Talk:Battle/Choosing Sides

When I placed the link to this page, I did not intend it to be a pseudo-IC explanation...I was hoping to make something more straightforward and simple, laying out the different possibilities in a step-by-step manner. (I should have gotten to it sooner, for which I apologize...) Part of the problem I see with what has been written so far is that it takes a lot of space to say very little, and say it somewhat confusingly.

I would like to replace what's there with something more along the lines of the following:

How to Determine the Defenders

Note: much of this is based on experience, and is an attempt to describe simply a decision process which is fiendishly complex. It's a good set of guidelines, but will almost certainly not cover all situations fully.

• If there is no takeover and there has been no battle in the region, the region owner are always the defenders if present and stationary (they can only be defenders when arriving in the region if there were stationary troops of the realm already present)
• If there is no takeover and there has been no battle in the region, and the region owner is not present, a realm that has been stationary in the region will be the defender
• If there is a takeover and there has been no battle, the realm running the takeover will be the defenders
• If there has been a battle and the attackers lost, the defenders should stay the defenders
• If there has been a battle and the defenders lost, things get more complicated:
  • With just 2 realms involved, with Realm A attacking and Realm B defending and losing the first battle, Realm A becomes the defender
  • With more realms involved, if the attackers are or at peace, they also become defenders
  • With more realms involved, if the attackers are at war with each other, the situation is unpredictable
    • Prevailing theory: the attacking realm with the most men or CS remaining becomes the defender
  • If the region owners lose, but raise militia, they become the defenders again (Note: I do not have direct recent evidence of this, and would appreciate a word from someone with proof)
• The primary defenders will be joined by anyone allied with them, and anyone at peace with them

How to Determine If There Will Be a Battle

If there is a group in the region that wants to go to war with *all* the defenders, then they will attack them. Otherwise, there will be no battle.

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Well, this is just a start and I was planing on getting as much as I could down before revising. I know I'm long winded and I can't always get my point across well so that others understand, so I need help with that. Other's are free to do what they like. And I agree that it probably shouldn't be IC, it wasn't very good anyway. Fredrich 03:37, 12 September 2006 (CEST)

Would you object to my replacing what you wrote with something like what I put above? --Anaris 18:00, 12 September 2006 (CEST)

Hey, go for it, its the Wiki. Anyone can do whatever they want. Besides, I have already completed my master plan. I manipulated someone who knows what they're talking about into working on it. Muahaha! And your design is much better. I just realized that I was on my way towards writing the game's code again. Fredrich 23:00, 12 September 2006 (CEST)

Battle declaration order

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the depth of all combats follow this order:

a) Primary defender chosen. (a single realm)

b) Any realms at hatred with primary defender, at war with primary defender, or at neutral with defender and controlling aggressive units attack. Murderous units join attack, and any realm mates come to assist their murderous brethren.

c) Secondary defenders are added. These would be realms with alliances with the primary defender and no peace agreements with any attackers. Realms at war with an attacker and not at peace or higher with any attackers also join defenders.

d) Secondary attackers chosen. This would be realms allied with an attacker and not at peace or higher with any defenders.

I'm rather sure that the above is the universal order of battles, no matter the number of realms involved. I have some doubt in the order of secondary attackers and defenders, as they both are rare. Also, murderous units are rarely seen, so I don't know where to put them in the order. Cases to be investigated would be murderous region owners attacking an ally, especially in a fortified region. --Eurtek 21:24, 7 December 2006 (CET)

Actually, it's A-C-B-D. All defenders are chosen, then all attackers. And I'm absolutely certain of this (if it were the way you say, many very odd battle configurations I've seen wouldn't have taken place). --Anaris 20:10, 8 December 2006 (CET)

Very Hard Stuff

All of this is very hard stuff. I have a function in the combat code that does the side choosing, and it's one of the most complicated parts of the game. It's over 200 lines of code just to determine who will fight on which sides, and that's for normal battles (there's another function for rebel setup during rebellions).

--Tom 01:05, 8 January 2007 (CET)