Here's how me, someone who never played an RTS before got a crash course on it and got into the top levels of a qualifying round.
I started this neat free online MMO that lets you be a mad scientist and mix DNA. It's kind of a simplified "Impossible Creatures" and the nice thing about it is that it doesn't require you to download anything.
Free + No Download MMO = Win
It is lots of fun, the game lets you mix animals DNA and create your own creatures, just like IC but the mixing is a lot more convincing: It uses a double helix of DNA with 22 genes for each animal and based on those genes you improve the creature's statistics such as atatck, defense, stealing, hunting.... Pretty cool.
The game also has the economy and strategy common to RTSs so you can buy / sell DNA and creatures and you build armies of clones to protect your lab and your Clan. Here's a video I did of the game tasks
http://ffproject.net/xfer/Video/wildisle.phpPictures are pretty basic but the whole concept is pretty fun. And addictive!!! The DNA mixer works like a super duper version of those Vegas slot machines where you have to align 3 cherries or 3 lemons except here you have to align 22 slots, in an optimal way to get the stats you want. I spent like 3 days having the time of my life gambling DNA strands :D
I was happy with just making stronger creatures for myself and barely payed attention to the rankings and Clan wars, when I read on a top ranking player's profile an invitation / challenge. He would give 1 billion of the games's currency to anyone who defeated his defense army. Thinking it was a good way to test my creatures and get some game cash I decided to try.
I got creamed but managed to kill some of his creatures. I attacked again with stronger creatures, same result: 10 of his dead, 200 of mine. I tried again same results, then I got a message from him saying he would flatten me because I attacked him. I told him I was just doing what he asked, and he told me his profile was old news so I stopped. I stopped attacking and sold him some game credits so he would get 1,000 turns reclone the 90 creatures of his I had killed, sent him a PM apologizing and telling him about the game credits and went to bed.
To me that was the end of it. It wasn't. Turns out that the guy, Shambert told his cartel (Myrmidons) that "Renmiri flattened me" so when I woke up the next day all my armies were killed, my freezer was back to level 10 from level 20 and so was my mixer. I was unable to do what I like most on the game: mix DNA (Grrr...).
Anyhow, I saw the vicious attack, got pissed and retaliated. I attacked everyone who attacked me but mostly "acidcpc" the one who attacked me most and lowered my freezer and mixer. I killed all his armies and lowered his freezer & mixer 10 levels just like he had done with me, called it even and stopped. I even had a nice chat with another guy from their clan and since he was being nice and only had attacked me like 3 times I asked why did they attacked me out of the blue. I never got an answer so I went to bed, thinking all was even
Big mistake... I woke up and chaos, the boss of Myrmidons was attacking me non stop. I asked why and he told me it was because I attacked acid. I told him acid attacked me first but he wouldn't stop :(
The nice guy from Myrmidons finally answered me that Shambert had told him and acid I flattened his HQ. Acid also wrote me that I'd pay for attacking Shambert and then him. They were also up in arms about me killing all acid creatures and therefore getting two very valuable DNA strands (attackers get DNA of what they kill, a very fun feature). They were worrying in vain, I could not get their prize DNA because after they downgraded my freezer, it was quite full and wouldn't store anything else.
Well, I was not in Wildisle for wars, but because I like to mix. And I had to admit, if I was acidcpc and someone in my cartel came crying another person flattened his HQ I would retaliate and flatten the guy. So I had a choice to try to stop this mess or go on in an all out war because Shambert went crying for mommy after inviting me to attack him. I chose to stop. I cloned a huge army which made their attack force lose 1,500 of their creatures. I then PM'ed Myrmidons boss saying I wouldn't retaliate his last attack if he stopped attacking from now on. He stopped. Peace at last!!!
After all this cloning and battling I climbed a lot in the ranks. I'm 5th (from 75th before) in the scientists and 8th (from 130th) in the military and I went to 29 overall (from 230th). I got a lot of experience battling and now I know which of my creatures are strong which aren't. So in balance it was fun, except for being back to a level 10 mixer and freezer and being unable to mix.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it ;)
WildIsle - Multiplayer Online DNA Mixing & Creature Warfare Strategy Game
