sman1975
Emperor
Am working on a mercenary mod - one that provides "special" units that have similar, yet different capabilities to normal game units throughout the tech tree. As these units are obviously "gold purchase only" - it raises the basic question as to what the actual price should be.
My planning approach is to use a "contract period" - where a player pays a certain amount up front for a certain number of turns. At the end of the contract, the player could rehire the merc unit or disband it. If the player didn't have enough gold to renew, the merc unit would disband automatically.
The issue is determining the proper length of the contract period (in turns). Once that is established, it would be easy to determine what the cost of the contract should be. Basically, I need to determine how many turns the unit (or its analogous in-game unit) is "viable" - how many turns is the unit desirable/advantageous to hire to meet short-term military objectives? These numbers are probably tied to the distance between a unit's prerequisite tech and obsolete tech.
This "viability" will be impacted by game speed, map size, starting era - but not difficulty level, which doesn't really change tech research costs.
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The problem: determine how many turns a unit is "viable" for any given game speed/map size/start era.
Preferably, this unit viability would be calculable on a simple heuristic tied to the unit's database cost in hammers and/or Era.
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For example, assuming a standard speed, standard map, ancient start:
Say I have a Merc Unit called a "Genoese Crossbowman" - which is similar to the normal Crossbowman unit normally in the game. It also arrives at Machinery and obsoletes at Industrialization.
How best determine the formula for a given unit's "viability?"
One could assume a player beelines from Machinery to Industrialization by researching:
- Printing Press (780 science)
- Economics (1150 science)
- Industrialization (1600 science)
A total of 3,530 Science would be required for the fasted path/shortest period of viability. If my fledgling industrial civ was producing 125 science per turn, it would take 28 turns at the earliest possible time. One could double this amount and say a flat "60 turn viability" amount for the unit. Is this logical?
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Exit question: am I going about this the correct way? Or am I completely lost in left field?
If I'm lost, I'd really appreciate anyone's suggest on how to develop a better heuristic/formula that could help me set a decent contract period (in game turns) for a Merc unit, based on its viability & gold purchase cost.
Thanks!
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p.s. I've looked at all the other Mercenary mods available on Steam or here. Most of them treat merc units like normal units - i.e. you build/purchase them normally and then you own them as long as you want.
JFD's mod was a bit different, but uses a standard 25 turn contract for a set price of 60% of normal gold purchase price. This is an OK approach, I guess, but it also means merc units in Quick games are pretty cheap, and dramatically overpriced in Marathon games.
I'm looking for something that can be easily adjusted based on game speed, probably using a simple coefficient based on ResearchPercent or some similar number.
My planning approach is to use a "contract period" - where a player pays a certain amount up front for a certain number of turns. At the end of the contract, the player could rehire the merc unit or disband it. If the player didn't have enough gold to renew, the merc unit would disband automatically.
The issue is determining the proper length of the contract period (in turns). Once that is established, it would be easy to determine what the cost of the contract should be. Basically, I need to determine how many turns the unit (or its analogous in-game unit) is "viable" - how many turns is the unit desirable/advantageous to hire to meet short-term military objectives? These numbers are probably tied to the distance between a unit's prerequisite tech and obsolete tech.
This "viability" will be impacted by game speed, map size, starting era - but not difficulty level, which doesn't really change tech research costs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The problem: determine how many turns a unit is "viable" for any given game speed/map size/start era.
Preferably, this unit viability would be calculable on a simple heuristic tied to the unit's database cost in hammers and/or Era.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For example, assuming a standard speed, standard map, ancient start:
Say I have a Merc Unit called a "Genoese Crossbowman" - which is similar to the normal Crossbowman unit normally in the game. It also arrives at Machinery and obsoletes at Industrialization.
How best determine the formula for a given unit's "viability?"
One could assume a player beelines from Machinery to Industrialization by researching:
- Printing Press (780 science)
- Economics (1150 science)
- Industrialization (1600 science)
A total of 3,530 Science would be required for the fasted path/shortest period of viability. If my fledgling industrial civ was producing 125 science per turn, it would take 28 turns at the earliest possible time. One could double this amount and say a flat "60 turn viability" amount for the unit. Is this logical?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exit question: am I going about this the correct way? Or am I completely lost in left field?
If I'm lost, I'd really appreciate anyone's suggest on how to develop a better heuristic/formula that could help me set a decent contract period (in game turns) for a Merc unit, based on its viability & gold purchase cost.
Thanks!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
p.s. I've looked at all the other Mercenary mods available on Steam or here. Most of them treat merc units like normal units - i.e. you build/purchase them normally and then you own them as long as you want.
JFD's mod was a bit different, but uses a standard 25 turn contract for a set price of 60% of normal gold purchase price. This is an OK approach, I guess, but it also means merc units in Quick games are pretty cheap, and dramatically overpriced in Marathon games.
I'm looking for something that can be easily adjusted based on game speed, probably using a simple coefficient based on ResearchPercent or some similar number.
