Civ 5 Unit Upgrades

[shaglio]

My one plea for the Civ 5 developers is: please fix the unit upgrading. Nothing is more tedious and monotonous to me than upgrading my units in the later stages of games only to spend the next 20 minutes re-fortifying my units. Is there a reason that upgraded units can't just stay in the same state they were previously in? If they're fortified, sentried, or active, just upgrade them and leave them that way.

 

[weekend_warrior]

If you don't plan on using them then why upgrade in the first place? Keep them fortified, activate them when you need them, and upgrade when you know what they'll be facing.

 

[Lillefix]

If there is going to be fewer units overall, this might not bother you as much in civ5.

 

[shaglio]

If you don't plan on using them then why upgrade in the first place? Keep them fortified, activate them when you need them, and upgrade when you know what they'll be facing.

I DO plan on using them . . . to defend my cities. It wouldn't make sense to not upgrade my Archers when my enemy is waltzing into my territory with Modern Armor and Artillery. I'd prefer to upgrade them to Mechanized Infantry instead.

 

[techathon]

well there should be no reason to have an ARCHER upgrade that late in the game. u did 1 of 2 things wrong:
you didnt upgrade a unit in a place suceptible to invasion.
you failed to upgrade a unit in a non risked city BEFORE they came after your city while at war.

 

[squadbroken]

Preemptively upgrading units does have a purpose, higher-strength units are worth more in power calculations, which can influence relations.

It's a very reasonable request.

 

[Infantry#14]

this problem shouldnt be too hard to fix. Upgrading units in civ 3 auto fortify when (mass) upgrade.

 

[shaglio]

well there should be no reason to have an ARCHER upgrade that late in the game. u did 1 of 2 things wrong:
you didnt upgrade a unit in a place suceptible to invasion.
you failed to upgrade a unit in a non risked city BEFORE they came after your city while at war.

I don't leave archers defending cities that late in the game. I was just exaggerating to prove a point. At the end game when I have 20+ cities with 2 or 3 Infantry in each one, it's extremely time consuming to refortify all 50+ of them after I upgrade to Mech Infantry.

 

[Shurdus]

Then again late in the game 3 mech infantry is not a real defensive force, it is peanuts by then. It will stop squad. Also why would you care about your power by that time? Getting 60 units upgraded in order to improve your power marginally... big whooping deal.

I like your idea though, just I do not see the need like you do. And I do defend with archers or even warriors even in the late game. I blow attacking forces to smithereens with my stack by then, in a typical game nothing ever comes close to threatening my cities.

 

[Cashew]

Preemptively upgrading units does have a purpose, higher-strength units are worth more in power calculations, which can influence relations.

It's a very reasonable request.

Pretty sure that's not true. Can't find the link to the thread on power just now, but I do not recall promo's being important. And in any event, group all your units and promo them and then group fortify them. It's 3 button clicks at the most.

 

[Gedemo]

I've always had the feeling that IA cheated and updated its units for free.

 

[Padje Dog]

Bloody AI!

Did the AI pay Firaxis to play the game? Humans have to pay, so should AI's.

 

[ferenginar]

I still believe you should be able to upgrade units with production as well as cash.

 

[SMA333M]

I really enjoyed the promotion system for units, from Civ 4... I hope they will make that even better in Civ 5, since there will be fewer units... so they can make more promotions, etc...

I also agree that you should be able to pay for promotions too...

 

[shmily_dana]

It would be cool if you could sell obsolete weapons. Update your men to rifles and sell your old muskettes, etc to another civ that only has swords.

 

[lankypeter]

It would be cool if you could sell obsolete weapons. Update your men to rifles and sell your old muskettes, etc to another civ that only has swords.

Actually, that would be a great addition to the game, but not just limited to weapons that you are retiring, but the capability to sell weapons, units, etc. to other civs without having to give them the tech to research on their own. Another source of income for one civ and the ability to have units without having to research for the other civ. Then you would be able to produce just the weapons (and not the unit) and then sell the weapons to another civ. Great stuff. I could get on board with that.

 

[Thyrwyn]

I would like to see obsolete units auto-disband, or at least stop counting for happiness purposes (if such a thing still exists). It seems ludicrous to me that a Warrior would make a modern city feel "safe" in an age of rifles and artillery.

 

[nmcul]

I would like to see obsolete units auto-disband, or at least stop counting for happiness purposes (if such a thing still exists). It seems ludicrous to me that a Warrior would make a modern city feel "safe" in an age of rifles and artillery.

Well, that being said, I don't think the average person in Miami feels terribly unsafe due to a lack of a military garrison. With the limit of one unit per stack, I'm not sure they'll keep that effect anyway. Even if they do, they won't be able to bring back any Monarchy-style civics, at least not in the way they ran in Civ IV. No religion, no martial law... I'm beginning to wonder what will keep your cities in line in this game. Anyone not surrounded by a ton of luxury resources when they start out may be in deep trouble! Entire societies may be conquered or destroyed over a single square of wine or sugar!

 

[Thyrwyn]

I don't think they will keep it either (or allow certain improvements to fulfill the same role in an either/or situation). Barracks or courthouses or police stations would be appropriate.

Even with a one unit limit, you could still do a monarchy style civic/effect using the power of the garrison unit.

That would even provide incentive for upgrading defending units