hello everyone, I'm a beginner to this. I'm looking to create a RTSMMO as my first game. my game thoughts: building your castle, massing armies, multiple servers, alliances, gathering resources, etc. now i know this seems crazy to start off but its a dream i want to achieve. please anyone with experience guild me. i don't know where to start off. what softwares should i download? i don't expect to make this game within a few months I'm  guessing its going to take me between 1-3 years to make but i can coop with that. please help me out and share your knowledge and experience. thank you for your time.

You need a game engine. Start with Unity or Unreal Engine. For the size of your game, it won't be achievable without paying for stuff (Pro versions of game engines, higher tier GameSparks account, etc) so be prepared for that in the future. It's definitely doable if you have the patience and determination. 

I use Unity myself. Download Unity and start small. There are loads of tutorials on youtube which should start you off. If you are not familiar with C# or Javascript, start with that before you dive into the Game Engine (my opinion, anyway). Don't worry about the server side of things until you are familiar with the Game Engine you choose and programming in general.

That's all I got to start with, but should keep you busy for a good few months until you get used to how things work. Then your flow will come naturally!

Best of luck,

Alex