From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 10109 invoked by alias); 19 Nov 2003 21:18:40 -0000 Mailing-List: contact xconq7-help@sources.redhat.com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: xconq7-owner@sources.redhat.com Received: (qmail 10031 invoked from network); 19 Nov 2003 21:18:38 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO web40904.mail.yahoo.com) (66.218.78.201) by sources.redhat.com with SMTP; 19 Nov 2003 21:18:38 -0000 Message-ID: <20031119211837.31588.qmail@web40904.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [217.163.5.253] by web40904.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Wed, 19 Nov 2003 22:18:37 CET Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 21:48:00 -0000 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Jakob=20Ilves?= Subject: Concept: Compound (hierarcical) units To: xconq7 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-SW-Source: 2003/txt/msg00806.txt.bz2 Hello again! (You're too fast for me guys! I write 1 mail and during that time 7 new mails pop up in the mbox...) Just a concept to think about and, who knows, maybe implement in Xconq. I recall a game written at the Chalmers University (it never got published, unfortunately :-/) when I studied there. It was very inspired by Xconq but still a completely different animal. In that game, you could build things like armor, infantry, artilliry units (I think they were brigade size) but the player could also define "units" of their own. For instance, you could define a unit which you called "offensive armor batallion" consisting of a batallion HQ, 1 self propelled artillery brigade, 3 medium tank brigades and 2 tank-killer brigades. Once that you got this definition in place you could tell a factory to build it. So, your factory started to build all the HQ as well as all the 6 included brigades. Once complete, an armor batallion unit appeared on the map and by moving that single icon around, all the 7 included units moved along. Once in combat, some units inside could be lost, others damaged. After combat (if surviving ;-), one could go to a factory and repair damaged units and using existing brigade units to equip the batallion with the lost units. There were divisional head quarters, being used when turning batallions (and possible some brigades) into divisions. Those also moved as just one unit but contained, well, quite some units. That could be useful in Xconq as well, both to handle the movement of bunches of units but also to handle situations where you have one unit with subsystem units inside, for example an ironclad with two turret units or in a tactical tank combat game a tank with a radar unit onboard. If a hard hit strikes the transport, one passenger subsystem might get destroyed, crippling but not killing the bigger unit (the ironclad looses firepower, the tank looses radar visibility). One can optionally make that "compound unit" rigid in the sense that one cannot add/remove units from it and that the specific compound unit is defined in the scenario. For instance, the ironclad have two turret units when initially built and those turret units can never leave the ironclad (unless the are destroyed). That would make it easier for the AI to figure out how to use them properly. So, in this context, the turrets are "equipment" units. If one permits such "equipment" units to actually leave one unit and be moved into other units or one allows a unit to mix and match "equipment" one can assist the AI by giving the "equipment" hint about those units. So, you could choose, if that cybertank is supposed to contain an cannon turret and a missile turret as well as an ECM array unit or if you want to go for all cannon turrets... Actually, by elaborating this a bit, you can create games with rather few actual units on the map but where each unit have fairly intricate interiors. Especially when one considers how various equipment units and transport units should handle materials. One unit can be a material depot, providing a lot of ammo and fuel. Run out of ammo or fuel and you need someone to assist you... The implementation of supplies in that game I initially mentioned was quite intriguing: A HQ supplied it's units below in the hierarchy with ammo and fuel. An HQ can also transfer supplies from cities (especially large HQs). A corp HQ were not in the same hex as it's various divisions (stacking limitations) but were among them, being a powerful supply unit, sending stuff to all the division HQs it supported and being able to use rather distant cities for getting supplies. Needless to say, it was a wonderful tactic to cut off another unit's supply lines by occupying the hexes between it and it's own town, making it run out of ammo and fuel. I usually experienced it the other way aroun though :-). So, you had to ensure that your supply net were working. Also, you had to buffer upp with heavy ammo in a few headquarters near your forces if you intended to use much heavy artillery because they could easily get out of ammo, even with working supply lines. Too bad the game never became published. It was approx 10 years ago I saw/played it. Best regards /IllvilJa (Who's still short of time, and still dare to have opinions :-) ===== (Jakob Ilves) {http://www.geocities.com/illvilja} Höstrusk och grå moln - köp en resa till solen på Yahoo! Resor på adressen http://se.docs.yahoo.com/travel/index.html