Wouldn't it be nice to have Lua integrated into the game? I keep mentioning Lua hoping someone will show interest but so far no takers.
I am, of course, completely open to including every nitpicky detail myself via Lua. Admittedly I have only a little bit of outdated experience writing simple scripts for games like Age of Empire II or Dungeon Keeper, but that shouldn't be a problem I hope. What I can't judge, however, is how much work you'll have integrating Lua. Would it mean months to years of hard work before it would be at least partially operational? If I had to guess, I'd say a long time. I don't know how extensive your list of requirements is, but I assume very. Would that mean that all work on that list would be put on hold for that time?
I'll try putting a limit on how many units are allowed on each tile for the next version since that's been requested several times now and it would be easy to do at least as an experiment. I'd implement it similarly to the trespassing restriction, as another condition in the movement logic that makes certain moves invalid. I'm not sure the AI will be able to deal with it, but we'll see.
I'm starting to fully support this promising experiment. I hadn't planned the gameplay from that perspective at all until recently. However, if such a possibility presents itself from the next version onwards, I can think of plenty of other expansions to limit the number of units on the tiles (presenting great potential for future use the more I think about it), such as:
- each
terrain type would have its own limitation (similar to how each terrain has its own movement cost);
-
towns/cities/metropolises would have their limit derived, for example, as
2x/3x/4x from the terrain they are on;
- dependency on
difficulty, some overall benefits for the AI;
-
technologies representing logistics or supply that would increase/decrease the limit for a particular terrain;
-
government type and possible
mobilization could also provide overall advantages;
-
terrain infrastructure such as
ruins, colonies, outposts, fortresses, radar towers or
airports could also move up/down with a limit (this with some existing high restriction for
towns/cities/metropolises could serve as a reason for AI to guard more of these mentioned infrastructures, potentially borders or strategic materials);
(And best of all in the end, but probably the most crazy idea, but I'm still curious about its feasibility in conjunction with the previous one or even as a complete alternative in approach to limiting the number of units on a tile)
-
units reduce the food yield of the tile they are on (the example is just for simplicity, as it is too harsh (Or maybe not?), I would prefer if the unit consumes only a fraction or if the tile feeds a multiple of its yield (I'm not sure how mathematically problematic for calculations it would be if a unit consumed half/third a food? I guess the graphic representation would be a problem.), alternatively the chance of losing 1 hp could be only 50%/25% per unit (sort of like the sinking of ships on the seas and oceans) (
NOTE: on overcrowded tiles, automatic healing would have to be suspended for unit starvation to work effectively));
If a tile yields 2 food and there are more than 2 units on the tile, all units exceeding the number of food provided on the same tile would lose 1 hp next turn. Keeping units on the same tile unable to feed them could result in their death.
-
units reduce the food yield would of course also be reflected in the yields of the cities using the tiles (each unit, with specific exceptions such as nukes or missiles and many others (armies and transports), must be fed, enemy units by default prevent cities from using the tiles, friendly units could therefore use at most half of the yield to prevent abuse (the logic is to favor your own citizens over friendly units), so
a tile used by a city giving only 1 food would not feed any friendly units,
a tile used by a city giving 2 food would feed 1 friendly unit and the remaining 1 food would go to the city,
a tile used by a city giving 3 food would feed 1 friendly unit and the remaining 2 food would go to the city,
a tile used by a city giving 4 food would feed 2 friendly units and the remaining 2 food would go to the city, etc.);
-
units stationed in cities would consume the food collected in the city (your own units should be prioritized over your citizens on the tiles around cities, but inside cities it should work the other way around (this is a great place for government type influence), so
if a city only has a food surplus of X, it is only able to feed X units, but it stops its growth. All other units will starve in the city, unable to heal.
If a city has a food surplus of only Y and there are Y-1 units inside the city, it will grow by 1.
Generally if a city has enough food supply for its own citizens, it should not be possible to put it into a starvation state due to too much military presence in the city. The only exception should be units serving as Military Police (each government type has its own Military Police Limit).
I imagine some government types might want to keep at least a minimal +1 growth at the expense of starving excess troops (probably types with MPL around 0).
Conversely, some less considerate government type to its own citizens like fascism (with high MPL) might let its citizens starve at the expense of the excess troops in the city, resulting in the city starving and possibly shrinking, so the AI should try to find cities, terrain infrastructure, or unused tiles to move the excess troops out of the cities to.)
Some might argue that cities usually have many dozens of units in them, and thus such food-intensive rules would complicate things considerably and cause a large overall food shortage. I think that new options for generating food in cities can bring the whole system back into balance and make up for the loss caused by experimental food consumption by units. Then further, if we could get the AI to deploy its excess units based on food consumption, it would relieve the busiest cities and dilute the overall burden. Lastly, I wouldn't even worry about additional flat benefits for dumb AI depending on difficulty, similar to the unit support bonuses. Something like
additional free food support for tiles and a
food bonus for each city that would indicate the amount of AI units on the tile and in the city, for which the food consumption rules would not apply. I'd also be happy to hear any comments or potential issues that would undoubtedly arise, as I hope I'm not the only one who sees the potential beauty in combining unit limits and food consumption by units on the tile.
If Lua is the answer to these expanding complex requirements and would provide the key to set things up your own way, it would of course be utter fantasy. Even if it's just the first small step of many. I can't help but hope, but I better ask again for the record. Is Lua the answer to everything I mentioned above, or what is Lua not the answer to?
