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Proposal for turn timeslicing system (ticks)
I have here first shot at a timeslicing system. Rather than refine it further, I thought I would present it and see what people think. Although I intentionally kept it somewhat simplistic, it may already be too complicated. That's one thing I would like People's input on. The thing I am really concerned about with this one is that the player won't always know whether they can move a TF to a particular square on a given turn without a substantial amount of calculation. One option of course is to just have the player try it and see if the move bounces, but that seems too cavalier. Anyway...
This system is designed so you can tell which TF does what, when and where. The result should be a rough mimicking of what would happen in actual continuous movements system, without much of the overhead involved. The basic idea is that each turn is divided into 10 ticks. Each action that a task force might undertake will have a cost in ticks, and when that cost is paid the unit will complete the action. This regimentation makes it possible to determine when reserves reach an area where combat is going to, or is likely to occur. I'll try and provide a quick example at the bottom. Note that it will occasionally be possible for experienced/hardened units to "break the rules" and squeeze in a few extra ticks per turn when the situation is sufficiently desperate.
Some of the more extreme actions take more than a turn worth of ticks. It's my intention that if orders are given, and not changed, then ticks can be saved up to achieve an action. This is true for even actions with much lower tick costs if they were "cut off" by the turn boundary. We will see how this works in practice. Additionally we need some mechanism to make sure TFs that happen to complete their movement actions on the same tick can't 'teleport' thru each other without ever covering the intervening space. This will be relatively easy to put in, we just need to decide on some specifics for implementations.
Mostly what I have so far relates to movement, although there is some other stuff. I think the system I have may already be too complicated, so ideas on how to simplify it with out losing the big effects are very welcome. All the tick costs below are additive. You just take all the relevant modifiers that apply and some them together. For each area I will list either the based tick costs or modifier, followed by a description that will hopefully clue you and is to what I'm talking about
.
Basic terrain types
4 Flat (Grassland, steppe, flat desert)
6 Hills/Broken
10 Mountainous
- 1 Dirt Road
- 2 Hard Road (perhaps this bonus should only be for motorized vehicles)
+ 2 Obstructed Movement (Swamp, Jungle, Forest)
- 1 Any Type of Road through Obstructed Terrain Gives This Additional Bonus
+ 1 Cautious Advance (digging in every night, careful to always have scouts well in advance...)
+1 to +3 Artillery or other very slow movement item in TF
+1 to +4 Foraging for food (depending upon availability)
+1 to +4 Construct field fortifications (diminishing returns with more time spent)
+1 to +3 Flight Battle (normally on the low end of this)
+1 to +3 Pillage (depending on how much there is to wreck, somewhat diminishing returns)
+1 to Forever... Besiege
I will rely on the military guys to better specify especially the numbers that are given as ranges of tick costs.
All these modifiers assume movement across a square side. (At least the ones that are movement-oriented) for a diagonal move the tick cost is obtained by multiplying by 3/2 and rounding down.
Simple Examples
movement over flat land (4) with a dirt road (-1) with prepositioned supplies (+ 0) -- costs 3 ticks
movement in hilly (6), forested terrain (+ 2) while foraging (say + 2) -- costs 10 ticks
Example:
An ancient invasion. I can't come up with reasonable specifics right now because I'm under time pressure and want to post this, so I will just give a bland example for now. Let's say that a force from Carthage has invaded Roman territory. The Carthaginians, being low on food, and thinking there is no Roman army nearby, split up in order to forage more effectively. The two armies are in adjacent squares. The Roman army has been lucky enough to find out about this, and is going to attempt to attack the forces while they are divided. Let's say the Carthaginians have split evenly into the two forces, and that the Roman forces are equal in combat strength to the combined Carthaginians forces. Let's assume everything happens on Grassland with no roads and that the Romans have prepositioned supplies. We begin with the Carthaginians having split off, but having not yet forage for food. The Romans are in a square directly to the south of one of the Carthaginians TFs (on the right). We start the turn there.
Tick 1
both Carthaginians groups began to forage, they will be done at the end of tick 2
the Romans begin their movement into the Carthaginians square to the right, they will get there on tick 4
tick 2
both Carthaginians groups finish foraging, they are now set for food until the end of the turn.
Tick 3
Carthaginian group on the left begins moving into square on the right to reunite the armies, this takes 4 ticks, so they will arrive at the end of tick 6 (at this point they don't know the Romans are there) Carthaginian group to the right continues to forage waiting for the other group to return.
tick 4
Romans arrive in Carthaginian right square at the end of tick 4.
Tick 5
Square on Right Goes into Battle Mode. I think it's fair to say under these circumstances that the Romans will attempt to engage, and that the Carthaginians will attempt to delay or even withdraw in the direction of their compatriots. But the interesting point about the tick system here, is that if the battle were actually fought, we would know when the reserves would be showing up...
however, this isn't the battle module, so I'm not going to worry about what actually happens in the battle. All the tick system knows is that certain parts of the battle will take a certain length of ticks.
tick 6
at the end of tick 6 carthaginian 'left' shows up. This is either in the nick of time, or too late, depending how things have gone in the battle.
One other point... had the Carthaginian left square force been involved in some longer activity, it would have received word that a battle was imminent only when the Carthaginian right square forces detected the Roman's presence. The AI would then have to decide whether its mission were sufficiently important to go ahead, or whether its mission should be interrupted so it could attempt to support the Carthaginian right. In any case, I think we can assume that notification on an impending battle occurs on the tick after the discovery of enemy forces. That's because the messengers can move much faster than armies can, but without modern communications it would still take some time. For modern times with good communications, the notification would be instantaneous.
[This message has been edited by Mark_Everson (edited March 01, 2000).]
I have here first shot at a timeslicing system. Rather than refine it further, I thought I would present it and see what people think. Although I intentionally kept it somewhat simplistic, it may already be too complicated. That's one thing I would like People's input on. The thing I am really concerned about with this one is that the player won't always know whether they can move a TF to a particular square on a given turn without a substantial amount of calculation. One option of course is to just have the player try it and see if the move bounces, but that seems too cavalier. Anyway...
This system is designed so you can tell which TF does what, when and where. The result should be a rough mimicking of what would happen in actual continuous movements system, without much of the overhead involved. The basic idea is that each turn is divided into 10 ticks. Each action that a task force might undertake will have a cost in ticks, and when that cost is paid the unit will complete the action. This regimentation makes it possible to determine when reserves reach an area where combat is going to, or is likely to occur. I'll try and provide a quick example at the bottom. Note that it will occasionally be possible for experienced/hardened units to "break the rules" and squeeze in a few extra ticks per turn when the situation is sufficiently desperate.
Some of the more extreme actions take more than a turn worth of ticks. It's my intention that if orders are given, and not changed, then ticks can be saved up to achieve an action. This is true for even actions with much lower tick costs if they were "cut off" by the turn boundary. We will see how this works in practice. Additionally we need some mechanism to make sure TFs that happen to complete their movement actions on the same tick can't 'teleport' thru each other without ever covering the intervening space. This will be relatively easy to put in, we just need to decide on some specifics for implementations.
Mostly what I have so far relates to movement, although there is some other stuff. I think the system I have may already be too complicated, so ideas on how to simplify it with out losing the big effects are very welcome. All the tick costs below are additive. You just take all the relevant modifiers that apply and some them together. For each area I will list either the based tick costs or modifier, followed by a description that will hopefully clue you and is to what I'm talking about
.Basic terrain types
4 Flat (Grassland, steppe, flat desert)
6 Hills/Broken
10 Mountainous
- 1 Dirt Road
- 2 Hard Road (perhaps this bonus should only be for motorized vehicles)
+ 2 Obstructed Movement (Swamp, Jungle, Forest)
- 1 Any Type of Road through Obstructed Terrain Gives This Additional Bonus
+ 1 Cautious Advance (digging in every night, careful to always have scouts well in advance...)
+1 to +3 Artillery or other very slow movement item in TF
+1 to +4 Foraging for food (depending upon availability)
+1 to +4 Construct field fortifications (diminishing returns with more time spent)
+1 to +3 Flight Battle (normally on the low end of this)
+1 to +3 Pillage (depending on how much there is to wreck, somewhat diminishing returns)
+1 to Forever... Besiege
I will rely on the military guys to better specify especially the numbers that are given as ranges of tick costs.
All these modifiers assume movement across a square side. (At least the ones that are movement-oriented) for a diagonal move the tick cost is obtained by multiplying by 3/2 and rounding down.
Simple Examples
movement over flat land (4) with a dirt road (-1) with prepositioned supplies (+ 0) -- costs 3 ticks
movement in hilly (6), forested terrain (+ 2) while foraging (say + 2) -- costs 10 ticks
Example:
An ancient invasion. I can't come up with reasonable specifics right now because I'm under time pressure and want to post this, so I will just give a bland example for now. Let's say that a force from Carthage has invaded Roman territory. The Carthaginians, being low on food, and thinking there is no Roman army nearby, split up in order to forage more effectively. The two armies are in adjacent squares. The Roman army has been lucky enough to find out about this, and is going to attempt to attack the forces while they are divided. Let's say the Carthaginians have split evenly into the two forces, and that the Roman forces are equal in combat strength to the combined Carthaginians forces. Let's assume everything happens on Grassland with no roads and that the Romans have prepositioned supplies. We begin with the Carthaginians having split off, but having not yet forage for food. The Romans are in a square directly to the south of one of the Carthaginians TFs (on the right). We start the turn there.
Tick 1
both Carthaginians groups began to forage, they will be done at the end of tick 2
the Romans begin their movement into the Carthaginians square to the right, they will get there on tick 4
tick 2
both Carthaginians groups finish foraging, they are now set for food until the end of the turn.
Tick 3
Carthaginian group on the left begins moving into square on the right to reunite the armies, this takes 4 ticks, so they will arrive at the end of tick 6 (at this point they don't know the Romans are there) Carthaginian group to the right continues to forage waiting for the other group to return.
tick 4
Romans arrive in Carthaginian right square at the end of tick 4.
Tick 5
Square on Right Goes into Battle Mode. I think it's fair to say under these circumstances that the Romans will attempt to engage, and that the Carthaginians will attempt to delay or even withdraw in the direction of their compatriots. But the interesting point about the tick system here, is that if the battle were actually fought, we would know when the reserves would be showing up...
however, this isn't the battle module, so I'm not going to worry about what actually happens in the battle. All the tick system knows is that certain parts of the battle will take a certain length of ticks.
tick 6
at the end of tick 6 carthaginian 'left' shows up. This is either in the nick of time, or too late, depending how things have gone in the battle.
One other point... had the Carthaginian left square force been involved in some longer activity, it would have received word that a battle was imminent only when the Carthaginian right square forces detected the Roman's presence. The AI would then have to decide whether its mission were sufficiently important to go ahead, or whether its mission should be interrupted so it could attempt to support the Carthaginian right. In any case, I think we can assume that notification on an impending battle occurs on the tick after the discovery of enemy forces. That's because the messengers can move much faster than armies can, but without modern communications it would still take some time. For modern times with good communications, the notification would be instantaneous.
[This message has been edited by Mark_Everson (edited March 01, 2000).]
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