Trapped units

I have mentioned this in other posts but this is one of the reasons they need and open boarders treaaty option like in the CIV series. In the case above the only option is to go to war or spend gildar on a non-aggro pact that will allow you passage. I think this option is vital to furthering the enjoyment of a game that has a large part of it centered around exploring your world.

I agree the script would be nice, especially for mundane units that can easily become trapped.

However the sovereign (or any caster with more than 5 essence) should not have been trapped.

You should have access to the default teleport spell and enough essence to cast it. Select it from your spellbook and jump back to your territory if you ever get stuck again.

regards,

ct 

very true. the soverign can teleport back to friendly territory. I have had a few games however that my soverign has gotten boxed in to small area early on that was my starting territory. There was a whole world out there to explore but couldn't because teleport only brings you to friendly territory. again, leaving the only options as war, or pay gildar and agree to 99 turns of peace

Yes, it is frustrating getting boxed in and I hope something is done about it.

I can see a few options:

we could use a diplomatic option to negotiate free movement;

or perhaps an item that allows the player to travel through neutral territory in small groups (the hat of the grey wizard, ring of the wanderer, etc);

maybe an invisibility spell that allows the player to sneak through;

or special unit upgrades for spies, diplomats, assassins etc.

Ideally we could pursue all of the above to keep the game as fluid as possible. To me half of the game is man vs nature, reclaiming the wilds, fighting off monsters and establishing a civilization before we even meet another proper faction, and getting boxed in prevents an enjoyable "first act" of the game.

regards,

ct

The reason that there is no 'allow movement' treaty without getting the non-aggro treaty is to reduce player cheese- getting the free movement treaty, putting your units next to the AI cities and then invading with no warning.

But that could be limited through proper AI:

If the AI properly garrisoned cities they would be more difficult to take.

Another way to do it would be to improve the way treaties are negotiated. For example when setting the treaty:

- a cap could be set on the number of units traveling through the neutral territory

-a specific path through the territory could be set, if the player deviates they receive a warning then they are attacked

-a player army could be shadowed by a AI stack as it moves through neutral territory, if the player attacks the AI cities he/she would have to fight the garrison and the escourting stack at the same time

I could probably come up with a few more ideas, but the basic idea would be to have the AI react as any reasonable player would. If a neutral stack enters our territory we would either attack it or if it does not present an immediate threat then we would monitor it, I see no reason why an "evolving" AI could not mimic the behaviour.

regards,

ct

The way Civ 4 handled it is that upon declaration of war, units were moved to the border. Though in general, there needs to be ways of telling the other players stuff (AI or otherwise) such as "Please move these units away." instead of being unable to do anything outside of "Do whatever you want" and "War! Kill 'em all!"

Also, why didn't you teleport back to safety? Not enough mana?

don't forget empire players have to research teleport, so you could still be stuck for a long time even if you thought of this.

Ah right. In that case, it should prioritize proximity to your own land and non-claimed terrain over someone else's land. Or, heck, just teleport the Sov to the closest friendly city.

What if your capital city could fly and relocate?  Oh wait... this isn't the Terrans.