City combat

From Neverend

Take in to account the rules for buildings, such as "you need x buildings for this building to exist" or "these units need X buildings to exist." Just like unit and building requirements in Warcraft and Starcraft, a unit may require a building be in place before it can enter the game, or units may require X number of specific buildings.

Buildings also affect other buildings, such as lowering upkeep costs, increasing defense, lowering mana cost, increasing attack power, increasing unit production, etc. Since you're spending turns doing one or the other, it tends to balance out based on what you plan to support, or what you choose to risk by not supporting it but spending points somewhere else.

How can this be used in an MMORPG? Well, if buildings are nothing more than "monsters that don't move around", then nothing prevents players from raiding a town and destroying everything quickly.

But if every building has some kind of relationship between other buildings, units, or players, then it helps give the city a kind of balance that necessitates certain buildings exist as a foundation. In Starcraft, you need X barracks to support your marines, X Pylons to support Protoss, and X creep colonies to support your Zerg. You then have buildings that can be offensive vs air or ground, provide extra unit attack and defense, or extra building defense or shields.

Now imagine a city in a MMORPG that has symbiotic benefits. Everything helps everything else to a point, but there are also minimum requirements for buildings, such as X barracks for X gaurds, or X houses for X residents, or X training areas for X trainees, X shops for X shopkeepers, etc. You then have upgradeable status buildings such as Stronghold/Keep/Castle. Some buildings and units may require a Keep or Castle to be in place.

There is also the issue of production. Assuming each residential building "produces" 2 NPCs, then the NPC population is 2X. If it falls below this, then more NPCs are created. If the buildings are destroyed, then the surplus NPCs live on until they die.

So, you have several buildings that affect other buildings, NPCs, and players positively just by existing (defense, durability, magic). The effects ONLY exist inside the city to members/citizens of the city, so defenders will be at a greater advantage than attackers.

Now if all bonuses were generated by a single point, such as a "town stone" that gave all bonuses and defeated the city when destroyed, it would be too easy for players to rush to the town stone and destroy it. So you need multiple targets to prevent the "eggs in one basket" syndrome.

Attackers must destroy several things in order to bring down a city:

Main city building (Mayor's House, Castle, etc) Gaurd buildings (All of them, barracks, etc) Supporting buildings (Provide defense, offense, magic bonuses) Residential buildings (Including Inns)

There may be additional buildings for support. Taking te "town stone" example, instead of just one, you'd have several based on city size, such as 9 for a large city that would all have to be destroyed. The pylons in Starcraft come to mind again.

Also, if you've played Dungeon Keeper, units require enough space for their specific type, such as Blacksmiths having enough Smithy space, tinkerers having enough Workshop space, etc. So as population rises, desire for more space rises. Creating more space makes more units possible.

If buildings auto-produce NPCs based on the current population, then they produce an amount of NPCs proportional to the buildings in place, assuming their is a shortage. So killed NPCs will be replenished if there are plenty of buildings that need them, such as shops, taverns, guardhouses, etc. This prevents Ghost Towns, but takes time. NPCs will gradually come into existence, so it is still possible to commit genocide on one city.

NPCs need buildings, buildings produce NPCs, buildings rely on other buildings. The actual requirements will need to be balanced, providing enough freedom without being too restrictive, and providing enough meaning for each to exist. For example, a castle may require 4 gaurd towers, but in actuality prefer more. An inn may require 1 residential building, but no city will have only 1 residential building. Reliance on other buildings will seem superficial at first, but ultimately make cities larger and more vibrant, along with the NPCs who use them.

The technological chain for a large city is due to all of its npcs and residents so that its level of sophistication is enhanced. I'm thinking along the lines of Starcraft, warhammer 40k and any of the AOE series. If a city requires this but in a supercity or a metropolis with smaller cities connnected then i have a transit system, advance sciences, etc...