Olympia: men as inventory From: skrenta@blekko.rt.com (Rich Skrenta) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1992 17:07:05 +0000 Currently there is a lot of cruft in Olympia to support the notion units with a variable number of men. I propose to change the model so that units are thought of as having a single skilled individual, who may be accompanied by lesser unskilled helpers. The rest of the men in a unit would be represented by men "items" in the unit's inventory. This would allow a vast array of simplifications to Olympian rules and mechanics: TRANSFER would go away. GET and GIVE could be used to move men around. The ASSIST order would go away. To add more workers to a unit, simply GIVE them. The complex rules as to how skills for an assister are factored into work progress would be unnecessary. Skill dilution would go away. Skills would be based on the unit only, so the complex rules governing how skills change when men move back and forth would be unnecessary. In a to-be-implemented "market" economy, men could be treated uniformly with other market goods. The same market forces which would drive up the price of goods in the face of high demand would work for laborers looking for employment as well. Also, excess men in your faction could be easily traded for cash. The often proposed SPLIT/MERGE commands would not be needed. There are three issues which would need to be overcome for this idea to work: 1. Loyalty and health currently take into account all of the men in a unit. These factors would either need to be tracked for men transfers, as they are now, or shifted to a per-unit basis. 2. Combat currently benefits most from having multiple skilled men in a unit. For other skills, having a single skilled unit ASSISTed by unskilled workers is often most efficient. So some method of keeping combat troops from becoming wildly powerful by the addition of cheap men would be necessary. One possible solution: have different kinds of men, just as there are different kinds of horses. Unskilled men, skilled laborers, and soldiers, for instance. Soldiers or laborers would cost more to hire (buy). Alternatively you could obtain unskilled men and train them. 3. The feel of the game would change a bit. Players resisting change to the game feel often is the largest barrier for new ideas. However, I think that the changes would be better in the long term, since many order writing and force allocation issues would be easier to deal with. -- Rich Skrenta (skrenta@rt.com) Referenced By Up