While that is doable, I agree that a 'update to template' button would be very useful. Why make this harder then need be?
*shrug* Why make all your units the same? Certainly the real world doesn't work that way.
I like that after fifteen to twenty years my Militia Battalions have varying numbers of soldiers, and some of my premiere Divisions have extra regiments and/or battalions.
Creating that situation was exactly my intention. In the future I might have some option to use a one-off template to build reinforcements, but I won't be tying formations to fixed templates.
As its relevant here I'm going to copy paste a very long suggestion I made in the suggestions thread:
At one point it proposes a compromise - formations aren't really fixed to a template but the player can themselves choose to set a target template which allows the formation to kind of behave as if it was based off of a fixed template while also allowing you to modify/reinforce it.
Edit: As I read more into Steve's replies i'm starting to believe that this might not be what he is looking for.
I've been thinking about the whole ground unit replenishment thing and I think I have some ideas.
This has been suggested before but I want to parrot it since it will become relevant later. Ground unit construction can be made to behave exactly like how industrial construction with factories work. Each ground unit facility would add to an annual construction rate based on the tech that already exists and would go through a queue. If a player wants to build units in parallel they can use construction %modifier like with factories.
So the main issue that Steve has already said that he wants to implement is formation auto replenishment. I would suggest that the player can decide to specify a "target" template based on what has been designed that each formation tries to adhere to. So if the player wants to replenish/modify an existing formation all they'd need to do is press a button and the necessary GU construction would begin.
There are two main cases to consider that I can think of:
1 - The target template will have units that are not in the formation we are modifying
2 - The modified formation will have units that are no longer supposed to be in the formation as they are not in the target template
Suggested solution for 1:
So as said at the top if GU construction is handled like with factories then this can be solved by creating a temporary template comprising of the additional units that are needed and adding it as a construction order. This is more convenient with this new GU construction because we do not have to consider there not being available GU training facilities - we just add the new order to the queue.
Suggested solution for 2:
a - Similar to solution for 1 but instead we generate a new "surplus" formation with all the unnecessary units in it. This would facilitate not only auto-replenishment but also allow a player to modify an already built template. It would probably be easier to handle if this is done the moment the player presses the "set to template" button or something - that way the game doesn't have to track any construction orders.
b - This is much more involved. You could make it so that every planet has 2 "theaters" - "Active combatants" and "reserves". The active combatant is just what we have right now, all the formations organized according to the OOB. The reserve theater acts as one massive undeletable formation, regardless it is all the spare loose units on that planet just organized into a pile by unit class. In order to solve problem 2 you would simply move the "surplus" units in the formation that are no longer needed into the reserve formation.
Solution 2b is probably a bit unnecessarily complex for the problem as it opens a whole new can of worms but it has interesting possibilities, some balance considerations that pop into my head:
1 - How do reserves behave when there's combat?
2 - How do reserves interact with orbital bombardment?
3 - Can reserves reinforce active combat formations during combat to replace casualties?
4 - How do reserves interact with transports?
5 - Can I create templates without ground facilities by pushing reserves to the active front?
And most certainly issues that I cant think of
For 1 I would suggest that reserves do not perform attacks on their own. As for their target-ability by enemy ground forces the best I can think of is to either make the reserves a rear-echelon only formation or create a new reserve line that is even further behind the rear-echelon position. Maybe make it so that only long-range arty and Air-attacks can target them but I do not think it would be a good idea to make them only target-able if there are not active combatants.
For 2 I would recommend that Planetary and naval bombardment should impart casualties to reserves but their probability to be targeted should probably be weighted so that active troops are more likely to get bombed. Orbital bombardment support should maybe be restricted to active combatants or simply more biased to targeting active combatants relative to the other bombardment options.
1 and 2 could probably both be solved if you regard reserves as completely irrelevant for the combat itself. You can have it so that if a template has not seen any combat for X amount of time (X would be up to Steve but it could be a production increment for example) it is allowed to draw from reserves.
For 3 as mentioned earlier each formation can have assigned a target template that it tries to adhere to - during combat a unit might receive reinforcements from the reserve based on multiple factors:
- Amount of casualties as % of the target template: more heavily beaten formations likelier to get reinforced
- Amount of damage taken last combat round: A formation taking massive amounts of damage might be more or less likely to get reinforced
- Enemy breakthroughs: A formation that has been broken through is less likely to get reinforcements (could also make it so they don't get reinforcements)
- Total formation size (whatever is left alive so a lone surviving soldier isn't going to get a full reinforce) - this should also affect the total amount of reinforcements that a formation can receive
- Reserves total size: A reserve pool can mobilize a % of its total size to reinforce but not more - % could be affected by tech or maybe a new logistical unit class
- Position of formation: Do frontline formations get priority to reinforcements? Or do further back support positions get more reinforcements because it's easier for them to receive?
- Tot no. of casualties last combat round: Maybe only a % of casualties every combat round can be reinforced, maybe % influenced by tech or logistics
And more
Edit: I am a moron and forgot to write for after 3.
4 - Transports could have an additional "load units from reserve" that would allow them to load lets say X many of a unit that exists in the reserve. Unloading these troops should land them in the reserve position of their destination
5 - This would mostly need UI shenanigans to make sure it works smoothly but failing that using the features I discussed here you could just make a dummy template with 1 infantry unit and once built set his formations target template to whatever you want to add from reserves.
Any reserve reinforcements pushed to the front should start at no fortification and a formation should only receive reinforcements if it has an assigned target template to reinforce too or maybe give the player control like a "combat reinforcement" checkbox for the formation. Incoming reinforcement could also have a morale penalty based on the morale state of the formation they are headed to.
All reinforcements should either be handled at the beginning or end of each (or every X) combat round(s).
Apologies for the long one.
