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The_Aussie_Lurker
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Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
May 2001
time: 05:15
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As some of the more regular visitors to this Forum would know, the one thing thing I always wanted to see in Civ3, but will probably have to wait until Civ4 to get, was a more strategic combat system. Essentially what this would entail would have been the following:
1) Larger MP allowances for ground units(especially in Ancient times), but counterbalanced with "Operational Ranges" (O.R). Basically, a unit would have a range that it could successfully operate outside of friendly territory. Higher maintainance units (such as tanks and Mech Inf.) would have a shorter OR than low maintainance units (like rilfemen and swordsmen). Mounted units would have an intermediate range and civilian and SpecOps units would have the highest range
2) Range would also be affected by what terrain the units have crossed: eg Mountains and deserts would shorten range, wheras plains might slightly increase range.
3) If for any reason a unit should go or be outside its OR, the unit would begin to suffer damage according to the following formula:
(# of tiles outside OR*Maintainence Factor*Terrain Factor). This damage would reflect such things as hunger, disease, lack of fuel/ammo etc.
4) In order to extend a units range, you would have to do one of the following:
a) Build a fortress, connected by Road/Rail to your own territory, to act as supply points. Range would then be calculated from this point.
b) Capture an enemy city: This then becomes the new C&C centre for the battle. In order for a unit to fill this role it must have the following: a garrison force; a granary and a barracks.
5) If an enemy unit(s) should recapture a city, destroy a supply point, or disrupt the road/rail connecting supply points (by destroying or occupying them), then the units relying on them would be considered out of range and start suffering damage accordingly.
6) Lines of communication: Another important function of supply lines is to allow information to flow between the home-front and the front-lines (especially important for changing orders and recieving tactical updates). To reflect this, I felt that units should be given orders before setting out. Most of these would be the setting of a wapoint and a possible action to perform when they arrive (eg. move then attack, move then fortify, move then pillage). As long as the unit is within OR, then these orders can be changed freely. If, however, the unit moves outside this range, then the unit cannot respond to new orders until it has carried out its current orders. After this point, the AI will take over the unit(s) until communication lines are "Re-established"
(The AI's most common action would be to move to within OR, conditions permitting).
7) Obviously, new technologies (like radio and sattelites) would increase the effective range of a unit for communications purposes!
8) Lastly, certain new tile improvements, like watch towers and radar towers, should be allowed to be built. The effect of these improvements would be to extend a units visual range (for the purposes of seeing enemy units) and/or improve the chance of detecting stealth units (like subs, commandoes and stealth aircraft)
The major advantages of this system is that it gives homeground advantage to the defender, whilst forcing an potential aggressor to give some thought to strategic issues before they begin the attack! It also gives an alternate ethod for defenders to protect themselves from an invading force!!!
Anyway, I know this covers a lot of ground that I've covered before, but I keep wishing that the Firaxians would see it and MAYBE make some very last minute changes to the game (I'm not holding my breath!). It would work a lot better than this "Units can't use enemy Roads" abstraction that they are currently working with (I happen to agree that units should not be allowed to use enemy rail unless they capture the city its connected with!)
Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.
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09-10-2001 04:04
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