RTS
 

Hey everyone. These days I have been looking for a new RTS to play (Age 2 is starting to lose some of it's lemon-scented goodness) and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for one to look for. I'm looking for one with cool races (preferably dwarves), with a map maker (that doesn't suck), that doesn't require a beast comp, and I'd also rather it wan't sci-fi themed. Any suggestions that you have are much appreciated. Thanks.

Have you tried the successor of Age 2, Age 3?
Possibly some of the Command and Conquer series. You can get the first decade for 50 bucks and that comes with 6 games. And one of those is a FPS.
And regardless of your Sci-fi stuff, I say Starcraft.
As for dwarves, maybe warcraft, not WoW, but just Warcraft.

Armies of Exigo any good?

-I've tried age 3, I found that they focused more on graphics then actual gameplay in that one.
-I'm not sure Command and Conquer has a map maker, which is important to me. I spend most of my time making and playing custom maps. If it has one, please let me know.
-And in Warcraft, the Dwarves are molded in with the humans. So you can't really have one without the other. Also I didn't like the small-scale warfare of Warcraft.
-Armies of Exigo looks like crap, but if somone knows otherwise, please say so.
I'm not trying to be an arse, but I'm very picky of my RTS games.

Supreme Commander looks pretty good, and there's always Company of Heros and Dawn of War and it's expansions.

Battle for Middle Earth 2 has a pure dwarven faction I believe. That's really all I can think of.

Oh and yeah get C&C

The more I play Age 3 the more I get the Age 2 feeling out of it. Just...you know, everythings ranged instead of melee, with the exception of a few units.

The thing you need is the thing that brances away from all the formulas and standards all RTSs are sticking to. A game that mixes action, shooters and RTS together. A game where no two games can every be the same.

Its called Company of Heroes.

Only 2 races, Axis and Allies. I know what you're thinking, oh God a WWII RTS? What the hell... But trust me, its an amazing game. And its so different from any other RTS it comes off as fresh and just plain fun. Units use cover (three egrees of it) Your Infantry are walking next to a tank and get fired on? They dive next to the tank and use it as Medium cover. The tank gets blown up? They move in and use its wreckage as Ligh Cover still. They are forced back and run into a fence? Yup, they actually have to hop over the fence and are slowed.

And everything else from Artillery to Tanks to Crocks to Mini-Tanks to Mines to C4 to...you name it. Bunkers, Gernades, Air Strikes, its all here and well done. Its like Advance Wars on the GBA, but with complete realism and 100x more accuracy. And you need a 2 GB processor to run it.

Armies of Exigo is crap, it has a cool idea, but fails to follow through and delivery any kickassery.

Agreed, Dawn of War plus the expansions are a great series, one of which i already own. And those Pre-made maps can only last you so long.
Alas, I tried to get BFME2 before and it wouldn't run. I took it to a computer analyst who said that laptops processors only run at half speed to make up for their tiny cooling fans. EA appears to put system requirment checkers in their newer games that prevent your computer from running the game if it doesn't meet the requirements.
I must say, Kenryoku's description of Company of Heroes does make it sound incredibly intresting. Sadly, it IS WWII themed, and no doubt never ceases to convey the "glory of the American nation". Although it may be worth it to give it a try.

Now for some questions:
-What races(or more likely armies in this case) does the new C&C have?
-Has anyone played the full version of Maelstorm? I gave the demo a try and it made me cry tears of blood. The interface was horrible, so was pathfinding. Unit Acknowledgment was loud and obnoxious, and it took the units about 10 minutes to get across my computer screen.(I may be blowing it out of context, but they're seriously slow). But anyways, my question was, did they fix that piece of crap they called a game before they released it's full version?