Re: Oly: changes in G2

From: srt@sun-dimas.aero.org (Scott Turner)

Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000

>...I don't think that adding in an outnumbering limit will do much
>but introduce weirdnesses into the system that you don't want.

I don't see how making the combat system more realistic is going to
introduce any "weirdnesses".  At the very least, it will make Oly
combats more in line with peoples' intuitive notions about battle.

>How would your outnumbering rule work in a battle which was 100 pikes
>and 100 crossbowmen verses 5 dragons? It's quite realistic that all
>100 crossbowmen would get to shoot, but if you had an outnumbering
>rule, Rich's program would have to decide which humans would get to
>actually attack -- with only 10 allowed, would you pick any
>crossbowmen at all?

Although I didn't explictly state it, I assumed that all back rank
missile troops would get to shoot.

>There are also many other cases which become weird when you have an
>outnumbering rule.

Such as?  It might be a little weird that you can only get in (say)
three attacks against a dragon (assuming a dragon is much, much bigger
than a person) but since there are relatively few very large units in
Oly, I don't think that's a huge problem.

>But in the typical battle, with 2-1 odds, you'll still have the
>problem that the attacker will take fairly small losses, and if he
>gets to capture half the defenders, the attacker would grow. That's
>even if you have an outnumbering rule.

I don't think you should be able to capture and use troops at all,
except maybe in special cases like mercenaries.  The outnumbering rule
is really intended to address the fact that in Olympia the attacker
takes unexpectedly small losses in relation to his numerical
advantage.

>Heck, even food chain has a bit of entropy in it.

I didn't do well at that, either :-).

-- Scott T.

References

Re: Oly: changes in G2
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Wed, 11 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Oly: changes in G2
srt@sun-dimas.aero.org (Scott Turner)
Wed, 04 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Oly: changes in G2
skrenta@pbm.com (Rich Skrenta)
Thu, 05 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000