A way to play Real Time without stress

[Paper Tiger]

This is NOT a thread about Real Time being a better way to play the game than WEGO or vice versa. Neither is it about observing your turns or watching the action unfold because of course, WEGO is the only way for players to do that. It is simply intended to address an issue I see posted about very commonly regarding this playstyle. But first, a bit of a story...

When I first purchased Shock Force, I played my very first mission (the Training campaign) in WEGO, the same way I played CMBO and CMBB for years before. It was fine but I noticed that there were some icons on the interface that were only useable when the game was played in Real Time and that made me curious. I liked playing in WEGO and thought that RT would be too fiddly to be enjoyable. But I wanted to see what those icons did so I replayed the Training campaign in Real Time to see what it was like.

It WAS tough and I didn't feel like I was in control of the situation the way I was when I played the campaign in WEGO. But I enjoyed the challenge. Back in the early days, playing Real Time Elite meant that you couldn't PAUSE the game to issue orders after you started the mission so I broke my teeth on Real Time Elite with no pauses. After a couple of patches (v1.03 I think) When BFC allowed us 'Elite' (HA!) players to pause the game I started to use it occassionally but I was by now quite comfortable playing without it.

One enormous caveat to everything that follows is that RT is only really playable as I advise when the Blue player has about a Company with some support units thrown in or less at his disposal. Handling Battalions in RT IS a micromanagement nightmare:eek:. You'll get NO argument from me on that point and I'd play any mission like that in WEGO.

Now, I read posts here occassionally that suggest that people micromange their game more in RT than they do in WEGO and I can't help thinking that they have grown SO accusomed to the pauses in the action to reflect on the game and issue their orders that they can't do the same in RT. I have read people's comments saying that instead of having the game pause once a minute, they can pause and unpause the game every second if they wish and of course it's not much fun and more management.

But WHY do you need to pause the game so frequently? I rarely ever pause a game now when I play and I can play a 1 hour mission in less than 90 minutes easily (yes I DO pause occassionally). I enjoy the tension of issuing orders knowing that when I'm focussing on one part of the battle that I'm missing something somewhere else. I LIKE that tension and if I win playing like that, it makes me feel like it was earned baby!

Playing RT with very occassional pausing can be a very exciting way to play the game against an AI opponent. At some point in the near future, you'll get the opportunity to play a small mission I've designed which is intended to be played exactly in this way. (Actually, almost everything I've done since 'Hasrabit' has been on a scale manageable by me with my 'low pause' RT game.)

Unless you're very new to Shock Force, by now you should have become accustomed to the 'new' interface. The customisable hotkeys and Space Bar menu have improved the interface as well so it's quite possible to issue commands to a number of units quickly in RT without pausing.

[BlackMoria]

RT is the only way I currently play CMSF. I've gotten comfortable with games llike Armored Task Force and its siblings and Harpoon 3 which are only played RT, so it is my preference.

I like that I can pause when necessary and study the situation. I like that I can micromanage to my heart's content if I am so inclined. I like being forced to think on my feet if I chose to not hit the pause. And big scenarios don't bother me, probably due to playing games like Armored Task Force and Harpoon 3.

So I am an advocate for RT. I realize it isn't for everyone though.

[theFightingSeabee]

Just have your finger on the Esc button all the time. I've whined and moaned about making "the GIANT RED button" the pause button, as it serves no other purpose other than to start a scenario.

[Thomm]

The RT versus TB debate stems primarily from multiplayer gamers, IMHO. I played a couple of smallish RT online games a few months ago and suddenly understood the outcries of pain from the multiplayer guys. Even Al Huqf was difficult to manage for me, even though I play RT exclusively. Add to this that the TacAI and PBEM playback had issues in the beginning (that are largely ironed out now, I think) and it is easier to understand some of the frustration.

Best regards,

Thomm

[zwobot]

Yesterday I started the Crossroads trilogy mini campaign in real time. I only paused the game when reinforcements arrived or when I wanted to give many orders simultaneously (e.g. when a large enemy force was moving through my troops FOV and I wanted to engage them). It was a lot of fun and almost like a completely different game.

The result of the first mission was a major vicotry for me with 3 KIA and 24 WIA. In my last attempt in this mission which I played in WEGO I already had this amount of casualties midway through the scenario. I saw me moving my squads up carefully and slowly, one action spot at a time until my virtual soldiers received incoming in which case I let them hit the deck, pop smoke, return fire or whatever. Doing this is not possible in WEGO of course and it highly reduced my casualties (which are still a bit high maybe, but I'm not a very good player anyway ;-P).

I used cover arcs more than I normally do in WEGO and I had the impression that the AI is quite reluctant to engage (faint) targets inside their cover arc, especially if only a part of the squad has LOS to it (target line is grey instead of blue).

What I most like about RT, and what Paper Tiger already said, is that you can play "faster" with RT. I was able to play the aforementioned 90 Minutes scenario in about 2 hours or so while I played on the same scenario for several days in WEGO and still had not finished it.

Well, thanks for starting this thread Paper Tiger. I've never really tried RT before. Not because I'm a militant WEGO player who is afraid of change - I simply didn't do it.

[theFightingSeabee]

I do like RT for that reason. It goes as my pace. If I need to pause and take my time giving orders, then that's fine. But if I just want to move quickly, it's nice to be able to keep moving. The ability to pause is also quite nice for quick reactions. Sometimes mere seconds can cost the lives a lot of troops. I started playing with WEGO back in 2007, but quickly changed over. Now I pretty much only used RT. I do miss a lot of great moments, though. The ability to record RT would be cool.

[George MC]

I do miss a lot of great moments, though. The ability to record RT would be cool.

You can have FRAPS running in the background. It'll record video clips of the action so you can watch your play again. Unfortuntaely you can't change the view you see from what you saw when playing RT - if that makes sense

[zwobot]

George, that doesn't make much sense indeed

With FRAPS you can recored how you missed what you missed, so you can watch again and again how you missed but you can't watch what you missed

[LukeFF]

Unless you're very new to Shock Force, by now you should have become accustomed to the 'new' interface. The customisable hotkeys and Space Bar menu have improved the interface as well so it's quite possible to issue commands to a number of units quickly in RT without pausing.

Nice, I didn't even know about the Space Bar feature! Was that something added in a patch? I just tested it out and found it to be a very convenient feature.

[George MC]

George, that doesn't make much sense indeed

With FRAPS you can recored how you missed what you missed, so you can watch again and again how you missed but you can't watch what you missed

Doh You want to watch the whole mission being played out eh?

[MikeyD]

Want to know my biggest problem? It has nothing to do with the game itself - my mouse is a piece of crap! I had a very decent mouse that recently gave up the ghost. I went out and bough a cheap replacement and its been torture ever since! So a word to those of you who find RT difficult to play, consider your hardware - the game may be more playable than your mouse and keyboard are allowing.