Army movement now takes time

Mickey · 08-21-2005, 02:51 AM

You can no longer move armies (for attacking or otherwise) immediately. You have to choose their new destination. After the armies arrive (a few minutes to a few hours, depending on the distance they need to travel) you can choose to attack or occupy or whatever. Some specifics:

- If you move to a city that you own (or to your home base), the army will automatically move it and join that city.
- If you move to a city that is owned by someone else or is unoccupied, the army will move to the outskirts of town.
- You cannot occupy a city or attack it unless your army is already sitting in position just outside of town.
- Currently, you cannot attack other home bases, as I haven't built in movement to those yet.
- You can assign a new destination at any point and it will start from where it currently is and head off to the new location.
- The map will show a pup tent wherever an army is, along with a trail behind it to show where it came from. This trail is reset any time a new movement is initiated.
- Armies do not recognize water, other armies, other home bases, or other cities. Picture them in jets, high above everything on their way to their destination.
- You can no longer choose to "abandon" a city. If you move the last army out of it, it becomes unoccupied.
- Army locations are updated every five minutes (in the same script that updates oil output).

Questions/problems? Post them here.

Mickey · 08-21-2005, 03:46 AM

I have just secured the "home base selector tool" so that people can't move their home base without permission, as this could be used to move armies around the map in a very fast, illegal manner.

birq · 08-21-2005, 03:49 AM

Quote:

I have just secured the "home base selector tool"

Drat.

Mickey · 08-21-2005, 04:06 AM

Sorry to bum you out. That just seemed like a pretty obvious opening to exploit. I'm sure rasqual will find others.

cheakerdoodels · 08-21-2005, 04:29 AM

I found a bug that when you add troops to an army and click return to the army it says this is not your army. You can just go back to your army page and click on it and it's fine but it takes longer.

cheakerdoodels · 08-21-2005, 04:34 AM

Sorry for double post but another thing is someone can just leave an army in the outskirts of a city and that army can never get attacked.

Mickey · 08-21-2005, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheakerdoodels

I found a bug that when you add troops to an army and click return to the army it says this is not your army. You can just go back to your army page and click on it and it's fine but it takes longer.

Good find. It's been fixed now.

Quote:

Sorry for double post but another thing is someone can just leave an army in the outskirts of a city and that army can never get attacked.

This is a known problem. I'll be working on a solution for it fairly soon.

birq · 08-21-2005, 05:46 AM

So now that movement takes time, I can see you guys sending your thugs to Riyadh to beat up on me, but I just have to sit here and watch them move. Shouldn't there be a way to hit an army in transit? Mess with supply lines? Guerrila strike? Not that I'm nervous or anything...

Mickey · 08-21-2005, 06:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by birq

Shouldn't there be a way to hit an army in transit? Mess with supply lines? Guerrila strike? Not that I'm nervous or anything...

Yes, there should be. In fact, there will be.

Probably not in time to save you, though...

rasqual · 08-21-2005, 07:36 AM

LOL!

My pup tents!

Hmm. They could stand a fudge factor to visually separate 'em when you have multiples in a vicinity. Geez, would it be possible to have a "visual" fudge factor -- it assigns a lat & lon to a GE pup tent that's not the "real" lat & lon on your server for it? Geeez . . .

See? You go the extra mile and we still clamour for more!

:-)

Good show!

I won't have time tonight to digest all this (I've been workin' some SQL for work all night -- some Saturday night, huh?), but geez -- I can already see that the GE interface is getting darned cool to use. The tails on the armies are a fine idea indeed.

Great stuff!

rasqual · 08-21-2005, 07:51 AM

Ooh! Ooh!

Click an enemy's pup tent, and have a link to attack 'em. Select which army, from where, and that army goes out to intercept and attack 'em, travelling direct to the computed intercept point.

One way for armies to evade such attacks would be to change course (choose a different destination) temporarily. This would throw off the intercept, if the trajectory were only initially calculated. An attacker of such mobile armies would need to keep a close watch to avoid his prey escaping by means of such evasive tactics.

Geez, it'd be quite a melee if a dozen players sent a hundred armies to intercept each other, all in one part of the globe. Man, this could get amazing.

Pup tents the same color as a player's cities? I wonder if the lines, though, should be allowed to be set the same way, I swear anyone selecting the right color blue would be at an advantage, because the tell-take lines across the ocean for moving armies -- and their pup tents -- wouldn't be as easily visible.

rasqual · 08-21-2005, 08:22 AM

OK, if I add troops to an army that's either enroute or already across the globe, do they teleport? ;-)

birq · 08-21-2005, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Yes, there should be. In fact, there will be.

Probably not in time to save you, though...

Now the Riyadh 'burbs look like a campground. Can you get busy on that whole "attack armies en route" thingy?

Is there a limit to how long armies will camp outside a city? It's not really practical for them to stay there forever, well-fed and unmolested.

Mickey · 08-21-2005, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rasqual

They could stand a fudge factor to visually separate 'em when you have multiples in a vicinity.

Agreed. It's on the to-do list.

Quote:

Click an enemy's pup tent, and have a link to attack 'em. Select which army, from where, and that army goes out to intercept and attack 'em, travelling direct to the computed intercept point.

It's on the to-do list now.

Quote:

Geez, it'd be quite a melee if a dozen players sent a hundred armies to intercept each other, all in one part of the globe. Man, this could get amazing.

Just thinking about the code involved makes my head hurt.

It'll happen, though.

Quote:

Pup tents the same color as a player's cities? I wonder if the lines, though, should be allowed to be set the same way, I swear anyone selecting the right color blue would be at an advantage, because the tell-take lines across the ocean for moving armies -- and their pup tents -- wouldn't be as easily visible.

True. I'll look into that.

Quote:

OK, if I add troops to an army that's either enroute or already across the globe, do they teleport?

Yep.

How should I fix it? You can only add troops to an army that is either in your home base or occupying a city?

elk-tamer · 08-21-2005, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Quote:
OK, if I add troops to an army that's either enroute or already across the globe, do they teleport?

Yep. How should I fix it? You can only add troops to an army that is either in your home base or occupying a city?

That sounds fair, but it will destoy my whole Riyadh strategy.

08-21-2005, 02:51 AM	#1
Mickey Administrator Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 2,328	Army movement now takes time You can no longer move armies (for attacking or otherwise) immediately. You have to choose their new destination. After the armies arrive (a few minutes to a few hours, depending on the distance they need to travel) you can choose to attack or occupy or whatever. Some specifics: - If you move to a city that you own (or to your home base), the army will automatically move it and join that city. - If you move to a city that is owned by someone else or is unoccupied, the army will move to the outskirts of town. - You cannot occupy a city or attack it unless your army is already sitting in position just outside of town. - Currently, you cannot attack other home bases, as I haven't built in movement to those yet. - You can assign a new destination at any point and it will start from where it currently is and head off to the new location. - The map will show a pup tent wherever an army is, along with a trail behind it to show where it came from. This trail is reset any time a new movement is initiated. - Armies do not recognize water, other armies, other home bases, or other cities. Picture them in jets, high above everything on their way to their destination. - You can no longer choose to "abandon" a city. If you move the last army out of it, it becomes unoccupied. - Army locations are updated every five minutes (in the same script that updates oil output). Questions/problems? Post them here.

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08-21-2005, 03:46 AM	#2
Mickey Administrator Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 2,328	I have just secured the "home base selector tool" so that people can't move their home base without permission, as this could be used to move armies around the map in a very fast, illegal manner.

08-21-2005, 04:06 AM	#4
Mickey Administrator Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 2,328	Sorry to bum you out. That just seemed like a pretty obvious opening to exploit. I'm sure rasqual will find others.

08-21-2005, 04:29 AM	#5
cheakerdoodels Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 26	I found a bug that when you add troops to an army and click return to the army it says this is not your army. You can just go back to your army page and click on it and it's fine but it takes longer.

08-21-2005, 04:34 AM	#6
cheakerdoodels Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 26	Sorry for double post but another thing is someone can just leave an army in the outskirts of a city and that army can never get attacked.

08-21-2005, 05:46 AM	#8
birq Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 296	So now that movement takes time, I can see you guys sending your thugs to Riyadh to beat up on me, but I just have to sit here and watch them move. Shouldn't there be a way to hit an army in transit? Mess with supply lines? Guerrila strike? Not that I'm nervous or anything...

08-21-2005, 07:36 AM	#10
rasqual Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 459	LOL! My pup tents! Hmm. They could stand a fudge factor to visually separate 'em when you have multiples in a vicinity. Geez, would it be possible to have a "visual" fudge factor -- it assigns a lat & lon to a GE pup tent that's not the "real" lat & lon on your server for it? Geeez . . . See? You go the extra mile and we still clamour for more! :-) Good show! I won't have time tonight to digest all this (I've been workin' some SQL for work all night -- some Saturday night, huh?), but geez -- I can already see that the GE interface is getting darned cool to use. The tails on the armies are a fine idea indeed. Great stuff!

08-21-2005, 07:51 AM	#11
rasqual Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 459	Ooh! Ooh! Click an enemy's pup tent, and have a link to attack 'em. Select which army, from where, and that army goes out to intercept and attack 'em, travelling direct to the computed intercept point. One way for armies to evade such attacks would be to change course (choose a different destination) temporarily. This would throw off the intercept, if the trajectory were only initially calculated. An attacker of such mobile armies would need to keep a close watch to avoid his prey escaping by means of such evasive tactics. Geez, it'd be quite a melee if a dozen players sent a hundred armies to intercept each other, all in one part of the globe. Man, this could get amazing. Pup tents the same color as a player's cities? I wonder if the lines, though, should be allowed to be set the same way, I swear anyone selecting the right color blue would be at an advantage, because the tell-take lines across the ocean for moving armies -- and their pup tents -- wouldn't be as easily visible.

08-21-2005, 08:22 AM	#12
rasqual Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 459	OK, if I add troops to an army that's either enroute or already across the globe, do they teleport? ;-)