I really like the capture feature and I don't think it needs a radical overhaul. I strongly disagree with any notion that some buildings should be impossible to capture, or should take so long as to render it functionally impossible.
I very much like how the current system makes it harder and harder to capture a building based on how many soldiers are in it. This makes perfect sense. I think the original situation in this thread involved a building with only 3 soldiers in it. If such a building were attacked by a mass of enemy troops, I think it should
CAPTURE SPEED vs. DESTROY SPEED
I think this is really a game balance issue and I'll leave it to others to figure it out.
From a realism perspective, you could argue either way that one should be faster. If changes are made, I would suggest they be conservative... I think the current balance is within the general range of appropriateness.
I might suggest that, instead of simply making capture go slower than it does now, we just (modestly) increase the capture-resistance of each garrisoned unit.
DEFAULT CAPTURE vs. DEFAULT DESTROY
I like having the default capture now, but it was a frustrating transition before I learned about ctrl+Rclick.
One nice thing is, if you meant to destroy it but it defaulted to capture, you can still destroy it. If you meant to capture it but it defaulted to destroy, you're out of luck.
SPEED of DESTRUCTION
I like the idea above of slowing down owner-initiated destruction of buildings. I don't want to slow it too much... I think like 5 or 10 seconds might be enough.
I think it makes sense to be able to quickly destroy siege engines. If they get slowed down, I think it should only be by a second or 2.
I prefer a general slowdown of owner-initiated destruction to a cooldown period when you can't destroy something you just captured. This feels more realistic and evenly applied.
BUILDINGS FLIPPING ALLEGIANCE QUICKLY AND REPEATEDLY
Why not? In numerous actual battles and skirmishes the same farmhouse gets captured and recaptured again, then gets ignored by soldiers and reverts to the owners, who are loyal to one side, then it is captured again... I don't have a problem with this.
ALL THE BUILDINGS COLLAPSING WHEN YOU CAPTURE THE CC
This would be fixed by slowing down the timing for owner-initiated destruction, mentioned above. Presumably all or most of the buildings would flip ownership before they could actually be destroyed. Or, if the enemy really does want to destroy all their buildings before you get them (which makes sense, and has plenty of basis in reality) they would have to get started destroying them much earlier, _before_ you had captured the CC, instead of waiting until the last possible second before instantly destroying their empire.
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A footnote: I love this game, I haven't been involved in development so I defer to all you longtime heros of 0 A.D. who have managed to create this awesomeness. And honestly, the first time I heard about the capture feature I thought it would be ridiculously unworkable and resisted upgrading for that reason, and now I think it is an awesome, awesome and fundamental part of the game. So what do I know?
