From the point of capturing things, even if you hadnt discovered the technology yet, you would still gain a research bonus in finding those things.

Having read Wavinators post,

One potential solution to the problems is to allow your farmers to fight for you (all be it at a very basic level) and allow the player to train them in the use of various weapons and stuff, turning them into the required unit. That way it would be possible to convert from archers to cavelry as long as you had the resources (ok the cavelry wouldnt be great... but there u are)

NightWraith: Well those cavalry troops would fire arrows considering their archer background right?

They way I figure that is to have each unit, or squads of units be like an individual rpg character, which has its own stats, morale, equipment and skills!...

So that way you could invest money in making a wide diverse army, or have a bunch of low class soldiers / farmers and some awesome elite shock troops

Dæmin
(Dominik Grabiec)
sdgrab@eisa.net.au

Yeah.. unless you equip them with another weapon, and take away thier bows. (Note: it also depends upon the type of bow you equip them with... its impossible to use a longbow [for example] properly from the back of a horse)

BTW: what you said Daemin, about units. Thats how I think they should be, also by catgorising the different weapons, the unit can gain skills in using certain weapons, I mean after all, if you can swing a club, it dont mean u can fight well with a sword, which allows u to specialise your units...


BTW A pesant -> Soldier -> Archer -> Ranger isnt quite right in my book (cut out the Soldier stage, or rather make it an pre-requisit for formation movement or something like that... as anyone who can shoot a bow [properly and accuratly] is an archer)

I agree with you about the peasant->soldier->archer->ranger thing.

You''re more likely to have:

Peasant->Infantry->Pikeman
Peasant->Infantry->Cavalry->Heavy Cavalry(Knights)
Peasant->Archer->Ranger

Plus other variants, like Sappers, Scouts, etc.



"NPCs will be inherited from the basic Entity class. They will be fully independent, and carry out their own lives oblivious to the world around them ... that is, until you set them on fire ..."
"When you are willing to do that which others are ashamed to do, therein lies an advantage."

About food supply, you could allow an army to collect food from the captured towns, farms and villages and also allow the food to be destroyed before the capture...

I agree, you should be able to raise your own buildings/destroy weapons and supplies to prevent the enemy getting hold of them.

Not sure about the Infantry -> Cavelry thing morfe. Fighting on foot is different to fighting from horseback, also depending on the historical time frame (if u have one) it is more likely that the nobels will become your cavelry... with the possible exception of scouts...

Although just having a think, in a medieval time frame, it would be

Noble -> Squire -> Knight

Also, Mounted units would probably recieve some ground combat training, but this would probably be in parrallel to Horseback training. (both covered by the Squire step in the above model).

Note: I''m thinking about training steps here, rather than just the progression of a unit (my prefered way of working...)

If you want morfe I coudl try and dig up my whole unit tree form somewhere - and post it up sometime...

But yeah I agree that there must be supply wagons supplying the armw - even with ammunition, repair kits, food, etc, and some stuff to take the loot back home

I mean wasn''t napoleon defeated by russia on his way back home?

Dæmin
(Dominik Grabiec)
sdgrab@eisa.net.au

generally you make games so they can be fun on the other hand if you are trying to make a realistic life sim from the medevil times it would be great the problem i see here though is that it will be hard to manage your economy efficiently like in outpost 2 by sierra studios babies were born and over a period of time they turned into the workers you needed the problem with this was that all your workers died before you could asses how to get your moral and economy up.

jman12

on the other hand you could try to put in the new development of weapons. In this case i think it would be an interesting idea. throughout the game you could have technology upgrades (no research required as in age of empires) and new weapons would be developed.

I''m not sure about the development of new weapons within a game, but the exisitng weapons should get better and better with the skill of the armourer (or blacksmith making them)

Some other things I thought of last night... (I do all my best thinking when I''m asleep) What about camp followers Wardekar, Blacksmiths/armourers following the army to re-shoe horses, hammer dents out of armour and all that. Fletchers to produce new arrows for your archers, etc.