Textbased game? Lesser game mechanics

I tried to do without numbers. Since these are always variable until we observe them. And most don't understand the numbers if they don't know the relation between the numbers.

This specialized medic can go alongside the troops. But is less effective as the normal medic. But once it puts up the field hospital, it will be more effective. However, it cannot move asap. And is much weaker to attacks. Thus, you add these specialized medics to a second force. And deploy them somewhat away from an enemy. A place to retreat to, if you will.

I had a similar idea for a heavy machine gun stand. Just like the mortar infantry. But then, the heavy machine gun can also be carried. Although, the firerate and attack range goes down dramatically while movement is somewhat up when going mobile.

Not sure though if we can even implement it all. The orders have to be given by the player. 1 mistake, and the players plan fails. Not sure if they like playing that way. Each special ability is a double edged sword.

***

As for the design patern, I will stay on the path I have taken. Perhaps my cousin doesn't like it. Perhaps too much already.

Once more if I didn't mention it yet. We agreed on the following for resources:
- All solids can go together in a mix.
- All liquids can go together in a mix.
- We can have specialists in 1 or several resource types.

You gave me a great idea.

Not sure what the proper naming would be. But I could add a Repair Vehicle and add a Mobile Repair Station or MRS for short. The latter functioning the same as the specialized medic. Thus, turning into a Repair Station.

Although, perhaps specialized medic should be replaced by name somehow. Field Medic, perhaps?

As for a mobile factory.... no.
But we will allow units to build a Factory in another place. If a player wants to build closer to an enemy. They need to build a proxy base.

- The deployable healing and repairing is already a great help for first aid in the new location.
- Furthermore, the player needs to take resources with the force. These are carried by the same units that will also harvest them.
- The things to build are storage, refineries and barrack + factories.
- A mobile construction vehicle or MCV for short. Can also serve as a construction yard on the spot.
- And finally, some defences. Before you start adding more troops to the location by the freshly build factories.

But this time, we need way less numbers.
I feel like I am making a similar spreadsheet.

Still I need some extra columns. And will continue adding and removing stuff when needed.

In the meanwhile, I started to truly set numbers for certain units.

Changes I made:
- I changed the default health from 10 down to 8. With the default speed=2.
This....saves me so much trouble somehow? (Except for speed=3, which gives me a multi of 11)

- "Removed" the movement from the weapon. But left it in by choice. Thus, now I can compare 2 versions of an unit. 1 that can only either move or attack. And 1 that can do both at the same time.
Still need to talk with Pepper (the guy I am working with) about this.

- A debit column that shows me if I distributed the costs correctly among the 9 resources.

Changes I need to make:
- 1 Extra column for rounding and 1 extra column for showing me the relative offset.

- Still a proper way to see how a transforming unit/structure would act and cost. I suspect I need 4 rows for this one. Which I then copy paste for other transforming units/structures.

***

Things that I should tell myself:
4.5 is a proper speed number in video games!!!
You stupid Dumbass!! USE IT!!!! FFS!!

For my readers. I realized that 4.5+8 gives a nice number.
12.5 is a very nice number.
13.5 is also good.
Even 10.5 can be of use.
11 and 13 are bad for me.

***

Some costs that I decided on:
100 Rifleman (ocd number I guess)
150 Medic
300 Mechanic
450 Engineer

300 Barracks (ocd number again)

The thing is, in this particular game, a Barracks can produce 50*7,5=375.
375 worth of Infantry per round.
That is a lot to be honest.
And the main reason is that production cannot have an attack range in this game.
Or.... should I?

This time I am talking about the actual "changes" and "handling" of resources. This might be a new concept for most of us here, in this point of view. For me as well.

The main question is. What can we do, with resources involved?

Harvesting
We all know this form. You got something that can gather the resources. Another word could be gatherer.

And I believe I had a topic on this in the past on all kind of harvesting operations. Mobile, static, batch, constant, etc.

Resources can be limited or infinite in ammounts on the map. Or ways to gather them.

There can also be many forms of resources.

Refining
Often, you need to bring the resources to a place where they are then added to the stockpile of the player.

A drop off point. Or a special place that "refines" the resources into credits.

There is a third option here. You refine the resources, but they become more advanced resources. This, you can see in games like Factorio. Where a refined resource can eventually be used to make a product or object that can exist in the world with a function.

Storage
A lot of old RTS games have a storage for the resources. It was especially important in Dune 2. Where you would loose credits if the storage was not sufficient.
Later on, in C&Ctd, you could bypass this by producing an expensive building and cancelling it, turning the stored credits in just credits.

In other games, you use storage more like a buffer. Just a little extra to make sure you had time to make decisions.

But there are games where the storage serves tactical or strategic purposes for the enemy as well.
1. The storage gets destroyed. What can happen is that the credits are lost. How are they lost? Perhaps they just vanish into oblivion. However, there are games where the resources then simply lay around where the storage has been.
2. The enemy steals from the storage. For this, they need units that can handle resources. Like a harvester. Perhaps even specialize one into stealing.

Production
Resources being refined, counts as a production? Perhaps.
But resources being turned into objects for on the map. This counts 100% certain as production.

Scaveging
If a product gets destroyed. Perhaps a percentage of the resources once used, will be laying around.
You could have units being specialized into scaveging.
A great example would be the recycler in ogame.
Scaveging could also be done on resources that spil from a destroyed storage. So...

Stealing
Stealing resources has been mentioned now. But the player needs to make a choice between stealing and scaveging. The latter requires the storage to be destroyed. But the storage might be a bunker and is thus very durable.

Stealing is a goal that has a very well defined focus for the units. But stealing should be worth it. Why not harvest the resources yourself?

Well, for 1, resources that are refined, take more steps after being harvested. And the game we focus on, will have 2 refinement steps.
But, it should be said that stealing the basic resources should also still be worthwhile. That is, if the enemy doesn't defend well. The player that wants to steal needs to:
A. Be able to steal more than the losses that might occur.
B. Be able to steal much more than is being harvested back home.

If those 2 points are met, it is worthwhile stealing.

Supplies
A game with upkeep? A game with a supply line?
Well, we don't have the latter, but the first in mind.
And thus, we need special units that can supply the rest of the force that moves out.

***

I have several questions:

What else can be done with resources?
And how much should each property weight to one and another?
And should I have put this in a separate topic? Since it might be lost in the posts?

***

As for weight factors.
I intend to make all rounders and specialists.

An example would be an Harvester that can obviously store resources in itself. But also is able to steal and scavenge to a certain extend. And finally, it needs to be able to give supplies to the rest of the force.

I am rather stuck on the percentages for now. [I will work this evening on the subject]

100.% Harvesting
66.7% Refining
16.7% Storage
100.% Production
50.0% Scavenging
33.3% Stealing
100.% Supplying

I need to put in some logic. And see all strong and weaknesses to the process.

Will units be able to attack AND move at the same time?

If yes. Micro is possible. And I need to add the movement speed to the attack range.
And dear I say, I do it 100%?

Other than that. I started brainstorming on the combat. The combat is 1 dimensional. Still we want factors on the terrain effects. I just realized that the extra 50% on the attack range is incorrect. It is just....1 region. Even melee units will have the terrain effect implemented. Thus, I should use the projectile attribute on the whole weapon instead of just attack range. This will make things simpler.

But I have to make a lot of changes in one go. And while I try to communitcate with the other party, there is hardly response. So, I guess I shall leave it be. Our time is way to small. And hardly overlaps.

All round harvester has 5:
- Harvesting
- Storage
- Stealing
- Scaveging
- Supplying

In a sense, I could say the total weight is 1+4×0.5=3

So, here is an idea:
I make a list of designs with the 7 main attributes. And each attribute simply allows # times the value.

For example. Harvesting weights 1.
Storage weights 1/6th.
That keans that a harvester that can gather 50 per round. Can do this up to 6 rounds when it can also store.

So, we actually have factors for the attributes in how much the value is multiplied.

Tbc

1.
I need a column for the weapons...the names that is.
And perhaps what kind of bullet they are even using.

Reason: Upgrades.

2.
Mentioning it here too. I am always all about balance. But a boardgame and video game is totally different.
In a video game. And also the textbased game we are working on. It is possible that some units are build only once, a couple, a little special squad or is the majority of certain forces.

Therefor, I am not filling in a 3x3 table where I try to fill in each slot. No, I am doing a "chain of options". Which means.
I get this rifleman. What is good against it? Ok, this buggy. What is good against a buggy. A hummer due to durability. Ok, that was a small boost and both are good against the rifleman. So, we add, not a tank, but a grenadier. Closing the loop if you will. This is the first ring of the chain. Now for a second chain. We see what units are relatively usefull in the first ring. The hummer seems to be best.
We now add a tank. And then, a rocket soldier. This loop is closed too. Perhaps we observe all 7 now. Which one seems to be best? Well, we keep repeating this. And add more options that counter the best unit in the game so far. But we need to close the loop from time to time. I got all freedom in this. And it is only numbers.

3.
2 versions of the Riflemen?
Which one to choose?
I do BOTH!!
Simply calling the second one assault infantry.
I am also going to have a combat tank and assault tank.
Which are also very similar, but 1 difference. The assault versions deal slightly less damage and can move and attack.
They are weaker against their twins. But better against some other units that keep moving.

For example, the assault infantry is very good in microing against the grenadiers.

I don't have much here.

So far, I got that HEMS that is airborne and heals infantry.

Definately need some transport through the air too. But that is of later concern.

Right now, I am looking for combat units.
We cannot operate with a rearming pad or anything. The air units will be like those in games like Starcraft, mostly.

- VTOL Fighter
Which is fast and has medium armor. An air unit that can also shoot air.

- Apache
Which is relative slow and has heavy armor.
It will also have the best anti infantry weapons. But other weapons are added. Almost a true allrounder.
It belongs in the Helicopter department.

- VTOL Bomber
Which is going at a relative normal speed with heavy armor.
It has a "melee" attack for obvious reasons.
Variants might be one with napalm, bunker buster and normal. The normal one is good against vehicles of medium and heavy armor.

- Combat Drones
Light armor, relatively fast.
Light to medium weaponry.

(I just realized, we have had 0 sacrificing units, I rather skip these until we do mines)

- Cargo plane
Heavy armor. Fast. And is the best option to set up a resource route between a proxy and main base. It is just a justified plain plane.

I could copy other games. But...I rather get some more original idea's. While we landed on an alien world. The tech used for combat is modern plus 20 years if you will. Like how it was 20 years ago.

Are another option.

As for the tech. What I meant is that the past 20 years. The tech didn't change much.
They predicted some special weapons for these years.

C&C td is the best example. While you got normal "modern" units.
The slightly weird things are:
- Mammoth Tank?
- ORCA?
- Ion Cannon!
- Recon Bike?
- Flame Tank?
- Stealth Tank!
- That Chemsprayer!
- Obelisk of Light!

All other things are...well, normal.
The game setting takes place in 1997-2000. (That is what I meant like 20 years ago)
And the normal units are all like created in 1980.
Some even in WW2, like the mobile artillery.

So, my idea was roughly the same. Ground forces are mainly units that are like the modern army you see now. But never improved much after. But on this new planet, you eventually will get the tech to get new interesting things.

Sometimes a game needs a weird tweak on the mechanics.

For air units. We decided to NOT have an airfield being a landing spot. Nor a helipad for helicopters.
However, these production facilities will still be present for simply said...production.

In other words. Anything that normally needs an airfield for liftof or landing is a nogo.

Hence I mentioned VTOL etc.

***

As for the supplying mechanic.

We want a specialist in this regard as well.
The supply truck certainly needs a place.
It will be cheap and...specialized.

The supplying mechanic needs to be reconsidered. How to apply the number?

I considered the number to be like the production numbers. If the army itself costed 1000. Then having a supply truck that can do 500, supply only 50% of these. You need 2...at least.

The suplly truck also needs to be self supplying.

Why this way?
Then we can tryout a different factor for upkeep without messing with the balance between supplying and other resource parameters.

I changed the weight factors of certain resource attributes. This made the supply truck more realistic, compared to the all round harvesters.
The thing I changed was looking at change of ownership.

If it doesn't, the weight is 1.
If it goes from neutral to the player, 2.
From the enemy to the player is 3.

Storage still seems to be relatively low.
And somehow doesn't seem to increase that much when it is solely storage.
I managed to get 375 storage on a 50-50 silo.
And perhaps, I should include storage in the "body" instead of the "weapon".

That way, it gets a buff by max 100%, when there is no process involved.

2 ways possible:
- 1. A hard number added to the body.
- 2. A number added to the body, based on what I add to the weapon.
In a sense, I can subtract a value from the weapon cost and add it to the body cost, based on the ammount of storage.

Example, storage costs 100 points and the body costs 100 points. Normally the total costs is 200 and the storage is 375.
Reverse engineering would show that 100 of these 100 points is storage points. It gets added to the body and subtracted from the weapon. The weapon should end up with 0 now and the body with 200. However, the cost is now only 100.

It is like a wall that has half its durability.
I find a storage with cost of 100 and a storage of 375, sounding decent.

But looking at other games.

Dune 2 has a silo with total cost 186 and a storage of 1000. This is a factor of roughly 5.3.
C&C has a silo with total cost 165 and a storage of 1500. This is a factor of roughly 9.

I thought I applied 6. But I can manage to get it up to 3.75 with the balance.

If i make a silo with the body weaker. It can increase to 750 tops without having any hit point at all. In other words, all silo's die instantly with an attack.

1. In Military Simulation Games

In strategy and tactical shooters, a "supply truck" acts as an abstract, game-balanced mechanic rather than a true logistical unit:

Hell Let Loose:
One truck carries 300 to 600 supplies, which is typically enough to build 2 to 3 garrisons or establish logistical nodes to support an entire team of up to 50 to 100 players.

Warno / WARGAME:
Heavy supply trucks can carry 1,500 to 2,000+ supply points, which is generally sufficient to keep a large battlegroup of hundreds of soldiers (or dozens of tanks) fully re-armed and repaired during sustained front-line combat.

2. In Real-World Modern Warfare
In real combat operations, a single truck cannot sustain troops on its own; it requires a complex pipeline (the "tooth-to-tail" ratio) where it takes 3 to 8 support personnel to keep a single combat soldier fighting.

Planning is measured in daily tonnage rather than "number of soldiers.

"The Daily Burden:
Military planners estimate a single soldier requires about 10 to 15 kg of consumables per day (food, fuel, and water). A standard mechanized infantry squad can quickly use thousands of rounds of ammunition in an active firefight.

The Truck's Capacity:
A medium tactical truck—such as the US Army's LMTV or M1083—has a payload limit of 2.5 to 5 tons (roughly 2,200 to 4,500 kg).

The Support Equation:
Because of the heavy daily burn rate of a modern, mechanized unit (including fuel for vehicles), a single 2.5-ton truck can fully sustain roughly 30 to 50 active combat soldiers for a single day before needing to be restocked itself.

***

Well, what would be the correct question then?

I find the 30 to 50 active combat soldiers sounding like a nice number. That for a day, before the Truck has to restock itself. Sounds about right, it means that a player plans missions for itself that take a (working) day.

50 soldiers is like 5,000 in resources. A Supply Truck only carries 1500. That is a third. Thus like a little less than 8 hours. No worries, we can simply add a second Supply Truck to these 50 soldiers. 0,1% of 5,000 is 5. 5 resources per 90 seconds sounds about right. We also need to consider advanced orders that will increase the upkeep.

So, 1500 supplies should be handed out? With 50 soldiers, the factor is like 50 transfers. The supply power should be around 30 then. Which is 50 rounds at max.

The Supply Truck at maximum would be empty in 75 minutes. That sounds like a nice number.

And in 75 minutes. A force can be supported that is worth 30 upkeep. 29,4 x 1,000 = 29,400. This is 294 men?

This feels satisfactional. If those men are not supported. Let's say 300 men. Then we have 2.4 damage per 90 seconds. It will take several minutes until soldiers start to die (and get eaten). Actually, I think it is like 4 hours or so before the first soldier bites the dust. Then, the resources of this soldier, (40%?), Is like 40 credits. And I dunno. I think we need a hunger bar or something. We will see.