I have been thinking of a new property that would not be very difficult to implement and wanted to get some feedback before I spent alot of time poking around with something that nobody might want:
Supply would be a measure of how much consumable military supplies are stored in a plot. Mainly it would represent food (both stockpiled and foraged), but to a lesser extent spare wagon wheels, torches, gunpowder, arrows, anything that an army would need to stay alive and in fighting condition.
Ideally it would work to change how long distance wars are fought, and make using giant death stacks more difficult without having to institute arbitrary 'max units per tile' style restrictions.
Things I'm sure can be done with the property system as is:
*Supply would be generated by food producing terrain types in small amounts naturally, and improvements like farms & orchards would generate significantly more. Supply would spread very slowly to neighboring tiles, (so a farm next to a desert wouldn't get sucked dry) but routes would increase the speed of the spread.
*City buildings that provide food, healing, or bonuses to military production would also generate supply, which would spread down roads to other cities that might not have those buildings.
*Supply would decay just like crime / pollution, as food goes bad and spare parts rust / become obsolete, etc.
*Units consume supply, so a big stack that sits on a desert tile will quickly eat up all the local food. Mounted units / heavy infantry would consume more than average, and recon / skirmisher units would consume less.
Things I think can be done with the property system as is:
*Units in a plot with low supply numbers would be penalized. There is a tag to give units a promotion if they are in a plot that hits a property threshold, although I don't think I've actually seen it used so I'd need to test how it works. This would fit in nicely with Thunderbird's combat mod Afflictions, units in a plot with <100 supply could get a 'Rationing: -10% strength, heals 10% slower' promotion, a plot with <0 supply might give them a 'Starvation: unit takes 5% damage /turn, no healing' promotion. These would all be on the same promotion line and the effects would stack.
*Certain buildings and improvements could slow supply decay. Granaries and castles, villages and forts come to mind as places where supplies would be stockpiled. With a slower decay rate than surrounding tiles, these plots would have a higher maximum amount of supply stored.
*Cities, villages, and forts would pull in supply from the surrounding tiles, making them natural locations to station your armies. A border Fort connected by a road to a nearby city would be the ideal place.
Things that would need some work done to the property system:
*AI is the big one, but it might not be terrible. From my admittedly narrow understanding, the AI already knows to avoid hostile terrain if that option is on. If the AI also considered how many supplies were in a plot compared to the size of it's stack, then it would avoid moving into plots that couldn't sustain it.
*Civics would change the supply consumption rate of your units. The later tech military civics that increase the support cost of your units would also decrease their supply consumption. One of the major changes that came out of the industrial revolution was the ability to can food. Once soldiers could carry their food with them instead of having to hunt for it or pillage local stockpiles armies became much larger and were able to travel much further.
*Merchant/supply/freight caravans could be sacrificed to provide a one time boost to the current plot's supplies. This might not take much work, but getting the AI to understand how to do it would be the difficult part.
Things that might not be possible:
*Supply would not cross cultural borders. This prevents your supplies from 'leaking' into the wilderness. It also makes moving large armies across undeveloped terrain difficult, which would make it harder to wage war against opponents that you don't share a border with.
*Your own units (and allied ones) would only consume 1/2 as many supplies in your own territory. This will give defenders and advantage, allowing them to 'wait out' equally powerful stacks of attackers whose supplies will run low first. It will also reduce the amount of micromanagement you will have to do in peacetime.
*Units would consume some supply from all surrounding tiles. A large army that consumes all the supply in it's plot every turn is also going to scare away game and people even if they only pass close by.
*AI would make decisions about going to war based on how (and if) it can get it's soldiers to the target's territory. If it has to travel though a series of low supply plots like a desert that would damage a stack larger than, say 10 units for example, the AI would assume it would only have a stack of 10 units to fight the war with and make it's decision about going to war based on that.
Feedback:
Please let me know if this is something that would interest anyone. I've made some small changes to the XML before and alot of this stuff is just going to be copying the pollution xml and modifying it, which I can do easily. The hard parts will be modifying the AI code so your opponents don't park 20 Swordsman on a barren tile and have them eat dirt until they die, which would be something the Mods would have to do. If that is something that is either too difficult or too time consuming to do please let me know and I'll drop the idea.
Supply would be a measure of how much consumable military supplies are stored in a plot. Mainly it would represent food (both stockpiled and foraged), but to a lesser extent spare wagon wheels, torches, gunpowder, arrows, anything that an army would need to stay alive and in fighting condition.
Ideally it would work to change how long distance wars are fought, and make using giant death stacks more difficult without having to institute arbitrary 'max units per tile' style restrictions.
Things I'm sure can be done with the property system as is:
*Supply would be generated by food producing terrain types in small amounts naturally, and improvements like farms & orchards would generate significantly more. Supply would spread very slowly to neighboring tiles, (so a farm next to a desert wouldn't get sucked dry) but routes would increase the speed of the spread.
*City buildings that provide food, healing, or bonuses to military production would also generate supply, which would spread down roads to other cities that might not have those buildings.
*Supply would decay just like crime / pollution, as food goes bad and spare parts rust / become obsolete, etc.
*Units consume supply, so a big stack that sits on a desert tile will quickly eat up all the local food. Mounted units / heavy infantry would consume more than average, and recon / skirmisher units would consume less.
Things I think can be done with the property system as is:
*Units in a plot with low supply numbers would be penalized. There is a tag to give units a promotion if they are in a plot that hits a property threshold, although I don't think I've actually seen it used so I'd need to test how it works. This would fit in nicely with Thunderbird's combat mod Afflictions, units in a plot with <100 supply could get a 'Rationing: -10% strength, heals 10% slower' promotion, a plot with <0 supply might give them a 'Starvation: unit takes 5% damage /turn, no healing' promotion. These would all be on the same promotion line and the effects would stack.
*Certain buildings and improvements could slow supply decay. Granaries and castles, villages and forts come to mind as places where supplies would be stockpiled. With a slower decay rate than surrounding tiles, these plots would have a higher maximum amount of supply stored.
*Cities, villages, and forts would pull in supply from the surrounding tiles, making them natural locations to station your armies. A border Fort connected by a road to a nearby city would be the ideal place.
Things that would need some work done to the property system:
*AI is the big one, but it might not be terrible. From my admittedly narrow understanding, the AI already knows to avoid hostile terrain if that option is on. If the AI also considered how many supplies were in a plot compared to the size of it's stack, then it would avoid moving into plots that couldn't sustain it.
*Civics would change the supply consumption rate of your units. The later tech military civics that increase the support cost of your units would also decrease their supply consumption. One of the major changes that came out of the industrial revolution was the ability to can food. Once soldiers could carry their food with them instead of having to hunt for it or pillage local stockpiles armies became much larger and were able to travel much further.
*Merchant/supply/freight caravans could be sacrificed to provide a one time boost to the current plot's supplies. This might not take much work, but getting the AI to understand how to do it would be the difficult part.
Things that might not be possible:
*Supply would not cross cultural borders. This prevents your supplies from 'leaking' into the wilderness. It also makes moving large armies across undeveloped terrain difficult, which would make it harder to wage war against opponents that you don't share a border with.
*Your own units (and allied ones) would only consume 1/2 as many supplies in your own territory. This will give defenders and advantage, allowing them to 'wait out' equally powerful stacks of attackers whose supplies will run low first. It will also reduce the amount of micromanagement you will have to do in peacetime.
*Units would consume some supply from all surrounding tiles. A large army that consumes all the supply in it's plot every turn is also going to scare away game and people even if they only pass close by.
*AI would make decisions about going to war based on how (and if) it can get it's soldiers to the target's territory. If it has to travel though a series of low supply plots like a desert that would damage a stack larger than, say 10 units for example, the AI would assume it would only have a stack of 10 units to fight the war with and make it's decision about going to war based on that.
Feedback:
Please let me know if this is something that would interest anyone. I've made some small changes to the XML before and alot of this stuff is just going to be copying the pollution xml and modifying it, which I can do easily. The hard parts will be modifying the AI code so your opponents don't park 20 Swordsman on a barren tile and have them eat dirt until they die, which would be something the Mods would have to do. If that is something that is either too difficult or too time consuming to do please let me know and I'll drop the idea.
