Provinces (game feature)
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| P R O V I N C E S |
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Last update: 2018-12-22 5:00PM
CONCEPT
=======
Aegic is divided into kingdoms and kingdoms are divided into provinces.
Province is a generic term to describe the smallest unit of governance
over larger area of land.
LAWS
====
These are the laws of provinces gameplay, described via use cases.
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| LAW 1: Stealing provinces |
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'Is it OK to steal provinces if a way is found?'
LAW: Yes, basically it is OK, but _NOT_ if it happens in conjunction
with a bug. Then again, it's not exactly a 'we have rules for turning
every adverse contingency to a pleasant experience, so that everyone
can win' kind of a thing. Provinces is by its definition a gaming mode
meant for highbies. A highbie is aware of the risks involved, and is
probably savvy enough to keep command codes stored and used in a
professional way and so that it is not stolen by any newbie sitting in
front of the province door.
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| LAW 2: Taking strategic risks by conscious choice |
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'I shared my province command codes with whom I thought was my friend
but now he has locked me out!'
LAW: Permitted. The risk was taken by the action of sharing the command
code by a conscious choice, which could have been left unshared, also
by a conscious choice.
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| LAW 3: Provinces and areas |
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'If there is a province near a good exp spot, and its in my province,
can I kill everyone who wants to exp there?'
LAW: No.
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| LAW 4: Use of force on my land |
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'There's someone just standing next to me when I'm punching in my
command code and he just doesn't let me do it in a way he can't see it.'
LAW: You can use force. But if the subject is idle, banish, don't kill.
If the suspect is unidle, and just won't move, use of lethal force is
allowed. You have the authority to chase the suspect all the way to
the outer boundary of your province, but ONLY as long as the suspect
resists. When he abides, stop chasing.
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| LAW 5: Ad hoc kingdoms |
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'Can I choose my kingdom as Stormlord, deplete the province of its
natural resources, then change the regent of the province to that of
my secondary char, free of cost?'
LAW: No, because this would be abusement. In this case, standard fee
for changing allegiance will apply here for changing the regent.
See also Law #10.
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| LAW 6: Giving out provinces |
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'what sort of thing is in place if you say... give province to another
kingdom for a few hours, let them build units, they give it back to your
non-kingdom of that kind province ?'
LAW: It's abuse, not permitted. What is not abuse is buying a unit from
your allied kingdom or otherwise. proper way is to sell the province,
even with units if you want, as long as the ownership change is permanent
and not back and forth. So no swapping of ownership for manufacturing
periods.
Note also that there's also another thing - some kingdom specific special
commands, such as bandit rob, are related to the allegiance of the player.
So no matter if you buy a blockade runner from bandits, you cant rob with
it.
See also Law #10.
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| LAW 7: Kingdoms of primaries and secondaries |
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'I have a primary and a secondary character. Can I choose a different
kingdom for my primary and secondary?'
No. Your primary and secondary character must have the same kingdom.
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| LAW 8: Griefing |
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'I'm a player and I hate my friend who has a province so, so much.
I know he is running trade caravans. Can I go grief and kill his units
with my player character?'
If you want to sleep safe, make escorts. They are powerful against both
players and other units alike. But even military units do not attack
players unless provoked. This is because in a battle, players on both
sides who are controlling the units, must be nearby. It cannot turn
into a rip show each time a player steps into a wrong room.
Therefore, because escorting provinces units are not aggro towards
players in OW - and because we dont want aggro units wandering in
OW, it is wiser to keep player vs player conflicts and unit vs unit
conflicts separate.
So the law is: Because provinces units wont attack players at sight,
players should not attack province units. Therefore attacking a
provinces unit with a player is not accepted, and will be punished.
Player vs player is under already existing pk mechanic/rules.
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| LAW 9: Cheating |
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'I thought there are other ways to move my units, maybe via templar
evacuate etc. Is this intended and can I do it?'
It is not intended and not legal to try and circumvent the basic
unit movement mechanics set by e.g. commanders of units, and which
are provided by provinces infrastructure, in any way.
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| LAW 10: Treason |
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The spirit of this law is not to discourage beneficial alliances between
kingdoms, that's actually what a regent is paid for - to bring benefit
to his kingdom. The primary purpose of this law is to prevent kingdom
A from 'assimilating' special features of kingdom B and C via any kind
of "battle thrall" setup, resulting in a 'super-kingdom' which eventually
has special features of all kingdoms available by having just "puppets"
with a single province leading the other kingdoms under his wing, or
even not leading at all but just idling in them without ruling, being
completely 'event driven' by the 'puppet master.'
"Kingdom" in provinces refers to a form of governance over a land area,
which can be lead by a ruling monarch and his/her family, or a council,
or a parliament, which is referred to as "King." This means player and
players are not the King of the kingdom they pledge their allegiance to,
but they are _working_ for the kingdom.
Therefore, there is a possibility of getting fired from the service of
a kingdom if the regent does not follow 'party discipline' of the
corresponding kingdom. Party discipline will be defined by the King and
a player-based voting system in which the total number of votes in each
kingdom is the number of that kingdom's provinces.
So if e.g. a cenedian player A has 20 provinces, and there's another
cenedian player B with 3 provinces, player A will have 20 votes concerning
matters of the kingdom whereas player B will have 3 votes.
All kingdom wide decisions which will take effect, such as firing a regent
from a kingdom, will be based on three factors:
1) Decision of the King
2) Outcome of the Voting
3) Evidence of misconduct (though depending on case it is not necessarily
requested by the King)
The #1 is actually a 'wiz-lock' in the process - you could also think of
it as the time it takes for the result of voting to go through necessary
bureaucracy before it ends up in front of the King, and ultimately with
the King stamping the decree with his ring and therefore making the ruling
a reality.
So an archduke cannot just reset kingdoms of provinces over midnight at
(drunken or whatever) whim. But if everything regarding the case is well
built, the evidence is there and it is solid, voting result is pretty much
unanimous, the result of vote will very likely take effect as it is. As
in, the paper just lands on the King's desk while he is eating an apple,
he just boredly takes a look at it, goes 'yeah, everything seems to be
in order' and stamps it without reading it any further, takes another
bite of his apple, and life goes on.
Here are some exemplary use cases to more verbosely describe the spirit
of this law.
#1: If kingdom A is able to produce stealth legions, which is a closely
guarded 'military secret' of kingdom A, and the regent of kingdom A is
producing these units for kingdom B AND this happens without the consent
of other regents of kingdom A (vote) AND this happens without a proper
compensation of a similar magnitude from kingdom B to kingdom A, you can
be found guilty for a treason.
Of course you can ally with other kingdoms and you should do so. But
keep your own kingdom's benefit at heart.
#2: All regents of a single kingdom do not have to get along with each
other. The internal relationships between regents of a kingdom can and
may vary, if not escalate into minor skirmishes at worst. So a situation
in which regent A from kingdom A says "regent B from kingdom A is stupid"
is legit.
Getting new players into the equation is warmly welcome, and you can ally
with these new players regardless of kingdoms as you want, but just dont
forget the proverbial "king" of your kingdom is your 'enabler' -- he has
chosen to share the deepest military secrets of _his_ kingdom with you,
with the premise that you will act in a way that is beneficial for the
said kingdom.
When ownership of a province is transferred to another player, it becomes
his property, and he can choose his 'destiny' freely - of course it would
be preferable that happens in terms of benefit towards the generous regent
who provided the province. This is understandable.
However, what is not understandable - if we look at things from the viewpoint
of the Kingdom:
#3: Acting in a way that will not benefit the Kingdom, or even cause damage
to one's own kingdom - this will likely lead into actions from the kingdom's
behalf - e.g. the next morning ten legions of "Sardaukar" will be knocking
on the problematic regent's door.
#4: If you are e.g. a Khazakul regent and want to ally with a Tyranus regent
to bring down a Valkor regent, this is legit, feel free to do so.
#5: If you are a Khazakul regent, and you ally with a Tyranus regent, to bring
down a Khazakul regent -> sardaukar knocking on the regent's door.
#6: Again, let's say King of Khazakul kingdom "hates" King of Mantis kingdom,
and he gets a field report which states something about one of his Viscounts
building up kingdom of Mantis military force with Khazakul units -> sardaukar,
door, their weapons, regent's face.
#7: Kingdom A has units in province bay of kingdom B. Legit.
#8: Kingdom A regents a province in order to 'assimilate' units of Kingdom B.
This is fishy regent play. Not legit. See also law #6.
#9: Is it good as long as player is actively involved with management of
the provinces/alliance? Yes, this is OK. It contains the essential element -
a player who acts like sentient being and who makes his own decisions and is
therefore not a puppet used for exploiting the "host" kingdom.
RESOURCES
=========
There are a total of six resources, of which four are natural and two
are manufactured.
Natural resource: Food
Natural resource: Iron
Natural resource: Wood
Natural resource: Crystals
Manufactured resource: Supplies
Manufactured resource: Gold bars
Provinces near mountains tend to produce more iron. Provinces near fertile
lands tend to produce more food and wood (and be more expensive). Provinces
which are warm, or near volcanoes, tend to unearth magical crystals.
Temperature is a big factor in province price.
COMMAND CODES
=============
If you purchase a province, you can divide its ownership because you will
be handed a set of command codes which allow full access to controls of the
province. You can share this code with whomever you want, but then anyone
who knows the code can lock YOU out - and it is not forbidden (insert
game-of-thrones theme song here) nor province reimbursed - so see CAREFULLY
whom you trust your province command codes!
As you punch in your command code, anyone in the same room typing 'wheels'
will see what you're doing with the wheels. So do it like you were withdrawing
cash from ATM. Then again, if someone looks at the wheels or tries to operate
them, everyone in the room will know.
It is a good idea to rotate your command code once in a while. You can do that
from your province command center.
PALISADES
=========
You can use 'unit <unit> fortify to <amount of arrows>' to build palisades
with your unit. Your unit must have ranged weapons with ammunition (arrows) to
build palisades.
If you belong to the kingdom of Bloodaxe, your units can yield four times
more palisades with one ranged weapon ammunition than any other kingdom.
If you are from kingdom of mantis, your palisades are thick spider web will
cause less damage but they will drain the unit's food in the struggle to get
free.
Building palisades costs you ranged weapon ammunition. the higher level the
ranged weapon, the more palisades per ammo you get.
Maximum size of a palisade field has been set to 30x30 (but creating such a
large field will consume a _lot_ of arrows) and remember, palisades do not save
over boot.
Each palisade can hit a unit really hard (~60000-80000 hp of damage). If a unit
encounters a palisade, it will stop automatically to prevent further damage
by driving deeper into the battlements.
To counter the threat of palisades, all units with _weapons_ are capable of
doing 'unit <unit> do sweep' which will make the unit destroy any palisades
or battlements in nearby OW rooms, depending on how many weapons and how good your
weapons are.
Unit gets a saving throw each time it enters a room with a palisade, but the
sweep doesn't need to be done from the same room with the palisade. Depending
on your weapons you can do it even 5 rooms away and sweep a large area clean of
palisades with one go.
There's a considerable cooldown in sweeping palisades, so even if they do not
succeed in destroying your unit, they will slow down your advance almost certainly.
HEROES
======
Heroes can be used for unit vs unit combat, and they have a one-off special hit
which can do unit level damage. So if you have a unit with heroes you can
'park' it somewhere nearby and just make your heroes go over the enemy unit
to 'marmorize' it before you hit with your actual unit.
Eskara and Cenedoiss are better with heroes by design. So they can park their
unit _far_ away and then go beat the other unit just with their heroes. This is
the reason why heroes cost so much - they can inflict actual damage to units
and they can hit enemy units without enemy unit being able to damage your unit
directly.
Heroes don't consume food at all, they have a command range instead, e.g.
if they have command range of 20, it means they can wander a total of 20 rooms
before they have to get into some bay to refresh their commands or they will
be stranded.
All units which are capable of carrying heroes have been notified on kingdoms
page. You will also notice some kingdoms are better with heroes than others.
For example kingdom of Graemor and the orc kingdom of Bloodaxe offer ample
hero opportunities.
Heroes are not a laughing matter. They are designed as integral part of the
'war machine' and they really are as valuable as they have been noted in
the listings. Using them at your enemies wisely will leave a mark. So the
units which are capable of carrying heroes _are_ as valuable as stated in
the list and losing such a unit is a big setback for any kingdom.
Heroes don't differ in any way from (another context) something like
'star destroyer' and its 'tie bombers' setting. So the heroes of the unit
can be actually a bigger threat than the unit itself.
The heroes anti-unit one-shot attack is considered a ranged weapon so it
hits in "first phase" of the round.
BATTLEFIELDS
============
Battlefields are scenic locations in the outworld which produce resources
to the game in addition to provinces. Battlefield can be in one of four
stages: 1) at peace, 2) under claim, 3) in battle or 4) in aftermath.
Each battlefield replenishes resources at a rate which is visible using
command 'battlefields'. To get your hands on these resources, you need
to claim a battlefield.
To claim battlefields, bring your provinces OW units to the battlefield
with servants onboard. Then, use commands 'disembark' and 'embark' to land
your troops on the battlefield.
When servants of only one faction are present in the battlefield, it is
considered to be under claim. The claim must be maintained by one alliance for
the duration of one and a half hours. Once successful, your alliance will
be unlocked the possiblity to 'loot' resources that are replenished to the
battlefield.
When an enemy enters a battlefield with its' own servants and disembarks
them to the battlefield, a battle ensues between forces that are in the
battlefield. The claim will be nullified and will start over only when the
enemy present is slain.
After a successful claim, the battlefield will enter the aftermath stage,
and it is only during this aftermath when it is possible to use your OW
unit to 'loot' resources of the battlefield aboard. Like the claim, the
aftermath stage will last a considerable period of time.
If you claim a battlefield and nobody will come to contest it, you will
get a nominal reward when your claim is successful. But if someone comes
to contest you during your claim, your reward will increase depending
on the size of the battle that ensues.
Each battlefield lives in approximately 20-30 second ticks, also known as
battlefield rounds, and it is in accordance to these ticks when new battles
will start, ongoing battles are continued, battles end. This provides you
a small window of opportunity to choose whether you will pursue the
battle, or maybe flee, or bring in more troops, between the ticks.
So for example, when you disembark your troops (=servants) to the
battlefield, wait for a while. The battlefield will react at the pace of
these ticks.
Unit commands 'unit <unit> do disembark', 'unit <unit> do embark' and
'unit <unit> do loot' are specifically for battlefield use.
Battlefields are completely PvP driven activity, so all players will see
when your claim starts on 'province-event' channel and can come contest
you one way or another. So if you go claiming, better be prepared!
Troops which share the same allied code will fight together. All troops
with differing allied code will be attacked.
Neutral provices cannot participate in battlefield activity as neutral
provinces do not have a standing army. So your province must have a
kingdom before you can participate.
Only military units can claim battlefields.
PROVINCE UNITS: WEAPONS AND DAMAGE
==================================
Province units have two types of weapons: 1) "primary" weapons, which
are the melee weapons, and 2) ranged weapons, mainly bows, which use
arrows as ammunition.
Primary weapons can be of level 1 to 10 - ranging from clubs to military
grade pikes.
Ranged weapons can be of level 1 to 10 - ranging from crude bows to
enchanted bows with enchanted arrows.
A military unit, depending on its 'spec' can be equipped with 0-10
primary weapons, and 0-10 ranged weapons. All primary weapons of a unit
must be of same level.
Same applies to ranged weapons - they can of course be different level
than the chosen primary weapons, but all _ranged weapons_ must be of same
level regardless.
In combat, naturally, ranged weapons hit always before primary weapons.
So enemy can be destroyed before the primary weapons even hit. This means
the enemy unit can sometimes be destroyed before primary weapons are able
to hit well enough.
Each ranged weapon will give the unit 1 special attack during a combat round.
Each primary weapon will give the unit 1 special attack during a combat round.
So in a unit with e.g. 4 ranged weapons, and 2 primary weapons, the unit
will have a total of 6 attacks in one combat round.
Note that each weapon attack has a chance of missing the enemy, which depends
on various factors that are outside the scope of this help. So if a unit has
e.g. 4 primary weapons, it can land a hit on enemy 0-4 times, depending on it's
attack roll (which is hidden).
Each primary and ranged weapon hit deals two types of damage simultaneously:
1) conventional "hit point" damage and 2) staff (personnel) damage. Some weapons
are more effective against staff, some cause more hit point damage.
Only provinces OW units are able to cause staff damage to each other. Players
can cause only conventional "hit point" damage.
If a unit loses all its hit points, it will naturally be destroyed and its
cargo will be jettisoned to its location into a crate.
Also units without _food_ cannot use their primary nor ranged weapons and
are basically sitting ducks. So make sure your units have both full staff
and as much food as possible (esp. for bandit and mantis attacks).
If a unit loses all its staff, it will be rendered incapable of using its
weapons. This is a terrible loss as finishing the unit will be then a proverbial
walk in the park. So don't let your staff be killed, it's almost as fatal
mistake as is letting it be destroyed due to hit point loss.
Below are damage statistics of each weapon and ranged weapon available.
Numbers given are averages.
primary weapons:
level 1: damage 3000 hit points and 10 staff killed per hit
level 2: damage 1000 hit points and 15 staff killed per hit
level 3: damage 10000 hit points and 3 staff killed per hit
level 4: damage 25000 hit points and 10 staff killed per hit
level 5: damage 29000 hit points and 9 staff killed per hit
level 6: damage 20000 hit points and 30 staff killed per hit
level 7: damage 40000 hit points and 20 staff killed per hit
level 8: damage 35000 hit points and 30 staff killed per hit
level 9: damage 35000 hit points and 50 staff killed per hit
level 10: damage 45000 hit points and 35 staff killed per hit
ranged weapons:
level 1: damage 5000 hit points and 4 staff killed per volley hit
level 2: damage 8000 hit points and 6 staff killed per volley hit
level 3: damage 10000 hit points and 3 staff killed per volley hit
level 4: damage 2000 hit points and 15 staff killed per volley hit
level 5: damage 15000 hit points and 9 staff killed per volley hit
level 6: damage 30000 hit points and 13 staff killed per volley hit
level 7: damage 35000 hit points and 17 staff killed per volley hit
level 8: damage 40000 hit points and 23 staff killed per volley hit
level 9: damage 48000 hit points and 25 staff killed per volley hit
level 10: damage 55000 hit points and 35 staff killed per volley hit
Damage caused by heroes is 15000 hit points and 2 staff killed per hit.
This is a one-off attack so a single hero can't do this more than once.
So if your military unit has 10 ranged weapons of level 10, the damage
potential per one combat round is 450000 hit points with 350 staff
killed.
Note #1: Note that ranged weapons cause at average more damage than primaries.
This is because they consume 'arrows' as ammunition which must be loaded into
the OW unit for it to be able to use its ranged weapons. Note that arrows for
ranged weapons are based on level too - so don't accidentally build arrows
which do not fit as ammunition for your unit's ranged weapons!
Note #2: The damage type both primary and ranged weapons cause is physical,
and especially high-end units can have physical resistance due to their sheer
mass, so make sure you are aware of that as they may affect the numbers given.
However, regardless of physical resistances staff damage is constant. So
attacking staff is often more effective against larger units.
Usually legion sized units get disabled not because their hit points will run
out but because their staff is killed.
IN CASE OF WAR BREAK GLASS
==========================
This chapter is to provide some tips for the unfortunate scenario in which
diplomacy fails, and there will be need for the first option of the
incompetent and last of the professional: violence.
#1:
March 10 is not meant to be combat speed. It is travel speed. The speed
you choose in combat is of course slower because otherwise events will
proceed too fast. So like it is with modern day jet planes, they afterburn
@ Mach3 to the conflict area, then they slow down. You should adopt the
same practice.
In addition to traveling, march 10 is good for intercepting units which
are doomed to march much slower. However, if an escaping unit is going
at march 10 too, this advantage is lost. A unit capable of going march
10 is most likely able to escape most encounters. That's what the owner
of the unit paid for with the decision of putting a general as commander
of his unit.
So a rule of thumb: Units capable of march 10 have almost always the
advantage of choosing where they will fight. It is almost impossible to
corner them.
#2:
Q: Are we having too much resources? With this resource income its not
a problem to put level 10 everything into all units.
You will learn that war changes everything. War is _ALWAYS_ a huge
resource loss. That is why it is usually avoided to the last possible
moment by every smart regent because not only does it deplete resources
of warring participants but it also makes both of them weaker to some
other kingdoms.
As this document was written, Aegic was living a certain kind of golden
age of land grab and resources stockpiling. However, if a war breaks out,
with inexperienced commanders, the following will happen:
1) In the beginning of war, all participants are able to field their
proverbial fifth generation Sukhoi fighter jets and F-22 stealth fighters
to the front line and they will do so.
2) However, as the "latest and greatest" eventually gets destroyed, warring
factions realize they can't put up new fifth generation jets to the battle
any more because they are damn expensive and you keep losing them faster
than you are capable of recovering the resources. So it becomes harder and
harder to field "level 10 everythings" by law of nature.
3) This is when warring factions start digging into their proverbial MiG-21
and F-86 sabres which have been mothballing up to this moment. Then they
will deploy them and continue to the bitter end.
NO. This is not how a successful commander will win a war. This is how a
successful commander will win a war:
DON'T put your latest-and-greatest to the battlefields first. Ration them
CAREFULLY so that you will bring your best units ONLY to those battles
which have the most strategic value to you. Using them in all battles
is a surefire way to your defeat. Notice also the psychology here: if you
lose your best units first, especially to some newbie mistake, your morale
will take a serious hit of which you might not be able to recover from.
Instead, make those newbie mistakes with less expensive units. Practice
the mindset of being able to divide the battles you plan to participate
in three rough groups:
1) "Minor": Disrupting enemy supply chains
2) "Major": Escorting important cargo, skirmishes to drain enemy resources
3) "Critical": Battles which will likely turn the tides of war
You probably realized by now that all three will require different setup of
units in order for you to be successful. Which leads to an important safety
tip:
All of your kingdom's units are useful!
This is because type of encounters vary. In some encounters you will win
by sending a light-weight, fast unit. In some encounters you will have
go to toe-to-toe with legions.
So control / maintain superiority over an area with your "MiG-21s" and
should you need more muscle THEN have some more powerful units ready
somewhere - these are your "elite" units which you will use much more
sparingly.
#3:
In most encounters, having intel about your enemy, or what kind of units
he is having out there will be half the victory, as you will be able to
estimate the strength of your enemy better.
#4:
Never go into a fight with the plan to fight it to the bitter end. Set
yourself an acceptable margin of defeat. Such a margin could be e.g.
you will withdraw if you lose 1/3 of your units. Never accept 100%
loss by default as it will take away your ability to wage war for
long-term. So before going into battle - decide the criteria for
retreating. It will pay itself back because those units will live to
see another battle, in which they might win.
Remember, healing damaged units happens in province bays at cost of
5 supply units per 1% of damage healed.
So use these tips wisely, and remember:
Most communities of Aegic are good-natured folk. Nothing prevents you
from enjoying the provinces game as a 'Deck Building Game'. There will be
unlockable achievements and even a personal medal case for displaying your
achievements in terms of peace-time economy and resources.
Also, provinces themselves are combatsafe, so they can't really be taken
away from you. So you don't have to play provinces with a war in mind. But
if it comes down to war, remember these points and you will prevail.
NAVIGATION AND AUTOPILOT
========================
Each of your provinces units is capable of using 'auto pilot' to navigate
from one part of the map to another. This chapter helps you to use the
auto pilot to your benefit.
Each provinces unit can hold in its memory a total of 4 unique locations,
aka 'waypoints', which are defined X,Y locations in the outworld.
To see your current waypoints:
unit <unit> do report
The waypoint #0 is also known as 'home' waypoint. So you can use it to
store the home location of the unit for RTB. Waypoints #1 #2 and #3
are actual waypoints.
Set waypoints like this:
Syntax: unit <unit> do setwaypoint to <waypoint slot> units <X,Y>
Example: unit jolly do setwaypoint to 1 units 850,321
You can store the waypoints before activating the autopilot. To activate
the autopilot, you must be in outworld, and then:
Syntax: unit <unit> do lockwaypoint to <waypoint slot>
Example: unit jollyroger do lockwaypoint to 1
Now the autopilot will know where it needs to go, but it still needs to
be activated. The command is a toggle, so if you type it once, autopilot
will be enabled, and if you type it again, autopilot will be disabled.
unit <unit> do autopilot
Now the autopilot is enabled. Note that autopilot doesn't have control
over the marching speed, only direction. So set some marching speed to
your unit and the autopilot will kick in and start controlling the
marching direction of your unit. You will see the status of autopilot
in the unit report.
To clear your current waypoint:
unit <unit> do clearwaypoint
This will not delete the waypoints from your unit's memory, just clears
the currently selected waypoint.
When the autopilot reaches the waypoint, it will stop your unit and
you will get 'at waypoint' info among the unit report.
!! Important words of warning!
The autopilot is not AI. It is not (yet) smart enough to swerve hills and
lakes and other hazardous conditions. It does not know how to function if
it reaches a dead end. Then you need to go disable the autopilot and
rectify the situation yourself, before enabling it again.
What the autopilot can do is it can look at where your unit is, and the
waypoint you have set for the unit, and it will set the unit towards the
direction which will lead it via the shortest possible route to the
destination. Note also that if it encounters unexpected problematic
situations, it might not make the smartest decisions on how to proceed
and will waste your food in the process.
So be careful not to trust too much into hands of the autopilot before
you are familiar with its limitations. Recommendation is to use it only
for traveling over 'straight lines' with no obstacles in the outworld.
The autopilot will help you in 'some' aspects of controlling your units,
but it will not be a complete substitute for proper 'adult supervision'
for units you have in the outworld.
CONTACTS & INTERCEPTING
=======================
'Contact' is a generic term meaning a provinces' outworld
unit or hero, which is inside the detection range of your unit
or hero. A contact can be another unit, or a hero, from your
or another kingdom. Usually word 'contact!' refers to the enemy
but since contacts can also be friendlies, contact is not tied
to any specific faction or alignment. It can also be used in
a situation when the exact characteristics of the enemy force
is not known or the situation is urgent and and changes need
to be informed to the rest of your force immediately -- e.g.
if the exact type and number of enemy forces is not known,
word 'contact' is often used.
To make your unit report all contacts it is currently seeing:
unit <unit> do contacts
===============================================================
My detection range: 30 rooms
---------------------------------------------------------------
Trade caravan Jolly[BCN] (X:839, Y:315, dist:0)
Trade caravan Roger[JBJ] (X:840, Y:315, dist:1)
===============================================================
Contacts with matching allied code to your unit will be shown
in green color. Contacts with mismatching allied codes will be
shown in red color. It is a good idea to match allied codes
of all allied forces so they won't show as 'enemy' contacts
when encountered.
In this example your unit is detecting two other units, trade
caravan Jolly, with its ID being BCN. The other, trade caravan
Roger is one room east. Its ID is JBJ.
To see the ID of your unit,
unit <unit> do report
To intercept an unit, you need to lock it:
unit <unit> do lock to BCN
Trade caravan Jolly[BCN] locked.
All units will see the same IDs when in outworld. So BCN means
this specific, same trade caravan to all your allies and
enemies. You can command e.g. "lock BCN and fire" and it means
the same thing to everyone.
The unit ID will be randomly generated each time it is deployed
from a province. It will be lost when the unit discharges back
to province.
If your unit detects new contacts, or loses existing contacts,
it will inform about this in the room it is in.
With a locked target, you can now enable intercept:
unit <unit> do intercept
Note that autopilot has to be off if you're going to intercept.
Intercept command is a toggle like the autopilot, so type it
once and it becomes enabled, type it again and it will be
disabled.
With intercept being enabled (you will see this in the unit
report too), the unit will automatically choose the direction
towards the locked target, and use optimal speed of your unit
(lowest fuel cost for your commander) to intercept the locked
unit.
Note that because the intercept command can control the marching
speed of your unit, and because the intercept suffers from same
limitations which are stated in previous autopilot chapter
(it is not an AI and comes with limitations), keep an eye on
your intercepting unit, because with intercept, unlike with
autopilot, it can waste your unit's food if it makes poor
decisions.
Intercept will be disabled automatically if contact to target
is lost. Contact to target can be lost when:
a) Target enters a province and is no longer in outworld
b) Target is destroyed
c) Target is capable of stealth and farther than 10 rooms
from the intercepting unit
Intercept is not disabled when intercepting unit reaches
its locked target. If the target moves away, intercept
will kick in again to follow target until it is disabled.
Intercept does not mean attacking. It means just that your unit
will seek its way to the locked unit, so you can use intercept
also for e.g. escort and convoy formation purposes (make one
unit lead the convoy and then make others intercept it and
you only need to control the lead unit then).
It is super easy to lose grasp of your intercepting unit's
location as it moves by its own decisions, so it is advised
to set a controller for each intercepting unit with reporting
enabled so the unit will always report back its location to you.
