Today's question: Should Apocalyptic Dawn have some type of population system (where there is a maximum unit count)?
AnalysisPros- Forces the user to use more strategy, as they can only have so many units (larger units can require multiple operators and thus use multiple population points, so one would have to balance their tank versus two infantry units).
- Helps enforce lag (simple rule of thumb: more units = more lag)
- Encourages users to diversify and use more effective units than just spamming the cheapest unit (it's no secret that it's easier to win a tech battle if you spam archers than if you diversify more).
Cons- Harder to get that massive battle some people like (high enough populations can give more than enough units, however).
- It's a limitation, nuf said. Many players will prefer less limited play.
- Potential con: How will the AI react?
ImplimentationNow, with that said, if they are implemented, there's a large number of ways to do so.
Firstly, we could have some type of housing be built (this gives lots of room for differenting the sides, such as using tents, huts, hideaways... Anything could be used as housing). There would be a maximum limit on the number of houses (let's say each house gives 10 population and you can build up to 8, for a maximum of 80 population). These houses would be restricted by a hidden resource, which would limit the number we can have (if GAE ever supports MG's maximum unit restriction XML tag, that would be a cleaner method).
Secondly, a more conservative method (houses take up a lot of room, and need more management), would be to simply give the user all the population at the start. It would be simpler for the player, but simplicity is a double-edged sword: good or bad.
Finally, we could morph the main building, perhaps making it look more intimidating and increasing its health and stats, in, say, three chunks (start with 30 population cap, after the first morph, the cap would increase to 60, then to 80). The issue is how we can build multiple of these buildings, which would cause definite problems. We cannot use subfactions as the AI still had trouble with them last I saw, which means that we can either restrict the main building to one or, my better idea, to have the main building given at the start of the game different from the other buildings. In other words, we have "headquarters" as the building that engineers (worker units) can produce, but the main building given at the start of the game is actually "headquarters_", which will appear the same ingame, but is actually a different unit with these new morph commands.
Personally, I really like the concept of the last option, which is more unique and fits well, though it could be subject to AI issues (though the AI seems to morph without trouble). The building cannot grow in physical game size, however, as that would be too restrictive (eg, if any units are too close, particularly other buildings), but it can grow in height and the model can look fuller. The second option makes a backup if the third does not work, though the first would take up too much room, in my opinion, since there's already lots of buildings: adding eight house-style buildings would take up more room than we have.
ResourcePopulation would be a static resource (ideally, there would be a way to show both how much we have left and the maximum, such as 43/80, but that is not currently possible, so it would have to make do with a "countdown" showing how many more we can have. That may change should a new resource type for population be implemented in the future). The resource would be recoupable, meaning that if a unit using one population dies, the player gets that one population count back, which they can spend on a new unit (thus, you can only have 80 at a time, not over the whole course of the game). I would prefer to do away with food entirely, replacing it with population, though both could reasonably co-exist. Most units would only need one population count, but for balance and realism, some units like tanks or aerial units would require more (thus, you can build less of them, but they're more powerful, so you'd have to decide, one stealth bomber or two infantry units? That stealth bomber could wreck quite some havoc, but if those infantry units are anti-air, they could down that stealth bomber pretty easily. Strategy prevails.
DecisionWhich brings us to our final point:
Should we have a population resource or not? And if we do, should we keep the food resource or not? And if food exists, should it be recoupable (get it back after the unit using it dies, like Magic's energy) or not? I am all aboard for having a population cap and doing away with the food resource. As a note, before replying, if you have not already played a game with such a cap, I recommend you do so. I admit, first time I played AoE2, I thought that I did not like the population caps, but later on, I realized how they made me a better player, since I had to use more strategy. So, please, comment below!
