IMPLEMENTED: Implicit provisions for troop units

[mstetson]

Title: Implicit provisions for troop units

Summary: Now that there are no caravans, troops need a way to spend short amounts of time in a starving region without starving themselves.

Details: Units don't travel without some food, but nobles don't need to micromanage it, they have people for that. Any unit can reside in a starving region for a full day before starvation has any effect. If a unit has carts, make it 2 days, since they would have brought extra provisions. Staying a turn in a non-starving region replenishes your supplies, but only if you are stationary at the turn change.

Benefits: Units will no longer start starving on their first turn in a starving region – a very unrealistic thing. But it doesn't delay starvation so long as to make it a non-issue. This shouldn't take much code to implement, either (pseudocode):

Code Select Expand


at turn change:
    if unit is stationary and region is not starving:
        if unit has at least one cart:
            unit.provisions = 4
        else:
            unit.provisions = 2
    if region is starving:
        unit.provisions -= 1
        if unit.provisions <= 0
            starve


Possible Exploits: Can't think of any.

[Foundation]

http://bugs.battlemaster.org/view.php?id=7094

This contains some background.

[Cren]

Thanks for opening a feature request. In my opinion, the unit should have those 4 bushels regardless of carts. They consume 1 bushel per turn in a starving region, giving you a 2 day deadline.

[Indirik]

We definitely do need some way to carry food, or have some way of supporting troops in starving regions. (Sorraine's troops moved into Topenah and almost half our army immediately got wounded from starvation!) Some type of automatic system would be best. We have batted around some ideas, but nothing has really floated to the top yet.

[JPierreD]

(Sorraine's troops moved into Topenah and almost half our army immediately got wounded from starvation!)

(That was a curse from the gods for banning Topenah's rightful Lord Protector: Arnaud)

[Foundation]

It is okay, at most half your troops will get wounded every turn. :P

[Indirik]

Yeah, that's pretty much what happened to all of us.

[Gustav Kuriga]

those poor 24 troops of mine...

[Tom]

I am totally in favour of a limited implicit food supply for troops, and basing it on the regions they've been through recently is totally reasonable.

I would add diplomacy into the mix - in foreign or hostile lands, resupply should be quite slow, in friendly lands it should be fast.
And "implicit" doesn't mean that it is hidden, I'm all for showing it, not the actual number but something like "supplies will last for est. x days".

Then maybe later we can add options for players to influence it, e.g. explicitly buy food, but at the start it should be really simple and automatic.

[Cren]

+ 1

[Longmane]

Being able to work the problem of provisioning into something your char can do something about personally, be it either a TL for their own unit or a marshal/general/ruler for a whole army while in another realm, would not only be useful par-say, but also opens up great possibility's for traders and diplomats get involved.

[Psyche]

Maybe make an army food supply, similar to war chest.  If the region is starving, food comes from war rations.  This could also be an excellent way to reintroduce the steal food looting option- put it in war rations.


If you played with the potential feature some, it could really make being an army sponsor lucrative if you could sell/buy war rations in market places.

Imagine looting the food of your enemy, and then selling the surplus that would rot to your starving ally. 

However, a potential abuse would be to loot 700 miles away from your own starving capital, and then the sponsor sells the food the same turn while at home.  Maybe make the sponsor purchase the food at a fixed rate, and it goes into the granaries of the region is based out of.  Since the sponsor essentially owns the army it should be a low price,  but definitely something to prevent instant food sales from halfway across a continent.

[Duvaille]

The willingness of the peasants to provide for the troops should be dependent on their view of the realm whose army it is - regardless of the banner the region flies.

[vonGenf]

Maybe make an army food supply, similar to war chest.  If the region is starving, food comes from war rations.  This could also be an excellent way to reintroduce the steal food looting option- put it in war rations.


If you played with the potential feature some, it could really make being an army sponsor lucrative if you could sell/buy war rations in market places.

Imagine looting the food of your enemy, and then selling the surplus that would rot to your starving ally. 

I don't know how complicated that would be to implement, but I really like this idea.

[Geronus]

Any reason not to simply do away with starvation affecting troops altogether?

Now that Caravans are unusable, you literally cannot prevent your troops from starving in a starving region. Sure, we could limit the impact or introduce some complicated new mechanic to do so, but what I don't like about this is that after the limit is reached your troops still starve and there is nothing that you can do about it other than leave. This puts major constraints on takeovers, among other things.

We either need a way to plan around starving regions by being able to somehow bring food with us, or we need to not be troubled by this mechanic. I am not a fan of penalty mechanics that cannot be ameliorated, and this one is a serious gut punch when it kicks in. It feels way over the top. Armed men should always be the last people to starve. The willingness of peasants to feed them is a non-factor - they'll simply take everything they want.