Vokarya's Workshop: Units

Why not steal from Civ5 and call it the Giant Death Robot?

jackelgull said:

Why not steal from Civ5 and call it the Giant Death Robot?

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Not likely, for two reasons. A: the real Giant Death Robot would be the Assault Mech (see attached screenshot, Assault Mech is on the left, Hi-Tech Robot is on the right) and B: I think Giant Death Robot is pretty ridiculous as a name. I've been fighting to purge overly long names as much as I can.

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I like Warbot or Warmech or Sentinel either.
Sentinel Warmech is too long and Giant Death Robot is just LOL (no offence jackelgull )

The model always reminded me a genie or ghost, so haw about specter+robot= Spectrebot
I even found a nice artwork that looks similar

Or simply "Spectre", if it looks like one. We don't need to name cars with "car" in the name, so I imagine that ubiquitous robotics will be exactly the same.

Now that I've seen the unit, I do agree that Ghost Wraith or something similar seems like a better fit for it.

Accidentally stumbled upon this little "mod": Shudra

This mod simply renames the Indian Unique Unit from the 'Fast Worker' (which had unfortunate implications regarding Indian stereotypes) to the 'Shudra', which was historically the term used for the labourers and lowest caste in the Varna (the Indian class/caste system). I guess that isn't much of an improvement, but at least this renaming has some merit in history. If anyone has a better suggestion for a name, please let me know.

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Maybe Shudra would be a better name than Fast Worker indeed.

I remember in rise from erebus modmod, there was an assassin unit that could attack the weakest unit in a stack. I was wondering if the Jeep and later recon units could gain this ability since that is what they would primarily be used for- mopping up already weakened units. Or would it be too much of a hassle to add this ability? Because currently, I have only found one good use for the Jeep- it can keep with my helicopters to capture cleared out cities.

jackelgull said:

I remember in rise from erebus modmod, there was an assassin unit that could attack the weakest unit in a stack. I was wondering if the Jeep and later recon units could gain this ability since that is what they would primarily be used for- mopping up already weakened units. Or would it be too much of a hassle to add this ability? Because currently, I have only found one good use for the Jeep- it can keep with my helicopters to capture cleared out cities.

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A use for those weak recon' units I had in mind to develop (because it would just use existing mechanics so should be easy), would be something along these lines: very high withdrawal chance, and some amount of flanking damage, to a very limited number of units. To me, this would represent a careful, but limited, attack and subsequent withdrawal of the fast but fragile Jeep unit. I don't know whether the computer would ever use it, whether it knows about withdraw chance in deciding whether or not to attack.

Cheers, A.

I'm thinking about moving one of the Archer +1 strength increases from Mathematics to Siege Warfare. Archers get a couple of Strength bonuses throughout the tech tree because I see them as the primary city defense units and I don't want them to fall behind as Light Swordsmen and Swordsmen appear before Archers upgrade to Longbowmen. I also don't want to create a separate Classical Era Archery unit just for that. On the other hand, I see a definite window of offensive opportunity between the appearance of Swordsmen and the appearance of Longbowmen and if Archers are only Strength 4, that's too big a window. What do you think?

Vokarya said:

I'm thinking about moving one of the Archer +1 strength increases from Mathematics to Siege Warfare. Archers get a couple of Strength bonuses throughout the tech tree because I see them as the primary city defense units and I don't want them to fall behind as Light Swordsmen and Swordsmen appear before Archers upgrade to Longbowmen. I also don't want to create a separate Classical Era Archery unit just for that. On the other hand, I see a definite window of offensive opportunity between the appearance of Swordsmen and the appearance of Longbowmen and if Archers are only Strength 4, that's too big a window. What do you think?

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It's ok to me

Vokarya said:

I'm thinking about moving one of the Archer +1 strength increases from Mathematics to Siege Warfare. Archers get a couple of Strength bonuses throughout the tech tree because I see them as the primary city defense units and I don't want them to fall behind as Light Swordsmen and Swordsmen appear before Archers upgrade to Longbowmen. I also don't want to create a separate Classical Era Archery unit just for that. On the other hand, I see a definite window of offensive opportunity between the appearance of Swordsmen and the appearance of Longbowmen and if Archers are only Strength 4, that's too big a window. What do you think?

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I actually made that very same change to my last installation, before I ran into the suicidal defenders AI bug. Strength 5 at Mathematics makes archers too strong a bit too early. With Siege Warfare, there should be plenty of counters to break fortified archers.

A good change indeed!

Vokarya said:

I'm thinking about moving one of the Archer +1 strength increases from Mathematics to Siege Warfare. Archers get a couple of Strength bonuses throughout the tech tree because I see them as the primary city defense units and I don't want them to fall behind as Light Swordsmen and Swordsmen appear before Archers upgrade to Longbowmen. I also don't want to create a separate Classical Era Archery unit just for that. On the other hand, I see a definite window of offensive opportunity between the appearance of Swordsmen and the appearance of Longbowmen and if Archers are only Strength 4, that's too big a window. What do you think?

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I always missed a Composite Longbow tech, but this change will nullify this feeling in me, as Composite Longbow can be viewed as part of Siege Warfare.

Hi, I used to play a few years ago when this mod was almost dead, unfortunately real life had me quitting for a while. Now that I have again time to spare for Civ I stated where I left, with this wonderful mod. I was really happy to find it "resurrected" and really wanted to thank all the resurrection team.

Now, I'm also writing since I have a few questions about units:

1) from what I read here Jeep was still useful in modern era, with Sat revealed map and planes exploring missions, because they have extended sight and make good Medic promoted unit to attach to stacks. But, from my actual experience Jeep cannot get Medic line promotions, and the civilopedia entry confirm this. Is this something that will change in the future or will it remain like this?

2) naval bombardment only lower city defenses but do not damage any unit, correct? (wasn't vanilla game like this?)

3) back in my days (LOL) we use to be allowed to build the mobile rocket launcher AND the light artillery in modern era, with the latter being weaker but with no upkeep cost associated. Now I see that there is no "free" option for siege weapon in modern era, what kind of problem did it cause? AI making poor decisions about?

4) I've also noted that warlords, guerrilla/mercenaries units and transport heli have been removed from the game, I guess that, despite them being cool ideas, poor AI had no clues how to properly use them, has it?

Before anybody answer I'd just like to pint out that I like the game as it is, I'm not complaining, just asking to better understand it.

Tyler Rockhard said:

2) naval bombardment only lower city defenses but do not damage any unit, correct? (wasn't vanilla game like this?)

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Things are a bit complicated and bugged (I think) with bombardments.Surely you can naval bombard tiles and destroy improvements only if they are empty of units and you can damage units on a tile if there're 2 or more units.
Example 1:you cannot destroy a tile improvement if there's any unit on the tile.
Example 2: you can damage a single unit from a stack of numerous units but you can't damage a unit if it's the only one on the tile.It's a bit strange.

How I can change the submarine detection range?
I mean the range at which the other ships can detect it.

nionios said:

How I can change the submarine detection range?
I mean the range at which the other ships can detect it.

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We would have to completely rewrite the invisibility rules. A unit that has a selective invisibility type (INVISIBLE_SUBMARINE, INVISIBLE_CAMOUFLAGE, or INVISIBLE_STEALTH, as opposed to a Spy-type unit that is invisible to everything) can be seen by any unit within range that has the matching <SeeInvisible> ability. You can adjust in the XML if a unit can see invisible units, but not at what range.

Vokarya said:

We would have to completely rewrite the invisibility rules. A unit that has a selective invisibility type (INVISIBLE_SUBMARINE, INVISIBLE_CAMOUFLAGE, or INVISIBLE_STEALTH, as opposed to a Spy-type unit that is invisible to everything) can be seen by any unit within range that has the matching <SeeInvisible> ability. You can adjust in the XML if a unit can see invisible units, but not at what range.

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What does any unit within range exactly mean?
Unit movement? So my same unit sees the invisible unit if it has enough movement points to reach it, but won't see it after I have moved with it?

Thanks Vokarya.I've understood how the invisibility mechanic works.I've just wanted to know if I could make some type of subs detectable(visible) only when an enemy destroyer-for example- enters the same tile with the sub.

Sogroon said:

What does any unit within range exactly mean?
Unit movement? So my same unit sees the invisible unit if it has enough movement points to reach it, but won't see it after I have moved with it?

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Sight range, not movement range. Sight range starts with UNIT_VISIBILITY_RANGE (set by the Global Defines as 1), modified by HILLS_SEE_FROM_CHANGE (1), HILLS_SEE_THROUGH_CHANGE (1), PEAK_SEE_FROM_CHANGE (2), PEAK_SEE_THROUGH_CHANGE (2) -- so you see farther with units on hills or peaks, but can't see as far across hills or peaks -- and then modified for Sentry and other promotions with <iVisibilityChange> and the Optics tech which has <bExtraWaterSeeFrom> turned on (giving +1 sight across water). It is possible to alter the global sight range in GlobalDefines, but it can't be adjusted for units.

Vokarya said:

I'm thinking about moving one of the Archer +1 strength increases from Mathematics to Siege Warfare. Archers get a couple of Strength bonuses throughout the tech tree because I see them as the primary city defense units and I don't want them to fall behind as Light Swordsmen and Swordsmen appear before Archers upgrade to Longbowmen. I also don't want to create a separate Classical Era Archery unit just for that. On the other hand, I see a definite window of offensive opportunity between the appearance of Swordsmen and the appearance of Longbowmen and if Archers are only Strength 4, that's too big a window. What do you think?

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YES! It is too long, and 4 is pretty sad compared to the 6s and 8s they're facing. 5 would be "just right" I think.