Tekamthi
Emperor
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2016
- Messages
- 1,678
This is a counter-proposal to "Withdraw from Melee Change"
Background/context
The existing RNG basis of the withdraw from melee has a solid base of critics, however it has been around, relatively unchanged, for a ~decade. Less-is-more when it comes to changing long-standing, incumbent features. Furthermore, though much improved over vanilla, the AI remains somewhat simplistic in its analysis of the battlefield, and the uncertainty regarding whether a unit will withdraw on any given attack, or not, brings parity to AI & human decision making -- both are uncertain about a withdrawal in the status quo, vs. proposed changes this round that give human certainty about withdrawals, while AI remains effectively blind to them (without further AI work, which remains only vaguely touched on through all discussion). Finally, RNG has always been a part of civ series combat, and serves as an abstraction of the uncertainty of battle, the unpredictable factors of environment and human fallibility etc. RNG need not be eliminated completely to improve the withdraw from melee feature.
Proposal
Background/context
The existing RNG basis of the withdraw from melee has a solid base of critics, however it has been around, relatively unchanged, for a ~decade. Less-is-more when it comes to changing long-standing, incumbent features. Furthermore, though much improved over vanilla, the AI remains somewhat simplistic in its analysis of the battlefield, and the uncertainty regarding whether a unit will withdraw on any given attack, or not, brings parity to AI & human decision making -- both are uncertain about a withdrawal in the status quo, vs. proposed changes this round that give human certainty about withdrawals, while AI remains effectively blind to them (without further AI work, which remains only vaguely touched on through all discussion). Finally, RNG has always been a part of civ series combat, and serves as an abstraction of the uncertainty of battle, the unpredictable factors of environment and human fallibility etc. RNG need not be eliminated completely to improve the withdraw from melee feature.
Proposal
- leave existing withdrawal RNG mechanism as-is as far as determining if a withdrawal occurs (for withdraw from melee only -- heavy charge and withering fire not included here), with following restriction:
- add a WithdrawalsPerTurn field to UnitPromotions table, and set all existing promotions that confer a withdraw-from-melee chance to WithdrawalsPerTurn = 1; restrict withdraw-from-melee function so that a unit can only withdraw x times per turn, corresponding to the sum of its WithdrawalsPerTurn value (in most cases this will be max 1 withdrawal per turn, with room for modding)
- referencing same graphic as other 5-25 proposals re: direction (the star-of-david shaped one)
- 1) evaluate all plots 1, 2, and 3 (not just default to 1 first), and withdraw to clear plot with fewest adjacent enemies;
- 2) If two clear plots have same low # adjacent enemies, evaluate adjacent friendly units, and withdraw to plot with most adjacent friendlies
- 3) if two clear plots have same preferred number of adjacent enemies and adjacent friendlies, choose withdrawal plot randomly
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