Episode 443: The Best RTS Comp Stomps

[Rob Zacny]

Three Moves Ahead 443:

The Best RTS Comp Stomps
The future will not be pretty. Advances in AI and robotic mobility makes it clear that we are only years, if not months away from Skynet becoming self-aware. When it does, it will look back on what humans have wrought and it will rain fire upon us. Consider: the videos of Boston Dynamics mercilessly kicking robot dogs. Consider: the subjugation of the wild Roomba. Consider: the term "comp stomp", in which a team of human players collaborate to battle, mock, and ultimately defeat a computer opponent. Join Rob, Sean Sands, Bruno Dias, and Troy "I always say 'glhf' to the AI" Goodfellow as they examine the real time strategy games that make beating up robots fun.

Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Rise of Nations, Starcraft II, They Are Billions, Sins of a Solar Empire, Age of Empires 2, Wargame: Red Dragon, Total Annihilation, Steel Division, Korsun Pocket

 

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[Ebenezer]

I'm surprised AI War never appeared in this episode, even for criticism, considering it was designed as a game to be played with friends against the computer.

[cornchip]

I enjoyed ruining 7v1 Starcraft comp stomps on battle.net. The procedure: share vision but don’t ally. Help kill the AI enough to look like one of the helpers when the game doesn’t end. Get a few innocent players killed off by the mob while building forces (but not enough to look guilty.) Convince a couple others to quit in favor of functional teammates. With any luck, become one of the remaining three, kill the most suspicious one and de-vision to outplay the hapless final victim. 

 

I think there’s enough action and subterfuge and RTS gambiting there to make some kind of popular .io minigame out of it.

[ilitarist]

On 8/24/2018 at 8:57 PM, Ebenezer said:

I'm surprised AI War never appeared in this episode, even for criticism, considering it was designed as a game to be played with friends against the computer.

 

Or the great Infested Planet, which is sorta PvE RTS. They can't play all the games!

[Jimbogun]

Love the podcast. Felt like you missed the best RTS comp stomp though in Company of Heroes. Group up to take down comps with  unfair resource advantages. Create kill zones and choke points by blowing up bridges and setting up mg nests. Build a tank assault force, artillery barrage, or paratroop behind enemy lines to finish them off. Not to mention ranks for  playing and winning made you care about your win loss record and one missed choke point, one missed link in a fence ment a loss. That was a fun game. And you didn’t have to worry about the economy micro. You just capture points and upgrade it with an outpost.

[SamS]

On 25/08/2018 at 3:57 AM, Ebenezer said:

I'm surprised AI War never appeared in this episode, even for criticism, considering it was designed as a game to be played with friends against the computer.

 

Ha, I came here to post this - the podcast got sooo close when Bruno asked about games where the AI follows different rules to the player, but then it veered away again.

 

Warlords Battlecry 2 is another game that was streets ahead of its contemporaries in relation to skirmishes and compstomps. You could actually take your hero out of the 'Total War' style campaign and go play a bunch of skirmishes with him to level up, and he would keep that experience when you took him back to the campaign game. Like AOE though, there were so many factions it was impossible to ever master.

[Roderick]

I will not let this opportunity go to mention that Sins of a Solar Empire is the best name for any piece of media, ever, bar none, case closed.