Troops
 

A question for you modders

Is it possible to mod SEIVG to allow assimilating troops into 'army' concentrations ie the same as you do with with ships into fleets or fighters into fighter Groups?

I suspect that this is a hard code issue but I would like to know if this can be done.

At the moment, I am working with changing the names of my troops to reflect unit status eg space marine (1st division), space marine (2nd division), assualt mech (1st airborne) etc

Re: Troops
 

Growltigga,

As SJ says, all troops on a single transport already are one group for the purposes of attacking a planet. The SEIV gound combat does not allow for the kind of detail you are looking for, and won't without a significant amount of rewrite.

As to your point of renaming the units as divisions. That is a good idea. I have always kind of assumed the units to be Groups instead of single entities as it doesn't make a whole lot of sense that a couple dozen tanks can subdue a population of millions, even if the population is lightly armed.

In fact one could go as far as changing the troop only weapons to reflect this new unit composition. If you think about a single troop unit as a division, or maybe a smaller army unit (I am a little weak in this area so forgive me if I am mangling the terms) then the components used in "constructing" the unit could reflect this. Instead of a troop cockpit, you could have a "general", weapons could be smaller army divisions with specific strentgths and weaknesses. ie, "Armored company", "Infantry company", "Special forces". Not sure how much of this would actually translate into differences in combat performance, but it would allow for some variety in troop design that isn't really there currently.

One suggestion though for anyone trying this though, change the fighter weapons so they can't be used on troops as they can currently.

Geoschmo

[ 16 April 2002: Message edited by: geoschmo ]</p>

Re: Troops
 

As SJ says, all troops on a single transport already are one group for the purposes of attacking a planet.

Yeah, this is what I do at the moment. My troop units are named 'Space Marines (1st Division)' or 'Space Marines (Osiris Division)' or whatever. I build say 25 of these guys on a planet and hey presto, you kind of duplicate the effect of having a division of troops by have 25 space marines (1st division). Then you build an assault transport big enough to carry 25 space marines (1st Division) and this gives you the effect of a planetary assault army. Ground combat doesn't differentiate but I have found that if you have identical troop units, some named "space marines (1st division)" and "space marines (2nd division)", you will lose random numbers in each type in ground combat which kind of goes to reflect actual casualties.

one could go as far as changing the troop only weapons

Yep, I have done this to a certain extent but have not changed the values.

I have also renamed the troop units so that you have battalion/regiment/division instead of small/medium/large. I have also renamed certain of the tech's for example, troop cockpit is now command HQ etc - it does give it a better feel

PS Noble713 told me about doing this so he gets full credit for the steer
PPS SJ told me how to do it so he gets credit to that

[ 16 April 2002: Message edited by: Growltigga ]</p>

Re: Troops
 

GT:
I like the idea also. What file and what area do you change?
Thanks

Re: Troops
 

wherever the files containing all the tech descriptions are IIRC

paraphrased below is the email I had from Noble713 setting out what he did

"Small Troop = Battalion
Medium Troop = Regiment
Large Troop = Division

Cockpit = Command HQ (1kT)

Troop components included the following, which you can give any reasonable stats you want, but here were the basic concepts:

All are called companies:

Light Infantry 3kT
Heavy Infantry
maybe Mechanized Infantry
Light/Medium/Heavy Armor
Droid Infantry
Strategic Bomber Squadron
Artillery

That's about all that I came up with. It's kinda fun, as you can make a division (large) unit, give it a mix of heavy infantry and medium and heavy armor, and call it a Panzer Grenadier Division or something.

Re: Troops
 

"SJ, "make use of the transports experiance to survive the trip down". Do you mean the "Experiance" like:
Novice, Experianced, Vetran, Elite?
Thanks"
Yep.

Re: Troops
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Growltigga:
PS Noble713 told me about doing this so he gets full credit for the steer
PPS SJ told me how to do it so he gets credit to that<hr></blockquote>
Well, what you have here so closely jives with what I suggested that I must have read their earlier Posts and simply forgot. With close to 10,000 Posts in the forum it's entirely possible. I figured a good idea like that couldn't have orgininated in this dusty old noodle. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Geo

Re: Troops
 

Geo, or from me as well.

It takes some work but as I have mentioned, I play Geneva convention (to coin a phrase used by Dogscoff), no orbital bombardment of planets against undefended populations are allowed, you have to send in the ground pounders and do the damage.

If you can 'identify' the troops, it adds continuity to the game which is quite fun I can tell you

Re: Troops
 

I am currently working on redoing the ground combat. I have created Assualt craft that can carry the different units which include- Battalion,Brigade,Regiment,Division and Corps. I created "mounts" to reflect training-inexperienced,trained,vetern and elite. Each of the units is composed of different units. For example a Battalion contains 4 companies and 1 HQ. The available companies are straight forward so as to avoid to much complication. Tank,Infantry and Mech Infantry. Each has inherit strenghths and or weaknesses. As you move up the ladder a Brigade will be composed of several battalions, a HQ and a couple of support companies(ie- artillery, engineer or aviation ).

Since the Ai does not build or use troops I plan on changing the setting file to beef up the number,hit points and dam of planetary units. This would reflect the fact that a planet with millions or even billions of people would and should have an inherit military structure.

I hope to have everything done and posted soon.

Re: Troops
 

The Troop Fleets are basically the transport they're carried on.
They all move and attack together when they are on the same transport, they make use of the transport's experience to survive the trip down.

Re: Troops
 

SJ, "make use of the transports experiance to survive the trip down". Do you mean the "Experiance" like:
Novice, Experianced, Vetran, Elite?
Thanks

Re: Troops
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Since the Ai does not build or use troops<hr></blockquote> This thread lists several AIs that do use troops. Several modders put a lot of effort into getting them to work.

Re: Troops
 

Thank's for the info. I'll have to make sure I include those races in my mod. It would be nice to see the AI use what I'm tring to create

Re: Troops
 

Just like the DroneWars Scenario in gold you could do a ground combat (mainly, with transport to move the units (lots more classes there) and some combat ships, just not too much variety) scenario and make all of these really cool designs but im not sure what woudl keep ppl from just picking the experienced mount every times? even if it had to researched (which it can't) i'm not sure what it woudl do, although asthetically and minus the experience part it is a great idea.

I was also tihnking of creating several games that woudl Last no more than 10-40 turns that had pretty preset setups, the players would have a lot of the infrastructure in place and woudl deal with it on that level and then you could do more things that would not normally happen if ppl just wanted to win all out.

BTW in a RP game the mounts woudl totally work, I for one woudl only build my Elite units on a special planet that was hostile environment and then call them all saradukar and have a special design for hte ships and everything. If you did want to help limit this you could create a player who creates units (only one who can have acess to the elite tree) and sells them to others so ppl won't get more than they really should have. HOpe i haven't bored you all to death, i have been away from these Boards for a while and had to get somethign in again.