Re: Some proposals to implement *sieges*

[Massimo Campostrini <campo@mailbox.difi.unipi.it>]

We seem to have (at least) three ways to force surrender:
(1) damage        (2) starve        (3) surround/block
I think all three should be possible, and each game design could
choose one (or more) as fitting the theme.

(1) seems the simplest and most obvious; it gives us a reason to build 
and use siege engines and the like.  But it is not always appropriate;
e.g. in some games you may wish not to damage cities at all, in other
games you may wish to force very long sieges.

(2) is historically accurate in many cases.  It is not easy to
implement.  The first task is to model the effects of enemies on
material supply (e.g. food); in some cases a few raiders will be
enough to disrupt agricolture; in others you may need to occupy all
the cells around the city.  The second task is to model the effects of
supply on surrender chance (interpolation-list valued tables would
simplify this ;-))

(3) is appropriate for "modern" warfare, where a steady supply of
goods is essential.  Still not easy, you have to define what "blocked"
means.

And let's not forget that, once the GDL machinery is in place and
some games use it, we must teach the mplayer to do sieges. :-(

	Massimo