Textbased game? Lesser game mechanics

We only use "rounds" in combat.
These "rounds" are only because an order issued is only received in intervals.

Everything else, is going to be in real time.

You order a force to go somewhere?
A round starts and takes 90 seconds.
During that round, upkeep is increased.

Personally, I think that a force should get orders for a prolonged time. Meaning that a player can.... here is an example:

A force is ordered to go to location A. The game returns an ETA. There it will guard a group of harvesters for a number of rounds. The number of rounds can be set by the player. 960 a day seems a nice round number.
And this number should be entered, right next to the order.
Maybe it is even better to have the player to simply enter a time.

Either way, the movement costs increased upkeep.
And the order for distracting any enemy from the harvesters, also costs increased upkeep.

Ok, Supply Truck should be the norm.
Costing 600 and having 1500 in storage. It is a mobile storage that can refill the SSS of units.

With the SSS of units being 25%. Or a 100% per 40 days.
1 Supply Truck can feed on itself for 100 days. Hmmmm, nice for a long term scout.

Riflemen is another mainstream for me. Costing 100, they cost 25 every 10 days. I guess that giving out supplies should be expressed in like per "time" as well. Having the Supply Truck being able to feed 30 to 50 of them should remain a norm for me.

50 riflemen cost 5,000. But 1,250 per 10 days. Or, in other words. 125 a day. 30 riflemen thus 75 a day.
Ok, if I express the Supplying into "a day". That would give a managable and understandable number. So, that 30 I once had, can be more. 75 sounds good. And 30 riflemen can thus survive 20 days longer on a Supply Truck.
Well, we already had something like a month in mind. Obviously, if you send 2 Supply Trucks, the ExtrA time doubles.

Keeping in mind, that the SSS is enough for 10 days. Only then the Saturation drops and who knows what happens in those 4 days. So, a Supply Truck having Supplying set to 75 can extend this by 20 days for 30 riflemen. Setting it to 30 days in total.

I could go deeper into the math.
The Supply Truck itself has 150 in SSS. This is 15 per day, that gets subtracted from that 75. Now we get to only 60 per day, for the rest. Or 24 riflemen?
Let's see, what options we get:

75 Supplying, 60 for 24 Riflemen, +20.0 days
90 Supplying, 75 for 30 Riflemen, +16.7 days
(Oh, previous times 3?)
120 Supplying, 105 for 42 Riflemen, +12.5 days
135 Supplying, 120 for 48 Riflemen, +11.1 days
150 Supplying, 135 for 54 Riflemen, +10.0 days
165 Supplying, 150 for 60 Riflemen, +9.1 days

I like working with nice round numbers.
The 75 option is still a valid option. Although the number isn't that high. We do have to keep in mind, each unit starts with a 10 days countdown. The Supplying is simply extra support. And 1 Truck does increase the time by a factor 3. And maybe, we should keep it this way.

2nd option looks a lot like the previous setting. But I am not that fond of that +16.7 Still, the time increasement is more than double. And the number of riflemen is also higher.

3rd option gives oddly enough, nice round numbers. Personally, I don't like a 7. But perhaps I should just ignore that. I already got 7's in other parts of the game.

4th options has that +11.1. The other numbers feel nice to me.

5th option has the same deal as the 4th. But then we have 54 Riflemen, perhaps that should be acceptable as well.

6th option and beyond is just not worth it to be honest. The supplying is soooooo fast, that the players will not understand the function of the unit.

Ok, that was 1 truck for a squad of X Riflemen.

I should make a choice.
We go for the 2nd option. And change later on if nessesary.

I could make the Supply Truck more durable. And make it cost 800. Then it would cost 20 Upkeep per day.

Picking the 120 Supplying power too.
Then we get to 120 - 20 = 100 Supplies for the 40 Riflemen.

If I keep the storage the same, it would then be +12.5 days.
It would also mean, that the factor between Supplying and Storage should be tweaked a bit. That way I can keep the 1500 Storage. We can go in all directions. But one thing is certain: If we change a factor, all units using that factor will change balance wise.

I need to change this first. Then I can continue designing more units (tweaking new numbers that is)

It doesn't make sense if they can produce 1 thing and only be able to repair the other. I was confused as of why i made the attributes red. Next time I need to add some context for myself.

The Field Medic that can turn into a Field Hospital is not implemented. We do that at a later stage when some testing has been done. Same goes for the Mortar Infantry. The normal Medic is still avaiable though.

Life and other hobbies took a lot of my time. It is only now that I return back to designing units and structures.
Still got a little list of things I want.

We are aiming for a game where players need to see the opponents weakness. And aim for that.

Supplies is just one of many.

But I agree on that certain things need to be simplified. I think we are going to cut when we are testing.

Another thing I am keeping my eye on for cutting. Is the propulsions. While I added ATV to the list. I don't think that the differences matter much.

Example:
One propulsion has a factor of 0,6 on going over sand.
Another propulsion has a factor of 0,5 going over that same sand.

How does it work? A movement speed of 5 will be reduced to either 3 or 2.5.
If a distance is 300. Then the time needed to cross is then either 100 or 120 minutes. It doesn't matter much. Not even when going into combat and you close in the TD. Because when both are in range, they fight. It only matters when one is a micro unit. And that is so rare. It depends sooo much on my design capabilities. That I think it doesn't matter at all.

I need to increase the differences. Or add terrain types.

The game is different than Ogame.

Ogame is 1 dimensional. And you only have a timer before arriving somewhere. Also, the location you go to has to have a player. The fleet can be infinitely big. The only limit is the number of fleets. Traveling costs 1 resource.

We have a 2 dimensional plan. Of course we can use a timer too. But now it will be an ETA. And you can go anywhere with a force. But the thing is, a player is limited in the size of a force on top of the number of forces. There will be intercepting too. Traveling can costs multiple resources.

As for when units run out of SSS. We got this covered ;)

Seems that the AI grinded propulsion factors down to 0, 0.33, 0.5, 0.67 and 1.0.

0.16 and 0.83 seems to be missing. That is ok.
I asked to have steps of 0.1 to be increased. And initially, the AI went for 0, 0.5, 0.75, 1 and 1.5. Well.... that is an interesting way. But yeah, I should have considered having the common divider being less than 10.

As for projectiles. I don't mind much. It didn't include air. It ignored the resources-swap as instructed (also "air"). But it also forgot to include a minesweep.

The most interesting comment the AI made was that the ATV is going to be a middle ground. And has reduced movement everywhere. If the AI is based on what humanity thinks. Then humanity considers plains to be smooth? Since Wheels would get maximum movement on plains. O well, I should put its findings in the same table. But.... I will put both tables side by side, so I can see the differences between the AI and myself. I think....that this particular AI has more common sense.

We played Factorio...

We clearly are bothered by the 20% or 40% increase in movement speed while running. It doesn't matter much.
I often also didn't notice if I used 100% or 150% laser power (8 or 12 personal lasers). The boost was simply too little to make a real choice.

Hence I decided that we should have some harder factors.
The AI was using a set of 6. Meaning that the factors where 1/6, 2/6, etc.
I decided to check tomorrow if I can make my own table again. (I saved a copy). And then change all "odd" fractions (0.1, 0.3 etc.) into even ones. Small adjustments. Oh, the "even" fractions are 0, 0.2, 0.4 etc.

Also, the AI didn't include the properties of certain terrain. For example, Ice.... This will be a layer on top of water. This water is deep enough for a submarine. And strong enough for a huge tank on top. The extra property that this terrain gives would be that if the submarine has a weapon effective for land units. It simply can shoot them from below. Period. We need to have something special here.

Also, if the ice breaks...it immediately freezes over. Special planet property is the excuse. :)

And after I had a 1 hour brainstorm.

I am overcomplicating things.

What I need to think of now is how to see things.

Mobility has influence on the unit size.
0 means the size being divided by 0. Aka, it doesn't fit in the next terrain type. Also, the movement multiplied by 0 means it cannot move there.

The weight is a hard factor in the formula.
2 is times 2, 3 is times 3 etc.

But if mobility also has influence on the unit movement speed. How to calculate this then? Using the same weight factor on the movement speed?

What I get is this:

WFM = Weight Factor Mobility
S = (Movement) Speed
DH = Default Health (aka 0 Movement Speed or 0 S), always 8
MW = Mobility Weight

MW = WFM * (DH + S * WFM) / DH
MW = WFM * (8 + S * WFM) / 8

Tracked could get:
WFM = 1, S = 1
MW = 1 * (8 + 1 * 1) / 8 = 1.125

Tracked could get:
WFM = 1, S = 2
MW = 1 * (8 + 2 * 1) / 8 = 1.25

Air could get:
WFM = 2, S = 1
MW = 2 * (8 + 1 * 2) / 8 = 2.5

Air could get:
WFM = 2, S = 2
MW = 2 * (8 + 2 * 2) / 8 = 3

Tracked gets +0.125 per S
Air gets +0.5 per S, that is 4 times as much?
I don't know yet if this is correct.

1 thing is certain. Air can go everywhere. And move at a maximum speed anywhere as well.

I need a more practical example for myself.
A tracked unit with 12 S has the same MW of 2.5 as an air unit with 1 S.
The air unit can move over water and mountains. The tracked unit cannot.
The tracked unit also has a penalty factor of 0.6 or 0.4 for some other terrain types. Even 0.2 for swamps at the current design.

0.6 means the size would be 167% and the movement speed is then 7.2.
0.4 means the size would be 250% and the movement speed is then 4.8.
0.2 means the size would be 500% and the movement speed is then 2.4.

The movement speed has an awesome reduction here. Although, a tank moving with 12 over plains is weird.
Ah yes, this 12 is synonym to 27 miles per hour. I think that it should be faster too. Since this is supposed to be on "pavement".
Then again, it is just a game. Balance has priority on realism.

Speaking of realism. An air unit that has a movement speed of 12 (like in RTS games). Would now have the weight factor of:
WFM = 2, S = 12
MW = 2 * (8 + 2 * 12) / 8 = 8

Oddly disturbing. No wonder most RTS games have super weak air units or super slow.... yes, super slow air units.

Although, they don't work with sizes. And perhaps.... I should NOT include size factors for terrain then? Simply say that an unit cannot move into it?

This would mean that I removed the "mobility" from structures. Or....I make a separate table for Size factors for certain terrain types... Yikes...

Decided to take some steps backwards first.

Cutting in how terrain has influence on mobility and projectiles.

Keeping it super simple now? Let's observe mobility for this.

The terrain and thus mobility and projectile attributes come in duo's:
Ground/Water
Free/Obstruction
Hard/Soft
Flat/Elevated

One of the 2 attributes for mobility is always 100%. From all 4 duo's, we have 100%. The other one can be added as a choice. And thus will add at most 50% for each.

Air units have 100% on all. And thus end up with 100% + 4 times 50% = 300%.
However, I am planning to have a 150% as default. And recalculated to 100%, this means that air will be 200% instead of 300%.

As for terrain, they divide the 100% per duo.

Elevated and Obstruction are similar. However, most units can move through elevated to some extend. While others have it better through obstructed terrain.

With obstruction, think of tree's and rocks etc.
With elevated, think of hills and...waves etc.

Yes, we are going to have 2 types of ships eventually. 1 that can only go through calm waters. And 1 that can take the roughest sea.

Still need to set up a new table and see the results.

As for comparing mobility to the terrain attributes?
Not sure yet what the best way is.

***

As for the weight factor of mobility. I still want to include structures, despite them having no movement speed. And one particular braincell just announced we had an idea for reduced movement speed. But I never noted it anywhere? (I guess we where both drinking that evening)

And I think Questccg kinda suggested something similar on Discord(?)

The effect we get from the attributes will make the "size" of objects bigger/smaller for particular terrain types. Then, if the total force is too big for the avaiable space, the minimal movement of the slowest unit will now be reduced.

How?
Most logical would be that we have a buffer of no problems.
Then, if the size of the force exceeds the space. It gets too crowded.
Perhaps, we allow a second buffer that allows the space to be crowded. And the percentage here, will reduce the movement by that same percentage. Thus, if we have 100% crowded, then all movement stops within that space. Obviously, we can still move to another region. For that, we should take both regions for the space, and take an average reduction for the movement.

Yeah, that makes sense, right?

Region 1 has 100% crowded. Thus no movement possible anymore.
Region 2 has 50% crowded. 50% movement is possible there.
If we go from 1 to 2, then the average is 75% crowded. Thus the movement is now 25%. This doesn't change during the migration either. Since -10% for one crowded is +10% for another. Unless....the 2 terrains have different attributes. Ok, so each tick should be reconsidered.

If region 1 goes to an empty region. The average crowded is 50%. This is 50% movement now. But, since the crowded weight only goes up after the buffer of space is filled. It means the migration goes faster and faster. Overall, an average of 75% is possible when you cut a force in half.
Then again, if you move all of them to the next region?

200% and 0% is an average of 100%. Ok, that is then 0% crowded. We have to be carefull how we set up this mechanic. If we want it to be fair and logical.

As for structures, they will receive the weight factor as well. Because this will determine their size in certain territories. And also the space that is being filled.

Obviously, if there is no room. A structure cannot be placed. Thus division by 0 would trigger such an event.
Obviously, if you have a base that makes things 100% crowded. You cannot move into this terrain anymore...

Ah yes, we should not take the crowded factor of a terrain where we move out of. But only the ones we move into.
So, from a 100% crowded terrain, going into open terrain. Is a 100% movement then.

I need to think more on this.