Placement of Society Centers

I have realised a problem with the Society Centers: How do we place them? I know the AI can build them on it's own, but what about the player?


My idea: Like in Civilization, we should be able to produce a unit at our existing SC: Settlers. Then you can command them to a point on your planet, and tell them to settle there. Then a tiny, extremely-basic SC will be built where they are. The Settler unit would be protrayed as either a large group of people, or a group of vehicles (depending on your progression through research).



If we are to carry out my idea for underwater SCs, then the settlers would simply become portrayed as a large group of submarines (provided you have enough research in the research types dedicated to the understanding of the ocean and how to traverse through it). The way we would determine how deep the SC would be would depend on the level of research through the aforementioned tracks. Those tracks would determine the maximum depth at which you may travel, and, in turn, limit the places you may build your SC to that depth.

Remember that until you give the settelers a location to travel to, they will remain idle, unlike other units which AI would control if you didn't. If you were to give your settlers an underwater location, they would use submarines. If you give them a location that requires the passing through some water, they will use a boat.

Also the settler unit would slowly deteriorate over time- settlers would either die or return home, and supplies would run out. You could head to an existing SC or a friendly SC to replenish these things. You should be able to scroll over your unit to check these things.

Thoughts?

I think the best way to handle this would not be to have a 'settler' or 'colonist' unit, but have a group of deployed units grouped into a 'colony'. That way you could send a bunch of workers, gatherers and civilians to a new SC site, with military support in case things get rough. Of course, any area that has enough buildings and people in it could be turned into a Society Centre, so the player could choose to set up their colonies any way they choose to. But the option to group units into a single-functioning object would be handy for mass colonizations.

US_of_Alaska wrote:

I think the best way to handle this would not be to have a 'settler' or 'colonist' unit, but have a group of deployed units grouped into a 'colony'. That way you could send a bunch of workers, gatherers and civilians to a new SC site, with military support in case things get rough. Of course, any area that has enough buildings and people in it could be turned into a Society Centre, so the player could choose to set up their colonies any way they choose to. But the option to group units into a single-functioning object would be handy for mass colonizations.

Maybe it would auto-group once they get too grouped-up. This would not automatically turn the unit into a Colony- it would just merge them all. You could use it in any way you want. You could group up a bunch of military units and use them as an army, you could group up a bunch of engineers and send them to go repair some sort of mega-disaster (like if a city gets torn apart by a disaster, you could send them to repair it).


If you left one idle long enough, they would automatically form an SC of their own or temporarily stay in a nearby one.

InvaderZim wrote:

US_of_Alaska wrote:

I think the best way to handle this would not be to have a 'settler' or 'colonist' unit, but have a group of deployed units grouped into a 'colony'. That way you could send a bunch of workers, gatherers and civilians to a new SC site, with military support in case things get rough. Of course, any area that has enough buildings and people in it could be turned into a Society Centre, so the player could choose to set up their colonies any way they choose to. But the option to group units into a single-functioning object would be handy for mass colonizations.

Maybe it would auto-group once they get too grouped-up. This would not automatically turn the unit into a Colony- it would just merge them all. You could use it in any way you want. You could group up a bunch of military units and use them as an army, you could group up a bunch of engineers and send them to go repair some sort of mega-disaster (like if a city gets torn apart by a disaster, you could send them to repair it).


If you left one idle long enough, they would automatically form an SC of their own or temporarily stay in a nearby one.

I don't want my people to auto-manage unless i tell them to. Having a simple Grouping mechanic (drag a box, give the group a name).

US_of_Alaska wrote:

I don't want my people to auto-manage unless i tell them to. Having a simple Grouping mechanic (drag a box, give the group a name).

Even better.

How would you call for the whole squad? Would there be a panel of buttons somewhere, would selecting one of the group select the whole group, or would they be selected as one big group of mechanics, nothing more than one big unit?

The Uteen wrote:

How would you call for the whole quad? Would there be a panel of buttons somewhere, would selecting one of the group select the whole group, or would they be selected as one big group of mechanics, nothing more than one big unit?

Well, i'd say that assigning key shortcuts to a group should be possible. But mostly you would just select the group as you would select a unit: click it. Then the group acts as a unit that has all of the abilities of the individual units it contains. You could also easily separate the group back into individual units and control them that way.

How would you separate them?

The Uteen wrote:

How would you separate them?

Well the same way that you group them. Through the click of a GUI button, or through a keyboard shortcut.