DISCUSSION Being able to take over each others units

[Magyar Khan]

Should we be able to take over each others units? Lets say by pressing a button and clicking on the unit you are unlocking the unit being able being used by an ally when he uses a certain button too...

the unit is not added to his own unitbar of units but you are able to use it........

pros and cons.....?

[Kas]

I like the idea, but I think it has downsides also.

Allies who work together well (known teammates, good communication and battle plan) probably already have a huge advantage when they play against a make shift alliance.

This extra tool will be very handy for a trained (clan) team, but will make life much harder for the others who already have the disadvantage to play with "strangers".

When I played with Ace we always supported eachother and even though it can be a pain to control one or two units send to a far flank...it often worked out well and it was fun also. Maybe extra work and challenging, but nothing wrong with that I think.

So...I like the idea...it makes sense in a way, but it's mainly a tool for those who already have the cutting edge I think.

[Major Robert Dump]

That is an interesting idea and could be quite useful, but I see some guy using 3 PCs, joining as a team trio, and then taking over the other 2 armies. If he did not get the units on his toolbar that could make management quite a task, but it could be done. Wasn't there someone from old STW who did that very thing with multiple PCs? Honestly, I could care less if someone wants to nerd it up that much.

I would, however, like to take over the units of the enemy. Maybe a special spell to cast you can buy as an add-on from Steam.

[Togakure]

An easy way to implement this would be a "toggle switch" key combo that the owner of the units could push with any units selected, which would allow any ally to select and control them. There would need to be some visual indicator that the units were in this state (visible to the team only). The owner's commands would always take priority, otherwise the unit(s) would follow the last command given by any team member. The owner could take exclusive control of the units back at any time by toggling the switch again. In the classic situation, cavalry could be toggled into this state and moved to the far side of the map from the owner, who messages to a team mate, telling him to use the cav. That team mate could control them as long as they were toggled as "share." Using this model, so could any other team mate.

Kas brings up a good point in that this would benefit experienced teams most of all. However, I don't see this as a reason not to try it. I think it's a good thing, to encourage integrated team play with features that make it appealing. For me, killer team play was the biggest rush of all in MP. This feature could be enabled/disabled on the Game Setup screen by the host, which would provide some control over its use.

[LadyAnn]

Major Robert Dump, you call AMP "guy in his moms basement"? :D FearAMP used 2 computers before and he didn't need to takeover another army, he can switch over the next computer quite fast (perhaps using KVM device). (I say all this with all fondness of memories, I know AMP is good with a single army, he was just bored and tried to play with 2).

I do have an alternate idea, if on-the-fly unit takeover is not possible or undesireable: the "leading general" would take care of purchasing the army and "dispatch" the generals under his command to control parts of his army. Furthermore, the lead general should be able to give his generals a deployment zone (perhaps by pre-place the units on the map), his general will take care of reaarranging units once game starts.

The takeover of units would solve the problem of drops during game, or perhaps short AFK too.

Anniep

[Magyar Khan]

Good suggestions so far ... A taking over toggle when hosting THE game Will solve à lot and in game as suggested. Small toggle per unit where THE originsl owner stays in supreme control.... And most important maybe that in case of à drop thebunits are available to THE whole team .....

[Kocmoc]

Well, if someone is able to control 3 armies and even winning while playing them, whats bad about that?
Why i cant just start with the option, of how many armies i want to play with?

Example: You host a 3v3 and can give money away. The amount within the team stay same, just the player has different amounts of cash.
I can clearly see it already, i stay in the center and have 50% more units, heavy melee setup holding hands to my left and right teammate. ;)


To use the topic idea. Basically there is no problem with this idea, the power among the team itself keep same, not like you create more powerful armies.
Why teammates suport each other with units?

The answer is many times, not be cause they really need more power somewhere, mostly the player isnt able to deliver enough cpm in an attack-peak.
So the teammates bring some cav mostly on the flank and control what most player cant control on their own.

I see this idea in the endphase of a game or in a situation, where you give a player in your team some units, who wont take part in the first clash.
The outcome is always the same, you raise the cpm within your units.

If your already good and using this kind of "tactic" you even more raise the effectiveness of your armies and lower the mistakes.
While this makes a powerful team more powerful, a less experienced team will struggle with this and have even more trouble.

My idea would be, to allow this kind of system only, if the player who take over some units lost 60-80% of his army. In most situation, your already in trouble and the raise of control might raise your little changes a bit.

The real good thing is, to take over units of a dropped player, this would be a very good thing. Its already harder, if your teammate drop.
On the other hand, there is a system needed which can show you so many units under your control. Right now the max units you can control are 20 ( i hope im not wrong) if you take over another army, the system has to be able to let you control 40 units in the max.

Im not sure, if this is possible with the engine.

[Magyar Khan]

Well that could also be a solution that only if friend drops u get controll over his units , and they are divided amongst the remainingplayer and only added to your unitbar if you have space there .. until that time you can control them but they wont be visualised in your unitbar.......