Patch idea: healer

[muxec]

First: add new worker action "repair". It restores HP of mechanical units.
Second: make a new unit "healer" (medicine required) with action "treat" that restores HP of foot and horse units.

[FrantzX]

[ - Couldn't delete post - ]

[zulu9812]

makes workers too powerful, since it essentially replaces a Small Wonder (Battlefield Medicine) and the units in question won't have to miss a turn. Like I said, too powerful.

[vondrack]

no healers, please

Well, with units like healers, we might soon be seeing mages, improving their spells throughout ages... sounds like a bit of RPG to me...

But seriously - I agree with Zulu, this would unbalance the whole game a lot.

[dunk]

Interesting notion.

I think the second way is the way to go. A specific unit named "Medic" or "Resupply Squad" so that Vondrack doesn't think he's playing D&D.

Make them available with medicine. Make them require gold per HP and maybe 2 turns / HP to repair a unit in the field.

Battlefield Medicine Wonder doubles, triples the rate or halves, thirds the cost.

However, their usefulness may be dubious since I always rush a barracks in a conquered city close to the enemy for unit repair. I don't see how this could unbalance the game as everyone can build them.

EDIT: Better yet, make them available with replaceable parts. And a sea version is just fine with me as well.

[publius]

i think this would set things off balance, but i've thought for a long time that a repair ship would be useful... ships don't repair themselves in neutral territory like ground units, and it would be cool if you had a way to repair them at sea.

[vondrack]

Originally posted by publius
However, their usefulness may be dubious since I always rush a barracks in a conquered city close to the enemy for unit repair. I don't see how this could unbalance the game as everyone can build them.

As for the imbalance... I was commenting the Zulu's comment on workers. Imagine launching a major attack on a stronghold of your enemy. After your units take some damage, they gain the control of the city and you immediately rush in loads of workers, repairing every single unit to full health... gives the poor enemy a very small chance of counterattacking successfully. I believe the way it is now, it is okay - you have to plan ahead and have some reserves to throw in, not just columns of workers...

Originally posted by publius
i think this would set things off balance, but i've thought for a long time that a repair ship would be useful... ships don't repair themselves in neutral territory like ground units, and it would be cool if you had a way to repair them at sea.

Yup, for the naval counterparts of healers (well... uh... healer ships, right...), you would have my full support. A new unit called, say, a supply ship (available at the same time as Destroyers), would provide the "healing" of 1 HP to any friendly vessel stationed in the same tile for an entire turn. That would be cool. And not a threat to the game balance, I think.

[ShredZ]

But when you do counter attack and succeed you will have captured all his workers. Seems like a fair trade.

[dunk]

The healers don't have to be workers. They can be untis that cost 80 sheilds to build. That was his second idea. If the healing units are expensive, then they would be balanced, IMO.

[muxec]

The game MilitariZm" ( http://militarizm.tora.ru ) each unit have fuel/ammo and fuel/ammo capacity. In this game we have two units "tech supply" , and "floating base" that repair and refuel units.

[muxec]

Ok medicine allows healers and replaceable parts allow tech supply

[Jon Shafer]

I definitely think there ought to be a better way for units to 'heal'. Armies in real life just don't idle in some mountains and instantly go back to full strength. It takes money, equipment and manpower to reinforce formations, and I feel that this is another woefully 'dumed down' part of Civ 3. However, that won't ever change, so I'll quit complaining about it.