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| Timings |
Fri, 07 August 2009 17:42  |
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Hey all,
Since getting back into Stars!, I've also been playing/watching a lot of RTS games. One particular concept that I've seen in these games that I haven't seen discussed in a Stars! context is "timing". I want to see what you guys think...
This is easier to conceptualize in the context of a 1v1 duel. It also applies in bigger games, but it's far more complex, so I'll stick to describing what happens in a duel.
Consider a mirror matchup between two HG races that are played differently. They play exactly the same until the 2440s, where both have jihad cruiser tech. At this point, race A decides to build warships while race B decides to tech up to Juggernauts (taking about 5 years to do so).
Race A takes a brief advantage by building up 4 years of warships and using this advantage to strike in year 5, just as race B gets Jugg tech (but can't make use of it yet).
For the next 3-4 years or so, race A will dominate the battlefield, after which race B's superior tech will start turning the tables. The goal of a timing attack is to take advantage of this window of opportunity to do enough damage to gain an edge and mitigate this tech difference. If race A waits too much longer, it will lose any edge it gained in trying to build warships earlier. If it attacks too early, it may not have enough critical mass in warships to do damage (the power of any fleet scales as the square of the number of ships).
We can extend the analysis to asymmetrical race matchups. For example, a WM has 3 windows of superiority - very early (due to +0.5 battlespeed and early weapons tech), mid-game when WM has BCs but everybody else is stuck at CCs, and mid-late when WM has DNs but nobody else has Nubians yet. Thus a WM will fare well against an SS race during mid-game, when the 75% cloak advantage loses its usefulness, but before the SS has had time to research to ultra-cloaks.
We don't have to only consider PRTs in this - economic design matters as well. An -f race will have an advantage right around early-mid game when the factory races are attempting to ramp their economies. Likewise, HG have an advantage later-mid when their factories have already ramped up.
So, how does this all factor into our games? To make full use of timing, you have to consider both race design and playstyle. Design your race so that your economic-based timing and PRT based timing amplifies your advantages and mitigates your weaknesses. You must then play to these advantages.
On that note, we can break down timing into two categories:
1) Offensive timing: attacking when the enemy is weakest.
2) Defensive timing: building defense at the right times.
In a Stars! context, make use of offensive timing to remove an opponent's advantage. A perfect example would be the teching vs attacking situation described above - using a 3-4 year warship advantage to do damage and mitigate a tech advantage.
Make use of defensive timing to reduce your weakness. Consider again the teching vs attacking situation. Knowing that it will be weak just as it achieves juggernaut tech, Race B can build defenses (starbases for example), in 2445, just in time to slow race A's offensive. If race A doesn't attack, so much the better, it will lose its warship advantage anyways.
In the bigger scheme of things, you can use a PRT's defensive strength to cover a period of economic weakness. You could design an SD HP race and use the SD minefield advantage to grab space and hold it during HP's early and mid-game weak periods in order to buy enough time to get a dominant economic lead.
That concludes my discussion of timing. Let me know what you think.
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