Developer Roadmap: War Improvements Package

[Chamberlain]

Need to make sure changes have all got a positive and negative factor would be my only caution otherwise we are going to have every army with pikes because hey it makes cavalry useless with no evident drawbacks... maybe pikemen could be weak to non-pike infantry for example...

Otherwise all sounds ambitious!!

[vonGenf]

Need to make sure changes have all got a positive and negative factor would be my only caution otherwise we are going to have every army with pikes because hey it makes cavalry useless with no evident drawbacks...

The downside to having pikes is that you can't have any of the other options at the same time. You need to pick one. If you don't face cavalry, having pikes is useless and stops you from having all the other equipment that could actually be useful.

[Gustav Kuriga]

The downside to having pikes is that you can't have any of the other options at the same time. You need to pick one. If you don't face cavalry, having pikes is useless and stops you from having all the other equipment that could actually be useful.

This. People forget that pikes are basically two-handed spears. The only shield you could wear with one is a small, wrist-worn one. You have no tactical flexibility, the pike depends entirely on formation attacks towards the front en masse.

[Chamberlain]

As I said, I think any equipment should have an inherant strength and weakness rather than simply nullifying smething else at little other tangible cost.  Maybe we could have a new infiltrator skill of setting battlefield traps too... that would be fun... Cavalry charges... into a spiked pit. ??% of Your bowman find their strings cut... Your infantry suffer aggravated equipment damage from metal blight.

[Shizzle]

Maybe this is a little late, but isn't the idea of food rations for peasants a bit strange? They aren't soldiers you distribute food to. They farm all of the food, and some of it (the surplus) is taken as taxes for the lord. If surplus is is lower than 0, the region starves.

In order to make a region last longer on food, instead of handing out rations, doesn't it make more sense to lower surplus extraction? I wouldn't propose calling them taxes though, as that can only cause confusion.

[De-Legro]

Maybe this is a little late, but isn't the idea of food rations for peasants a bit strange? They aren't soldiers you distribute food to. They farm all of the food, and some of it (the surplus) is taken as taxes for the lord. If surplus is is lower than 0, the region starves.

In order to make a region last longer on food, instead of handing out rations, doesn't it make more sense to lower surplus extraction? I wouldn't propose calling them taxes though, as that can only cause confusion.

Food rationing is something that has often been inflicted upon civilians. Its not so much the act of handing out food, as it is the act of restricting the availability of food. This would conceptually be different for rurals vs cities, but logically is the same thing.
Doubling food rations means exactly as you say, the Lords allow the peasantry to keep more of their harvest for their own use (rurals) or through some manner of policy provides greater food resources in the markets(cities), resulting in fatter happier peasants, effectively you double food consumption of the region. Halving food rations obviously causes peasants to do without, thus halving food consumption. For a city that is struggling to meet food requirements you can see how that would be useful, and for a rural you might get some short term benefit from it to increase the food "surplus" for trade at the expense of your peasant bellies.

[Anaris]

Maybe this is a little late, but isn't the idea of food rations for peasants a bit strange? They aren't soldiers you distribute food to. They farm all of the food, and some of it (the surplus) is taken as taxes for the lord. If surplus is is lower than 0, the region starves.

In order to make a region last longer on food, instead of handing out rations, doesn't it make more sense to lower surplus extraction? I wouldn't propose calling them taxes though, as that can only cause confusion.

I have some plans for later that involve more fundamentally changing how food works so that the nobles don't get to just take every bite of food the peasants grow or catch, then distribute it back to them. But that's going to take a lot more work, and be more of a disruption, so it's...for later ;D

[Thehatter]

Few questions.

Catapult's?

Colony takeovers?

Change the word love to something else?

[Thehatter]

Better yet, have the option of taking over any region. Instead of just city's or regions next to you.

[Vivalas]

Whatever happened to this?

[Will Roberts]

So I was discussing this with Vita and it is largely theoretical as it would be very complex and likely mechanically broken, but would add more variety to warfare

The introduction of horse archers. These units would be used to do damage, but could not be used to hold the field at the end of the turn. The reason for this is that, unless there is nobody in range, instead of moving forwards they move backwards until they retreat off the field, shooting at the enemy as they do so

Ofc, this would be very difficult to do and has loads of problems I haven't even considered, but I just wanted to get it into the open just in case other people like it

[Zakky]

So I was discussing this with Vita and it is largely theoretical as it would be very complex and likely mechanically broken, but would add more variety to warfare

The introduction of horse archers. These units would be used to do damage, but could not be used to hold the field at the end of the turn. The reason for this is that, unless there is nobody in range, instead of moving forwards they move backwards until they retreat off the field, shooting at the enemy as they do so

Ofc, this would be very difficult to do and has loads of problems I haven't even considered, but I just wanted to get it into the open just in case other people like it

I've actually discussed horse archers with Anaris. I think his idea was to make a unit that can shoot then move back since the ranged attack phase comes before the movement phase. It was a pretty neat idea. You can still catch them with your regular cavalry I think?