Quote Originally Posted by hellenes
First
If STRATEGY games desntegrade to the point of FPS reflex demands I cant really see any tactical thought needed.
Second
Build order memorising, shortcut memorising, I dont see you mentioning these things...Why? They are a VITAL tool in the road to victory in a basebuilding "RTS"...
Third
In a REAL battle you COMMAND NOT fight...that simple, are the "RTS" game adveture like LOTR ROTK? SW KOTOR? Are they FPS? If they are then I admit speed is a needed skill...
The tactical thought needed comes in the things I've mentioned in previous posts in this thread. It's not just "click fast and win" but rather it is "apply fast clicks wisely with strategic thought and win".

In regards to your shortcut complaint: I'm sure all the TW players have all the fastest ways to access and move their units memorised, so your "shortcuts" argument doesn't really make a lot of sense.

As previously mentioned I do agree that with most RTS basebuilding games, BO memorising is vital. That is an unfortunate thing that needs to be dealt with properly. It's one mar on that game type, yet one mar is not enough to dismiss the genre altogether.

I also don't mention it all that much because most my RTS experience comes from Westwood games; Westwood which implemented a brilliant anti-rushing rule wherein any player could quit within 3 minutes and not be penalized because the game did not actually exist as a "game" if that happened. This allowed for BO flexibility and tactical variety and made it so that memorizing the status quo BO and rushing with it did not allow for undeserved "victory". It's a shame that all Blizzard RTS games are BO-memorising rushfests, as is Dawn of War. Yet Westwood games were not like that thanks to that rule they had to circumvent this problem; so the genre can't uniformly be pinned down to suffering from that flaw.

You have not provided a logical reason as to why speed should not be a needed skill in an RTS game. It seems that you simply don't like fast clicking. But not liking it does not equate to it being a wrong thing to put into a game.

Part of commanding in RTS games is controlling your army with precision. This requires fast clicks, as it should - he who is able to control his army better and faster is fully deserving of the victory that is coming his way.