Essentially you ‘code’ the behaviour of each bot type in a meta game/editor (each tech level adds/restricts functionality), then the RTS game is the player managing the economy and choosing build order of units, but having no direct control of the built units, they just work according to their behaviours.

A bit complex for those who don’t code, but it would be great fun.
Now if only I had time/talent.

I do worry a bit about the spherical map – I spend about half my time in SupCom obsessively checking the full-map view to make sure I’m seeing everything, so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of overview you can get in this.

I guess I was restricting myself to released games, because I was trying to think if any had ‘proved’ it as a concept.

Martin: thanks!

Also; you should get a beard, with all that chin stroking going on. :)

@Laurens Mathot: Economically I fully agree that labor is king, there’s room at the top, you can polish a turd etc. Artistically, though – often when a great weird game comes out you’ll hear a chorus of ‘Oh, this is the game I always dreamed of making!’ It’s the highest compliment, and most of us can say that with delight. However, if you literally had planned to sit down and create it in two years, now you have to consciously avoid or follow someone else’s established conventions. I can imagine that would be unpleasant, so I sympathise with a creator who chooses not to shout their plans from the rooftops.

The turn-based clash-of-economies Moonbase Commander got a community tool for generating infinimaps and it was pretty fun to be exploring during clashes. Higher-level design can absorb some generator shonkiness and vice versa, but of course that landscape is very specific to a particular game.

I was surprised to hear you speculating about whether any RTS had generated maps given that the one I do know for sure is Planetary Annihilation…which is also a macro-oriented, robotic RTS with a strategy layer above the maps.

In any case, yeah. A roguelikelike-or-whatever, pausable-or-whatever robot bashing bash? That’s something I’d trust in your hands.

I would like to mention: “Why Your Game Idea Sucks” by Erin Hoffman

Also, the Age of Empires series has randomly generated maps, including different styles you could choose from (eg. one big island, one island for each player, all forest except for bases and a few paths between them, etc.).

Also, I’m very excited about the ‘soon’ release date for Gunpoint.