Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => The Theory of Everything => Topic started by: BFG on February 11, 2013, 09:38:18 pm

Title: Psi Combat: Why 3-2 on land and 1-1 elsewhere?
Post by: BFG on February 11, 2013, 09:38:18 pm

Purely for curiosity's sake...why do you suppose Firaxis set Psi land combat so that the attacker has a 3:2 inherent advantage, but no such advantage in sea or air combat?  It seems a bit...odd...to me.

Title: Re: Psi Combat: Why 3-2 on land and 1-1 elsewhere?
Post by: ete on February 11, 2013, 09:56:20 pm

Sea movement rates are much higher compared to vision than land, so there's much more randomness when it comes to who gets to attack first. Giving an advantage to whoever spotted the foe first is less good than encouraging attacks on land natives. Sea units also have more different movement rates (especially since damage changes movement rates much more often), and so fleeing slower ones can be chased down. Lastly, on land with roads the 3:2 advantage often lets infantry put up a decent fight despite the hurry penalty, which does not happen at sea.

Title: Re: Psi Combat: Why 3-2 on land and 1-1 elsewhere?
Post by: BFG on February 12, 2013, 06:37:07 pm

Well, when you put it like that it makes perfect sense :)
Though correct me if I'm wrong - native units are not subject to a Hurry penalty, are they?

Title: Re: Psi Combat: Why 3-2 on land and 1-1 elsewhere?
Post by: ete on February 12, 2013, 07:07:07 pm

That is correct.

Title: Re: Psi Combat: Why 3-2 on land and 1-1 elsewhere?
Post by: Yitzi on February 14, 2013, 12:10:07 pm

Also, it goes by the defender; land units are supposed to be better at defending than air or sea units, to compensate for their weaker movement.

Title: Re: Psi Combat: Why 3-2 on land and 1-1 elsewhere?
Post by: Kilkakon on February 19, 2013, 01:50:58 am

*may have thrown PSI combat to 3-2 everywhere in his mod... ducks from all the bricks flying at him*

Title: Re: Psi Combat: Why 3-2 on land and 1-1 elsewhere?
Post by: ete on February 19, 2013, 11:26:44 am

eh, giving attackers more bonuses at sea is no bad thing. If attacking is the best defense you'll get much more dynamic naval wars, and non-native already have much stronger naval weapons than shields, so it's more leveling the playing field. My explanation was just the likely design reasons for changing land to 3-2.

Title: Re: Psi Combat: Why 3-2 on land and 1-1 elsewhere?
Post by: Earthmichael on February 23, 2013, 05:39:09 am

I thought the reason for the 3-2 on land was because the land defenders get to pick up defensive terrain bonuses?

Title: Re: Psi Combat: Why 3-2 on land and 1-1 elsewhere?
Post by: Pickly on March 04, 2013, 01:08:03 am

I always thought it was the faster sea movement as well, and that the fact of weapons generally being stronger on ships normally was just an oversight.  (Navy units in general seem  to have weaker design/game mechanics in civ games, probably due to some combination of disinterest and difficulty fitting good ones in with the rest of the game mechanics, this is something I'd try to adjust in future mods.)

Title: Re: Psi Combat: Why 3-2 on land and 1-1 elsewhere?
Post by: Kilkakon on March 07, 2013, 12:29:41 pm

Yeah I tried to address naval boredom in my mod as well.