My top 3 missing features in RTW interface. What are yours

[afrit]

CA clearly tried to improve and simplify the RTW combat interface. I think they succeeded to a certain degree. Unfortunately, some things got dropped from MTW. Here my top 3 complaints:

1. Fatigue indicator on units
2. Alt-click to move and keep orientation
3. When you double click on a unit, camera starts zooming on it. In MTW, moving the mouse meant you instantly got there. In RTW, move the mouse and you are stranded somewhere in the middle.

There are others, but these bug me the most.
I'd like to hear what others miss most. (note this is about interface issues, so gameplay issues such as unit speed and kill speed do not apply).

Afrit

[discovery1]

I agree with 1 & 3. I never used alt-click so thats not that importnt to be. Another issue I have is the small size of the banners that display unit info. Way too small.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

1) I use "classic controls" setting found in the preferences.txt file, so I would have to say holding the control key while dragging out the units to the desired depth is fairly annoying
2) Huge bottom screen UI (why couldn't they use the unit tabs like in MTW/STW? ~:( )
3) Double left-clicking in general isn't awesome (still regarding "classic controls") - telling unit to run makes the camera point to that spot; double clicking unit you have to wait, sometimes for a while, to get to that unit

[Lord of the Isles]

Have posted some of these elsewhere but this thread seems to be the right place to summarize. I'm using Classic Controls (the RTS ones are even worse).

-- Dragging out using Control-LeftMouse doesn't always seem to work when the units are grouped, though ungrouping them (but leaving them selected obviously) does. There's a Control-L command which might be relevant but I'm not sure it is having any effect. The problem is they get redrawn all over the place, not in a line where you are dragging.

-- Dragging out as above doesn't work if the start or end of the drag is over a unit's current position. IMHO that shouldn't matter (either the unit is one of the ones that is being repositioned or I'm about to move it somewhere else).

-- Changing facing using to be so easy in M:TW. Now we have the , and . keys but I once found a group of units wandering randomly around instead of doing what I wanted. In any case, it isn't always easy to get the exact facing you want using these commands.

-- Moving a group in formation and getting them to resume their current facing when they arrive (Alt-LeftMouse in M:TW was it? - my fingers know but my brain isn't sure!). Can this oh so useful task be done in R:TW? All I've managed so far is move them then change their facing once they reach their new position, but this is a lot less efficient, both in time and clicks.

-- In M:TW, while you were dragging out a formation, you could use the RightMouse button to toggle the depth of every unit either relative to their original numbers or (the useful one) relative to the current unit numbers. So a unit down to 50% strength could be reformed with its appropriate depth (though with 1/2 the frontage obviously). Doesn't work in R:TW, can it be done some other way?

[1dread1lahll]

#1. Master groups, or groups with-in groups (The ability of a unit to be in more than 1 group).

#2. Alt right-click to turn army. (before you could hold down space bar also and move mouse arround before releasing to get just the right destination).

#3. Abitity to issue multible commands (without waiting for the first one to be completed). Easily done in (the old)TotalWar mode. In RTS mode (the new), a new order seems to cancell all previous orders and the unit halts.

The command system for STW/MTW was the 'meat and potatos' of this game. The battle system is what made the game famious, the eye-candy is 'fluff', While people buy games for 'eye-candy' they have them installed only as long as it takes for the next 'wow' game comes out (about 3 weeks);
I still have installed, Mongols, Medieval, vikings, Hellenic, and Napolinic total war.........Mongols is what? Four years old? And still the secound best game ever produced, beaten only by Medieval,.....Hellenic and Napolinic TW, (only Mods), show that the game was not taken to its full limits. I fear that the developers in their zeal to produce somthing grand and memorable have taken 'too big a step' and much what was "Total War" may-be lost.

[Colovion]

How about bringing back things like ALt Click and all of the wonderful things about the MTW interface and actually improve something rather than putting new things in that aren't as good as the previous things.

[todorp]

I really miss the time speed slide bar.

[andrewt]

These are the ones I noticed the most and were the ones I missed the most:

1. Speed slider
2. Fatigue counters on the unit cards
3. Ctrl-shift (haven't played in a while so might be wrong) to have units face a certain direction

[Tamur]

Anyone tried , and . to change unit facing? A heck of a lot more precise (and easier) than alt-spinning stationary units.

[Colovion]

Oh here's mine:

1. Speed slider/Unit Casualty bar

[1dread1lahll]

I suspect you dont use the alt right click to turn to the best advantage, as the new system is vastly inferior, not better....try this in MTW select group, hold down alt, hold down right click, hold down space-bar,....move mouse arround untill you have the EXACT facing you want.....the , . is poor at best.

[andrewt]

I forgot this feature as well. Grouped units remain in their group even while routing. Getting unassigned from the group after routing is a micromanagement nightmare.

[cugel]

What about the absence of hotkeys F5, F6 and F7?!!!

Unless I'm missing something (and please tell me if I am) there's no equivalent of these functions!

The screen is cluttered with the useless radar screen and F5 doesn't get rid of it (or bring it back when you want it - but only when you want it)!

The unit cards are too small. Plus, you don't need the unit cards all the time, but there's no F7 to get rid of them when you don't want them as in MTW.

The top of the screen is littered with junk, no F6 to go full screen. What gives? ~:pissed:

Why on earth would the developers get rid of such great features? I've heard that they wanted to make it more RTS like. But RTS players would want full screen with hot-keys wouldn't they? You can't play RTS with a mouse can you? So why delete these easy to use and essential keys?

It almost seems like the developers didn't respect the great product they had and changed things just to change them. I hope they put the code back to allow all these MTW features.

This is such a big problem that unless fixed I would seriously consider not buying this product. The more I look at the useless junk cluttering the screen when I want to go full screen, the less I like the demo.

Do any of you feel the same?

[1dread1lahll]

http://www.dreadmastersclan.com/clearmask.gif oh yes, the kills/losses ratio bar,.....was so easy to tell how you were doing in a battle before.

[Jango Fett]

yeap and u could always be happy when your bar goes full green within the first few mins ~:)

[Kaiser of Arabia]

There is a unit casualty ratio bar, it's right above the speed thingy. It's small and blue and red.