Re: 3rd-age.g

[Hans Ronne <hronne at pp dot sbbs dot se>]

>This is shaping into a very interesting game!  One thing I find strange,
>though, is how many of the unique characters have poor "defend" values.

Thanks. It's true that the defense values are extremely low. A single
hobbit or dwarf can frequently take out Sauron, the most powerful unit in
the game. What happened is that I took most of the unit definitions
straight from Harlan Thompson's Lord of the Rings scenario for Civ2. I
tweaked some of them, and intended to go back for a more extensive revison
later.

Two things kept me from doing that. First, I was busy with other things,
such as the Mac network code and the SDL code. Second, I found that the
game works better than I first expected. Specifically, the low defense
values make the game more dynamic and unpredictable, and therefore more
fun. This is because whoever attacks first (a random choice) frequently
gets the upper hand. If you take a game with higher defense values and run
it on automatic the sides usually get stuck in trench warfare after a
while. And if you run the same game again and again, the result is
predictable. Not so with lord-rings.g. Every game is different even though
you start with the same units, as you may have noted if you have played it
on automatic a few times.

I don't know if this is the reason why Harlan Thompson used such low
defense values in his Civ2 scenario, but I suspect so.

So I'm not sure what to do about this. If you feel like testing higher
defense values, please do so and let us know about the results. It is a
little unrealistic that the Nazguls can sweep through Gondor and Rohan
without any significant resistance, as is now the case.

Hans

Hans Ronne

hronne@pp.sbbs.se