Expansion Ideas: Policeman Unit

[Tadaas]

I love Civ 4 and it is a fantastic improvement in the game. One of the items I would like to eliminate is the battle between the archer and the modern tank. This is unrealistic. Civ 4 at least fixed it so that the tank would always win.

I would like to introduce the policeman unit, and warriors, archers, crossbowmen, … would upgrade to it.

Some potential traits of the policeman:

1) Can only be created after discovery of gunpowder and constitution

2) Mounted (not cavalry), all archers, scout, all melee, & catapults units upgrade to it.

3a) All units have a common very low upgrade cost to policeman, maybe 25 gold
or
3b) Build the police academy national wonder in one city and all of your units in 2) above automatically upgrade to the policeman

4) Would keep previous promotions

5) A defensive-only gunpowder unit with the power a little bit less than the musketman.

6) Could also be made in the city as a normal unit; cost would be around a musketman and would remain as a unit option to the end of the game.

7) Provides the full benefit of a military unit in the city.

8) Has a lower support cost than normal military units maybe 2:1.

9) Could help with war weariness in the city.

10) Could be later upgraded to musketman - mech infantry, SAM, or machine gun but the cost would be very high ~450 gold.

11) Like the worker unit could have two unit appearances, the first would be a Victorian-Era policeman with a revolver, later in the industrial age the unit would look like a modern–day policeman with an automatic pistol.

[Daryl]

I think those tech requirements are too early...the first organized civilian police forces were from around 1830 or so, I believe, and they didn't really catch on for another 50 years or so. Gunpowder shouldn't be a requirement, considering how the oldest police force has traditionally not used firearms until rather recently.

[Datajack Franit]

of course they must be armed! how are they supposed to shoot down the protestors?

[Urban Ranger]

Just add Police Power to a military unit

[Enigma_Nova]

Wrong game, UR. =]

[Senethro]

It somehow feels right and proper though.

[Nikolai]

I can't see why we should have a police man unit in the game. The units in Civ is always military based or for building your civ, like settlers and workers. Police men would as I see it be covered in the happiness model. And having policemen fight in the front lines would be silly...

[Tattila the Hun]

Originally posted by Daryl
I think those tech requirements are too early...the first organized civilian police forces were from around 1830 or so, I believe, and they didn't really catch on for another 50 years or so. Gunpowder shouldn't be a requirement, considering how the oldest police force has traditionally not used firearms until rather recently.

I thought the romans had "police", prefects or something...



I rather like the idea, but would think a National Guard, Volksturm, or similar would be better. A military unit, but not the A-grade frontline type. Draftees, home defence, Home Guard, reserve... Armed rable.
First civ had the basic, first unit as "militia". That would be good general name for these units... Warrior in modern times sounds like something from Galactica.

[bohica]

3b) Build the police academy national wonder in one city and all of your units in

Mahoney!

Yeah, I could go for that.

Mark.

[Tadaas]

My main goal here is to turn those tired 2500 year old warriors, archers, ... into something more useful but does not have all the power of a full offensive unit.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Enigma_Nova
Wrong game, UR. =]

One can always hope

Maybe Civ 5?

[Drachasor]

It would be better if you could combine units together to form a modern unit. This lowers your upkeep cost and isn't overpowered (if, for instance, the total cost of the combined units has to equal the cost of the gained unit). The problem with a lot of weak units is that they cost just as much to keep as more powerful units.

Another idea along similar lines is "refitting" a unit. Basically you take the unit to a city with a barracks (or drydock, depending) and you give it a "refit" command. The unit disappears and on the City's build queue is "Refit X to Y" (X being the name of the unit and 'Y' being the unit it is going to become). Basically this would be like upgrading with gold except a city would pay the difference in production of the two units (perhaps with a small additional cost). The unit keeps all of its experience as per a normal upgrade.

-Drachasor

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Drachasor
Basically this would be like upgrading with gold except a city would pay the difference in production of the two units (perhaps with a small additional cost). The unit keeps all of its experience as per a normal upgrade.

Great idea.

Reminds me of MoO 2

[Tadaas]

Originally posted by Drachasor

Another idea along similar lines is "refitting" a unit. Basically you take the unit to a city with a barracks (or drydock, depending) and you give it a "refit" command. The unit disappears and on the City's build queue is "Refit X to Y" (X being the name of the unit and 'Y' being the unit it is going to become).

Drachasor, I like this idea it seems very fair. So when you select a unit in a city with a barracks it has a pair of upgrade buttons for each unit it can upgrade too. One has a gold coin overlayed in the lower right corner and the other has a city icon overlay. Once you click the city upgrade (shift-click and ctrl-click would work to put it at the beginning or end of the que) the unit is consumed and it is in the que. If you remove it from the que it is just like any other unit or building removed from the que...the city remembers how much is needed to finish and you could start it later. The city also has to keep track of the promotions.

[Bluefusion]

Excellent idea. I hate it when I'm in the modern era and I still have archers sitting on half my cities. It's nearly impossible to upgrade when it's around 300 a pop.

but----

Since in Civ you can only produce one thing at a time, should upgrading take up the production line or just deviate some resources?

I'd prefer to see it deviate hammers.

Referring back to the original idea of a police unit. I'd say it really is an externality to the game.

Now a police station, like in Civ 3 would be beneficial. Perhaps another maintenance reducer akin to the Civ3 police station's war weariness/corruption reducer.