AIUI this is the way teleportation works now:
When a unit is removed from another civ's territory due to a peace treaty, I get a msg like "Our troops have been forced to withdraw from xxxxxx territory". After I get that msg, that unit is immediately "teleported" to one of my cities.
Here is the problem (as I see it):
This effect can easily be exploited to move units much faster than they could move on their own.
But what if that teleportation move happened more slowly?
Here is the solution that I'm proposing:
I suggest that such moves should require a few turns to complete. The number of turns should be proportional to how far the unit teleports.
But how should that be implemented? Putting a unit on an invisible transport ship (or a simulation of that) would complicate the game. Likewise, putting a unit in limbo for x turns could be problematic (e.g. some units are in limbo; other units are not; do the former show up on the map? if not, then how does the pgm treat them? Etc.).
As an alternative, I suggest that a teleported unit receive damage proportional to how far it traveled. That way, after teleporting, a unit would have to take some time to repair itself before it recovers to 100% strength. This would partially simulate travel time by making the teleported unit mostly useless for a few turns after the teleportation.
E.g. assume that my militia unit is inside British territory. I sign a peace treaty with Britain. Four turns later my militia unit is still inside British territory. At that point my militia unit "teleports" to one of my cities. But it also takes damage proportional to how far it teleported.
Assume that the "teleportation damage" rate is 20% damage per 5 tiles teleported. So, e.g., if my militia unit teleports 15 tiles to one of my cities, then that unit will have an extra 60% damage when it appears in my city.
There should probably be a limit on the amount of damage that a unit can receive from teleportation - so that no unit can be destroyed by teleporting. I suggest that the limit be 5%. I.e. no unit can be reduced below 5% (i.e. 95% damaged) by the penalty - no matter how far it teleported. (This will also protect units that already had some damage *before* they were teleported.)
In some cases, teleporting will still be worth it. After all, how often can a unit travel at a rate of ~5 tiles per turn? (I.e. 5 tiles = 20% damage; And ~20% damage can be healed for each turn in spent resting in a city.)
In other cases, the threat of teleportation damage will give each civ that signs a peace treaty an extra incentive to get his units out of the civ's territory before the 4-turn "grace period" expires.
This teleportation damage could also be applied to units which are expelled.
What do you think?
Posted 10-Jan-10 01:20 by Eddie