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Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy

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Shattered Galaxy

Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy (MMORTS) is a genre of online computer game that combines real-time strategy (RTS) with a large number of simultaneous players over the Internet. Players will often assume the role of a general, king or figurehead of some kind, leading an army into battle, while at the sametime maintaining the resources needed for such warfare. The titles are often based in a sci-fi or fantasy universe and are distingushed from single or small-scale multiplayer RTSs by the number of players and common use of a persistent world, generally hosted by the game's publisher, which continues to evolve even when the player is not currently playing.

History

Unlike MMORPGs, the MMORTS genre is still in its infancy with only a handful of active games, none of which have come from a large publisher. Vibes, a French developer, created the first MMORTS, Mankind, in 1998.

Current Problems

In MMORTS genre very important problem of how to deal with offline player's emerges, and can be credited as one of the major reasons that the genre has not progressed. Unlike MMORPGs which typically have a user's character disappear from the game world upon logout, the same idea can not apply to an MMORTS. Most MMORTS titles place the player as the leader of some sort of nation-state, and the disappearance of one would not make sense. Therefore when a player logs out the nation would be largely unguarded. Developers have been trying to compensate for this problem with advanced artificial intelligence to control a player's army, or restrictions on destructive acts against offline users.

MMORTSs must also deal with resource competition. In a single player real-time strategy, resources are mostly limited. The genre almost forces the game designers to use an unlimited resource system like Total Annihilation. But that just forces players to built and built faster with new player upon joining the game find the world full. One way to treat this world lock is by restarting the server's presistent world periodically and have several worlds in existence. It could be once a month or even once a week but then the game play slowly turns into standard player experienced other multiplayer RTSs.

On the other hand MMORTS some time exhibit very strong RPG aspects. Also not inherently bad but no real MMORTS-RPG hybrids have surfaced to the market. Also common confusion or mixing is with browser based strategy games. These strategy games very massively multiplier in nature are not strictly real time. But the lines are blurred on what the MMORTS genera strictly is and would be for some time. It would take a popular MMORTS to define the boundaries.

MMORTS also pose several technical problems. Because the player controls not just an avatar but tens if not hundreds of units simultaneously this puts an enormous price tag on bandwidth if the level of interaction is to compete with modern single or multiplayer real time strategy games. Most MMORTS reduce the level of simulation that need to be synced with the server which puts serous limitations on types of simulation that can be preformed. The limitations include limited view rules such as radar and terrain blocking algorithms, limited physics simulations such as artery arcs and shock waves, limited air and undersea combat. Simulation has to rely on simple mechanisms to stay in budget which by the player of the RTS genera might be considered outdated.

Announced MMORTS Titles

See also

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