Unit flags (for SSS)

I have started to work on the unit flags for SSS, and I would like your feedback. As the SSS thread starts to be a bit clustered (did you noticed it is in the top 3 thread, for number of views and number of replies?), I think starting a new thread would be easier.

I will post here new screenshots when I make new pages of the editor.

First page is the "building and maintenance of units" page.

Let me explain how I imagine it can work for the moment.

Left : just the navigation tree, to easily find units.
Right : the unit icone (128x128 from civ pedia) will be here.

First, how will a unit be build?
- If you have the necessary requirements, you can start by building the unit equipment. This will produce an "unfinished" unit. It will be unable to fight, but will not consume resources. Sidenote : the unit has now two names, one for the finished unit, one for the equipment.
- Later, you can train the unit, and add manpower to it, making it a fighting forces. But it will start to consume resources every turn.
- You also have the option to directly train a unit, for the added cost of both.

Now, explanation of the flags:

Trading group:
- Tradable equipment : it means the unit equipment can be traded (ie you can sell the unit in the "unfinished" state).
- Mercenary : it means the trained unit can be traded.
- Draftable : the unit can be trained faster, but will be weaker

"Buildable in" group:
- Main faction cities : the unit can be build only in cities where the majority of the population is from the player's faction. Example : Cossacks unit can be build only in cities where the majority of the Population is Russian.
- Main and local faction : the unit can be build if your faction is allowed to build this unit, and the majority of the population of the city can build this unit. Example: France can recruit "Generic WWI infantry" in French, German or English cities.
- Local faction cities : the unit can be build only in cities where the majority of the population is from a faction that can build this unit, but it doesn't need to be buildable by the main faction.
Example: Eastern infantry could be build in cities where the population is Egyptian, Babylonian, etc. However, you can recruit eastern infantry in such cities even if you are English, and England can not normally build them. Think of them as "mercenaries".
- Any city: you can build the unit in any of your cities. Exemple : American could build F16 fighter in an American or Russian conquered cities, if the other requirement are met, even if Egypt is normally not allowed to build F16.

Number limitation:
- None : you can build any number of this units. Don't forget tha tthe maintenance cost can actually reduce it.
- Total number : if you want to have only 4 Republic Legion for Rome.
- % of total : if you want to limit your guard infantry to 10% of total (ie : if you have 45 units, including aircraft, ships, cavalry, etc, you can have a max of 4 guard infantry).
- % of class : if you want to limit your guard infantry to 20% of the infantry class (ie if you have 20 units belonging to the infantry class, 10 to cavalry, and 25 ships, you can have 4 guard infantry).
- Unit per city : if you want to limit consript unit to 2 per cities
- Cities per unit: if you want to allow 1 knight for every 3 cities.



Equipment building, Unit training and maintenance group : they work in the same way. The equipment building is used to produce the unfinished unit. Unit training is used to produce a fighting unit. It need the unfinished unit. Maintenance must be spent every turn, or the unit will not heal, and can loose HP.

Manpower : when you build a unit, it will consume manpower pool. The manpower pool depends mainly on your polulation (but also some techs level). When you create a new unit, it reduces the manpower pool. When a unit is disbanded, the manpower pool increases. When a unit is destroyed, the manpower pool is unchanged. If the manpower pool is = 0, then you cannot build a new unit. The effect will be to reduce the size of you army to what you can support.
Note : generally, manpower = 0 for build and maintenance, and is >0 for training.

Currency : gold you must pay to build / train / maintain the unit.

Building/training time = basic time needed to complete the unit. Equivalent to the shields in CivIII

Requirements :
Select a type in the first list (strategical, luxury or ordinary resource, or government, or building), then in the second list, select the corresponding unit, then the quantity, and then click on + to add or modify (the requirement is added in the multicolumn list). There is no set limit. So you can add 10 different resources for the MegaDeathStar unit.
Note 1: Maintenance must be paid only for finished unit. You don't pay maintenance for equipment only.

Technology:
You can add any tech in the list, and have more than one.
For the maintenance, if "technologogy required" is checked, it means the unit will heal if damaged only if you have the technology required to build and train it. If you don't have these technologies, you can still maintain the unit at peacetime without HP loss, but if you go to war and it is damaged, when you cannot repair it.
Example : Babylon has just bought "M1A1 Abrams" to America (it requires "Advanced armor" tech). It then train it (it requires "Armor tactics tech"). Babylon has the "Armor tactics", it has bought it to America, but not "Advanced armor". Babylon attack Turkey, the unit is damaged. As Babylon doesn't not know how to produce new M1A1 Abrams, the unit cannot be repaired.

So, what do you think?

It looks nice but it is in actual situation one would see what kind of flag is missing.
The ones you have mentionned are quite important altogether but I would like to mention two specific ones :

- limited in absolute number (ex legio : 4 during the early Republic up to the first Punic war).

- limited to a maximum percentage of the total army (now you are gonna ask me what percentage (number of units is probably the easiest) : represent guard units. Don't you think it weird when in the Napoleonic conquest you have entire armies of Russian guards against armies of French guards... It could be used as well to limit knights or generally cavalry forces to a certain level. On the other hand a civ like the Mongol could have its cavalry maximum at 90%. I hope you understand what I am trying to say.
Could give guidelines to the AI as well to develop different types of troops.

Good ideas, I'll add them.

Screenshot updated. I have slightly modify the "buildable" option, and added the number limitation suggested by Loulong.

The changes are in bold.

And, of course, you mustn't forget bonues/penalty vs. specific units/unit classes

Yes, but there won't be in the creation and maintenance page
Wait till I design the battle page

Here is a view of the movement page. Early design stage to get your feedback, it may still change.

Here is how I plan it :

Terrain cost:
Gives a multiplier for every group of the terrain. They are cumulative.
So a forested hill will cost 4, a jungle mountain in grassland 9 (3x3), a tundra high mountain 8 (2x4), etc. Or a forested hill with a major road = 1 ( 4 / 4).
The coefficient below is simply used to change the value for the selected line.
You can also decide if the unit can always enter the tile, only if it has a road, or never.

Attrition: The second column for terrain is the attrition. It's a % of chance a unit lose 1 HP everytime it move in that terrain, or everytime it spend a turn in that terrain. Exemple: trireme have a 30% attrition in sea, 50% in ocean, and 10% in coast, so trireme are likely to sink if getting to far from the land.

Movement model:
Land unit, sea unit, aircraft = as in CivIII
Helicopter = like land unit, but ignore terrain cost and can cross body of water (but not stay on it)
VTOL /STOL = similar as aircraft, but can be based in any land tile
Can airdrop : define if the unit can airdrop (no range, the range depends on the transporter)
Can airlift : define if the unit can strategically be moved between cities with airport
Limited to railroad : the unit cannot move without railroad

Transported option:
First, select with the radio button the type of the unit (this is linked to transport, not movement). Then, the size of the unit, and the weight. Size = individual size, Weight = total size.
You an also define if it can load aircraft, missile or land transport.
These latest flags are used to make aircraft non carrier based for instance.
If Sea transportable is checked, the unit can load into unit which are using the Sea Unit movement model. If Air Transportable is checked, the unit can load units which are using the Aircraft of Helicopter movement model. If Land Transportable is checked, the unit can load units which are using the Land unit movement model.
Load and Unload anywhere : if unchecked, the unit must load/unload in a city with an airport (if it loads an aircraft), or an harbour (it is loads a ship). Infantry can usually load and unload from anywhere, but artillery cannot

Note the the weight will depends on the current HP of the unit : a unit with 50% HP has 50% of his men in it, and so weight only 50%.

Transporter options:
Check all the type of unit that can board the unit, with the limit size and weight.
Load and Unload anywhere : if unchecked, the unit can be loaded/unloaded in a city with an airport (if it is an aircraft), or an harbour (it is a ship). Landing barge can be loaded from anywhere, but Cargo can be loaded only in harbour

Exemple:
An Amphibious Assault Ship can carry Infantry (size 1, Weight 4), Vehicle (size 3, Weight 6), and Helicopter (size 1, Weight 3).

Now, you have 2 Marines unit (size 1, Weight 1), 2 Infantry Unit (size 1, Weight 2, because it has more men in it), 1 Motorized Infantry (size 2, weight 3), 1 armor unit (size 3, Weight 3), 2 mech unit (size 2, weight 2), Attack helicopter (size 1, Weight 1) and Heavy Transport helicopter (size 2, weight 1).

What can you board in the ship? The motorized infantry and Heavy Transport helicopter are two bigs.
You can take 2 marines, and 1 infantry unit (total weight 4).
You can take the armor unit and one mech unit (total weight 5), or two mech units (total weight 6), and the attack helicopter.

There will be some conversion rule : you can decide to replace vehicle by infantry. But the opposite will not be possible.

In the same way, you can take propeller aircraft instead of jet aircraft, but not the opposite.

The Freight will be used to carry resources.


Speed:
Tactical speed = base MP of the unit in battle
Strategicalspeed = base MP of the unit on the big map
Damage reduce speed: used almost only for ships. The MP will be reduce in the same proportion as the HP.
Example; you have just attack Pearl HArbour with you Aircraft, Carrier (6 MP), but a sub damage the Aircraft Carrier, take half the HP, so now you are limited to 3 MP


Skills:
Exploration: chance to discover a unknown area when exploring it
Tactical Mobility: change to withdraw from battle will depend on
that.
Strategicall Mobility: change to intercept will depend on that

oooooh, I like that transporter option. Always wanted that amphib ability like you were just talking about.

This is so cool

btw what does VTOL/STOL stand for, I think it stands for vertical take off landing but can you tell me if I am right

Originally posted by Bobisback
This is so cool

btw what does VTOL/STOL stand for, I think it stands for vertical take off landing but can you tell me if I am right

Click to expand...

VTOL = Vertical Take Off and Landing.
STOL = Shot Take Off and Landing.
Basically, VTOL/STOL is for Harrier, Yak 38, etc.

A few changes in the move flags (in bold in the text)

This page gathers all the tactical caracteristic of the unit, used for attack and defense.

Unit battle type :
Use to find the correct attack strength

Sub units. To make tactical battle more fun, you can decide that a sigle unit (on the strategical map) is represented by several sub units (in the battle map). For instance, a infantry division may have 4 infantry regiments with 3 HP each. On the standard map, you will have only 1 unit with 12 HP. But when fighing battles, it will transform in 4 units (same graphics), that can move and attack independantly. If 2 are destroyed in the battle, and 1 lost 1 HP, then after the battle you will have one unit with 5 HP on the strategical map. This is used mainly for land units. Aircrafts, ships are generally just one unit


Terrain effect:
Every terrain will have a default attack/defense/stealth modifier. But every unit can have specific additional modifier. For instance, in this screenshot, the unit has 10% bonus in Tundra and mountains, and even +30% in High Mountain. It could be some kind of Mountain troop.
I've included also modifier for fortresses and fortification. Assault engineer could have a bonus when attacking such things.
The bonuses will be cumulative. If a unit has a base defense of 10, has a specific bonus of +30% in mountain, and default bonus for mountain is 40%, then the unit will have a defense of 17 in mountain.
The modifier for mine and farmland could be used for some scenario, like a bonus for dwarves in fantasy scenario

Skills:
Amphibious and Airborne assault = % of the attack strength when doing such attack. It means you can decide that regular infantry has 50, Marines 100, and Phalanx 0. Result = phalanx cannot make amphibious assault, infantry can, but at half attack strength, and Marines can with full attack strength.
Ambush : bonus to the attack of a unit that attack before it has been detected. Great for submarines or guerilla
Charge: attack bonus for unit charging (mainly cavalry initial attack).

Detection: Comparison between Stealth and Reconnaissance of two units give the change they detect each other. The ranges of detection are also used (a unit can be spotted only if the distance between two units < spotter range and spotted range)

Melee:
Attack and Defense. Exemple : Swordman and Pikeman are infantry. Knight are cavalry.
Pikeman : vs cavalry : Attack 3, defense 6
Swordsman : vs cavalry : Attack 2, defense 2
Knight vs infantry : Attack 6, defense 4
--> The knight can attack both units with the same stats, but the stats of the defender will vary.
Remark : You can make Tanks with a very high defense against infantry melee attack, or you can forbid swordsman to attack tank if you want, just uncheck the attack.
It is also possible to set a multiple attack unit, and to make further attacks possible only if the first is successfull

Range attack A, B, C (below):
A unit can have up to 3 different range attack. Each one has a name, a type (projectile for arrow/spear, firearms, gun, bomb, etc), and then attack value against different kind of target.
If the attack is indirect, the unit can use even if an obstacle (forest / mountain) is between the unit and the target.
The # allow the unit to use the attack several time (if 0, the unit cannot use this attack).

Exemple : Bazooka = Attack A, categorie AP gun, range 4, attack = 10 against vehicle, 2 against infantry, 0 against ship. --> A bazooka cannot attack ships, and is very efficient against vehicle.
Unchecking the R gives the unit an unlimited range in tactical battle (it is generally the case of aircraft and modern artllery).

Why the 3 attacks?
Modern Battleship : attack A = gun with range of 4, Attack B = missile with range of 8
Bradley Attack A = gun with range 2, Missile with range 4...
I think with 3 attacks you should cover all situation

There are also two specific attacks : against aircraft / helicopter / missile (AA atack), and against submarine (ASW attack).

One important thing : it will be possible to select different animation for Melee Attack, Attack A, B, C, and for the AA and ASW attack.

Last the range defense. When defining an attack you select a weapon type and a strength. Here, you select the defense against this kind of weapon. And the list of different weapons is editable(interesting for scenario, like fantasy ones with spells)

So you can make an aircraft good at defending against missile (countermeasure), but not so good when defending against fire arms.

So, anybody with a missing flag for the battle part of units?

Wow, now it gets tricky. Are you planning on making it simpler? If not, that's fine, but there may be some redundant options in there, due to the mass of them.

I don't think there are many redundant options. However, for most units, a lot of flags will be at 0 (like the bonus in terrain).
Also, you can copy units, so you won't need to set all the flags one by one, and you will also get some default option(exemple : if unit is ship then the attack on land will automatically be disabled).
So you have many options, but you will actually use only some of them for a given unit

OK, don't shout at me if these don't fit in among these "flags" but somewhere else. I am definitely not a programmer.

Anyway :

- Type : support.
These units could be either required for some troops (advanced in foreign or wild territory, enable healing, give combat bonus (I think that it is a key element missing in Civ where you actually can't get bonus for fighting troops, they only did that with radar towers).

- Type : leader

Act as strength, morale boosters and as gathering points too.

- Type : Mercenary : it would be nice if we could have a pool of mercenaries to choose from at different periods (mostly for scenarios). In case you played Caesar 2 you had that option in some provinces you had to rule. A finite number of mercenaries could be hired. That would need an extra window. These troops could be hired for say 20 turns and cost a large amount of money. If you cannot pay them (lack of funds) they would revert to barbarians where they are and attack your nearby troops.
The mercenary table should include number and types for different time periods as well as a "flavor" flg, making them more likely to be recruited by some powers (ex : Punic Wars : Carthage could recruit Gallic mercenaries at 90% while Rome would be at 10%, on the other hand Iberians could be recruited at 60% / 40% and Rome could have a general flavor for mercenaries in general at 20% while Carthage would rely more on them.
Maybe this would have the same use as the nationals needed to build certain units but it would add other things too, albeit maybe too many.

Terrain attrition is a good one.

Now I don't know what you plan to do with trade, special ops or spy units....

I really don't know if it fits here or not but a unit captured turns into .... (with percentage of chances) or .... (with another percentage). It could turn into nothing at all of course.

Land mission:
A land unit can perform some of these mission. The skill (0 to 10) is the efficiency of the unit at that mission (ie chance of succes every turn, or something like that).
Guerilla : The unit is hidden in a square, and can randomly dmage units or improvment in the vincinity.
Sabotage: the unit can sneak attack an adjacent square to destroy improvment withouth fight
Pillage : efficiency of the unit at destroying improvment in own tiles, and get resources from that
Capture slaves: used to transform a part of the population in the tile into slaves. A part of the population may also be killed. Parts of the ennemy casualties can also be transformed into slaves
Ethnic cleansing : if you want to remove a faction's population from a tile. Interesting for Zulu9812 if he wants to get his faction graphics for conquered cities...
Peace keeping : to restore peace in territories that do not belong to your faction
Martial law : to restore peace in your own territory, avoid corruption, revolts,..
Humanitarian help : in some case, you can send troops to a city, to fight disease, plagues or starvation.
Blockade : prevent land trade nearby your unit
Fortify : not all the units can fortify. Infantry are better at that than cavalry.
Reconnaissance : to try to get detailed information about adjacent tile, without fighting
Build ... : if the unit can build the corresponding improvment. Interesting to start a new city abroad: send a unit, build a colony and a fort, and wait for your population to settle their.

Sea mission:
Supply : use the unit to extend your supply network to a beachhead
Transport : To transport "instently" units from one harbour to another on the strategical map
Trade : to transport goods on the strategical maps along trade routes.
Escort : to prevent your convoy from being attacked by ennemy
Blockade / Piracy: to try to capture ennemy trade. Battle can happen in cas of escorted convoy
Interception : chance of intercepting an ennemy fleet moving close, and to engage it in battle

Air mission:
here, the value is the range at which the unit can make the mission
Air superiority : the unit engage ennemy aircraft moving around
Escort : The fighter will protect other aircrafts if they are intercepted
Reconnaissance : Detect ennemy units and lands.
Precision bombing : can the unit bomb a specific target?
Ground support : the unit can bomb on the tactical map, to help during a battle
Industrial bombing : the unit can bomb on the strategical map, the casualties will be mainly commercial / industrial buildings
Military bombing : the unit can bomb on the strategical map,t he casualties will be mainly military buildings and units
Population bombing : the unit can bomb on the strategical map,t he casualties will be mainly populations and religious / civilian buildings
Airdrop : the unit can drop paratrooper on the strategical map
Transport : the unit can transport unit between two airports
Air supply: can supply all the units in a tile which is in range, even if the units are not linke to your territory
Rebase: the main point here is the range.

Note : the efficiency of the units will be reduce with range : a bomber with an attack of 20 and a range of 10 will only have 2 bombard strength when bombing 10 tiles away, 12 if 5 tiles away, and 20 if 1 tile away.

Misc:
Loyalty : chance to "buy" the unit if you are rich enough... This can be used only with mercenaries unit. It will be almost impossible with modern professionnal / conscript armies
Dread : chance the unit can force opponent to fleet
Morale: chance that the unit try to flee when loss are taken
Supply range: How far from your territory can the unit go, and remain in supply?
Can be captured : if yes, the unit can be captured by ennemy units

Strategic detection : chance to spot / be spotted on the strategical map

Strategic bombing:
Type of the bombing, attack strength and range. The destroyed after attack flag is used by cruise missile
Defense = defense of the unit against specific attacks.

Support unit : a support unit (generally army or fleet can give a bonus to nearby unit. The bonus can apply to morale / loyalty / attack and defense, and is applied within the specified range.
Healer : increase the speed of HP recovery.
Supply relay : the unit extend the supply (exemple a "Supply depot with a supply range of 3 and a supply relay of 2 can supply unit which are 5 tiles away from your territory).
Note that army will not work in the same way as in CivIII at all.

Update of the previous pages, and Strategical page added.

@Loulong : some of your suggestions where planned for the strategical page, that I hadn't posted yet. Other suggestions:
Support : I will add a supply mission for Aircraft, and also Ships, and add this for infantry.
Leader: will be aded in the form of army / fleet flags.
Sepcial ops : should be covered by above flags. I just need to add a reconnaissance mission to infantry units.
Trade : will be abstracted in the form of sea lanes.
Spy : Don't know yet.
Mercenary : the flag exists in the cost page.

I really like the misc part of the strategical page (loyalty, moreale,... ).

Some other flags are nice too : ethnic cleansing (kills a foreign pop each trn ?) or peace keeping. Now what the heck is 'humanitarian help" ???

Cool ! SSS will is a great Strategy Game

Originally posted by LouLong
I really like the misc part of the strategical page (loyalty, moreale,... ).

Some other flags are nice too : ethnic cleansing (kills a foreign pop each trn ?) or peace keeping. Now what the heck is 'humanitarian help" ???

Click to expand...

Ethnic cleansing = % of chance to kill foreign pop, but it could be more than 1. Remember almost all the skills have a value, from 0 (the unit cannot do it at all) to 9.
So a regular infantry could have 5 in Peace Keeping, blue helmet 7, (and US marines in Iraq 2 ).

Humanitarian help will be use to send units in an area to fight disease, starvation, plagues... I'm not sure of how it will exactly work.

By the way, I've updated the Strategical pages with your suggestion. I plan to wait about one week for feeback, before starting actually coding the editor