🚀 go-pugleaf

Caton <ca...@netwin.co.nz> writes:

> Anon wrote:

> > In SC I found the limit, well, limiting.  Do you find
> > that with AOK or Tzar?  Or do u rarely find it comes
> > into play?

> I don't come up against it very often... it's more the
> game's way of telling you "It's time to send in your
> massed troops now"... but combat seems to resolve itself
> much more quickly.

I bumped up against the limit a couple times, but that's
because I'm a defensive type of player that tends to build
and build until I've got an overwhelming force.  It's
probably just as well that there's a limit there to force
the action at some point.

> There's no limit (AFAICT) to the number of buildings
> (i.e. Barracks) you can build (within reason :), and no
> limit to the number of units you can queue up *inside*
> them, *and* that you can set rally points for all the
> relevant buildings, the ability to get huge numbers of
> reinforcements to a battle site is a significant factor.

I was thinking that the buildings counted in the 200 units,
but I could be wrong about that.  Maybe just the offensive
buildings like guard towers do...  One nice thing is that
even when you're at the unit limit, you can still queue
units to be built, so as units are killed, more will be
produced right away.

> Tzar reminds me more of Warcraft2 than anything else. The
> unit graphics are comparatively large (but *much*
> prettier), most combat is hand to hand, and research is
> done in a similar fashion. IT kicks AOE(2)'s butt in some
> areas, too. It has farms, for instance, but *they don't
> run out*[1], and units are much smarter about coming to
> the aid of comrades in trouble. Idle peasants are a
> rarity... after standing around doing nothing for x
> minutes, they will go and help the nearest peasant do
> whatever.

Yes, I'd forgotten to mention that; a very nice feature.  No
longer do you pan back to your base camp after a long battle
to find a dozen peasants standing around doing nothing.  As
long as there's work to be hard within a reasonable
distance, they'll join in.

> This can sometimes be irritating. A mine collapse can free
> up half a dozen peasants or so. If you don't notice,
> they'll eventually disperse and help out with the wood
> chopping, cow milking (yes! Farm animals are actually
> *useful* in Tzar), or building. An idle peasant near a
> building site will help construct the building, and a
> peasant that's just completed a building will move on to
> the next construction site regardless of whether or not
> you queued it up for that particular peasant. All in all,
> Tzar has the best peasant AI I've ever come across.

I agree.  I thought AOK was similar at first, but it's not.
If you tell a peasant to build A, B, and C, he'll move on to
the most recent one you created, and *maybe* get back to the
others.  With buildings it seems to work, but with multiple
wall sections, they don't always get around to finishing
them all.


Aaron
-- 
Aaron Baugher - abau...@adams.net - Coatsburg, IL, USA
Extreme Systems Consulting - http://esc.adams.net/esc/
CGI, Perl, Java, and Linux/Unix Administration