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Topic: The sense of the Empire's outpost?

MarkMcWire
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Posted at: 2020-11-25, 17:20

What is the purpose of the outpost of the empire in terms of game design. The question comes to me because there is no equivalent for this building in the barbarian tribe.

The barriers also exist for the Barbarians, just like the tower. Both buildings with a medium construction site. Does the outpost have any special meaning or quality?

Edited: 2020-11-25, 17:33

My widelands project: https://github.com/widelands/wl_addons_server/tree/master/addons/europeans_tribe.wad

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MarkMcWire
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Posted at: 2020-11-25, 17:28

Comparison of the military buildings:

Barbarians - Empire - Atlanteans

Sentry - Blockhouse/Sentry - Guardhouse/Small_Tower

Barrier - Barrier - Tower (unfortunate name choice)
Tower - Tower - High_Tower
? - Outpost - Guardhall

Fortress - Fortress - ?
Citadel - Castle - Castle

In sum, the empire has one more military building type than the other two tribes. The barbarians would need an additional medium building type and the Atlanteans a fortress.
In my opinion, to simplify the game principle, I would rather remove the outpost of the empire and the guardhall of the altanters. Two building types per constructionsite size should actually be enough.

With the Europeans, I converted the two types of buildings (outpost and guardhall) into trainingsites. "Guardhall" in particular sounds like a training ground.

Edited: 2020-11-25, 17:32

My widelands project: https://github.com/widelands/wl_addons_server/tree/master/addons/europeans_tribe.wad

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hessenfarmer
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Posted at: 2020-11-25, 17:36

The empire has upgradeable buildings that can be built directly as well the outpost is cheaper then a barrier but can be enhanced to it with more accomodation and i believe one step bigger radius. So for me this adds diversity and depth to strategies and I would vote to keep the buildings of the legacy tribes.


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Nordfriese
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Posted at: 2020-11-25, 17:39

We should definitely keep the classical tribes as they are.

The empire's outpost is like a downgraded barrier at half the cost which makes it very useful e.g. in situations where wood is too precious. And the atlantean guardhall has the largest soldier capacity of all medium milsites so it can be considered sort of a medium-sized fortress already.

There used to be some building called the Stronghold which was, if I remember correctly1, the barbarian equivalent of the empire Outpost. It was removed long ago.

Edited: 2020-11-25, 17:49

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WorldSavior
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Posted at: 2020-11-25, 18:28

hessenfarmer wrote:

So for me this adds diversity and depth to strategies and I would vote to keep the buildings of the legacy tribes.

+1

MarkMcWire wrote:

Does the outpost have any special meaning or quality?

Yes, it is useful in situations where a building with conquer radius 7 fits perfectly. Furthermore you can enhance outposts before they get overwhelmed, so enhancing them to a barrier in a fight can be useful.


Wanted to save the world, then I got widetracked

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kaputtnik
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Posted at: 2020-11-25, 20:07

The outpost cost one marble when building it and returns one marble when dismantling. For empire this is really important, because marble is one of the main resources of empire.


Fight simulator for Widelands:
https://wide-fighter.netlify.app/

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MarkMcWire
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Posted at: 2020-11-30, 11:59

BTW: I have now also given my tribe a "barrier" to bring it in line with the others.


My widelands project: https://github.com/widelands/wl_addons_server/tree/master/addons/europeans_tribe.wad

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