from or in competition with real-time strategy games, although real-time tactics (RTT), a superficially similar genre, emerged around 1995. In 1998, Activision attempted to combine

36096-402: Was founded by many of Ensemble's former employees; this new company continued to support Halo Wars with updates and downloadable content . Halo Wars received generally positive reviews. Reviewers lauded the game's pre-rendered cinematics, attention to detail in replicating the Halo universe, and intuitive control scheme. Complaints against the game included the lack of an option to play as

36288-411: Was notable for being one of the few completely non-linear RTS games ever. It is only in approximately 2002 that 3D real-time strategy became the standard, with both Warcraft III (2002) and Ensemble Studio's Age of Mythology (2002) being built on a full 3D game engine. Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns introduced classic wargame elements, such as supply lines to the genre. Battle Realms (2001)

36480-487: Was officially patented in 1904, although its development reportedly started as early as 1845. According to his accounts, Birkeland accelerated a 500- gram projectile to approximately 50 metres per second (160 ft/s). In 1933, Texan inventor Virgil Rigsby developed a stationary coil gun that was designed to be used similarly to a machine gun . It was powered by a large electrical motor and generator. It appeared in many contemporary science publications, but never piqued

36672-563: Was released February 21, 2017 for the Xbox One and Windows 10 . Real-time strategy In a real-time strategy game, each participant positions structures and maneuvers multiple units under their indirect control to secure areas of the map and destroy their opponents' assets. In a typical RTS game, it is possible to create additional units and structures generally limited by a requirement to expend accumulated resources . These resources are in turn garnered by controlling special points on

36864-538: Was the first real-time strategy game to utilize true 3D units, terrain, and physics in both rendering and in gameplay. For instance, the missiles in Total Annihilation travel in real time in simulated 3D space, and they can miss their target by passing over or under it. Similarly, missile-armed units in Earth 2150 are at a serious disadvantage when the opponent is on high ground because the missiles often hit

#220779