Demiansky

Join Date 03/2008

+59

Weapons from Industry Techs

This idea is sort of an offshot from another thread involving armor. I think it would be interesting if certain weapons and armor could be gained from tech lines that are normally specifically civil, rather than military. For instance, if you could gain access to "Chiten Armor" by both researching the agricultural technology "Monstrous Herding" as well as discovering a tamable colony of giant insects. Another example might be if the player researched enough into forestry techs to exploit a grove of "iron wood," which could be crafted into snazzy weapons and armor pieces. Naturally, only a few civil techs would afford the player an opportunity to pick up these nifty little perks, and the best, most enduring military options and tools would still be left on military focused research.

It would be refreshing to see benefits to civil techs, though, beyond +X to the harvest of widget Y, though.

elemental

Locked Post

Advanced Search

Watch this post

Do not email me updates for this post Email me updates for this post

Successfully updated karma reason!

It seems natural that this would happen. After all, flails are originally farm implements rather than weapons of war. When it comes to balance and gameplay, it would get a little more dicey.

But, I'm not against it. It would make sure that civilization-focused empires wouldn't be defenseless. I dunno. It'll be interesting to see.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Wintersong

Join Date 07/2006

+235

Quoting MagicwillNZ,

reply 1

It would make sure that civilization-focused empires wouldn't be defenseless.

"Attack! Throw the +5 Tomatoes at them!!!"

Sorry, that was what I thought when I read your comment.

Not sure if I get the idea. If I want to use Iron Wood to make weapons, I first need to unlock it via Civilization research so the proper tech appears in the Military tab. Is that right? Or do you get to make those weapons just researching Iron Wood use via Civilization research? I'd get that you mean the last one but then it should apply to Iron too, for example. Not sure if in this moment we can research Metal Weapons without researchin Iron Mines first (note to self: test that, you silly) but I think that all minerals should work in the same way.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Genius!!!

Successfully updated karma reason!

Master of Orion 2 actually kind of did some things along these lines. Rather than simply having weapon tech directions and economic tech directions, they occassionally mixed them up. For instance, engine techs usually appeared in the "energy" tech route, but sometimes special torpedoes or mass drivers would pop up in the energy tech route too, which were pretty good but operated differently than the major weapons you gained from the weapons technology tech route. Likewise, you also might find production oriented techs sometimes pop up in classically non-industrial tech trees.

A system like this in Elemental would definately shake things up a bit.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Quoting Wintersong,

reply 2

"Attack! Throw the +5 Tomatoes at them!!!"
Sorry, that was what I thought when I read your comment.

You think that's deadly? You should see the grapeshot catapault!

...geddit? Grapeshot? Y'see, it's a fru... you know... nevermind...

Successfully updated karma reason!

Never mind the grapeshot. A catapault loaded with half-melted blue cheese would have the morale effects of hurling human carcases lol. "Oh man that stinks. I need to find a river to wash this ---- off. RETREAT!!" lol

Successfully updated karma reason!

We could even have a stampede option. Those herders look like a great target, until they whip the herd into a berserk rage and send 10,000 insane cows to crush you.

Successfully updated karma reason!

*
* Member No.2,876,725
* Karma+1

February 8, 2010 2:25:14 PM

We could even have a stampede option. Those herders look like a great target, until they whip the herd into a berserk rage and send 10,000 insane cows to crush you.

Hmmmm....... now there's a thought....... get ten-odd farmers to train their thousand-odd cows to attack Krath red'n black, and there's the mortal plane on a platter!

Successfully updated karma reason!

The cow hordes would not be a serious threat, but if you need cannon fodder right now, they might come in handy.

Successfully updated karma reason!

I wouldn't say that Cerevox. A cow would be hard enough to kill when they're passive (not counting magic attacks). How hard that would be when they're whipped up is anyone's guess.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Start a bonfire in front of them, watch them flee fire? outright killing them would be hard, but you gotta admit, the cow is not natures brightest creation.

Plus, that would hurt your econemy and good income, might not be worth it.

Successfully updated karma reason!

True, but it's common for a bull to run through barbed wire to get at a person who irritated it.

Magic is the answer. When you slaughter a bull of for the meat, raise it from the dead. All the power with none of that self-preservation nonsense lol.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Quoting Terran_242,

reply 6

OK, you've never actually met a real infantryman, let alone been near one in the field. I'm not an infantryman, I learned I'm a really good sailor and a quite bad infantryman (photo is of me in a Navy uniform...as a dirt sailor...long story). One of my problems with being a soldier is that I'm used to bathing at least every week or so and real soldiers go well over a month.

I do like the idea of civil improvements and developments having direct military benefits. Super-militarist civilizations should be routinely knocked over by civilizations that can field 10x the troops of the militarists and keep them well supplied in the field. What Lysander and the 300 did was force the Persians to hold in place and run out of fuel and fresh water. When you are talking stink, imagine hundreds of thousands of pre-industrial troops with dysentary because they couldn't boil their drinking water. That's the condition the Spartans imposed on the Persians at Thermapolae.

Is there any magic to provide field hygene?

(Yes, I know that the Spartans were militarists, but the Greeks/Pelopenisians as a whole weren't.)

Successfully updated karma reason!

Quoting pslblog,

reply 13

It is, as we in the buisiness call it, a joke.

Despite that, you do actually make a interesting point about sanitation and the military. I'm not partial to a boiling water sim, but I think a simple implementation of supply lines would be of great worth. Having supplies cut would cause disease damage among troops.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Actually, iirc, the 300 was more like the 300 + 10,000 slave soldiers.

And supply lines would be cool, but could also add a lot of complexity for little gain. If they can be implemented in a simple manner, then they would be great though.

Successfully updated karma reason!