Questions about PD and other

[Archonsod]

BigDisAwesome said:
Even though you're theoretically saving resources, in the long run you're wasting gold. If you were to hire a couple armies to act as PD, you'd save a lot of gold and have a better force.

Not much use if your a resource heavy nation and happen to have a lack of resources though, plus you end up with troops sat away from the frontline doing nothing but taking upkeep if nobody attacks. PD can do the same job without the upkeep.
Then of course there's the problem of attrition. Troops can be affected by spells, dominion and the like while PD is not. They can also be ground down by mages, archers or similar on fire and flee orders. Against PD such a tactic is completely useless.
As for wasting gold, if the troops you buy are killed that's it, you need to buy a whole new unit to replace them. PD on the other hand will continue to provide the same units without further expenditure until the province is taken. Technically, the cost to keep a group of 10 troops defending a province could end up being much higher than the equivilent PD over the long term through casualty replacement alone (before upkeep is even taken into consideration)

As for improving PD, it would be nice to see some actual defences rather than simply troops. Or has the Dominions world not heard of ditches, redoubts and the like?

[HoneyBadger]

I second the fieldworks PD argument. And how about continuing to get better troops as you raise your PD?

[Gandalf Parker]

Changes to PD involves alot of work. Ive recommended having the PD be local units instead of nationals. But the problem is that each level of PD has to be spelled out. So increased PD or fieldworks would have to at least involve a load of rewrite for each nation. It might happen if Kristoffer gets an interest in it but there is alot of other nation theme stuff that still needs filled in also.

[HoneyBadger]

I'd just like mod commands that allow PD to be reset on a point-basis. Like if you have a PD of 1-9 you get light militia, but 10-20 gives you heavy militia, and 21-30 gives you knights, etc. instead of being stuck to the 1-19, 20-125 system we have now. That way I could mod PD for the various nations that evolves and continues to be useful throughout a long game.

[Archonsod]

Gandalf Parker said:
Changes to PD involves alot of work.

Sounds like the coding for it is messy :

Mind you, something like fieldworks could probably be fudged into the battlefield generation rather than the PD itself (simply check the PD and if it's > x, add X fieldworks to the battlefield)

Given that PD has remained pretty much unchanged since Dom 1 it would make a nice target for an overhaul should Dom 4 ever be in the works. Would certainly cause some rethinking of the traditional strategies at least.