The Origin of Tactics: The Defend Menu

[Atralane]

Hello! So, recent discussion on the prospect of structural recognition (see Building/Wall/Fence Damage: Structural Recognition System?) led to some new concepts regarding the “Defend” tab and I figured I would revive this older thread as a suggestion post instead of a gameplay one. Currently, the tab only contains the “Red Alert” mode, but the eventual features of structural damage and combat fortification might offer some new commands, as well as some deeper organizational methods for your people.

@Atralane

General workers/builder classes could be automatically/manually set to recognize and repair [your] structures–possibly another tactic for the “Defense” tab? Workers get pre-designated to a certain area/zone or list of “structures”, and would be tasked with repairing them or fortifying them during battle?

This could even open the possibility of activating multiple “strategies” at once–say for example, you have a town with 10 workers and crafters (military units are excluded). Four of them are “non-builders”, like Trappers, Farmers, and Weavers. These four could be set to the “Red Alert” command, while the remaining six would be set under the hypothetical “Repair under Fire”/“Bolster Defenses” command, focusing on their specific assignments. If the fighting gets too overwhelming, you could set all groups to an “All-Out Red Alert” mode.

So perhaps the “Defend” options could have different units set to them in the case of hostile engagements (as well as the option to throw all units into one command or another, such as “Red Alert” or a later “Retreat!” command, if faced with desperate enough situations). This could possibly be streamlined using squads of people, where people could be put into different squads for the different commands (for example, Arianna could be in a lumberjack or mining team of three during peaceful times, but she’s in a wall-repairing team of five during conflict, and they could be different people).