I checked to see if there was a similar thrad but I couldn't find one. If I missed it please let me know. Some of this discussion will kind of mirror what others have said about city bulding.
There has been a lot of talk about how cities are kind of boring and eed to be imrpoved, I feel the same way about outposts. They just kind of sit there and don't do anything besides expand your border. I think they could be a lot more interesting.
Firstly, there should be several different kinds of outposts. For example, we could have a watch tower outpost with an increased sight range or a redoubt style outpost that adds defensive bonuses to a unit stationed there. There could also be civilian outposts like a hamlet that generates a small amount of gold or a trade outpost that could generate some gold through caravans. By adding in different types it would add a strategic desicion to what type of outpost goes where. Building a redoubt on the only path through the mountains would be a great way to block an enemy. At least until they flatten the mountains with some magic.
Secondly, Outposts should be captureable. Currently they are just annoyances to be rounded up in a war. If they were capturable that would add some strategic desicions. Do you head straight for the cities or take some of the enemies watch towers so you can move through an area unnoticed? This could add another layer to the resource war, instead of just destroying resources around a city, you could take a small forward base to build up for raids/an assault.
To balance this out outposts should have a cost imposed on them. Whether this is an upfront cost or upkeep or maybe both would need to be tested. There would also have to be a way to make sure that players aren't just spamming outposts, especially if they have the abilitiy to supply resources. Maybe make it so that only certain types of outposts can be built near their respective resources.
Any thoughts?
More outpost options are needed, I agree.
I think you should have to build a road to an outpost in order to extract the resource. A pioneer should have the ability to do that.
Making the outpost more useful defensively is a must with defensive bonuses, troops being garrisoned there, etc.
But we don't have that for cities so why for Outposts?
I vote for defensive bonus (and obviously you can station troops there). I'm not against the Gal II starbase idea either - think that would be great.
I think this would be a great direction for outposts. Think of them as "Starbases" and add some upgrades to help specialize them a bit (small bonuses). That'd be perfect!
I concur with the general sentiments in this thread.
Good Point. I'd like to Sally Forth from Cities and Outposts.
I like this.
I will add more thoughts after I get to play through the game, but I like the concept of differing types of outposts.
It would be great if they acted like the Galactic Privateer achievement in GC2 within their ZOC to keep your caravans safe from attack...
I like them being more like GalCiv 2 starbases
I kinda like this idea. It's quite a bit too easy to exploit resources remotely now.
That'd be a good compromise to prevent people from expanding too rapidly with outposts and give the opponent a chance to counter their expansion.
There were several threads back in the ancient days that the OP here sort of echoes, but no one put the point as concisely as this.
The mechanic details might always be a matter of debate and continuous updates, but the fundamental design point deserves an up or down decision.
I vote yea, especially if we might also have some methods to connect fortified outposts and do things like building at least Trajan's Wall, if not a proper Great Wall.
I like this idea, not as the defender huddled behind their measly little wall, but as the invader ready to topple over the pathetic little barrier and from a single weak point spread havok throughout the kingdom's tender, red, succulent insides
In other words... you sold me on the whole military outpost idea
There definitely needs to be some sort of limit on outpost construction as well - whether it is tied to research, buildings constructed, upkeep, increasing cost, reduced prestige, or whatever - it's far too easy to spam out endless cheap settlers and build outposts all over the place right now.
Plus the weirdness of the instantly transported resources from half the world away.
Maybe they should add a tech tree or branch in the civics tree to upgrade them and to increase the build limit
It's magic!
Yes, we've been asking for local resources since way before the first WoM beta. Food and materials (production) are local now, that's as far as it will go I think. For other resources to become local, they will have to be able to be transported. That would require a massive reworking of the caravan system (not that it doesn't need it anyway), that I doubt is going to happen. Besides, not everyone would like to deal with this level of management (but @#$%& those guys )
Yeah that was an off the cuff comment, I have zero interest in supply line micromanagement, but it's a bit quirky to have an outpost half way across the map on a large map supplying one of your few cities on the other end of the map.
There is of course an inherent weakness in having outposts so far away from your troop producers, but unless they nerf Cloud Walk, its not far from your heroes
I know I don't want to deal with that level of management, I don't want to do a Civ Colonization-like game where I have to constantly be using caravans to move resources around. Pain in the ass.
One way that helped with some of the micromangement in GalCiv II was adding production waypoints. Waypoints generally in FE would be good, but also helpful for sending units somewhere (like an outpost, for instance). Or can you do this already?
There's a total lack of city rally points, unit paths, time to target, next/prev unit, unit overview screens, or anything else resembling sanity as far as unit controls go.
Or short answer: no.
That's a good point, I hadn't really thought about that. Unit path might be in the future, but beyond that it's quite lacking in controls. The empire tree isn't very usefull for units, it's ok for cities maybe.
I like these ideas and would like to further that, if there is a defensive outpost, perhaps the directly adjacent tiles have some sort of move penalty to them for enemies. This penalty would be similar to how you cannot move past an enemy in a tactical battle, directly adjacent. It would give purpose to the outpost and make them more strategic.
Also, don't let the AI build outposts in my ZOC, which, for some reason, has happened to me more than once in three games... weird.
I like the ZoC idea, perhaps tie it to a specific type of outpost.
Here's some off the top of my head ideas for outpost upgrades:
As for constructing these, I'd say tie them to research in the various tech trees, and give pioneer units a choice of what outpost type to build, with the more advanced types (or upgrades to those types) requiring extra time and costing gold/iron/crystal/etc.
This is what need to happen for outposts. I would rather see fewer cities (1 - 3) per game and more specialized outposts like this.
Another:
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