Online Strategy Games

Online strategy games are a type of video and computer game genre where skills surrounding thinking and planning are in the centre to achieve victory. The games include strategy, tactical and sometimes logical challenges, some games also have exploration and economical challenges. These games sometimes include physical challenges, but some strategically minded players can get irritated in such challenges. Online strategy games are usually categorized into four sub-types, depending on whether the game focuses on strategy or tactics, and whether the game is turn-based or real-time.

Description

Online strategy games are a type of video and computer game genre where skills surrounding planning and thinking are in the centre to accomplish victory. The importance to plan a series of actions against one or more opponents take a big part, and the fall of the opponents’ are usually a goal of the game. Victory is achieved in the course of greater planning, and the part of chance in the games takes a minor role. In almost every strategy games, the players are given an overview of the game world, and they control game units under their command. Most strategy games include elements of warfare to changeable levels and feature a mixture of tactical and strategic considerations. Also these games often challenge the players’ skills to explore, or control an economy.

Association to other genres

Many action games that involve strategic thinking are not often classified as strategy games. A strategy game is bigger in range and their main importance is on the player's capability to out-think their enemy. Strategy games hardly ever involve a physical challenge, and when they do it have a tendency to annoy strategically-minded players. Compared genres like adventure and action games where one player fights against many enemies, strategy games usually involve a level of balance between sides. Each side usually has contact to similar resources and actions, with the strengths and weaknesses of each side being generally fair.

Even if online strategy games involve tactical, strategic and at times logistical challenges, they are different from puzzle games. A strategy game has the weight surrounding planning conflict between players, while puzzle games has a planning in isolation. Online strategy games are also different from management and construction simulations, which contain economic challenges without any warfare. These games might add in some sum of disagreement, but they are diverse from strategy games since they do not highlight the need for direct action upon an enemy. Even though online strategy games are comparable to role-playing games in the way that the player must handle units with a variety of numeric attributes, RPGs be likely to have a smaller number of unique characters, while strategy games center on larger numbers of rather similar units.

Strategy game design

Units and conflict

In an online strategy game conflict takes place between groups or singular fighters, called units. Form each game the units types differ, but each type of unit has a unique amount of strengths and weakness, also vary in their movement and speed. Units might as well have special levels of attack power or range. Although units are normally used for warfare, they might also be used for other functions such as transport. Units that do not move are still counts as units. When a unit gets destroyed, the player loses the profit of that unit. The majority of online strategy games allow players to create new units in factories or buildings.

The player control its units by a commands, normally it´s done by control it with a computer mouse. The keyboard becomes important for advanced players to make shortcuts. Units can usually move, stop, attack and wait in a position, but some strategy games present more multipart orders. Units may even have focused skills, such as the ability to increase movement speed. The units that not have the skills to enter a combat normally have the ability to construct or repair buildings and units

Resources and upgrades

Online Strategy games often involve added financial challenges; these may be needed to create buildings and units. Strategy games often make use of a special interface to control these challenges. Nearly every strategy game allows the players to use its resources to upgrade buildings or create units. The amount and types of resources differ from game to game; some games have income sources over the map and in villages. Normally an online strategy games give players a fixed amount of units at the start of the game to be able to search and earn income. Strategy games often allow the player to use resources for upgrades or research, these upgrades increase the player's entire economy. Some upgrades may also unlock or improve combat skills for a unit. Strategy games that have the ability to a larger upgrade scale often include a series of improvements that players can research to unlock new buildings, units, and other abilities.

Map and exploration

The first online strategy games had a top-down viewpoint, but later games approved to an isometric view. Even when the 3D graphics came and the possibilities to manipulate the camera the strategy games did not change the overview to a perspective from an avatar on the ground. This is provided to get a better and more effective view of the game world. The key element of a strategy game is the exploration and the landscapes are often covered in darkness, also called black fog. The black fog hide parts of the world, but when a unit enters an area with black fog the darkness is lifted. The landscapes are often divided in different types of terrain, such as mountains, water and islands. Even if a unit has explored an area it may get back to black fog if the player does not patrol it. This makes it possible for enemies to attack without warning from unexplored areas.

Turn-based and Real-time

Online strategy games are categorized into two sorts, real-time strategy and turn-based strategy. Turn-based strategy games are built to finish a game round quick, and therefore the intelligence thinking is more complex in a real-time strategy game. The popularity of real-time strategy games has made the players to prefer action-based games. Players that play real-time strategy have complained about the waiting time for actions to be made and to make quick decisions, compared with turn-based games.

Strategy versus tactics

The majority of online strategy games are a mix of both tactics and strategy. Tactics usually refer to troops that are utilized in a certain battle, and strategy describes the mix of troops, the location of the battle, and the commander's bigger goals. But, there is also a growing subgenre of only tactical games, which are referred to as turn-based tactics, and real-time tactics. However releases that are measured pure tactical games typically provide players with a fixed set of units, and downplay other strategic considerations such as manufacturing, and resource management. Tactical games are strictly about battle, and normally focus on individual battles, or other small sections in a larger conflict.

Themes and settings

Online strategy games have many numbers of settings. Depending on the theatre of warfare, releases may be noted as naval strategy games, or space strategy games. A title may be noted for its grand strategic scale, whether the game is real-time, or turn-based. Some strategy games are even based in an alternate history, by influences and rewriting firm historical facts. It is also ordinary to see games based in science fiction or futuristic settings, as well as fantasy settings.

Single player, multiplayer and massively multiplayer

Online strategy games can be played as single-player, multiplayer or both. Single player games are based on a campaign mode, which have a series of matches against several artificial intelligence enemies. After each game round or mission the game will advance the game's difficult level, and some games will reward a completed mission with new upgrades or abilities. More advanced strategy gamers normally prefer to play multiplayer competition, where human opponents give more challenging competitions than the artificial intelligence.

Interface of the online strategy game Aloriah. From here the player control and manages the game, all the villages the player has are listed to the left and its armies underneath. In the middle the player control its armies over the world map. The strategy game is built to manage thousands of players in the same game round.