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Proposed modifications for demo 3 - Opinions Requested
Proposed modifications for demo 3
There are two big things that are going to become available in demo 3.
The first is real movement of military units ;-)
The second is naval units.
I have a fair idea of what I'd like to do to implement these, but I thought I would put my ideas up and see what interested parties think. I hope if anyone's violently opposed to these ideas, that they'll see this soon. I'm going to start coding this up tomorrow.
1) The player will move units on the board in the normal fashion found in Civ games.
A) Movement will still be simultaneous (which is the final plan).
B) Although the player's units will move on the ground, the AI units will still teleport as in demo 2. I simply can't put together a credible AI with normal movement in a short period of time. To compensate somewhat for the disadvantage that the player will be at, I will give the player perfect domestic tranquility. The people will never require garrisons to be happy while the player uses "normal" movement. If you turn your civ over to the AI, garrisons will be required as for the other AIs. If the player requires further advantages to make up for the lack of teleportation, I'll do something further as required.
C) Land units will be able to move two squares per turn on friendly territory. This is to help simulate the presence of a road network and pre-positioned supplies at home. If any part of movement would in any way involve a non-home square, then the movement available will be reduced to 1. Eventually units arriving at a battle with less than full movement points will be penalized in terms of which phase of the battle they can participate in. In demo 3 I anticipate having everyone fight all three phases provided they get there by the end of the turn.
D) Task forces can now only be formed when all the units are together in the same square.
E) I will use a move queue for the TFs like in civ, and use the same key commands like spacebar for hold, s for sleep, w for wait, etc.
F) I will try to get a decent goto command implemented, but no promises...
2) Naval Task Forces
A) Player will have control of what percentage of boats vs. land units are produced.
B) Boats can carry two land units. The boats are supposed to simulate triremes.
C) Task forces can contain arbitrary mixtures of land and naval units. However, only task forces with adequate naval/army ratio (1:2 or less) can go to sea. Task forces containing naval units cannot move inland. Note: the AI isn't smart enough to handle this distinction. The AI's boats can move and fight anywhere. However, the AI cannot attack a square that can only be reached by boat unless it has an adequate number of naval units in the attack.
D) A task force moving by sea can move two squares per turn. If the task force ends its turn at sea, all units in the task force lose 1/2 their strength permanently. This limits the effective range of naval operations to two squares. This is much more historically accurate than what is done in Civ. For most of history, landing operations with any more than token forces have been limited to something like a hundred miles from friendly territory.
E) Navy and army power are considered equivalent in terms of combat. Eventually under some circumstances there will be asymmetry in the way the types attack each other, but not now. Presently the only difference between naval and army units will come into play when a landing is contested. More about how a landing becomes contested in F.
F) Friendly task forces capable of moving at sea can attempt to Contest an enemy landing. For demo 3 this will be handled in a crude fashion. Friendly naval TFs adjacent to the site of the invasion (and those already there) will automatically contest the invasion unless involved in an attack of their own. Friendly naval TFs contesting a landing would normally meet opposing naval TFs at sea. I will instead kludge together a simulation of this. My idea is that if the forces contesting the landing have a superiority in naval power, that for the first phase of the combat, the power of naval units should be twice normal. This will crudely simulate the sea battle before the landing.
Well, that's the outline of what I plan to do so far. Opinions welcome!
[This message has been edited by Mark_Everson (edited October 24, 1999).]
There are two big things that are going to become available in demo 3.
The first is real movement of military units ;-)
The second is naval units.
I have a fair idea of what I'd like to do to implement these, but I thought I would put my ideas up and see what interested parties think. I hope if anyone's violently opposed to these ideas, that they'll see this soon. I'm going to start coding this up tomorrow.
1) The player will move units on the board in the normal fashion found in Civ games.
A) Movement will still be simultaneous (which is the final plan).
B) Although the player's units will move on the ground, the AI units will still teleport as in demo 2. I simply can't put together a credible AI with normal movement in a short period of time. To compensate somewhat for the disadvantage that the player will be at, I will give the player perfect domestic tranquility. The people will never require garrisons to be happy while the player uses "normal" movement. If you turn your civ over to the AI, garrisons will be required as for the other AIs. If the player requires further advantages to make up for the lack of teleportation, I'll do something further as required.
C) Land units will be able to move two squares per turn on friendly territory. This is to help simulate the presence of a road network and pre-positioned supplies at home. If any part of movement would in any way involve a non-home square, then the movement available will be reduced to 1. Eventually units arriving at a battle with less than full movement points will be penalized in terms of which phase of the battle they can participate in. In demo 3 I anticipate having everyone fight all three phases provided they get there by the end of the turn.
D) Task forces can now only be formed when all the units are together in the same square.
E) I will use a move queue for the TFs like in civ, and use the same key commands like spacebar for hold, s for sleep, w for wait, etc.
F) I will try to get a decent goto command implemented, but no promises...
2) Naval Task Forces
A) Player will have control of what percentage of boats vs. land units are produced.
B) Boats can carry two land units. The boats are supposed to simulate triremes.
C) Task forces can contain arbitrary mixtures of land and naval units. However, only task forces with adequate naval/army ratio (1:2 or less) can go to sea. Task forces containing naval units cannot move inland. Note: the AI isn't smart enough to handle this distinction. The AI's boats can move and fight anywhere. However, the AI cannot attack a square that can only be reached by boat unless it has an adequate number of naval units in the attack.
D) A task force moving by sea can move two squares per turn. If the task force ends its turn at sea, all units in the task force lose 1/2 their strength permanently. This limits the effective range of naval operations to two squares. This is much more historically accurate than what is done in Civ. For most of history, landing operations with any more than token forces have been limited to something like a hundred miles from friendly territory.
E) Navy and army power are considered equivalent in terms of combat. Eventually under some circumstances there will be asymmetry in the way the types attack each other, but not now. Presently the only difference between naval and army units will come into play when a landing is contested. More about how a landing becomes contested in F.
F) Friendly task forces capable of moving at sea can attempt to Contest an enemy landing. For demo 3 this will be handled in a crude fashion. Friendly naval TFs adjacent to the site of the invasion (and those already there) will automatically contest the invasion unless involved in an attack of their own. Friendly naval TFs contesting a landing would normally meet opposing naval TFs at sea. I will instead kludge together a simulation of this. My idea is that if the forces contesting the landing have a superiority in naval power, that for the first phase of the combat, the power of naval units should be twice normal. This will crudely simulate the sea battle before the landing.
Well, that's the outline of what I plan to do so far. Opinions welcome!
[This message has been edited by Mark_Everson (edited October 24, 1999).]
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