Give some units dual purposes

from Elemental Forums

I think it would make the game interesting if you could have military units that also had economic or magical benefits for the city they were stationed in, and have a tradeoff between economic benefits and military benefits.  For example:

In the "accessory" slot you could give a unit any one of the following:

Ring of Might = +Attack

Ring of Valor = +HP

Banner of the Sovereign = bonus prestige for any city the unit ends its turn in

Amulet of Power = bonus magical research for any city the unit ends its turn in

Love Charm = bonus pop. growth for any city the unit ends its turn in

These non-military bonuses would mostly be used for units that are built as "garrisons" in a city.  This would add another dimension to the unit customization aspect of the game that could be fun.

6,083 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Because these units would be more expensive than normal units, you'd have to balance the extra maintenance costs vs. the benefit of the unit being stationed in the city. This leads to bean counting, so you'd have to be very careful when implementing stuff like this. These units would become kind of "mobile buildings," unless the bonus was small enough to only be used circumstantially (like when the unit is passing through a town), but then what's the point? I think these kinds of bonuses are best reserved for heroes.  

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm not sure what you mean by bean counting.  I think the cost/benefit analysis would be no different than that concerning which buildings to build.  And I had meant more having them be less effective militarily instead of having higher maintenance costs.

But it would be fine if this was just for heroes.  In too many games your heroes can't do anything but fight.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

But some buildings can't be stacked, so to speak. Units can be. You can build 100 "love charm" soldiers that do nothing but boost population and stick them in each newfound city you create to get it rolling. The whole mechanism kind of abstracts the game and makes it less fun (my perspective, of course) and less logical. 

Like for example in Civilization you can't just build twenty theatres in a city just to get some huge culture bonuses flowing. 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

OR.... you can only have one soldier with said bonus ... or rather a fairly small bonus ...  that will only stack to a small or mediocre total bonus.

I like the latter as its a true sacrifice on military effectiveness. I can just see a garrison of soldiers of love fighting off an elite task-force of dread-knights.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah, maybe you could have the same bonus not stack at all - either a city has a "love charm" bonus or it doesn't.  One can only do so much "loving", after all.  Or you could just have it stack up to X times, or diminishing returns.

Obviously it would have to be carefully balanced - but every aspect of a game needs careful balance if you want it to stay interesting and replayable for any period of time.  That's no reason not to implement things.  Even if it got cut from the final release, if the framework was there, people who were so inclined could mod it in with minimal effort.

 

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

It's actually a very good reason not to implement things - as Brad often says, you can have a lot of features, but features that are too difficult to balance or have the AI use well aren't features at all. However, I agree with you that this should be moddable.