Re: oly combat simple fix

From: schott@cs.umbc.edu (Brian Schott)

Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000

In article <45oagf$aan@vivaldi.telepac.pt>,
Antonio Joao Rendas <arendas@telepac.pt> wrote:
>A noble with better archery should train better archers,yes,but a
>noble just by being a great swordsman should not be able to coordinate
>200 peasants in an attack-I think we are talking about different
>skills,one thing is what the noble can do (Swordmanship/Defense) the
>other is what he can coordinate in the battlefield (Tactics,or
>Generalship as discussed in other posts)...and maybe another how he is
>at transmiting his skill to trainees (Train? :) )
>
>However,your idea of having better skilled nobles train better troops
>is a good one,maybe swordsmen trained by a (100,100,0) noble might
>become (20,20,0) instead of (15,15,0) but again the effects (I
>think...) would be hardly worth the effort (Maybe a greater increase?)
[...]

I agree with you there - a better trainer should produce better
forces.  However, this seemed unwieldy since these forces are not
itemized units, but considered inventory and thus non-unique.
Therefore, I thought that treating swordplay, defense, and archery as
"generalship" kinds of skills was a reasonable alternative.  It would
improve the value of these skills without having to drastically
rewrite code (I know first-hand what grief featuritis can cause us
programmers).

There is some rational basis that a better general improves force
strength (many games use this concept).  There is slightly less
rational support for magic items held by the commander to improve
force strength, although many games also use this concept.
Still, magic items are pretty useless otherwise.

All of these suggestions focus on strategy and tatics in Olympia, and
not role-playing.  I don't see Olympia as much of a RPG.  I suppose
some do, and these suggestions won't help them.

Brian

References

Olympia - Time for G2?
Rob Rodgers <rrodgers@unex.ucla.edu>
Mon, 25 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: oly combat simple fix
arendas@telepac.pt (Antonio Joao Rendas)
Fri, 13 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: oly combat simple fix
schott@cs.umbc.edu (Brian Schott)
Fri, 13 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: oly combat simple fix
arendas@telepac.pt (Antonio Joao Rendas)
Sat, 14 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000