Poll: Much Ado About Stacks

[Gerikes]

Since the time of programmers are short, I was wondering if this should be something we put up for vote. There are problems with the stack hard-cap, and they can probably be easily fixed with some tweaking, but it's probably a good idea that, now that people have played with it for awhile, we should decide if that's the direction we wish to go in.

So, which direction should we go?

You can only add a poll to a thread within 10 minutes of posting the thread.

Well isn't that a kick in the pants?

Well, I was going to poll about keeping/removing the stack limit basically, but now that I think about it perhaps it should be an open poll? Not just for beta-testers in the mod's thread in the modpacks forum, but perhaps post it in the C&C forum? Of course, then we might be getting ideas from people who have never HAD a stack limit before, so perhaps it should just be beta testers for this mod?

 

[Duke van Frost]

I personally would like to remove the stack-limitation in the future, but encourage players to use smaller stacks further with things like support fire (really cool thing BTW) and heroes only giving benefits to a maximum number of units maybe. Also the Flagbearer promotions could be useful for this, maybe give bonuses to stacks for psychology by these promotions and make them non-cumulative.
And civs like the greenskins should use larger stacks than others, because of the whaagh!-strength in numbers thing of Warhammer.

 

[woodelf]

Is there any possible way to incorporate a cost per number of units in a stack? Maybe 5 units is free, but the next 1 costs 1 gp/turn, then the next once cost 2 more gp/turn, and so on. This would be on top of normal unit maintenance.

Maybe counterproductive to huge armies in WH, but it's an option.

 

[Gerikes]

Is there any possible way to incorporate a cost per number of units in a stack? Maybe 5 units is free, but the next 1 costs 1 gp/turn, then the next once cost 2 more gp/turn, and so on. This would be on top of normal unit maintenance.

Maybe counterproductive to huge armies in WH, but it's an option.

The first suggestion I've heard to increase maintenance

It makes sense though. No offense E.L.M., but I'm not a big fan of the hard-cap. We can leave all the code in there, so that if we want we have something to start with if we bring it back later, I would say just change the STACK_MAX_SIZE to -1

 

[woodelf]

I definitely don't like increasing maintenance, but in this case there needs to be checks/balances.

 

[Gerikes]

I definitely don't like increasing maintenance, but in this case there needs to be checks/balances.

I'm not too fond of it either, but at last it's an idea

Although I'm sure more ideas will come along. right now it seems to me that we're trying to solve a problem that isn't really a problem. The more we concentrate on limiting stacks the less we concentrate on the other stuff that needs to be done. I'm sure we'll come up with more ways along the way to promote spreading out the forces.

 

[woodelf]

I'm going to ramble a bit, but there's an idea here I promise....

In MOO2 (I think) there was a system where the number of ship points couldn't exceed a total of points based on the number of starbases and other factors. GalCiv2 has fleet points based on a similar system.

What about a point system here based on the promotion level of the highest unit in a stack setting the cap for number of allowable units in the stack? So a level 6 swordsman with a "leader" promotion could have 6 additional units in his stack. Or you could do a point system based on types of units as well which might complicate things, like 1 point for archer, 2 for siege, ect. If that were the case you'd multiply the lvl 6 by a factor to get a stack point total.

 

[El Loco Mono]

It makes sense though. No offense E.L.M., but I'm not a big fan of the hard-cap. We can leave all the code in there, so that if we want we have something to start with if we bring it back later, I would say just change the STACK_MAX_SIZE to -1

No worries, it was only added as a flavour. Things making and losing the cut are just part of the process. Anyway, I'm sure you were able to tell, it wasn't really much a code change anyway so removing it is nothing. As long as I have something productive to do, I really don't mind what happens.

 

[El Loco Mono]

I say remove it.
As I have already said in an other thread, psychology will add the possibility of units in a stack running away if a unit looses a combat. The bigger the stack the more likely that the all the units will run away. This should be enought to encourage players to spread their forces out.

Hmm, sounds good, but I think we would need to put an AI weight on Stack size vs Max leadership to prevent mass Routing of AI armies.

 

[Ploeperpengel]

Hmm, sounds good, but I think we would need to put an AI weight on Stack size vs Max leadership to prevent mass Routing of AI armies.

I second that. If the AI can be made to only use small stacks the stacklimit can go to hell but only if that is acomplished first. Maybe stacklimits only for AI-possible? Or is there a better way to make it use small stacks?