Passed Staging Area

[DeletedUser]

thats a good explanation but 7000 pop worth of is a huge bomb, lets say i can normally attack you with 2000 slingers now how can any player stop a 7000 slinger land nuke?

Because you cannot send a 7000 slinger nuke. You can only send the slingers as attacks from the cities supporting them separately. You cannot combine the troops in the staging area into one massive attack. Besides you will also need LS and transports most likely.

 

[DeletedUser]

Moved to Development Discussions.

I would prefer if there was a mock-up of what the staging area overview would look like. Doesn't have to look great. If you're unable to create one, it's alright.

Question:
According to the information, staging cities could be supported to defend against attacks from enemies as if you were supporting a regular city. However, in order to "stage" troops there, the units take up farm space and you would send them as support. Therefore, how exactly would you separate the two different types of support so that the defensive troops you and allies send as support for defending purposes do not end up taking up the farm space meant for staging offensive or even other defensive troops?

 

[DeletedUser]

Hmm, I hadn't actually thought of that. There could be one of several solutions to that issue:

1. Only the troops belonging to the owner of the staging area take up farm space and if a player wishes to support and defend their staging area from attacks they must withdraw troops currently stationed their in order to free up farm spaces. Other players would be able to support the staging area as normal, with the troops not taking farm space and not being able to move troops from the staging area elsewhere before they return to their home city.

2. Use two different troop movement mechanisms. One is for transferring troops to a staging area that the player wishes to use in further movements from the staging area and the other is the standard support function from which the player will be unable to move troops until they return to their home city.

3. Stick to the idea that only the player who owns the staging area can position troops in it. Therefore allies cannot aid in the defence of a beseiged staging area. This would make the staging area even more of an offensively orientated asset.

That was a little bit tough to word, if you have any confusions then just post and I'll try to word it better


Another idea that also just struck me is what happens to troops that are positioned in other cities or out on attacks that were sent from the staging area when a staging area is destroyed by a conquest from another player. I would like to offer two suggestions:

Either, the control of these troops will immediately return to their home cities so support can be recalled and completed attacks will return to the home cities.

Or, these troops simply die off, similarly to how troops will die off if their parent city is conquered.

I will edit the original post depending upon the feedback

 

[DeletedUser]

1. Only the troops belonging to the owner of the staging area take up farm space and if a player wishes to support and defend their staging area from attacks they must withdraw troops currently stationed their in order to free up farm spaces. Other players would be able to support the staging area as normal, with the troops not taking farm space and not being able to move troops from the staging area elsewhere before they return to their home city.

Issue 1: The player who owns the staging area is essentially limited to 7000 population space worth of defense.

Issue 2: How would you withdraw if say, your troops are on their way to attack someone when you get attacked? You'd be completely dependent on your allies.

2. Use two different troop movement mechanisms. One is for transferring troops to a staging area that the player wishes to use in further movements from the staging area and the other is the standard support function from which the player will be unable to move troops until they return to their home city.

Basically, when you click on a staging area, you'll be presented with the standard 'Attack' 'Support' 'Trade' etc... page and you want to add a 'Transfer' tab? This could work....

3. Stick to the idea that only the player who owns the staging area can position troops in it. Therefore allies cannot aid in the defence of a beseiged staging area. This would make the staging area even more of an offensively orientated asset.

This doesn't really address the 7000 pop limit.

Another idea that also just struck me is what happens to troops that are positioned in other cities or out on attacks that were sent from the staging area when a staging area is destroyed by a conquest from another player. I would like to offer two suggestions:

Either, the control of these troops will immediately return to their home cities so support can be recalled and completed attacks will return to the home cities.

Or, these troops simply die off, similarly to how troops will die off if their parent city is conquered.

The first option to return troops to home cities sounds fine. The second option doesn't make as much sense since the troops did not "originate" from the staging area. The original cities the troops came from did not get conquered, so it makes sense to return them there.

 

[DeletedUser]

The second proposal for the first issue might not result in another tab, similar to the "attack", "support", "trade" tabs there already are. There could be in the support tab another option that appears only when dealing with a staging area one owns.

 

[DeletedUser]

Here is the mockup of the overview for the staging area.

1. The additional drop-down menu for interacting with staging areas and choosing which one to interact with, similar to current city drop-down menu.

2. Lack of worshipped god since no god is worshipped in a staging area as the only available buildings are the wall, farm, agora and warehouse (as seen in the image).

3. There can be no divine invocations cast on a staging area, of any sort and since there is no senate there is no build tab above the troops movements either.

I have probably missed something important or included some detail about my account that I shouldn't have but I think that is the general idea.

There could quite easily be some added graphics to the blank areas of the city but I am afraid I am no artist and couldn't do anything in that regard. I am sure the developers would have an easier time of doing that if this went through

EDIT: I will put all this in the OP soon but I cannot do it just now.

 

[DeletedUser]

Just on the right side quick menu section thing, could you show what it would look like with say for example 2 sets of troops stationed in the city?

 

[DeletedUser]

If you run through the troops calculations you will see that only the stationed troops are taking up farm spaces and these are the troops that one can use in further movements from the staging area.

The overview doesn't show which troops belong to which cities individually on this overview because it is merely an overview. In the agora there would be the usual screen for troops in a city which details the origins of each group of troops.

 

[DeletedUser]

Here's the visual aid for the agora of a staging area showing the origins of troops.

 

[DeletedUser]

The mock-ups looks great. (Put them in the op!)

Just the support issue needs to be discussed further and figured out before this idea goes to a vote, unless something else comes up.

 

[DeletedUser]

I will put these into the OP when I wake up. Also what support issue are you reffering to Eclipse?

 

[DeletedUser]

According to the information, staging cities could be supported to defend against attacks from enemies as if you were supporting a regular city. However, in order to "stage" troops there, the units take up farm space and you would send them as support. Therefore, how exactly would you separate the two different types of support so that the defensive troops you and allies send as support for defending purposes do not end up taking up the farm space meant for staging offensive or even other defensive troops?

This one. Did you end up deciding to go with the 2nd type of support option?

 

[DeletedUser]

The 2nd proposal seemed the most appropriate and that's what I've tried to explain with the visual aids, so yes. There will be two troop movements features regarding support when dealing with a staging area. Either "support" as normal which doesn't take up farm space but those troops cannot be sent from the staging area on further movements or "station" which allows the owner of the staging area to station troops in one which can be used in further movements.

 

[DeletedUser]

Love the idea +REP!

 

[DeletedUser]

I believe that there should be a new building for the Staging Area: the Command Center. This is where you would upgrade your Farm, Warehouse, Wall, and Marketplace. Upgrades to the command center would increase the morale of the troops in the event that they must defend the staging area.

As for the name of "staging area", I think that it should be called a Fortress.

 

[DeletedUser]

I see the points you are trying to make but there is no real need for an entirely new building in the staging area since the only thing that can be upgraded is the wall and that is upgraded through the wall itself. The only buildings in the staging area are a farm which has permanently got 7000 farm spaces, a wall which can be upgraded to level 10 from level 0, an agora through which one can see the origins of troops and various other information and a warehouse which can contain 25,000 of each resource which must be supplied by other cities using their marketplaces. The staging area has no marketplace of its own.

I see why you might like the name of "Fortress" but it is not a fortress since it is not as easily defended as a normal city and is merely a proxy platform from which troops can be sent, a staging area, literally.

Also, why would you want morale to ever increase if you are the defender? Morale affects the attacker's troops and so a 60% moale will be better for the defender than a 80% morale.

 

[DeletedUser]

I see the points you are trying to make but there is no real need for an entirely new building in the staging area since the only thing that can be upgraded is the wall and that is upgraded through the wall itself. The only buildings in the staging area are a farm which has permanently got 7000 farm spaces, a wall which can be upgraded to level 10 from level 0, an agora through which one can see the origins of troops and various other information and a warehouse which can contain 25,000 of each resource which must be supplied by other cities using their marketplaces. The staging area has no marketplace of its own.

I see why you might like the name of "Fortress" but it is not a fortress since it is not as easily defended as a normal city and is merely a proxy platform from which troops can be sent, a staging area, literally.

Also, why would you want morale to ever increase if you are the defender? Morale affects the attacker's troops and so a 60% moale will be better for the defender than a 80% morale.

Sorry, my mistake. I did not know that it was relative to the attacker. So, maybe then it would reduce the attacker's morale? The Command Center is just there in case that we add other buildings. Maybe a temple could be added (the soldiers would still worship) that would, from time to time, grant a random mythical unit?

 

[DeletedUser]

It pains me to admit it but when I started out I was the kind of player who adored the Sims and so loved building up my stuff and seeing it grow, as I am sure many first timers at these kind of games are. Therefore the idea of adding more buildings to the area would normally strike me as being a good thing but the whole idea for the staging area is that it is a very temporary encampment for troops and so not much would be built up besides the very bare necessities.

I suppose you could liken it to the Greek assault of Troy. They originated from Greece yet their target was in Western Turkey (modern-day). They set up a camp outside the walls from which to attack, a proxy forward position, rather than attacking and then sailing all the way back to Greece and then attacking again. The whole concept is for these to be temporary as conflicts shift and focusses change and targets differ. These staging areas will allow for the flexibility of war.

NB. They don't give any points to the player since they are not a real city, therefore buildings would be somewhat wasted in them.

Sorry

Please don't appologise, I appreciate any and all comments

 

[DeletedUser]

Anyone have any questions about this idea or any thoughts they want to express on it? If there is anything I need to explain more clearly please just ask.

 

[DeletedUser]

1.6.1 Espionage of staging areas Once cannot spy from a staging area since there is no cave. One can, however, spy on a staging area and see the troops present there but not the cities they come from. The owner of the staging area will recieve a notification that their staging area was spied on but not by whom, the player who spied on the staging aera would recieve a complete report.

Since you do not have cave, there is no way to prevent spying. Then at least you should have oracle in the city that tells you who spied on your staging area. Otherwise any tom, dick and harry can spy on your staging area with 1k silver and can monitor your army strength and troop movement.