A question and a suggestion

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Pocus:
yes interception is somehow lacking.

Actually I think it's good for the game, as it favorizes movement and aggressive play. Otherwise it would be too easy for one big army to prevent enemy moves in a 3 provinces-wide area. I don't want Dominions to look too much like WW1.

[Chris Byler]

Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:

quote:

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Originally posted by Pocus:
yes interception is somehow lacking.

Actually I think it's good for the game, as it favorizes movement and aggressive play. Otherwise it would be too easy for one big army to prevent enemy moves in a 3 provinces-wide area. I don't want Dominions to look too much like WW1.

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Hmm - maybe only armies that have greater (not equal) strategic movement should be allowed to intercept, which would give more usefulness to strategic movement (it usually doesn't allow extra movement because it's blocked by terrain in most areas).

However, this ignores a more fundamental problem with the intercept concept: what if the target army moves to two or more places?

I don't mind the current guessing games. Although I still don't have a good handle on how to anticipate the AI's movements, it doesn't seem to be able to anticipate mine either.

[The Finn]

Perhaps interception could be based on a percentage chance.. could base it on the average speed of the forces involved, or on the number of 'fast' type units perhaps with additional modifiers if the interceptor has scouts or astral paths in his army.

As for what happens when an army breaks and enters 2 or more areas, the interceptor only intercepts one. It's the easiest to code and it would allow the breaking armies to still wage an offense - with the good possibility that a portion of their force would be destroyed. It could even be a tactic - dispatching a small force with retreat orders hoping to sucker the enemy into chasing them while the main body marches forward.

Personally, that sort of tactic appeals to me.

[Jasper]

Lack of interception is my least favorite aspect of Dominions, as it leads to tedious guessing games that immediately drop my suspension of disbelief. IMHO it's bizzarre that enemy forces are effectively more mobile in your lands than you are. Moreover, you can count on this being a big factor in every game.

This isn't an easy issue to resolve well however, as which part of a splitting army do you chase?

Perhaps an ability could be added based on spy or stealth factors. A spy counts as X number of units when considering intercepting an Army during a "Move into Enemy Territory" phase.

And allow 2 Map Movement Armies to have a map range that includes enemy provinces instead of just familiar controlled terrains. Or perhaps a Command in the Commander's Window called "Intercept Army" that allows you to have a 1 Province 'Defense" force that can move forward to a province that is being attacked based on a formula from your Intellegence.

This would have to not be affected by magical spells that allow Sneak attacks (Call of the Wind, Wild).

I don't think it would be hard to implement; per say, but I don't know the coding involved. Or if there would need to be another phase added into the turn process. But it would add another dimension to the game. Though hopefully not allowing people to turtle.

[The Finn]

I don't think turtling would be a big problem - in most 4x games - against humans at least - turtling will eventually mean your destruction.. you may delay it a bit, but a larger production base tends to win out in the end.

Only allowing the interceptor to intercept one army if the attacker divides his forces and sends them different ways still allows for the 'raiding the rear' scenario.. but such an attack will cost the attacker - and it does reduce how potent those rear raids can be by reducing the guess work in determining where they'll go.

Add in the ability for the attacker to choes a "target force" - one that makes itself known.. one that's obvious about where it's going while a second force is less obvious about it's intentions and you counter the reduction in the 'raiding the rear' effect with the possibility of drawing the intercept force to where you want them.

Again, it might be difficult to make the AI make good use of these tactics, but I think it would be great fun in a human vs. human game.

Not everything is production based

I can see some abuses if you could protect your territories with Intercept a target force commands. But a general command structure of "Intercept" would allow you to cover more of a provincial defense as well as making units like Knights, Horsemen and other types more in tune with thier cost if they can evade Intercepts to strategically strike past an Intercepting type of army.

I don't think worrying about how the AI will deal with it, is as a major issue as seeing if it would be a viable command type.

As it is; the AI is lacking in a few areas that can use improvement; and I would expect an advanced feature like this would be rudimentary at first, or allow the AI to cheezy and know when you are intercepting and exploit it