turle players are generating less economically

i did not write dunno quote thats above.

wut quote?

I suppose its just our different play styles

I wouldn't rely on a raid winning me the battle unless I somehow catch them off guard and can do way more damage than I thought I would, like through a Banshee raid in Starcraft 2.

Plus in team games I tend to play the blunt force instrument, The one tasked with knocking on the front door so to speak with Marines, Marauders & Siege Tanks.

I assume i'll take over the same role in this game when playing with friends

I don't think movement options are key. The difficulty has always been that there haven't been good units to control space. Something like the siege tank or brood lord in SC2. Their mere existence locks down huge areas of space and forces interesting tactical engagements to work around them. Those units go way beyond cost effectiveness when they are used for map control. This allows people to defend large expanses of territory.

This is something none of the huge RTS titles have pulled off yet. For various reasons including maps that are too open to easily allow control of space.

Raids aren't necessarily about doing outright damage. Yeah they can all be countered. Can you counter a three pronged raid and keep up production at the same time? Admittedly in TA and similar the macro is simplified to the point where you can't really physically attack your opponents multitasking the same way. However if you can raid across realms of territory and do physical damage faster than your opponent can firefight you'll get a similar dynamic.

No it doesn't. The point of those units is that they defend very small spots of territory. Units like tanks and brood lords are built to be very immobile but have lots of raw power. The challenge is that they have to be constantly moved around to where they're needed.

Transforming further compounds this challenge. Tanks, widow mines, and Swarm Hosts are very vulnerable when they're in mobile mode, which makes them horrible choices to lead a charge. They take time to deploy, turning into high powered units that can't move. This makes their positioning even more important, but it adds ludicrous amounts of micro as well.

The whole reason such units worked is that they had movement penalties. A penalty is an option just like anything else.

Ever considered that maybe it doesn't work? The better a defense is, the better it is to turtle. The whole point of turtling is to limit raiding options and reduce damage from a direct attack, and both are very good things to have in an RTS.

Also, PA will have round worlds. Maps are going to be very open no matter what you do.

Yeah but they were talking about having 10 people on one planet then having multiple planets like that in one system

Then you get the game you set up, a 40km 10 player map, where the winner(s) can go on to support the battles on the other planets.

Pure turtling is never going to be a viable strategy in any well-designed game, because with a good mix of units you can always crack (wave assaults until you punch through) or boil (raid and harass to gain long-term economic advantage) a turtle. TA and related games have always been good about handing out both turtling tools and turtlecrackers.

What's fun about the TA/SC/Spring RTS subgenre is that pure offense has drawbacks too. Mexes and generators are vulnerable, so having some fixed defenses is a good idea, but balancing that with a decisive mobile army means you never quite have enough of anything. That gap is where concepts like 'player skill' and 'strategy' and, for some of us, 'fun' come into play.

Whilst im not denying your point its a valid point. I dont really think you should be comparing SC2 with PA the two games focus entirely on different ends of the RTS management spectrum. PA is going to be heavily macro whilst SC2 was more on the Micro side of things.

I agree there should be units that aide in map control it would make for a tactical dynamic not seen before but then you have to think artillery in games like Supcom and TA did that sort of.