primem0ver
Emperor
I am new to Civ 5 but not to modding. I remember the big debate over 1UPT before Civ V was released and I personally did not like the idea. This is the combination of a "mod request", an "idea or suggestion" and a mod thread since I am a modder and have lots of experience with modding Civ 4. The only reason I am not necessarily going to make this mod myself is because right now I am focusing on something else. However...I think this is a much needed solution (at least for some of us).
Over a decade ago a game came out that was not received very well because it was so different from its predecessors that the old audience just didn't accept it; especially since the instruction book was so poorly written so it was hard to figure out. However, this game introduced several great revolutionary ideas that were overlooked because of the perceived failure of the game in general. That game was Master of Orion 3. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Master of Orion series, it was basically the original "Galactic" and space-faring equivalent to Civilization.
One of those ideas, the concept of "task forces" provides a nice solution to the "1UPT" issue/debate; particularly for those (like me) feel that while the 1UPT idea has some interesting tactical value, it extremely annoying considering the scale of this game.
Since I am new to Civ 5 I am not sure how easy it would be to implement this but I get the idea it wouldn't be too difficult. I am going to give a little background from the source of this idea to explain how it would work.
In Master of Orion 3 (MOO3), on completion of a unit that was "space-worthy" (had an interstellar drive that enabled it to leave a planetary system) were put into a "buffer" called the reserve where they were completely inaccessible until they were assigned to a task force. (This really annoyed those of us who didn't know what was going on.) A task force had four basic properties:
Here is a picture of the screen where you created a task force that will give you a better idea of what I mean:
In MOO3, one could not actually select specific units on the main screen unless they were assigned to a "single ship" task force. Task forces could not be built in any system other than the home system unless a deployment orbital was built (forget the actual name of the structure).
I think this is a great approach to organizing military units and it could be done in Civ V as follows. Only a few of these characteristics would potentially require DLL support:
My vision of how to apply this concept to Civ V would solve many of the problems with "stacking" without worrying about 1UPT.
Over a decade ago a game came out that was not received very well because it was so different from its predecessors that the old audience just didn't accept it; especially since the instruction book was so poorly written so it was hard to figure out. However, this game introduced several great revolutionary ideas that were overlooked because of the perceived failure of the game in general. That game was Master of Orion 3. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Master of Orion series, it was basically the original "Galactic" and space-faring equivalent to Civilization.
One of those ideas, the concept of "task forces" provides a nice solution to the "1UPT" issue/debate; particularly for those (like me) feel that while the 1UPT idea has some interesting tactical value, it extremely annoying considering the scale of this game.
Since I am new to Civ 5 I am not sure how easy it would be to implement this but I get the idea it wouldn't be too difficult. I am going to give a little background from the source of this idea to explain how it would work.
In Master of Orion 3 (MOO3), on completion of a unit that was "space-worthy" (had an interstellar drive that enabled it to leave a planetary system) were put into a "buffer" called the reserve where they were completely inaccessible until they were assigned to a task force. (This really annoyed those of us who didn't know what was going on.) A task force had four basic properties:
- Its size
- Its purpose/type or "mission"
- The unit types and quantity (a narrow range) required for the selected size/purpose/type.
- And the specific ships that were added/assigned to the force.
Here is a picture of the screen where you created a task force that will give you a better idea of what I mean:
In MOO3, one could not actually select specific units on the main screen unless they were assigned to a "single ship" task force. Task forces could not be built in any system other than the home system unless a deployment orbital was built (forget the actual name of the structure).
I think this is a great approach to organizing military units and it could be done in Civ V as follows. Only a few of these characteristics would potentially require DLL support:
- Upon discovery of a certain tech(s), one can build a "military base" building in a city or a "fort" improvement.
- A global reserve for a country does not exist. Instead, these buildings/improvements provide the "buffer" or reserve.
- A UI component that displays the reserve would need to be created.
- If a reserve exists in a city where a military unit is built, the unit gets added to the buffer. Otherwise normal 1UPT rules apply.
- Units can be individually removed from the reserve but must be moved (or re-added) if there is more than one in a plot
- In order for units to be deployed from the reserve as a group or stack, a task force must be built.
- Building a task force takes 1 turn.
- A UI component for building a task force would need to be created
- As far as the game is concerned, a task force is a single unit (that contains a collection of units).
- The task force is assigned a specific mission that dictates what kinds of units can exist in it. Each different type of task force has a different unit model (art). (Ideally those models include miniature representations of the kind of units in them).
- Units can be removed from a task force but only within the guidelines of that task force size. (Potentially, we could convert to another type/size of task force). If a task force no longer follows the guidelines, it is disbanded.
- The DLL would need to be modified to handle battles that involve task forces.
- When a battle is over, one ore more new task forces must be created from the remaining units or moved from the location. (If a city is captured that contains a proper building, units could potentially be put into the city's reserve... but that would depend on popular opinion and possibly game options).
- Units in a city's reserve help defend the city when attacked.
My vision of how to apply this concept to Civ V would solve many of the problems with "stacking" without worrying about 1UPT.
- 1UPT play is still in effect since the stack is technically a unit from the games perspective
- Players who do not like stacks can disable the building of the task force buildings in their cities. (Assuming game options still exist from Civ 4).
- "Stacks" would be limited to the size of the task force
- Taking specific units out of a "stack" is now possible but would change the nature of the task force, potentially requiring disbanding of the force.
- If the task force is disbanded, the normal game handling for multiple units in a spot would go into effect.
- Looking at what is in a "stack" is now possible
- All units within the task force can be moved at once.
