Combat and Firaxis

volcanohead · February 11, 2002, 12:26

Over on CivFanatics' forums there's a thread where Dan Magaha has made a map in Civ3 of pure desert with various units to test the combat model. Players are testing the combat and posting the results to see how often the famous 'spearman kills tank' result occurs, as well as several other combinations.

Two comments:

i) The results I saw after a brief look all seemed to make good sense; the statistical samples of each post were small, but putting several sets of results together and it starts to have greater significance. I didn't see one spearman kills tank.

ii) The tone of the thread was extremely constructive and cooperative with several comments of appreciation for the effort that Dan had put in.

Conclusion:

It's perfectly reasonable to be upset if Civ3 hasn't met our expectations, however, perhaps because of the frequency and tone from many posters expressing their critiques we are now having a less than positive dialogue with people from Firaxis. I, for one, enjoy reading the comments from other players but one of the particular highlights of these forums are the comments and interaction with the Firaxis people. I've seen the frequency and tone of their posts decrease and become increasingly defensive as more and more scorn is poured on Firaxis and Civ3.

Perhaps we need to be realistic. It's very cathartic to go on and on about how disappointing some aspects of Civ3 are, because many of us were pumped about the new version coming out. But if we continue like this we may lose out on a cooperative and fruitful relationship with Firaxis, and be left with a rather hollow discussion.

V

ACooper · February 11, 2002, 12:39

amen

Dan Magaha FIRAXIS · February 11, 2002, 13:04

and here I thought this thread was about how to siege our office building...

Dan

Capt Dizle · February 11, 2002, 13:35

Dan we know how to siege the building. The problem is that we can't seem to get all of our targets inside at the same time. You guys don't seem to keep regular hours, and Sid, oh boy....

But, sooner or later, we will catch all the rats in the trap and we won't let you out until we get the Civ3 we deserve.

Mawahahaha

ps. i have to admit that with all the concerns i have with the game, the spearman vs tank thing is not one of them. but there has to be something funky with the randomizer man.

Antonin · February 11, 2002, 13:41

Thank you, Volcanohead, for one of the few intelligent posts I have seen on this forum in the last few months.

Trifna · February 12, 2002, 00:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS

and here I thought this thread was about how to siege our office building...

Dan

We already done that at night with specialized ninjas. But since they trained so much at making air figures with blades, they didn't knew a bit about computers and weren't able to download your data on a floppy.

Dida · February 12, 2002, 00:52

Quote:

Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS

and here I thought this thread was about how to siege our office building...

Dan

Wait, I'm still constructing my fleet of 30 battleships.

when this is done, I will send them over and bombard until every desk is destroyed and everyone inside is reduced to 1 hitpoint, and than send in my modern armor.

CharlesUFarley · February 12, 2002, 03:04

Quote:

Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS

and here I thought this thread was about how to siege our office building...

Dan

Charles.

notyoueither · February 12, 2002, 04:17

Quick! Everyone build a simple catapult in your back yard(s). A shovel balanced on a chair might do.

OK. At precisely 12 noon EST on Fri Feb 15, every body hold down *b* while aiming towards Hunt Valley and... Launch!

Alright Dan. Now you are under seige! Muahahaha.

Give us group movement or give us death.

Wait a minute guys. there's someone banging on my door... Somethin about Ninja-gram. Hope he doesn't flip out or something. Now where's my spear of invincibility? Catch ya later.

Salve

CharlesUFarley · February 12, 2002, 05:58

Quote:

Originally posted by notyoueither
Quick! Everyone build a simple catapult in your back yard(s). A shovel balanced on a chair might do.

OK. At precisely 12 noon EST on Fri Feb 15, every body hold down *b* while aiming towards Hunt Valley and... Launch!

Alright Dan. Now you are under seige! Muahahaha.

Give us group movement or give us death.

Wait a minute guys. there's someone banging on my door... Somethin about Ninja-gram. Hope he doesn't flip out or something. Now where's my spear of invincibility? Catch ya later.

Salve

Libertarian · February 12, 2002, 10:54

In my opinion, the combat model is fine. And Soren did a commendable job with the AI (given available resources).

Thrawn05 · February 12, 2002, 13:07

Quote:

Originally posted by jimmytrick
Dan we know how to siege the building. The problem is that we can't seem to get all of our targets inside at the same time. You guys don't seem to keep regular hours, and Sid, oh boy....

Really? I thought it was because we didn't all have enough ski masks to go around.

On a side, note, I tested the combat my own way.

I played as the aztecs, and chagned the states on the jag warrior to this:
Movement: 5
Attack: 50
Defense: 100

I played as normal, and when I got enough of them, I went the offense.

It seems to me that there is a little variable that makes a big difference in the game. When my jag attacked warriors and such, I won hands down. Then when it came to riflemen and infantry, it was a entirely different ball game.

At one turn, I attacked a city that had an infantry. Both my jag and the infantry were vets. It turns out that both were down to one "life point", and the infantry won.

I would like to point out that I am not attacking the combat system, I am just stating somthing I found. Perhaps anyone want to comment or try it out on their system?