Unify Movement options

geofrey wrote: There is 1 serious problem with allowing any military orders to be sent to an army out in the wild. That army could be parked 20 squares away from it's target. It recieves the orders to siege the target.  Now the targeted player only has a 2 hour alert window until the enemy siege hits.  That is scary. The only  appropriate preventative measure is to have players and alliance destroy any neutral/enemy occupied forces near their city, or atleast constantly scout them.

geofrey wrote: There is 1 serious problem with allowing any military orders to be sent to an army out in the wild. That army could be parked 20 squares away from it's target. It recieves the orders to siege the target.  Now the targeted player only has a 2 hour alert window until the enemy siege hits.  That is scary. The only  appropriate preventative measure is to have players and alliance destroy any neutral/enemy occupied forces near their city, or atleast constantly scout them.  So I do not foresee players getting the ability to send orders to armies occupying any spot on the map. However, I do think players might get the ability to send orders to armies occupying an alliance city. This would increase the geographical value of alliance cities and help prevent surprise attacks from players across the map.

This is a valid concern, but with these changes it would not be unfair:
- First of all, it makes Foreign Offices more valuable. It also promotes sovereignty of squares for the purpose of increasing visibility.

- Allow diplomatic troops to occupy squares, and receive scout/spy commands from there. Giving diplos free movement around the map opens up all kinds of exciting possibilities. Stationing watchmen around your city allows you to see opposing armies sooner, forcing them to occupy farther out. These on-duty diplos can then be commanded to scout the army without having to travel the whole way from your city. Additionally, diplos occupying a square could send a brief notification whenever a neutral force comes within their visibility.

- Require a delay between when an order is issued to an occupying army (or any unit) and when they receive the order, kind of like messengers do now. This would be based on the distance from the home city. The other player could receive the notification of attack when the order is first sent out, giving them extra warning before an attack is issued.

- Create a research tree that allows players to set "automatic responses" to sudden player attacks, so they don't have to be online to react as they desire.

There is 1 serious problem with allowing any military orders to be sent to an army out in the wild. That army could be parked 20 squares away from it's target. It recieves the orders to siege the target.  Now the targeted player only has a 2 hour alert window until the enemy siege hits. 

Honestly I would be happy with just being able to send a messenger and the messenger  able to yo know actually send orders.  Even if it is a single order and we offer all the same options as from a town.  If this game is supposed to mimic how things were actually done then this would be it.  

It strikes me as odd that, with Trade v2, my Traders can be instantaneously directed to move from trade hub to trade hub, regardless of the distance from their home city. Meanwhile, my Diplomatic and Military troops are confined to specific, limiting patterns that can rarely if ever be altered once commenced. I think it would be extremely helpful to unify the Movement system to some degree, by simply integrating the functions already built into many movement types.

Units would have one of three basic "states": Home, Active, and Occupying. Home is obviously when the unit/movement is in its home city doing nothing/defending. Active is when it is out in the world map performing an action: Harvesting, Attacking/Siege/Blockading, Delivering Goods, etc. The unit travels to the space and performs the action over the required period of time. It then either returns and goes back to Home status, or shifts into the third state: Occupying.

Units/movements can enter the Occupying state by direct order to arrive at a spot and Occupy it, or by ordering them--upon departure--to Occupy rather than return after an action is complete. Units in the away state will do nothing unless another unit lands on that space and forces a consequence to occur. The unit(s) will continue to occupy until given another order to return. Units can be recalled at no cost; however, by using a messenger diplomatic unit the player can give additional orders to the Occupying units, telling them to move to a new space and either occupy it or perform an action there. To adapt to the new system, Messengers would not be lost after their mission is complete; they behave like any other unit, and are either Home, Active, or Occupying.

It's important to note that I believe all units (except traders) could function this way. Caravans could be given resources and told to occupy on a square, allowing for strategic and convenient placement but posing the risk of thievery or destruction. Military units could now be managed from the field, allowing them to move from one occupying square to the next, or sit outside an opponent's visibility range until the right time to strike. Diplomatic units could occupy a square to increase vision range, or travel from an occupied spot, to an attacking city, and back to that spot, making them easier to find after an attack but not giving away their home city.

The final addition I'd recommend is to further the ability of other unit types to join movements. Movements would still be initiated based on the action being performed: If your objective is to harvest, you would initiate the movement under trade movements. However, military, diplomatic, and trade units could all be attached to your cotter movement if you wished. Send military units from your pool to guard caravans. Send scouts with your herbalists to occupy an area, scout the spots near the area, then send your already nearby herbalists to begin harvesting.

Unit movements would also merge if told to occupy a space already occupied by a movement from that town. So If you have an army on a space and send 30 scouts on a scout mission to that square, with orders to occupy it after, they would join the army.

As always, criticisms encourages. I do this for the enjoyment of brainstorming as much as I do it to improve the game, so some of my ideas might be out there.


Edited by Hadus - 26 Sep 2012 at 22:33