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This topic touches several aspects but mostly units & terrain. As the unit threads kind of starved some weeks ago and my idea combines several elements of the game, I start a new thread here.
This proposal adresses the typical Civ3 standard game, where most of the area is discovered by scouts and roaming units long before the AD portion of the game. Sometimes this area is even completely settled by then.
Of course not every civ has the total knowledge unless it traded in all maps, but nevertheless during the non modern eras there is not a sufficient amount of 'terra incognita' where no man ..um.. unit has gone before (where did I catch that phrase?
).
This is IMHO totally unrealistic. So I basically have two proposals to amend that situation.
First of all units should have the additional (editable) feature of 'range'. This would be the maximum distance from it's supporting point (usually its supporting city) it is allowed to move. If you choose a border city for that purpose your unit should be able to set out beyond your border in unknown or foreign territory but not further than its range. The range would increase with every more modern unit and at some point (of time) would be virtually infinite for many of the units.
To allow for warfare on foreign grounds, as well as discovery missions by sea, the supporting points as the origin for unit range measurement could be transferred to mobile facilities (units, essentially).
A supply unit that does not fight but allows for penetrating deep into enemy terrain would allow for more realistic tactical problems during war situations, for you will lose all units tied to the supply unit(s) if the enemy succeeds in destroying or interrupting your supply line (that would be represented by a chain of supply units from your homeland to the battlefield to increase range in large area warfare).
As far as sea exploration is concerned the transporting ship would be the supply point from which the range of transported units is measured. That means unless you don't found cities on newly discovered continents you'll not get much knowledge of the interior, only of the near costal area. In the ancient era the range should be so small that settlements naturally concentrate along the coast and the easily accessible parts of the map. Rough terrain would be unveiled at much slower rate.
To really ensure that, my idea no. 2 concerns the feature of terrain passabilty, which is now only represented by the movement points you need to expend in order to cross it. Every terrain should have an (editable) base chance of losing a unit due to its natural hostility just like triremes in ocean tiles. This base number could be combined with the unit range in a formula that returns the definite chance of losing the unit if it ends movement in that terrain (which is likely if it has a high movement cost) . So older units that have lower range would also have higher chances of getting lost. This would ensure very cautious expansion into hostile terrain in early eras. Roads should improve passability a lot, and there could be pioneer units that have the intrinsic ability of being considerably less prone to getting lost if still within the civs border or adjacent to a road improved tile, so they could drive roads into heavy terrain to improve expansion into it, but such road construction would take considerably longer than normal road building. At some era the units would have such big range values that the chance of getting lost in heavy terain would fall to zero. Also the
'treats x as roads' ability would diminish that risk as the tiles would be treated as if they had roads on them, which by the above mentioned formula (yet to be set) provides a much reduced risk of losing the crossing unit, not to mention that because of the road it might not have to stop on dangerous grounds at all.
So far my suggestions for more realistic amounts of 'terra incognita'. They also provide some clues for
improving tactical options in other areas of the game, too.
This proposal adresses the typical Civ3 standard game, where most of the area is discovered by scouts and roaming units long before the AD portion of the game. Sometimes this area is even completely settled by then.
Of course not every civ has the total knowledge unless it traded in all maps, but nevertheless during the non modern eras there is not a sufficient amount of 'terra incognita' where no man ..um.. unit has gone before (where did I catch that phrase?
).This is IMHO totally unrealistic. So I basically have two proposals to amend that situation.
First of all units should have the additional (editable) feature of 'range'. This would be the maximum distance from it's supporting point (usually its supporting city) it is allowed to move. If you choose a border city for that purpose your unit should be able to set out beyond your border in unknown or foreign territory but not further than its range. The range would increase with every more modern unit and at some point (of time) would be virtually infinite for many of the units.
To allow for warfare on foreign grounds, as well as discovery missions by sea, the supporting points as the origin for unit range measurement could be transferred to mobile facilities (units, essentially).
A supply unit that does not fight but allows for penetrating deep into enemy terrain would allow for more realistic tactical problems during war situations, for you will lose all units tied to the supply unit(s) if the enemy succeeds in destroying or interrupting your supply line (that would be represented by a chain of supply units from your homeland to the battlefield to increase range in large area warfare).
As far as sea exploration is concerned the transporting ship would be the supply point from which the range of transported units is measured. That means unless you don't found cities on newly discovered continents you'll not get much knowledge of the interior, only of the near costal area. In the ancient era the range should be so small that settlements naturally concentrate along the coast and the easily accessible parts of the map. Rough terrain would be unveiled at much slower rate.
To really ensure that, my idea no. 2 concerns the feature of terrain passabilty, which is now only represented by the movement points you need to expend in order to cross it. Every terrain should have an (editable) base chance of losing a unit due to its natural hostility just like triremes in ocean tiles. This base number could be combined with the unit range in a formula that returns the definite chance of losing the unit if it ends movement in that terrain (which is likely if it has a high movement cost) . So older units that have lower range would also have higher chances of getting lost. This would ensure very cautious expansion into hostile terrain in early eras. Roads should improve passability a lot, and there could be pioneer units that have the intrinsic ability of being considerably less prone to getting lost if still within the civs border or adjacent to a road improved tile, so they could drive roads into heavy terrain to improve expansion into it, but such road construction would take considerably longer than normal road building. At some era the units would have such big range values that the chance of getting lost in heavy terain would fall to zero. Also the
'treats x as roads' ability would diminish that risk as the tiles would be treated as if they had roads on them, which by the above mentioned formula (yet to be set) provides a much reduced risk of losing the crossing unit, not to mention that because of the road it might not have to stop on dangerous grounds at all.
So far my suggestions for more realistic amounts of 'terra incognita'. They also provide some clues for
improving tactical options in other areas of the game, too.
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