A Better Approach to 1UPT?

[Quueg]

I'm sure this topic has been discussed many times before, but I've been playing Endless Legend recently and was reminded of how much I dislike Civ's VI's (and V's) handling of the One Unit Per Tile mechanic. I absolutely hate the fact that the map in Civ VI quickly becomes cluttered with dozens of individual units -- player, majors and city states -- all standing around just taking up space and blocking movement. With the wonderful addition of Districts, the strategic map is now much more interesting and important, but the much of the effect is undermined by the sheer number of AI units aimlessly wandering the map at any given instant. The game even has to go through the ritual of having the AI pointlessly shift some of its static units each turn just so they don't block movement for everyone else. It's just a messy confusion of map scale that achieves nothing but eat up processor power.

There is much that's imperfect about the combat mechanic in Endless Legend, but it does one thing really well. On the strategic map, multiple units are stacked (ala Civ IV). When a battle begins, however, the game switches to a tactical map that covers a multi-hex area that generally replicates the terrain of that location on the strategic map. In essence, instead of cramming 1UPT combat into the strategic map, with all the traffic jam headaches that creates, the game offers an expanded tactical map where units have room to maneuver and coordinate. Ranged units can stand off. Infantry can form a defensive wall. Cavalry can attack flanks. And local variations in terrain matter. The battles feel like actually tactical battles, instead of the awkward confusion of map scales in Civ VI.

First on my wish list for future Civ iterations is a better approach to the 1UPT combat mechanic. Endless Legend (and I know there are others like it) offers a nice alternative.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

I'm sure this topic has been discussed many times before, but I've been playing Endless Legend recently and was reminded of how much I dislike Civ's VI's (and V's) handling of the One Unit Per Tile mechanic. I absolutely hate the fact that the map in Civ VI quickly becomes cluttered with dozens of individual units -- player, majors and city states -- all standing around just taking up space and blocking movement. With the wonderful addition of Districts, the strategic map is now much more interesting and important, but the much of the effect is undermined by the sheer number of AI units aimlessly wandering the map at any given instant. The game even has to go through the ritual of having the AI pointlessly shift some of its static units each turn just so they don't block movement for everyone else. It's just a messy confusion of map scale that achieves nothing but eat up processor power.

There is much that's imperfect about the combat mechanic in Endless Legend, but it does one thing really well. On the strategic map, multiple units are stacked (ala Civ IV). When a battle begins, however, the game switches to a tactical map that covers a multi-hex area that generally replicates the terrain of that location on the strategic map. In essence, instead of cramming 1UPT combat into the strategic map, with all the traffic jam headaches that creates, the game offers an expanded tactical map where units have room to maneuver and coordinate. Ranged units can stand off. Infantry can form a defensive wall. Cavalry can attack flanks. And local variations in terrain matter. The battles feel like actually tactical battles, instead of the awkward confusion of map scales in Civ VI.

First on my wish list for future Civ iterations is a better approach to the 1UPT combat mechanic. Endless Legend (and I know there are others like it) offers a nice alternative.

A similar Tactical Map versus Strategic Map system was used in the old Civ game Call to Power. Starting right after Civ V came out, people on these forums (including myself!) started agitating for something like it: stack an 'army' on the regular map, 'unfold' it to a tactical map or display and fight out the battle complete with ranged and melee and cavalry and anti-cavalry effects all on a tactical scale.

In my view, this would also help with the Time Scale problem, in that a battle in the Ancient Era now can take several hundred years of Game Turns to fight. In Game Scale, all of World War Two took just 7 turns, which is completely ludicrous. Putting the tactical/operational battles all onto a single tile in a single turn would bring the 'combat scale' of time/distance much more closely into line with the 'Grand Strategic' scale in which you are making the game's economic, political,, technology and civic decisions.

But, having decided Civ VI would have everything spread out onto One Map, throwing the combat actions back onto a tactical map was apparently a no-go for Firaxis. I haven't even heard a discussion or mention of it from any developer in any video/conference during the entire development cycle of Civ VI.