How i think unit experience should work

**Dude_uk** · 04-05-2005, 13:03

I've been reading Adrian Goldsworthy's 'In the Name of Rome' (great book btw) and the number of inexperienced Roman armies that were beaten in battle got me thinking about how units are created and the bonuses they receive when they gain experience.

I'd like to see all units start with fairly low stats, then as they gain experience the stats increase (quickly at first then slowing to current levels). Units could also be 'trained' over a period of turns to increase their starting level of experience (for instance whilst garrisoned in a town). Also when retrained, units should have an experience penalty depending on the % of troops to be replaced (I'm sure MTW used to do this?).

If this was implemented it would stop the current rush tactics which allow the human player to keep taking major cities, retrain the experienced troops then move on to the next city.

I have no idea how difficult this would be to implement into a total war game, but it would certainly result in a much slower paced game which would require role playing of individual units to get them up to a decent standard.

Thoughts?

***Ringo*** · 04-05-2005, 14:33

Apparently RTW tracks individual soldiers' experience; this is the same system as used in MTW. So retraining effectively only adds new, un-experienced, troops to the unit. The chevron indicating the units' experience is an average of the whole unit.

I.E Retraining a 80 man unit, that has 1 chevron of experience but is down to just 20 men, will add 60 "green" men to the unit; therefore the chevron would disappear to indicate the average experience of the group.

I also believe there is a staggering system (for want of a better description) in gaining experience. It is easier to gain the first bronze chevron than to earn the last gold one. I don't know the details but i believe the number of kills needed to gain the next level of experience is an exponential curve, the more experience you have the harder it is to gain the next level.

Hope this explains how some of the current system works, as stated above i am not 100% on details so if anyone would like to contradict me (or just hurl general abuse at me) feel free.

*Ringo*

**The Storyteller** · 04-05-2005, 14:46

I'm not sure if retraining adds green troops to the mix. I KNEW this was the case in MTW, because ever so often a unit would "lose" experience because the more experienced guys got killed. However, I hardly ever see that happen in RTW. Also, I can be down to something like 30 archers with a gold chevron, I retrain and out pops a unit of 81 archers with a gold chevron! Can't be right...

In a way, it's fun, because I enjoy slowly training units to become the best they can be. However, it's also pretty ridiculous. I understand that an experienced unit would have experienced officers to whip raw recruits into shape, but retaining experience levels is just ridiculous...

Am I right about this or have I made a mistake?

**Fridge** · 04-05-2005, 14:52

Originally Posted by The Storyteller

I'm not sure if retraining adds green troops to the mix. I KNEW this was the case in MTW, because ever so often a unit would "lose" experience because the more experienced guys got killed. However, I hardly ever see that happen in RTW. Also, I can be down to something like 30 archers with a gold chevron, I retrain and out pops a unit of 81 archers with a gold chevron! Can't be right...

In a way, it's fun, because I enjoy slowly training units to become the best they can be. However, it's also pretty ridiculous. I understand that an experienced unit would have experienced officers to whip raw recruits into shape, but retaining experience levels is just ridiculous...

Am I right about this or have I made a mistake?

Unfortunately, you're right. You can take one soldier with three gold chevrons, add 239 brand new troops and end up with a unit of 240 triple-gold troops. So it would seem that any new troops added already have the units average experience.

This must be a design decision - the system's complex enough, each individual soldier's experience is still tracked (a unit can still lose chevrons if it's more experienced men are killed off), so CA could have handled all sorts of retraining scenarios, but for the life of me I can't work out the reasoning behind the decision to give new troops the unit's average experience. If it was a bug, surely it would have been fixed in one of the patches - it was certainly talked about at lot when the game was launched.

***Ringo*** · 04-05-2005, 14:54

Certainly merging units does effect the units experience; but come to mention it i have noticed units keeping their experience when retrained. In your example you'd think that the unit of archers would at least drop to a triple silver chevron unit!?!

Anyone?

EDIT: Thxs for the info Fridge no need to answer my Anyone? question now!

**Browning** · 04-05-2005, 15:03

Perhaps the "unit experience" is the experience of the most experienced experiencer.. err.. soldier in the unit.

**Ginger** · 04-05-2005, 15:55

AFAIK the new troops gain the average experience of the surviving troops.

I like this mechanic as I see it representing veteran units picking the best recruits, drafting in veteran replacements from other units and bringing their own battle experiences to the training field to develop sharper and harder recruits.

My only change would perhaps to only give the new recruits a proportion of the experience bonus until they are blooded in action.

**katank** · 04-05-2005, 19:49

I believe one of the devs say that for gaining experience, it's actually more of a Fibonnacci sequence.

It's somewhat ludicrous that the unit maintains experience when retrained but also good in some ways since now it's easier to get elite troops.

This does not always work though and I have had units drop a chevron or two when retrained but this is only with very few men left.