Candido Rondon
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2016
- Messages
- 51
I'm sure this will require require greater modding tools than what we currently have available, but I wanted to start planning.
Action Points
Separate actions like pillaging, attacking, healing, and building from movement. Units can spend all of their movement points and then perform an action on top of that.
Most recently I saw this used in Endless Legend, and I liked how it worked. It keeps the distance units can travel reasonable while making the action a bit more fast-paced. It also offers an additional dimension for promotions and unique units.
Supply and Healing
I've always wanted to have some kind of basic supply line system in the game, but I really hate the idea of having to micromanage some supply chain just so I don't watch my units' health automatically dwindle away each turn.
This would remove the ability for units to heal automatically each turn. Instead units have heal "charges" similar to build charges for Builders. Each time you heal, you get a big chunk of health back, but you lose a charge. I think 1 or 2 charges would be reasonable as a base level. You could maybe make it 1 charge for ranged and 2 charges for melee?
Getting new charges would require being resupplied or returning to a friendly city. I'm not sure what would be the best mechanic for resupply. You could have a Supply Wagon support unit or a maybe Traders could be set to travel to targeted units and then resupply all adjacent units.
I think this strikes a nice balance because it makes resupply important but not essential. Players can decide whether they'd rather try their luck with a fast invasion force that won't be able to heal itself in a protracted siege or a well-supplied but maybe more cumbersome army creeping up to the enemy city.
Defending players would do well to adopt Fabian tactics. Get behind the enemy to take out their supply units, and then chip away at their health until you destroy them or force them to withdraw.
Of course, defenders in city districts would automatically get resupplied each turn unless the city is "under siege". Once the defender uses up their charges, they'll never be able to heal again until the siege is lifted.
Morale
Morale affects several different factors like:
Of course, winning battles and killing enemy units boosts morale, but simply sitting around in enemy territory has a worse effect on morale than simply losing battles. Defeats in enemy territory would also be costlier for morale than ones in friendly territory. When the enemy kills adjacent units, the remaining units take a morale hit. The loss of a Great General or Admiral in combat would have a morale shock to all units in a certain radius.
If you do declare a casus belli, morale will also be affected by what you actually do. If you declare a Reconquest War but then set yourself to taking a city that was never yours, your units will take more of a morale hit. On the other hand, if you focus on the war aims of the casus belli, you'll get big morale boosts from victories.
Units with maxed out "Fanatic" morale will be much more effective in combat above units with base-line morale. Completely demoralized "Mutinous" units, on the other hand, would have their action points reduced to 0 and would only be able to move and defend themselves when attacked.
Cities would be able to build a Morale Boost city project that would increase the morale of all military units up to a certain point. Policies could be created that might increase the boost from victories while decreasing the penalty from inaction or defeats.
Civ-Wide Military Unit Order Limit
This would limit how many new military unit orders you could issue per turn. This would have no bearing on units that are already carrying out an order such as a unit set to auto-explore or a unit currently en route to a location. Corps, Armies, Fleets, and Armadas would, of course, count as just a single unit order, and the order cost would apply to the unit and not the action. In other words, if you choose to move your Spearman, you don't have to use an additional order to attack with that Spearman.
The limit would be increased over the course of the game with technologies, policies, and wonders.
In a pinch, the player can choose to pay to issue additional orders on any given turn. The cost goes up drastically for each additional order the player buys that turn.
Action Points
Separate actions like pillaging, attacking, healing, and building from movement. Units can spend all of their movement points and then perform an action on top of that.
Most recently I saw this used in Endless Legend, and I liked how it worked. It keeps the distance units can travel reasonable while making the action a bit more fast-paced. It also offers an additional dimension for promotions and unique units.
Supply and Healing
I've always wanted to have some kind of basic supply line system in the game, but I really hate the idea of having to micromanage some supply chain just so I don't watch my units' health automatically dwindle away each turn.
This would remove the ability for units to heal automatically each turn. Instead units have heal "charges" similar to build charges for Builders. Each time you heal, you get a big chunk of health back, but you lose a charge. I think 1 or 2 charges would be reasonable as a base level. You could maybe make it 1 charge for ranged and 2 charges for melee?
Getting new charges would require being resupplied or returning to a friendly city. I'm not sure what would be the best mechanic for resupply. You could have a Supply Wagon support unit or a maybe Traders could be set to travel to targeted units and then resupply all adjacent units.
I think this strikes a nice balance because it makes resupply important but not essential. Players can decide whether they'd rather try their luck with a fast invasion force that won't be able to heal itself in a protracted siege or a well-supplied but maybe more cumbersome army creeping up to the enemy city.
Defending players would do well to adopt Fabian tactics. Get behind the enemy to take out their supply units, and then chip away at their health until you destroy them or force them to withdraw.
Of course, defenders in city districts would automatically get resupplied each turn unless the city is "under siege". Once the defender uses up their charges, they'll never be able to heal again until the siege is lifted.
Morale
Morale affects several different factors like:
- Damage penalty
- Maximum number of health charges
- Maximum number of action points
Of course, winning battles and killing enemy units boosts morale, but simply sitting around in enemy territory has a worse effect on morale than simply losing battles. Defeats in enemy territory would also be costlier for morale than ones in friendly territory. When the enemy kills adjacent units, the remaining units take a morale hit. The loss of a Great General or Admiral in combat would have a morale shock to all units in a certain radius.
If you do declare a casus belli, morale will also be affected by what you actually do. If you declare a Reconquest War but then set yourself to taking a city that was never yours, your units will take more of a morale hit. On the other hand, if you focus on the war aims of the casus belli, you'll get big morale boosts from victories.
Units with maxed out "Fanatic" morale will be much more effective in combat above units with base-line morale. Completely demoralized "Mutinous" units, on the other hand, would have their action points reduced to 0 and would only be able to move and defend themselves when attacked.
Cities would be able to build a Morale Boost city project that would increase the morale of all military units up to a certain point. Policies could be created that might increase the boost from victories while decreasing the penalty from inaction or defeats.
Civ-Wide Military Unit Order Limit
This would limit how many new military unit orders you could issue per turn. This would have no bearing on units that are already carrying out an order such as a unit set to auto-explore or a unit currently en route to a location. Corps, Armies, Fleets, and Armadas would, of course, count as just a single unit order, and the order cost would apply to the unit and not the action. In other words, if you choose to move your Spearman, you don't have to use an additional order to attack with that Spearman.
The limit would be increased over the course of the game with technologies, policies, and wonders.
In a pinch, the player can choose to pay to issue additional orders on any given turn. The cost goes up drastically for each additional order the player buys that turn.
