[mainline] Early finish bonus w/ multiple factions

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taptap
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Joined: October 6th, 2011, 5:42 pm

[mainline] Early finish bonus w/ multiple factions

Post by taptap »

The game was clearly designed for a single player controlled faction and early finish bonus is one area where this shows. A proposal to amend this problem.

Recapitulation - For a single faction early finish bonus equals the gold earnings of the whole map (usually villages+2 per turn) for the remaining turns. When your army can be sustained by the villages without reduction due to high upkeep then actual earnings and early finish bonus should be equal. Often your upkeep is higher and your actual earnings would be reduced or you would need some time to actually control all the villages on the map, while you can profit fully from early finish bonus.

Problem - If suddenly two or more factions receive carryover this logic breaks down. Players receive not best-circumstance earnings from controlling the whole map, but each faction receives it. Effectively you earn gold on multiple maps "after" early finish, but only on one map as long as you fight. This puts an enormous, unintended, amount of emphasis on speed. A mainline campaign where this is glaringly obvious is the second half of Northern Rebirth.

Solution - When multiple allied factions are player controlled calculate only one early finish bonus and offer the player an option to distribute it among his factions. (Slider/s with full control is likely best.) There are still all the benefits to early finish, but no artificially increased earning power of the map as a whole.
I am a Saurian Skirmisher: I'm a real pest, especially at night.
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zookeeper
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Re: [mainline] Early finish bonus w/ multiple factions

Post by zookeeper »

Huh. Yeah, that's a pretty interesting detail, and certainly looks like it needs to be addressed somehow.
taptap wrote:Solution - When multiple allied factions are player controlled calculate only one early finish bonus and offer the player an option to distribute it among his factions. (Slider/s with full control is likely best.) There are still all the benefits to early finish, but no artificially increased earning power of the map as a whole.
I'd be inclined to instead suggest that the scenario decides how to split the earnings; calculate only one early finish bonus, and then let a [scenario]/[endlevel] tag/key specify how many % of it to give each side. Unless I'm missing something, this would simultaneously allow fixing the problem in multiplayer campaigns without forcing one player to decide how to split the gold.
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Vyncyn
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Re: [mainline] Early finish bonus w/ multiple factions

Post by Vyncyn »

zookeeper wrote:I'd be inclined to instead suggest that the scenario decides how to split the earnings; calculate only one early finish bonus, and then let a [scenario]/[endlevel] tag/key specify how many % of it to give each side. Unless I'm missing something, this would simultaneously allow fixing the problem in multiplayer campaigns without forcing one player to decide how to split the gold.
I agree. It is also way easier to balance scenarios/campaigns when the gold is distributed automatically.
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taptap
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Re: [mainline] Early finish bonus w/ multiple factions

Post by taptap »

Likely that would be easier to implement. I would deem player choice the better option since the player effectively has the choice how to allocate villages while playing and this would give no incentive to ever stick around just for a better distribution.
I am a Saurian Skirmisher: I'm a real pest, especially at night.
gfgtdf
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Re: [mainline] Early finish bonus w/ multiple factions

Post by gfgtdf »

wesnoth 1.13 does already support a factor in [endlevel] bonus and this is used in mp LoW campaign in wesnoth 1.13

Given that, i still think it makese sense to give umc authors even more control over the carryover gold calculation to allow arbitary formulas. In particular control over the endlevel carryvoer message text. So for exampel if you have special bonuses bonuses like for example "you get all ramining gold of your ally ai side" you can list the explicitly in the endlevel gold calulation window. Or if you want to cap the carryvoer gold you can also adapt the endlevel message to that.
Scenario with Robots SP scenario (1.11/1.12), allows you to build your units with components, PYR No preperation turn 1.12 mp-mod that allows you to select your units immideately after the game begins.
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