Most of us here have played many other RTS games before this and even more so MMOs, and as many would know MMORTS games have a lot in common.
Yet the Great thing about TSO is how it breaks from this mould of generic MMORTS games.
But I feel however, as would many others that some "generic" features are common in games because they simply are too good to omit.
The addition of a Research building to TSO would in all honesty triple the amount of strategy and gameplay to the game if it is handled correctly.
Many people would naturally get frustrated if it stood in the way of building pre-existing buildings,
eg. if you had to research better axes in order to chop hardwood thus .
But it could be used to offer alternative strategies.
eg. Instead of building another hardwood hut, or levelling an existing one, you could research into hardwood or axe-making in order to shorten production time by 5% or 10%.
- Or maybe you research transportation so that roads shorten travel time.
- Or research forestry in order to make tree deposits hold twice as much.
- Research another element of Forestry to make trees grow faster.
This is only one element of the Research tree- Whole new reserach trees could be made for Quarrying, Mining, Smelting/Smithing, Food prduction. Each opened with a new level of the research building.
And it could be used for than just production improvements.
Imagine how much more dynamic battles could be with simple research into attack bonuses to give your troops just the edge it needs to crush opponents, or defence bonuses to outlast them, or bonuses to make some units act different altogether, recruits trained to be part of the first strike, or cavalry that are harder hitting, but slower.
Research into kamikazies, bombs, flaming arrows and booby traps all could add unlimited ways to take down that last camp without making the game unbalanced.
And then there are the specialist researches.
Research into communication so you can see more of a friends world (his resources, his troops etc.) so you can help them where they need it.
Research into Geology to make geologists faster, even to the point where they automatically search for new deposits.
Research to make Generals command more troops.
Research to increase population growth or to make construction times go faster.
Research into Guilds, creating diversity between each guild depending on how they use their research tree, will your guild be a fighters guild?
a Traders guild?
or a buffing guild?
A single research building with so many varied levels of interaction with every aspect of the game can do nothing but improve this game, we have already seen so many people come up with many other great suggestions for tweaks to the game and this idea here would allow our great team of designers the ability to implement these ideas in one big hit.
Making this game so much more dynamic and fun.
Regards
Seltonejock