Terrain type training

[Jhaelen Irsei]

I posted this idea of mine on the D-list a while ago, I just repost it more because I'd like to discuss with other players in this forum.

Currently every region has a terrain type: city, rural, badland etc.

I'd like that units can get specializations in fighting on a certain terrain. This specialization gives a little bonus in terms of CS when the unit is involved in a battle that is occurring on that particular terrain.

In order to get a specialization the unit has to train on that terrain for a certain time. Another option appears in the Training panel, something like "Terrain training" and it costs like the Heavy training in terms of time/gold.

A unit can get more specializations so a troop leader is stimulated to take care more of his unit. For example: nothing is going on in your realm, rather than just sit down and do nothing maybe you can go to the nearest Mountain region and do speciailized training there so your unit will perform better on that terrain, no time waste and more "coolness" for your unit.

The specialization can be a "yes/no"  or scaling or whatever. I'd just love to give more depth to my unit.

[vanKaya]

I love this. As Jhaelen said it'll give troop leaders an incentive to do something when nothings going on and it adds depth without weighing the game down or making it more difficult for new players to learn.

Only problem I see is a difficulty in coding maybe... although I have no idea how to code whatsoever so thats totally just a guess  :D

[Anaris]

This is not a bad idea, but I'm afraid that the payoff for the effort involved is almost certainly not worth it at this point in time.  Once some of the more important things have been done, it might be worth revisiting.

[Geronus]

http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,2723.60.html

I said I would spin off my own thread about implementing terrain bonuses/penalties in combat, but I did a quick search to be sure it hasn't come up before, and hey, look at this. Someone already brought it up.

My thought was going to be to institute simple bonuses/penalties for specific unit types based on the region type a battle occurs in. Nothing anymore complex than that at this point, just a straight modifier similar to the wind bonus/penalty that already exists for archers and applies throughout the battle. I thought that this could add a whole new level of richness to strategy and army composition. A realm like Talerium (for example) that is mostly badlands may need to reassess its recruitment centers and optimize toward units that fight well in badlands. A general leading cavalry-heavy forces will try to ensure that battles take place in terrain that favors cavalry, which will encourage more strategizing.

I think it's an idea worth considering anyway. Certainly you could get much more in depth with various bonuses and penalties, but for simplicity's sake just sticking to a flat, consistent terrain bonus for each unit type would probably be easiest to implement.

[Duvaille]

How about this:

when RC is created, it may or may not give a bonus to certain terrain type. If you mix troops with various bonuses or some with no bonuses at all, you risk losing the bonus entirely.

Perhaps for cities and strongholds the bonus could be divided in two. One for assaulting and one for defending.

"Yeah, them Keplerian archers like to fight in the woods..."

[Tom]

Not a fan of the idea. Why would we want to discourage recruitment so much? Mixing is pretty much the standard, competition over specific RCs would increase, complexity would increase - for what gain?

[Indirik]

An alternative is to allow you to train a unit in a particular fighting style. So you could choose to train your men in a specific terrain type. Interesting idea: whatever terrain type your men are in when you train, they gain a bonus in that terrain type. Train in a woodlands, you gain a woodlands bonus. Want to learn to fight better in the mountains? Go to the mountains and train. Simple to implement, simple to understand.

[Zakilevo]

An alternative is to allow you to train a unit in a particular fighting style. So you could choose to train your men in a specific terrain type. Interesting idea: whatever terrain type your men are in when you train, they gain a bonus in that terrain type. Train in a woodlands, you gain a woodlands bonus. Want to learn to fight better in the mountains? Go to the mountains and train. Simple to implement, simple to understand.

How about they gain experience when they fight in certain types of terrains as well? If a unit fought a lot in rural regions, they accumulate exp over time, giving them bonus when they fight in rural regions again.

[Indirik]

Sure, why not?

[fodder]

...when they fight, they die and you recruit new ones who wouldn't know jack...
thus cancelling everything out.

[Zakilevo]

This is the current unit status.

Aestas
Captain Johann (+6)
Type:   Special Forces
Strength:   25 men
Training:   88 %
Weapons/Armour:   100% / 95%
Damage:    53 %
Morale:    86 %
Cohesion:    100 %
Combat Strength:   691

I think if we do implement this terrain training thing, it should turn something like,

Aestas
Captain Johann (+6)
Type:   Special Forces
Strength:   25 men
Training (or Effectiveness):
*Rural/Badland: 120%
*Mountain: 60%
*Fortification (or Siege): 80%
Weapons/Armour:   100% / 95%
Damage:    53 %
Morale:    86 %
Cohesion:    100 %
Combat Strength:   691

[Zakilevo]

...when they fight, they die and you recruit new ones who wouldn't know jack...
thus cancelling everything out.

Hmm. Maybe this bonus should be given to the capitain?

[Tom]

I'm still not too sure what all this gains us, except making unit stats even more complicated.

[fodder]

it's effectively splitting training from 1 number into a few different numbers. bit pointless..

[Anaris]

That's not how I would look at it. I would look at it more like:

Training: 75%

• Mountain: +10%
• Woodland: +30%

Ideally, in the interface, the bonuses would be hidden until asked for (with a disclosure triangle or something).