(1-NS) Slightly adjust trailblazer promotion line

[Tekamthi]

This proposal is a counterproposal of this one: Proposal: Replace double movement promotions. Also to its counterproposal: rework trailblazer promotions.

Reasoning:
Anytime we are considering "reworking" a feature in a 5+ year old mod, it raises my attention a little. Both the proposal and existing counterproposal strike me as being a "rework" of a long-existing feature. Not saying this is a reason on its own not to implement some idea, nor that this is a core and well-loved mechanism, but often less is more in a mod like VP that has already matured and evolved over several years.

It strikes me that these proposals both miss the point somewhat with these promotions. From a gameplay perspective they help give the recon line some distinction from other melee. Using CS bonuses etc just makes them less desirable melee; flat movement pushes them to being just as mobile as mounted units, etc.

More importantly, however, is the thematic abstraction these promotions represent. In this sense, the double movement through x terrain represents an entire unit's ability to collectively sustain itself while moving through an area over the span of a long period of time, not how fast its individuals may be able to sprint in short bursts. At the beginning of the game this is 20 years per turn, and less as the game goes on, but never a matter of hours or days.

Wild forests and jungles are more abundant in food and resources than plains and grasslands, so travelling through the former presumably would've required less time camping and foraging for ancient travelers with specialized skills in these terrains. In this sense, jungles are easier to survive in than forests, though each are preferable to being out in open, flat grasslands or plains.

To use an illustrative historical example, traveling over vast plains on foot was a death sentence for many early settlers in North America, who were unfamiliar with living on that terrain without imported supplies and horses to carry them quickly across it.

Conversely, while they did not generally live longterm in the plains prior to introduction of horses, indigenous peoples of North America could scavenge their way across the vast plains by using specialized knowledge of where to shelter in storms, how to find and prepare food and vital resources, etc. to continue moving to wherever far off place they were headed, even in moderately sized groups.

My intention with this counterproposal is to reduce concerns with recon movement cheese without a complete rework by offering them in other more appropriate terrains, and with better thematic flavor. The particulars in this regard are completely open to suggestion and adjustment, but to start this off:

Proposal:

Remove "ignore terrain cost" promotion from recon line

The following promotions are available as mutually exclusive choices (ie player chooses 1A or 1B; and then 2A or 2B)

• Trailblazer 1A : 10% CS outside friendly (unchanged); double movement jungle; +5% defense in jungle.
• Trailblazer 1B : 10% CS outside friendly (unchanged); river roads & no rivercross penalty (this river stuff seems to be bundled as all-in-1 right now).
• Trailblazer 2A : 10% CS outside friendly (unchanged); double movement forest; +5% defense in forest.
• Trailblazer 2B : 10% CS outside friendly (unchanged); double movement in marsh and oasis; +5% defense in marsh and oasis.

 

[Rekk]

How do you make promotions mutually exclusive?

 

[rkkn]

what's even supposed to be wrong with the recon line?

 

[Tekamthi]

How do you make promotions mutually exclusive?

Good question! I've used the GameEvents.CityCanConstruct to enable or disable a city from being able to build a specific building based on custom criteria, and I assume that the GameEvents.UnitCanHavePromotion (see https://github.com/LoneGazebo/Community-Patch-DLL/wiki/GameEvents) works similarly, though now that you quiz me on it I can't recall if I've ever tried. If it does work the same way, i imagine the lua per promo is then just 3-4 lines, ie rough pseudocode:

GameEvents.UnitCanHavePromotion.Add(function(iUnitOwner, iUnit, iPromotion)
    if iPromotion==Trailblazer1A AND iUnit:HasPromotion(Trailblazer1B) then
        return false
    end
end)

Does anybody have experience using this particular GameEvent?

The more difficult check to implement this counterproposal as I've suggested in OP would be applying double moves in plots adjacent to bonus resource, does anyone have a better alternative? I'm not sure this is achievable without dll work, which seems unnecessary. (ie we're trying to avoid "rework" in this thread)

what's even supposed to be wrong with the recon line?

I think this is a better question for the original proposal thread. In my opinion, the only thing I don't like is double moves on desert and snow. This doesn't make sense for thematic reasons I've outlined in OP. Maybe an even slighter adjustment would be to just change TB2 to rivers and marshes, and forget the mutual exclusive stuff altogether. Tbh, to your point, i'd prefer status quo over any of the other proposals.

EDIT: amended the proposal to be achievable in lua ie I think I could modmod it myself, segmenting mobility options further (contingent on the GameEvent described above functioning as expected).

 

[Recursive]

Timestamp post to arrange all the threads in a neat order.