Rock Paper Scissors Effect in Civ 3

[Gary Childress]

In the old Civ2 there was a binary number to set for making a unit doubley effective against mounted units. So you could set pikemen to be extra effective against cavalry, increasing their defense value against them. Is there any way to make a unit more effective against a particular type of unit in Civ3. I don't know of any way but it would be really neat to have anti-tank units which were mostly just effective against tanks and more vulnerable to infantry.

Thanks,

 

[Civinator]

Such a "pikeman-flag" doesn´t exist in Civ 3. When I remember well, that flag was a little bit buggy in Civ 2 as it could only be used against mobile units with 1 HP. It was reintroduced in Civ IV.

A similar effect can be done with the stealth-attack ability in Civ 3, at least, if the unit is owned by a human. The question is, how does the AI handle this ability. That´s why I made the thread about the stealth attack flag: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=239062 As the idea of the stealth attack antitank-units is a very old one (I don´t know if this was Steph´s idea or from somebody else, I made at least very old posts about this antitanksetting too), I thought now there should be some experiences with this flag, but the post in this thread show, that this seems not to be the case.

The stealth-attack-flag allows to pick out an enemy-unit from a stack and if used properly (stealth attack against weaker defense units or to soften up a unit and than retreat) gives the attacker an advantage.

 

[Gary Childress]

Hi Civinator, I saw your thread on the stealth flag, which is what prompted me to ask this question to begin with. I like the idea of being able to have anti-tank units be able to pick tanks out of a stack but it would be even better if they had an advantage against tanks which they wouldn't against infantry. Otherwise, why not just attack infantry units with the anti-tank units, which seems sort of unrealistic.

 

[Steph]

That's indeed one of the first problem I would have solved if we had access to the code.

This, and change the way the "ignore terrain cost", by adding +50% bonus to the unit in such terrain.

 

[egroen]

I playtest a lot of games where each civ has a stealth attacker -- The AI always does a good job with them, always attacking my highest offensive units in a stack (which typically have much less in defense). They do not build a ton, but a decent amount (I use them a lot more, given how fond the AI is of SoD). In my games the stealth unit has about 60-75% of the attack rating of the highest attacking unit of the time, and the AI still builds a decent amount. Upping that offensive rating, or making the unit cheaper would incite the AI to build more.

I know it is not exactly what you are looking for, but it is a decent work-around, adds a lot to gameplay and the AI seems to be able to use it correctly.

 

[Ozymandias]

In my games the stealth unit has about 60-75% of the attack rating of the highest attacking unit of the time, and the AI still builds a decent amount. Upping that offensive rating, or making the unit cheaper would incite the AI to build more.

AFAIK the AI ignores cost when choosing what to build. See this hoary old thread for details.

Best,

Oz

 

[Gary Childress]

I wonder why Civ3 gave up the special attack bonuses from Civ2? There was also an "Ingore City Walls" bonus for artillery or bomber units.

 

[Quinzy]

Ignorance?

 

[Ozymandias]

A race to the lowest common monetary denominator.

-Oz

 

[Takhisis]

aka the cheapest way to do it?
government here does it with workers on strike: instead of paying them, they send the police against them.