Increased Low Level AI And Macro Control
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Ever since I first played Majesty and Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom I have been dreaming of a day when AI could do basic tasks and thus remove the incessant clickfest of modern RTS games like Starcraft 2.
Instead of selecting my units each time and targeting another unit to make them focus fire, or microing each one individually in the case of overkill, or personally determining which enemy unit was a threat, I want AI to do that for me.
Taking an idea from Dominions 3 as an alternative to DoW style squads of units, I want to assign a group of units to a leader, and then from the leader's interface do things like request focus fire for archers, but spreading out for melee. And from then on the AI handles making my archers focus on a single target.
I want units to determine on their own based on their unit type, who they should attack. Units could check the default stats of the enemy unit types to determine who they can hurt the most and which enemy unit can deal the most damage to the squad and attack based on that. For instance if they deal fire damage, find the unit with the lowest hp and the least fire resistance with weights for enemy damage output and distance, since you don't want melee to run super far through ranged fire to attack a target, and attack them.
Ranged fire damage? Target plant and ice units in range first. Why waste fire damage on metal or stone units that it can't harm?
Many people would ask, why would I take the micro and tactical out of an RTS? Well technically you aren't, you are still giving directives on behavior. But even if you were, it allows more focus on strategy, and also other spheres.
If I don't have to manage moment to moment unit actions I can spend more time on over all strategy like where to send troops. I can manage larger groups of units too. And suppose I have mages in a fantasy game. I can let mages be microed, since AI can't possibly handle complex magic or science skill systems. So all my regular units can do their thing and I can support with summons and damage spells and casting army buffs.
I can also focus on non combat areas. I can play games with more complex economies. Managing a city builder system like Emperor has is impossible in starcraft, you need to focus on the microed combat. But with AI control of simple repetitive tasks you can add other aspects to the game.
You could not only add resource generation but you could add logistics. Local resource storage, supplies of food and weapons, moving around building materials, providing food and clothes and turn based and city sim leisure resources to citizens. You could have large maps where you need to decide where to send new troops to defend. You could build walls stronghold style.
You would even have more planning time. If you have a lot more units, and more magic, you would still have time to decide, should I start building this unit to add to my armies to counter my enemy's new strategy. You could plan out your advancement up the research system. You could have Warlords BattleCry 3 style hero units, and you could deal with the RPG aspect without crashing your actions per minute for combat.
Majesty was popular because you felt more like you were ruling a kingdom as opposed to being a colonel or captain in a small skirmish. But it was a little too random, and it actually lacked a really deep economic system. You basically built a trio of markets and spammed guilds and won.
If you could reduce the time intensity of combat with good AI, you could add features so that you actually felt like a king of legends. Training and deploying mages, managing cities, advancing your culture and science, and still being in control of combat, this is what Majesty had a bit of a problem with, it was good to remove some micro, but just not so much that you had to rely on luck as to whether units would eventually maybe at some point if they weren't busy chilling in a gazebo actually complete your tasks.
Kinda got off topic, but I have been dreaming of such a game for so long.
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