Really appreciate the feedback. I'll try to get through a few games myself this weekend with it, if I have the time.
The modified worker mechanic needs some tweaks, I agree. I was thinking of trying the following for the next build:
That might be worse...not sure. It's really the last gasp for trying to modify this mechanic. Thing is, it felt like games really cooked along while playing AI turns with the destructable Workers; I think if anything it really shows just how inefficient their worker automation code seems to be.
For scouts, I may take up a similar approach as I'm considering with the Workers above. I'd leave the scout unit's combat power as defined in Vanilla, and create a new unit, maybe called Recon, maybe unlocked at Optics, that would have a greater sight range (3) than the Scout but would have absolutely no combat power.
Just want to point out that the defensive experience nerf only applies to ranged attacks, such as city volleys, siege volleys, naval bombards - those kinds of attacks. The 'immersion' rationale for that is that in all those instances, the unit being shelled is doing nothing, just being shelled - it's passive. The gameplay rationale for that is that the system can be easily gamed to use opposing units as experience ATMs, and simply increasing bombard strengths across the board would bring it too far out of balance.
Thanks again for giving it a spin, I'll try to get a second version out sometime this weekend.
The modified worker mechanic needs some tweaks, I agree. I was thinking of trying the following for the next build:
- Introduce a new unit: Improvement Crew.
- Split duties between regular Workers and Improvement Crews - Workers will not be able to build improvements I had marked to kill the builder (Farm, Mine, Trading Post, Lumbermill, Pasture, Camp, Plantation, Quarry, or Well). The ability to build those would be transferred to the Improvement Crew.
- Improvement Crews are one-use units - they're consumed after building an improvement.
- Hard limit on Workers and Improvement Crews per player. I wish I could specify something based on number of cities, but that's currently over my head, if not impossible.
- Workers return to their normal production cost, Improvement Crews retain the deflated cost.
That might be worse...not sure. It's really the last gasp for trying to modify this mechanic. Thing is, it felt like games really cooked along while playing AI turns with the destructable Workers; I think if anything it really shows just how inefficient their worker automation code seems to be.
For scouts, I may take up a similar approach as I'm considering with the Workers above. I'd leave the scout unit's combat power as defined in Vanilla, and create a new unit, maybe called Recon, maybe unlocked at Optics, that would have a greater sight range (3) than the Scout but would have absolutely no combat power.
Just want to point out that the defensive experience nerf only applies to ranged attacks, such as city volleys, siege volleys, naval bombards - those kinds of attacks. The 'immersion' rationale for that is that in all those instances, the unit being shelled is doing nothing, just being shelled - it's passive. The gameplay rationale for that is that the system can be easily gamed to use opposing units as experience ATMs, and simply increasing bombard strengths across the board would bring it too far out of balance.
Thanks again for giving it a spin, I'll try to get a second version out sometime this weekend.