OT - here's an interesting military thought

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
i have no how the us army gets officers, but it seems to me that the only sensible way to go about is to get them 'from the ranks'. throwing someone with little real expereince into a command position strikes me as foolish.

yes, i have been reading military sci-fi. the sos snippet is up on baen.com . and if you don't know what i mean, go here: http://bar.baen.com/WB/default.asp?a...d=31614&fid=37

You should read the Brotherhood of War series. It starts in WWII and follows the career of several military men and there families through the decades. Never boring, and always intertaining, a great read.

[tesco samoa]

You also have to remember that the actual people who do the fighting are the minority in the military.

[sachmo]

The army thrives with both types of officers. The experience of being an enlisted person is very valuable to an officer, but while this person is serving in the military, the "fresh" officer was getting a college education, which gives him/her skills that the "from the ranks" officer may not have. I think there is place for both types.

[Ruatha]

I'm just a conscript anselm now, but I got into the reserve officer program, so this fall I begin my training.
(It's a short Version for medical personel and I'll still be anselm when I'm finished but in a few years I'll start advancing in the ranks - liutenant - captain - major. )

It'll be fun! (But it will mean less SE4..... )

(And the wife isn't all that thrilled that I'll be away that much from home, leaving her alone with the kids.... )

[ February 12, 2004, 18:47: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Baron Munchausen]

I'm not gonna try to answer the question of how you get good officers in the real life miltary. Every possible scheme can be shown to produce the same sort of stinkers. No system is perfect, and humans who want to 'get ahead' will always find ways to cheat the system and get a rank they don't merit simply because they feel they 'deserve' it.

But as for the game, I think that troop experience should be handled exactly the way I have recommended that ship experience be handled for SE V. You have a global 'pool' of experience and it is averaged into your troops/ships. There can be an option to designate certain units as 'elite' and pay extra maintenance to keep them at a certain amount higher than your average experience level, but beyond that no modifications or single unit (ship) tracking. Experience comes from military academies and actual combat. Experience is lost when you decommission units (ships or troops) or lose them in combat. Simple, effective, understandable by the AI. And it makes your 'level of military readiness' a strategic resource much like it is in 'real life'.

It's slightly unrealistic in that various units will not be absolutely identical in experience in 'real life' but in practice they tend to be pretty close. This is because ships do not carry the exact same crew members for 10 years or more at a time (Star Trek not withstanding) and military units do not have the exact same members for 10 years or more at a time. People shift assignments constantly in the military, on purpose. They deliberately try to spread experience around to prevent the sort of disparities that some people would like to track in a 4X game. So I'd very much like to see a simple pool of experience representing your number of trained/experienced personal and their level of experience rather than trying to track individual units.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

that, actually, is a good idea.

i suppose if we're not going to make headway with an OT discusion, on-topic is always good.

[ February 12, 2004, 22:03: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Cyclop]

I played a great game in the early 90's that I forgot the name to but I may still have buried in my archives at home.
It was a drop ship game that placed the player in control of developing armies to drop down on planets to conquer. I remember it having a system of officers that lead the armies into battle that earned experience, medals and modifiers for completing drops and conquering planets. I was a great strategy game that was simple but yet complex (like seiv). If I can locate the game it has many great ideas that could be added to SEV.