Military

Discussion on game mechanics, balancing etc.
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Haxaco
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Re: Military

Post by Haxaco »

Maybe I just totally missed it, but what does morale do? Did you mean experience (the medals in IMP1)?

I've got two addition/idea now:

- healing a unit, lowers its experience/morale. Because fresh/green recruits enter the ranks replacing battle-hardened veterans.
- flavor idea: cool historical regimental names instead of "1st Infantry Regiment" (for historical nations). Perhaps fictitious regimental names for random generated nations (Hackensack Regiment of Foot :mrgreen: ).
Haxaco
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Re: Military

Post by Haxaco »

BTW, I've read that trade vessels can be upgraded? Not a good idea, it's not like giving a newer more advanced rifle to your troops and train them in its use. Replacing would be more realistic (paying full cost, while gaining some reusable goods by scrapping the old ship perhaps).
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Trilarion
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Re: Military

Post by Trilarion »

Haxaco wrote:Maybe I just totally missed it, but what does morale do? Did you mean experience (the medals in IMP1)?
I remember from either Imp1 or Imp2 (not sure anymore) that units would get scared after taking some hits and retreat from the battlefield. A general would prevent this. I called this property morale. I am not sure if we need it, probably we could do without?
- healing a unit, lowers its experience/morale. Because fresh/green recruits enter the ranks replacing battle-hardened veterans.
- flavor idea: cool historical regimental names instead of "1st Infantry Regiment" (for historical nations). Perhaps fictitious regimental names for random generated nations (Hackensack Regiment of Foot :mrgreen: ).
Totally in favor. :)
Haxaco wrote:BTW, I've read that trade vessels can be upgraded? Not a good idea, it's not like giving a newer more advanced rifle to your troops and train them in its use. Replacing would be more realistic (paying full cost, while gaining some reusable goods by scrapping the old ship perhaps).
Okay, I will change it to replace. It's the right concept.
Veneteaou
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Re: Military

Post by Veneteaou »

I remember from either Imp1 or Imp2 (not sure anymore) that units would get scared after taking some hits and retreat from the battlefield. A general would prevent this. I called this property morale. I am not sure if we need it, probably we could do without?
We can try it, but IMO morale in Imp1 at least was a defining part of the combat system. More than anything, it allowed heavy artillery to single-shot infantry units out of the battle without killing them. The resulting balance issues either lead to over or under powered artillery.
Trapets
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Re: Military

Post by Trapets »

In seaside towns and provinces could also be an opportunity to build coastal defenses to prevent the port blockades and invasions. Build time should be long-term and expensive.
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Trilarion
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Re: Military

Post by Trilarion »

Good idea. Added to the list of ideas in the game design document. It would depend how exactly port blockades and sea invasions are conducted and implemented. One could also say that normal fortresses, if they happen to be in coastal provinces, have this additional effect.

As a historical side note: Historical fortresses were quite strong until around 1870 when with better artillery their value decreased. It's planned to incorporate this into the game.
ForFunAndProfit
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Re: Military

Post by ForFunAndProfit »

What types of units are we going to be working with technology and doctrine-wise? Can do research on it if needed.
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Trilarion
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Types of units

Post by Trilarion »

We will have 5 types of land units:
  • Militia: Defensive, slow moving, attached to provinces, good in cities
  • Infantry: Performs well in cities, relatively cheap, not too strong, slow
  • Artillery: Slow, weak, distance attack
  • Cavalry (later tanks): Strong, Fast, Expensive, Weak in cities
  • Officers: Not fighting for themselves, give bonuses to surrounding units
And some navy types also:

Frigates and the like for hunting trade vessels (commercial war, operating alone behind enemy lines)
Shipes-Of-The-Line for blocking enemy ports or challenging enemy fleets

As alway any ideas welcome. :)
ForFunAndProfit
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Re: Military

Post by ForFunAndProfit »

I was thinking of breaking the naval unit tree up along the lines of escorts/raiders, battleships and then merchantmen.

In terms of naval combatants, if you give three types of ships (escorts, raiders, and then battleships) you have the ability to start filling out all kinds of ship types. For instance, some ideas:

Escorts:
Sailing Frigate
Screw Frigate
Torpedo Boat Destroyer/Destroyer
Protected Cruiser

Raiders:
Side-Wheel Commerce Raider
Armored Cruiser
Battlecruiser
Torpedo Boat*
Submarine*


Battleships:
Ship-of-the-Line
Ironclad
Pre-Dreadnought
Dreadnought

Merchantmen:
Trader
Indiaman
Paddlewheel Merchant
Freighter
Q-Ship(?)*

*These ideas basically are to offset one-another. Not only would a Q-ship act as a participating merchant vessel, carrying whatever you're trading ect, but I figure it might be a clever sort of endgame way to counter commerce raiding, as it's a freighter that has guns hidden all over it.

Torpedo boats and submarines definitely get their start and use in this era also, in fact the torpedo boat's development lead to an entirely different way of thinking in naval strategy which didn't rely on the Line of Battle determining seazone control, it was instead the idea that smaller ships or boats lead by maybe a larger command ship could deal a disproportionate amount of damage at a fraction of the cost of even one of the enemy's battleships. It's called "jeune école", or young school of thought.
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Trilarion
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Post by Trilarion »

Thank you, this definitely extends the naval ship section. I had to google Q-Ship - sounds like a nice strategy. :)

The effect that worries me a bit now would be that from a games perspective naval battle would only be effective against England, since it probably relies on ships to transport their goods while the continental nations can conduct their trade over land. This is also kind of realistic because England was always the aim of the battle on the sea and had advantages when defending, but why concentrating in a game on an aspect that is not really needed so much? I always saw the land battles as the decisive parts, navy is more to support it (for example land battles should be tactical, naval battles always automatic). This is how it was in the original Imperialism.

So I would probably for the base game limit the number of upgrades to four in each category. Also I am not sure if we need Escorts. We can just say that escorts are implicitely existing for all merchantmen. I think your classification is very helpful, but I am worried a bit about increasing complexity. But maybe we just test it and see in the game how important navy should be. :)
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