Longturn.net ruleset features for traditional games

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wieder
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Longturn.net ruleset features for traditional games

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Here is a link for the latest game with the LTT ruleset:

http://longturn.net/game/LT55/

Here are some of the features and changes we have for the multiplayer games.

This post doesn't list all the features for the LTT (Long Turn Traditional) ruleset but instead the highlights and some of the new features and changes we have for multiplayer games.


set startunits=cccccwwwwwwwxxd meaning that you have 5 settlers, 7 workers, 2 explorers and a warrior (or maybe 3 warriors) when the game begins.

In the traditional longturn games we often have plenty of start units so that the game starts really fast and there is plenty of doing in the early game.

The settlers can't be bribed so that the players starting next to an idler wouldn't get an advantage by bribing the idling settlers.

The original workers are now Tribal Workers. They have less moves but can't be captured by enemy units. You can't build more tribal workers. Instead you can build regular workers with more moves. These workers can be captured. This is also to avoid situations where someone gains advantage by spawning next to idler and capturing the workers of the idler.

Cities on hills no longer get +2 food for the city tile if the city tile also has a mine on it.

The granary sizes allow growing big cities reasonably fast. This means that the city will grow from size 1 to size 2 once there is 12 food in the granary. The biggest granary size is 40 allowing the players to grow the cities reasonably fast.

granary_food_ini = 12, 14, 16, 20, 24, 28, 34, 40

The cities have bigger working radius allowing them to work on locations 3 tiles away from the city center. There is however a catch to this. The city vision radius is smaller than the working radius and if the player wants to work on all the tiles effectively, there needs to be a unit or units providing vision to the further away tiles.

Together with bigger city working area and citymindist 4 (there needs to be 3 tiles between the cities) it is possible to build really big cities and defending them is not that hard if you invest on defensive units.

There is a wonder (Leonardo's Workshop) for auto upgrading units each turn. When the units are upgraded this way they do not lose veteran levels. However if you upgrade them with gold you will lose one veteran level.

The game uses 9 move fragments for moving the units. If there is no road and the player moves on plains, that will cost 9 fragments (1 move). I there is a road the move cost is 3/9 or 1/3 fragments meaning that the unit can move 3 tiles (with a road) before one move is fully consumed. For the rails the cost is 1/9 fragment and the only terrain improvement for not consuming any move points is the maglev you can build at the late game by upgrading rails.

Some players have pointed out that it's unrealistic to terraform flat land into hills if the tile already has a city. For LTT this feature was not removed but instead made more resource intensive.

There are two kinds of forts. The pre-fort (with absolutely no effect or defensive value) and the actual fort. The pre-fort was added to make it less convenient to build forts when you attack.

Building settlers cost 2 population. This is to make smallpoxing (building plenty of small cities) less interesting. This was compensated by making the settlers to cost less shields.

The game also uses restrictinfra meaning that the attacker can't use enemy roads for making the units to move faster and the moves are calculated like there was no roads. If the ownership of the tile changes, the owner (or the ally of the owner) can use the roads.

LTT also uses tiredattack setting. This means that if the attacking unit has less than 1 move, the attack power is multiplied with the moves left. This means that if the attacker has for example attack of 6 and there is only 1/3 moves left, the attack happens with a power of 2 instead of usual 6.



Governments


The game has two initial governments (in addition to anarchy) and choosing between them is one of the first things you may want to do when the game starts. With despotism you get slightly more trade and you may be able to race techs slightly faster. Despotism also allows keeping the citizens content with up to 20 units. With tribalism you have more upkeep free units.

Monarchy may be well suited if you want to wage wars. You get more free units but unlike with some other governments, you don't get additional upkeep free units when the city size hits 8. Instead you get those additional free units at city size of 12.

Republic is not too different from the standard game. It has a trade bonus for tiles already producing trade (like democracy) and it may work well for those players who seek for powerful economy and are not fighting a war.

Fundamentalism becomes available with Feudalism. With funda you can build upkeep free crusaders and fanatics. Fundamentalism also converts happy buildings output into gold and with temples and other such buildings a funda nation may be an actual money printing machine. The downside to funda is the heavy penalty (-40%) for science.

Democracy is considered one of the most powerful if not even the most powerful governments there is. In LTT there are few changes making it less optimal for all situations. You only get one unit not unhappy about going to fight wars - no matter how big cities you have. The empire size is also smaller generating a new unhappy citized after each 16 new cities.

Federation has a 50% bonus for science but it does not have the trade bonus of republic and democracy.

Communism has the lowest possible rate for corruption and waste. It's also great for large empires.


About units

In LTT there are 9 veteran levels starting from Green and ending with Elite 3. Promotions can't be bought and you get the military units promoted only by attacking or defending with them.

Each promotion also adds to the moves the unit has. Because of this the highly promoted units may be able to perform tasks not possible for less experienced troops.


Early units

The early units usually have 2x moves. The warrior has 2 moves and the horsemen 4 moves. This is like this to make the early wars slightly less convenient for the attacker. Later in the game the units will usually have 3x moves.

- longboat is unique and becomes available at the same time with the trireme. unlike the trireme, longboat is able to enter deep ocean but can oly carry one non military unit.

- horsemen are obsoleted by the chariot. This makes it more difficult to build horsemen in volumes, to be mass upgraded at a later time. The upgrade path for horsemen ends at cavalry. In the previous games it was possible to upgrade cavalries to armors or mech infantries but with the LTT ruleset this is no longer possible. The previous upgrade path made the governments with plenty of gold production too powerful.

- knights are more powerful and have 4 moves.



mid game units

There are some new mid game units

- the square-rigged caravel is the first one able to carry heavy land units - or more specifically one unit at a time. It's also the first one able to attack on non native tiles meaning it can kill units on the shores.

- the early frigate is unique and one player can only have one of the kind at once. it's more powerful and faster compared to the regular frigates

- the ironclad is not a new unit but unlike with some other rulesets, it's not obsoleting the frigate. Instead it's possible to build frigates and ironclads at the same era. The ironclad is slow compared to the frigate but it has excellent defensive capabilities and it's also a dangerous opponent if it's able to catch your wooden ships.



late game units

- the barge will obsolete trireme with engineering. the barge is not able to enter deep ocean tiles but it has the ability to travel on river tiles, just like it's predecessor, the trireme.

- the submarines need fuel in LTT ruleset. this means that they need to return to a base to refuel after 6 turns. The submarines are also not able to carry missiles or nuclear weapons.

- the nuclear submarine is able to carry missiles and nuclear weapons but it's only available with nuclear power. The nuclear submarine also needs to return to a base after 10 turns, allowing it to reach distant locations.

- the missile is a new unit able to attack helicopters, other missiles and also other air units. It's a great unit for fighting against enemy air attacks. it however has relatively small range.

- the fusion missile is a very late game unit and while it's fusion powered, it's designed to use conventional warheads. It's able to attack very fart away targets and it is able to remain on air for 3 turns.

- the Operative is the ultimate espionage unit. It's able to move ignoring the terrain and this makes it extremely powerful.

- with fusion technology it becomes possible to build a variety of fusion powered units like fusion armor, fusion battleship, fusion bomber and fusion fighter. These new wonder units are more powerful but not always the optimal choice for attacking the enemy. Some people might say they are there for the bragging rights. Then again in some cases they can be extremely useful.

- the cargo bomber is able to move units like spies. This may be extremely handy in the late game since it's the first air unit able to move them.

- riflemen are not obsoleted by the marines but instead they can be upgraded to infantry. The infantry units are more powerful and great for defending your cities.

- nuclear missiles have no home city and no upkeep. This also applies to nuclear submarines. This allows the players to have nukes on the sea and retaliate even if the player lost cities.

- the first nuclear bomb unit becomes available with Manhattan project and with nuclear fission. The first nuclear bomb unit is unique and the player can have only one of it's kind at once.

- the regular nukes (not unique) become available with Manhattan project and robotics.




techs

The techs are made more expensive towards the end game. Compared to most rulesets the final techs may cost up to 7 times what they cost on a single player games. The tech costs start to rise roughly when gunpowder is invented.

Unlike with some other rulesets the great library and isaac's only give 25% boost to libraries and universities instead of the 50% in the past games.




city improvements and small wonders

Most of the green energy buildings are now a reasonable choice for those players who care about the environment. The cost of the eco friendly power plants is now less than they used to be.

The 2nd palace becomes available with Theology and this may be tricky for some players because Theology also obsoletes the Temple of Artemis.

The SDI for defending against the nuclear missiles is now split into 3 phases. You can build each phase with flight, laser and space flight. Each of those phases add 30% to the probability of shooting down the attacking nuclear missile. The max probability of shooting down the attacking nukes is 90% with all of the 3 SDI buildings. The exception to this is the palace city where the first SDI phase makes the city 100% nuclear proof.

Most of the Great Wonders are now small wonders anyone can build. The small wonders cost less and obsolete really fast. This makes them buildings not everyone needs to build but instead the players may evaluate if they need the wonders for the relatively short period of time they are effective.

The Great Wall is not too expensive and adds 25% to the defense of all the cities. It's however obsoleted when the owner of the great wall discovers gunpowder. This makes it very handy for those players who are involved in a war and are also not going to discover gunpowder as soon as possible.

Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum is thought to have been a sanctuary and necropolis. It pre-dates bronze age and was one of the first, if not the first, shrines built. With this wonder, the city having it will get +6 additional lux. The effect of this very early wonder ends with the invention of bronze. This makes it one of the first or even the first small wonder that gets built and obsoleted. The additional lux allows the player to make the city to celebrate. Celebrating cities do not have the penalty for despotism and tribalism. The downside is that if you need to have phalanxes, this wonder will be obsoleted if you invent the secret of bronze.

Stock markets become available after industrialization, with the corporation. This makes it more reasonable to pick other than trade based governments.

Banks cost less and give a bonus of 25% instead of 50%.

Trade Center (working name) is a new building and becomes available with economics. It gives additional 25% bonus to trade.


tech trading and research

The techs become cheaper to the other players once the players discover them. For example, if a tech costs 30 bulbs and 50% of the players know the tech, the next player discovering it will get the tech for 15 bulbs. The purpose of this effect is to make the game more hard for the advanced players and more playable for those who are not that familiar with the game. With this rubber band effect most of the players remain competitive for a longer time.

The conventional tech trading is disabled but instead the players are able to use the unique Scholar unit for discovering new technologies. The scholar can travel to distant countries and steal technologies. The actual chance of getting the tech may vary from game to game but it is planned to be something like 50% or more. If the player decides to go for a specific technology, the chance is chance*chance meaning that with a 50% chance to steal it would be 0.5*0.5=0.25% chance to succeed.

The diplomats, spies and operatives can't steal techs.



great wonders


Marco Polo increases trade output by 30% in all cities for all the players. The player owning this wonder is the only one able to build the Trade Company.

The trade company can only be built by the player owning Marco Polo. The Trade company adds 10% trade for the player who owns it. This makes it a bonus for the player building Marco Polo.

The Atlantic Telegraph Company becomes available with electricity and makes the world a smaller place by giving every human player and embassy with all the human players.
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