Lamaros
Recruit
I've been thinking about the way we currently hire and upgrade units, and I have the following points to contribute:
1. Unit upgrades should have a cost that reflects their value.
This ia a point I made in a post lower down, but it's an important one; Unit upgrades should cost you a notable amount of money!
When I hire a pesant for my army it doesn't cost me much, the pesant is unskilled and poorly equipped. I'll toss him a few gold to join service and toss him some silver every now and then to keep him around, but otherwise he's not up to much. What can a guy with a cheap club/scythe/axe do?
When he has enoguh expereince in the killing caper he gets the chance to be a footman. A footman is much better than a pesant so I upgrade him. However a footman needs certain things to get his job done, he needs a little armor, and he needs a little better weapon. Currently the footman gets this for free. He shouldn't! If he needs new equipment someone should have to pay for it, that person should be me.
Why is this important?
Because otherwise you can get a skilled army for little cost, and that army is capable of generating you much more money than it costs to build or maintain.
It means you have to think more carefully about what you need from your troops. Do you need to spend that extra 1000 (random number) on a footman, or will a couple of pesants do the job? Do you need for fork out 5000 on your new knight, or is it better off saving the money and upgrading some guys to horsemen?
It means you have to value each and every unit you have, making sure you dont go throwing away your army on the battlefield. If you go down to the bottom it's a much slower climb to the top again (on the hardest difficulty anyway).
In the same vein: It should cost you a bit more than 100gold to sleep you army for the night. If it costs 180 for some food it should cost a fair bit to sleep the lot of em!
2. Unit upgrade paths have to not only be increasing in power, but also more specific.
In the current game it's not much of a big deal, but should the popular order options (see others threads) come in to effect it would be very useful to have more breadth in unit types avaliable. Depending on my situation I might want for a wide range of unit types, from simple cannon fodder to pikemen.
An example path might be:
1. Pesant (cloth armor, crude axe/club)
2. Footman (leather armor, oridnary axes)
3.1 Vetran Footman (mail, 2 weapons/1h+shield)
4.1.1 Horseman/Mounted Infantry (horse, mail, 2 weapons/1h+shield)
5.1 Knight (charger, plate, lances)
6.1 Elite Knight (better level + best charger, plate, lance)
4.1.2 Elite Footman (better equipment/level + javelins)
3.2 Pikeman (leather armor, polearms)
3.3 Archer (leather, bows)
4.3 Horse Archer (horse, leather, bows)
5.3 Elite Archer (better level + best horse, armor, bow)
The above is just off the top of my head, but it gives a decent example of what I'm refering to.
This once again forces you to make choices. Do you build a fast mounted army that is vulnerable to pikemen? Do you build a balanced army with some of everything? Do you just go for mounted archers? You dont just get the best unit avalaible because you can, you have to think about what you want.
Imagine you get some quest in the game that says you have to take on the army of some country to the north. They have a large heavy cavalry and you need to take them out. Do you try and beat them at their own game or do you try an recruit an army of pikemen?
I'm sure you can imagine other situations yourself.
Overall:
Both ideas would work of their own, but the best result would be if both were implemeted in some way.
Why? Because it would add a level of depth to the process of creating an army; it would make the game a bit more balanced; and it would make it more fun!
Comments, Suggestion please!
1. Unit upgrades should have a cost that reflects their value.
This ia a point I made in a post lower down, but it's an important one; Unit upgrades should cost you a notable amount of money!
When I hire a pesant for my army it doesn't cost me much, the pesant is unskilled and poorly equipped. I'll toss him a few gold to join service and toss him some silver every now and then to keep him around, but otherwise he's not up to much. What can a guy with a cheap club/scythe/axe do?
When he has enoguh expereince in the killing caper he gets the chance to be a footman. A footman is much better than a pesant so I upgrade him. However a footman needs certain things to get his job done, he needs a little armor, and he needs a little better weapon. Currently the footman gets this for free. He shouldn't! If he needs new equipment someone should have to pay for it, that person should be me.
Why is this important?
Because otherwise you can get a skilled army for little cost, and that army is capable of generating you much more money than it costs to build or maintain.
It means you have to think more carefully about what you need from your troops. Do you need to spend that extra 1000 (random number) on a footman, or will a couple of pesants do the job? Do you need for fork out 5000 on your new knight, or is it better off saving the money and upgrading some guys to horsemen?
It means you have to value each and every unit you have, making sure you dont go throwing away your army on the battlefield. If you go down to the bottom it's a much slower climb to the top again (on the hardest difficulty anyway).
In the same vein: It should cost you a bit more than 100gold to sleep you army for the night. If it costs 180 for some food it should cost a fair bit to sleep the lot of em!
2. Unit upgrade paths have to not only be increasing in power, but also more specific.
In the current game it's not much of a big deal, but should the popular order options (see others threads) come in to effect it would be very useful to have more breadth in unit types avaliable. Depending on my situation I might want for a wide range of unit types, from simple cannon fodder to pikemen.
An example path might be:
1. Pesant (cloth armor, crude axe/club)
2. Footman (leather armor, oridnary axes)
3.1 Vetran Footman (mail, 2 weapons/1h+shield)
4.1.1 Horseman/Mounted Infantry (horse, mail, 2 weapons/1h+shield)
5.1 Knight (charger, plate, lances)
6.1 Elite Knight (better level + best charger, plate, lance)
4.1.2 Elite Footman (better equipment/level + javelins)
3.2 Pikeman (leather armor, polearms)
3.3 Archer (leather, bows)
4.3 Horse Archer (horse, leather, bows)
5.3 Elite Archer (better level + best horse, armor, bow)
The above is just off the top of my head, but it gives a decent example of what I'm refering to.
This once again forces you to make choices. Do you build a fast mounted army that is vulnerable to pikemen? Do you build a balanced army with some of everything? Do you just go for mounted archers? You dont just get the best unit avalaible because you can, you have to think about what you want.
Imagine you get some quest in the game that says you have to take on the army of some country to the north. They have a large heavy cavalry and you need to take them out. Do you try and beat them at their own game or do you try an recruit an army of pikemen?
I'm sure you can imagine other situations yourself.
Overall:
Both ideas would work of their own, but the best result would be if both were implemeted in some way.
Why? Because it would add a level of depth to the process of creating an army; it would make the game a bit more balanced; and it would make it more fun!
Comments, Suggestion please!
