In the field of PC stand-alone games, strategy games have always been an important game type, from traditional turn-based SLGs such as "Civilization", " Romance of the Three Kingdoms ", and "Heroes Invincible", to the once popular RTS games, to the " Total War " series that combines turn-based strategies and real-time strategies, and the "P Society Four Cutes" that are highly rated in the circle. Under this game category, there are a large number of branches, and the corresponding player group is extremely wide.
Because of the deep accumulation and huge audience of strategy games, since entering the era of online games, manufacturers have been hoping to copy the success of strategy games on online games. For example, Microsoft's "Era of Empire Online" and later "Civilization Online", but either failed to verify or has been difficult to produce. These products cannot solve many inherent problems of strategy games in the online game environment. In addition, they have the "idol burden" of the stand-alone IP itself, adapting online games is even more difficult.
"Era of Empire Online"
On the contrary, it was lightweight in the field of web games at the same time, focusing on mass netizens who were not covered by stand-alone players, thus giving birth to a simpler rule, but also a different strategic model, and continuing this traditional art into the mobile game era. Unlike stand-alone strategy games that defeat enemies through exquisite calculations, strategy games in mobile games/web games often greatly simplify the local strategy of individual players, and put the main challenge on the social and struggle between people, tribes and tribes, and alliances. If you don’t understand this, it will be difficult to understand what this type of player is "playing".
Nowadays, friends who know some knowledge of the domestic game industry may know that among the products sent overseas by Chinese game manufacturers, SLG has become an advantageous project for Chinese games. Taking a list of overseas revenue of Chinese mobile games in May this year, 5 of the top 10 are SLG, and the 11th place is also SLG. This proportion is already very exaggerated.
Interestingly, the performance of domestic SLGs at home and abroad sometimes shows a clear state. The most popular in China are Rutu and the Three Kingdoms, while the most popular overseas are "Awakening of All Nations" (long-term ranking second, second only to PUBG Mobile) and "The Underworld" (it is very popular in Japan and Russia). The themes are completely inseparable and the degree of overlap is extremely low. The reason why
is not only cultural differences, but also because of the version number. As the name suggests, this kind of subject obviously cannot get a version number in China, while "Awakening of Nations" is relatively lucky. It was launched overseas in 2018 and just got the version number in China a while ago. Recently, it was reported that it will be launched on the national server on September 23, which also makes people wonder whether this product can bring foreign achievements back to China by then.
Generally speaking, strategy games, which seem to be very slow and hot, are somewhat unfamiliar with the current achievements on mobile platforms, but this is also a reasonable result of seeking differentiated development under the changes of the times and platforms. If we want to explore how the current strategy mobile game model was born step by step, then we have to go back to the era when web games were just emerging in 2002...
Prologue of the era of web games
In 2002, the first strategy game OGame was released. It builds a space world based on simple graphics and immerses many players in it. In the game, players can collect resources, build and upgrade buildings, study technology and build fleets to fight against other players, and players can also join the alliance. has built a basic system for strategy web games.
007 Ogame opened a Chinese server and became well-known to some domestic players. The picture shows the traditional Chinese version interface
OGame, German company Inno Games launched a game called "Tribal Wars" in 2003, gaining greater popularity with a more graphical interface and medieval settings. One year after the launch of "Tribal Wars", "Travian", released by a German college student, separate resources from the former system and introduced three different ethnic groups, thus laying the foundation for this model.
In "Tribal Wars", each player starts to control a medieval village, obtain more resources, build various necessary buildings, and train troops through upgrades, and different players can also trade through the market. The game map is composed of a fixed range of chessboard grids, and coordinates are assigned to the center as the quadrant. Each player's village can be positioned through coordinates. Players can plunder and occupy other players' villages, and they can also form tribes to attack and defend together.
"Tribal Wars" classic village interface, the original version was a little more simpler
"Tribal Wars" map composed of grids was used for later strategy games. It borrowed from "Tribal Wars" part of the system of "Tribal Wars" and stripped the fields outside the village from the village buildings, imitating the classic board game "Catan Island" into a separate system, thus laying the foundation system of the strategy game in the web game era:
At the construction level, players develop and grow by improving the level of the main city's buildings and resources; and at the strategic level, it is a war between players and players, alliances and alliances.
"Travian" resource plot design
"Travian" also added three nations with unique characteristics in resource use, military capabilities and defense values at the beginning, as well as oasis, heroes, equipment and other systems for plundering resources and occupying. The interface is also more beautiful and friendly, and is very popular in Europe and other places. Around 2007, the Chinese version of "Travian" was introduced into China, attracting a considerable number of gamers and bringing a new direction to the domestic game development team.
In 2008, Hangzhou Legang launched " Hot Blood Three Kingdoms ", and announced at the end of that year that the number of registered players exceeded 10 million. The game's system is mainly borrowed from "Travian". In terms of theme, the Three Kingdoms theme is most familiar to domestic players, and introduced systems such as generals, equipment and strategies, as well as the PVE battlefield with "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" as the background. The system functions are richer, and the Three Kingdoms themes are undoubtedly more attractive to domestic players. In terms of marketing promotion, with the rise of the joint operation model, "The Three Kingdoms of Hot Blood" has also gained more players, becoming a representative product in the early stages of the Chinese web game market.
The original version of "Hot Blooded Three Kingdoms" interface
During this period, a large number of strategic web games appeared in Europe and the United States, such as "Imperia Online" and "Ikariam", and other games of different themes, which also introduced some remarkable new systems such as family and public opinion into the game. In China, after the rise of "The Three Kingdoms of Hot Blood", a large number of strategic web games have emerged in the market, such as " Thirty-Six Strategies ", "Thousand Army Break", "Seven Heroes Contend for the World" which has brought major changes to the domestic web game market.
World Map in "Ao Shi Tian Tian"
"Ao Shi Tian Tian" is not only the VIP level system that was later used by online games, but more of a change in the game content itself: PVE's most important picture-pushing gameplay brings players a lot of stand-alone content experience; the cooling mechanism that can be executed first and then calculate the cooling time and accumulates makes the player's game experience lighter; the nine-grid combat gameplay makes the presentation of war no longer just a text, but also brings players a real combat strategy thinking...
"Ao Shi Tian Tian Tian"
This attempt to expand the gameplay more is also reflected in some overseas games, such as the subsequent game "Forge of In Empires, urban construction elements similar to "Simulation City" were introduced, a large amount of PVE picture push content was added, and a strategic battle gameplay was also designed, and the overall content richness was greatly improved.
"Forge of Empires" city construction
"Forge of Empires" battle scene
Continuation of the mobile game era
As the strategic web game development, domestic and foreign social platforms such as Facebook and Renren have also emerged one after another, and after gradually developing, they began to operate web games to increase revenue, which has brought more opportunities to the web game market, including strategy games. Not long after, the rise of smartphones brought a real explosion to the strategy game market.
The main thing that first seized the opportunity of mobile games was the team that had made achievements in the web game market before. For example, Kabam, a major strategic web game player, launched the mobile game "Arthur Kingdom: Battle of the North" in 2011. It once ranked among the best-selling lists in Europe and the United States. With its market results, it obtained Warner's authorization and launched the mobile game "Hobbit: Kingdom of Middle-earth" with the theme of the Lord of the Rings, but the gameplay is basically the same as "Arthur Kingdom: Battle of the North".
"Arthur's Kingdom: Battle of the North"
Another mobile game adapted from a web game, "Empire: Four Kingdoms", has also achieved great success after it was launched in 2011, and its products have long been at the forefront of the best-selling list of Europe and the United States. Compared with previous web games, the overall system of these two games does not have much innovation compared to the traditional model of "Travian". It mainly adapts the graphics and operation of the smartphone characteristics, but also meets the needs of gamers in the early stage of the mobile game market.
The mercenary camp system in "Empire: Four Kingdoms" and the art style of the game are also very different to
. The games that have truly brought major changes to the strategy mobile game market have come from the games born on the smart phone platform, including " Clash of Clans " and "War Game" in 2013, which brought new vitality to Travian's game modes. The model of "Clash of Clans" is of far-reaching significance, but it is relatively special in strategy mobile games, so this article will not discuss it too much.
The main system of "War Game" has not changed much compared to previous strategy online games. The main changes come from the great strengthening of the alliance system. In the game, if players do not join the league, it will be difficult to continue after passing the initial stage. Joining the league can gain a lot of intuitive benefits, such as members can help each other to accelerate construction, technology, training, and when members in the league recharge all other members can receive gift packages. In addition, the automatic translation system provided by the game allows players from different countries to communicate smoothly, which is also of great help to the operation of international servers.
"War Game" game interface
Another obvious change is the user experience. Construction, research or training can be completed in a short period of time. At the same time, the task will also be given a large number of acceleration props. With the acceleration help of alliance members, players will develop very smoothly in the early stages of the game, which is also of great help to retain players. Coupled with the success of online rewards, task rewards, gift package discounts and other activities, the game has achieved great success in the European and American markets, and has been widely imitated by domestic game teams. Domestic strategy mobile games that have succeeded in overseas markets such as "The Disputes of the Kings", IGG's "Handle 3 Kingdom Era ", and Funplus's "King of Avalon" can all be regarded as successful works of "War Game Ike". They have a better experience in art quality and detail optimization than "War Game", and have also added some new systems, such as the card system in "The Kingdom Era". In the domestic market, "war games" games such as Tencent's " King of Troubled Times " have also appeared, but the theme has been replaced by the Three Kingdoms, which are more familiar to domestic players.
is NetEase's " Lutuzhibin " that is truly opening up a new path to strategic mobile games in China.Although the strategic level is also a sand table combat on the grid, the most important resource in the game is not to safely build and produce in the main city, but to require players to occupy the corresponding land on the large map in order to obtain the continuous growth of resources; in combat, unlike traditional strategy games that rely on the strength of the army, the number of troops of all players in "Rutu Bin" is the same as the upper limit of the troops of a single unit, and they rely more on the combination of generals and tactics, which also reduces the gap between players of different consumption levels to a certain extent.
In "Rutu Bin", players need to occupy the resource land on the map to increase the hourly resource output
The design of occupying the resource land was first derived from Sega's "Kingdom Conquest"
"Rutu Bin" strengthens social interaction in the game through the season and increases the uncertainty and freshness of the battle. Players can choose different birth states and join the league to compete for the world. The ultimate goal is to occupy Luoyang and end a season within a limited time. Whenever the season ends, the game will start a new season, allowing players to inherit some data, reset the battles on the big map, and add some new generals and systems. After multiple servers enter a new server, the power of the original server will be reintegrated and divided, so there will be different situations in each season, bringing more freshness and expectations to players.
The combination of generals and tactics plays a crucial role in combat
strategy game exploration in the new era
"War Game Like" product and "Rutu Zhibin" both have extremely strong vitality, but the designs of the two in player social networking are slightly different. In "War Game Like", the alliance can bring a lot of intuitive benefits to players in the early stages, including acceleration of game behaviors that require waiting time for construction, research, and training, and recharge sharing gift packages. Players do not need to invest too much time in the game. In the middle and late stages of the game, the alliance formed by players will become the basic unit of the game process. When the alliance territory continues to expand, conflicts and contradictions arise between the alliance, and some phased goals will appear.
. In the "Rutu Bin" mode, players joining the league in the game process does not have any direct interest rewards except for the resource bonus of occupying the city. The main interest lies in the results of phased goals, such as the expectation of conquest, separatist results at the end of the season, or to be a casual "farming party" under the wings of the league. The quota for ultimately receiving rewards such as conquest is limited, and management needs to be allocated to the player's performance in the game. Therefore, if the player wants to obtain better goals, it takes more time to invest in each stage of the game from the beginning of the season. The two modes of
have their own advantages and disadvantages, but they are naturally not the ultimate form of strategy online games. After solving the underlying design and basic interaction, people will naturally pursue a more "real" battlefield experience. For example, in the past, in order to simplify the system and balance, the marching of players' troops on the large map was not freely adjusted. The troops are in the form of a marking marching. After the players set the target, the troops can only automatically move over and then come back automatically - as expected, a game where "free march" can appear later.
In 2018, when "Awakening of Nations" just entered the market, one of its biggest selling points was the free marching, and the battle process was more intuitive and immediacy, rather than giving results in one second like the previous strategy mobile games.
Map battle between marchs
can be directly scaled to the world map
from the city interface. This setting is like this. Cooperating with heroes and troops to play cards, players can achieve operations similar to traditional real-time strategy games in the game. For example, in combat, it can allow unfavorable troops to get out of combat, or use more advantageous or restrained teams to intercept enemy troops, and even multiple troops can attack an enemy unit at the same time, which brings more space for players' operations. Therefore, the official publicity game is "100,000 people to play "Age of Empires" together for thousands of hours.
Alliance vs.
Therefore, players can see this scenario: the "surrounding points and attacking aid" tactic that has been verified countless times in the war is vividly displayed in "Rise of Nations":
In the 1922 server of "Rise of Nations", there was a war between "Chinese Alliance vs. Arab tycoons". At that time, there was an Arab boss who reached 12 million in 5 days after opening the server, which was very high-profile. In response, under the leadership of "Eunuch Zhang Fei", the Chinese Alliance gathered 44 players to split into 4 pairs and besieged the boss. At this time, other members of the Arab League tried to reinforce the local tyrants' main city, but they were in the minds of the Chinese League. The latter divided the troops to block the reinforcements, so that the opponent's main city could not get reinforcements. Waves of unorganized reinforcements have become "fueling tactics" and have been defeated one by one. The Arab League, which was thought to be "the center blossoming", was restrained by the Chinese League's siege and attack, resulting in the ultimate defeat of the entire league.
Of course, like the above mentioned large-scale wars, it is not something you can encounter every day. In terms of smaller-scale tactics, the game arranges a challenging "Battle of Egypt". This game requires a league to draw the most outstanding 30 players and other leagues, and defeat the opponent with tactical strategies in one hour of confrontation. Although there are not many participants, they involve the elite of the alliance. Therefore, there are often long tactical discussions and war revenge before and after the war begins in a battle in Egypt.
combat ideas summarized by overseas players
In the overall game experience, the game also added some interesting PVE content, such as the initial fog exploration stage. The huge map in which the game is located is covered with fog. Players can send scouts to explore in all directions of the map. During the exploration process, they can discover new villages and caves. When entering the village or reconnaissance cave, they have the opportunity to discover resource treasure chests, regional maps or early technology content. This sense of exploration has a strong driving force for players in the early stages of the game.
The early exploration fun in "Awakening of All Nations"
In addition to fog exploration, the game also provides a large amount of PVE content, including a large number of expedition levels confronting historical generals, as well as various daily tasks and some limited-time scene battles and activities, such as the Crisis of Cerroli, the City of Golden, etc. In terms of PVP, there are also Sunset Canyon similar to auto-chess gameplay and the Battle of Egypt in League PVP. Players often do not lose actual military strength and resource when participating in these activities, but they can all obtain considerable benefits, so even if they cannot participate in competition between powerful alliances in the later stage, there is enough content to experience.
Conclusion
Since the original "Ogame" and "Travian" laid the construction and war network strategy game mode, it has been more than ten years of development and the exploration of developers. While the picture quality has been improved, this type of game has also had more new gameplay in the system, and has also accumulated a large number of players for strategy games around the world. The overall scale of these players may not be large, but the time and money invested in the game far exceeds that of other game types, which is why more and more game teams are starting to develop strategy games. The market potential of games like
is very huge. The "Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition" launched last year helped Alibaba, which "had long wanted to enter the game but never had the chance to get involved", gained a firm foothold in the game industry. Since this game has repeatedly taught everyone various selling points through Teacher Gao Xiaosong, I won't go into it here.
In the strategy game, the process of war in the construction and development reaching a certain stage and then arises is actually very similar to the rise of nations and national development in history. Unlike the strategy games in the stand-alone era, the biggest difference between online strategy games is that it is not a simple war between players and NPC forces, but a competition and confrontation between players, players, and players, and players, which provides greater complexity for the game.
So for the game team, it is generally to encourage or promote players' social interactions in design on the premise of satisfying the strategic growth and fair competition of players, and at the same time give players freedom within the framework, so that players naturally establish various rules and form an ecology. Therefore, in successful strategy online games, players will stage various wonderful stories on the stage set up by game planners.
For example, some players invade enemy forces as spies and play a major role at critical moments, or some players reverse the situation in the alliance through diplomatic alliances, or produce cultural content like the manifesto in "Rutuzhibin", or the story of the unity of Chinese players in the international server "Awakening of All Nations" spontaneously organize alliances and confrontations between alliances and other countries. These are also the biggest changes brought by the Internet to strategy games.
Although players have been able to interpret real strategy stories in the game, the strategy online games of this era are naturally not the final form, and this game mode is still evolving and developing. What kind of innovation can similar games bring in the future? Can players who like strategy games get a fresh experience? I believe this industry will use constant product competition to give the answer.
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