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Maquiladora
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Ideas for combat.
Locutus' idea -
quote:
As you know, the attacker and defender take turns in attacking each other during a battle, where both units use their Attack value to match their opponent's Defense value and try to damage their opponent. If this is changed so that units that are defending a tile/city would get to use their Defense value when it's their turn to attack the invading force, this will give defenders an advantage over invaders, assuming you're using the proper units to defend.
So when defensive units get their turn to attack, they will be able to use their strong Defense value against the weak Defense value of their offensive invaders, giving them an advantage. When these invading offensive units are on the attack, both sides use their strongest stats and they will be roughly evenly matched (all things equal). So during the course of an entire battle, defensive units have a distinct advantage.
Of course, when you would use defensive units (e.g. Hoplites) to attack other units and initiate the battle themselves, they would end up using their weak Attack value when attacking and not be able to inflict much damage on their opponents.
So there are 4 basic battle situations (assuming 1v1 battles, works the same for stacks of course), where I assume that a Hoplite is a defensive unit (e.g. stats A:1 D:3 R:0) and a Legion is an offensive unit (e.g. stats A: 3 D:1 R:0):
1. Legion attacks Hoplite. When it's the Legion's turn to attack, its strong Attack value is matched against the strong Defense value of the Hoplite: the Legion does limited damage to the Hoplite (very limited if the Hoplite is protected by City Walls, entrenchment, terrain, etc). When it's the Hoplite's turn to attack, its strong Defense value is matched against the weak Defense value of the Legion: the Hoplite can seriously damage the Legion (which doesn't have defensive advantages to hide behind). Overall, the defending Hoplite has the advantage, but will sustain damage (though not too much if it's dug in deep).
2. Hoplite attacks Hoplite. When it's the attacker's turn to attack, its weak Attack value is matched against the strong Defense value of the defender: the defender will suffer little damage (very little if dug in). When it's the defender's turn to attack, its strong Defense value is matched against the strong Defense value of the attacker: the attacker will suffer limited damage (but have no defensive bonuses to soften the blow). Overall, the defending Hoplite has a significant advantage, suffering little to very little damage.
So, when a defensive unit is attacked, it always has the advantage, a huge advantage even if it gets high defensive bonuses.
3. Legion attacks Legion. When it's the attacker's turn to attack, its strong Attack value is matched against the weak Defense value of the defender: the defender suffers significant damage (though less so if dug in). When it's the defender's turn to attack, its weak Defense value is matched against the weak Defense value of the attacker: the attacker suffers limited damage. Overall, the attacking Legion has the advantage, but will sustain damage (how much largely depend on how long the defending Legion can protract the battle by being dug in).
4. Hoplite attacks Legion. When it's the Hoplite's turn to attack, its weak Attack value is matched against the weak Defense value of the Legion: the Legion suffers limited damage (very limited if dug in). When it's the Legion's turn to attack, its weak Defense value is matched against the strong Defense value of the Hoplite: the Hoplite suffers little damage. Overall, the attacking Hoplite has the advantage, but it's a tight balance where much depends on various defensive and offensive modifiers. Especially if the Legion is in open terrain without defensive bonuses, it's vulnerable.
So, when an offensive unit is attacked, it is often vulnerable. Offensive stacks can suffer greatly from sneak attacks, ambushes, etc when they're out in the field but don't have the initiative.
This gives players a good opportunity to play defensively and to stop enemy invasions: by digging in in defensive positions and by counter-attacking invaders when they're exposed. Of course, some measures like effective siege warfare will also need to be present to not make aggressive conquest completely impossible.
(I stress again that much of this is based on speculation and it remains to be seen how it works out in practice, and there's of course always the issue of making the AI deal)
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I tend to agree, the defensive side of the game needs to be stronger, especially because you can only have a maximum of 12 units on a tile.
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24-12-2003 00:41
this sounds like a fantastic idea, good ol Locutus 
(and i always thought the combat was fine - but now this seems much better!). i I agree it should be tested if it hasnt already.
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