"Secretary of Defense"

[jrhughes98]

I think that the Military Adivisor in Civ2 is just plain stupid! I mean you can have your military in perfect working order and your "Secretary of Defense" still says "Let's go bonk some heads!" Well, I think your military advisor should be a bit more wise when war is not appropriate in Civ3, or just not sensible. For example, your Military Advisor will take into consideration such issues as the strength of your enemies, the distance other civs' cities are from your own cities (are they or are they not easily accessible), and whether or not certain units from other civs are crossing your border(s).

[UltraSonix]

What you say is of course correct, but I think would be quite hard to implement.

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No, in Australia we don't live with kangaroos and koalas in our backyards... Despite any stupid advertisments you may see to the contrary...

[Tim White]

I agree that he should be more, "smart".

[jrhughes98]

quote: Originally posted by UltraSonix on 10-24-2000 10:35 PM What you say is of course correct, but I think would be quite hard to implement.

Don't underestimate the power of programming, my friend. Computers, and programmers, can do some amazing things these days. All you need is the right algorithm, and BOOM!!! There she blows!. . .

[phoenixcager]

quote: Originally posted by jrhughes98 on 10-24-2000 09:08 PM I think that the Military Adivisor in Civ2 is just plain stupid! I mean you can have your military in perfect working order and your "Secretary of Defense" still says "Let's go bonk some heads!" Well, I think your military advisor should be a bit more wise when war is not appropriate in Civ3, or just not sensible.

Yup! It's like crying wolf!
I made the silly mistake, when I first started playing, to take the council's views into consideration. I soon wised up and switched it off.

quote: For example, your Military Advisor will take into consideration such issues as the strength of your enemies, the distance other civs' cities are from your own cities (are they or are they not easily accessible), and whether or not certain units from other civs are crossing your border(s).

Yeah THAT would be good!
Even saying who to attack would be better than the way it is now.

[rremus]

What if instead of suggesting a decision for you, it would provide you with info to help you make a correct decision?
Like the 'Check inteligence', but from military point of view:
- Provide you with the information of Military Advisor: how many units you have, which types etc.
- Provide you with a diplomatic status of other civs: you're at WAR with Romans and Greeks, at peace with Americans and allied with Mongols. also, inform you about alliances against you.
- Tehcnological status of enemies (from a military point of view): inform you what units the enemy can produce but you cannot and vice-versa.
- Estimate militar power of the enemies: How many enemy units are visible on the map, are there any enemy units near you border etc
- Similar info about neutral and alliend civs. You can never know what they're up to!
Also, specific info about the city in question:
- Distance from borders. Tell you how many turns would need the fastes enemy unit to reach the city? To tell you this, it should consider roads and railroads.
- 'Inteligence' info. If you have an embassy with a civ, it could warn you that certain civ is moving its units toward this city (That would be cool! ). Maybe this would first require some advance, like Spy.
- Estimate the number of attackers the city can defend: a simple aritmetic operation of summing the defence points of all the units stationed in the city and multiply them with the defence bonus offered by City Walls, Coastal Fortress etc. Detailed in Ground Attack, Sea Attack, Air Attack. It should be compared with a 'Target' Value (maybe you could set this?) and tell you 'This city it cannot resist an attack made by 3 enemy units. We need a City Wall'.
- Show the 'budget' required by the City defense: totals shields consumed byt defending units, totals costs of improvements. Again, compare it with a target value you can set. This value should, of course, take into account the size of the city and its strategic importance (e.g. how many active wonders are in the city). The Military Advisor should have more 'nerve' if it's see that the defense is under the budget . Maybe he could look at defense 'budgets' of other cities within you empire! If the current city has a smaller 'budget' compared to similar cities, the Military Advisor would show up

[Tiberius]

These are extremly good ideas, Remus.

If the AI is too dumb to give you advices, it'll be much better to give you precious informations instead of that stupid "Let's bonk some heads".

[Marcel I]

Good idea’s, I liked his drunk behaviour though

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Adopt, Adapt and Improve

[rremus]

Right, we don't need an Advisor to tell us to tack our enemies! Or our allies, there's no difference anyway... We'll do it anyway, that's why we're playing for!

[Biddles]

The funny thing is, that in the western democracies, the military command is usually the last people to advocate the use of force. These people know that those soldiers are real people who will get killed and so they tend to prefer the use of other methods (hence special forces). If we were basing this on reality it would be the chief of staff/politiacal advisor that would be saying "quick, start a war, we need a distraction."


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- Biddles

"Now that our life-support systems are utilising the new Windows 2027 OS, we don't have to worry about anythi......."
Mars Colonizer Mission

[Shogun Gunner]

rremus, you got a lot of great ideas! You should go bonk some heads!