Rush, Boom, Turtle: How to Make an RTS

3/18/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 3 of 3

There you go. Now you've made an RTS! I look forward to playing it when it comes out, and you can expect an angry post from me -- on your official forums, no less! -- if any of these features are missing.

UNIT OF THE WEEK

Every installment of Rush, Boom, Turtle will include a Unit of the Week, even though the column is biweekly. During the off-week, you'll just have to pick your own unit. I'm sorry if that leaves you in the lurch.

The Unit of the Week this week is the Advent Illuminator, from Sins of a Solar Empire. It sits in the spot for each faction's long-range missile frigates, so you'd think it would be JAMF (just another missile frigate). But, no! This sexy little number, which looks like a cross between the Millennium Falcon and a hot rod, is unique. It's a long-range missile frigate that can't be bothered with simple missiles. Instead, it fires a long-range beam from a radar dish -- and not just one, but three! If you correctly position an Illuminator, it'll attack three targets at a time, whereas the TEC and Vasari missile frigates can only attack a single target at a time. This makes the Illuminator a great ship against big fleets. And with enough Temples of Hostility, the Illuminators learn that age-old RTS trick of making phantom copies of themselves.

So congratulations to the sexy, psionically gifted chicks of the Advent, whose Illuminator wins the very first Rush, Boom, Turtle award for Unit of the Week. Your trophy is in the mail -- but since you're precognitive, you already knew that!