A couple of ideas for CA

[DthB4Dishonor]

I've recently seen alot of stuff about RTW and would like to make a couple of suggestions before its to late for CA to implement them.

1) Cavalry start to lose some of there charge bonus while charging downhill depending on angle. As everyone knows cav cant really charge down a steppe hill or they flip over.

2) How about a rest option. So you can actually put units in reserve and lets say take off there helmets adn put down shields and weapons. In this position you cannot move them and they loose there armour benefits. Also it takes anywhere from 30-60 seconds to reactivate units.

This way you can rest units and they regain fatigue bars much faster than just standing and can also possibly regain all 4 bars back.

IMO these suggestions would add alot of diversity and a new realistic feel to the game. Imagine in a 4v4 you manage to take out 1 enemy army but the army that did this is exhausted so chooses to rest entire army behind his allies. Enemy must decide to attack while he is resting or get attacked when he is fully rested. Would be loads of fun I think.

P.S. I'm not sure if this is right forum please feel free to move it.

P.S.S. Royalties must be paid for any ideas used....j/k http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

RTKPaul

[Dionysus9]

#1 good idea, but not as important--most folks arent using maps with steep hills anyway.

#2 very good idea and I think it would add some more depth to this game. A unit who is in "rest" formation and hasnt been fighting should never get fatigued.

[Mithrandir]

Like # 2,have thought of that myself many times...maybe the units could even build a pallisae to rest behind? adding a +10 bonus vs attacking cav http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif.

I'd love to see these things added as well :

-Morale bonus for keeping tile of ground. F.e. if the units hold a certain patch of ground they get a +2 morale &+1 attack bonus (when they're on that tile for more than 30 seconds f.e.), this could add something nice, f.e. "capturing" a temple, which boosts the morale of your units...

-More options than just LMS, already saw some people mentioning CTF, Destroy the farmhouses (I esp like that one http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif) and maybe some other play options?

-Elvish arch.... oh never mind http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[bosdur]

Yes #2 is great, I remember the reserved unit feature from gettysburg, it was a realistic tactic and can be useful. Adding it to the tw scene would be a blast.

I dont know about #1, would be hard to program i think, and would be hell for us to play later http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/dizzy.gif .Maybe we should just think in our head the game simulates movie realism http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif hint: LOTR two towers.

[Puzz3D]

Yes I like #2 idea. I've recently played 4 or 5 big battles online in winter season. These battles are nice with the fog, but fatigue to exhausion with long recovery time just to get back to the lowest level of "very tired" makes them all but unplayable if the battle lasts more than 15 minutes or so. I suppose it's realistic because few battles did take place in the winter, but it was the fog effect we really wanted. STW had fog in non-winter months,and this is gone in MTW.

[Major Robert Dump]

#2 great idea. I've often wished for such a feature, especially when several armies have been going at it and their remaining forces end up exhausted and on opposite sides of the map.

The only problem would be to figure out a way to keep it from being abused... ya know, the whole camper thing. I would imagine a battle could go on for a pretty long time if both parties tried to outrest one another.

I would suggest not allowing the unit to regain full energy, but instead only maybe 50% or 75% and only allow a unit to rest a certain amount of times (either number of times command used, or total time rested) before the command is no longer valid. A cap, so to speak.

[Mithrandir]

"rest" -5 defence, -5 attack,-all movement,-4 morale

"Recruiting" takes 25 seconds, -3 defence,-2 attack, 1/5 speed,-2 morale

While resting ,units may recover to quite tired in an 400% recovery rate.

[AMPage]

#2 is a good idea. All those countless battles marching around with exhausted troops. All those staring contests, while armies are resting. It's annoying when it rains or snows. Sometimes my troops are exhausted and i hardly fought. I don't mind fatigue, but i do like to play the game. I find it boring spending so much time trying to rest only to fight another short battle and be fatigued to death agian. It would also be good for missile units, since troops tire fast from shooting. You could pull them back and rest. Sometimes i see exhausted missile units only have 1 or 2 men in the unit shooting each round, now thats silly.

[kyodai-britishbeef]

2 is an excellant idea, and i would like to see
3- terrain, things like hard/soft/boggy ground, long grasses - these things could help improve game play and realisim i.e cav could be virtually useless in boggy terrain or tire extremely fast. i would like to see slopes have a great effect on foot soldiers charging down (maybe an increased charge bonus but a lowered defense http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Aleborg]

#2 really nice idea. A lot of new possibilitys making the game more funny.
And the ratios Mith said are also good.
Could be really funny see units attaking unawares units in the rest mode (not if they are yours
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif )

[Magyar Khan]

#2 is a good idea but most likely too late, approx. 2 years. lets hope they implement it for tw roman.

[DthB4Dishonor]

Thanks for comments gentlemen. I was also thinking that if some guys try to rest there whole army you can rush them and catch them really exposed since it could take 30-60 second reactivate time.

(reactivate time is time before a unit can be commanded again). So lets say I rush someone who has his entire army in rest mode I can rout him out or do alot alot of damage if I can get to him within 30-60 seconds. Not sure if 60 seconds is to much time for reactivating or 30 seconds is to low.

It would be great versus those guys who just camp and let there allies die then attack your tired units and get alot more kills than they are suppose too.

I got inspired by this from Age of Empires Trebuctes are carried in wagons and takes some time to unpack before they can fire. Also takes some time to pack them if under enemy fire.

RTKPaul

[LadyAnn]

OK, now that people already talk about it, let me say my opinion:

IT'S ALREADY TOO LATE http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Annie
ps.: pray that CA read this post and prove am wrong...

[Mithrandir]

another idea...


REMOVE THE OPTION TO DECLARE WAR ON YOUR ALLIES IN MP


Sure every MP-player will agree with me on this one...

it's bloody annoying to having to click the little dialog screen away once every 30 seconds because you misclicked...

it's even more annoying when you accidently declare war on your ally...

Is there any merit from this option anyway ?

[Major Robert Dump]

If declaration of war on an ally had some sort of longterm effect on the guilty party then the option would make sense. But since there is no ladder, honour system or structured and recorded warfare it really has no point.

If an ally makes you mad and you decide to make war on them to make a point, well congrats you are a jackass. If you accidentally do it (I am guilty of this at least three times in my STW/MTW career http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif ) then you are half a jackass.

TKing doesn't really affect us here since the battles arent recorded for any type of rank, etc. Allies making war is just another annoyance to deal with in MP, although in SP it can be quite a convenient way to kill an enemy king http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif

[Magyar Khan]

remove the option while wrong clicking and add it in the menu or somewhere else. make it accessable , not annoyable.

[Major Robert Dump]

agreed

[Dionysus9]

I agree. But even better-- make it so when you hit SHIFT and click, you never misclick. It would work kinda like ALT does when you are drawing a unit out over existing troops.

SHIFT-left-click would only pickup or move your own troops. The presence of allies would be ignored.

It is annoying that I cant tell my troops where I want them if an ally is moving through that area. SHIFT would fix that.

[Magyar Khan]

and now we got to this conclusion who will mahe the threat to make them listen...

[Skomatth]

Equal units sizes.

Makes it much easier to balance if 60a beats 60b but loses to 60c.

[baz]

i use groups a lot, i find annoying that ctrl+h, ctrl+c, ctrl+m do not work if you have a group selected previous, you have to select an individual unit then do it .. just something i noticed

[LadyAnn]

I do think that variable unit size (introduced first in Mongol Invasion and now extended further into MTW) is a nice feature.

I do think that some non-elite cav should have more per unit, not the equal size 40. Also, some cav units should be reduced from 40.

Also, arrows should be made variable as well, not always 28/man. In effect, trading off accuracy and deadly kill for number of arrows. This is especially true for horse archers, as their number is small, run out of arrow quickly before making any impact on the enemy.

Annie

[ElmarkOFear]

Some nice things to have during battles to make control easier:

1. Be able to toggle trees "off" in options menu or as a hot key. The fog of war would still exist for "concealed enemy units" but the trees would be invisible so you could see your troops and line them up better.

2. Separate valour upgrades from wep and armor. An upgrade in valour would upgrade morale by 2, but not upgrade the wep and armor by one for each one level of valour. This would eliminate the problem of units gaining a free wep and arm upgrade during battle and make cav a bit less overpowered without having to mess with their stats or cost. They would just get an upgrade of 2 morale when they gained a during battle valour increase.

3. An option to ban some weapons or factions in the host game selection menu. This would allow for the elimination of any super units that are found without messing with a unit's stats or cost.

4. Fix the logfile feature so that it accurately reflects battle stats.

5. Have a chat lobby feature to allow for private rooms like in STW.

6. Thouroughly test the next add-on, or new game to make sure that it works well for multiplay on Windows XP. (I have had 3 machines that were not able to play MTW online, using WinXP.)

7. Allow for units to rest up to fresh if they stay out of battle long enough. (Mentioned above but wanted to make this list complete)

8. Allow for an 'oblique' movement during battle, where you can back up your men without them turning their flank to the enemy. Of course make this movement 1/2 speed of normal or less. This would also hold for sideways movements as well.

9. In custom battle mode, allow the player to save the settings he wants to use for each battle he makes. Example: I want 20000 florins, late period with all defaults on, in summer. Then all you would have to pick is the faction, the units and the map. It is very inconvenient to have to go back to the Period choice menu each time you want to change factions, or florin levels.

10. Create a special UglyElmo 'God' mode, so I could win a few games http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[LadyAnn]

Elmo said:
Allow for an 'oblique' movement during battle, where you can back up your men without them turning their flank to the enemy. Of course make this movement 1/2 speed of normal or less. This would also hold for sideways movements as well.

Also, allow non-missile troops to be in skirmish mode (to back away from enemy if attacked). It would be fun to set your units all skirmish and see your army scattered all over the place when attacked.

Annie