Hacker News Reader

Comment by liotier | Hacker News Reader

Enjoy that style ? Go play Beyond All Reason, its free and open-source spiritual heir - https://www.beyondallreason.info

View on HN

I played Total Annihilation as a kid. Finding Beyond All Reason was amazing.

And spectating 8v8+ with tens of thousands of units is something else.

It's unfortunate that large scale RTS isn't a more popular genre.

Instead it's all Fortnite/CoD/WoW

if you haven't seen already, check YouTube where the mods enable larger lobbies.

There are some really good casts of 40 vs 40 players or more!

Here's a recent 25 vs 25: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btnU_IPWPmY

Oh I have. Those are wild.

I still play the CNC games every once in a while.

I still play Total Annihilation. I am not a "gamer" and don't play any computer games anymore, but boy do I still love Total Annihilation.

My cousin was a tester for Cavedog in the late 90s and gave us a copy before it was big. I still have some CDs!

Love to see Beyond All Reason continuing the spirit.

It feels like Starcraft 2 was the last traditional RTS; I suspect part of that is because other developers think their game wouldn't have a chance without competitive multiplayer as tight as SC2's.

That said, there's still some RTS games in the indie space / on Steam, like Homeworld: Deserts of something. But that one was ultimately disappointing overall.

The popularity of Starcraft confused me until I realized it was a really a "user interface game" rather than a strategy game. I mean, Starcraft 2 is still a strategy game, but if you were to propose changing the UI to enable more strategy, they wouldn't do that. The UI is the game, and once I understood that I understood Starcraft players better and was able to appreciate the game better.

It's hard for anyone to do a better Starcraft because it's a UI game based in technology of the time. We aren't going to get better at traditional computer screens with a fixed aspect ratio and a mouse. That is Stracraft.

Also, you mentioned Homeworld, and Homeworld 3 will be out in a few months.

That reminds me, somewhat tangentially, of working with a personal trainer in a gym and made some comment about a particular type of movement being done in a more "efficient" way and the dude was just like "that's not the point", and playing starcraft more efficiently is likewise not the point.

I thought technically BAR is the OSS heir of Total Annihilation (which then Supreme Commander later developed).

Only 2 sides, no unique Experimental units, etc.

That being said, it's a great FOSS game and really captures the genre feel of epic scale.

Yes, Supreme Commander, Beyond All Reason are cousins (and Planetary/Industrial Annihilation) -- all successors to TA.

And there are the direct TA mods...Balanced Annihilation and TA: Escalation

Part of that family is also the spring engine (zero-k and others)

Each side has unique experimental units, not sure what you mean by that. But, as you say, there are 2 factions to play instead of the 4 you'd find in SupCom. A 3rd faction is being worked on though and can be used in multiplayer, but it's beta quality.

I want to like BAR because it is so obviously made with passion and attention to detail but I can't get over how wonky the units look. I don't mean the quality, but the design. They don't look at all cool and I can't get the power fantasy of leading an army of killer robots. I feel like leading some random hodgepodge of guns mounted on trash cans.

You need distinct silhouettes more than cool powerfantasies while gaming

If you are a sweaty tryhard I agree. But I personally want cool powerfantasies and big explosions while gaming, otherwise I could just as well play chess or go.

To be clear, I'm not arguing against clear silhouettes, but the general unit design. The robots often just look wacky. Like the sumo thing is this lumbering trashcan that could as well be accompanied by a tuba soundtrack.

Thank you for this, had no idea it existed

And, for completion, with the same engine that beyond all reason is done, but with a different game play feeling: https://zero-k.info/

I personally prefer Zero-K (flatter tech tree, territory can be more important), but both are great games.

Also prefer Zero-K. The economy system design results in better team games imo. Though obviously it's a lot less pretty.

I've never played much Zero-K, but from I understand the eco in BAR is truely exponential, after you get to the top of the tech tree and have a metal maker economy. It's an interesting design, since late game human becomes the bottleneck in expanding the eco, since exponential growth also means you have to increase your attention in managing it.

Zero-K from what I know has overdrive fusions, which isn't really exponential in the same sense.

In the end, both are great games.

It's limited by builds pace though

Exponential is great; it ensures a reasonable end to the game. (A problem TA suffered.)

Also, when the games do last a while, it is truly amazing to watch. [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIC_JMZKBkQ

Reply on news.ycombinator.com