I have been thinking about the possibility of modelling Equipment in a more developed way. At the moment the concept of equipment has been mixed in with Promotions so we have some promotions which represent increased training, ability and experience and some which represent better equipment, e.g.

Suspensor disruptors 1. +20% vs suspensor units
Suspensor disruptors 2. +20% vs suspensor units
Improved shields 1 +20% vs guardsmen units
Improved shields 2 +20% vs guardsmen units
Armor-piercing rounds 1. +20% vs vehicles
Armor-piercing rounds 2. +20% vs vehicles
Anti-aircraft rockets 1. +20% vs thopters, +20% vs hornets
Anti-aircraft rockets 2. +20% vs thopters, +20% vs hornets

Two potential new ways of implementing equipment:

1) Keep Equipment as regular Promotions and create Equipment units corresponding to each Equipment promotion which can be purchased from the Homeworld screen. The graphic for this Equipment unit would just be a crate or something like that. The Equipment crate unit cannot move after it is purchased (maybe). Any unit which is in the city with the Equipment crate can click a button to 'pick up' the Equipment promotion, provided they are eligible for that promotion.

2) In Dom Pedro's recently released Test of Time mod. Equipment is modelled as a separate entity in the game. See his player guide (http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=229457&d=1254248116), pages 12-13 for an overview, 29-30 for the XML spec. A few examples:

Torpedoes (Fighter) +150% vs. Sea; -50% vs. Air & Land; -50% Interception
Machine Gun (Fighter) +50% vs. Air
Rockets (Fighter) +50% vs. Armor -25% Interception
Anti-Air Defenses (Bomber) +25% vs. Air; -5% Air Bomb Rate
Heavy Armor (Armor) +25% Combat Str; +10% vs. Armor

It may be possible to extract the SDK code for this Equipment stuff, or ask him whether he can release the Equipment component as a seperate modcomp which we can merge into Dune Wars.

Thoughts?

hi buddy,

thats actually a really cool idea!

perhaps you can extract the equipment from fall from hevens sdk, they got something like this aswell.

really cool , this will allow you to use and improve your units for a longer peroid of time.

I would be very wary about implementing such a system.

a) Potentially it makes the rock-paper-scissors system too much; if units can specialize even more than they currently can, then it makes defense too easy, since the best stack defender (ie the most specialized) already defends.
b) The AI will do a poor job of using it; it won't know which equipment to buy, where to do it, which units to give it to.
c) It reduces the relative value of higher experience units and buildings and civics that boost unit experience, because it lets you get similar types of bonuses.

I see no real design gain; I strongly suggest that any improved equipment type bonuses be built into the existing XP/promotion/level gain system. That system works well; the AI understands it, and it has good incentives for preserving and upgrading units and investing in infrastructure that boost xp.

You can use and improve your units for a long period of time by upgrading them. They don't need equipment to do that.

Regular equipment exists in FFH and it works well, but these are rare items mostly on heroes. And the heroes start with their equipment.
Purchased equipment is something that Fall Further added, but there it just ends up making clutter.

mmm what about the hero system that was mentioned a while back -maybe with equipment we can improve the heroes?

I have no particular gameplay problem with FFH style equipment for heroes.... but I don't really think that they fit the Dune universe very well.

Traditional fantasy environments, like Lord of the Rings or Warhammer Fantasy, have individual heroes with magical equipment who are incredibly powerful, and can wipe out huge numbers of enemies singlehandedly.

Thats really not how Dune works. The characters in Dune are *politically* important, but they aren't really important in warfare. They can't fight large numbers of enemies, and their presence isn't really very important leadership-wise for warfare either. When the Harkonnens invade Dune, the baron (or Rabban or Feyd) aren't really leading the forces; they leave that to the officers and then show up once its over. Similarly during Paul's assault, he makes a plan but he isn't very directly involved. Shaddam isn't really directing his defense; he leaves that to the Sardaukar officers.

So I really don't think that Heroes are something that we really need for this mod at all, and I don't think that "magical artifact" type equipment fits the setting very well either.

It would be like making political leaders in a modern earth mod into in-game heroes. WW2 doesn't need a Hitler unit that is a powerful tank or a Churchill unit with a powerful fighter unit, each with their own unique Equipment items (microphone +2!).