Face Off: FPS vs. RTS

Control Issues

Thresh's comments in BLACK

Kenn's comments in BLUE

Thresh
I for one am a little hesitant to believe the direction you're trying to take this. I'm sure tomorrow's RTS games will bring the genre to a new watermark in terms of visual quality and complexity, but I don't think the time is yet upon us when they can begin to push the forefront of technology, or make much of an impact on it.

Sampling and Control

Thresh
Another key hardware issue is precision. Take mouse sensitivity for instance. When USB, and then PS2rate hit the fps community, the issue of sampling rate suddenly jumped to the tech forefront. Precision of movement is so important in FPS games that the sudden discovery of higher sampling rate caused an overnight sensation, especially for aim-intensive games like Quake II.

Kenn
Yeah, sampling rate is a big deal in FPS, especially since the mouse moves your entire screen around. It's important for RTS as well - you can tell just by moving the cursor around in the Windows UI or Photoshop, or basically any application that requires precise cursor control. While you may have to aim for that exact pixel in Quake II, in RTS games you're constantly thrust into situations where you have to make multiple high-precision clicks to keep your army alive.

I realize this is really getting into the whole micromanagement vs. macromanagement issue, but the point is that precision in unit control is vitally important to RTS play. The very fact that you have so many more things to control in real-time makes having the increased sensory feedback a huge aid. In fact, one of the big selling points of Logitech's new Gaming mouse is "Increased report rate," which is essentially a new term for "sample rate," and this thing is being endorsed by Gadianton, the PGL RTS champion.

Thresh
Well, PS2rate certainly isn't quite as prevalent in the RTS community. I'm not sure whether or not it's because word is slow to spread or what, but the possibility exists that the impact is smaller. After all, in RTS games you're moving a cursor most of the time, while screen scrolling generally remains a constant speed. A slight flick in a FPS however, moves the entire screen, certainly a more pronounced (and disorienting) effect - if it's not smooth, you're not just dealing with a half-inch high cursor; your entire screen chunks up.