Apolyton CS: Civilization III: The List v1: Movement (page 2)

MOVEMENT
-Summarized by Thread Master: don Don-
dewvr@mindspring.com

PAGE 1 | PAGE 2

5. TRADE    TOP

GENERAL COMMENTS: Large scale sea commerce will involve ships constructed and manned by the private sector, but usable in time of war for shipping of supplies and personnel. Two main ideas have been brought up to model sea commerce.

5.1) A trade line can be traced through friendly transports stationed on the high seas. Each pair must be spaced no farther apart than the lower movement allowance of that pair. Units can travel over trade routes. Traverse may begin in any friendly city or ship in range; no movement points are expended to enter the trade line. Traverse may end at a friendly city or a ship with an unoccupied hold (the unit may disembark unless it boarded a ship prior to entering trade line).

5.2) If §2b is implemented, trade lines could be established that increase the sea movement multiplier. This would represent the higher level of civilian trade traffic, making movement of supplies easier. They could be "built" in a manner similar to road-building, or implemented between cities with a monetary cost for set-up and maintenance.

5.3) Trade routes would then exist on trade lines and through areas in supply. Attacking, piracy, and defense is then carried out on the high seas wherever ships are stationed, at ports via blockade, and on land via supply. Eliminating a sea link in a trade line or blockading origin/destination port(s) would each diminish trade route bonus and net a small amount of money (most of the merchants simply stop traveling once piracy becomes a problem). A city cannot selectively cut trade lines to only one city or civilization, but a civilization can cut off ALL external/sea trade routes.

5.4) Capacity of trade lines for unit transport: Sum of [holds times movement allowance each ship], plus [size/4 +1 each for harbor, port, shipyard, etc] of origin/destination cities, divided by distance (1 Diplomat/Spy free). Other civilizations may also use your trade lines with trade routes to carry 1 Diplomat/Spy per turn to your city. The Dip/Spy can enter the trade line at the destination city from the Enter Enemy City menu. The Dip/Spy can then Enter the origin city of the trade line.

5.5) Alternately, land units would move on trade lines similar to RR movement. Movement rates would depend on sea travel technology. Land units moving on water would not be able to attack, and defense would be highly limited. In pre-gunpowder era soldiers can repel boarders and defend themselves; otherwise defense depends strictly on transport vessel technology. Note that players could still embark on transport ships and move in a convoy with combat ships if greater protection is desired.

5.6) Once a trade route exists on a trade line trade units can reach the destination city simply by entering the origin city of the trade line. If the destination city belongs to another civilization, that civilization may petition to use your trade line to establish a new trade route to your origin city directly from the destination city.

6. ZONES OF CONTROL    TOP

GENERAL COMMENTS: Given that tiles are on the order of 100 miles across, the ability of a military unit to respond to opposing units moving through adjacent tiles should be limited. Some way of taking the mobility of units into consideration would also be welcome. A foot unit should be less effective at exerting ZOC than a mounted unit, which should be less effective than a motorized unit. A unit moving on a railroad should be very easy to attack, while a unit moving across open ground or in an area with a well-developed road network should be harder to attack.

6.1) Zones of Control do not entirely prevent movement. When a unit first attempts to move controlling units are revealed (the same as Civilization II ZOC), then a "continue or cancel" pop-up appears. Moving from a tile in an opponent's Zone of Control into another tile in any opponent's ZOC costs 1 extra movement point (or fractional road movement point, applied for road or railroad travel) and makes the moving unit "vulnerable." Units that "ignore" ZOC may opt to pay the extra movement cost to avoid being vulnerable, or may pay normal movement cost and risk opposition.

6.2) A unit exerting ZOC may either "strike" or launch a "flank attack" against a vulnerable unit moving to or from a tile in its ZOC. A ZOC strike does fp damage (or expels diplomat) without retaliation or altering fortified status of striking unit. The unit exerting ZOC may launch a flank attack (a ZOC strike followed by normal combat), but loses fortified status. A neutral or peaceful unit exerting ZOC may insist that the vulnerable unit be withdrawn through diplomatic action.

6.3) To implement this, a new unit status toggle is created, "watch/guard/repel." Units are assumed to be in watch mode unless toggled otherwise. A unit toggled to guard will strike or initiate diplomatic action, depending on relation to the intruding civilization. A unit toggled to repel will allow the controlling player/AI to launch a flank attack against intruders from hostile civilizations via a pop-up menu, and otherwise act as a unit in guard mode.

7. EXPLORATION    TOP

GENERAL COMMENTS: More exploration units wanted. Inexpensive ships with no transport capacity and little or no combat ability, modern non-combat unit to replace obsolete Explorer, etc.

7.1) To represent the cautious nature of exploration, moving onto a tile such that any unrevealed tile(s) will be revealed costs 1 extra movement point (or fractional point as applicable).

7.2) 7b) Exploration beyond a certain range should be automated. The player would issue a general order to explore and report back. When (if) the unit returns to a friendly city radius then it reports back to the player.

8. AIR SUPERIORITY    TOP

GENERAL COMMENTS: Air units following the specialized movement rules proposed should also have attack and defense rules reflecting the extreme mobility of air power. It may be worth the effort to separate air attack/defense characteristics from surface characteristics, but this topic is primarily concerned with the movement/mobility issues.

8.1) Fighters and bombers have a "range" unrelated to movement points. Air units expend one movement point to attack a valid target in range. Fighter attacks target any air, ground, or sea units. Bombers and Cruise Missile barrages can target only cities, ships, airbases, and bridges. Anti-aircraft units (x2 vs. air), SAM batteries, and fighters are termed "defenders;" all other valid naval/air units, cities, or terrain improvements are just targets.

8.2) Fighters exert an Air Superiority Zone of Control (ASZOC) over all tiles in range. ASZOC interdicts supply as in 4a, but does not interfere with movement of ground units as in 6a. For each tile the Air Superiority Index (ASI) is the sum of all friendly fighter units exerting ASZOC on that tile plus friendly AA units in that tile. The net ASI for a tile is that civilization's ASI plus allied civilization ASIs minus all non-allied civilization ASIs (not less than zero).

8.3) Fighter units with at least 1 movement point unspent may be toggled to guard. Fighters set to guard exert ZOC in adjacent land tiles like a ground unit in guard mode, and exert ASZOC with a range of 1. Fighter units can be ordered to guard in a tile more than one tile distant, designating one land tile in range except cities. The fighter then exerts ground ZOC and ASZOC only in the designated tile (and the tile the fighter unit is stationed in) except that it cannot initiate diplomatic action. Fighters conduct ZOC strikes as described for ground units in 6b.

8.4) Fighter units with at least 1 movement point unspent can be ordered to repel, designating one adjacent land tile except cities. The fighter exerts ASZOC with a range of 1, and exerts ground ZOC in the designated tile. Fighters conduct ZOC flank attacks as Air Superiority attacks (see 9a below) regardless of net ASI in the designated tile.

9. AIR SUPPORT    TOP

GENERAL COMMENTS: Close air support is a critical function lacking in most strategic games. It is difficult to destroy a division-scale ground unit with air attacks, but the effects of close air support shouldn't be neglected. A means of integrating air support with the proposed movement rules is necessary.

9.1) The net ASI is the maximum number of Air Superiority attacks friendly Fighters can conduct in that tile. Air Superiority attack does fp damage to the unit of attacker's choice in target stack in the first round. Attack rounds then continue against the targeted unit until the targeted unit wins a round (reflecting successful evasion of the attacking craft). "Defender" units automatically damage the attacker at this point; other targets have a 50% chance of inflicting one point of damage.

9.2) Regular fighter attacks target a stack rather than one unit, and "defender" units can interfere with the attack. Use the defense factor of the strongest "defender" unit in the stack or defending fighter within range. Damage dealt by attacker is distributed point by point between the defender unit and a randomly selected unit in the target stack. If defender is destroyed, and no other defender is present in the target stack, attacker may expend 1 additional movement point to perform air superiority attack on a valid target in target stack.

9.3) Surface units in a tile with net ASI > 0 attacking a tile with net ASI > 0 attacks with close air support. Some attack bonus should be applied.

10. STRATEGIC AIR ATTACK    TOP

GENERAL COMMENTS: Again, this is included for completeness to show a means of integrating strategic attack with the proposed movement rules.

10.1) Strategic bombardment targets a city within range, expend 1 movement point. Damage to city would diminish shields of production for that turn; collateral damage to civilians, military units, and/or city improvements (especially SAM) likely. Can attack naval units at half strength under attack rules for fighters; target bridges/airbases with some chance of successful "pillaging;" defense as above.

10.2) Cruise Missile barrage is an expendable strategic bomber. Follows bomber rules except only defenders in target stack may defend, and attacks full strength and firepower vs. naval unit. Nuclear Missile is the same as a Cruise Missile, plus may attack ground units at half-strength; SDI only defense (treat as SAM).

This is just a start, more work necessary on particulars of air combat and defense vs. strategic bombers. SAM improvement would have to be changed to fit in this system.

11. MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS    TOP

11.1) One that doesn't easily fit into any of these categories is a broad generalized movement model: deployment. Units should be able to deploy directly to nearby cities, fortresses, airbases, carriers, etc. without the player having to move them by hand (or rely on buggy "go to" functions). Obviously there must be a difference between strategic deployment and the airlift function, for example. A deployed unit takes more than one turn to reach its destination and would have no defense strength on the turn it arrives. The origin and destination would have to be connected by road or rail, or perhaps by trade lines.

11.2) Coastal tiles would be one of three types: Beach, normal, and cliff.

12.2a) Beach - units can unload and load from/to transports and units with multiple movement points can move again or attack.
12.2b) Normal - units can unload and load from/to transports but multiple movement points units cannot move again or attack until the next turn.
12.2c) Cliff - units CANNOT unload or load from/to transports from this square.

11.3) Port cities and Naval Bases assigned to a specific side/face of tile/hex. A city straddling an isthmus could build a harbor or port facility on each side, but ships could not cross unless a (very expensive) canal is built.

11.4) Hexes/staggered tile rows. Some love the idea, a few hate the idea (fearing crippled keypad movement, for example).

11.5) Ocean currents: act like "one way" roads.

PAGE 1 | PAGE 2


Apolyton Civilization Site Copyright © Daniel C. J. Quick All trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners