Glossary of RTS Terms


Deformable Terrain to gf
Deformable Terrain A map that can be altered as a game progresses, usually as a result of player action: e.g. craters formed by explosions, land lowered or raised by the actions of builders or godly miracles or buildings, walls or other obstacles demolished and removed from the board. Despite the new age of game physic sims, its still rare for a strategy to use explosions or demolition for anything other than cosmetic visual effects.Back
Diplomacy Diplomacy refers to the organization of teams in a multiplayer netgame. This is usually worked out by verbal agreement before a game has started, when players are being marshaled in the pre-game setup screen or "lobby". Once in the game, you may have to access a Diplomacy menu to actually make the game reflect the players' wishes. In Diplomacy (or equivalent) menus you can set Alliance settings from a list of all players (and/or bots) in the game. Players that are set to "Allied" won't be attacked by your units. However, if they haven't set their forces to Ally with your in return, they'll automatically attack you. Allied team players will share their vision of the map, and in some games, you may be able to share resources and control each others units. Any strategy game that uses trade can set up automated trade routes between friendly (and sometimes hostile!) forces.

Diplomacy settings are generally "live" throughout the game. That is, they can be changed at any moment. Strategy games have the added human element in that the devious rivalry between the players themselves can sometimes expressed within the game. And humans, as we all know, can be treacherous...  Back
DPS Acronym: Damage Per Second. DPS is a measure of how   Back
Economy The means of production for your forces. This includes workers, factories, and general resource management. The strength of an economy is decided by how many resources it can use at any moment and how much is left over in the bank. This means making sure you have mines, fusion plants, tree cutters, fishermen, or whatever it is that allows you to build and support your army in the game. Economic strength ultimately decides your military strength. A strong economy is not crimped by a lack of materials when it has to produce advanced units; a weak one is one unable to produce or repair anything because its waiting for sufficient resources to become available or just doesn't have enough in storage to build a force big enough to adequately defend your base.

In Starcraft or any Age of Empire game, maintaining a steady stream of resources is essential to staying in the game, keeping up with tech upgrades, and building and maintaining a strong force. In these games, establishing expansions is critical as resource sites are easily exhausted and consumed, and stopping your opponent from expanding is just as important (if not more so) than expanding yourself. In Total Annitbl2ation, your economic strength is determined by the constant rate at which you produce energy and metal, since resources are infinite and expansions are not as necessary, except as strictly militaristic exercises or depriving the enemy of their share. A more extraordinary RTS economy is found in The Settlers. This economy is more like a simulation where you can't control individual villagers individually, but affect them en mass by changing global settings, adjusting priorities and allocating building sites. Securing and developing metals, food and construction materials is critical to success, and missing out just one item in your economy can quickly stall it as surely as an attack. Back
Energy

1.) A rechargeable amount of stuff to power force fields or some special power or ability in a unit.

2.) In some games, another way of describing a unit's Health.

See Stats. Back

Expansion

1.) An additional base built by your good self to secure another cache of resources, before your base runs out and to ensure your opponent can't get there first. In StarCraft, establishing expansions is absolutely critical to winning the game, and Age of Empires is very similar. Expansions are less important where resources not so readily exhausted.

2.) An extra software package that is added to the original game to expand its functionality and its scope. An Expansion usually adds extra units, maps, and other goodies to enhance your gaming pleasure. Its a nifty way for software publishers to extend the life of their product without having to go through the tedious development hassle and risk of producing an entire sequel from scratch.Back
Farm A building that generates food resources. However in Warcraft, it is a structure used like the House building. Back
Factory Any building that can produce mobile units. Back
FFA Game type acronym: Free For All.  A multiplayer game of more than two players where everyone fights everyone else until only one remains. Typically, defeated players are dropped from the game, although newer games tending to permit spectating. Back
Fog of War Fog of War represents the uncertainty of the battlefield and the limited POV of your units. Its the darkened or grey out areas on your screen. Wtbl2e you enjoy a God like view of the proceedings, you certainly aren't omniscient: you can only see what your units can see, and only know what they know. This provides much of the action and excitement, and finding out what's going on across the map is an ongoing and never ending task. Unexplored areas or zones beyond your visual range might contain hidden enemy units, vital resources or the horde that's coming to annitbl2ate you once and for all. Only the illuminated areas of the map that currently fall within you and your allies' units Line of Sight are updated continuously. Your Minimap constantly tracks and updates any changes to the Fog of War; generally, if terrain is pitch black its unexplored. Previously visited areas remain greyed out, and depending on what game you're playing, will also show any structures that were built there at the time you last saw them. What might have been empty space may suddenly be filled with enemy fortifications, and so on.Back
FPS Acronym: First person Shooter. Usually shortened to 3D Shooter. This is an action game genre with a first perspective game set in an immersive three dimensional environmen. In an FPS you basically run around playing silly buggers with large weapons, blowing up other players, usually. Its the major gaming genre in the PC gaming world. It was first coined to describe iD Software's DOOM, but also applies to Quake, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life, Medal of Honour, or a squillion others. It tends to be found on PC platforms because it seems to play best with a mouse and keyboard. On consoles, FPS's are far less frequent - they tend to be "over the shoulder" rail shooters, where the character you play is visible ar all times, FPS originally started out as straight deathmatch, a primitive sort of game where a small number of players simply ran around blowing each other up for points. Essentially, the PC and graphic card industry owe a lot Doom and its ilk or pretty much getting PC gamers to rush out and by constantly buy endless hardware upgrades to their machines. FPS has generally been where the bleeding edge of graphics performance is hammered out. Basically, the game has to look as spectacular as possible wtbl2st letting players move and react at lightning speed. Examples: Doom, Quake, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Tribes 2, Medal of Honour, Battlefield 1942, etc., etc. There's millions of the damn things. Back
Garrison An ability to store units or squads inside a buildings or other structure. Garrisoning a unit inside a building makes it disappear from view and you can no longer directly control it. In some games, Garrisoned units can fire out the windows, (e.g. like defenders in a castle). They'll enjoy the protection of the building itself and sometimes score an extra range bonus as well. More often than not, Garrisoned units become inert and simply recover lost health points faster. Selecting the building will show a small inventory of stored units, and any units that are ungarrisoned will immediately leave the building and travel to its Rally point.Back


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Last modified Sat, Apr 30 2011 by Lindsay Fleay