Combat Mod: merge, split and promotions.

[stachnie]

I have noticed that if I split a merged unit with free promotions, only top unit gets them and the other ones have none of them. I understand this is a good way to avoid illegitimate free promotions (if one merges a unit with lots of them with two other units without any of them, he could spread them if the unit is split back). However, sometimes they may be legitimate, e.g. if all these units were produced in a city with lots of free promotions.

Maybe it would be possible to create a flag for promotions of merged units? If all units before merging have appriopriate free promotion, the flag would be 1. If not, the flag would be 0. If the unit is split back, promotions with flag 1 would be given to all units while promotions with flag 0 would be given to the top unit only.

S.

 

[Thunderbrd]

I'm sure you've been around throughout the life of the SM option so you'd know it was once the other way around. You make a good point as to how it could be reworked. At the time I set this up that probably would've been beyond my ability but I think I could do it now. The challenge would be finding the time to prioritize the project.

There's also the question of just how much more data can we store on units and this issue is such that I'll be looking to clean out as much unnecessary data usage there as I can soon - if nothing else but to make more room for yet more so we can work in the nomadic unit and equipment stuff, as well as setting captives up to remember, in full, the unit they were before they were captives.

So I hope I can get away with this... it shouldn't be much really but the data storage system used for 'hasPromotion' is itself a little tricky about a few things so I'd have to take on the project with some care.

 

[stachnie]

There's also the question of just how much more data can we store on units

This is why I suggested a minimalistic option (one extra bit). It is possible that two out of three units would have the promotion - in such case one could consider to use two bits instead of one. Possible values:
0: no unit has the promotion at all or at least with the flag on
1: one unit has the promotion with the flag on
2: two units
3: three units.

Edit: no, this expansion would be a wrong idea - we would need 3 flags for one merge, 9 flags for 2 merges etc.

S.

 

[Thunderbrd]

Also gotta consider that many units haven't been merged to create them in the first place. The first proposal seems doable but it's low priority for a bit. Something to revisit when equipments begin to play a larger role I think.

 

[Acularius]

Maybe just use a single double attached to special promotions. 0.00 - 1.00. Representing a percentage. Dilutes with every additional non-promotioned unit, concentrates as you split up the unit to its base parts. No need to make it perfect, the splitting of units could be a risk to potentially lose a special promotion. You could also just make it an int value with a range of 1 - 100.

Merging: Take special promotion numbers(of same type) and divide by 3.
Best case: Merging 3 units with no special promotion. Nothing to calculate.
Average Case: Merging 3 units with one special promotion. 1 promotion/3, 0.33 concentration.
Worst case: Merging 3 units all with special promotion. After the checks, its just a 1.00, or 100% concentration.

Splitting: Times concentration by 3, find out how many units to inherit. Minimum one if special promotion exists.
Best Case: No special promotions to split. No flag triggered.
Average case: Times concentration by 3, for how many units to inherit. Default 1 if special promotion exists.
Worst case: All 3 units inherit.

Just tossing out an idea.

Edit: Not sure if feasible with Civ 4, but with the concentration, you could potentially use it to affect the strength modifier of the unit's promotion if you wanted.