Cool Features That Should Already Be In An RTS Game

Drew A of VideoGameOlogists.com writes:

"Ever play an RTS and think that it’s too structured? Out of your 10 units to choose from, you pick the cheapest, more economical meat hammers to shove out of your barracks and down the throats of your enemies. In the case of Company of Heroes, this happens to be the Wehrmacht Pioneers equipped with Flamethrowers under the Defense Doctrine with support of 88mm Paks (for me, hard to beat super effective anti-infantry and super resistant anti-tank weapons). You work out a system and most of the time it works without working up much of a sweat. This is what I mean by structured. Little variation between units of the same faction between games. You pick your favorite and go with it. So let’s switch things up a bit."

[aliengmr]

I always thought it would be great if you customize a unit with certain abilities. Basically instead of a flamethrower unit, you add the ability to use a flamethrower and so on. More advanced units get more abilities. Of course this would make balancing a headache, especially for MP.

Spore got me thinking how nice it would be to actually design and build your own units.

These have been done in one form or another though. Back when game were designed for the audience that played them rather than everybody.