Re: Olympia combat

From: cedman@714-725-3177.nts.uci.edu (Carl Edman)

Date: Thu, 09 Apr 1992 15:00:20 +0000

Steve Chapin writes
> }} Carl Edman writes:
> }}
> }} There are several objections to this:
> }}
> }} 1. An attack on one single character in a tower by possibly one
> }} single character outside the tower can hardly be considered a
> }} siege.
>
> Where does one draw the line?  You can't be stacked with someone
> unless you're cooperative, or in a guild.

That is exactly my point - guilds are different in this regard. So a
change I would propose is that other forces who happen to be in the
same stack as the attacked force only join in the defense if they are
either cooperative or better with the attacked force which would be the
case anyway almost all the time - except in guilds - or if they and the
attacking force are hostile towards each other (in which case the
attacking force would just drag the bystanders into the battle).
Possibly one should even consider a force in one stack fighting on the
side of the other stack if they are more friendly with that side. Can
you say traitors in the castle opening the gates ?

Consider this algorithm:

1. All units in the attacking and attacked stack are just put together
into one big heap.

2. The attacking unit is put on the attack heap and the attacked unit
is put in the defense heap.

3. All units hostile to any units in the attack heap but not hostile to
any units in the defense heap are put in the defense heap. And the same
for the attack heap. All units cooperative or better to any units in
the attack heap but not cooperative or better to any units in the
defense heap are put in the attack heap. And the same for the defense
heap. Repeat this step until no more units are being added.

4. Now the units in the attack heap fight it out with all the units in
the defense heap. If and only if the defense heap has total control
over a building (i.e. no units from the attack heap inside the walls of
the building) that heap will get the defense advantage of the building
(otherwise there was a spy inside who opened the gates).

5. All units which were not assigned to either the attack or defense
heap by this algorithm would just end up as innocent bystanders - maybe
there should be some chance that they are wounded in the crossfire, but
they would generally not be involved in the fighting.

This algorithm would a) solve the problem above b) make combat more
realistic and c) make attitudes on the negative side also mean
something. What do you think ?

Carl Edman

References

Re: Olympia combat
sjc@cs.purdue.EDU (Steve Chapin)
Thu, 09 Apr 1992 13:08:24 +0000