Unorthodox Units

[valmont]

What do you think of these road construction units?

[Boco]

Originally posted by valmont
The player would then see a text message with something like "The mechanic installed new spark plugs!"

Could also have a few nasty operators, "water leached into gas", which actually slow down your road warrior.

Units are nize!

[valmont]

Here are city designs for the gas station and auto repair shop. The gas stations were originally called "Quik-Stop", then I changed the name to "Pit Stop". I wanted to give the garage a clever name, but I couldn't think of one. "Mercury's Heel" wouldn't fit on the sign.

Edit: do you think the canopy over the gas pumps should be higher?

[Broken_Erika]

feel free to use these
mabe you could have angry driver units that you have to avoid,

[valmont]

Thanks, BE.

Boco, nice idea but mean! You already lose your vet status when you upgrade.

Here's my ideas for the various upgrades you can get for the car.

Honda 1: Player starts with this car. Basically a Musketeer (3a,3d,2h,1f) with added pikeman defense bonus & 2 space visibility (But maybe it should start with higher defense, maybe 5 or 6?)
Honda 2: Honda 1, plus +1a, +1d
Honda 3: Honda 2, plus +1 movement
Honda 4: Honda 3, plus +1a, +1d, plus ignores zone of control
Honda 5: Honda 4, plus +1a, +1d, plus AEGIS defense bonus
Honda 6: Honda 5, plus +1hp, plus alpine ability ("all-terrain vehicle")

Do you think this is a logical progression? I don't think it will be possible for the player to get all 5 upgrades in a single game, so I tried to spread out the benefits evenly.

[Elok]

Well, some ideas:

*Snag ("kill") drinking-buddy passengers en route for a future tech bonus (+5 score).

*Combine Leonardo with the opportunity to build Darwin's Voyage at some point, and a fundamentalist gov't. with no research, to limit expansion to a few customized options. E.g., make a tech tree of a Basic car, which can change to car A or car B (Musketeer slot). Car A then goes through a similar branch via the Knight slot (I think that works, maybe SL veterans can help you here), or Car B can be super-advanced to yet another type. Because you're only given two research options per game, you have to choose one of three paths of upgrade and stick with it. You might be able to work out something more with the Philosophy slot, or add non-unit bonuses via some other techs (discover mysticism, get extra spending money via temples in every pit stop, or else discover another tech that gives you some minor wonder, or grant another unit/bonus by events when a tech is discovered).

*The car is a naval unit, which carries a passenger air unit. The car is faster and tougher but only moves on roads, while the passenger can handle any terrain as a helicopter. If the car gets wrecked you can buy taxis to replace it, but they take support and aren't as strong or fast. With a "naval" car you can take advantage of Nuclear Fission, Lighthouse and Magellan.

*Make the driver a diplomat, so he can only move while OFF the roads but has the ability to bribe the taxis to use them instead of buying at a gas station, or bribe other enemies if he gets desperate. As in, "here, construction crew, take twenty bucks and get the hell out of my way!"

I hope some of those are useful.

[valmont]

Originally posted by Elok

I hope some of those are useful.

Hell yes! You've thought of some really clever, sneaky applications of the game mechanics. Thanks!

Your car upgrading scheme is dazzling!!!

Rats, I was hoping to get away without writing a new tech tree! *starts up note pad*

[Elok]

You're quite welcome; remember, every legitimate post I make is one post closer to a custom avatar for me, so we both win. I used to work on scenarios myself, but only finished one before I realized that I'm too frigging lazy to put that much effort into a hobby. I might get around to finishing Civ-Battleship, but then that's an absurdly simple scenario. So anybody who wants to cannibalize an idea of mine is welcome.

But I need to make one correction to myself-it's nuclear POWER that gives ships a move bonus, not fission. Fission just lets you build nukes. And don't forget that the lighthouse will also kill any planned trireme-type limit if you still want to integrate that.

And I'm not sure if the knight and musketeer slots will work with non-land units either, so that's a kick in the pants if you're planning on combining my ideas.

[valmont]

I've pretty firmly decided to use land units for the car in order to take advantage of the ability to charge different move costs for different terrain, and to allow the road/river bonus to be a factor.

Here's my first crack at how movement will work:

Road Multiplier = 2
Highways represented by rivers

Movement costs for terrain:
pavement = 1
dirt road = 2
grass, plains = 3
hill, cornfield = 4
all others = 5

The basic car will get 2 movement, so 4 on highways.

[:) Smiley]

This looks like it'll be a great scenario!

[valmont]

OK, here's my first attempt at working out the car upgrade progression and stats for each model (quibbles and suggestions welcome!):

1. Basic car
moves 2 (x 2 = 4 on roads)
att 3
def 3

Choose between upgrade to either Defense or Speed:

2.A Defender:
moves 2 (x 2 = 4 on roads)
att 5
def 7
x2 defense vs. Horse

3.A Speeder:
moves 4 (x 2 = 8 on roads)
att 4
def 5


Defender upgrades to the super defense option:

2.B "the Hulk":
moves 3 (x 2 = 6 on roads)
att 6
def 10
x2 defense vs. Air
x2 defense vs. Horse


Speedy upgrades to either super speed or evasive option:

3.B "Greased Lightning"
moves 6 (x 2 = 12 on roads)
att 4 or 5
def 6
[x2 defense vs. Air (AEGIS)]?

3.C "Phantom"
At first I wanted to give this car invisibility, but then it can't attack ground units. [But then again would that be so bad? The idea of this car is not to attack but to evade. Thoughts?]

moves 4 (x 2 = 8 on roads)
att 6
def 6
see 2 spaces
Ignore Zone of Control
Alpine


Elok, if I understand your idea, Philosophy will let the player select between the first two options. To get the second opportunity to select, they will have to build Darwin's.

If they choose the Hulk then there is no further branching, so I should probably give them something else they can build instead.

discover mysticism, get extra spending money via temples in every pit stop

I don't follow. Are you saying plunder is increased by presence of a temple in captured city?

I love the idea of getting bonus movement with sea units, but since they can't leave the sea then if the player encountered a roadblock he would have no choice but to attack it.

"Civ-Battleship" - as in, "G-4." "You sank my battleship!"?

[valmont]

Originally posted by Smiley
This looks like it'll be a great scenario!

Thanks Smiley! The pros are coming up with great ideas.

Btw, can I use some of your & Curt's city graphics as terrain?

[curtsibling]

Totally cool work on those vehicles!

[valmont]

Can anyone help with the text to accompany the upgrades? All I know about cars is where to insert the fuel and the oil.

[valmont]

I've tested the givetech event with Philosophy and found that it works slightly differently than when you research Phil. You do not see any message that you have discovered Phil. Instead the window where you select the next tech to research just opens. You select, go on with your turn. Then that tech is received on the following turn. You do not see the "Golden Age" message at all.

This means choosing your upgrade path will be a bit clunky, as you will be able to leave the garage before your car has been upgraded.

My difficulties getting cityTaken to work actually led me to an interesting idea. I was puzzled about how to keep the player on the upgrade path he has chosen, and I think I have a solution. I am going to try a trick where a unit is created that will act as a flag. After the initial selection between speed and defense, a receivedtech event will create a zero-move defender in every garage. These units can never be built, they only appear thru this event. If you choose the Speed upgrades, one type of defender will be created (the "0" state); if you choose Defense, a different type of defender will be created (the "1" state). This way, the next time the player takes a garage, a unitkilled event can give the appropriate tech for the upgrade path the player has chosen. I haven't tested this yet, but I can't see why it shouldn't work.