Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-26274215-20160628105745/@comment-26172435-20160628205558

I had this realization when pondering this proposal and the mechanism of troop maintenance or 'upkeep' costs again, as I did for quite a few times already ... and now I'm quite certain that with the basic notion brought up here, by NASI, a very important balance aspect of the gameplay can finally be tweaked to improve the entire gameplay. What? Well, here's the point:

There have been countless discussions about the imbalance between good and evil forces and the impossibility to cap # hired units, making it hard to have better lore-compliant units in both good and evil, especially evil, factions. The key was that it isn't practicable to implement and enforce a cap on teh number of hired units. If that was possible, the forces of evil could be made a tad weaker and cheaper than they are now and be capped at higher maximum # than the forces of good, which are inherently stronger, but more expensive ... wait 'expensive'? Right, now if we could implement a system of 'hired unit upkeep costs', as proposed here, with food only, where the upkeep costs are dependent on the type of troops, just as NASI proposes with his additional detailing, we would have a mechanistic cap on the number of hired troops any player can sustain. Evil troops, who just live on scavageing their environments and any protein rich filth of the earth they can lay their hands on, will require less food, and less other resources for their upkeep. In this way, not only the direct costs of hiring them, but also the costs of upkeep, will be determinant to what extent a polayer will be able to sustain either a small group of highly specialized forces (High Elven Warriors) or a huge pack of low cost cannon fudder (Snagae archers and Warg riders).

The mechanism could be as simple as presented above (post#2), but with the addition that each hired unit has a specific need of hungerpoints, metal, leather, warg fur, whathaveyou per day. These consumption or upkeep figures are decimals and summarized for all troops hired by a player at any time. Totalized upkeep requirements are rounded down to get integere numbers. Example: A wood-elven scout may require 8 hp food, 0.05 leather and 0.05 string daily. They will fletch their own arrows and craft theor own bows from the best materials they can find. For 3 scouts youd only need to supply 24 hp of food on a daily basis. That's 3 steaks or per day. Only when you have 20 or more of these units you will have to supply 1 leather and 1 string each day. Of course, these values must be adjusted to obtain optimal performance. Imagine that for 20 scouts you must provide 20 steaks, 1 leather and 1 string each MC day, so every 40 minutes. With current availability of wildlife and other resources, that should be quite an easy task. One day of hunting could supply your troops for a full week. And if you're too lazy to provide for their upkeep, you're unfit to lead these troops and you shouldn't have hired them. :P

For comparison, imagine a normal Gundabad Orc only requires 6 hp and 0.05 bronze ingot per day. And a Mirk-Troll requiring 16 hp and 0.05 orc steel ingot per day. The more varied the composition of your troops, the less specific resources they require, as the rounding down effect results in only food upkeep costs. So, this mechanism inherently promotes strategic choices and troop variance. Moreover, it will promote roleplay collaboration between players as well. :)

The upkeep costs can be visualized in the GUI of the troop supply chest, the command table of the player, or some other, more dedicated, device. Each day at dusk, the troops required resources will be deducted from the supply chest, just like the way indicated for food above.

It would seem an ideal way to me, to create the much needed balance between strength of skills and numbers and the actual costs of sustaining an army, without the annoyance of overly complex micro-management.