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Designing an RTS?
 

So I have been back in Australia for a while and ever day sees me getting more and more depressed
Away from my girlfriend, stuck with my parents, no luck with the job search and generally bored out of my mind. Need something to do and with game design and development being an interest of mine seems like the logical choice

I have had a decent amount of experience in game design via both study and attempts at mods and total conversions in the past and the best way to ruin a good idea is to work in a vacuum so thats why i'm making this post (not sure if I should make in a forum post or blog so for now its here)

So you think Starcraft 2 missed the mark?
Now whether you still enjoy SC2 or think its terrible design or maybe just a few minor problems its hard to disagree that some of the design decisions in SC2 eventually led to some less than enjoyable situations *cough* zvp *cough*
So if you think you have better ideas then I hope to hear from you (especially from some of the hardcore / pro players) I will be looking into prototyping the gameplay - likely using UDK - as it will give me something to focus on apart from playing far cry 3 all day :P
If you have any skills or ability or just... anything then by all means post away. Map scribbles, unit ideas, map outlines, sound effects, music, race design idea etc etc etc
Skeptics and the excitable types are both encouraged to post their thoughts just remember to leave pride at the door because even the most awesome ideas have potential problems that need to be pointed out and discussed or you end up with one of those games where people go awesome idea bad execution.

The starting spark
Personally a complaint I have about SC2 is how timing oriented it is and the whole concept of terrible terrible damage that guides all the design of the game. Typically the game will revolve around one of several timing attacks and either it kills the opponent, does damage that opponent is unable to recover from, does only enough damage to keep things even or just fails and they die (sentry immortal all in for example) Prior to these timings you have pretty much nothing happening, maybe a poke with a few units but thats it. This makes for a pretty dull game unless you are interested in the high level stuff going on, small things like 2 on all 4 gases instead of 3 or whatever.

I want an RTS that encourages constant small battles and harass on multiple fronts, higher skill cap in terms of micro and mechanics while being fun for players who don't have good mechanics and micro.

The idea
The idea I have - which does not constitute an entire game - is having the game revolve around "titans" (I'm avoiding calling them heroes because of the associated mechanics of leveling up the heroes) of 3 types.
Raider > Support > Disrupter > Raider
These are key units in addition to typical type units like marines or zealots etc which revolve around effective use of their skills
In order to support frequent battles and micro a key mechanic is that kills by these units can be traded for credit to be used as like a 3rd currency if the titan can make it back to their base
This is allows for a dota style high level micro of denying which an opponent who goes for a Raider as well can kill his own units before the opponent can to prevent a person from getting the kill credit

The reasoning
At the low level this will allow players who wish to do so to focus on getting out a raider and concentrating on microing that unit if they so choose against a defensive macroing player but also allow the defensive player to have some time to recover as the raider returns home to trade in his kill credit.
At the high level players try to prevent opponent from getting kills while also dealing with the enemy. The need for constant harass to cover your units returning to base to trade in kills for credit becomes important and allows for back and forth action
This mechanic I think will lead to many interesting combat choices such as do i try to micro and save my weak units or do I deny the kill for the opponent. Do I try to use an ability to maybe take out enemy raider and risk him getting away with extra kills or do i focus on denying kills and just getting shots in where I can on the enemy

An example
One Idea for a unit I have is a raider which is both slow and weak but one of its abilities is a short range blink with no cool down (or very little) giving the unit extreme mobility for as long as he has energy remaining. This means that forward map control will be important to allow for your raider to get safely to the enemy base as well as considerations like how much do I use blink inside the enemy base, how long should I stick around in case enemy disruptor gets a skill off reducing the energy I have and thus my raider is now unable to retreat and an effective pace.

Additional thoughts
I want to encourage multi pronged attacks and thus must encourage multiple base play - I'm thinking I can achieve this be restricting the number of titans you can have by the number of command centers
Also I want to have a good mix of general units to allow for larger battles using 2-3 titans in late game
I really like the zerg mechanic of spreading creep and injecting and would like each race to have their own interesting and punishing mechanic beyond simply not getting supply blocked
Skills should require skill to use (ie not fungal, think dota skills like a snipe ability that slows and does damage in a line from casting unit)

Keep in mind
Passives are for pussies
Interesting weaknesses please - see qxc's video on unit design; basically slow but powerful units are not as interesting as a lurker for example
What interesting choices does my idea add?

In closing
I really hope this takes off and people get interested and creative cause it would be awesome to have an sc2sea RTS
Doesn't matter if you think your idea sucks cause even if it does - when its most likely it doesn't - it can lead to something awesome so don't hold back. Any concept art that I, or anyone else who wishes to, can model would be awesome too. Anything you can contribute
I'm crossing my fingers *^.^*

Will add to this and move it to forums if its better suited to there and / or garners enough interest here