Armoured Recon units - ideas

[MatteM]

Hello!

In my mod I will be adding armoured recon- units, but I'm contemplating on the best idea to implement these.
The need for recon-units in the modern era seems to be low since the map is already discovered.
These units would be used for scouting and harrasing attacks on enemy artillery and vulnerable units.
One idea I had was to use:

bLineOfSight Optional. Specifies if the unit can only reveal the content in the tiles in the direction he is facing.

If all ground units had only line of sight, would that make for an interesting use of recon units and raise their importance? Or would it just result in confused a.i?

I am also thinking of using the flanking attack for armoured recon, but not sure.

What do you think?

 

[Nightinggale]

• the game currently has no use for the direction the unit is facing. It's purely graphical. As such there is currently no way of controlling the direction the unit is facing without moving the unit between plots.
• a group of 2 units will have to face the same direction while 2 groups of 1 unit can face different directions.
• AI has no awareness of line of vision vs unit facing direction.

As much as it sounds good at first, it seems rather hard to implement in any way, which will not end up just being annoying to the player and make the AI worse.

 

[MatteM]

• the game currently has no use for the direction the unit is facing. It's purely graphical. As such there is currently no way of controlling the direction the unit is facing without moving the unit between plots.
• a group of 2 units will have to face the same direction while 2 groups of 1 unit can face different directions.
• AI has no awareness of line of vision vs unit facing direction.

As much as it sounds good at first, it seems rather hard to implement in any way, which will not end up just being annoying to the player and make the AI worse.

Ah I see, then I won't bother with that, thanks for clearing that up

From a "realism" standpoint the line of sight range is really a bit exaggerated, unless playing on a really huge map.

 

[ChaosSlayer]

In my mod I have "Skirmish" type of units, whose purpose is aggressive scouting, pillaging and killing siege units (target first in stack).
the represented by a progression of Horse Archers > Mounted Crossbowmen > Dragoons > WW1 Cavalry.
Then unit balance changes as different unit types come into play, for example my Paratroopers is invisible unit, that can only be seen by other paratroopers, spies and special late game Recon units (like mobile radar vehicle)

 

[merijn_v1]

• the game currently has no use for the direction the unit is facing. It's purely graphical. As such there is currently no way of controlling the direction the unit is facing without moving the unit between plots.

This is not completely true. In the Afterworld mod, the direction the unit is facing has a direct effect which tiles it can do a "bombard" attack.

And it is possible to change the direction a unit is facing. The code below is what is used by Platybuilder to do that.

    def changeDirection(self, iNewDirection, pUnitX):
        if iNewDirection == -1: return
        iOldDirection = pUnitX.getFacingDirection()
        if iNewDirection == iOldDirection: return
        if iOldDirection > iNewDirection:
            for i in xrange(iOldDirection - iNewDirection):
                pUnitX.rotateFacingDirectionCounterClockwise()
        else:
            for i in xrange(iNewDirection - iOldDirection):
                pUnitX.rotateFacingDirectionClockwise()

 

[MatteM]

In my mod I have "Skirmish" type of units, whose purpose is aggressive scouting, pillaging and killing siege units (target first in stack).
the represented by a progression of Horse Archers > Mounted Crossbowmen > Dragoons > WW1 Cavalry.
Then unit balance changes as different unit types come into play, for example my Paratroopers is invisible unit, that can only be seen by other paratroopers, spies and special late game Recon units (like mobile radar vehicle)

Cool, there are a lot of ideas that can be implemented. I am going to use Transport-helicopters together with infantry-graphics and make "Air Cavalry" which are land units with lot's of moves and perhaps some
flanking ability.

This is not completely true. In the Afterworld mod, the direction the unit is facing has a direct effect which tiles it can do a "bombard" attack.

And it is possible to change the direction a unit is facing. The code below is what is used by Platybuilder to do that.

    def changeDirection(self, iNewDirection, pUnitX):
        if iNewDirection == -1: return
        iOldDirection = pUnitX.getFacingDirection()
        if iNewDirection == iOldDirection: return
        if iOldDirection > iNewDirection:
            for i in xrange(iOldDirection - iNewDirection):
                pUnitX.rotateFacingDirectionCounterClockwise()
        else:
            for i in xrange(iNewDirection - iOldDirection):
                pUnitX.rotateFacingDirectionClockwise()

Interesting, does the A.I understand what is going on as well? I might try it out.

 

[Underdog Ally]

I have an armored recon unit that I got from "Neoteric World" and tweaked a bit. It is the Humvee. It costs 180 production (the same as a tank) and has 24 strength and 2 movement points. To add a little bit of variety I made the unit able to transport 2 gunpowder units, but it can only defend and does not receive defensive bonus. So it is kind of like a machine gun but with wheels and armor. I use it to quickly transport slow reinforcements to the front lines, or cover and load up wounded units and evacuate them from the field to a nearby stack or city. Its pretty cool, I have fun with it.