Wow this is a great mod (i'm sure somebody said that already)
This brings back some fond memories from Sanguo VIII thru X
If i do remember from the Sanguo games, it was a choice everytime you capture generals that you get to decide what to do with them: imprison, free, offer commission or finally execute. And these choices would have effects on diplomacy with their origin nation and morale of the general (provided you didnt execute him). Maybe a system can be put in place when capturing an enemy general each will spawn an event to that effect. Also is there a way for them to die of age...
Furthermore, another element i thought would be an enhancement if included is the great "mind" heroes from the game, you got guys like Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu, Xun Yu and of course Sima Yi who arent often in field but their intelligence offsets it. I mean these strategist and politicians would be some you can fortify at a city, it would give it some bonus, like Zhuge Liang reduce cost for infrastructures and Zhou Yu would reduce cost for training units. And if they are Fortified with troops and legions on the field, they would also bestow some sort of bonus to them, like Zhuge Liang would make all units in a tile immune to first strikes.
One last point of interest, (this one might be pushing it) the "relics" system like those weapons, wise books and other objects that you can give your generals to augment their abilities and loyalty.
Yep! These approaches all sound really exciting!
Has anyone discussed "catch-up" features yet? I'm thinking about a set of random conditions that would give a
significant (and temporary) advantage to a really weak faction in order to get it back into the game?
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Edit
Another thing I would strongly suggest -- either:
1. Give all siege weapons a decent chance to withdraw after attacking. Otherwise, siege weapons end up being used in suicide attacks in order for infantry to take out a stack of enemy units. As a result, you spend way too much time building siege weapons to replace the destroyed ones. IMO, very boring and frustrating. Besides, it makes no sense anyway. Historically, siege machines weren't used in direct assault resulting in the the machines being destroyed.
OR
2. Don't limit such an important feature as ranged bombardment to a single and relatively rare Hero promotion. It makes that promotion way out of balance with others available. I think this would eliminate the need to continually build siege machines. Some siege machines (like Trebuchets) could be designed to bombard walls & buildings, while others (such as Ballistae and archers) would be better suited to bombarding troops instead.
This general approach almost ensures the attacker will eventually bring down any defender holed up someplace. Therefore (and I don't know if such can be achieved) the AI needs to be taught when to rush out of a well-defended spot to counter-attack. A defender's counter-attack should be designed so that at least some of the enemy's siege weapons are destroyed in the process, especially if the defender has cavalry available, even more so if the defender has
more cavalry than the attacker. In other words, cavalry might have some inherent sniping ability, which would better reflect the use of fast-moving units in general (especially "light" cavalry).
Makes sense???
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Edit #2
Hmmm.... "edit-salad" for breakfast! Love it!
I remember the way the old
Panzer-General game used to handle artillery. You could position artillery behind a line of defending units. If the defending units were attacked, the artillery behind them would automatically get a shot at the attackers before they could reach the line of defense. This meant the attacker had to use his own artillery or air force to take out or weaken the defender's artillery before launching an assault. On the other hand, artillery that fired "defensively" could not be fired during the defender's turn. It worked really well there.
How does this apply here? Siege weapons would have to be in the defender's stack to emulate the
Panzer-General concept. If this is the sort of siege weapon suited to bombard troops (as opposed to structures), then they could get a first shot at assaulting troops.
Ditto archery units.
Altogether, what I described in Edits #1 and #2 could really open up opportunities as regards general tactics and the use of troops. By the way, I didn't see any ships capable of bombardment. Didn't they have ships with catapults or the equivalent of Greek fire back then?
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Edit #3
Yay! It's an "editathon!"
Imagine how awesome Horse-Archers would become if given some troop bombardment ability! Wow! And that would be historical, I think. The factions on the deserted western reaches would get a major advantage. Makes up for the lousy terrain.