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Ideas for an Officer Trait System - Adding RPG elements to the game


Butch

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I'm so addicted to this game right now. The army management, the battles, the career point system; the game has so much potential. One thing I really wish we had was an RPG element to the officer progression in the game. At the moment, officers rank up and provide better command which helps maximize the efficiency of their units and subordinates. While this is nice, I feel like it could be a lot deeper and more meaningful. 

As it stands, the only officers that really give special abilities to their units are the ones commanding a corps. A brigadier general (1 star) leading a corps can choose one perk, a major general (2 stars) can choose two perks and a lieutenant general (3 stars) has access to three perks. These perks apply to the entire corps. But what about divisional commanders? What about the officers leading the individual brigades? They don't really provide any meaningful bonuses other than higher command and I feel like the game should give you more things to consider when deciding which officer to place in the different areas of the chain of command.

My proposed solution is an officer trait system. Each time you fight a battle, your officers gain access to different traits depending on how well or poorly their unit performs. If an officer's unit has a high kill death ratio (KDR) you get to choose a positive trait for them from a pool of options. On the flip side if their unit gets decimated and they lose more men than they kill (low KDR) you're forced to choose a negative trait. This system allows you to groom officers and select the best man for the job depending on where you put him in the chain of command.  Officers leading a division or corps would have access to different traits than officers leading a brigade. Officers gain one trait each time they rise in the chain of command; so an officer leading a brigade can only have one trait until you promote them to a divisional commander. Once they become a divisional commander you select another trait and so on. Demoting a general would cost money and or reputation to simulate the red tape associated with the move. It would also be a way to prevent you from gaming the trait system and only placing the best generals in charge; historically speaking a lot of sub par generals were in command purely because they were senior and it was their 'right' to lead and not because they were the better generals. Below is a list of some ideas I have for different traits and what they do to the unit that the officer is leading.

Positive Traits available to officers leading a brigade:

Forager: This officer knows exactly where to look when supplies are in need.

Effect: + 10 % ammo.

Master of drill: This officer has developed a reputation for drilling his men to perfection.

Effect: +25 % experience gained. 

Inspirational: This officer leads from the front and leads by example. 

Effect: + 5 morale. 

Aggressive: This commander relishes the opportunity to plunge his men into ruthless melee preferring to give his enemies the bayonet.

Effect: + 5 Melee

Dashing Cavalryman: This officer excels at leading mounted troops into battle. 

Effect: + 10 efficiency to cavalry. (Only available to officers leading a cavalry brigade)

Eye For Ground: This officer has a keen eye for good ground and positioning of guns. 

Effect: + 10 efficiency to artillery. (Only available to officers leading artillery)

Frontiersman: Leading irregular troops comes very naturally to this officer. 

Effect: + 10 efficiency to skirimishers. (Only available to officers leading skirmishers)

Negative Traits available to officers leading a brigade: 

Reckless: This officer shows little regard for the well being of his men.

Effect: - 10 morale and + 5 % speed. 

Poor Subordinates: This officer consistently surrounds himself with incompetent subordinates that can't seem to follow orders. 

Effect: - 15 command. 

Arrogant: Condescending, pompous and sitting firmly on his high horse, this officer is despised by his men. 

Effect: - 5 efficiency and - 5 morale

Cowardly: While he expects his men to show courage under fire, this officer is often the first to run when things go south.

Effect: - 10 morale and + 5 % cover.

Unorganized: This officer has the bad habit of allowing his men to move in a disorderly manner.

Effect: - 5 % speed. 25 % slower rotation speed and 25% slower deployment into line formation. 

Once a general is promoted to a divisional commander, a second trait become available to them from a unique pool of traits specific to divisional commanders. They retain the trait they gained while leading a brigade and both traits will now affect every brigade in the division they command. Who you choose to lead your divisions suddenly becomes a very important decision. A good divisional commander can help negate the effects of poor traits that any of his subordinates may have. Divisional commander traits are selected from a pool in the same way as brigade commander traits are. They can also be positive or negative and are gained depending on the combined performance of their brigades (KDR). 

Positive Traits available to officers leading a division:

Patient: This commander has demonstrated his ability to time his maneuvers and orders masterfully and it has served him and his subordinates well. 

Effect: + 5 command, + 5 efficiency, + 5 morale (This trait cannot be gained if the officer already has the 'reckless' trait)

Efficient Delegator: Leading a larger formation has taught this commander the importance of delegating; his division operates like clockwork. 

Effect: + 10 % speed (this trait cannot be selected if the officer already has the 'poor subordinates' trait) 

Defense Oriented: This commander emphasizes the importance of digging entrenchments in this age of war and his entire command benefits from this philosophy. 

Effect: + 10 % cover + 5 Firearms

Attack Oriented: This commander is a firm believer in the notion that the best form of defense is attack. 

Effect: + 10 Stamina, + 5 Melee

Scouting Expert: This commander consistently makes good use of vedettes and pickets giving him a tactical edge when maneuvering. 

Effect: +200 spotting, + 150 stealth, +5 % speed. (This trait could be very useful for a support oriented division made up of skirmishers and cavalry. The extra spotting range is nice but the added stealth allows you to sneak up and snipe artillery batteries way before the enemy can react. It would pair very well with "Dashing Cavalryman" or "Frontiersman")

 

Negative Traits available to officers leading a division: 

Poor Delegator: This commander's reluctance to delegate leaves his subordinates with very little flexibility and the division suffers as a result. 

Effect: - 10 % speed. 

Quickly Angered: This commander is easily angered and argues with his subordinates very often.

Effect: - 5 command, - 5 efficiency, - 5 morale

Overly Ambitious: This commander's hunger for promotions, fame and glory has come at the cost of many lives. 

Effect: - 10 morale

 

Last but not least, we have the traits for the generals leading a corps. Only divisional commanders can be promoted to corps commanders. Unlike brigade and division traits which you can personally choose, the traits that your corps commanders gain are completely random. Historically speaking, some generals who were excellent divisional commanders displayed very poor leadership when it came to leading a corps. To simulate this, once you promote a divisional commander to a corps commander, they are given a trait randomly - you never know if a good divisional general will actually be a good corps commander! You cannot select the traits for your corps commanders. A member on this forum named Lincolns Mullet posted a very interesting video with ideas on how to implement a dynamic campaign into the game. He proposed a system where your corps could arrive early or late into battle depending on various factors. Some of the traits that I'm suggesting here will play into that system and make battles more unpredictable.  Once a general is promoted to a corps commander, he will have a total of 3 traits which will affect every single brigade in the entire corps. This makes corps commanders extremely important and powerful. 

Positive Traits for Corps Commanders: 

Reliable: Always on time and always has your back. 

Effect: Increased likelihood of divisions from this corps arriving early into a battle when the corps is designated as a reinforcement. 

Master Logistician: This general's works tirelessly to ensure his corps is always well connected to supply lines.

Effect: + 30 % ammo. (If this general also has the 'Forager' trait his entire corps would benefit from a bonus of 40 % ammo because the traits stack) 

Tactically Astute: This general has a firm understanding of military strategy making him a valuable asset to this army. 

Effect: + 20 command to all officers under the general's command.  

 

Negative Traits for Corps Commanders:

Overly Cautious: This general prefers to play things safe and rarely takes the initiative. 

Effect: Increased likelihood of one or more of this corps' divisions not showing up entirely to a battle when this corps is designated as a reinforcement. (This simulates the commander not committing his entire force and preferring to have a large reserve)

Vague: This general rarely gives clear orders which often leads to confusion on and off the battlefield. 

Effect: Increased likelihood of divisions from this corps arriving later than expected to a battle when this corps is designated as a reinforcement. - 5 % speed to all units in the corps (simulating a poor understanding of orders and confusion among his subordinates). 

Poor Strategist: This commander has failed to demonstrate the tactical knowledge necessary to lead an army corps. 

Effect: - 20 Command to all officers under this general's command. 

With a trait system in place for officers, choosing where you employ each officer becomes extremely important and very, very interesting. You become attached and love your good officers and start giving them higher commands while you weed out the poor ones. The fact that traits stack allows you to specialize your divisions and corps which adds more strategy to the game. Feel free to add any ideas or suggestions of your own. 

 

Edited by Butch
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Very detailed sir, well done. First and foremost, I like the idea of replacing officers costing reputation to simulate the "red tape" effect particularly with higher ranked officers.

This would force the player to use officers that have some negative traits as you say.  At the same time, each general will still have his positive attributes but might be offset by those negative traits.  Then it's up to you, as the player, to know how to manage these officers with poor traits.  So if I get this right, Pope for example may be Tactically Astute but also Overly Cautious?  I can expect him to be late getting into the battle, but once he does his units will be very effective due to the command bonus.  An officer with only bad traits would be easier to demote and take the rep penalty, which there would be some officers like that, but if there's a corresponding positive attribute I as the player would always have to weigh the pro vs con of demoting him which would be fun.  "I hate that Pope is always late, but his Corp is very effective once he's in the battle.  I'll take the risk and keep him in command".  This is you, the player, making an informed decision by taking the risk as to who you want leading your Corp and understanding the consequences beforehand.  Then if Pope is late to your next battle and causes the battle to be lost, you're mouse will be hovering over the "demote" button on Pope but still thinking..."Maybe I'll take one more chance with him because he has more positive traits than negative".  That negative can be a killer though!

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What you've just described is exactly the kind of strategy and tough decision making that I really want to see in this game. Many officers will have upsides and downsides to them and appointing them to leadership positions that complement their traits becomes part of the strategy. The ability to personally choose from a pool of traits would allow you to 'groom' an officer. Let's say you choose the 'Aggressive' trait for a brigadier general leading a brigade; the effect is + 5 Melee. You're thinking to yourself I want this general to lead the vanguard division of this corps and I want his entire division to excel in hand to hand combat. You promote him to divisional commander and select the 'Attack Oriented' trait which gives another +5 melee and + 10 stamina. The traits stack and they affect every single brigade under his command so all of a sudden his entire division is insanely strong in melee and takes longer to tire. This sort of RPG element to building your army makes the current system a lot funner and more interesting. With a system like this you can specialize your corps and divisions depending on who is leading and this in turn affects how to you use them in battle or when/where you deploy them. The numbers I've suggested would obviously have to be balanced but you get the idea.

Edited by Butch
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This is something ala CKII where I loved the trait system. It might be too expansive to include in this game but I like the detail and thought behind this a lot. In future, maybe more dynamic campaigns, these traits could have a larger impact on the overall function. McClellan being late and cautious f.x. but sturdy on the field so to speak.

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30 minutes ago, Koro said:

This is something ala CKII where I loved the trait system. It might be too expansive to include in this game but I like the detail and thought behind this a lot. In future, maybe more dynamic campaigns, these traits could have a larger impact on the overall function. McClellan being late and cautious f.x. but sturdy on the field so to speak.

I agree, it's highly unlikely that we'll see something like this in this game as it would take a lot of resources and time. This is just a personal wish list sort of thread and something I hope he and the devs consider for future games.

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  • 3 months later...

I would like just a few more officers traits to add flavour to the game. I'm not pleading for a gainable trait system or a large list of traits.

What I find is lacking are unique or close to unique traits for a few historically renowned generals from both camps, other than the 3 of 9 "perks" already existing.

To add to the list of potential traits, here are my picks from Paradox's Victoria 2. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting to add dozens of traits, just a handful for some top historical generals, like 5 per side.

Armchair General
Cartographer (Grant was known for his collection of maps)
Charismatic
Drillmaster
Eccentric Genius
Expert Raider (someone like Mosby)

Innovative Tactician
Natural Born Leader
Old School
School Of Defense
School Of Offense
School Of Firepower
School Of The Bayonet
War College

The full list here: http://www.victoria2wiki.com/Leaders

Edited by Nicolas I
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On Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 10:00 AM, Nicolas I said:

You mean directly, without having to put another officer as a "placeholder" ?

I mean like if I have a brigade commander,  who through experience gets promotion, I want to be able to adjust his position in my army to perhaps division command, especially when his division commander gets killed in action.  Or any other elevated commander in any division command. Currently the only possible way to achieve this, especially with no other officers available, is to dismiss the brigade and hope he sticks around for usage.  I don't want to dismiss the unit he commands, especially if they're 2 or 3 star veterans. 

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