New Concept For Troops and Fighters

[PvK]

It is a cool idea. I just wish it were a complete fix, or that something would be a complete fix.

[Suicide Junkie]

If troop combat is anything like space combat, you won't have many wounded. It will be lots all dead, lots unharmed, and one or two damaged.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Suicide Junkie said:
If troop combat is anything like space combat, you won't have many wounded. It will be lots all dead, lots unharmed, and one or two damaged.

Unless the troops are wearing some form of VacSuit or EVA suit I think they will all be dead!

[Kana]

President_Elect_Shang said:
Units don't get experience? I guess I better stop moding and start playing. Oh wait; can't do that the darn thing is so broken it can't be played! Seriously if units don't get experience than why the heck not? That is just nuts! Is it really that impossible (from a coding perspective) to keep track of experience for units if you can already keep track of experience for every other vehicle? I think it's time for yet another email.

Units are attrition resources/assets. While they may survive combat, how many will survive more than 2 or 3? Its like expending ammo that you may or may not use, or gain back...

[shinigami]

Just thought of another minor issue, let's say you've created an all infantry unit, 50 soldier components. Now you have a unit with 50 weapons. Multiple units makes for hundreds of weapons being fired. Won't that tend to bog down the game engine, especially on an older system?

I really like this idea but it seems that a modder who uses it will be pulling his hair out trying to balance all the issues.

[President_Elect_Shang]

I see what you are saying, and looking at it that way (the whole picture that is) it makes sense. I think what I was doing was focusing in on the element of At's suggestion. You see what I mean, it isn't just one tank/soldier, although it may appear as 1 unit on the design, queue, and cargo screens. It is really hundreds, or thousands, or tens of thousands. In that sense I couldn't understand why experience would not be a factor. I just needed to pull back a minute and take into consideration this would only be one mod, maybe two. Like the SFTC; this wouldn't work since it would void the way PCF are handled. Fighters... but that is there and we are here with At's idea/question.

[President_Elect_Shang]

How is one mega unit firing hundreds of weapons going to bog down a system any more than what we have now? Hundreds of individual units firing one weapon each; its still hundreds of shots. With At's mega units you would have the same number of weapons but less individual pieces to move around the screen. We need someone more into the graphical side but I would think it would help combat. Same number of shots but less pieces to move around.

Edited: Speaking of the balance how much is there to balance? The cargo capacities of planets are standard so the individual size hulls could be fractions of them. The movement could be set by size, larger armies move slower. The number of weapon slots could be based on the size of the units once again in fractions there of. Would that work?

[shinigami]

PES, good point about bogging a system down, I was still thinking about hundreds of units... oops!

As for balance, a modder would have to work out what scale he wants for his mod. Is an army 50kt or 100kt or some other number? How many armies does he want a ship to be able to carry? Why can a ship that carries x number of armies carry millions of people (pop) but only one weapons platform?

Those are just some off-the-wall examples, of course.
Working out the cargo equivalences and the amount of damage different types of units can do to each other could be a bit of a headache but it can certainly be done.

That's all I meant.

[President_Elect_Shang]

shinigami said:
...How many armies does he want a ship to be able to carry? Why can a ship that carries x number of armies carry millions of people (pop) but only one weapons platform?...

Good point, once again I was only looking at the armies not the larger picture. I have this habit of wanting to fix the parts of the problem instead of addressing the whole problem in one shot.

[Captain Kwok]

On a side note, I'm sure with some more arm twisting, we get Aaron to condense like units in planet cargo as it has already been done with units for cargo transfer.