"doctrines"

[Phoenix]

Add a "doctrine" system like in CoH or EU Rome.

For example there could be a doctrine called "Horse Lords"(yeah, like in EU Rome)that would give some bonuses like faster build rate or increased healt points for cavalry. An other example could be some kind of defensive doctrine, which would decrease the building cost of military buildings (barracks, towers, walls). This "doctrines" could be researched as a tecnology or maybe chosen at game start. Every player would be able to choose just one or maybe a few doctrines.

I think this would give an additional layer of deepness to the game, without complicating it too much. Maybe it could be a bit of a hassle to balance, but in my oppinion it would be worth the effort.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading

Phoenix

PS: sry for my english

[comp3820]

I've never played a game with a concept like this, but it sounds interesting.

To extend the idea further (and make the doctrine choice less permanent), you could have buttons on the side of the screen, or at a specific building, allowing you to switch quickly back and forth between different doctrines.

For example, you could put your nation on a war footing when gearing up to attack an enemy, at which point your economy would slow down considerably, but unit production would increase. Maybe you could even get a temporary attack bonus. A boom doctrine might help your economy at the expense of your military, by lowering soldier's attack, but increasing their gather rates (ie they left their weapons at home to work in the fields). Of course, you'd have one for a last-ditch defense, where economy is cut completely, and all units fight (maybe female workers garrison in houses and give the house an attack?). It would kind of be like a combination/extension of the "town bell" idea in Age of Empires, as well as the "Revolution" idea in Age III.

At the same time, the doctrine choice could change the GUI setup (or make this a different option, separate from doctrines?). When attacking, your minimap would highlight only military units, you would get a tally of your entire army, a highlight on idle soldiers, special alerts for newly built soldiers, one click selection for formations, etc etc. When switching to economy mode, your GUI would color-code workers per their job on the minimap, show the number of workers per resource, give special buttons for building economic buildings without having to select villagers (nearest villager would build? nearest idle villager?) etc.