Display real attack/defense values on middle click?

[case81]

I was looking into the combat system recently and it finally dawned on me that it's all about multipliers (terrain bonus etc.) Now I know why I lost an army of musketeers in an unsuccessful attempt to take a pirate city...

Anyway, it looks like even a measly Phalanx can get a monstrous defense bonus by sitting in a city on a hill, for instance. I think it might be useful to display the final (post-multipliers) attack and defense values for a given unit when middle-clicking a tile or when hovering over the unit in the city dialog. To everybody. Obviously an attacker would need a diplomat to see the info on a garrisoned unit, but everybody could see it on a field unit.

This would probably help a lot of newcomers who can't understand why their legionaries keep losing to a phalanx, for instance. If the actual defense value was openly displayed, much confusion could be avoided. The same goes for the actual attack rating, which can differ from the one printed on the unit as well. It could be made a ruleset option so experienced players could just switch it off.

So, my proposal:




Maybe "Kill Stack active" could also be displayed in the middle-click popup to make that more obvious to newcomers, too. And the word "multipliers" should perhaps be used prominently on the help page about combat. Most people don't read manuals though, so the game itself needs to teach these things to players.

Another wish is a mouse-over info popup for citizens - the little icons are very hard to decipher. Make it say "Worker, content, 2F 2P 1T" or "Entertainer, happy, 2 Luxury" in order to be more decipherable?

[cazfi]

Well, the actual defense value depends on attacker too (pikemen gets double defense against horse-units etc.)
There's already "Chance to Win" shown when you have an potential attacker selected, and get middle-popup about the defender. Note that "tired attack" -rule might change the chances if you move the attacking unit.

[bard]

This is the info that I miss most in the UI.

Well, the actual defense value depends on attacker too (pikemen gets double defense against horse-units etc.)

It could be implemented similar to the "chance to win". Middle-click could show the real attack/defense of the clicked unit against the selected unit.

The "chance to win" value is only useful when both units have similar combat values, else you get a 0% that means nothing. Most times you know your first attacker will die for sure, but the important would be to know how many attackers you will need.

For example, if you attack with force 6 vs 18, the chances of the first attacker are 0%, same than 6 vs 60. But in the first case you could kill 1 defender by losing an average of 3 attackers, that could be worth in some cases.

Also, knowing the real attack/defense values would be very useful for modders in order to debug and verify that combat is working as expected. It is hard to know for sure when you only see the chance to win.

[cazfi]

Well, the actual defense value depends on attacker too (pikemen gets double defense against horse-units etc.)

It could be implemented similar to the "chance to win". Middle-click could show the real attack/defense of the clicked unit against the selected unit.

Please open a ticket about this.