Sorry this is such a long post, but it covers a couple areas that are somewhat inter-related.

Tom has been adding a number of great features for players, like achievements ..and it sounds like an updated messaging system is on the way - so recently I’ve been trying to re-think ways that he might be able to add to or improve the designer.

Tom has stated that coding Token Territories (Territories that one might hold but do not count towards bonus or protect from elimination) is difficult. I’m thinking that it is the second part of this description (protection from elimination) that is difficult to code.  Making it such that territories don’t count towards a bonus is ‘just’ a matter of subtracting the number of those territories from the total at the time when bonuses are tallied.  I would also suggest that now that Tom has implemented Win Conditions, there are at least a couple more workarounds (besides capitals) for designers who are grappling with elimination problems when dealing with off-board territories.

Tom has also stated that coding Territorty Minimums (more specifically, the ability to have some territories be abandonable while others play normally) is difficult.  This is a feature that would not only open up game-play possibilities, but for those of us who wish to “program” with factories, it becomes possible to “zero out” a territory, and would be a game-changer.

I’ve been thinking of an approach that addresses this issue not by affecting the territory attribute, but rather by adding factory functionality - an area where Tom seems to be pretty good at implementing just about anything we ask for. My suggestion might also kill a few other birds as well, but I’m not sure exactly it it would work as intended, and I need some of you to vet it ..or declare that it won’t work or is too complicated, etc.

So basically, the added feature needed would be “Minimum Unit Count” 

I added it to the wish list a while ago, but I was thinking of different uses, which are still cool and would be quite usable.  But now I’m thinking Minimum Unit Count could be be used for ‘coding’ by using it in conjunction with a combination of AutoCapture and the recently added AutoCaptureNeutral factory features.  A number of other requested features like counters and combination finders could then be 'coded' in 'normal' games (games with abandon OFF) Here's how I think it could work..

Off-board ‘member’ territories would ostensibly be set for max of 1 unit, and then depending on which Factory-type is triggered, the ‘target’ factory is turned ON (AutoCaptured) or OFF (Neutral).
For this to work, I’m not sure, but I’m thinking there would neccesarily be cases where BOTH factories would trigger, and it would then be neccessary for the designer to use alpha-numeric naming conventions that causes the last factory to fire to be the desired one. (Factories work this way now, right?)

Clear as mud?  Does this make sense?  Or possibly, can it be done without the proposed feature? (I'm thinking not, but I could be wrong)

BTW, and not to make the list longer, but the addition of Real Time Factories would really let designers take these incredible factory features to bring more 'life' to boards.  For instance, imagine your House Marker lighting up in a game of War of the Roses the moment you capture the requisite shields, and then you could instantly use the units on that Marker to attack the Crown. I'm not saying I would change that particular board, but I'm giving an example of the power of Real-Time factories.

Edit: My sense is that Minimum Unit Count will not be 'easy' to code because to-date factories have never had to check for and tally the actual number of units in their member territories, so depending on where and how that data is kept, it might involve a bit infrastructure building, but I'm imagining that it might not involve the amount of re-writing of code that Territory Minimums (selectable Abandon ON) probably requires.

Just thinking and putting this down..

We all want Token Territories.. If there was a "Combinations" Factory (E.g. 10 total, choose any 7), it could be used to nullify the effect of all selected "off-board" territories. Let's say you had a 1/per3 bonus going. You'd probably want to do it with xml, but make all 'off-board' territories members of a continent.  Say you had 60 off-board territories..  you'd need to make 20 factories ..1 for every 3. 

60 choose 3, 60 choose 6, 60 choose 9, etc..   Make 'em all worth -1.

Now that I think of it, True Tokens are not necessary ..possibly even without win conditions. I'm thinking it can be done with the designer as it is now.  Simply make all 'ON-board" territories members of a continent whose factory captures ALL territories including off-board territories.  The Game should end, right?

And of course, with Win Conditions you can make that continent capture a Win Territory.

..two workarounds.

Sounds like a Continent Capture win condition would help with this. And with Quantum Entanglement.

Korrun wrote:

Sounds like a Continent Capture win condition would help with this. And with Quantum Entanglement.

+1/2

..but a Combinations Factory would cover all bases.  The weakness with the current Win Conditions is that there can only be one Win Condition (per player)  With CFs you could make it not only that a player gets a bonus for having 10Choose7 from this continent and 7Choose5 from that, but you could also make it so that 10C9 and/or 7C7 wins the game (and seamlessly if we had Real-Time Factories - just tie them to a "Capture Territory" Win Condition).  It's pretty clear to me that Tom has already coded a 'Combinations calculator' into the engine with the recent addition of "Unit Count" and "Unit Percentage" Win Conditions.

Just a side note: I'm finding that a number of the designer features we all seem to crave (like Token Territories and Min Unit Count) can all be addressed with the addition of well-concieved Factories.  The benefits of addressing a given issue in this way is that inevitably, the factory will be used in other creative and otherwise unforeseen ways. The disadvantage of adding features this way is that depending on the desired outcome, factories can be cumbersome to input.

For example:My solution for using Combinations Factories to solve the Token Territories problem requires NumberOfTokens/PerTerritoryBonus Factories.  Of course, that can be a lot of factories if you have a couple hundred Off-board territories.  Nontheless, given the many other possibilities that CFs offer, I would choose CFs over TTs. (but I would love to have both ;)