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[Mephansteras]

I've had a number of ideas for computer games, but they all tend to fizzle or get shelved. I want to change that.

I played around with a Python Rogue-like tutorial a while back. That went well, but Python was distracting me from learning another programming language.

Namely C#, which I need to get myself up to speed on for a non-game related project. I knew c++ pretty well, but those skills are kind of rusty. Still, should help out a bit.

I could do a standard rogue-like, but I like strategy games more.

So...I'm planning on an expandable conquest/civ-lite game. The idea is to start fairly small, but have a flexible framework which will let me add in new things fairly easily.

It's going to be ASCII because...I'm not too good at art and it annoys me. And I like ASCII. Combat is going to be at the army level and calculated out. However, simplistic models annoy me so I'm going to have a more in-depth combat system than most games use. Also, I plan on having combat logs that can be saved and viewed.

The world itself is going to be pretty simple from a simulation standpoint. I'm going to keep track of a few types of things on the overworld: Cities, Villages, Forts, Roads, and Armies. Possibly special locations, we'll see.

Cities and Villages will mostly be kept simple, except I'm going to have a decent population model in place. This is because I want to measure not only the Gold/resource cost of making units but also the impact of war on the population. As you train more and more units, and suffer more and more casualties, it should have a noticeable impact on the able-bodied population and the taxes you can get from them.

Units themselves are going to store a lot of data, and the combat system will be pretty in-depth. But only under the hood. Most of these details will be available but there won't be a whole lot for you to do with them. Your orders will be pretty simple and for the most part it'll be a basic Move Armies - Fight - Move on sort of deal.

Initially, I'm going to restrict myself to basic unit types (Swordsmen, Pikemen, Horsemen, Archers). Special stuff can show up later.

Lots more to figure out. But I wanted to get something going for this and get my thoughts down.

Current Progress:
    C# roguelike library found (Amaranth, a roguelike that's open source.)
    Design Outline done
    Basic World Gen - Cities/Villages/Factions

Next Steps:
    Screen/UI

Spoiler: Feature List (click to show/hide)

Done
Required for Initial Release
Planned
Maybe
Scrapped

World
    Terrain Generation
        Basic land/water tiles
        Extended land/water tiles (Bays, peaks, arid plains, etc)
        Rivers
    Initial City Generation
        Basic City placement & population
        Intelligent City placement
    Initial Village Generation
        Basic Village placement & population
        Intelligent Village placement
    World Gen History
    Seasons
    Taxes
    Slidable Taxes/Unrest/Corruption
    Site Upgrades
    Roads
    Forts
    Village expansion
    Village conversion to Town
    Cultures & Languages
    Trade Routes
        Pre-Road
        Road Based
        Water Based
    World Gen Conquest
        Rise and Fall of Factions
        Start Scenarios (Like a Shattered Empire or Civil War)
         
UI
    World Map
        Overlays
    Interface
        Basic Keyboard
        Mappable Keyboard
        Mouse Support
    Multiple Font support
    Multiple Screen resolution support
   
Factions
    Player Faction
    Enemy AI Factions
    Neutral City Factions
    Bandit/Barbarian Factions
    External Nomad/Horde/Refugee Factions
    Faction History
        Factions falling and rising again due to civil war, collapse of an Empire
    Diplomacy
        Reputation
        Treaties/Alliances/State of War
        Site Claims
        Territory/Boarder issues

Units
    Unit Stats
        Basic Stats
        Special Abilities
        Hero Units
    Unit Experience
        Unit upgrades (Better equipment, mounts, etc)
        Disbanded Veteran Soldier info
    Unit Upkeep
    Unit Desertion
    Unit Attrition
    Unit Disbandment
    Unit Replenishment
      
AI
    Simple AI
        Basic Conquest AI      
        Basic Neutral AI
        Basic Bandit AI
        Simple AI with Diplomacy
    Complex AI

Combat
    Armies
    Units
    World Map Movement
    Site Interactions
        Raid/Pillage/Conquest
        Road Trade disruption
        Road Building
        Fort Building
    Boats
        Naval Warfare
    Army Combat
        Phases
        Fleeing
        Morale
        Basic Morale
        Morale Modifiers
        Hero Combat
        Special Abilities
    Multi-tile Encounters
        Adjacent Units Assisting
        Artillery Bombardment
    Sieges

Fog of War
    Unit/Site sight range
        Terrain modifications to sight range
    Rumors
    Faction Information sharing
    Last known position
        Last known movement vector
   
Game
   Saving/Loading Games
   Modding

[Mephansteras]

First notes section:

Spoiler: World Map (click to show/hide)

World Map

Terrain:
  Mountain - Move Cost: 5  Defense Bonus: 3  Growth Rate: -0.25  Wealth Min: -20  Wealth Max: +100
     Peaks - Move Cost: 6  Defense Bonus: 4  Growth Rate: -0.5   Wealth Min: -50  Wealth Max: +40  (A mountain surrounded on all sides by mountain tiles is a Peak)
  Hills -    Move Cost: 3  Defense Bonus: 2  Growth Rate: +0.25  Wealth Min: -20  Wealth Max: +60
  Forest -   Move Cost: 3  Defense Bonus: 1  Growth Rate: 0      Wealth Min: -10  Wealth Max: +40
  Swamp -    Move Cost: 4  Defense Bonus: 1  Growth Rate: -0.5   Wealth Min: -60  Wealth Max: +30
  Plains -   Move Cost: 2  Defense Bonus: 0  Growth Rate: +1     Wealth Min: -30  Wealth Max: +30
  Desert -   Move Cost: 2  Defense Bonus: 0  Growth Rate: -0.5   Wealth Min: -20  Wealth Max: +80
  Water -    Move Cost: 1 (Boat only)  Defense Bonus: -     +.5 Growth and +10% Wealth to adjacent tiles
    Bay - subset of water. Only counts if it is surrounded by 5-7 tiles of land AND the water tiles are all on the same side (n/s/e/w)
      Needs two passes. First is to check each space. 5-7 spaces of land and we mark it as 'possible'.
      On the second pass, possible bays are set as bays only if the other water tiles
        aren't possible bays Themselves. This keeps two-tile lakes from both being bays. 3 tile lakes could have 2 bays, but that's hopefully not a big deal.
        (But 3bay 4-tile lakes is a bit silly. Maybe only make it a bya if 1 other tile could be a bay as long as there are more than 1 other water tiles?)
 
 Built Terrain - May be modifiers on regular terrain?
  Road - Move Cost: 50%  Defense Bonus: 0
  Village/City/Fort - Move Cost: 50%  Defense Bonus: Based on Defenses

Growth Rate: % bonus or penalty to the birth rate of a region. Helps control how fast various villages/cities grow.

Wealth Min/Max: % bonus or penalty to the Wealth rating of a village/city.

  *** May want to tie the Growth rate to the Wealth rating of a village/city. Perhaps take the Wealth % and add that/10 to the birth rate. (so, 10% wealth becomes +1% adult women having children/year)
        Or a mix of Birth and Death rates? Well fed people are healthier, after all
 
World Gen - Terrain should roughly clump, having a higher chance to spawn similar terrain near it. Start with seed points?

Rivers? Are we going to have rivers? Bridges? Probably not for the initial world-gen. May add later.
 
Each Region in the map can have a city. (Regions are currently 5x5, enough for a city and some sprawl). Villages ignore region bounderies.
   Default is probably 1 city per region, but this should be something that can be set during world gen. Esp. if there are larger region options.

When seeding cities, we want them to be in reasonable locations. So, every tile will be given a Settle score.
   Based on overall Wealth and growth rates for the tile
   The highest Settle score in a region will be used as that region's Settle score.
   The cities will then be placed in the regions with the highest scores.
   Water regions, of course, can only have a city if they have land squares.
   
Cities can spawn Villages, Roads, and Forts within 3 tiles of them
   Cities produce High Income and Units
   Cities cannot be within 3 squares of another city
Villages can spawn Villages and Roads within 3 tiles of them
   Villages produce Low Income
   Villages cannot be within 2 squares of another village
   Villages are usually attached to a City. A village more than 5 tiles from a city of their faction is considered Remote and not attached.
Forts
    Forts must spawn next to a Road, Village, or City
   Forts may be built by players
Roads connect Cities, Villages, and Forts
    When spawned, a Road goes between it's starting point and the closest allied or netural Village or City.
      Or it can go to the closest Allied Fort
      By preference, Roads go to a Village, Fort, or City that doesn't have any roads connecting to the starting point.

Trade:
      Roads that connect two cities give each a bonus Wealth rating equal to 10% of their wealth bonus.
         So a city with wealth bonus of 10% trading with a city of wealth bonus 30% would give 1% and gain 3%. Min bonus of 1%, even for low wealth cities.
      Rivers may do this for every city along the river, while lakes/seas may do the same for all coastal cities.

Populations:
  Villages start with Pop. 200
  Cities start with Pop. 5000

  Birth rate is 3.5 % (We can use adult female pop for this. ~25% of the pop will be AF. If 15% give birth each year, that gives us 3.75% which is close enough given the growth rate changes)
  Death rate is 2.5 % (excluding war or plague)
     Child mortality is 30%
    If we decide that for each person that dies, 30% it will be a child, 50% chance it will be elderly, and 20% chance Adolescent/Adult
      Then that should curve things ok. Most deaths will be young or old, outside of combat.
     
# Assume 7% of children become adults each year (+/- 2%)
# Assume ~15% of Adult women have a child each year (+/- 5%)
# Assume ~2.5% deaths per year. (+/- .5%)
#    30% chance of being a child
#    50% chance of being elderly
#    Otherwise adult
#    50/50 chance of each death being male/female     

Cities with a population of 6000 can choose to spawn a village
Villages with a population of 500 can choose to spawn a village

Taxes:
   May eventually add in sliding tax rates and unrest. For now, let's make it static.
   We want the player to get, say, ~1000 Gold (10,000 Silver) per year from a basic city. (Use Gold and Silver? Or just bump up Gold?)
       A starting City will have 2500 Adults and 1250 Elderly
         If each Adult gives 5 Silver and each Elderly 2 Silver, that gives us 15,000 Silver
         A basic Village, then would give 600 Silver
   Easy numbers to work with. Keep these, and just balance costs from there.
   These amounts would be adjusted by the Wealth rating of the village/city
   
   Note: Do players start with a basic City? Does it have Villages? Easier to balance this way, but more artificial.
       Neutral cities could have the actual growth and different sizes. Would need garrisons & upgrades accordingly.
     
      If we want all cities/starting areas to be organic, we'd need to do something to balance out the starting positions.
        Start with giving them Money equal to the difference (extra starting cash would be a leg up) and possibly a free unit or two.

Farming and Seasons:
   Too much to deal with initially, but eventually this is a very important facet to deal with.
   This link has info on what farming activities happened what months, so we can gague the impact of war in different seasons. http://www.penultimateharn.com/history/medievalfarmingyear.html
     It also has useful info on harvest variation (Which looks to be between +-15 on a curve weighted to the bad side)
   Winter should also be very dangerous and costly to try and wage campaign in.

Prosperity:
    Money can be reinvested back into a City or Village to raise the Wealth value or pop. growth mod of the site.

Defenses:
    Forts start with Wooden Palisade(Def 1)
   Cities and Villages need to be upgraded
   
   Possible Defenses:
       Wooden Palisade  Def: +1
      Archer Towers  Def: +1
      Stone Walls  Def: +2 (Replaces wooden palisade)       
        Siege Emplacements  Def: +1
       
   Defenses stack with Terrain modifiers. The total bonus (*10) is a % bonus to the attack and defense values of the defenders.
     So, a basic Fort on a Hill gives all Defenders a +30% bonus to Attack and Defense
     (Technically Forests shouldn't give much of a defensive advantage to a settlement or fort, but we'll keep it simple)

----------------------------------------------------------

Spoiler: Units (click to show/hide)

Unit Info

  Type
  Nickname?
  Attack (% chance to hit) - Should be higher than defense, so that two units won't sit there wailing on each other forever. In 10% increments.
  Defense (% chance to avoid a hit) In 10% increments. This is base armor/dodge. Shields are separate
  Damage (Damage done on a hit. Damage is +/- 50% of the listed value)
  Figures (Number of men/whatever in the Unit
  Hit Points per figure (10 is probably average, with a Swordsman unit doing 10 points of damage. If they hit, they usually take down whoever they are hitting)
  Attacks per phase (Per figure. Usually 1, except for archers so we can distinguish them from crossbows. Special units can also get more)
  Phase (Combat phase that the unit can Start attacking on)
  Morale - (% chance to stay in combat despite losses) - In 10% increments. Default is 100% morale, which goes down as figure are killed. So a Unit of 100 with 50 losses would have a 50% chance to flee. An elite unit with 200 morale down

to half would still have a morale of 100.
  Discipline - Units need to have discipline to maintain formations as well as change formations in any decent amount of time. Probably a 1-100 sort of thing, with that being the base chance to maintain/change formations.
  Rank - Rank of the Commander of this unit. Highest rank in an Army leads the Army.
  Cost - Resource cost to build this unit
  Upkeep - Resource cost to upkeep this unit each turn (month? season? year? Needs to be figured out)
  Build Time - How long it takes to build this unit (Each Turn is 1 Week? Might become 1 Month)
  Pop Type - Male, Female, or Special. Most should be male. Special means it doesn't actually draw from the city/surrounding population.

  Special:
   Terrain Attack Bonus - Per terrain, may only need to note when it is >0
   Terrain Defense Bonus - Per terrain, may only need to note when it is >0
   Shield - Plus 20% Defense, +20% vs arrows
   Mounted - Plus 20% Attack Bonus on Plains and Roads
   Pole Reach - Bonus vs Mounted - Hit and Damage * 1.5. Also should go in the Reach phase (Giants and such should just go into the Reach phase without this)
                Maybe instead let them counter a Mounted attacker in the attacker's phase. It removes the main bonus of Mounted units.
   Reach - Unless attacking another unit with Reach, this Unit deals damage BEFORE the other unit gets to attack.
   Flying - All terrain costs 2 to move over. +40% Defense. Ignores Flying Defense bonus
   Ranged - Ignore the Flying Defense bonus
   Siege - Unit cannot attack in the Reach or Melee phases
       Will need a special type of combat which is just siege engines fighting at long range for Siege situations
   Bombard - Unit can Attack a structure without engaging in combat as long as that structure doesn't have long range defenses. Success reduces defensive upgrades of the structure. (Catapults get this)
   Wallbreaker - Unit has a chance each round to reduce a Wall defensive upgrade as long as it is in range (ie. Battering Ram, Elephants, Catapult)
   Hero - This is a special Hero unit attached to another Unit. This Unit replaces the normal Commander of that Unit, which then uses the Heroes Rank. Will need special code to target the Hero when this unit is attacked, and the Hero

should target the same enemy as the main Unit. (However, Heroes can have different Phases than the unit, so only target the same enemy when both can attack)

Ranks:
    Commanders of a Unit have a Rank and gain XP. Figure 0 in a Unit is always the Commander. Even if a Hero is attached, the Commander still gains XP and Rank.   
       If the Commander falls, a new one is assigned (the new Figure 0) who starts as a Captain with 0 XP.
       Hero Ranks count as one higher than the equivelant Commander rank
       May eventually want to give commanders Traits as they level up that effect combat.
   XP awards: 5 per battle where the Unit does not Route. 2 per battle where the Unit routes (loss of prestige). +1 for Each Battle Won (prestige gain)
   
   Commander Ranks and XP
      Captain          0
      Knight Captain   25
      Major            50
      Commander        100
      General          200
     
   Hero Ranks and XP
      Hero           0
      Valiant Hero   25
      Renowned Hero  50
      Master         100
      Legend         200
     
Replenishing troops
   Lost Figures can be replenished in one of your cities. The requisite population is taken, costs are paid, and the unit goes up to full strength.
      Unit experience is lost, so the unit moves back towards the default values. To do this, we figure out the % of troops being replaced.
      Then, we figure out the difference between the Units values and the defaults and move the values towards the default by the % replaced.
        Example: A Base Swordsman Unit has 60 Attack, 30 Defense, and 100 Morale. Our Veteran Unit has 66 Attack, 34 Defense, and 110 Morale. We are replacing 20 men (20%). We lose 1 Attack, 1 Defense, and 2 Morale (all values rounded to

nearest whole number).

Heroes
  Name
  Type (Foot, Pole, Archer, Rider (Light Cav), Lancer (Heavy Cav), Special (Mage, Priest, stuff like that - not used initially))
     Type determines what types of units the Hero can/usually? stack with and the types of equipment they use
     May also determine what Relics can be used
  Attack
  Defense
  Damage
  Hit Points
  Attacks
  Phase - Heroes ACT on their phase, not that of the unit they are attached to.
  Morale Mod (Heroes never break themselves, but do provide +/- to the stack they are with)
  Rank
  Upkeep
  Special Equipment (Could be items that give stat boosts, like Masterwork Armor, or Relics) 7 slots
      Weapon
      Armor
      Shield
      Helm
      Boots
      Misc
  Abilities (special abilites, like the Special aspects of Units. Probably not going to be used initially)

  Heroes generally act with the unit they are attached with, and MUST be attached to a unit at all times if any are available. They are targeted with the Unit, and if possible target the same enemy as their unit.
     (Maybe have all units target an enemy each Phase, even if they can't actually attack at that phase)
  However, Heroes never break in combat and will not Route with their unit. They will Flee if ordered, however.
     

---------------------------------------------------
 

Spoiler: Sample Units (click to show/hide)

Unit Costs

(Costs from English army figures)

Footsoldier  4 pence per day
Archer       6
Man-at-arms  12

A sword was maybe 1 pound

A suit of armor was 100 shillings (5 pounds)

12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings, or 240 pence, in a pound.

So we put this into our simple system where 1 pound = 1 gold

Cost to arm a Swordsman is 6 gold
Pay for a swordsman is 6 per year
   Archer is 9 per year, probably a good bit cheaper to arm & maintain
   Horseman is 18 per year, much more expensive to arm
       A horse cost ~10 pounds (200 shillings)

Given that our basic starting faction will have 1 city and 4 villages
Yearly taxes is:
15000 Silver from city
2400 Silver from Villages
Total = 17400 silver or 1740 gold (assuming 0 wealth mod)

So a basic city could afford 2 or 3 units of trained military (Sword, pike, or archers)
Or a messload of Militia, but of course those are less effective and have a higher hidden cost in lost taxes

Later AI's should probably use a system of 'build up army, attack, disperse most units' for most wars. Which is pretty common in-period.

All costs, of course, are per the faction and not necessarily the king's coffers or whatnot. Feudal systems had the lords/knights actually pay the wages, and most soliders had to own their own equipment.
  That's harder to model and manage, though, so we're going to do a simpler system that just reflects the overall cost to the kingdom for waging war.

 

---------------------------------------------------
 

Spoiler: Sample Units (click to show/hide)

Initial Units

  Type: Swordsmen
  Attack: 50
  Defense: 20
  Damage: 10
  Figures: 100
  Hit Points per figure: 10
  Attacks per phase: 1
  Phase: Melee
  Morale: 100
  Rank:  Captain
  Cost: 600
  Upkeep: 720/13.85 (year/turn)
  Build Time: 4
  Pop Type: Male
  Special: Shield

  Type: Pikemen
  Attack: 50
  Defense: 20
  Damage: 10
  Figures: 100
  Hit Points per figure: 10
  Attacks per phase: 1
  Phase: Reach
  Morale: 100
  Rank:  Captain
  Cost: 500
  Upkeep: 720/13.85 (year/turn)
  Build Time: 4
  Pop Type: Male
  Special: Pole Reach

  Type: Horsemen
  Attack: 50
  Defense: 20
  Damage: 15
  Figures: 100
  Hit Points per figure: 10
  Attacks per phase: 1
  Phase: Light Cav
  Morale: 100
  Rank:  Captain
  Cost: 1600 (Heavy cav would be 2000)
  Upkeep: 2160/41.54 (year/turn)
  Build Time: 8
  Pop Type: Male
  Special: Shield, Mounted

  Type: Archers
  Attack: 30
  Defense: 10
  Damage: 10
  Figures: 100
  Hit Points per figure: 10
  Attacks per phase: 2
  Phase: Ranged
  Morale: 100
  Rank:  Captain
  Cost: 300
  Upkeep: 1080/20.77 (year/turn)
  Build Time: 4
  Pop Type: Male
  Special: Ranged

  Type: Militia  (Also works for bandits)
  Attack: 30
  Defense: 10
  Damage: 10
  Figures: 50
  Hit Points per figure: 10
  Attacks per phase: 1
  Phase: Melee
  Morale: 90
  Rank:  Captain
  Cost: 150
  Upkeep: 180/3.46 (year/turn)
  Build Time: 1
  Pop Type: Male
  Special: Shield

---------------------------------------------------

Spoiler: Combat (click to show/hide)

Combat

  ** May eventually want to allow more than 2 sides per battle, as well as having multiple factions on a side **

  Phases:
   Long Range
   Range
   Light Cav
   Heavy Cav
   Reach
   Melee - stays here until combat is over
   
  Orders:
    Attack: Normal combat
   Defend: Units suffer -10% Attack but gain +10% Defense
   Charge: Units suffer -10% Defense but gain +10% Attack
   Skirmish: The Army will try to Flee once All Units have attacked once
   Flee: The Army will try to Flee immediately
   
  Mechanics
 
    Combat goes in Rounds
   
   Each Attacking unit targets a defending unit. If the Defending unit is in Phase this turn they automatically target the Attacking unit.
     Any Defenders in Phase without a target then get a random one.
     If multiple attackers target the same unit, the Defender targets the last one in range
   
    Each unit gets to Attack each round, starting from their Phase.
     ie. Long Range goes first, then Long Range + Range, then Long Range + Range + Light Cav, etc.
   
   Attack is calculated for each figure in a unit, targeting a random figure in the enemy unit. Defense for that figure is then calculated. If the Attack is higher than the Defense, the figure is hit and takes damage. If a Unit gets more

than 1 attack, they will target the same unit as long as it have >0 HP.
   
   Defenders then fight back, using the same rules.
   
   After all damage is dealt, THEN units <= 0 HP are removed.
   
   Make Morale Checks - Ordered by Commander Rank (XP?) for each unit. Higher rank Commanders will therefore have their unit panic less often when other units route.
   
   *** May want to order everything by Commander Rank/XP, for simplicity ***
 
  Morale Checks
    Suffered when a Unit loses troops
     OR when another unit is destroyed/routes
   Failed units have Attack and Defense halved for the next round and try to Flee combat at the start of the next
     Commanders should have a Rally ability
   
  Combat Code Outline:
    Order units by Rank for each side.
    Determine Unit targets for Attacker   
     Set Defender targets as appropriate
   Determine Unit targets for remaining Defenders (Skip units with a target)
   Units are marked to Flee (F for Army order to Flee, or R for units that Route - Routed units get penalties)
   Perform Attacker Attacks
   Perform Defender Attacks
   Units take Casualties (Set Morale Check to Y for every unit with Casualties)
   Units perform Morale Checks
     For every unit that Routes (for that Army), add to the Route penalty (5% per?)
     Units will make a Morale check, suffering loss penalties + the Route penalty
      Units with a Hero  - Give a Bonus to Morale or have them use the Hero's Morale?
     If the Army Commander fails the Route check, all units will be ordered to Flee (But unrouted units will still be set to Flee and not Route)
         Army Commanders will also be able to reasonably declare a Flee if the battle is going very poorly.
             Eventually commanders should have Traits which help determine when they make that call. Initially, it'll probably be set for all.
     Heroes never Route, although they flee when ordered. If a hero's unit routes, the Hero attaches itself to the next unrouted unit without a hero
       If none of those are possible, the hero attaches to a random group. The highest Rank hero acts as the commander in that case.
   Units Attempt to Flee
       Probably give each unit a % chance to flee each round. (Start with 50%. This base chance represents the abstracted amount of time needed to flee from the battlefield.)
           Any units Engaged with that unit can attempt to Block them from fleeing (25% reduction to the flee chance).
           Mounted Units get a bonus to Flee & Block. (+10%? Light Cav should get a bonus over heavy cav. So maybe give mounted units a bonus based on Phase? Maybe Phase - 1 *5 (Heavy would get 10, Light 15))
           Ranged Units get a penalty to Block (-10%)
           Terrain may influence this. (Maybe the terrain they are fleeing to? It's easier to dissapear into forests or hills than plains)
           Final chance = 100 - Block. If the Flee result is >50 the unit has fled.
   If both armies still have units in the battle, Loop
   
   After Combat:
     Check for unit Casualties - Troops have a HP negative * 10% to die. So a unit at -5 HP has a 50% chance to die. Good healing Units/Faction ability can give bonuses to that.
       Critically wounded soldiers can't go into combat. (Let the player choose threshold for normal injuries?)
     Units gain Experience (+ 0-5% bonus to Attack, Defense, and Morale)
       Heroes get separate rolls than their attached unit. Also, Heroes will probably level up differently.


   Formations:
     Eventually, we may want to have formations. A shield wall is much better at defending against a charge than a loose formation or a mob, but harder to maintain. This would need discipline, as well as some logic
       to determine how hard a formation is to use and when to use it. Also, we need the effects. This would certainly be a Unit level decision made by the commander. Higher level commanders should probably improve discipline
       as well as have improved AI at getting the units to change to an appropriate formation based on the current situation.

----------------------------------------------------

Spoiler: World Map Actions (click to show/hide)

Upkeep, pillaging, and other world map actions

  Units will require upkeep each turn. Right now this is set per unit, but it could also just be a % of a unit's build cost. Might be more interesting to have some units which are cheap to build but expensive to maintain or vice-verse.

  Supply trains can be abstracted out by requiring a higher upkeep the further an army is away from allied territory. Campaigning in winter should also be more expensive, and probably have attrition costs as well to the troops.

  Villages can be pillaged for money.
    Doing so reduces the taxes that will be gained from that village this season, and will also kill some villagers.
    Might have several levels of this: Raid, Pillage, Raze. These cause more damage/deaths. Raze will destroy the village, kill many of the people, and disperse the rest.
      What if this is based on % of tax:
               Raid: 50% of tax accumulated, 0% reduction in site Wealth, 0-3% deaths
               Pillage: 100% of tax accumulated, 0-5% reduction in site Wealth, 1-10% deaths
               Plunder: 150% of tax accumulated, 5-10% reduction in site Wealth, 5-20% deaths
               Sack: 200% of tax accumulated, 10-25% reduction in site Wealth, 10-30% deaths
               Raze: 300% of yearly tax, Destruction of the Site, 10-75% deaths and all remaining population scattered
               Conquer: When a site is conquered you are given a Raid option to perform (including 'none')
    Cannot Raid/Pillage/Conquer/etc any site that has hostile troops adjacent. Might just change it so that those units get a free chance to attack if you do so.

  Wealth gained by these actions could be kept with the army, and used to pay the upkeep of the forces before the main coffers are tapped. Would also give you the opportunity to get some wealth from a defeated army.
    Hmm...this wealth could also be at a lower upkeep distance value, since it would be immediately available. An advantage to raiding enemy settlements while on campaign.

  Cities can have the same thing happen. Rules should be similar.

  Conquering a village/city/fort should take more than just a victory over the forces. With the Raid/pillage rules, you could have a category called Occupy which is used to conquer a site.
      Conquering a site would require that some forces stay on site for several consecutive turns. The higher the population, the more troops and time would be required.
      Maybe 5-10% occupying force vs population. With the length of time being 8 turns for 5% going down to 4 turns for 10% occupation.
      While occupied a site counts as 'Occupied'. After that it is 'Conquered'. This state requires at least some troops for a year before the site actually becomes 'Friendly'.
          Occupied sites produce no taxes and cannot train troops
          Conquered sites act as normal, but require troop presence or they will start to revert allegiance.
          A conquered City does an automatic conquer of all subordinate villages after that point, as long as they are not occupied by enemy forces.

Population Migration
   After a site is razed the population is dispersed. May get some dispersion with the less complete attacks as well.
   Possibly some migration between sites in general each season? Probably fairly low, but could build up over time to reflect shifts in population. Wealth changes could certainly effect things.

  Unit Control of Territory - Units should be able to somehow slow or stop enemy units from moving near them. Maybe make it so that units can only move 1 space per turn adjacent to an enemy unit without provoking an attack by that unit.
    The attacker then gets to choose the type of attack. Skirmish is probably the most common for weaker units, while a larger army should be able to do an all-out attack.
    Ideally, we want the system to encourage caution when moving near enemy units, but we don't want to have a giant army stopped by a single unit of militia.

----------------------------------------------------

Spoiler: Fog of War (click to show/hide)

Fog of War

   Initially, no. Player and AIs will be able to see everything.

   Later, I'd like to add it in.

   Rule #1 is that the AIs must play by the same rules as the player
   Cities, Villages, Forts with Population, and Units will all provide visibility.
   Hills and Mountains provide extra visability to surrounding terrain that is lower. (Peak->Mountain->Hill->everything else)

   Factions can share: Known Enemy locations, Own Information
       Usually only share full info if in an alliance. Defensive pacts will share enemy info.
       Structure Ownership is usually open knowledge, since you don't want people accidentally attacking your villages or recent conquests.

    Spys? Maybe. Might be out of scope for this game entirely, but we'll see. Much later addition if they do go in.

   Coding-wise, probably have each Faction keep a Visibility map. Maybe 1 for each layer, if we have exploration as part of the game. If not, then at least Units and maybe Structure ownership maps (if not always known).
      At the end of each unit's turn, it adds itself to the visibility map of every faction that can see it or know about it. The owning factions visibility is set for everything they own always.
      This should keep the overhead for tracking visibility amongst everyone fairly low

----------------------------------------------------

 

Spoiler: Plans (click to show/hide)

 Plans
 
    A bit of an advanced AI concept, but one that I feel is quite doable.
   
    A plan is, quite simply, a Goal and what is needed to succeed in that goal.
   
    Ideally, we'd be able to break it down further into steps necessary to complete a goal, but that's even more advanced. So for now let's stick to the basics.
   
    The goal should be pretty simple. Probably restrict it to: Take this city, defend this city, destroy this army.
   
    Once you have a goal, you then determine the state needed to achieve that goal. Which pretty much comes down to getting the right amount of force into position at the right time for the goals we have listed.
   
    Plans have two uses in the game.
        First, they can be used internally to give the AIs a bit of sensible behavior. The AI can have 1 or more plans active and as long as each Army is only involved in a single Plan the system is easy to deal with. By following a plan the AI can be expected to move units around in a reasonable fashion and respond appropriately to opportunities and threats. Internal Plans can be scrapped without any consequences if needed (say, the city you were going to conquer is taken over by a friendly faction. Or if the army that was going to go attack an enemy is now needed for defense).
        Second, and more excitingly, they can be used between factions to allow for real co-operation. This works both between an AI and the Player and between AIs. These plans work essentially the same as the internal plans, except that they involve units from 2 or more factions and require agreement by all factions. In addition, the scrapping of a plan needs to be communicated to all parties and may have diplomatic consequences.
       
    Functional designs:
        Planning Phase - The AI needs to have a Plan making/adjusting phase each turn. During this phase the AI needs to look at all existing plans to see if there are any that are complete or no longer necessary. Next the AI should evaluate the current situation to find all Threats and Opportunities.
                Threats are risks to Armies and Structures of the Faction. Threats to Allied Factions should also be considered, although probably given lower weight. All threats are then weighted according to the risk posed.
                    Cities are highest priority. Villages and forts are probably of equal value, although forts are easier to hold and so will probably end up lower on the priority list due to risk. Risk is determined by the chance that the enemy will attack and defeat the Army/Garrison weighted by the importance of the target.
                Opportunities are pretty much the opposite. They represent threats posed by your Armies against enemy armies & structures. The probability of success should be weighted by the overall danger of the area so the the AI isn't constantly sending forces to take unguarded cities that actually have large forces nearby.
            Once all Threats and Opportunities have been determined, the AI can validate existing plans against those priority lists. Sufficiently high Threats and Opportunities should cause the AI to scrap plans if necessary to handle those cases. In general, though, an existing plan should be more important than jumping to a new plan.
            If the AI does not have a Plan that uses a given Army, it can assign that army to a new plan, going for the highest Threat/Opportunity.               
            When a plan is made, it has three aspects: Armies involved, the target, and the planned time.
                Armies involved can include Units being created.
                Target is the Army or Structure that needs to be attacked/defended
                Planned time is when the plan is supposed to be executed. Typically, it will be the shortest time that ALL required units will take to get into position.
                    This gets fuzzier for killing an enemy army, since those can be expected to move around. These plans may need to be revised periodically depending on what happens.
                    In addition, if the Plan is to respond to a Threat the time may need to be much sooner in order to actually respond to the threat. In which case, only units that can arrive before the Threat arrives will be valid additions to the plan.
                   
        Executing a Plan - During the movement phase of an AI's turn, the AI will simply move all Armies involved in a Plan towards the Target.
       
        Negotiating a Plan - This part is a little trickier, since it requires evaluation of risks from a Faction specific view. But the basics are easy. During a Negotiation, each side in the negotiation can look at the proposed plan and either Accept it or propose a Modified version. The modified version may have different Armies involved, a different Target (rarely, and all target should be of similar value), and/or a different timeline. A given faction could propose a new Plan to attack an enemy city that uses a unit they have in production to improve the odds of beating the cities defenses.
            From a UI perspective, the Plan screen is similar to the normal World screen. The only difference is that units can be moved 'instantaneously' with the Plan showing a new Target Time if that unit moving to that point would take longer than the Plan currently takes. The Player would also be able to move around units of the Factions involved in the Negotiation as if they were his own. When a plan is submitted, it goes to all parties to accept, reject, or renegotiate in order. A rejected Plan ends the negotiations.
           
            Note that Negotiated plans should have a higher weight than internal plans, so the AI will probably need to redo it's planning if the Negotiated Plan involves units that were committed to a different plan.
           
    Considerations:
        This mechanic can be put in before Diplomacy is ready, but ideally would be put in with Diplomacy in mind.
        This mechanic is Highly suited to the use of AI characteristics, both for Internal and External plans and the types of Plans the AI prefers as well as the AIs risk tolerance.
        To best make the plans, a Power Map should be created for each AI on its turn. This threat map shows the power of all known Units on the Map, with the threat showing the next few (3?) turns of possible movement fills.   
            This will let the AI notice, for example, that a border city is fairly undefended with only a few units able to move in to support it if it is attacked. Of course, this map cannot take into account Armies hidden by the fog of war, but the ability of the AI to revise/scrap plans each turn should take care of those kinds of surprises and it mirrors the way people work pretty well.

[Max White]

I will defiantly have to watch this. 
I'm pretty handy with C#, so if you have any queries then there is either the Programmers thread in general, or right here I guess to ask. It is pretty simple once you know what you are doing.

Current Progress:
    C# roguelike library found

Interesting, what are you using?

[Mephansteras]

(Had to take over this post because my previous notes section ran out of room. The answer to Max's question is now up in the OP)


Second Notes section:

Spoiler: Factions (click to show/hide)

Factions

There are two types of Factions: Main Factions and Neutral Factions
    Main Factions are the player and the other AI empires
        The Player is always Faction 0
    Neutral Factions are the neutral cities, bandits, and the like
        Neutral Factions are NOT allied. Each city, bandit group, etc is its own faction. Neighboring cities can raid one another, bandits groups can fight over territory, etc.

    Armies of defeated factions should become mercenaries or bandits. Defeated bandits should just disperse.

    Factions will have relationships with one another.
    Starting relations between Empires will depend on the difficulty setting.
    Neutral cities start at Neutral with everyone
    Bandits are Hostile to everyone except other bandits, who they are neutral towards.

    Relationships between factions will change depending on the actions of each party and the other factions near them
        Ideally, we should be able to see alliances between weaker factions to fight off a stronger faction/alliance

Splendor Value?
   If we let Factions spend money on Splendor it adds a money sink to the world. Splendor would influence Diplomacy interactions.
       Would need to be a background influence, since you can't force the player to care.
       Probably not a huge influence, but enough to tip the balance in many cases.
           Not as good for negotiations based on threat as military might, but much better for peaceful negotiations
   In theory, it could even be a victory condition once we get beyond 'Own most of the world'

Reputation

    Factions need reputations that help determine how the AI responds to that faction
    A faction that back-stabs an Ally should be reviled and given a very untrustworthy reputation
    A faction that never loses a battle should be know for their prowess in war (needs more than a few victories, of course)
    A very wealthy faction may be a target for bandits & raids, as well as trade treaties and maybe requests for loans and the like?

----------------------------------------------------

Spoiler: AI (click to show/hide)

AI

*** AI Should work by the same rules as the player. No cheating! ***

Two levels of AI: Faction/World and Combat

  World AI controls the actions of the factions on the world map, diplomacy, and the like

  Combat AI is the same for player's forces and AI forces

AI Traits:
    AI should have traits that help determine how the AI acts
    These can effect Diplomacy, Aggression on the world map, Unit production, and City Management
       
      City Management
        Militaristic - Focus on building Units/Forts
        Trader - Focus on Prosperity and building Roads/Harbors
        Grandiose - Focus on Splendor
       
      War Style
        Reaver - Emphasis on Raiding and plundering over conquering
        Warlord - Emphasis on conquering territory
        Guardian - Emphasis on protecting current holdings

      Diplomatic Style
        Affable - Tries to maintain good relations with as many factions as possible
        Loner - Tends to ignore diplomacy
        Loyalist - Focuses on building strong alliances with a few factions
        Trustworthy - Lower tendency to break alliances, trade agreements, etc
        Honorable - Lower tendency to attack without declaring war first
        Backstabber - Higher tendency to break alliances, trade agreements, etc
        Blackguard - Higher tendency to attack without declaring war first
        Trusting - Assumes other factions are more trustworthy/honorable than their reputation
        Suspicious - Assuems other factions are less trustworthy/honorable than their reputation

     AIs will have up to 4 traits. They can have up to 2 of the City traits, 1 War Style, and 3 Diplomatic Styles that do not conflict (So you could have a Loner who is Trustworthy but a Blackguard)
     Neutral cities will have up to 2 traits, only from the City section

Combat Traits:
    We could give AI Commanders Traits that help determine how they act in combat. This would add flavor if you fought the same commander many times, but might not be too noticable.
       Probably hold off for now. Would give more flavor to your own commanders if we decided to let them handle the combat decisions instead of the player (at a high level). Might need testing to see if it is fun.

Neutral Cities AI is pretty simple. They attack any hostile forces within their territory, raid neighboring villages if they are close enough, and build new units/prosperity as their traits dictate

Bandit AI is also simple. They attempt to avoid Forts and armies while raiding the richest villages they can or setting up camp on a Road and intercepting the Wealth bonuses that move along it.
    When they need to rest, they try to find an isolated village to visit and recover there. They will also try to recruit and will actually spend some money there.
    Give them a 'home' village that they won't Raid?
    If they get strong enough, they might try to take an underdefended fort.
        Maybe if they can hold it for long enough they start conquering villages and become a neutral city. Eventually let them become a new Enemy AI?
    Bandits try to avoid one another, but if there is only one good target in range they will have Turf wars over it.
    Bandits are cowards and when Combat Traits go in they should try to skirmish as much as possible

AI design

  AI Turn:
     Determine threats/opportunities
     Manage cities & build units
     Move Units
     Engage in combat
     Build structures (forts, roads)
     Diplomacy (eventually)

  There will be two main subclasses of AI: Simple and Complex

  Simple will be the initial AI, and it will be pretty hard-coded. This is easier to program and can be made to function reasonably intelligently, but harder to make smart or too differentiated.
    Three classes of Simple AI: Bandits, Neutral Cities, and Enemy players
   
    Initially, Neutral cities will just try to get a balance between building units and making money. They will only upgrade their cities and forts if they have sufficient excess money. (Say, 1.5x what is needed)
        Since units drain tax income as well as have a cost, the neutral cities will need to be cautious about supporting too large an army. However, they will at a minimum always want at least 1 unit in the city and 1 in any forts

    Initially, Bandits will

  Complex will be a later option and will use a more sophisticated algorithm. Complex AI can have a slider of how 'smart' it is.
    This system will have the AI use a polling algorithm to find the 'best' move. By increasing/decreasing the number of polls allowed, the AI can be made smarter or dumber. A dumb AI will only get a few chances to find
      a good move, while smarter AIs will get many chances to find an optimal move. Smarter AIs will, of course, increase the time needed for AI turns, but will result in a more challenging game.

----------------------------------------------------

Spoiler: Diplomacy (click to show/hide)

Diplomacy

  Not an initial feature, since the core of the game is conquering everyone anyway. But when it does go in it should be good enough to be worth it

  Reputations: Each faction has Reputation information on all of the others. Initially it'll be identical between all factions, but once Fog of War is in and factions know different things they could be very different.
                Also, reputation changes should be more pronounced for actions do to/against you (faction, not player) than between other factions.
                So a faction with a treaty with you gets more points for keeping it and loses more when breaking it.

     Aggression: Influenced by how often a Faction attacks other factions' territories and units inside that faction's territory rather than defending. Conquering/Razing sites adds more than simply plundering.
     Trustworthyness: Influenced by how often a faction makes and breaks treaties. The longer a treaty is in effect the more this goes up. Goes up each Turn, and can go down after a treaty is broken.
          Should be balanced so that breaking a treaty within a month is a big penalty, and after a year should be no penalty at all
     Honor: Influenced by how often a faction attacks another faction without declaring war first. Goes up each turn, but goes down a bit for a Raid without war and a lot for a Conquest/Raze without a declaration of war.
     Power: Influenced by how strong you are militarily as well as your past record of victories and defeats. More recent victories/defeats should count more. Maybe count them on a curve with older battles being counted less?
     Wealth: Influenced by how much money you have, your Splendor value, as well as the general Wealth rating of your holdings including any trade routes.

    Once Fog of War is in, you'll have to have mechanisms for learning about other factions. Maybe get occasional news about distant factions that effects your reputations with them, but have them otherwise unchanged
       most of the time if you don't have direct contact with them.


  Levels of relationship between factions:

    Alliance: The two factions generally share info about their troops & holdings, as well as anything they know about other factions
              Should aid one another in times of war, and adjacent troops should go into battle to aid an ally who is fighting
              Allies can move through each other's territory without incident
              Should return any holdings taken from an ally if they retake it (This might need long-term memory of sites to know who has a good claim on it)

    Treaties: Factions can have various beneficial treaties between one another. Treaties should last for X amount of time. At the expiration date, each faction can decide if they want to continue,
                  but both need to do so for it to continue.
              Trade Treaty: Trade between the two factions' cities is doubled
              Information Treaty: Factions share information about other factions units and holdings
         Peace: Enforced peace for the duration. Breaking a peace treaty has strong negetive reactions from other factions.
              Defense: Units will aid the other faction's units that are attacked nearby (implies Peace treaty)
              Free Passage: Allows units to pass through each other's territory without incident and can pass by the Faction's units without being stopped (implies Peace treaty)

    Neutral: Factions can raid one another without it effecting the opinions of other factions much. Actual conquest without declaring war first will negatively effect the reputation of that faction.

    War: The factions are in all-out war, and can conquer or even raze cities without it effecting other factions opinions too much, although razing will effect the agressive reputation of that faction.
   

     
     
----------------------------------------------------

Spoiler: Territory (click to show/hide)

Territory

  Factions should have Claims on Territory.

  Tiles should have a list of Claims on that Tile, with how strong the claim is.
 
  By default, Factions will claim all tiles within 5 tiles of a City or Fort and 3 of a Village. The closer a tile is to a Structure, the stronger the claim.
    This should give us a decent rough territory map at the start of the game
    Would like to have Historical ownership. The longer you own a tile, the better your claim.
     This would allow for some interesting concessions, like a Faction giving up a village that another faction has a better historical claim to in order to secure peace.
  Tiles with very closely matched claims can be shown as Contested (Slashed with Owner/Claimant). Can only show the two main claims, even if others are also valid.

  Conflicting claims can be used eventually to start conflicts and also as part of negotiations between allies after a site is conquered.
  Territory info is also needed for unit movement into a faction's territory to be a diplomatic issue. Which then makes the Free Passage agreement more useful, although the Unit movement issue will be there before this.

[inEQUALITY]

I'm definitely interested in seeing where this is headed!

[Max White]

Amaranth, a roguelike that's open source. Looks promising, but I haven't gotten a chance to play with it too much yet. We'll see how it goes.

If nothing else, it should provide some useful utility functions and code examples.

If that doesn't work out for you, one option is using libtcod.
I have to say I have been less than impressed with its poor class structure and pathetic excuse for documentation, but the algorithms are good. I get the feeling it was made by a mathematician who was focused on preformance, rather than a programmer who would put more effort into usability and standards.
Still, it does the job and has a lot of functionality that can make life a lot easier.

[dwarfhoplite]

Funny that I too plan to write a tile based strategy game on the topic of managing city states.

[Mephansteras]

Hoping to actually start working on world gen tonight.

In the meantime, I've been pondering Neutral cities and armies.

Obviously, Neutral cities need to build defenders to make taking them at least a little bit of a challenge. And I'd like them to feel 'alive' even if they aren't part of a faction.

So here are my thoughts on the matter:

Neutral cities will actively try to defend themselves and their surrounding villages.
     - This implies that villages can be attacked/plundered. This would probably take the taxes from that village for the season and kill a few villagers. Not a big blow, but not something that you want to ignore forever.
     - Since we have forts, they seem a good way to reflect this in addition to the cities own garrison.

Therefore:

Neutral cities will always keep at least 1 unit garrisoning the city. All forts connected to that city will also keep at least 1 unit.
    A village that has a friendly unit adjacent to it cannot be pillaged. This way if you want to pillage some villages (owned by anyone) you have to first knock out the defending forts. Makes forts more useful as well.

That's probably a good start. It means that they'll slowly build up defenses but won't make giant super-stacks and your armies should be able to ultimately conquer even a large neutral city. Later on I'd like to get Neutral cities to do more. Maye intelligently pull back units to the main city if you have a large army, stuff like that.

This structure also allows for bandits pretty easily. They can be weak units (militia level) that pop up and look for undefended villages to pillage. They wouldn't be a major threat, but they would provide an incentive to keep your cities at least lightly defended.
   

[GalenEvil]

* GalenEvil hopes this hasn't died out

This looks pretty cool, so PTW! Like MaxWhite I am also handy in C# so queries can be thrown at me as well

[Mephansteras]

It isn't dead! In fact, I was actually working on this yesterday. Took me longer to find the time to code than I expected. Still working on world gen at this point and learning this library that I picked up. I'm hoping to have something to show off soon.

[Skyrunner]

If that doesn't work out for you, one option is using libtcod.
I have to say I have been less than impressed with its poor class structure and pathetic excuse for documentation, but the algorithms are good. I get the feeling it was made by a mathematician who was focused on preformance, rather than a programmer who would put more effort into usability and standards.
Still, it does the job and has a lot of functionality that can make life a lot easier.

Libtcod's maker is pretty nice He answers bug reports on his forum quickly.

And ... I don't like the color code system for printing strings, but yeah >_< I suppose I can write my own function.

Anyways, PTW!

[Mephansteras]

Still working on getting a decent handle on this library. Looks like it'll make things a lot easier once I get it working, but like most complicated things it's a bit tough to get into.

Anyway, spent most of the morning working on stuff and reading through the code of the game the developer of the library made with it. So I'm making progress, if a bit slower than I'd like.

[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

Definitely an interesting Idea, I will be following.

[Mephansteras]

Progress!

I have the world map initialized and printing to screen. It's just all grasslands at this point, but this means that I've started to get a solid idea of how to use this library.

Next up, the actual world building algorithm.

[Mephansteras]

Progress!




So, yeah. Basic world gen is done. Well, terrain at least. Not perfect, and rivers will have to wait for a later iteration. But it's enough for me to move on to adding cities, factions, villages, and forts. Not sure if Roads will make it in yet. Probably not, since I'm thinking it might be a good idea to get myself to the point where I can move units around and fight before I deal with things like that.

In any case, I feel pretty good about this since I've been working on this for quite a while. It's really nice to have this out of the way so I can start thinking about more interesting stuff. Also, the max font this library has by default is a bit too small for my laptop monitor, so I'll probably have to look into expanding that sometime soon. Maybe grab the DF 16x16 one or something. Not crucial right now, of course, but will probably happen before I get too far into the actual game code since the small size kind of bugs me.

I start my new job tomorrow so I'm not sure how much time I'll have in the next few days to work on this, but I'm looking forward to getting some more progress on this soon!