Im doing a RTS influensed by age of empires, stronghold and the battles of) total war.

Since i cannot do the graphics and animations for ALL units and buildings I want, I'm going for a abstracted style with static images instead. Also the scale is larger than classic RTS:es like AOE.

-Units replesent small groups of 10-20 soldiers and cover one tile. They are static pics seen from the side. They might have actual remaining number instead of healthbar (like regiments in total war) They flash when attacking or is damaged and arrows are drawn in realtime as they fly.

-Buildings (keep, quarry, barracks, towers, markets etc) are also a single tile in size and drawn as icons rather than realistically looking little structures. Also seen from the side.

-The board looks more "maplike" than realistic.

Would this work? Is it wierd and too far from what players expect? Would it feel boring and stale since you expect fully animated units?

Early screenshot:

But the static sprites sliding over the board could work? Even for a realtime game? It's not commonly used that way.

Screenshot looks fine for me. Like arka80 says as long as the style stays consistent it shouldn't matter if the sprites are static or not.

I know it was a 3D RTS but didn't Darwinia use static sprites?

Wesnoth is turnbased. In turnbased it's very common. In realtime, it hardly exists at all.

It looks neat. However:

If you do this only because you don't know how to draw- then don't.

Artwork should be part of the game design, not a choice of "I don't know or I don't have the resources yet"

You better go with silly free animations rather than a decision that is not by game design.

Why?

When I see this kind of graphics I immidietly think of chess and turn based games and not a real time strategy game.

If you find this kind of graphics interesting, try to experiment with your game design to get the best experience.

Of coruse don't forget to test your game with the opinions of RTS players! From a picture I can't really tell if the game is fun or not. (or challanging).

-Units replesent small groups of 10-20 soldiers and cover one tile. They are static pics seen from the side. They might have actual remaining number instead of healthbar (like regiments in total war) They flash when attacking or is damaged and arrows are drawn in realtime as they fly.