Call to Arms

[Musclemonte80]

Just an idea to add a slot in the GUI that will assign defense positions. Having a squad member man a turret when he could be a productive member of the encampment seems wasteful. If there was a way to set defense "jobs" that would only kick in once a watchtower or squad mate equipped with a war horn sees danger would be nice. Maybe adding a "Call to Arms" button on the GUI would work too, but I am partial to the watchtower idea.

On a separate note, but still relevant would be tweaking the strength of gates and methods of breaching them.

Thoughts?

[Caprontos]

I like this idea, I have wanted a button that disables jobs currently being done so I didn't have to make them walk back and fourth (or cancel all jobs) while I wait for the enemy to reach me.. - which is semi-tedious

So maybe the button does two things, if the unit is set to combat and the call to arms is used.. all these people would gather at some spot you per-define.. or take up defense jobs if assigned (like turrets).

The reason for having an option to set a unit as combat, is so once we no longer need all our people to be active combat people.. we can exclude them from joining combat ... But I think people should always fight if they specifically get attacked..

Perhaps it could even be an alert system so we can set people on levels they respond..

Low threat, only your main guys go to their spots..

Medium threat your back up guys will also go..

High threat every one goes.

This way if its just a nuisance attack of 5 bandits you only need your main combat group.. but if its a major attack of many bandits, you may want to use more or all of your people.. and so don't have to go through re-setting all your people to adjust for these situations.

This could just be an option where you pick what threat level they respond to your call to arms on a person by person basis.

Threat level combined with your watch tower idea could be handled automatically.. (watch sees 5 bandits coming for your base - sets to low threat to respond). This could again be handled by you setting an option where the threat level is based on number of people they see coming.. Or something similar... It requires you have someone in the watch tower.. and the watch tower spot range could be raised by techs.. (add a telescope.. build higher.. etc type things).

Stealthy enemies could by-pass your watch of course.. and night time could hinder sight range (there is a skill for sight range right? that could also play a role)... So letting the ai handle it could be less safe then it seems.

(This depends how much the dev wants us to have micro-manage the game.. and how much he wants us to be able to let the game play for us..)

I don't have a much opinion on balance of gates and things since I haven't experienced it a lot.. But from the bit I have they do seem really weak..

I wouldn't mind a research tree that aims at improving your rate of rebuilding gates.. and gate max health.

Also rebuild speed in combat and out of combat should be different.. If none of your people are fighting near the gate.. then rebuilding it should be quite a bit faster.. but for balancing - in combat it should be slower (which I think is fair if they are balanced well).

[Musclemonte80]

Exactly the train of thought I had. I really like the alert level idea. I kinda had the pre-defined standing positions in my head, but that might cause path-finding and AI complications in the short-term.

Tech-tree enhancements for watchtowers would rock, as well has having an "ear shot" logic so your runners in town miles away don't attempt to fill defense locations back at HQ.

The multiple alert levels would work with the war horn. Kinda like the horn blasts on the Wall in the Song of Fire and Ice series. 1 horn blast for low, 2 for medium and 3 for assault on the town.