Add a dynamic military purchase system

[Sam Hyde]

>inb4 massive NEET butthurt over #rekt double purchase tactics

 

One very good thing about Politics and War and its 12 turn/day system is that in its own way, it's a dynamic game, with resource/money/MAP allocation and city/project purchase (along with basically everything) happening in a turn by turn basis, allowing a person to not be forced to alter their life schedule over Politics and War.

 

That is, except military purchases.

 

Military purchases are the odd one out in this game, with those resetting at a set time of midnight CST, giving rise to the much-beloved-by-NEETs "double purchase" military tactic, allowing for faster recovery of what military forces they lost in their assaults with the other side having little chance. There's an easy way to fix that, however, and it's to make them as dynamic as the rest of the game: a nation starts out with its military purchase limit for their forces untapped, and when they buy out forces, those regenerate at 1/12th their limit a turn, until they reach their purchase cap. For example, a nation can have up to 90000 troops, and the purchase limit's 1/3th of that (30000); once a player buys out some troops, the purchase limit regenerates at 1/12th a turn (2500), until it goes back to its designated cap (30000). This allows the player to set their troop purchases at their own set time instead of altering whatever schedule they have to meet that demand, making things more fair.

 

Any questions?

[Tomasious Rubinlord]

That's actually make sense. It's gradual, efficent and automatic. But on a second thought, why would we a need gradual purchase system if we can just buy them all at once immediately after losing them? That way the game can encourage us to be active and log in at least once a day. And what would happen if a nation doesn't have enough money and resources to automatically purchase an army, even a 1/12 of it?

[Sam Hyde]

That's actually make sense. It's gradual, efficent and automatic. But on a second thought, why would we a need gradual purchase system if we can just buy them all at once immediately after losing them? That way the game can encourage us to be active and log in at least once a day. And what would happen if a nation doesn't have enough money and resources to automatically purchase an army, even a 1/12 of it?

 

Never said the purchases would be automatic. Only the reserves would be regenerated (until they hit their respective max purchase cap), meaning you'd have to buy them manually still. Let me put it in a timeframe; it's 16:01 and you buy the entire 1/3rd of 90000 troops, which is 30000. At the next turn change, which is at 18:00, you can buy 2500 more troops, as the reserves regenerated at 1/12th of 30000/turn, and to buy 30000 troops again, you have to wait until 16:00 of the next day.

 

That solved your concerns?

[Tomasious Rubinlord]

Never said the purchases would be automatic. Only the reserves would be regenerated (until they hit their respective max purchase cap), meaning you'd have to buy them manually still. Let me put it in a timeframe; it's 16:01 and you buy the entire 1/3rd of 90000 troops, which is 30000. At the next turn change, which is at 18:00, you can buy 2500 more troops, as the reserves regenerated at 1/12th of 30000/turn, and to buy 30000 troops again, you have to wait until 16:00 of the next day.

 

That solved your concerns?

 

I read again

 

Now it makes sense

 

Thanks.

[Xenodolf]

i can see where you're trying to go with this but i dunno, we're already used to the system in place now for rebuilding troops, don't see a big enough problem to change the current systems purchase limit

[Valakias]

I personally hate update mechanics, they force all game happenings around a certain timeframe, and its bery unbalanced. Like update for me its 9 am, for some US peoples its 3 in the night.

 

But this would change a lot, you say peoples shouldn't change their schedule, and its alright, but if can buy 2500 troops every turn, you are actually forcing even more activity in the game, because of the even more unpredictability of when someone would rebuy troops and try to counter.  Which is good in one way in defence, but at the same time  It would also cancel the double buy technique, which is a way defenders can try to surprise their opponents to try to counter them.

 

Im not 100% opposed to this, i like getting rid of the update thingy, but im not convinced.

[Sam Hyde]

I personally hate update mechanics, they force all game happenings around a certain timeframe, and its bery unbalanced. Like update for me its 9 am, for some US peoples its 3 in the night.

 

But this would change a lot, you say peoples shouldn't change their schedule, and its alright, but if can buy 2500 troops every turn, you are actually forcing even more activity in the game, because of the even more unpredictability of when someone would rebuy troops and try to counter.  Which is good in one way in defence, but at the same time  It would also cancel the double buy technique, which is a way defenders can try to surprise their opponents to try to counter them.

 

Im not 100% opposed to this, i like getting rid of the update thingy, but im not convinced.

 

You can buy 2500 (out of 30000 if max troops are 90000, remember the example) every turn if you already exhausted your production capacity, yes, but you can also wait a few more turns and get the build limit a few higher so you can buy a bigger batch.

 

I kind of explained what I had in mind to Tomasious Rubinlord in greater detail, but if you read through it all carefully and you are making a case of encouraging addiction, then the system could be changed like this: as soon as you make a military purchase, the game records the turn you made it, and it's set so after 12 turns (a day, but without the hardcoded time frame), the purchase limit gets reset. The turn timer is set only by the first military purchase.

 

i can see where you're trying to go with this but i dunno, we're already used to the system in place now for rebuilding troops, don't see a big enough problem to change the current systems purchase limit

 

Major wars will convince you otherwise.

[Phiney]

Whilst it makes sense I quite like the ability to double buy and take out a bigger guy with coordination. Wouldn't want to hurt the defender even more

[Sam Hyde]

Whilst it makes sense I quite like the ability to double buy and take out a bigger guy with coordination. Wouldn't want to hurt the defender even more

 

I have something else in mind to make quality matter a bit more, don't worry (hint: ever wanted your troops trained to be the best of the best?). This was just made as a desire to remove the blatantly game-y elements the game has.

Edited October 23, 2015 by Deathstroke

[Nadir Aminu]

I like this.

[Atzuya]

How would it work on ships? 5/12 is not an integer, at all. 250/12 for tanks is also not an integer. And then we have spies, missiles and nukes. How would this system work on anything that's not soldiers? Regenerate only fractions and wait until it goes the nearest round number?

 

This would just make building missiles and nukes a lot harder, and practically eliminates one common strategy in warfare

[Dimitri Valko]

Update time for me is 3 AM, so this would be useful.

[Sam Hyde]

How would it work on ships? 5/12 is not an integer, at all. 250/12 for tanks is also not an integer. And then we have spies, missiles and nukes. How would this system work on anything that's not soldiers? Regenerate only fractions and wait until it goes the nearest round number?

 

This would just make building missiles and nukes a lot harder, and practically eliminates one common strategy in warfare

 

>Regenerate only fractions and wait until it goes the nearest round number?

 

You got it. For example, you could buy a spy every 12 hours, and a plane every 8 hours, if you had like, exactly 1 air force base.

[Birdeye]

How about something a little simpler, with less of a change to existing gameplay?

 

1. Each nation can set their own update (military repurchase time). This must be a "turn" time - ie, you only have 12 options to choose from. 12am, 2am, 4am, etc

2. This time is visible on the nation page, so that opponents can see it. This preserves the gameplay element of being able to prepare for a double purchase from your enemy.

3. You may change your update time at any time, but you must wait a full 24 hours, plus until whenever your new update time is, before you can purchase any more troops. This avoids people gaming the system by changing the update time to a time earlier than their current time, and getting multiple double purchases in any 24 hours time period. Ideally, people will only change this time in peacetime. (Other wait periods may make more sense, to further discourage swapping this time around during war a lot. 48 hours, perhaps?)

 

 

Advantages:

1. Each nation can set an update time that is most convenient for them, removing the artificial advantage provided to those whose schedules allow them to be available at the game update time. (This is also provided by the OP's proposal.)

2. Minimizes the changes to game mechanics. The double update strategy still remains, giving defenders at least a shot of using it to break siege.

3. Since all opponents can see the update time, it does not much affect the viewpoint from an aggressor - although it does require them to pay attention to every nation they are fighting. This increases the burden of successfully waging war as an aggressor, which is fine by me, since they are already at a huge advantage.

[Azaghul]

How about something a little simpler, with less of a change to existing gameplay?

 

1. Each nation can set their own update (military repurchase time). This must be a "turn" time - ie, you only have 12 options to choose from. 12am, 2am, 4am, etc

2. This time is visible on the nation page, so that opponents can see it. This preserves the gameplay element of being able to prepare for a double purchase from your enemy.

3. You may change your update time at any time, but you must wait a full 24 hours, plus until whenever your new update time is, before you can purchase any more troops. This avoids people gaming the system by changing the update time to a time earlier than their current time, and getting multiple double purchases in any 24 hours time period. Ideally, people will only change this time in peacetime. (Other wait periods may make more sense, to further discourage swapping this time around during war a lot. 48 hours, perhaps?)

 

 

Advantages:

1. Each nation can set an update time that is most convenient for them, removing the artificial advantage provided to those whose schedules allow them to be available at the game update time. (This is also provided by the OP's proposal.)

2. Minimizes the changes to game mechanics. The double update strategy still remains, giving defenders at least a shot of using it to break siege.

3. Since all opponents can see the update time, it does not much affect the viewpoint from an aggressor - although it does require them to pay attention to every nation they are fighting. This increases the burden of successfully waging war as an aggressor, which is fine by me, since they are already at a huge advantage.

Both this or the opening post are good ideas.  I'm not sure which I like better, but I think they are both better than how things are currently set up.

[Peace and War]

I like this idea. Your on the right track!

[Boony]

Yeah Sheepy. Either make update time more convienent or do this. Kthx

[Bollocks]

I like the idea, update double-buys are overly gamey and unfair.

[Redrum]

I like this a lot as well it makes sense and gets rid of the advantage certain people have because of their time zones.