A lot of RTSes that were older controlled better than SF1.
Sure, but how many of those did what SF1 did, basically being multiple games or genres in one? None.
That doesn't make it better, but I can easily see how a not too experienced team back then wouldn't have been able to pull off both aspects as well as we would've liked
The game you seem to be describing is more along the lines of Grand Strategy or 4X games, where tactics don't matter at all, it's all about strategy.
No, the game I am describing is an RTS that places more importance on the strategic decisions than on APM / microing.
As I said, Kohan (
this video shows it fairly well ) is probably the best example for this. You are still fairly busy, but not with annoying shit that should be automatic like ability targeting.
It's quite obscure and never really had a big campaign behind it, so I'm not surprised it isn't as well known.
Another one would be Warlords Battlecry (WBC) where there are a shitload of unit stances (also telling if abilities are to be used automatically) and you could set them in the production facility instead of having to it via unit selection. E.g. you could set a facility to produce "rampant" units, which would lead to every unit coming out of the facility starting to roam the map randomly, attacking whatever enemy it sees. The downside of this is that if unit AI is bad, this doesn't work too well - and it is fairly bad in WBC.
Or another one, SunAge - at least before the developer caved in to a vocal minority of ADHS kiddos, there was a beautiful indirect targeting control where you could set preferred targets for groups of units. Those units would then shoot as they wanted, but if the preferred target was in sight & range, they'd focus on that. Way less need for micro, same result.
Or the very recent Tooth & Tail where you have no control except for placing buildings and telling your army where to go. You ARE the cursor, in a way.
However, all of those games managed to screw up their concept in other ways, so that the whole experience never was as good as it could've been. Bugs, bad AI, weird design decisions, etc. The usual.
I'm definitely not describing a Grand Strategy or 4X here, but what I describe hasn't really been done yet. At least not well.
BUT, maybe, Spellforce 3 is a step in that direction, don't know (yet).
. Sooo guys just wait a week before you get the game,it is worth it once it gets patched.The worst thing is that most bugs are just some basic triggers,devs should really begin testing their games. Why the fuck would you mess up your starting reputation when you can just fix this basic thing in a few days,it is baffling?!
