MP topic at the .com forum

[ElmarkOFear]

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[squippy]

I don;t have an account there, but this is a feature I think would be cool as well. I mean specifically the rallying on the general issue.

However I see it slightly differently. the fact that units rout off the board is not IMO a problem - what I thiink would be cool is having a "rally on the general" button that instructs all unist to head toward the generals unit.

I think this would be very useful in many more circumstances than just trying to recover units from a rout. The thing that irks me most is when one of my units chases another unit off the field, and then stands there at the edge of the map. This, to my mind, is more important than the issue of the routing units - I want to be able to do the "to me, to me" cry that re-organised a force to face the next wave, sort of thing.

[Vanya]

GAH

Vanya offers an extension of this idea...

Vanya sez... Youz setup your army nicely during deployment phase... It would be nice if you could choose to "remember" the unit alignment. Then, later in the game, in addition to having the "join the general in prayers" idea already floated, you could ALSO have the option to redeploy your units into their original formation at the start of the battle, only the general's position is the anchor, and all other units setup relative to their leader.

That would be more like a "line up to face next wave" type thing.

Now, even if that proved to be beyond what the devs can deliver, at least be able to redeploy in one of the standard army formations anchored at the general's current position.

But, after all things are said and done, just selecting all units and double-clicking on the reinforcements as they come in (SP) or on the next enemy at large (MP) will clearly do the trick... just remember to keep your units in wedgie formation...

GAH

[MizuKokami]

what kind of fog of war are we talking about?...a manipulation of what appears on the screen?..ie, you can see the enemy but not know what they are til you are in range....
or.... further restriction of the camera?

[ElmarkOFear]

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[1dread1lahll]

#1 fog of war (with restricted) camera is as real as it gets now... dont change it..... maybe remove the identifier when u move pointer over a unit.....#2 rallying point arround general...no.... men identify more closely to their unit leader and rally arround him rather than some remote general ther rearly see.. so..no and no

[MizuKokami]

lahill...granted, men will rally around the unit commander, but if the unit commander is not a moron, he will take his men to the general.
elmark...will there still be signs of enemy approach, as in... the dust kicked up by approaching cav, birds flying from trees. the fog of war i want is not so much invisible men, unless they are in trees, or on the other side of the hill, but a fow that makes it hard to tell what is comeing until they are in range...ie, if playing on a large flat map, and the enemy is about 3 times the range of your arbs, you should be able to see that something is comeing, just not know what they are. are far as restricted camera is concerned, i deffinately don't want it to be so completely free that you can go to the other side of the map where none of your men are, or that it would simulate an ability to see thru hills. but i would like some freedom, such as if you are near the red zone, my camera should be able to sit in the redzone, just not my men. and when and if i am sitting on a hill, (not that i do that), i would like to be able to see my army without haveing to screw too much with the camera angles. i'm not very good at this total war thing, and can seldom spare the time to screw around trying to get a good view. so any help i can get get from decent camera views would help greatly. perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if the flags at the bottom of the screen appeared as they were on the field. in other words, if my general was on the left, his flag would be on the left. this would likely be a hard thing to do, as groupings might get screwed over a bit, and units behind or in front would still be missrepresented. but even a loose order of which troops are where would be greatly useful. cause if i want my right flank to advance, it would be so much easier if i picked just the flags on the right of the screen, without have to verify i'm sending the right troops. i realize it's a generals responsibilty to know where his men are at all times, but generals have aids. if he loses track, he turns to his right hand man and asks, "where's mico's unit of spears?" his aid answers, "sir, it's on our left flank, sir" perhaps if we got rid of the radar screen, and turned it into an army formations screen, with icons instead of colored blobs, we wouldn't have to change the camera restriction properties all that much. hmmmmm.
just had an added thought...perhaps we could restrict the camera to just a 360 degree bubble around the general, being able to also look up and down hills, or at tree tops, etc... couple this with an army formation screen, the unit you send to scout could start to flash if it came in site of enemy troops? you still wouldn't know what the troops were until your scouting party returns with their report, but you would have an idea that something was there. granted, a unit out of range from the generals line of sight would be hard to command, but a unit that was commanded to scout should know better then to engage the enemy, and to avoid contact at all cost. perhaps a double click on your scout to orient the camera on it just long enough to issue commands, and after about 10 seconds or so, it returns to the general's view?

[ElmarkOFear]

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[1dread1lahll]

Rallying arroung the general... would creat many problems i think.... what if the gereral has routed? if enemies are between the unit and the general?....i think its possible that if a general can get close to a unit the general could provige extra ralling abilities, but then ur gen has to chase them down...

[Znake]

The *fog of war* issue came up when camera mode -ian..was used in patch 2.0.
Because the height of camera did spoil some tactics on hilly and woody terrain in MP.
I used -ian..and think it was nice for tactic and easy setup of units.

My wishes are:

-ian mode camera for the height view and a type of "line of sight" or "fog of war"..

As for rallying and regroup..i should be nice to se where your allie and up on minimap..i mean his rally point or regroup.
because in heat of battle it can be hard to communicate fast enough.

[MizuKokami]

lahill...very good point. another problem would also be... your rallying men could march thru the enemy on the way to the rally point. perhaps it could be arranged so you can select your own rally point, like when you select where your reinforcements come on the field? the command button.. "rally", would mean.. "pull yourself together and march to that spot."
oh...and elmark...i have an account to the other board...but for some reason it doesn't let me post. this is the only place i can discuss your topic.(or tie in)

[Orda Khan]

Hello Kokami....It appears Elmo has removed all his posts. Perhaps there was another forum bust up....I asked in his MP online thread but had no answer

.....Orda

[Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe]

Elmo's dog floating in the swimming pool again?

Louis,