Game Design Questions

[Leonid I Korogodsky <leokor@IAS.EDU>]

Hey there!

I've been thinking of creating a number of scenarios, each covering 
from 2 to 6 years of the 1st Punic War. Provided, of course, that I 
find time for that :), largely due to the tedious task fo creating 
the "proper" maps (the fighting being mostly in Sicily, besides the 
modern Tunisia, Sardinia, and Corsica, the scale would have to be 
around 5 km per hex; so I hope I can avoid putting on the map the 
Carthaginian colonies on the Atlantic coats :).

But first of all, I have got a number of questions. There are many
of them, but I would appreciate if you answer at least a question
of your choice. :)

(1) Introduction: One of the reasons why the newly born Roman fleet
could defeat the ages-old Carthaginian one in a number of naval
battles was that the Romans relied heavily on the boarding tactics,
using some special devices invented precisely for that purpose
(that is, the corvi), while the Carthaginians relied on ramming,
astern of abaft the beam to avoid the corvi, utilizing their far
superior speed and mobility. 

Of course, I do not even think of simulating the various parts of a 
ship :). but I do have questions on -capturing-.

Question: I want the troops aboard a ship to be able to capture the 
enemy ships. But I do NOT want the troops on a shore to be able to 
capture a ship when it comes close. Is it at all doable? And if so, how?

(2) Introduction: I'm trying to simulate the various kinds of troops
present historically by assigning a particular cxp to each unit in the
original setup. For example, while both the Gallic mercenaries, Iberian
mercenaries, Syracusan Greeks, Roman legionaires, and the Carthaginian
Sacred Band would be represented by the same unit type (well, almost;
I separate the mercenaries into a special unit type, so that they 
consume more money :), they would all have very different initial
combat experience, in the rising order in this example, while the
cxp increment on combat would be largely symbolic one.

But the question goes largely about the ships. While I do not intend
to allow production of any onland troops, I do need to be able for the
sides to build ships in some scenarios, where it is crucial. And, 
definitely, the combat experience for the Roman and Carthaginian
quinqeremes (the main type of ships) would be radically different.

Question: Is there a way to assign an initial cxp on building a unit?
Or does it always have to be built with cxp of zero?

(3) Introduction: This question is very similar to the above one.

Question: I haven't found any acp-cxp-effect or anything that would
effect the unit's acp depending on its combat experience. Or should
I just define two types of units, Roman quinquereme and Carthaginian
quinquereme, to reflect the differences? (The triremes might be spared;
they are too small and there were very few of them in the fleets of 
the time.)

(4) Question: Does the protection table also apply to the capture
attempts? Or only to the attack actions? For I want the occupants
of a ship or city to resist the attempts to capture their transport.

(5) Question: I'm defining the winds, but I haven't figured it out
yet how to -view- the layer of the wind forces and directions on the
game screen. There are buttons to push for names, elevations, features,
and other stuff. But never did the winds appear. How can it be done?

(6) Introduction: I've been thinking of making the sieges of cities
to be effective by simulating the starvation resulting from a long-term
siege. As well as the shortage of supplies by a naval blockade of Sicily 
is crucial for some scenarios. For that I'd like to make the terrain
hexes produce some materials, like food and wood, with lines of supply
leading to the cities and the troops.

Question: Is there any way to define lines of supply emanating from
terrain rather than from units? 

(7) Question: Even if we define the lines of supply as above, is it
possible to forbid the supplies to be piped up them through the cells
occupied by the enemy units, or across the sea?

(8) Question: Even if we simulate the effects of starvation, so that 
the hp of the city and its defenders go down with time, what effect
would it cause on their defence? I haven't found any reference to
attack-damage-effect or defend-damage-effect etc. or anything that
affects combat abilities depending on the damage caused. Or is it
done automatically? Otherwise, what is the point in starving a city
or reducing its hp with, say, siege engines?

(9) Introduction: In order to encourage keeping armies together, I'm
going to introduce leaders types of units. With control over units.
But also I want to distinguish between their abilites, as I'm going
to name them after the historic persons present in action at that
time, depending on the scenario. So, I'd define three types of units
for leaders, all the same except for the production fo the energy 
resource and the influence on the "transport" unit. I was able to find 
acp-occupant-effect, but nothing of attack- or defend-occupant-effect,
not to mention any "range-influence".

Question: Is there any way to affect the unit's combat abilities
depending on the occupant, at least?

(10) Question: In your opinion, would it be a good idea to place
historical info on each type of unit in the "notes" field? As well
as the preambule on how the initial scenario's setup happened to
occur historically, and what happened in it historically, in the
"notes" field for the game?

Sincerely,

Leonid