Thalassicus
Bytes and Nibblers
I completed the basic plan for adapting Gem to BNW. I'm simplifying the project for this expansion to make the mods easier to use and maintain, so I merged some unit lines:
Other than these changes, I'm mostly using Gem as a starting point for army balance. BNW didn't change armies much. I spent several hours today carefully going through the unit list to consider smaller tweaks or changes. I expect to release an update within a few days once I have time to go through all the army files.
I expect to keep the rest of the Armies component much the same as in GEM. I copied some of my thoughts about this transition below.
Melee Combat
Think of modern "melee" combat as short-range attacks, like Infantry shooting at each other, or a sub and destroyer exchanging torpedoes and depth charges. It's not hand-to-hand fighting, obviously. Anything at short range is basically a "melee" in modern warfare. I think people get too focused on the image of units literally making physical contact like swords clashing or ships ramming. "Melee" changes its meaning in modern times. Keep this in mind when thinking about units like Infantry.
Ship Roles
The two basic roles for ships are common ranged land support, and killing other ships (including cargo ships). I like providing ship-killers an intuitive attack advantage vs common ships.
10
7 
3 
- common ship
____ 10 4 - ship-killer
It's like horses countering bowmen. It's easy to understand and use. The ship-killer's speed and strength beats the weaker melee strength of the common ranged ship. I like how ship-killers benefit from hunting in packs for flanking bonuses with this design. I call them "hunter ships" for this reason.
This is my basic design of ship killers like the Trireme, designed to hunt down the slower and more common Galleys. The advantage of a Galley is the capability to attack land units.
Submarines
In the modern era, imagine a submarine trolling the waters between two nations during a war. The sub locates some merchant vessels, and takes them out safely with torpedoes. However, the sub's spotted by an enemy military escort. The sub engages in a deadly battle with the destroyer, exchanging torpedo fire with depth charges. Both ships suffer heavy damage from the encounter.
This is how lategame naval combat works in the mod right now. We can take out cargo ships without receiving any damage. This was the main function of submarines in real life. Attacking destroyers is much more dangerous. If we attack a destroyer with a sub, the two ships exchange fire with torpedoes and depth charges, each taking some damage.
This achieves several things for naval warfare:
I'm very happy with this setup.
- Merged vanguards (levy) with counter units (pike).
- Merged strong ships (ship of the line) with common ships (galleon).
Other than these changes, I'm mostly using Gem as a starting point for army balance. BNW didn't change armies much. I spent several hours today carefully going through the unit list to consider smaller tweaks or changes. I expect to release an update within a few days once I have time to go through all the army files.
I expect to keep the rest of the Armies component much the same as in GEM. I copied some of my thoughts about this transition below.
Melee Combat
Think of modern "melee" combat as short-range attacks, like Infantry shooting at each other, or a sub and destroyer exchanging torpedoes and depth charges. It's not hand-to-hand fighting, obviously. Anything at short range is basically a "melee" in modern warfare. I think people get too focused on the image of units literally making physical contact like swords clashing or ships ramming. "Melee" changes its meaning in modern times. Keep this in mind when thinking about units like Infantry.
Ship Roles
The two basic roles for ships are common ranged land support, and killing other ships (including cargo ships). I like providing ship-killers an intuitive attack advantage vs common ships.
10
7 3 - common ship____ 10
4 - ship-killerIt's like horses countering bowmen. It's easy to understand and use. The ship-killer's speed and strength beats the weaker melee strength of the common ranged ship. I like how ship-killers benefit from hunting in packs for flanking bonuses with this design. I call them "hunter ships" for this reason.
This is my basic design of ship killers like the Trireme, designed to hunt down the slower and more common Galleys. The advantage of a Galley is the capability to attack land units.
Submarines
In the modern era, imagine a submarine trolling the waters between two nations during a war. The sub locates some merchant vessels, and takes them out safely with torpedoes. However, the sub's spotted by an enemy military escort. The sub engages in a deadly battle with the destroyer, exchanging torpedo fire with depth charges. Both ships suffer heavy damage from the encounter.
This is how lategame naval combat works in the mod right now. We can take out cargo ships without receiving any damage. This was the main function of submarines in real life. Attacking destroyers is much more dangerous. If we attack a destroyer with a sub, the two ships exchange fire with torpedoes and depth charges, each taking some damage.
This achieves several things for naval warfare:
- Ships can bombard land units.
- Ships can capture cities.
- Two simple ship paths (melee/ranged).
- Destroyers defend with depth charges.
- Subs get a free first shot in combat.
- Subs can perform the roles they did in in WW2 (merchant attacks, sinking navies, and landing guerrilla troops).
I'm very happy with this setup.
(I'm getting Transformer Images here...)
