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- From: ts@chainsaw.ecn.purdue.edu (Thomas Ruschak)
- Subject: Re: Start islands and mobility
- Message-ID: <1992Dec30.094414.21365@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>
- Keywords: start islands mobility
- Sender: news@noose.ecn.purdue.edu (USENET news)
- Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
- References: <1hrou2INNicp@agate.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 09:44:14 GMT
- Lines: 36
-
- In article <1hrou2INNicp@agate.berkeley.edu> mr-frog@xcf.Berkeley.EDU (Dave "Human Decompiler" Pare) writes:
- >One of the interesting side-effects of the current mobility accumulation
- >mechanism is that it allows someone who expands quickly to accumulate
- >huge amounts of mobility in newly-occupied areas using just one civ
- >or mil in each sector. This is quite an advantage if you want to have a
- >war near a surrounded enemy cap one or two updates into the game.
- >
- >Would start islands be as necessary if a max mobility cap were placed on
- >sectors with few civilians?
-
- It'd partially solve it, but not completely, I think. A surrounded
- country still could expand at most 1 'ring' per update, even if there were
- only 1 mil in each surrounding sector. The surrounder couldn't rush all his
- mil up to kill the surroundee, it'd take longer. Still, it seems to me that
- being surrounded would still be a sizable disadvantage, depending on distance
- between the sancts, since the surroundee would have less distance between
- the enemy and his cap.
-
- >Insofar as the positioning/luck question goes, as Deity I would operate
- >to fix some of the more unfair placements the computer would make
- >in random assignments. I had the luxury of knowing my players
- >relatively well, I always ran shared-continent games, and was always
- >aware of who was going to be placed next to whom.
-
- Knowing most or all of the players is nice, I agree. It's always
- easier to set up a fun campaign-type game when you have some idea of the
- playing skill/styles of the players involved.
-
- >Generally, I let the computer set people up, and "corrected" anything
- >that looked particularly atrocious.
-
- Why not just place them by hand, even on large continents? A few
- interesting mountain ranges can do wonders in creating starting zones.
- (Unless you just prefer the Darwinian aspect of random placement :-)
-
- Tom
-