I have been tossing around an idea about unit creation. These ideas have been brought up before, but in different places/threads. I'll link to them after I explain my idea.
I think that your military units and weapons should be produced seperately. Anyone that has played Colonization would be familiar with this. Basically, I would tell my city to build a military unit, which would be a generic warrior. It would take a # of turns for the unit to be complete. There would be a separate place/structure to produce weapons, which would also take a certain # of turns. Or, the city could build the weapons if it had the required structure and resource, and a separate structure would train troops.
The basic solider would still be like a warrior, but wouldn't require any weapons (it would fight with a stone or a big stick or a whatever). A basic solider would be regular, could be conscript if hurried, or veteran if trained in a town with a barracks. Once complete he could be given whatever weapons that were available in that town, or travel to a different town with different weapons available. So if I wanted an archer, I would build bows and arrows in a town and recruit a solider and equip them. If I wanted a tank, I would build the tank and assign a soldier to drive it. Simple weapons like bow and arrow or spear shouldn't require an special buildings or resources. Swords and Pikes would require a blacksmith and would require iron. More advanced weapons such as tanks or rifles would require factories or magazines for example. Certain weapons could be melted down into raw materials that could be turned into other weapons (ancient era swords -> midieval longswords or pikes). The process of creating a unit could be streamlined by just requesting a particular unit and the game trains the solider and equips him automatically, or could be micromanaged as well.
Horses and mounted units would be a special case. Almost any unit could be mounted to become a different unit. A warrior could be mounted to become a horseman, an archer to a skirmisher, or a swordsman to an ancient calvary, etc. Certain restrictions should apply that prevent a player from turning EVERY unit they have into a mounted one with a single supply of horses.
Upgrading units would be a simple as moving a unit to a town, removing its weapons, and equiping it with new ones. A swordsman cound even become a longbowman in this case.
Weapons, once built, could also be sold or traded to other civs.
This idea also works well with the idea that resources be quantitated instead of 1 iron = as many swordsman as you can build/support. The idea is that 1 iron deposit should be able to produce 20, 50, or a variable amount of iron. I think that a better method would be 1 iron deposit makes 1 iron/ turn, but that is just my opinion. Then, 1 swordsman should require a soldier and a sword which required 1 iron unit to build. Swords could even be melted down into iron again to use to build a different kind of weapon.
Unique units could still be done with this method. Each civ could have 1 weapon that is different and better than the others, like German Panzers instead of tanks. However, this doesn't work that well for units like the Chinese Rider or Greek Hoplite. These units were special because of special training or tactics, ect. Another way to do this would be to have a certain combination create a different unit just like the way UU's replace standard versions in Civ3. For example, if the Romans gave a soldier a sword, he would have a Legionary instead of a swordsman.
That pretty much sums up my idea for now, though I may add to it later. Like I said at the beginning of this post, these ideas have been brought up before, I just wanted to add my thoughts and combine it all together into a coherent post.
I realize that it would be too much micromanagement for some players, though other players seem to enjoy more of it. I have no problem with the current game, though, and I would not be dissapointed if the developers decided to keep the unit production system the same as it is now.
Links...
Military Idea (GeZe)
New Unit Production Idea (sir schwick)
A new resource system (Shyrramar)
I think that your military units and weapons should be produced seperately. Anyone that has played Colonization would be familiar with this. Basically, I would tell my city to build a military unit, which would be a generic warrior. It would take a # of turns for the unit to be complete. There would be a separate place/structure to produce weapons, which would also take a certain # of turns. Or, the city could build the weapons if it had the required structure and resource, and a separate structure would train troops.
The basic solider would still be like a warrior, but wouldn't require any weapons (it would fight with a stone or a big stick or a whatever). A basic solider would be regular, could be conscript if hurried, or veteran if trained in a town with a barracks. Once complete he could be given whatever weapons that were available in that town, or travel to a different town with different weapons available. So if I wanted an archer, I would build bows and arrows in a town and recruit a solider and equip them. If I wanted a tank, I would build the tank and assign a soldier to drive it. Simple weapons like bow and arrow or spear shouldn't require an special buildings or resources. Swords and Pikes would require a blacksmith and would require iron. More advanced weapons such as tanks or rifles would require factories or magazines for example. Certain weapons could be melted down into raw materials that could be turned into other weapons (ancient era swords -> midieval longswords or pikes). The process of creating a unit could be streamlined by just requesting a particular unit and the game trains the solider and equips him automatically, or could be micromanaged as well.
Horses and mounted units would be a special case. Almost any unit could be mounted to become a different unit. A warrior could be mounted to become a horseman, an archer to a skirmisher, or a swordsman to an ancient calvary, etc. Certain restrictions should apply that prevent a player from turning EVERY unit they have into a mounted one with a single supply of horses.
Upgrading units would be a simple as moving a unit to a town, removing its weapons, and equiping it with new ones. A swordsman cound even become a longbowman in this case.
Weapons, once built, could also be sold or traded to other civs.
This idea also works well with the idea that resources be quantitated instead of 1 iron = as many swordsman as you can build/support. The idea is that 1 iron deposit should be able to produce 20, 50, or a variable amount of iron. I think that a better method would be 1 iron deposit makes 1 iron/ turn, but that is just my opinion. Then, 1 swordsman should require a soldier and a sword which required 1 iron unit to build. Swords could even be melted down into iron again to use to build a different kind of weapon.
Unique units could still be done with this method. Each civ could have 1 weapon that is different and better than the others, like German Panzers instead of tanks. However, this doesn't work that well for units like the Chinese Rider or Greek Hoplite. These units were special because of special training or tactics, ect. Another way to do this would be to have a certain combination create a different unit just like the way UU's replace standard versions in Civ3. For example, if the Romans gave a soldier a sword, he would have a Legionary instead of a swordsman.
That pretty much sums up my idea for now, though I may add to it later. Like I said at the beginning of this post, these ideas have been brought up before, I just wanted to add my thoughts and combine it all together into a coherent post.
I realize that it would be too much micromanagement for some players, though other players seem to enjoy more of it. I have no problem with the current game, though, and I would not be dissapointed if the developers decided to keep the unit production system the same as it is now.
Links...
Military Idea (GeZe)
New Unit Production Idea (sir schwick)
A new resource system (Shyrramar)
, but I can surf the internet)
