Battleships Forever is a freeware RTS made by 1 man: Sean Chan, in Game Maker.

Introduction: (from the creator's site)
Battleships Forever is a freeware tactical Real Time Strategy game that put's you in command of a small fleet of warships in space. Combat and damage mechanics are extremely detailed. Everything is simulated in game if possible. There are no abitrary "to hit chance" values in Battleships Forever. The game also features many innovative mechanics that you've never seen before. For example, the Cronus Battleship sports a Flux Shield generator that allows you to draw a defensive force shield around your ships in any shape you want. Another example are the Deflector modules that are used extensively through the game. These modules make a single section of a ship totally invulnerable to fire. This means that you will have to manoeuvre your ships to attack sections of the enemy ships not protected by Deflectors while keeping your own protected sections facing the enemy. Position is paramount!

Players will command picked fleets made up of Battleships, Destroyers and Patrol Craft. The completed game will include ten campaign missions and multiple skirmish modes.

Battleships Forever is inspired by and loosely based on Warning Forever by Hikoza.T.Ohkubo

Screenshots:

The Flux Projector in action. It projects a shield that you can draw as you please that stops bullets!


Pew pew laser beams!


Boom!

Game Modes: (from Game Hippo)
There is a campaign mode with several missions, but also contains several modes. In Sandbox, you can freely spawn units and set up a battle to test things out. In Raid, you play the part of Pirates who must terrorize the local Shipping Lanes.In Blockade, you are defending a convoy. In Grinder, you battle ever stronger waves of foes. And Finally, in Leviathan, you must take down a titanic battle station.

Here's the best part: You can create your OWN SHIPS with an editor. Thats HOT SHIT right there!

More Info: http://www.wyrdysm.com/games.php
Download Link: http://www.wyrdysm.com/bfdownload.php


Um, words do not describe just how well made and awesome this game is, and its in beta. It is quite simply one of THE best Game Maker games I have played, and one of the best freeware RTS' ever, in my honest opinion. Everything is intuitive and well crafted, and there is an amazing layer of strategy and complexity to be found.

My only complaint is no multiplayer/online modes. :/

The ships remind me or the shmup Warning forever which in my mind is awesome.

wait, the ships in battleships forever remind you of the ships in warning forever? who would have thought that!

i'ma try this and see if its good....

Yeah who would have thought.

Battleships Forever is inspired by and loosely based on Warning Forever by Hikoza.T.Ohkubo

...

I'll download this when I get home. It looks awesome!

haha, idk about the main game but the sandbox is amazingly fun

spawning tons of alien/pir..p..the team under "other" and having them duke it out while  you spawn meteor storms is excellent

sorry for not paying full attention to the post, any way it is addicting, almost completed single player, stuck on the graveyard mission.

Just as I try to download the game, all the download links on the site go down... Anyone know of any other site i could get this from?

EDIT: yay they're working again...

The game is quite good, but I wouldn't call it the best rts ever, mainly because it's fucking short and there is no multiplayer mode.

The game is quite good, but I wouldn't call it the best rts ever, mainly because it's fucking short and there is no multiplayer mode.

best FREEWARE rts ever.

Big difference there!

For a Game Maker game, made by 1 dude, and free, it is top notch and a great accomplishment.

No Cross-Platform Capability + Restrictive License = Piece of Fucking Shit.

Really, if you want to make a free RTS, do it right. This is an area where the OSS community is currently lacking, in fact, so we do not need capable developers wasting their time on this.

No Cross-Platform Capability + Restrictive License = Piece of Fucking Shit.

Really, if you want to make a free RTS, do it right. This is an area where the OSS community is currently lacking, in fact, so we do not need capable developers wasting their time on this.

Wow dude whats your problem?

Are you saying this game sucks just because it doesn't work on systems not really known for videogames and because of its license.

Jesus.

^Yeah, it's a pretty incredible piece of freeware made considering it's made in Game Maker, so it's stupid to dismiss it because you're a bit pissy.

I'm definitely enjoying it. Needs more features but when it's finished it's gonna be a hell of a game.

by the way, were you guys fooling around with the ship editor? I managed to make a beast based on the scrin ship from tiberium wars.

Oh man, this game. I played it a few weeks ago and it is crazy fun. Especially the Sandbox mode.

Also, I made a few cool ships with the ship maker. It is fun making a gigantic beast that can tear everything apart.