Infos from the new Computer Bild Spiele about Civ 5

[RickInVA]

Great. Tech trading was always one of the most abused aspects of the game. Not being able to rely on dealing for techs makes the decision of how to tech through the tree very, very different and much, much more interesting. People will cry because it takes away a huge crutch, but it's a great change for the gameplay experience.

Just because someone likes a prior version's features when you don't does not make it a "crutch" or an "exploit" or anything else unfair. Personally I always turn off Technology Brokering, but leave on Trading. Is that a "crutch"? Because I like that feature? I would like to request (knowing that it won't happen) that everyone that thinks that something they don't like is a "bad" feature simply get over it and realize that others can like a feature just becuase they like it, not because it gives them a "great advantage" of some kind. IMHO Tech Trading always put me way behind the other Civs, so having it on was a handicap to me, not some "crutch", "exploit" or "cheat".

 

[RickInVA]

It's hard to find a combat system that works equally well in ancient and modern wars, so I'm fine with a system that offers enjoyment, even if it can be unhistorical.

I'm all for enjoyment, but I also realize (as you may as well) that one man's enjoyment is another man's disapointment.

The basic problem with a combat system that works well both in ancient and modern war is stacking. That is a great simplification, but lets go with it for now. In Ancient Times to win the war was to destroy the other guy's Army. One way to draw it out to fight was to move on his capitol or other major city. This resulted in exactally the stacks that many folks don't like, and with fighting orienting on cities (what other use was there for castles if not to defend nearby cities?) In the modern age armies are much larger and we have adopted the idea of Total War, war against an entire country and its peoples, not just against the enemy's Army. So we see the massive lines of troops across Europe and elsewhere in WWI, WWII, and Korea.

So here is my idea (cooked up in 30 seconds) on how to have a system that works for both. Have a stacking limit for a hex, lets say it is 10. Here is the clincher, units of different ages have different stacking values! Ancient units are 1 each, so you can stack 10, Iron Age are say 2, so you can stack 5, gunpowder 3, up to modern units which would be 10 so you can only put 1 in each hex. (Exact numbers not fixed for sure!) So at one stroke you have a system that allows the historical stacking and concentration of troops normal for its age, and the Main Line of Resistance of modern war. You could also work with stacking size to create special units. For example the stacking size of German Panzers or British Redcoats could be aranged so they could put 1 more of those special units in a hex than other nations, Pratorians could have a lower stacking to fit 1.5x as many, etc.

Problem solved!

 

[Dragonxander PR]

@RickInVA:

You, my good sir, deserve a cookie!! (the closest things I have to that are a & a )

EDIT: hat solution seems nice to me--now that I notice it, the strenghts of the units seem to more or less hint a reasonable stacking level. Say, you have axemen (5 str in Civ IV) & with a 40 units limit per tile you'd be able to group 8 of those. But then you have Infantry (IIRC, 20 str or something) so you'd be limited to 2 of them in the same tile.