posted 07-31-14 05:56 AM EDT (US)
A few months ago I was playing around with scripting for quick battles, mainly focussing on triyng to create asymmetrical battles which were hard to balance.
Now I'm trying to make a general "make quick battles more fun" script.
Adding extra depth allowing for peaceful/political play, slight roleplay (special units) and to make it more challenging.
Things completed:
1 Special Units - When a unit is completed, some units have a chance of being upgraded to special units. Eg a pikeman might become an elite pikemen or a french musketeer with a monarchy government might become an imperial guard.
2 Upkeep - All units cost food, cavalry costs extra food, vehicles cost oil, military cost coins, ships cost wood. This makes you think more carefully about having a huge standing army, you might opt to disband your forces after a large battle if you know it will be peace. Vehicles costing oil will also make tanks less attractive in the early industrial age, you may wish to stick with horses since you already have a well developed food economy.
3 Peace and trade - if you have a caravan between a nation and you are not too powerful then there is a much smaller chance of them declaring war on you. So you can use trade to forge psuedo alliances.
4 Political naming - Each team is named depending on how they are ruled. Eg. A small roman team ruled by a Republic would be called "Roman Republic" a large roman team would be called "Roman empire". A large mongol empire with a despotic ruler would be "Mongol Khanate". A large despotic Persia would be Shahdom a small monarchic persia would be emirate. This doesn't add anything to the game otherthan giving you a general idea of how they are ruled and how large they are.
All of the above is currently implimented.
Future plans:
5 Diplomacy overhaul- Not sure if this is possible but I wish to rewrite the diplomacy system from scratch, then decisions can include historic violence, culture, size, proximity and reputation. I always find enemies make ridiculous demands in game and at some point they get caught in a loop of rejecting peace no matter what offering. I expect this to be the last thing I make and will probably release it separately as well.
6 Deeper politics - More perks for political systems. One of my ideas would be to monitor growth, then a capitalist system would benefit from periods of growth but really suffer in a recession. IT would also include stuff involving freedom. Eg A capitalist side might find citizens automatically building a factory in the town and automatically deduct money. A recession for capitalists might see buildings being automatically "sold off" for a refund.
7 Global Happiness - A measure of how well you are doing. Positive growth, good pop/city ratio and lots of resouces increase happiness. Long wars with lots of casualties, famines and recessions would contribute to loss of happiness. Happiness would affect upkeep and global army desertions.
8 Local Happiness - Happiness per city.Affected by global happiness but also by local military/civilian ratio, spies (secret police), presence of a general, currently owned vs original builder culture and distance from capital would affect this. Low local happiness could cause buildings to be damaged, citizens to stop working or in extreme cases uprisings and helping the enemy to capture the city back.
9 Naming of units - Ability to name ships and generals, for that roleplaying feeling.
10 Stealing of UU - IF you conquer a nation have the opportunity to take some of their units, not sure how this would work or if it is a good idea. Seems nice though, Romans having conquered Russia would have a few units of elite infantry (from the thing I already made) and a few units of Russian cavalry.
11 Nuke changes - I would like randomise how many nukes can be launched, so people won't use them till there's one left, every nuke should be a risk. I would also like to have this change over time, so a 2 hour game could have 20 or so nukes launcher but if you launched those 20 in 5 minutes you would certainly perish. This should be easy.
I could really use some feedback on these ideas, especially the ones not yet made. I have numbered them for easier reference.
I shall be releasing the current version of the script soon so people can actually try it.
Now I'm trying to make a general "make quick battles more fun" script.
Adding extra depth allowing for peaceful/political play, slight roleplay (special units) and to make it more challenging.
Things completed:
1 Special Units - When a unit is completed, some units have a chance of being upgraded to special units. Eg a pikeman might become an elite pikemen or a french musketeer with a monarchy government might become an imperial guard.
2 Upkeep - All units cost food, cavalry costs extra food, vehicles cost oil, military cost coins, ships cost wood. This makes you think more carefully about having a huge standing army, you might opt to disband your forces after a large battle if you know it will be peace. Vehicles costing oil will also make tanks less attractive in the early industrial age, you may wish to stick with horses since you already have a well developed food economy.
3 Peace and trade - if you have a caravan between a nation and you are not too powerful then there is a much smaller chance of them declaring war on you. So you can use trade to forge psuedo alliances.
4 Political naming - Each team is named depending on how they are ruled. Eg. A small roman team ruled by a Republic would be called "Roman Republic" a large roman team would be called "Roman empire". A large mongol empire with a despotic ruler would be "Mongol Khanate". A large despotic Persia would be Shahdom a small monarchic persia would be emirate. This doesn't add anything to the game otherthan giving you a general idea of how they are ruled and how large they are.
All of the above is currently implimented.
Future plans:
5 Diplomacy overhaul- Not sure if this is possible but I wish to rewrite the diplomacy system from scratch, then decisions can include historic violence, culture, size, proximity and reputation. I always find enemies make ridiculous demands in game and at some point they get caught in a loop of rejecting peace no matter what offering. I expect this to be the last thing I make and will probably release it separately as well.
6 Deeper politics - More perks for political systems. One of my ideas would be to monitor growth, then a capitalist system would benefit from periods of growth but really suffer in a recession. IT would also include stuff involving freedom. Eg A capitalist side might find citizens automatically building a factory in the town and automatically deduct money. A recession for capitalists might see buildings being automatically "sold off" for a refund.
7 Global Happiness - A measure of how well you are doing. Positive growth, good pop/city ratio and lots of resouces increase happiness. Long wars with lots of casualties, famines and recessions would contribute to loss of happiness. Happiness would affect upkeep and global army desertions.
8 Local Happiness - Happiness per city.Affected by global happiness but also by local military/civilian ratio, spies (secret police), presence of a general, currently owned vs original builder culture and distance from capital would affect this. Low local happiness could cause buildings to be damaged, citizens to stop working or in extreme cases uprisings and helping the enemy to capture the city back.
9 Naming of units - Ability to name ships and generals, for that roleplaying feeling.
10 Stealing of UU - IF you conquer a nation have the opportunity to take some of their units, not sure how this would work or if it is a good idea. Seems nice though, Romans having conquered Russia would have a few units of elite infantry (from the thing I already made) and a few units of Russian cavalry.
11 Nuke changes - I would like randomise how many nukes can be launched, so people won't use them till there's one left, every nuke should be a risk. I would also like to have this change over time, so a 2 hour game could have 20 or so nukes launcher but if you launched those 20 in 5 minutes you would certainly perish. This should be easy.
I could really use some feedback on these ideas, especially the ones not yet made. I have numbered them for easier reference.
I shall be releasing the current version of the script soon so people can actually try it.
[This message has been edited by mdeceiver79 (edited 07-31-2014 @ 06:04 AM).]
