yobbo
07-05-2005, 00:21
I have purchased KoH (NA) and look forward to installing it and playing with it.
I have played the demo quite a bit in the short time I've had it. Even on the hard
setting the demo seems pretty easy.
There is a change that I would suggest which would appear to require a patch.
I am hoping that someone will say "Oh, Black Sea stuck that in there and just
haven't turned it on", but I doubt that will be the answer :-). I don't need this
change to feel good about my purchase.
I believe that one of the limiting factors to army size in medieval times was the
cost of maintenance. Certainly by the Renaissance it took serious money to keep
an army going.
In KoH, in the demo, I don't think you pay a G for your army after you raise it. It
might help game balance, and be a trifle more realistic, if each advanced unit had
maintenance costs associated with it. Knights, after all, were given grants of land
to help support their expensive profession.
If the mechanism doesn't currently exist in KoH it will likely requre a patch to add.
It might not take *too* much code rewrite if one takes advantage of the current
"marshal cost" infrastructure.
First one would either add a seperate maintenance value to the unit (preferred for
modding :-) ), or calculate maintenance from initial cost. Peasants should have
no or nearly no cost.
Then the routine which calculates marshal cost would call a routine which calcs
the maintenance cost of his attached army. I figure this would be easier than
adding a line item for army cost to the budget.
The worst downside I see is that it is yet another thing for the poor AI to keep
track of. I am heartened by the fact that there are mods which make some number
of marshals terrifically expensive and I assume the AI handles that.
I'm gonna be pretty embarrassed if the answer is "we have (something like) that
already". I probably should wait to play the real game before posting design
suggestions. :-)
If one needs to change the code anyway. :-)
Failure to pay the army could have different results depending on unit type.
Mercenaries could "desert" and set up a mercenary camp on the spot, maybe to
be picked up by the opposing army. Created units could "go merc", desert and
disappear, suffer morale loss, suffer a hit in combat effectiveness. I understand
there is already code for armies/marshals to "go rebel". Failure to pay (or the
cost) should be ameliorated by plunder, (the current plunder mechanism may
be adequate). Armies that live off another provinces land should have negative
diplomatic effect... or not, maybe it was just a cost of doing business.
I have played the demo quite a bit in the short time I've had it. Even on the hard
setting the demo seems pretty easy.
There is a change that I would suggest which would appear to require a patch.
I am hoping that someone will say "Oh, Black Sea stuck that in there and just
haven't turned it on", but I doubt that will be the answer :-). I don't need this
change to feel good about my purchase.
I believe that one of the limiting factors to army size in medieval times was the
cost of maintenance. Certainly by the Renaissance it took serious money to keep
an army going.
In KoH, in the demo, I don't think you pay a G for your army after you raise it. It
might help game balance, and be a trifle more realistic, if each advanced unit had
maintenance costs associated with it. Knights, after all, were given grants of land
to help support their expensive profession.
If the mechanism doesn't currently exist in KoH it will likely requre a patch to add.
It might not take *too* much code rewrite if one takes advantage of the current
"marshal cost" infrastructure.
First one would either add a seperate maintenance value to the unit (preferred for
modding :-) ), or calculate maintenance from initial cost. Peasants should have
no or nearly no cost.
Then the routine which calculates marshal cost would call a routine which calcs
the maintenance cost of his attached army. I figure this would be easier than
adding a line item for army cost to the budget.
The worst downside I see is that it is yet another thing for the poor AI to keep
track of. I am heartened by the fact that there are mods which make some number
of marshals terrifically expensive and I assume the AI handles that.
I'm gonna be pretty embarrassed if the answer is "we have (something like) that
already". I probably should wait to play the real game before posting design
suggestions. :-)
If one needs to change the code anyway. :-)
Failure to pay the army could have different results depending on unit type.
Mercenaries could "desert" and set up a mercenary camp on the spot, maybe to
be picked up by the opposing army. Created units could "go merc", desert and
disappear, suffer morale loss, suffer a hit in combat effectiveness. I understand
there is already code for armies/marshals to "go rebel". Failure to pay (or the
cost) should be ameliorated by plunder, (the current plunder mechanism may
be adequate). Armies that live off another provinces land should have negative
diplomatic effect... or not, maybe it was just a cost of doing business.