Poll of the Day > Starcraft 1 was way too hard. Should I still give other RTS' a chance?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I never finished Starcraft 1 or Brood War. Just thinking about it is giving me these awful flashbacks of staying up all night to build an army just to have it completely crushed by the AI, also reaching a point of no return so having to restart the whole level because enemy AI is also building with you, completely losing HOURS of progress.
I don't think I ever started Brood War or Starcraft 2 even though I own both of them. Maaaybe I'll give the franchise another chance someday?

I am going through Age of Empires Definitive Edition tutorial right now but honestly scared of what's to come. Playing on standard difficulty. Also this would be the second RTS I've ever tried besides Starcraft.

Pro tip: attack.

Starcraft 1 feels really janky. Starcraft 2 has a really fun/unique campaign and you don't have dragoons that derp around at every ramp. You can customize your units as you progress through the campaign.

I used to be really bad at the game (still bad, just less so), but then I learned all you have to really do is max out your eco and spend all your money, all the time. I just make a lot of stuff and all army select and attack move towards the objective (make sure to get upgrades).

shadowsword87 posted...

Pro tip: attack.

Attack at the start and get obliterated, yeah tried that

SpeedDemon20 posted...

I used to be really bad at the game (still bad, just less so), but then I learned all you have to really do is max out your eco and spend all your money, all the time. I just make a lot of stuff and all army select and attack move towards the objective (make sure to get upgrades)

IIRC I'm bad at balancing focusing on resources vs. combat units vs. upgrading structures

confession: I only ever beat Starcraft 1 and Brood War campaigns using cheats...

Starcraft 2 felt a lot easier on normal, but then I haven't played Starcraft 1 in 15+ years, so I don't have an up to date feel for either of them.

Something SC2 does that SC1 doesn't is tell you the optimum number of workers. It has a number over the base and gas buildings to tell you. Always max those ASAP.

As for producing stuff, you should have all your buildings working. They can only do one thing at a time, so (once you're maxed on workers) you should be able to produce stuff and upgrade at the same time. If anything, make extra barracks to pump out units faster (or another engineering bay to upgrade faster). I usually roll out once I'm maxed and I replenish units as they fall in battle.

Warcraft 3 has a great campaign and puts way less emphasis on resource management than most rts games.

I never played campaign of Starcraft - only online - so I can't help there.

Starcraft was a near perfect game at the time, however (late 90's / early 2000's)

I manged to get through the Starcraft back in the day (see my shitty walkthrough from 21 years ago, LOL!) but I could never get through Brood War without cheats. Some of the later campaign missions get insane.

Warcraft 3 (and the expansion) were actually way easier, and what I played of Starcraft 2 was also way easier. Plus I found the RTS in Command and Conquer to be a little better to manage then in Blizzard games. Age of Empires was just kind of boring to me, never piqued my interest. I think I only got about halfway through the first game before I gave up.

Dikitain posted...

Age of Empires was just kind of boring to me, never piqued my interest. I think I only got about halfway through the first game before I gave up.

Was it just boredom or difficulty?
I am liking the tutorial and reading the historic facts before each mission is also fun to me.

shadowsword87 posted...

Pro tip: attack.

You can turtle until you have an overwhelming force in the singleplayer campaign if you want. Attack attack attack is only the order of the day for battle.net

Play that Jack black game brutal legend, thats an interesting take on rts games

Starcraft 1 is probably one of the easier RTS games, sounds like the genre isn't for you.
I for one can't beat the comp in a 1v1 game of Warcraft 3 on easy. :(

StarCraft against the computer was hard as fuck when I was younger

Curious why you're playing older RTS. As much as I love the AoE series, even AoE:DE still incorporates late 90's janky physics and gameplay.

Starcraft 2 has an easy difficulty if you need it.

CyborgSage00x0 posted...

Curious why you're playing older RTS. As much as I love the AoE series, even AoE:DE still incorporates late 90's janky physics and gameplay.

I'm a 90s kid and it just doesn't feel right starting with newer ones.

GanonsSpirit posted...

Starcraft 2 has an easy difficulty if you need it.

Does it have a story summary of the first game?

Ferarri619 posted...

Does it have a story summary of the first game?

I think so, but I don't remember.

Honestly it's not super relevant and easy to pick up on, but, yeah, there are flashbacks.

Ferarri619 posted...

I'm a 90s kid and it just doesn't feel right starting with newer ones.

Fair, but AoE II was also a 90's game (1999), and is better in every single way. There's a reason why it was/sometimes still is considered the best RTS of all time.

CyborgSage00x0 posted...

Fair, but AoE II was also a 90's game (1999), and is better in every single way. There's a reason why it was/sometimes still is considered the best RTS of all time.

I guess I just figured since they were all on sale on Steam that I'd pick the 1st one and play them in order too. I own all of them except 4. If I like the series maybe I'll get 4 in the future.
Also I always heard that 3 was the worst AoE game and fans hated it?? That's going by what I've heard anyway. 2 is supposedly teh best one and not sure what people think of 4 yet.

There is really no point to play AoE in order it doesn't have a narrative over each game. The second game is a massive improvement over the first game.

Ferarri619 posted...

I guess I just figured since they were all on sale on Steam that I'd pick the 1st one and play them in order too. I own all of them except 4. If I like the series maybe I'll get 4 in the future.
Also I always heard that 3 was the worst AoE game and fans hated it?? That's going by what I've heard anyway. 2 is supposedly teh best one and not sure what people think of 4 yet.

If you play 2 and aren't good at it, RTS may just not be your thing.

And AoE III was/is kinda considered divisive, and I compare people whining about it akin to Smash Melee into Smash Brawl fans. Basically, it was *SO* different from Age 2 and moved into a new era (Colonial, so guns are prominent in combat), but the mechanics and tactics are way superior (especially since each Civ plays much different from each other), and the Home City component always for a huge range of strategic niches and specificity to be carried out. It's a bit more unbalanced though, and early game rushes became a huge focus point of the game, since units can be produced in batches of 5.

So basically, different, but I ended up liking it better. Even Age 2: DE just feels so dated now. I kinda wish Age 4 just re-did the Age 1 civs, with updated gameplay and mechanics, instead of being a kinda re-imagined Age 2. I'm getting into it more, despite it being an unbalanced mess and feels like a step back from Age 3 in some ways.

Oh,. and the Age 3 scenario is vastly inferior to the historical Age 2 scenarios.

Try Age of Empires II. It requires less micro on average, is still getting a TON of updates (and has a decent amount of variety + Random maps), and it has an easy difficulty that's basically 'you can't possibly lose unless you do something stupid like send all your villagers at the enemy' so you can easily find a difficulty right for you (do NOT set it to the hardest difficulty unless you wanna lose or have a lot of skill).

Plus it's got a decent tutorial in the Art of War that's actually about gameplay and how to do good in matches instead of just 'in order to attack, click on the enemy'.

RTS games can vary greatly unlike more mainstream genres, Company Of Heroes plays much differently than Starcraft or Age of Empires. Find games that require less micro managing.

Also stop playing older RTS games, they were good 20 years ago but all of them aged like milk if they were pre-2005.

Just play with cheats, bruv.

Company of Heroes is by far my favorite RTS

Starcraft 1 might have the most micro-management of any RTS. There is a reason why the best Starcraft 1 players are almost all Koreans that have insanely high APM.

You could know everything about Starcraft 1 and have the most optimal builds, and if you don't have the APM to back it up you are still at best mediocre. Now that would be enough to beat the computer since that doesn't require as insane an APM.

I decided to get Starcraft Remastered, since what the hell it's on sale anyway. May give it a chance after Age of Empires,
I remember now Company of Heroes 2 was free on Steam awhile ago so I have it in my library.
The same development team created Warhammer RTS huh...would you guys recommend those games as well?

The Franks are a solid starting civ and they will remain solid throughout the majority of skill levels. I highly recommend practicing with them.

Update:
I've decided to give Starcraft another chance after 3-ish years, so I'm putting AoE on hold until I FINALLY finish this thing.
I forgot how awesome the story was because my memory was polluted with the difficult gameplay. I think I'll re-read the lore in the instruction manual, then watch the story to the first game on Youtube, then start Brood War. I think I actually did beat the first game awhile ago, then started Brood War.

@Dikitain did you give up on Brood War because lack of time, too much difficulty or both?

I read a guide that said a good way to beat the AI in Starcraft is to build tons of static defense cannons and then when AI enters your base they'll get slaughtered, then leave your computer for awhile eventually they'll run out of resources and you can destroy their bases, but that it's important to never use this tactic in multiplayer.
I should try this

The SC1 campaign was so easy I made a mod to make all the missions harder.

It's a shame I can't play multiplayer anymore since it's not really compatible with modern wireless connections unlike SC2.

Ferarri619 posted...

Update:
I've decided to give Starcraft another chance after 3-ish years, so I'm putting AoE on hold until I FINALLY finish this thing.
I forgot how awesome the story was because my memory was polluted with the difficult gameplay. I think I'll re-read the lore in the instruction manual, then watch the story to the first game on Youtube, then start Brood War. I think I actually did beat the first game awhile ago, then started Brood War.

@Dikitain did you give up on Brood War because lack of time, too much difficulty or both?

Little bit of both, I actually got pretty far in the Brood War campaign without cheating (last mission of the Terran campaign) but I just couldn't wrap my head around it and decided to just cheat. Once I started playing the Zerg campaign with cheats, I was glad I did. The last mission is just brutal, and even some of the middle ones are insane. Didn't help that Zerg are my least favorite race in Starcraft.

They should do a "Galaxy of Starcraft" MMO

Ferarri619 posted...

I never finished Starcraft 1 or Brood War. Just thinking about it is giving me these awful flashbacks of staying up all night to build an army just to have it completely crushed by the AI, also reaching a point of no return so having to restart the whole level because enemy AI is also building with you, completely losing HOURS of progress.
I don't think I ever started Brood War or Starcraft 2 even though I own both of them. Maaaybe I'll give the franchise another chance someday?

I am going through Age of Empires Definitive Edition tutorial right now but honestly scared of what's to come. Playing on standard difficulty. Also this would be the second RTS I've ever tried besides Starcraft.

try Command & Conquer remastered, there is no supply cap soo maybe that might make things easier and only one resource to worry about( technically two if you count building power plants but that's not really a resource you mine)

Metalsonic66 posted...

They should do a "Galaxy of Starcraft" MMO

I still want Starcraft Ghost.