[Mormegil]

How many units will we be able to have in TLA, are there going to be thousands(as much as in the books) or a few hundred. Also, how will the population cap be handled.

This post has been edited by Mormegil: 08 March 2005 - 12:38 PM

[rohirwine]

Due tech constraints (i.e. the graphic engine of the program, iirc), it's probable, i want to stress that nothing is sure at this stage, that we'll have to be satisfied with some hundreds... (i'd like to see hundred of thousands units onscreen too, mind out )

[Curufinwe]

(

Well, you can still get the Tolkien mod for RTW ... there are thousands and thousands of units in that one ... but it is only about war, and Arda was not only about war ... it was also about diplomacy, trade, etc ...
so, I think a few hundreds is enough

[Sirindu]

I would also like more units, but it pretty much comes down to having to pick between war or economy for your game. And... I don't think any of us really want to pick between those two; so then we must try to balance it out. But no worries... it'll all be good in the end .

[Mormegil]

of course I'm sure the game will be awesome, it would just have been nice to see real-sized armies of arda clashing on screen. But I know there would be many tech difficulties if you did this. And you did not answer my other question: how will the pop cap be handled, do you have to build houses or not, or maybe a whole new sistem.

This post has been edited by Mormegil: 08 March 2005 - 09:52 PM

[Bakayaro]

honestly, I know next to nothign about TLA, but from what Dnas has told me, it seems to me that it could use WarcraftIII-esque pop caps and unit numbers.

In WC, your basic ground units cost about 1 food each, and your food cap is at 90 (Reign of Chaos) or 100 (Frozen throne)

Air units and powerful units cost 2-7 food, depending on powerful, fast, and imbalanced they are.

And there will be heroes, right? Heroes in WCIII took 5 food each, which made sense, because a good hero can swing the entire game with the ultimate ability. (Take for instance the Priestess of the Moon's Starfall, which does 45 damage per second to nearby enemy units)

[av_nefardec]

Units per side will be between 200 and 300.

It's not going to based on a fixed number but the limit will instead be based on many other limiting factors in gameplay which we will be explaining in some time.

[dathui]

Yes we will have heroes, althou how powerful they will be is still to be decided and the decision will be revised after playtesting.

[Bakayaro]

A large pop cap encourages effective macro.

A small pop cap encourages insane micro.

The point is that a pop cap of 200 will make individual heroes seem useless, whereas a popcap of 50 will make a hero seem godlike. So if you were to ask me, it should be between 90 and 150.

[Mormegil]

50 pop cap? This may work on warcraft but certainly not on a Tolkien based game I mean come on the siege of minas Tirith with only 50 orcs attacking...I don't think so..

[CrazyThumbs]

I agree that it should be bigger than 50, but i would prefer it to by about the size of AoK, around 200 or so.

[Drashkurz]

Personally, I would like different population limits for different cultures. Angband would have a very high one (300-400) and some really beefy elves (not sure who) would have a lower one (100-200). But that's just me being picky.

[Gilluin]

Drashkurz, that is my belief as well, but I also would prefer that the armies act like armies and not 300 individual soldiery. We will have to see how it all pans out in the end, but so far I can tell you that I am pretty pleased with the concepts that are being presented by the individuals on the development team!

[dathui]

Shawn has pointed out one of the flaws of the rts:es of today, it doesnt _feel_ like your commanding an army, your controlling a bunch of units.

There's a few games that have managed to get some army feeling into them, not only the TW-series, imho Ground Control 2 does a pretty good job of it too with far fewer units. So i believe its very much possible, it's just a question of getting everything right.

We shall see how TLA turns out but i have very high hopes for it and i believe this team can make most of them come true

[Caedus]

Well, the formations in AoK very much made me feel like commanding an army and I think that's an important point when thinking about the differences between commanding 'a bunch of units' and commanding 'a group of units walking in formation and being led by a captain and perhaps a banner bearer'.

[Mabuse]

Ye more ye better -

once controlling a few "Cohortes" POP Cap of 200 seem very low, especially when you want to put several (big) Armies at different Locations -

and such Stuff - ye more ye better - (that is important for example for BIG Maps)

The Game Engine should be the Limit (so if there are maximum 8000 Units possible to be managed for example, and the Game is going to have 8 PLayers max - then take 1000 for example)

you could also make some other "requirements" for HIGH Pop Counts that Limits the possible Maximum of Units in another Way - for example additional Settlements or special technologies that help raising Population-CAP (Medical Things, or better Food/Farm-Technologies, or there can be only a certain Number of Units produced in a while, becasue of another resource "Population" - and if you "train" you also need to pay Population, and some Buildings produce this automatically (and also imaginable that some Technologies improve this - or there are several Buildings that will produce "Population" (with a different Rate), and there could be also Buildings that cap the MAXIMUM REAL (not the "resource") Population (for example with 1 "main Settlement" Building you could hae POP100 - makes 10 "main Settlement Buildings for (theoretical) POP 1000 - Houses need to be placed nevertheless of course)

but maybe thats all not nessessary and just a POP-Limit of 1000 (or more or less of course) is ok

however - thats only my Opinion

EDIT:

Huh ? Wrong Topic, sorry

[Titus Ultor]

While 1000 would be insanely cool, it would also be technically impossible for most people's computers to run. RTW works because it only focuses on war, politics, and economy at seperate times. If you were to try to manage all of those things at once, most people's computers would burst into unholy flames of black and azure.