Display real attack/defense values on middle click?
Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2015 3:22 pm
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?
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?