So as stated in my previous post, I had an epiphany on the comparison of Starcraft-style micro/macro management mechanics and how they relate to FrontierVille's system.
Aside from my reason for picking up FrontierVille recently (lets just say research :P), I can note several particular instances in which these two core mechanics in Starcraft fit quite snugly into FrontierVille's mechanics.
Lets start off by reviewing the Micro and Macro management mechanics of Starcraft II.
The two core mechanics of Starcraft 2 as defined in the parameters of this game:
- Micro-management refers to the individual control of units or buildings in the game.
- Macro-management refers to the overall control of resources, building construction and timing of production.
Some rudimentary knowledge of Starcraft 2 will be required:
- "Minerals and Gas" are the primary resources of the game.
- "Supply" is the amount of units any player is currently able to support. Maxes at 200.
- Workers (SCVs in this case) gather said minerals.
Starcraft II Micro/Macro mechanics (Using Terran)
Examples of micro-management mechanics:
- Stim Pack
- +50% increase to movement and attack speed.
- Siege Mode
- Secondary mode that increases range by +6 (total of 13, min of 2), decreases firing cooldown to 3 seconds, and increases damage to 35 and +15 to Armored.
- Smooth Mouse control
- Exemplified in slicing groups of units and splitting.
- Mass unit balls contribute heavily into the above.
- Viking Transformation - Allows transition from Anti-Air only to Ground only fighting unit
- The downside, Ground mode is comparatively weaker then other ground units.
- However, perfect for harassment with micro.
- SCV Repair
- Allows SCVs (Worker unit) to repair buildings and mechanical units.
- Auto-Mine mechanic
- SCVs (or workers) can be set to automatically rally on mineral/gas to auto-mine/gather resources.
- Different from SC1 in which players had to manually order selected workers after production to mine.
- Calldown: Mule
- Cost 50 Energy
- Lasts 90 Seconds
- Mines 270 minerals during it's duration.
- Mines 2x as fast as SCV: Mules drop off 30 minerals compared to the 15 minerals of SCVs in comparison.
- Calldown: Extra Supplies
- Calls down an "add-on" to supply depots that adds and extra +8 to Food supply.
- Supply Depot construction
- Allows +8 supply each building for unit production.
- MBS (Multiple Building Selection) - allows binding and control of multiple buildings.
- Can produce out of multiple buildings simultaneous, or grouping them in one control group.
- Reactor vs Tech Lab
- Reactor upgrade on buildings allow creation of two units instead of one, however, at the expense of higher tier units.
- Ex 1: Barracks w/ Reactor can only produce Marines, but can produce two at a time.
- Ex 2: Barracks w/ Tech Lab can produce Marines & Marauders, but only one at a time.
Now that I've listed several detailed examples of how micro and macro-management is evidenced in Starcraft II, I'll list the ones in FrontierVille that I've noticed.
FrontierVille Micro/Macro mechanic
Examples of micro-management mechanics:
- Bonus Meter clicks
- Filling up bonus meter by clicking dropped "loot" in the form of:
- Coin (Money to buy objects from market)
- XP Stars (Levels up your character)
- Special Items (Used to build items, or gift others)
- Wood (Used to construct buildings)
- Energy Bolts (Adds + amt to Energy Bar)
- Food (Used to buy extra Energy)
- Bonus meter stays active for roughly 5-8 seconds before disappearing.
- Each click on an item updates the bonus meter and fills it.
- Mouse Clicks
- Clobbering Snakes
- Takes 2-3 action points to take down.
- Scaring Bears
- Can take up to 6-8 action points to scary off.
- Relates to micro-management when combing with above Bonus Meter.
- Energy bar is an essential but limited resource for performing actions.
- Very similar to "Mana" in RPGs
- Energy or Action Points are required to perform all essential game-play actions.
- Energy bar increases per level, but has a finite amount.
- Can be artificially replenished via: Food, Coin or Horseshoes
- Resource Collection
- Collection of these resources via Energy/Action points.
- Coin
- Food
- Wood
- Items
- Horseshoes (One of the hardest resources to gather, most valuable)
- Can only be obtained via "Quests" or real money.
- Building Construction & Quests
- Construction of buildings and finishing quests expand on gameplay options.
At first glance, it's easy to see how Starcraft II was built for these mechanics, while FrontierVille is significantly smaller in terms of scope.
However, in comparing the two features, a lot of similarities begin to pop out.
Resources: FrontierVille vs Starcraft II
Starcraft II keeps it simple as an RTS by allowing players to have only minerals and gas. But FrontierVille compensates by it's lack of competitive gameplay by providing substantially more resources to manage.
However, the end result is the same:
While normal players can keep up with both games in management, FrontierVille allows more experienced or "hardcore" players to take advantage of the different timings and mechanics to get ahead.
Because every action is determined by Energy (Action Points), what a player can do is limited. Just like Starcraft in which building/advancement is limited by mineral/gas, players in FrontierVille have to make efficient use of their limited Energy Bar.
"Leveling-up" does refill the Energy Bar, so taking the time to know what tasks give the most experience, and timing out a level-up just as you finish your "last Energy point" can really give players substantially longer gameplay. Or as some people might say, "More Bang for the Buck".
What really caught my eye was the addition of the Bonus Meter in FrontierVille. In Starcraft II, higher-skilled players are rewarded for their ability to both "time" their attacks and also micro their armies with the mouse, in the form of destroying their opponent. A similar mechanic evolved from the timing used in filling up the Bonus Meter by clicking on loot, while timing out each click so as to not allow the Bonus Meter to fade away.
- The reward of the Bonus Meter is more quantities of Coin, that can be used to buy things on the market. So the incentive for higher Bonus Meter combos is high.
- Higher bonus meter combos also sometimes produce "Achievements" that add both XP and Horseshoes. Horseshoes being one of the harder resources to gather in the game.
For Example:
After cutting down a tree, a Bear appears in front of the players. The player now has the option to Scare the Bear away using Action Points.
- Scaring the Bear away gives coin, xp, items, etc... until an ultimate "drop" at the end consisting of more coins and rarer items.
A more experience player would be able to:
- Click/Scare the Bear.
- As soon as the loot drops, he re-clicks the bear and only clicks ONE piece of loot.
- As he continues to do that, the Bonus Meter will fill up progressively, without ever having the chance to disappear, while the player is able to "scare off" the Bear.
- At the same time, he continues to click the all the loot that drops, while keeping one piece of loot around simply to reset the cool-down on the Bonus meter.
As the Bonus Meter progresses to it's respective levels: Excellent, Amazing, Outstanding, etc... It's important to continue leave some loot "lying around", because clearing grass, cutting trees, clobbering Snakes, etc... all take different lengths of time to accomplish.
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In this way, a lot of the micro and macro-management mechanics that evolved from resource/strategy games like Starcraft II have found their way onto "simple" games like FrontierVille on the Facebook. While FarmVille shows these kinds of mechanics to a far lesser degree, it's apparent that FrontierVille has built off FarmVille's success, and incorporated a lot of existent and evolving RTS mechanics that has surprisingly caught this "Hardcore RTS Fan" by surprise.
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