Thoughts on food
I've been hoping the food (supply) system is one of the things to be changed in Dominions 3. Before I add this to the wish list, I thought I'd put it here for discussion...
Without going into the weakness of the current system, here's what I envision as my ideal Dom 3 supply system:
1) Food consumption is based on a unit's max HP, rather than size. 1 HP = 1 food per turn.
Notes: Because it is based on max HP, HP variations like Gift of Health and Prophet / God dominion bonus do not change food consumption.
2) Mounted units require double the normal food.
Notes: This is intended to model the fact that a mount should be proportional in size to the rider, and typically is able to forage some of its food from things normal units cannot eat (grass, shrubs).
#1 and #2 give the base food consumption of a unit. It's actually simpler than Dominions 2, IMO: 1 food per HP, and double for mounts. However, to better reflect the reality, there are some modifiers that would be great to include:
3) A unit consumes +5% per point of armor encumbrance. This is true for mounted units as well, even though they are unaffected by armor encumbrance in melee combat.
Notes: Thus, heavy infantry and heavy cavalry require more support per unit than their light equivalents.
4) Cold-blooded units consume half the normal amount of food.
5) All units consume 10% more food per cold-scale below their desired level. In other words, Machaka troops consume 10% more food at cold scale 0 and 50% more at cold scale 3, while Vanheim troops consume the normal amount of food at scale 0 and 20% more at scale 3.
6) All animals (units marked with #animal attribute) consume 50% less food than normal.
Notes: This is because they forage better than people, and eat things people don't eat. Wolves can eat mice, boars can eat roots, giant spiders can eat local giant insects, and so forth. And yes, a cold-blooded animal will only consume a quarter of its HP in food, normally.
7) All fliers consume 50% more supply than normal, except aquatic "fliers."
Notes: Swimming buoyancy comes from water density, while air-flying buoyancy comes from physical work.
8) All calculations are done in floating point until the total food consumption for a province is summated, at which point it is rounded up.
Notes: This means that 7 Black Hawks (5 hp flying animal) at cold scale 1 will consume 29 food:
5 {hp} * 0.5 {animal} * 1.5 {flying} * 1.1 {cold} = 4.125
4.125 * 7 {count} = 28.875
28.875 rounded up = 29 {final food consumption}
...and that's everything.
Implications: This would essentially require all food sources to be multiplied by 10 to 15 (wine bag gives 300, castles give 2000, a normal province supplies 1000 or so, a point of nature magic might supply 75.) It would make the game better balanced (additional realism often, though not always, has this effect) in terms of the advantages and drawbacks of light and heavy units, Hoburgs versus Ulmians, disciplined, armed and armored humans versus undisciplined and unarmed wolves that spend "camp time" out catching rabbits, and so forth. Remember, in the real world "cold-blooded" is not purely a disadvantage, so why should it be in Dominions?
Please feel free to add suggestions or criticisms!
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