Hi,

I am just starting a 3d(or maybe 2.5d) rts. I was wondering ifthere are any good online tutorials that I could use. Also my biggest concernis I was planning on making my units pirates/ninjas so I am not sure how toanimate them and was wondering if there was a good tutorial.

                         

Thanks for any help

I don't know about any RTS-tutorial. An RTS is a rather complex game and I think chances to find a turorial are not good because tutorials usually demonstrate simple aspects that you want to combine. As you probably want the game to be multiplayer-playable in the end you should probably start out with the networkstatemanagement sample.
As for a tutorial for animations, here is one. If you want multiple animated characters on the screen you will probably want to combine it with the instancing sample.

I don't think there is any tutorial out there that can describe how to make a specific genre. Since this is in the designer area my advice is you do some research on how RTSs play out and little by little build up on several systems. Analyze the mechanisms in games such as AOE, Command and Conquer,etc.

What program do you intend to use for animations?

There are no RTS tutorials that I've seen. As others have said, an RTS is a gigantic topic that would be too much for a single tutorial, especially if you're a beginner.

I would gradually build it up from smaller pieces. First decide how you want to do animation. I would look into an instanced skinned model technique, since you'll likely have dozens of the same units at the same time. Then make a camera that you can zoom in and out (hint: look at Supreme Commander for the de-facto RTS zoom. Actually it does pretty much everything spot on, so you could probably learn a lot from it). Then figure out how to select units and give them move orders. Then add terrain. Add more units and a UI. etc etc etc.

I know that there are tutorials for many of the smaller pieces such as selecting units and making a camera, so the trick is to combine what you learn from them all in an organized, sustainable code structure.

Thanks for all your help, and I do agree that I should look into instance modeling since I will have so many of the same characters doing the same motion(it might get hard on the processer if they all have there own bone structure). Anyway if you know any good tutorials with like rpgs that may make up part of my game it would appreciate them thanks again.